attribution or raw damage

Depends entirely on what type of weapon you plan on using. Aside from shining wyvern blade, elemental damage > raw such as AOS, UH&E, ES, Corpse Blades, etc for the small SNS/DS user. With their insane attack speed the elemental damage stacks up quickly. I would even go as far as to say lances, GL's, and HH are all good to go either way Raw=Element simply because they aren't super speedy but can easily stack in some fast hits in the right situation. GS's, Hammers, LS's are all about raw power, they don't swing fast enough to dish out the element like the small weapons and are made more for bashing in heads then anything. Bows element>raw in my experience and bowguns aren't elemented but using the elemental ammunition gives you access to 60 extra elemental piercing shots. Not a bad deal.