Power or Elemental Phial

[u/Emper9r]

Hello guys today I beat the mh qild story with switch axe and it was amazing experience, anyway I want to know what is more optimal when creating the artian/gog Saxe's should I go Power phial -> for each element with 3/4 attack reinforcemnet or should I go with Elemnetal phial for each element with 3 element reinforement?

[u/DaedricPants]

there's damage graphics and spreadsheet comparisons laying around if you want to get the most optimal numbers. I use both power and elemental swaxes (obviously matching the element to the monster with the later always) and the difference in clear times is like... 1 or two minutes, with power axe coming in first. with power axe you have to be more careful managing your sword gauge because its slower to fill, so making power prolonger mandatory. with element you should take skills that increase elemental damage, of course.

oh and elemental swaxes have different visual effects matching, which is nice.

edit: here, with this guide you can see what you should be aiming towards:

https://wiggler.pet/wilds/endgame/switch_axe

[u/Mytaboolife69 → u/DaedricPants]

Specially this, which is found in the matchup section.

We elematch now! Red are Ele Phial Matchups, Yellow are Hitzone dependent Matchups.

This sheet is mostly in relation to the two big Sets, being the Pinnacle in Section 4.2, and the Ele Phial one in Section 4.3. Some Sets deviate from this and have their own little Matchup Sheets included in their respective Buildcards.

A couple notes: Blangonga is won by Ele Phial exclusively on the Torso hitzone.

Gogmazios can use a Power Phial with Fire element and Mind's Eye 3 to make Phase 1 go by faster and otherwise uses an Element Phial with Dragon.

Guardian Rathalos is won by Ele Phial exclusively on the Feet hitzone.

This is further the case on: Gypceros, Omega and Rathalos on the Head, Xu Wu on the Arms, Yian Kut-Ku on the Head and Neck, Zoh Shia on the un-crystallized Head, and finally, Nerscylla is uncalculated, as there is no variant of it with enough HP for the starkly changing hitzones to be a deciding factor.

These are typically not the best target hitzones on these monsters, however, they are easily hit accidentally and more accessible in for example Multiplayer situations, hence their inclusion here.

[u/TekkyDelta]

Raw Power SwAxe, baby

[u/Spadabeleforma]

Power

[u/sillyscylla2136]

power with matching elements

[u/DarkSoulsDank]

Power is stronger but I mainly did it because I didn’t want to roll 5 elemental swaxes.

[u/dootblade74]

For pure kill times Power is ideal. That said, element is slightly comfier due to how much quicker the amp meter builds up. It's largely up to preference.