Which elements and ailments have the most vulnerabilities / resistances?

In the Monster Hunter Field Guide, each monster has a vulnerability rating for each element and ailment, from 0 (high resistance) to 3 stars (high vulnerability).

The picture above shows that the Diablos is very vulnerable to Ice and Paralysis (3-star), but very resistant to Fire (0-star / X).

It's best to have multiple weapons of different types so you can attack each monster most efficiently, so I'm not asking which element is "the best". But, if you wanted to focus on / prioritize certain weapons more than others, because of material limitations or tree structure, which element / ailment types are large monsters most commonly vulnerable / resistant to?

TL;DR

Ice, Thunder, Paralysis, and Stun are the most common effects for monsters to be vulnerable to (3-star and 2-star ratings). If you only care which effects have the most high vulnerabilities (3-star), then you want to actually aim for Water, Thunder and Poison (more on that at the bottom). So, Thunder seems to be the statistical winner for vulnerabilities.

For effects to avoid, Fire, Water, and Blast are the most common effects for monsters to be resistant to (1-star / 0-star). I didn't catalog all the high resistances (0-star only) but I may add that later (or someone else is welcome to).

The numbers are pretty even depending on how you look at them, so this is not suggesting you completely devote yourself to, or completely ignore, any type of weapon. I personally just thought it was useful information.

Note: This is only concerning large monsters

If you go through and tally up how many monsters have a 3-star or a 2-star vulnerability to an element / ailment, here are the results:

Elements

• Fire: 11
• Water: 14
• Thunder: 18
• Ice: 21
• Dragon: 13

Ailments

• Poison: 19
• Sleep: 21
• Paralysis: 22
• Blast: 19
• Stun: 22

And if you tally up how many monsters have a 0-star or 1-star vulnerability (which means they have a resistance to it):

Elements

• Fire: 16
• Water: 16
• Thunder: 12
• Ice: 8
• Dragon: 14

Ailments

• Poison: 10
• Sleep: 10
• Paralysis: 8
• Blast: 11
• Stun: 6

What does this mean?

When comparing vulnerabilities, Ice and Thunder will be the most effective elements across the greatest number of monsters. For ailments things are pretty even across the board, but Paralysis and Stun are statistically most effective, with Sleep in second place.

Comparing resistances, Fire and Water are the most common elements for monsters to be resistant to. For ailments, Blast is the leader, with Poison and Sleep tying for second place.

Taking things a little further, I personally don't consider a 2-star rating to be a true vulnerability, even though it's one less than a 3-star. So, I always go for the effect that has the 3-star rating if at all possible, just to be most damaging.

Taking that into account, it's more interesting to me to know which elements / ailments have the most 3-star vulnerabilities, without taking into account the 2-star results. Here are those numbers:

Elements

• Fire: 5
• Water: 8
• Thunder: 8
• Ice: 4
• Dragon: 5

Ailments

• Poison: 8
• Sleep: 3
• Paralysis: 5
• Blast: 5
• Stun: 5

This changes the above results slightly, making Water and Thunder the leaders in elemental damage, and Poison the clear leader in ailments. It's interesting to note that Thunder is in the winner's circle for the 3-star-only comparison, as well as the 2-star + 3-star comparison.

Source: monsterhunterworld.wiki