can somebody help me understand element damage?

[shublu]

this is my first mh game and wiki can be a bit lacking so i thought i'd ask the players. i have 2 questions.

i read sometimes that raw is better than element, or element damage is capped way too low to the point maybe its not worth it. what are your thoughts?

also i don't understand dragon. i know elders are weak to it. am i right in thinking dragon is in most cases a superior pick to other elements/dragon weapons are generally better? or is it still extremely case by case? does dragon have any other qualities besides it being extra strong against elder dragons?

thanks for reading.

[Chaos Mana]

Extremely case by case, for instance there are 2 Elder class dragons that are NOT weak to Dragon currently in the game.

If you ask me, I'm a elementalist, I don't like raw damage outside of bowguns

[shublu]

Originally posted by Little Pixel:

Extremely case by case, for instance there are 2 Elder class dragons that are NOT weak to Dragon currently in the game.

If you ask me, I'm a elementalist, I don't like raw damage outside of bowguns

ive read people saying that its not worth going out of your way to use an element on a monster unless its their 3 star weakness. people can be overly opinionated about this game so i wasnt sure how true this is?

[♋Phenex]

Dragon element isn't necessarily strong against elder dragons, only elderseal which is used to prevent elder dragons from using certain attacks or abilities such as Kushala's wind barrier or Nergigante's spike attacks/dive bomb iirc.
Element damage is also seperate from raw and I believe was calculated by dividing the element by 10 so 300 fire element damage translates to 30. Melee weapons also only have 1/3 chance of dealing elemental damage as well.

[FreakyMy]

I usually go for good combination of raw + correct elemental to exploit the elemental weakness of a given monster. Elemental still helps, and the best way to understand it, try the same monster twice, one time with correct element, and another with wrong. You will feel the difference, but sometimes you can manage in any case.

Regarding the dragon element, in my understanding for large monsters it works same way as any other element, but in the case of elder dragons "elderseal" comes into play. If it activates, it prevents the use of some elder abilities. The chance of activation varies from weapon to weapon.

[Is This Your Card? 69]

Though some Elder Dragons are not weak to Dragon attribute weapons, you might still want to bring it along cause they have this unique passive ability called 'Elder Seal'.

What this does is it basically seals off their most annoying abilities.
i.e. The Steel Wind Elder Dragon would normally generate a strong windshield after you've damaged it and will keep doing so for the rest of the fight. This windshield will knock you on your ass which makes it hard to do damage if you are melee.

With the Elder Seal it will almost nullify this effect making it a joke as long as you keep hitting it.

Teostra i.e. has a fire shield which is a DOT and a Supernova, which oneshots you from 75% hp. However, he doesn't use the Supernova if he doesn't have his fire shield.
And guess what, with the Elder Seal you can get rid of his fire shield easily as long as you keep hitting him.

Keep in mind that the weapon's effectiveness with Elder Seal is completely dependant on how strong the Elder Seal on that weapon is.
They can be:
Low - Med - High

The higher the effectiveness the easier it'll be for you to get of them abilities.

[Xiwen]

Originally posted by spacehead:

Originally posted by Little Pixel:

Extremely case by case, for instance there are 2 Elder class dragons that are NOT weak to Dragon currently in the game.

If you ask me, I'm a elementalist, I don't like raw damage outside of bowguns

ive read people saying that its not worth going out of your way to use an element on a monster unless its their 3 star weakness. people can be overly opinionated about this game so i wasnt sure how true this is?

Considering there are more skills that affect raws,than element

Also,it tedious to create every element for different monster

Element has capped in this game also

Just play however you want,dont think too much of the complicated stuff

[mitspieler]

I think most people deem raw just more important since it's always there. Elemental damage and the effect buildups in mp hunts require some teamwork. But when you know a monster is weak against certain stuff, why not go for it?
I feel in this game it's rather easy to get ele and status procs. Even with hammer :o If the effect alone is worth the trouble, that's up to you.

Personally I dropped an elementless jewel on my first tempered investigation \o/ I'm still going for blast (i know it's not an element) in general and water/thunder where it applies :D

[Callyste]

Elemental damage is complex in its calculation. As a rule of thumb, usually the weapons that benefit the most from Elemental are fast-hitting weapons, because while raw damage is scaled to the "strength" of the moves, Elemental is flat damage, regardless of how or where you hit...
Now the thing is, compared to previous MH games, in MHW elemental is much less effective, EVEN with fast weapons such as Dual Blades. It's better than raw in only some specific cases, usually.