Which bow is recommended?

[I love Wild Assault!!!]

I never used the bow and I got two streamstones to augment it so I figured I should start using it after I upgrade it. I'd also like one that would benefit from my agitator and the bow charge plus 2 gem I have. thank you

[Goilveig]

Originally posted by Ragosta tin Dei:

If you''re running DP, then obviously Diablos bow. But those 4 bows will kill nearly everything in the game effortlessly. I say this because Lavasioth is still a pain in the arse.

Use the Anja Arch against Lavasioth. It will keep his armor molten. Either water or ice will speed up how quickly the armor hardens, so they are actually bad choices in spite of his weaknesses.

But yes, on Lavasioth, you're relying on the Anja Arch's raw to actually deal damage, and the fire to keep his armor weakened.

[Peelsepuuppi]

Originally posted by Goilveig:

Originally posted by Ragosta tin Dei:

If you''re running DP, then obviously Diablos bow. But those 4 bows will kill nearly everything in the game effortlessly. I say this because Lavasioth is still a pain in the arse.

Use the Anja Arch against Lavasioth. It will keep his armor molten. Either water or ice will speed up how quickly the armor hardens, so they are actually bad choices in spite of his weaknesses.

But yes, on Lavasioth, you're relying on the Anja Arch's raw to actually deal damage, and the fire to keep his armor weakened.

Yeah Lavasioth is kind of an exception when it comes to water weakness due to his lava hardening mechanic. But on Kulu-Ya-Ku, Anja, Kadachi, Teostra, Great Kirros and Uragaan, you want water element.

So quite a few monsters that are best beaten with the Hunter's Proudbow II (or Tartoth Arrow "Water") instead of Snowfletcher.

[cyäegha]

Originally posted by Moonmadness:

With the only exception of the dragon element case, the difference in raw is insignificant, but the elemental damage is much higher on the meta bow.

i feel like people - like you - are constantly overestimating the elemental hitzones on most monsters
there are very, very few instances in the entire series as a whole where priotizing element over raw is a good idea, and that's because their raw hitzones are inaccessible most of the time, or are simply trash, while their elemental hitzones are better than their raw hitzones

that basically amounts to chameleos and gravios/basarios

while hazaak may only have 190 true raw to dragonbone's 180, the difference of 15 more dragon element is negligible, and in few cases is actually going to outdamage that 10 raw

this is also the reason why historically nobody looking for pure efficiency would pick a kirin weapon over any other alternatives, because kirin weapons have such hilariously low true raw
same goes for divine exodus / eternal strife / ashen lao shan weapons

inb4 'but bow/SNS/DS are fast-hitting low raw weapons!'
to disregard raw entirely because the weapons have low MV's implies a certain lack of knowledge on how MV's work
the same still applies for those weapons; for efficiency's sake, having a higher base raw and middle-of-the-road element is better than having high element but pitifully low raw
the only real argument that can be made for excessively high element is in edge cases like gravios, which has something insane like a 65/80 hitzone on its broken stomach

and surprise surprise, he isn't in this game

[I love Wild Assault!!!]

Originally posted by Vacca:

Originally posted by big munter:

Hazak/Kadachi/Legiana/Anja/Hunter's Proudbow are the 5 best bows ingame.

this. and don't listen to people saying it's not worth to spend x3 unlock to use the proudbow, it's much better than the water shot. devil bow is also a decent alternative to hazak, mostly for the extra elderseal proc, but suffers a lot from having zero deco slots compared to the hazak's two. daora bow is a decent alternative to legiana - slightly worse, but viable.

also stay clear of low raw, high element bows unless you have no alternatives. it's always better to go for a decent raw + decent element bow than a low raw + high element bow.

the hazak bow does look pretty good but is the xeno'jiva bow good too? those two level 3 slots could be useful with the gems I have like partbreaker and the bow charge 2, the affinity it has too could be helpful.

[Stationary Traveller]

Originally posted by cyäegha:

Originally posted by Moonmadness:

With the only exception of the dragon element case, the difference in raw is insignificant, but the elemental damage is much higher on the meta bow.

i feel like people - like you - are constantly overestimating the elemental hitzones on most monsters
there are very, very few instances in the entire series as a whole where blabla

Yeah but nobody cares about how that worked in past games. I'm not even sure if those games had something like Critical Element, which is the main reason to play elemental in MHW.
All speedrunners in MHW use those elemental bows even if they have average or bad raw simply because they do more damage. Otherwise they would all run Cera - and anyone who ever played with that bow knows how bad its damage if played in the standard way.

If what you said was right, people would play Daora over Legia or Xeno over Vaal/Dragonbone, and Rath would be as efficient as Anja. But this doesn't happen, because the elemental crits boost the damage considerably.
In short, if you don't run Critical Element, then whatever goes. But if you run it (which is what has given the highest damage output on bows so far), then high elemental damage is the most important thing in almost every situation.

Originally posted by Bluest Bear ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ:

the hazak bow does look pretty good but is the xeno'jiva bow good too? those two level 3 slots could be useful with the gems I have like partbreaker and the bow charge 2, the affinity it has too could be helpful.

At the point you are in the game you should be able to craft armor for those slots so it's not that important. Also the bow can only be augmented once while the alternatives can be augmented 2 or 3 times, which will help make up for the lower affinity.

[AsianGirlLover]

Originally posted by Moonmadness:

You can't dismiss cases just because they don't fit your claims.

Daora = 192 raw, 210 ice, 10% aff
Diablos = 264 raw, 150 ice, -30% aff
Legiana = 180 raw, 390 ice

Alloy = 204 raw, 150 thunder
Kadachi = 204 raw, 270 thunder, 15% aff

Water Shot = 204 raw, 240 water
Proudbow = 216 raw, 360 water

Uragaan = 228 raw, 150 fire
Rath = 216 raw, 240 fire, 15% aff
Anja = 240 raw, 390 fire, -20% aff

Nerg = 240 raw, 150 dragon
Xeno = 204 raw, 180 dragon, 15% aff
Dragonbone = 180 raw, 420 dragon
Hazak = 228 raw, 270 dragon

With the only exception of the dragon element case, the difference in raw is insignificant, but the elemental damage is much higher on the meta bow.
The reason why people pick Velos over Dragonbone is because it has power coatings and the other doesn't. Without power coatings, Dragonbone does outdamage Velos.

Jesus Christ, so much friggen math. Why can’t I just take my giant club and crack some skulls without having to worry about whether it’s a “bone” type or “dragon” type?

As Gat from Saint’s Row said “bullets still kill a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.”

[Peelsepuuppi]

Originally posted by AsianGirlLover:

Originally posted by Moonmadness:

You can't dismiss cases just because they don't fit your claims.

Daora = 192 raw, 210 ice, 10% aff
Diablos = 264 raw, 150 ice, -30% aff
Legiana = 180 raw, 390 ice

Alloy = 204 raw, 150 thunder
Kadachi = 204 raw, 270 thunder, 15% aff

Water Shot = 204 raw, 240 water
Proudbow = 216 raw, 360 water

Uragaan = 228 raw, 150 fire
Rath = 216 raw, 240 fire, 15% aff
Anja = 240 raw, 390 fire, -20% aff

Nerg = 240 raw, 150 dragon
Xeno = 204 raw, 180 dragon, 15% aff
Dragonbone = 180 raw, 420 dragon
Hazak = 228 raw, 270 dragon

With the only exception of the dragon element case, the difference in raw is insignificant, but the elemental damage is much higher on the meta bow.
The reason why people pick Velos over Dragonbone is because it has power coatings and the other doesn't. Without power coatings, Dragonbone does outdamage Velos.

Jesus Christ, so much friggen math. Why can’t I just take my giant club and crack some skulls without having to worry about whether it’s a “bone” type or “dragon” type?

As Gat from Saint’s Row said “bullets still kill a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.”

Nothing is stopping you. There are plenty of weapons types which essentially have one best weapon for maximum damage output.