Hey, I'm looking for a loadout that will work better than my currant ones (solid cobalt or dusker with mighty defender) for the upper rank 7 missions till I can start upgrading my stuff again, what works best in your experience?
Best loadout for Rank 7-3 missions?
I'm a swords and guns guy, I do more guns when solo and more swords in a group. I have a Master Blaster as my gun and a Striker as the sword I normally use, I have a full set of solid cobalt armor that I don't use really, I'm working on leveling up my Dusker stuff. I also have a Ascended Calibur that I like, but I use the striker more because it's faster. Bombs aren't really my thing, although I have used them on occasion.
Keep leveling up the Dusker armor. Consider also getting some Gunslinger armor (such as Shadowsun) for those times when you use guns. You can mix them if you like.
As I mention in my sword guide, these are some shields that you might consider: Swiftstrike Buckler or Barbarous Thorn Shield for offense, and Grey Owlite Shield, Crest of Almire, Dread Skelly Shield, Volcanic Plate Shield, etc. for defense.
And by the way you are the target audience for my sword guide that I linked above. I hope that you find it useful, if only in refining your questions here.
The "standard issue" weapons (Calibur/Leviathan, Blaster/Valiance, Blast/Nitronome) are fine, but the standard issue armor (Cobalt/Azure, Defender/Aegis) is some of the worst in the game. So it's a good idea to change away from them.
What weapons do you use? You want to optimize your armor to give you offensive bonuses on those weapons. So give us more information, and read some wiki while you wait for answers.
* If you use mainly swords, then try reading my detailed sword guide.
* If you use mainly guns, then consider Gunslinger armor and Chaos armor. Try the Gunslinger Guide on the wiki, although it wasn't very good the last time I checked.
* If you use mainly bombs, then read the Bombing Guide on the wiki. It's quite good (last time I checked).