Stamina Thief & Hammers

[Mist of Majora]

So today I'm trying to learn EXACTLY how this works with hammers, I apologize for my newbness, but I decided to stop guessing at this mechanic haha

1) The wiki states certain attacks trigger exhaust dmg via hammer. Which hammer attacks are they referring to?
2) Does a high/low damage hammer make a difference? What about hitting critical spots vs armored areas? I'm assuming hitting the head is automatic exhaust dmg?
3) To anyone who has tried the Devil Jho set, does the extra 'secret' bonus make a difference in a full MP match (since KOs are definitely harder to accomplish, so I'd assume this is similar)

Thank you to any kind souls replying to this!

[DrBonifarz]

Hi there

In summary, all blunt damage inflicts stun on head-hits, and exhaust on all other hit zones than the head. Simple as that.

Every monster has its own thresholds for stun and exhaust to trigger, which will lead to a dizzy or panting effect, respectively. A skill that improves stun power has no effect on exhaust, and vice versa. So, you have to aim for the head or body to leverage such skills.

E.g. the skills slugger (or stamina thief) add 40% stun (or exhaust) at level 3, and 60% at level 5 with the secret. That makes a big difference for triggering the effect rapidly for the first time, but as with all ailments, monsters gain resistance with every ailment you apply. So, you won't be able to trigger the effect many times in a hunt.

For the scaling of stun or exhaust power with damage factors, I assume the weapon's base raw makes a difference, but hit zones, crits, attack boosters etc. are likely to have no effect. Maybe someone has tested this and can elaborate.

Overall, exhaust is fun for meme builds (not only with hammers), but it is rarely seen as an effective skill.

[CookedMeat]

Exhaust is a pretty irrelevant mechanic if you aim for quick hunts. When exhaust reached the threshold it will make monster goes into exhausted stats which it will have longer wind-up between attacks and gives more openings.
If your hunts usually take 15 minutes or longer to finish then this mechanic might trigger 1 or 2 times and might help a bit. As @DrBonifarz mentioned you can only accumulate exhaust by attacking parts other than head. However most monster's weakness is their head so you'll be losing damage while trying to build up exhaust.

However, monsters cannot be enraged and exhausted at the same time, but monsters in enraged stats receives more damage, and can trigger an essential skill in Iceborne (Agitator) that gives affinity+attack bonuses.

So if you're going to utilize and commit into building for exhaust depends on whether if you want more damage/less openings, or normal damage/more openings.

After all it's just a game so as long as you're having fun then there's no wrong way to build/play.

[DoEFotGS]

Originally posted by Mist of Majora:

1) The wiki states certain attacks trigger exhaust dmg via hammer. Which hammer attacks are they referring to?

Any that hit not the head.

Originally posted by Mist of Majora:

2) Does a high/low damage hammer make a difference? What about hitting critical spots vs armored areas? I'm assuming hitting the head is automatic exhaust dmg?

Each of individual attack has stun and exhaust values that applies each time when this exact attack was landed. Stun to head, exhaust to any other body part. It's separate values from motion value (MV) that use to calculate actual damage.

So, technically, hard hitting attacks have higher exhaust build up values, but hitting critical spots (parts with higher HZV) not granted exhaust build up increase.

Also 'stun to head, exhaust to body' can works in backway. Game have weapons with dirrect exhaust effect, to be specific - switch axe with exhaust phials. His phial explosions that hits the head apply small stun build up.

Originally posted by Mist of Majora:

3) To anyone who has tried the Devil Jho set, does the extra 'secret' bonus make a difference in a full MP match (since KOs are definitely harder to accomplish, so I'd assume this is similar)

Technically, yes - more exhaust build up is better if you want use that mechanic.

But CookedMeat already mention how irrevelant this mechanic.

Also, Elder's can't be exhausted, because have no stamina to deplete by their own attacks or cutted with exhaust procs. Nergigante have state that similar to exhaust, but it's his own special state that have nothing with exhaust.

[Mist of Majora]

Thank you everyone for your replies so far!

And please, don't worry about how 'relevant' this stat is, 15 min hunts or not - I'm just trying to fully learn about this skill for now! :)

So two things I'm hoping someone can elaborate/confirm for me that I didn't even know about to ask originally:

4) DoEFotGS: "Elders can't be exhausted, because they have no stamina to deplete..." So this skill doesn't trigger at ALL on Elder Monsters?!?

5) CookedMeat: "Monsters cannot be enraged and exhausted at the same time..." I've definitely heard they can be inflicted with sleep and other 'abnormal statuses' during enraged status, but not stamina drain?

[CookedMeat]

Originally posted by Mist of Majora:

CookedMeat: "Monsters cannot be enraged and exhausted at the same time..." I've definitely heard they can be inflicted with sleep and other 'abnormal statuses' during enraged status, but not stamina drain?

TLDR: I'm not sure if you can still drain stamina when a monster is enraged. But Enraged and Exhausted are two status that cannot exist simultaneously, just like Sleep vs Paralysis.

So monster have three 'common' stage. Normal, Enraged and Exhausted, each have different impact on their behavior. Sleep,
Paralyze and Poison are status ailments, which can be accumulated and triggered regardless of monster's stage, similar mechanic including mounting. (These 4 all triggers when build-up threshold is met)

Note that monster can only be at 1 stage at a time, which is why I say they can't be both exhausted and enraged.

You can actually accumulate Exhaust build up while a monster is enraged. However I'm not sure if it will overwrite the Enraged stage as soon as the monsters' stamina are drained to triggering threshold. For Sleep, an enraged monster that got put into sleep and waken up (or overwrite by paralysis/stun), it's stage will be overwrite into Normal.

[DoEFotGS]

Originally posted by Mist of Majora:

4) DoEFotGS: "Elders can't be exhausted, because they have no stamina to deplete..." So this skill doesn't trigger at ALL on Elder Monsters?!?

You can't drain stamina if monster have no stamina. So, yes, exhaust and skill that increase exhaust build up does not work on elders.

Also, this mechanic not just drain monster stamina directly. Exhaust build up work on monsters like any other status effects. Your attacks accumulate values until treshould was reached. When it happen - part of monster stamina will be depleted and monster also be flinched at this moment.

Monster will be exhaustet not at the point of proc, but when he has low stamina, wich he can deplete by his own attacks too. Practicaly, most of the time you need more than single proc of effect to force monster to exhausted state.

And monsters completely ignore their stamina values while enraged, but will be exhausted at end of enrage if stamina will be low at that moment. Also, not sure, but it seems that monster can't enrage naturally while exhausted. Forced enrage by clutch claw works as always.