Do elemental boost gems affect weapons without that element?

[Tanya_Von_Onette.ttv]

I'm curious and a bit confused.

Example: Hammer with no element

Scenario 1: I equip a "Poison up" gem, will my weapon now inflict some poison damage or must it innately have that element?

Scenario 2: I equip a "paralysis build up increase" gem, will my weapon start to build up paralysis? Does it need to deal lightning damage to do this? I was told that hunter weapon elements don't build up status effects though that seems wrong since my weapons with poison will eventually poison the enemy and my blast weapons eventually make explosions.

[Popcorn]

No, only if that weapon has that status.

Drain should work for blunt weapons though I think

Weapons that a status WILL status, but certain weapons have better motion values to proc statuses

[ressenmacher]

Originally posted by Smol Slime:

Scenario 1: I equip a "Poison up" gem, will my weapon now inflict some poison damage or must it innately have that element?

It must innately have the element (or in this case, the status). The gem only boosts the functionality of what's already there.

Note also that some weapons have "deactivated" elements or statuses, which are displayed in grey. The poison up gem will only work on those if you unlock the element first using the skill Free Elem/Special Ammo Up.

Originally posted by Smol Slime:

Scenario 2: I equip a "paralysis build up increase" gem, will my weapon start to build up paralysis?

No, it will not. As with poison, unless your weapon has the innate paralysis status, this gem will do nothing.

Originally posted by Smol Slime:

Does it need to deal lightning damage to do this?

Lightning damage is a form of elemental damage and has nothing to do with Paralysis.

You may be getting the wrong impression from Thunderblight, a hunter-specific status ailment caused by electrical attacks which makes you more vulnerable to being stunned. You can't apply that to monsters.

Originally posted by Smol Slime:

I was told that hunter weapon elements don't build up status effects though that seems wrong since my weapons with poison will eventually poison the enemy and my blast weapons eventually make explosions.

I believe you are confusing elements and status ailments.

Elemental damage (Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning, Dragon) is essentially just an extra chunk of damage you deal with your attacks.

Status ailments/effects (Sleep, Paralysis, Poison, Stun, Blast and technically mounting too) work like Dark Souls statuses: every hit builds up a certain amount of status "damage," like filling an invisible bar. When you do enough status "damage" to fill the bar, the status takes effect. Note that the bar depletes/monsters "heal" status "damage" over time, and that the amount of damage needed to fill the bar increases after each successful application.