Elemental damage with Heavy / Light Bowgun (need help)

[PixelPerfect]

Ok so, got some questions.

I've only been playing with the Heavy and Light Bowguns so far (although I'll start checking for the Bow and maybe another weapon type next).

With this said, I've been forging different Bowguns for 3 types of builds basically:

1) Spread Shots build (specific armor pieces, specific Bowgun, Decorations, etc).
2) Pierce Shots build
3) Normal Shots build

Alright now...

Each Large Monsters do have 1 or more weakness with Elemental damage, I'm aware of that.

But, so far, the only 'thing' I can do about that is to fire my occasional Ice / Fire ammunition if my Bowgun does happen to be using that sort of ammo, and in general even if I can it's really not a lot of ammo anyway. That's because my Spread Shots build is of course focusing on that, so I'm shooting monsters with Level 1, 2 or 3 Spread shots ammo, then sure I'll fire the rest only if I have to. Same goes with Pierce and Normal Shots. I rarely go with my elemental ammo.

BUT...

I've been in the Guiding Lands just 2 days ago. And a few hours back I ran into a wall. A fast moving, hard-hitting wall that is. And that wall is named Rajang. He's a REALLY pissed off Donkey Kong from Hell, on steroids, too.

Now after reading more about that crazy B_ of a monster I know he's weak against Ice.

Alright, but my problem is that none of my builds truly can bother with Ice ammo, nor is using JUST Ice ammo worth it (I assume it isn't, my build isn't optimized for that at all).

So now I'm checking at the Forge to see if I can find what would be considered an "Elemental" Heavy Bowgun specifically tailored to fight Rajang (or a Light Bowgun too, I wouldn't mind one or the other).

SO...

In the tree, I do see ONE of them called quite literally the Water tree. But here's what I don't get. The ammo listed for that gun is about the same as most guns. Spread, Normal, Pierce, etc. So... I mean how DOES Water damage work on such a gun if I'm using Normal Shots from it for example? Are my Normal shots doing 2 types of damage at once? Water and... "normal" / non-Elemental too?

I'm kinda lost actually when it comes to Elemental stuff and Bowguns.

Because I've always used the Non-Elemental buff on my current 3 main builds, since I've always thought that using ammunition OTHER than Elemental ammo would make my damage Non-Elemental automatically.

In other words I don't know how Elemental damages work with Heavy or Light Bowguns AND I don't know how to approach that fight against Rajang either (there is no such thing as an "Ice" damage Heavy Bowgun that I can see, unless I'm missing something obvious that I'm not aware of).

I'd appreciate some help about all this, ty.

[Dagný]

HBG i'm pretty sure you should never use elemental ammo, if you want to use elemental ammo use LBG, pierce is much better with HBG (But not with LBG)

The alatreon LBG has rapid fire water (aquashot is better tho), ice, fire and thunder so get that one. the way to build your elemental set is to use 5 piece safi (don't know if it's available now) and stack elemental boost and raw damage as much as possibel (attack boost/resentment)

Elemental ammo also pierce, instead of using pierce LBG you should be using elemental lbg


About rajang it isn't a good pierce match-up so elemental doesn't do much, sticky or spread (with some evade skills) are better. Frostfang barioth has a very good spread 3 lbg, don't know about hbg

[chet]

No, your Normal shots are not doing any elemental damage at all. They deal pure raw damage no matter what skills your set has. Same with Pierce and Spread. Now, if you go to the shop and look at the ammunition, you can see elemental bullets for HBG and LBG. Each elemental bullet/arrow has a raw portion and an elemental portion. The ratio is about 85 elemental damage to 15 raw damage, just fyi.
So, yeah. Whichever damage type is dealt is based on the ammunition used and doesn't depend on the decorations, charms or armor pieces you use.

[マリング・ジェムラン]

go make sticky ammo bowgun and cheese that monkey,no need to make elemental bowgun set...
i recommend savage deviljho LBG or zorah HBG

[CRCGamer]

Yeah if you want to use elemental on ranged attacks you either use the appropriate ammo on a LBG or you go for using an actual bow where the elemental is baked into the weapon itself. Using elemental ammo on HBG is just significantly less efficient.

[DoEFotGS]

For HBG and LBG: each type of ammo have separate properties, even different level of same type. You build yourself around ammo type that you plan to use. Non elemental ammo consider as pure raw and can't be affected by elemental skills, because has no innate elemental value.

Also, non elemental boost work for HBG/LBG only if gun can't use elemental ammo at all. If any of 5 elemental type is listed on gun table - elementless can't affect this weapon even if you not use this ammo. You can check it by yourself. If elementless deco works - damage of gun will be raised. If not - sloting elementless deco will do nothing.

For HBG elemental. AFAIK game has only two viable options for elemental HBG and both of them is Kjarr weapons. Anyway, it's not usable outside of cpecific big monsters like Shara. because elemental ammo works similar to pierce ammo and Rajang body is very small to have more that one damage tick per shot.

If you really struggle. You can try to use Sticky ammo build for that stupid monkey... but without killing Furious Rajang HBG that are good for sticky is... Zorah? Not sure, but Zorah HBG is very uncomfortable to my taste. For LBG you can use Garuga gun, but any or almost any LBG sticky use evede reload mods that can be frustrated sometimes. Oh, and don't get used to it if you try :'D

Also, canteen buffs.
For normal ammo - 'sharpshooter'.
For sticky is 'bombardier'.

It's (don't remember) about 10% damage buffs.

[chet]

Oh, that's what you meant by "Non-Elemental buff"... I assumed you meant Might Seeds, Demon Powder, etc and not the actual armor skill..

[Arunsky]

sticky sticky