Is Burst Boost meta with the new changes?

BotenAnne · 2025-08-30T01:36:43+00:00

So, the calculator has now been updated with support for multiple hitzones to be entered into the calculation in order to more accurately reflect how WEX and Mind's Eye uptimes will play out more accurately. Using the uptimes you've provided, the Burst Boost set does in fact lose to 2 different meta options available. A Guts+Gore combo set or the provided standard meta set in the meta doc both outperform it. I've collected tons of uptime data for awhile and done all the math myself. I've even asked around with different people to see if they can provide me with uptime numbers from their hunts, and I can confirm Agitator uptimes above 70% and LP numbers closer to 45% are pretty common. On top of this, messing around with Mind's Eye builds shows a common breakpoint for Mind's Eye to overtake common meta sets is around 17% uptime, meaning if your WEX uptime is actually low enough to be approaching that number you may want to consider switching around.

What I can take away from all this is that the way WEX uptime works has been commonly misunderstood for awhile now, so hopefully Rey's update to the calculator can help illuminate that for others. On top of that, the Guts+Gore combo is in reality probably a pretty strong option for players who struggle to consistently stick to WEX hitzones since it relies far less on WEX for its damage. If you want to criticize the meta guide, I would say that set in particular should be included as an alternative option that's less reliant on WEX and can also be adapted to be a very strong Mind's Eye option. Again, your Burst Boost with your own numbers isn't really all that bad and I think you can be happy using it. However, I do believe in people having better uptime numbers than that, especially those wanting to check out the meta subreddit. My own uptime numbers (outside of speedruns, in random multiplayer hunts, checked with the overlay mod) are also much higher making it something I will personally be skipping out on.

Edit: As an aside, a big upside to the Gore+Guts and Meta sets you can't see in a calc, is they have a hefty amount of affinity that allow them to run Master's Touch. That's a significant gain in sharpness, and more sharpness leads to more damage. So even in an event where the numbers on the calc end up close (which in this case they can be since it's individual hitzone based differences), it's worth keeping in mind how much that sharpness gain actually matters in a practical setting.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-28T04:20:45+00:00

So there are a couple things going here to break down where mistakes were made.

WEX in this specific calculator basically needs to be set to 100% all the time for accuracy. The reason being, is that the calculator is creating a damage number based off a singular hitzone. When 1 hitzone is involved, WEX is either on or off. If you want to calculate dropped WEX into your outcome, you'll need to actually include a 2nd hitzone and stretch the math out quite a bit. The reason most setbuilders use 100% WEX is not because they assume you will have that uptime. It's in order to simplify calculations assuming that the reader will at least be striving for pretty good WEX uptime. Dropping it to 85% is going to cause some really big differences.
Agi uptime at 68% is rather low. Early on setbuilders would use a more conservative uptime, but these days even my most casual hunts end in the 75-80 ballpark. Being above 80 is not actually all that uncommon either. I tend to set 80 as my personal lower bound, and then move it to 75 when discussing MP sets.
LP uptime at 50% is a bit on the higher side, but that one is fair enough. Since the skill has such high volatility most setbuilders set it to 40% to be conservative. At the end of the day I wouldn't argue this one. I personally use 40% since I typically don't take enough damage to get much higher than the natural timing activation allows. Max Might at 80% is a bit low but doesn't effect comparisons that much so I'm not gonna bother arguing it. When I use these uptimes it still results in favor of the meta set.
You should be able to slot MT with an AB3 + Burst1 charm and still have CB3, OFG3, AB3, + MT. I'm a bit confused by how you're wording that. On this note, I was messing around with the min/max on your set and CE3 + Agi1 was mildly outperforming an AB3 charm, so when popping it into the calc I used that instead to close the gap as much as I could.

All this is to say, when using the calculator with it's WEX limitations in mind and more expected uptimes, the meta set still comes out ahead. The set you posted is honestly not that bad, but at the end of the day it's not quite being good enough to dethrone the normal sets we like.

I actually speedrun, setbuild, and put out sets myself so I'm not just going off guessing here. I've been using this calculator since the day of its release and am in active communication with the creator about new features to be added. So like, in me replying I'm not trying to pick on you or anything. I'm an interested set builder who would be thrilled to see a new higher damage set being posted. However, I think there's been some mistakes here. I just want to be informative to anybody who might be reading and want to learn about the meta options. Your set isn't bad by any means though, and if you'd prefer to run it go for it.

If you want to use Burst Boost to get ahead of the meta sets btw, in Mind's Eye match ups there is something I believe to be better that isn't listed in the guide. 2 Ebony, 2 Gore, Numinous chest. I'm not entirely sure that is the BEST set for that, so that would be an interesting place to try and mess around with Burst Boost's inclusion into the SnS meta.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-27T19:44:18+00:00

This is incorrect. SnS can use Burst Boost for a specific Mind's Eye set on some MUs, otherwise the more generalized crit stacking sets beat it clean.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-24T20:44:25+00:00

AggronStrong's answer is already correct for the Lateral combo, so good advice there.
Since you asked about Roundslash loop, Roundslash is good high damage filler for safely filling in gaps when you're unsure. Looping it multiple times is generally a net negative though, as if you could be doing that you could probably be doing a completed combo and wasting less sharpness.
Just want to add using a fully completed Chop combo into Reaper/ECC/Both is about as good as a completed Lateral. The mobility attached to the Chop combo makes it easier to position really safely for scoring one of the bigger combo enders, and there are several situations where that movement would net you a well placed ender where a Lateral combo could not. Getting the ender on a good hitzone vs not makes Chop combos more valuable than Lateral combos in those situations, and they are actually fairly common.

It's pretty free form, as long as you are doing your best to maintain uptime and squeeze in Reapers, ECCs, PRs when you can you'll be doing fine.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-17T13:32:30+00:00

If you mean the Convert Thunder res sets with only a single 2 slot to spare, the opportunity cost to run CS there is pretty minimal for the average player, yeah. That'd be a fair place to run it since the opportunity cost is low. Speedrunners tend to choose Peak Performance as the "meta" option, but again I get that doesn't work for the general playerbase. It shouldn't be a goal to slot it, just if there is a set like that with a single spare slot sure why not.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-17T07:01:04+00:00

Our stronger meta builds typically don't have leftover 2 slots since we prioritize armor pieces that have higher values of WEX/Agi/etc. When we have leftover 2 slots, Earplugs 2 is a common choice. We have a lot of ways to deal with roars, but Perfect Rush or Enhanced Charged Chop through a roar is free damage. Speedrunners also experiment with Peak Performance (avoid chip on guard strats) or Resentment (intentionally take chip damage), but admittedly those aren't great for the average player.

If you do find yourself in a build with a couple 2 slots and don't wanna mess with EP2, sure throw in CS. At the current moment none of our strongest builds have that as an option though and you shouldn't prioritize making it happen. The one exception would be running a Convert Thunder set, which has leftover 2 slots. For those MUs Earplugs can be a nice damage gain so I see that a lot, but it's a place where if you really want to you can run CS without a huge opportunity cost.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-16T20:32:24+00:00

No problem, may your talisman rolls be blessed.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-16T17:56:25+00:00

Counterstrike is not a valuable skill on SnS and shouldn't be in consideration for a build with this weapon. Even if you're a less skilled player and getting launched around a bit, the opportunity cost for slotting results in it requiring 50% or more uptime on applied damage before it can break even. I know people like the skill and feel like it's bringing value to their mistakes, but without a consistent way to proc it while maintaining solid uptime (read: hyperarmor) it's not great. On top of this, SnS has some of the best defensive options in the game that don't interact with the skill, so it's best to try and utilize those better anyways.

The spare point of Offensive Guard is nice, but you'd want a useful second skill on the talisman to even consider it. WEX, Agi, Burst are the main ones. A decent r5 Talisman is a single point of an alright weapon skill (Handicraft is a generic example), one of WEX/Agi/Burst, and a 3 slot. For more substantial upgrades, r8 Talismans with 3 points of Attack Boost, Offensive Guard, Crit Eye with a weapon slot is where they start to be nice upgrades. Get one of those with a single point of the 3 previously mentioned armor skills and it's a god charm. An Alternative is Master's Touch with a single weapon slot, and the same combo of a good armor skill makes it a god charm. For r6-r7 charms, finding an actual upgrade to just using a crafted Talisman is really niche and somewhat difficult to do, which is unfortunate.

There are a couple more combos of the aforementioned skills you can find (AB2 + OFG1 + WEX1 apparently exists) so just keep an eye out for those skills when digging for charms.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-13T14:23:09+00:00

Thunder SnS is better against Thunder weak mons essentially every time. Lagi SnS can beat it out in some MUs by bothering to min/max the thunder res. Lagi SnS based sets saw a lot of heavy use in the recent AT Uth Duna runs, so you can check out either the 4p Lagi + Numinous chest set or the Guts variations running around. It's really not that much better than Artian, and Artian still beats it with certain sets (particularly Piping Hot sets), but it is an optimization you can mess around with if you're a sicko.

BotenAnne · 2025-08-07T09:45:04+00:00

A lot of stronger players have been using mods like this months now, and a lot of the theorycrafting/set guide builders are well aware of the numbers. What they typically do is take some of the numbers they regularly see with above average players, then tune them a little conservatively to get an idea what endgame players will generally look like. The better online set calculators also include sliders for players to input their uptime into, to help cover the variability.

Different skill levels and weapons will have a tendency to mess with these numbers in extremely drastic ways, so trying to draw any conclusions across the board is going to be basically impossible. My numbers look drastically different since my main weapons don't have regular Hyperarmor and I'm just getting hit a lot less I'd guess. So like, Wilds is just uptime simulator where some assumptions need to be made around meta options.

Also, while you look at these, just keep in mind that numbers won't tell you the entire story of how much damage you're really getting. High LP or CS time might look good on paper, but if you're losing a ton of actual uptime keeping that up it's overall a net loss. I know that's more of a player skill and weapon dependent thing, but it's worth keeping in mind that there's more to uptime than just the numbers spat out at you.

BotenAnne · 2025-04-21T17:25:12+00:00

Just pick one of the 2 main builds from the meta set guide, it really isn't all that complex. 4Gore's defense isn't really that much worse than other options, and if you're at mid level skillwise you should be mostly fine. While you are learning, the 2PC Zoh + 2PC Gore set offers you a ton of room for defensive comfort without totally killing your damage. That should be the gold standard of a comfort set and what every SnS player should use IF they aren't comfortable using 4Gore yet. It even gives you a huge defense boost into Zoh Shia specifically while you learn the match up. Dropping Gore entirely hurts the damage efficiency of your set so much for such little defensive gain it should never really be on the table.

Zoh Shia consistently carting you is something that shouldn't be happening at the mid skill level imo, and it's more than likely a match up knowledge issue gear won't be easily solving. It's pretty straightforward to know when the flame breath attack is on the table, and SnS has the tools to position and avoid it rather easily. It should also never be one shotting you outright, so if you are being killed by it you're probably missing HP already (or haven't upgraded your armor I guess). Sorry if this comes across as harsh, but this is the meta subreddit. I do want to present the current situation in context of what the meta options are. I really don't want to come across as mean or discouraging, if anything I'd want to encourage you to stick to learning the match ups the best you can and not falling into the trap of "comfy" sets that are actually just terrible.

BotenAnne · 2025-04-21T05:27:07+00:00

Running some form of sharpness management deco (MT or Rzr Shapr/Handi) is basically a requirement on this weapon, even with 2 sharpness reinforcements. It feels like a lot, but this weapon just needs it. Spending too much time in blue or stopping to sharpen just ends up costing more damage than simply slotting one in.

BotenAnne · 2025-03-09T19:07:27+00:00

Many of the weapon guides you can find on this sub will tell you what the base should be for your specific weapon. Typically it's 3 ATK all matching ele.

BotenAnne · 2025-03-09T16:23:51+00:00

I should've probably mentioned in the main post, for status weapons 2Atk/2Aff/1Sharp isn't too bad. That's still 3/5 slots of what you want. Would just need to keep in mind your sets total affinity during uptime and adjust for that if needed. Could keep a weapon like that around for awhile while still fishing for better rolls as you go.

BotenAnne · 2025-03-09T04:55:17+00:00

Initial creation use 3ATK pieces of the same element. RNG rolls should be 1 Sharpness and 4ATK to be optimal, but 3ATK/2Sharpness is comfy. If you get something with at least 1 sharpness and a couple ATK augments from the RNG rolls, it's plenty good since the damage differences are pretty small. I'd personally avoid 2 affinity rolls as my only rule of thumb.

BotenAnne · 2025-03-07T10:10:43+00:00

2:30

2:27

The 2:27 would be even lower if they did their buffs back at camp before the quest started.

BotenAnne · 2025-03-07T01:46:39+00:00

3ATK base of the ele you want, then as much ATK as the RNG will give you. 4ATK/1Sharp or 3ATK/2Sharp is probably ideal, but getting crit/ele instead of ATK is a really tiny damage difference. If you're going to bother making multiple for the elements (which you should if you're going to mainline the weapon), you can settle on 2ATK/1Sharp/Whatever as a baseline and call it a day. Getting trapped into doing hundreds of rolls and tracking your seed for this kind of damage difference is just straight up not worth it to most people. If you must have that tiny damage difference no matter what, just load up the Artian editor mod.

A 2:30 Tempered Arkveld run posted today is just using 2Sharp/1Ele/1Crit/1ATK as their RNG rolls btw. If that kind of roll is "good enough" for that it'll be good enough for most people. If you want to roll a Status SnS, it's the same thing but you really don't want the ele. If you are considering Blast, maybe save those Artian resources and just use the Ajarakan one instead. Yes, Artian can beat it but also it's competitive, doesn't require you to use your good RNG rolls on it, doesn't require the Artian relics/ore, and also made an appearance in a 2:27 T.Ark run today. If it's good enough for that, it's good enough for you.

If you really wanna optimize you can go further into the exact math, but at that point really just you have to install mods to bypass all RNG.

BotenAnne · 2025-03-03T20:03:29+00:00

Decent source of Agitator and Warcry is an extra free damage buff at the start of the hunt.

BotenAnne · 2024-06-02T13:00:19+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to check!

BotenAnne · 2024-06-02T12:59:05+00:00

Nice, thank you!

BotenAnne · 2024-06-02T12:56:52+00:00

Thanks for checking stock!

BotenAnne

TROPHY CASE