How does elemental LBG work ?

[GloboGymPurpleCobras]

Hey guys,
Recently i got into he LBG style of play and i like it very much. I have a sticky 3 build and my favorite the rapid fire pierce with the blackwing bowgun.
Now i wanted to try some elemental LBG with rapid fire but im at loss at how the ammo actually works. Does elemental ammo use like 50 percent of the raw value or how is it calculated ?
And wouldnt it be good to stack gems with the element you wanna shoot instead of attack gems?

Then there is the whole armor stuff. I wanted to grind for the silver Rath armor, but maybe thats the wrong decision ? Is Namielle better ? I wanted to grind the coral region to lvl 6 next, so either way i can farm both of those. Atm i use Velkh Helm, ebony Odo Mail, Artian Gloves, Velkh Coil, Artian Greaves + Rator Sharp charm. I get kinda got results on 3 star weakness monsters, not perfect but i like the numbers :).

And last: What is the best lbg for each element ?
I have Rathalos for Fire and Velkhana for Ice. Is Namielles wotrh building for water and Zinogres for Thunder ? Or should i just build the Soulfire?

Thx guys :)

[River Victor]

I wanted to link you to the discord server at Mathalos's Nest but there's no option to invite people via link, so I suggest you do a bit of homework and join that place. They have tons of meta sets pinned on discord text channel. All sets for all weapons for every patches, meaning the stages of items you have access to will be available in the meta list too. You can take a look at the skills and see what they focus on.

The channel belongs to Jinx and Tuna, THE math cruncher of MHW community. I can assure you that their meta are good. HOWEVER, many meta sets run with 150 max health in Iceborne, which I do not recommend for new players newly crafting meta sets. Adjust for vitality 3 as needed. Meta and max damage is a privilege, not a right. If you deal max damage but fail people's quests because you cart 3 times, you're not the MVP, you're a liability to carry through.

[roadrunner77]

Raw on elemental ammo is marginal, basically Elemental LBG focuses on... the Element. give affinity and the given element all you have - just max it out. It also has some piercing properties so it works on monsters with rather long bodybuild (Xeno and Bazel are the perfect extreme case of this). Obviously, the element itself works great on overwhelming majority of monsters, so don't worry about the size.

As for the 'best' LBG? Hmm, specialization has its pros but that can catch you helpless if fighting two monsers with different elem weaknesses. Try it out for yourself if you have enough materials, but big clip, low recoil and fast reload all contribute massively to the final DPS, since they regulate the time factor ('per second' factor) and this cannnot be substituted by anything else easily.

Unless fellow hunters lay down all the minute diferences between the wpns you mentioned and your choice will tilt towards it in more definite terms. I can't help you with that one.

[River Victor]

Alatreon is a different story, however. Elemental attacks means king.

[Polaris]

And honestly, if you can farm Alatreon, his elemental LBG is looking like it's going to take the meta across the board, besides maybe water...the Safi jiva aqua shot is still really good and comes with some CC.

Against Alatreon himself, the lbg is definitely the best

Wearing 5 piece Safi armor is a good idea when running elemental ammo, as well as a full elemental art 6


(If you look at old guides they say stop at elemental att 3, that's from when there was a cap, you don't need to worry about that anymore)

[LemonSoda]

even if there's no cap anymore I think there's still diminishing returns

feel free to correct me on this one

[Polaris]

There is definitely still diminishing returns, but those returns are still more efficient then running resentment etc. (Still run what attack skills you can, but prioritize elemental attack)

The difference between elemental attack 3, and 6 is still significant, as the last three levels of the skill start to add percent increases.

But still run the comfort skills you need, if you have to choose between health boost 3 and elemental attack 6, run health boost


Ideally though, you should slot both :)

[Shinshe]

Stack element first if u got spot put attack if not no need for attack the % is very low that adds on the element dmg.

And you can check mhwi wiki whats the % of raw added on the elemental dmg.

[Polaris]

And to give an in-game example, on Alatreon, I ran elemental attack 3 and then 6 with the alatreon lbg

With elemental attack 3, the initial damage tick hit for roughly 41-43 damage, in the hind legs, with elemental att 6, I was hitting 50-51 so we are talking almost 10 damage on just the first tick, that's not including the extra Pierce's, or the other 3 shots in the burst


For damage, it's worth it :)

[GloboGymPurpleCobras]

Originally posted by roadrunner77:

Raw on elemental ammo is marginal, basically Elemental LBG focuses on... the Element. give affinity and the given element all you have - just max it out. It also has some piercing properties so it works on monsters with rather long bodybuild (Xeno and Bazel are the perfect extreme case of this). Obviously, the element itself works great on overwhelming majority of monsters, so don't worry about the size.

As for the 'best' LBG? Hmm, specialization has its pros but that can catch you helpless if fighting two monsers with different elem weaknesses. Try it out for yourself if you have enough materials, but big clip, low recoil and fast reload all contribute massively to the final DPS, since they regulate the time factor ('per second' factor) and this cannnot be substituted by anything else easily.

Unless fellow hunters lay down all the minute diferences between the wpns you mentioned and your choice will tilt towards it in more definite terms. I can't help you with that one.

When you say its marginal, should i just augment the weapon (Velkh LBG for example) just with Affinity and element up ? bcs the attack up shouldnt be as valuable then right ?

[Polaris]

I would augment for element, and then health if you need it, with elemental damage, critting doesn't boost it unless you have crit element or true crit element, so if your using kjarr, affinity is a good choice, but if your using say the alatreon LBG with 5 piece Safi jiva armor, you don't actually need the crits


My current elemental lbg has 3 elemental augments, and no affinity

[GloboGymPurpleCobras]

Originally posted by Polaris:

I would augment for element, and then health if you need it, with elemental damage, critting doesn't boost it unless you have crit element or true crit element, so if your using kjarr, affinity is a good choice, but if your using say the alatreon LBG with 5 piece Safi jiva armor, you don't actually need the crits


My current elemental lbg has 3 elemental augments, and no affinity

MMM ok... well i will give it a try.
I just unlocked Safi and are all LBG versions worth it ?`I wanted to go for the Aquashot first and then i saw that is has every other element too.
Currently im running stygian LBG for RF thunder and thought, would it be beneficial if i got the Boltshot and awaken it with rathalos essence and then addd maximum might onto the set ? Because as of no i have 4 piece rathalos.

[River Victor]

All Safi elemental LBGs are worth it. They're rarely surpassed by other Kjarr LBG except one, and even then, it's only by a very small margin.

That said, you need TWO Aquashot. One customized for Sticky/KO and the other for water. Both are viable, and the Aquashot Sticky is the best sticky LBG you can have right now.

[River Victor]

Also, Aquashot is the king of CC. It can paralyze, sticky, sleep. All except poison, but you don't really need damage from it if you go CC or carry poison smoke bomb yourself.