I was planning on making my Blaster into (eventually) a Valiance, but it occurred to me that the 'Normal' gear is all quite boring. Effective, but boring, without any status effects. So I was wondering, which do you think is the best gun to use? Right now I'm thinking one of the Alchemers or an Antigua, but what do you think?
The best gun?
The argent is NOT good against constructs. It deals half elemental and half piercing damage. Constructs are weak to elemental, but strong against piercing. Strengths overpower weaknesses, so overall the argent peacemaker does less damage to constructs than it would if it had the same amount of normal damage. It's not terrible, but it's not good.
Against constructs, the elemental alchemers are best. I personally prefer the Cryotech alchemer line because it freezes gun puppies and retrodes so they can't turn toward you, allowing you to run behind them for the kill without putting yourself at risk against their bullets and lasers.
I would say make yourself the Valiance if you don't want to make multiple 5* guns. It's the one gun that you can use in any situation that calls for a gun, although it's not the best gun for any situation. If you're willing to make a few 5* guns, consider an alchemer (for constructs and undead), valiance, and argent peacemaker (just because I like its sound).
I carry hail driver and umbra driver (the 5* of the cryo and shadow alchemer lines), but I really don't like to carry one without the other unless I'm quite sure of what I'll be facing. I leave Umbra Driver behind in favor of some other weapon sometimes in T3 where I'm less likely to enter danger rooms (where nothing is strong against shadow. Until they change them. :O) The bonus damage is great... but requires an extra weapon slot (or giving up your sword which I didn't do). Without extra weapon slots, stick to valiance, or at least have an assortment to draw on and choose them carefully based on the tier you're facing.
Argent's deal split Piercing/Elemental. Weaknesses add up to around 25-50% more damage (if i remember correctly), Resistances take around 70-80% damage from your attack. However, against Fiends [Weak to Piercing, Strong to Shadow] and Undeads [Weak to Elemental, Strong to Shadow] you end up doing more damage than a Normal damage six-shot gun would. Weaker vs everything else, though. Notable because Firestorm Citadel is mostly/all Fiend/Undead, making it the de-facto sidearm for Vanaduke.
Sentenza works a similar way, but is strong vs Gremlins and Beasts, both of which dodge pretty often.
As for Alchemers, I strongly support Cryotech, although Firotech and Voltech are good if you like their stat-effects better.
Magnus' are also very much worth looking into, if only to try to snipe healers out of groups. Arguably not as versatile on a non-Gunner, but it all comes down to personal choice.
The reason why I also recommend the antigua line of guns is that even though it won't deal the absolute best damage to monsters weak to it, it'll at least deal viable damage to things that are resistant to it. That's the antigua line's strength. It's a little bit worse than normal damage in my opinion since normal damage is a flat line and the split damage from the antigua dips a little below the normal line since weakness to an element isn't as strong as resistance is, but the 6 shots mostly make up for this over the valiance except maybe on enemies completely resistant to the gun. Both the antigua line of guns and the blaster line are good "all-around" guns that you can carry with you and expect fair damage on everything with. Those kinds of guns are what I recommend to people looking for a side arm that needs to be used against just about any enemy.
The alchemers are completely specialized. Because of the small clip and the low damage numbers coming from guns overall the alchemers are only truly useful when used against monsters that are weak to elemental (or shadow for shadowtech). Carrying a gun like that around means that you should have a backup weapon for the other 2/3 of the monsters that you're going to be plugging away at for 5 minutes to get a kill. The status effect can sometimes be helpful, but it doesn't make the weapon like it does with bombs. If the point of your gun is to allow you to nail the stupid gremlin healers as they hang out in the middle of a pack of monsters, in a bed of spikes, or run away from you then an alchemer is not going to help (shadowtech might help, but then you don't get a status effect so a sentaza might actually be better for this case).
Other guns like the autogun line or magnus line make you stand still while firing which could be a game breaker for you. On the other hand these guns are the only guns with a pure piercing attribute (if you go blitz with the autogun). The pepperbox line isn't very good for swordsmen since you end up standing just as close to an enemy as you do when you use a sword but you can't move or turn and if your shots don't hit you end up doing terrible damage so it's usually better to just swing with a sword.
Guns are not at all like swords which usually have normal damage or at most split damage with one element and normal damage (except for a few lines which have a pure elemental attribute). Where as most swords are all purpose, most guns have a specific situation(s) that will maximize their potential (max potential for a gun is passable damage in the game, anything less tends to be junk damage). You cannot pick a best gun until you know what situation(s) you're aiming to cover with that gun.
Elemental alchemers are great against zombies, phantoms, laser robos and gun puppies - practically most of the things you might not want to get close to if your shield is broken or you're low on hp (especially if you're using a cutter series main sword or something as suicidal).
Umbra alchemer is nice against the new jellies, if you buff it with some extra gear (chroma gear, gunslinger stuff...). Wouldn't recommend it against gremlins unless maybe if your ping is really good (never had that sort of situation :P).
Magnus is really nice against wolvers, devilites and sometimes gremlins (healers, bombers). You actually really hit those evasive creatures most of the time and sometimes manage to nail them to the floor, where other guns just make them jump around and sometimes even without a gun in the team swordies might have trouble hitting them (without help).
The Autogun line is great against trojans, crystlals (I still hate those things, sitting there, mocking me as if they remembered the time I've been playing as pure bomber), lizards, boxes, exploding boxes, stuff you can break, more stuff, stuff in general and sometimes bosses (if you ever really need to attack JK or Vana with a gun, this line of guns might be the right choice).
I guess Blaster line is best, if you like going kamikaze until you're almost out of hp and then switch to a gun. At least in levels, where most mobs aren't construct / undead. Also if your team does so much damage you're barely able to reach a mob while it's still alive, blaster is a good choice. Or if you just want to have a carefree, neat gun around, that you can use against whatever you want but don't overuse.
Well, and Antigua is great for... carrying around shiny weapons that have wings... and... going bang-bang-bang-take-that-you-stoopid-minerals-i-hate-you.... and attacking mobs through force fields if you're too 'lame' to do it without using a glitch (someone fix this! :P)... and also for destroying those wheel machine things in fsc, if you're too lazy to go for the buttons to open the gates. Also it does best damage to most undead things if you don't know how to handle an alchemer the right way. Or more seriously: silversix etc. are a very good choice for a first gun for many reasons although rarely efficient when you or your teammates have other weapons for the job at hand.
Best guns in my opinion are Polaris and Bio hazard/neutralizer. But some missions like king of Ashes etc. Polaris is good. And yet these weapons are good they are very slow. For that u can prefer argent peace maker or black hawk's 5* ( name i don't remember sorry). They too are elemental and shadow respectively. yea but if like to go from far away Polaris is good as if u are enough far from monsters it will knock them back. Only guns won't help. You should also equip good armors which enhance the capability of guns. If u got swords you should go for wolver line. Like that...... u can also go for normal lines of pulsar and catalyser they are good too. So be wise to choose guns. Because in many stages of T3 its you and your weapons. ;)
We talk about the best gun now, thats why the necro.
And I like valiance, I think it is the best gun. Of course, not the best for everything, but the best all around...
You can talk about best guns by creating a new thread, which would avoid people being confused by year old posts which obviously don't have the same context (a lot of patch changed everything since then).
I would suggest a combination of a Blitz Needle, Valiance, Hail Driver, Umbra Driver, and a Polaris/Supernova.
IF you are willing to get 5 different guns o-o
Here's a gunner thread: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/13420
I think there is only really one gun that will deal decent damage to all enemies, The Iron Slug, maybe a Valiance though...
However it also comes down to your play style. Are you Offensive or defensive?
I personally prefer the Alchemizer line of guns because they deal decent damage to most enemies apart from beasts, and with slimes they are neutral. I also like these guns because they deal additional elemental damage which basically weakens an enemy.
Also to take note of is what enemies you encounter the most. Do you do FSC (Firestorm Citadel) or maybe you do JK (Jelly King) runs, maybe both.
A gun that is good for FSC: Blitz Needle (that Pawsmack suggested) and basically any Alchemizer gun, maybe a Storm Driver or perhaps a Polaris (which is faster and deals more shock dmg).
A gun that would be good for JK runs: Any Alchemizer gun and the best gun being a Umbra driver, as slimes are weak against shadow dmg.
Overall: Get a gun that works with your play style (how you play in the game)
The Valiance is a good all-round gun but I would chose maybe a Polaris/Alchemizer.
Hope this helped and have fun! :)
Cdst-Defender Elite full 4* gear
Your hopefully helpful answer is more then tree years to late...
Guns are the most situational weapons in the game because of their low damage and elemental attributes. There is never any "best" gun for every circumstance. If you're looking for a gun that's gonna back your sword up no matter what the circumstance go with your valance or take one of the antigua upgrade paths (the argent is good against constructs). I'd council you to only take one of the other gun lines if you have a specific use in mind for it's attribute and it's effect (e.g. cryo alchemer to freeze gun puppies and make them easier to kill).