Direct Comparison of the Alatreon Claw, Safi Dragon, and Decay Long Sword [spreadsheet comparison]

[jrubz]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1473191268042526337/C083E2B381F22B36BC7B9811EEFEB3E26D4E0681/

I took the long while to compare these weapons (yes I could have used honey hunter, don't bother, I had more fun doing it manually).

Alatreon's LS actually comes closer to the Dragon Long Sword meta than I thought. It looks like it could beat the safi meta if the monster had high dragon weakness+low raw weakness.

The Long Sword decay ends up being more consistently better vs. any dragon weakness.

I'd love to do a guide series on this as more high tier weapons come out. But for now I'm gonna take a break. If you have any questions about the math I did, just let me know. And no, it's not quite perfect. It's 2020 and no one has a raw posted data mine of MHW's damage formula which has been totally revamped in MHW Iceborne with new motion values for certain weps. This chart was mostly meant to show how raw/element totals can cause certain weps to get really close in their end damage.

The conclusion of this chart:

-Alatreon Claw will deal more damage on average on highly dragon weak+low raw hitzone values also has more slot flexibility and will hardly need sharpening
-Safi Dragon (full raw buffed) will deal more damage on high raw weakness monsters with low elemental hitzone values, but only by a bit. Does better with as many helm splitters as possible.
-Kulve Decay has a comfy medium. It can do better than the Alatreon claw in some situations, otherwise you can use it for looks and for the extra critical coverage it allows.

[Eren Shiel]

Seems to me that a fully custom upgraded Decay would beat both, u can reach alatreon elemental values using the custom upgrade function in Kjarr weapons, might take you some grinding tho.

also what about Safi draksword with full element up and silver rathalos essence is it any good ?

[cruste]

oh come on dude you wont use the ugly kjarr decay if you have a scythe to do the job

[♋Phenex]

Originally posted by cruste:

oh come on dude you wont use the ugly kjarr decay if you have a scythe to do the job

That's where layered weapons come into play

[Juliane_L]

that's when you remenber how terrible dragon element is. almost nothing is weak to it.

[jrubz]

Originally posted by Juliane_L:

that's when you remenber how terrible dragon element is. almost nothing is weak to it.

That's why I did values for low dragon weaknesses too. Even with just a 0.15 elemental hitzone, the claw was doing well and still practically matching the raw version.

[jrubz]

Originally posted by Crimson:

Seems to me that a fully custom upgraded Decay would beat both, u can reach alatreon elemental values using the custom upgrade function in Kjarr weapons, might take you some grinding tho.

also what about Safi draksword with full element up and silver rathalos essence is it any good ?

The Kjarr Decay was already upgraded with attack augment. (I mislabeled it as Kulve Decay, but I meant the Kjarr). I did these values with them as if they were already augmented. Kjarr didn't need any more element or affinity for most builds, so I just plopped attack on it for my own work and builds. The attack augment does add a slight buff but it's pitiful for the other two unless you have a significant way to make up the affinity loss.

I could try to add a full element safi long sword, but the idea of it isn't a good one. White sharpness doesn't have as good of an element modifier. It's fighting an uphill battle againts Alatreon's weps that were just given a tank load of element. The raw loss would also be evident.

Just based on the math I did, it would probably come out to 15-30 less damage per hit than the Alatreon claw, even on a dragon weak monster.

[Eren Shiel]

Originally posted by JRubz:

Originally posted by Crimson:

Seems to me that a fully custom upgraded Decay would beat both, u can reach alatreon elemental values using the custom upgrade function in Kjarr weapons, might take you some grinding tho.

also what about Safi draksword with full element up and silver rathalos essence is it any good ?

The Kjarr Decay was already upgraded with attack augment. (I mislabeled it as Kulve Decay, but

Just based on the math I did, it would probably come out to 15-30 less damage per hit than the Alatreon claw, even on a dragon weak monster.

Damn .. its a shame you need 4 pcs for true crit element, i guess Alatreon weapon + 4 pcs might be better.

[jrubz]

Originally posted by Crimson:

Originally posted by JRubz:

The Kjarr Decay was already upgraded with attack augment. (I mislabeled it as Kulve Decay, but

Just based on the math I did, it would probably come out to 15-30 less damage per hit than the Alatreon claw, even on a dragon weak monster.

Damn .. its a shame you need 4 pcs for true crit element, i guess Alatreon weapon + 4 pcs might be better.

TBH critical element period is probably sufficient for something like LS. The safi set bonus for free affinity is pretty strong even with just 3 pieces. We gotta wait and see what AT Velk armor looks like.

[JPM岩]

Originally posted by Juliane_L:

that's when you remenber how terrible dragon element is. almost nothing is weak to it.

For a lot of Ala weapons, the element is just a bonus, the stats without element already are p strong