Elemental weapons in solo

So I've got 3 Ultimate for the 3DS, meaning I have to solo everything for now, and I'm using Dual Swords (They fit me well and I've learned to dodge and attack smoothly with them). I'm trying to be the best I can be and wondering how I should go about making my "main" weapon. Before I never really gave elements a thought, but then I was doing Arena and noticed it worked on even the bigger mobs and when Poisoned it actually seemed to slow down a bit (imagination or not, I'm just saying it attacked me less).

I'm wondering if certain elements will help me as a whole this way? As in could I go electric and stun most boss mobs?

First: There is a difference between "Elemental" and "Status".

Elemental: Fire, Water, Thunder, Ice and Dragon.

Status: Poison, Paralize & Sleep

Other: Slime.

Certain monsters are strong vs some elements, and others are weak to it. Once you fight a monster once, you can go to the guy that makes armor, and check out the resistances. If the armor you can make with the materials has a weakness towards one element, that means the monster is also weak against that element.

Status effects, like poison, paralisis and sleep are cumulative and have a deterioration time. So you can apply poison at lets say 4 or 5 units per hit, but the monster will loose 2-4 points every 10 seconds. Once it reaches a threshhold, (lets say 100), it will get the status effect for a period of time and the counter will reset. Each subsequent threshhold will be higher... lets say, 150, for the status to affect it again.

Finally, monsters also have stamina points, in addition to their health points. Each of their actions uses up their stamina. If they use too many powerful moves at once, they can completely use up their stamina, and will stay still for a few seconds, just like you would if you completely use up your stamina. Certain weapons, like hammers and hunting horns, actually deplete monsters' stamina points per hit. You said you noticed the monster getting slower when it was poisoned, but that is unlikely. I am willing to bet you were good at dodging some of its powerful moves in a row, and you had an almost completely exhausted monster to fight.

In the end, your choice of weapons for solo play should have alot to do with what you are fighting. If you want a good all around weapon to use as dual swords, get the one with the highest raw and affinity. But the best weapon will have to do alot with what the monster is weak against.

Slime is in it's own category, since it applies "slime" to the monster. Whenever it reaches the threshold, it applies the equivalent damage of a Barrel Bomb to the part of the body you are attacking. This is great for breaking monster parts, but you can do more overall damage with a good elemental weapon. (Dont underestimate the usability of slime though... it is almost overpowered on dual swords.).

Moved to 3U section for being about 3U.

Sephastus wrote:

Explanations

Hey thanks! You helped me a lot!

But two things.

1. When I meant slower I meant he was pausing, it didn't look like he was tired and it was like he was taking breaks. He'd attack once then pause and stand still. When normally this doesn't happen... and it happened for the full duration of the Poison.

2. Can just about any mob get status effects? I assume the ridiculously big ones can't (such as that giant sand whale), but can most Wyverns and such still get stunned?

I'm playing on the 3DS so I need to know these things to be a tip top solo player..

Copain wrote:

1. When I meant slower I meant he was pausing, it didn't look like he was tired and it was like he was taking breaks. He'd attack once then pause and stand still. When normally this doesn't happen... and it happened for the full duration of the Poison.

Some monsters do that as part of their attack pattern. It may seem like it's catching its breath, Barioth does this. Others may do this as a charge up to a subsequent attack. The Purple and Royal Ludroths do this as they go from their normal state to Rage state - all you'll notice is their crest rising, and breath vapor. It has nothing to do with the poison status applied.

Copain wrote:

2. Can just about any mob get status effects? I assume the ridiculously big ones can't (such as that giant sand whale), but can most Wyverns and such still get stunned?

For the most part, yes. Most of the large monsters can be paralyzed, poisoned, stunned, fatigued, and put to sleep. Only the elder dragons (like Jhen Mohran AKA the giant sand whale AKA tippacow) are immune to the status effects.

Alatreon is an elder dragon and is not immune to sleep, poison, KO, nor paralysis.

Status effects are definitely still worth using when you're playing solo. Let's see:

Poison - An excellent tool for solo hunting and quick damage dealing. When you play solo, you can accept that you won't get in as many hits as in multi, but if you can poison a monster, it will take damage regardless of whether you're attacking or not. Of course, you do still need to attack, but it's still very good for damage. It's great in solo, but tends to lose out to the other effects in multi.

Paralyse - This is a lovely little effect, which stops a monster from moving for a time. During this time, it'll also take a lot more damage, so you can cut it up neatly. This tends to be most effective in multiplayer because weapons which are poor for status inflicting (like the greatsword) can benefit massively from this effect. It's still good solo, mind. I use the gobuluku muraaka on most hunts, and can normally paralyse a monster about 4-5 times, which lets me do a hell of a lot of damage.

Sleep - This one's only really good if you've prepared specially. Carry barrel bomb l+s, as well as the materials to make more. Then you can do a lot of damage from sleep bombing. In multi, you occasionally get idiots who attack the monster while its asleep, which completely messes up this plan, so it can be considered more practical in solo. Although if you do have a whole team who have prepared for sleep bombing, then it's definitely better multi.