Disentangling the effects of nucleon transfer via $Q$ value and deformation on fusion has been a longstanding objective. To address this, a comparative analysis of the barrier distribution, which is an alternative probe to fusion, for the ${}^{14}\mathrm{N}+{}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ and ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ systems have been performed. The consistent alteration in deformation by choosing the same target ${}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ mitigates its influence, thereby allowing for an explicit investigation of the effect of the $Q$ value of nucleon transfer for these above systems. Consequently, the quasielastic scattering was measured for ${}^{14}\mathrm{N}+{}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ at backward angles. The extracted excitation function and barrier distribution were analyzed in light of coupled-channel calculations, which indicated a significant contribution from the one- and two-neutron transfer channels, alongside the rotational degrees of freedom in the highly deformed ${}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ nucleus. Furthermore, the coupling strength was extracted using the chi-square minimization method, yielding a value $\approx 0.201$. The extracted coupling strength of ${}^{14}\mathrm{N}+{}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ system was compared with that of the two-neutron transfer in the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}+{}^{178}\mathrm{Hf}$ system, which indicates that the coupling strength for nucleon transfer decreases with an increase in the $Q$ value. This observed behavior might be due to the spectroscopic structures of the ${}^{16}\mathrm{O}$ and ${}^{14}\mathrm{N}$. The present study indicates that the spectroscopic properties play a significant role, along with $Q$ values, in influencing the fusion reaction dynamics.

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• Low & intermediate energy heavy-ion reactions
• Nuclear reactions
• Transfer reactions