So just to be clear this is all pretty beyond me, I don't play even close to this level and can't claim to know why these people do what they do. This is all pretty rookie analysis but I tried my best. I tried Sparky and Buff at least and I can confirm they at least travel at the same speed. I don't know if anything else affects the rate at which you can throw additional punches.
For someone just learning the game the most compelling reason I have heard to choose one of the non-elemental gloves is that for defensive purposes the charged hitbox of the Buff/Bubb can block/punch through more than the others otherwise wouldin any case I'm sure they are both perfectly viable (if you can do well with them at all), where the trade-offs occur and what is eventually considered the best to the absolute highest rank players is not something I am likely to ever figure out without being told.
Here's a post on the merits of the non-elemental Arms:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ARMS/comments/6i3bl1/attributeless_arm_appreciation_megaton_buff_bubb/
Anecdotally, I have found Megaton to be better than Megawatt after using both a TON, but I wouldn't have been able to say why for sure. I also thought the thing in there was true about Megaton gaining size and Megawatt not; the camera makes it really tough to tell. But I know that it felt like it did more damage and I was just, I dunno, able to hit more with it.
That and revolver have been about my extent of use with Electric so far, but I have learned there is some degree of nuance to the stun, and I think Ice is the same way:
- If it hits a target in the air its duration often runs out before a throw/rush can be landed which would be the primary use case
- If the electric weapon is the second hit of a two hit combo or otherwise results in a knockdown (if there are other ways), the full duration of the stun is used up in wakeup.
In either of those cases that means a charged Electric hit did no more damage and offered limited additional utility; Coolerangs do additional damage on charge (there is no Electric boomerang to compare).
With Fire- you get significantly more damage, and the knockdown, well, the worst that can happens is that something that would have knocked them down anyway still knocks them down but does more damage. I have spent the least time with Wind and can't really comment on how it works.
I will also comment more generally on how "good" Electric is as an element, and all the elements, and all the Arms to some extent. It isn't
bad, and none of them are bad really. Maybe Guardian.
I came totally around on Cracker after thinking Popper was better at first. Bubb is legitimately great and I've only started learning it.Meanwhile both Ice and Electric, especially against unskilled players, randoms, friends, etc the effect is going to fuck people up and make them panic and mash buttons. So you'll get a lot of mileage there either way.
Also, you can't judge elements for how valuable they are in a vacuum, you have to use the ones that are on the Arms available. You have to compare the value of its spot in your loadout to the other options in its class. Outside of Sparky and Megawatt we've been discussing, you have Revolver- which, if you get any more than one hit with, cancels out the stun effect without doing any more damage- or Retorcher, which does more damage, can hit twice without sacrificing its effect, and also
can knockdown with just one hit. Thunderbird, which must be weighed against Phoenix- Phoenix doing 40 more damage and knocking down. Seekie, no idea really how it differs from Homie yet so I can't comment... and then Guardian?
You gotta pick the Arms that suit ya. Beyond that, we're talking about pretty minor tradeoffs for what is the absolute highest level of evolving play; the meta. I don't know what wins for their particular builds for what reasons on an individual basis but I do think the in-game description of Bubb is fascinating.
For 90% of the playerbase though, all of the Arms we've talked about basically seem "viable" and nothing really seems "broken." There are lots of really good Arm options to choose from and really interesting combinations you can make taking the characters' abilities into account.
In conclusion, my opinion is that Electric is definitely not bad, but then nothing really is, and tiny tiny variations from the perspective of the average player are what will determine the "top tier" for high level player.
If anything in this post is outright wrong let me know and I will try to figure out where I got tripped up.