Both.
Depends on the situation. For the kut-ku I fought in the training grounds, I paralyzed him, set a large sized bomb, then threw a boomerang at it, kablam. Then I hacked away. You should be using traps to cut the monsters hp.
A neat trick is to throw some raw meat, bait it by blowing a horn that calls monsters, then when it's eating the meat use a thunder trap, and hack away while it's being electrocuted or ready a bomb.
Just be creative. Be prepared.