I would like to know some specifics around the mechanic behind successfully applying status effects. I understand that you must accumulate enough "status damage" to reach a threshold at which the actual status is applied, but I would like to know:
- Does this "status damage" you've accumulated also decay over time when not hitting with status-inflicting attacks? If so, does it decay steadily, or does the accumulated status damage just reset after the target does not get hit with inflicting attacks for a certain amount of time; and is this decay rate/reset timer speed negligable, moderate, or very quick?
- Does the amount of status damage per hit (i.e. potency) scale with the amount of damage done by the hit? (e.g. Would a Rapid Lv1 at perfect distance apply more status damage than a Rapid Lv1 fired from too far away?)
- Does the potency scale with monster hit zones? (e.g. would a Rapid Lv1 to the face apply more status damage than the same shot to the body) (outside of damage also scaling with hit zones, if the answer to the previous question is Yes)
- As it pertains to Bows; is status damage applied per shot, or per hit? (e.g. Would a Spread Lv3 with 5 hits apply more status damage than the same Spread Lv3 with 1 wiff and 4 hits?)
- As it pertains to the CritStatus armor skill; What is considered a "Critical Hit" by the game, and subsequently gains the potency increase? Is it hits from critical distance indicated by hit sparks, or is it the RNG based weapon affinity critical hits?
- Are there any other arcane factors that determine potency or status-infliction? (e.g. RNG).
- Does the poison status effect deal a static amount of damage, or does it scale with something such as weapon damage or monster HP? It seems silly that a poison effect would do the same amount of damage on a G.Jaggi as it would on say, Gore Magala.
- As it pertains to Bows; what's the common methods among top tier Bow users for maximizing status effects. (Just looking for tips here).
For posterity's sake. I have found all the answers about this here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/psp/943356-monster-hunter-freedom-unite/faqs/57883
Best Answer
Since you're talking about Bows here, let's make this Bow-specific.
Yes, all damage (raw, elemental, status) is affected by the Bow's "sweet spot" range. Being in the perfect range will increase all inflicted damage by 50%. Hitzones do matter, so you'll want to target the same hitzones you normally do rather than fire willy-nilly. And yes, number of hits does matter for apply status. While the Monster Hunter damage formula is certainly convoluted and arcane, RNG does not play a factor outside of determining whether you made a critical hit with Affinity. Speaking of CritStatus works similarly to Affinity in that it gives a percent chance of dealing increased damage.
There really aren't any tips for inflicting status outside of what you would normally do. Perhaps if you dedicated to statusing, bring some extra combo materials. Other than that, just do what you normally. Note that if you get lucky with crits and hitzones, inflicting the same status twice is usually where diminishing returns kicks in, it'll be much harder to get that third status inflicted.