u/AccelRiderX

Spent a couple months trying to find a way to get around the Escaton Judgment DPS check on heavy bowguns, which notoriously struggle hard against it. Eventually managed to get exactly one no-cart run (technically, still had to rely on Vigorwasp Revival and Felyne Moxie, the idea was to see if it could be done without restocking) after an advice from someone elsewhere. I want to know if there's any meaningful improvements I could do to the resulting build, should I need it again.

Notes:

-Franz Glacia is chosen for recoilless pierce to deal raw damage between checks and its ability to use both fire and ice. While Kjarr HBGs would be the obvious choice for the DPS check, I do not have access to Assault Ice or Rage.

-Mods are Recoil Suppressor, Reload Assist x3, Power Barrel.

-This build can pass the check in around 45-50 shots in fire/ice active, may need 60+ if dragon active triggers early in the cycle.

-Full Safi is picked over 3p Safi + 2p Velkhana to capitalize on built-in Blight Resistance and Evade Window and not eat up slots on affinity boosts.

Will appreciate any suggestions and opinions on the build, thanks in advance.

HBG main here. Have been experimenting with various bowgun builds and got curious about a certain HBG pair. I understand that Safi HBGs, most famously Snipe/Burstcannon occupy the top niche of Shield HBG builds for their respective types. However, I cannot figure out if there is any use for Scorchcannon and Freezecannon.

The way their ammo loadouts and mod charts are set up, it seems they are only meant to capitalize on elemental ammo and maybe Normal 3? But they don't seem to be any stronger with element compared to most HBG available immediately before them. Since they shoot fire+thunder or ice+water, I assumed they were meant to be anti-Alatreon guns, but since elemental HBG is not particularly effective against Alatreon even on his best elements, much less secondary, and they do not have much room for building into raw, I'm not sure if they are even worth using for this in particular. And for everything else it feels like there is no point in picking an element-only HBG (unless it's Kjarr) just to take advantage of shield mods when a raw HBG or elemental LBG would do a better job across the board.

One idea I had is to roll Silver Rathalos Essence to ease up the requirements on True Critical Element and allow it to be used with another set bonus, like Maximum Might Secret, but even then it just barely matches full Safi set damage output while allowing for less comfort. Since Close/Ranged Attack Up mods don't affect element, I don't see if there's any way to take advantage of weapon upgrades to make it any more powerful/useful than its contemporary alternatives.

Has anyone else tried these HBGs and managed to figure something out? I can't seem to find anything and I'm not sure if I'm missing something or there's really isn't any appropriate case where it's worth picking them over another mixed raw+element gun, let alone full raw or LBG elemental.

Need second opinion on anti-Alatreon HBG build