Spiral Knights - Best Gun/Bomb Sidearm for a Swordsperson

Best Gun/Bomb Sidearm for a Swordsperson

11 replies [Last post]

Sat, 06/30/2012 - 22:28

Darkzerefs-Alt

I know this question has probably been asked a lot, but I cannot find any answer that is detailed (in both reasoning and explanation) enough to provide a satisfactory answer to this question. I am a swordsperson, and is currently working my way up to a Combuster, Acheron as well as a Final Flourish. I am also crafting the Vog Cub Set and the Barbarous Thorn Shield, and will craft the Snarbolax Set after everything else. However, I am finding it hard to use nothing but swords for the whole time (because it gets really repetitive and boring), and I sometimes feel an urge to use a gun/bomb. So right now I am thinking of crafting a gun/bomb (or both) as a sidearm, but I don't think I'm very good at using them so should I just stick to using swords instead?

Any help is greatly appreciated,
Rothensword.

Sun, 07/01/2012 - 02:22

Fradow

First, you will probably want

First, you will probably want either an elemental gun, because they are useful to take out all turrets (which are the most problematic for swordsmen) or a utility bomb (you have swords for damage). Here are a few options (you can take several and switch according the situation), ordered according my preferences :

- Argent Peacemaker : great mobility elemental gun. It's handy to pick out some problematic enemies from a distance while keeping mobility.
- Polaris : great utility elemntal gun. The explosion is great to silence turrets and knockback things. But you may get some hate if you use it against anything save turrets, because of the random knockback.
- Voltaic Tempest : great utility as well as damage bomb : shock is OP, especially against crowds. Makes some enemies ridiculously easy (kats for example)
- Shivermist Buster : I rate it under VT because I prefer Shock. Freeze is great (especially against Vanaduke), but also have some drawbacks : no damage (unless no one breaks it, which rarely happens), you can't shield bump nor have your sword knockback (especially for heavy swords users). It's not as bad as Polaris, but some people don't like it except for Vana.
- Blitz Needle : it's not an elemental gun, and not even what I would call a side-arm, but it has so great damage you may consider using it. First, it's great for Vanaduke. It can also one-charge kill almost everything which is not resistant. And last, for the new danger mission, it destroys both problematic enemies (knights and slags). I would consider it after getting an elemental gun.

There are other valid options, but those would be my top 5.

Edit : see Oatmonster propositions below, I largely agree with Valliance and Vortex (I would still rank them under all the above), but not for RSS : really, if you want to use RSS as a gun, just use a gun. It should only be used by pure bomber to blow stuff up grom upclose, hitting with all the shards (or using it as a gun as they already have high bomb CTR and DMG).

Sun, 07/01/2012 - 01:22

Oatmonster

Lick

The Valiance, Vortex bombs, and RSS are also very viable sidearms for swordsmen.

The Valiance is great for quickly dealing with most targets at range and it's fast bullets and predictable knock back are also a plus.

The Vortex bombs can also be used to deal massive damage when used correctly with sword charges, especially the brandish line weapons which you are making two of.

The RSS is a great alternative to a gun with it's long range. It is great for taking out turrets and it can reliably interrupt them in small parties. It's lack of random knock back also helps in parties where you don't want to get in other peoples way. That being said, the proposed RSS change would take away all of these qualities :'c

Sun, 07/01/2012 - 03:03

Aquajag

RIP RSS

I would hold off on RSS since it's going to be seeing some major changes soon, and we really don't know what it will be best at afterwards. Sounds like it probably won't be a sniping weapon. If you want sniping, go gun. And if you want it, it's probably for turrets, so don't do piercing guns.

Vortex is a good choice for swordies, but tricky to get the hang of. I would go with a crowd control status bomb, either Shiver or Voltait Tempest, and Fradow lays those out well. What I would add, is that if you are going to use bombs, they really are best with CTR boosts. So either you will want to mix and match your armor and get a piece of Volcanic Demo (I love Mad Bomber myself, but if you are a non-damage hybrid you don't need the damage boost and the negatives that come with it), and/or get the CTR trinkets, or buy a 2* bomb with a good UV and go from there. Especially with Vortex bombs, they are slow, so it is helpful if you aren't stuck charging them forever.

As far as not being good with guns or bombs, practice makes perfect! If you don't want to take the time, stick to swords. But if you do some guns and bombs for a while, you'll get the hang of it.

Sun, 07/01/2012 - 06:54

Bopp

general and specific

My general advice is here; it reinforces what the others have said. My specific advice is:

For FSC: Blitz Needle or Shivermist Buster, because most teams run their offense through these two weapons.

If you're having trouble with crowds of fiends, etc.: Voltaic Tempest or Shivermist Buster.

If you want to slaughter monsters with swords in a fun new way: Graviton Vortex or Electron Vortex.

If you want a gun: Any elemental gun, but especially Nova Driver (pure damage), Storm Driver (shock), Argent Peacemaker (easy, fast), or Polaris (easy, slow, shock, knockback; use carefully).

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 00:44

Darkzerefs-Alt

My decisions so far

I have decided to get one gun and one bomb to try out as sidearms. I have looked up all the guns/bombs you guys suggested so far on the wiki, and I have taken an interest in Blitz Needle, Valiance, Voltaic Tempest, Graviton Vortex as well as Electron Vortex. However there's this image-uploading issue on the wiki and I cannot find the stats for anything, so I don't know what type of damage and how much the above weapons has. I haven't explored the handguns/bombs sections of the wiki a lot before so I don't know this information, so can you guys please help me out?

Thanks for everything, Rothensword.

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 01:29

Aquajag

Blitz Needle is pierce. Pros:

Blitz Needle is pierce. Pros: pretty hefty damage. Con: You sit still while shooting.

Valiance: Normal damage. Pro: some knockback, fast firing. Con: It's normal damage.

Voltaic Tempest: Elemental damage on the initial blast, but since it's an alchemy bomb that's a very small range and really you don't use it for that, you use it for the shock field it causes. Pro: It's shock! Con: It's a boss item. You need Roarmulus tokens, and then you'll need to get the recipe from Basil or the AH, since Hall of Heroes won't have it.

Graviton Vortex: Shadow damage. Pro: Shadow Damage! Con: If you don't chain it together, or don't suck enough people into the vortex, it blows them all over the place when it goes "boom." Also, I think the only place to get these recipes again is Basil, so you can also look in AH. The wiki will tell you if there's another place to get the recipes, I can't remember off hand.

Electron Vortex: Elemental damage, and can cause shock. Pro: when it causes shock, it doesn't knock things all over, so it's a little less dicey than the Graviton. Con: You have to get the recipes from Krogmo Coins. No way to trade them. So if you don't want to do LD or Blast Network, you'll be paying a whole lot of CE to someone like me to get us to unbind our 5* bomb to sell it to you. If you have or don't mind getting 300 Krogmo coins, this isn't a problem (I have two 5* Krogmo items, trinkets, and 300+ spare coins myself, so I don't mind this. But for some people it's an issue).

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 02:15

Fradow

I'll add a few things to what

I'll add a few things to what Aquajag said :

- Blitz Needle is really effective in FSC and the new danger mission. For the rest, not that much, I'd get an elemental gun instead.

- Valliance is normal damage. As a swordsman, the most useful side-arm is generally elemental, because you won't use it to shoot at wolvers and gremlins anyway.

- on both Vortex : really, I wouldn't advise it as your first support bomb. It's HARD to use without getting, and almost required to be 5* to be really effective.

- on Electron : I'm almost certain the 3* version is not bound on crafting, so you can save yourself a few krogmo coins by buying the 3* version at AH. But it will still requires tons of PvP farming.

Well, I still stand by my ranking, with Argent Peacemaker and Polaris being the first 2. They served me very well since I started (well, after the patch for AP).

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 09:14

Yukarie

I used to be in the same boat

I used to be in the same boat as you. From my experiences...

- Blitz Needle: Doesn't fill the void of killing turrets or kiting very well, but it's a really strong weapon when taking out trojans and Vanaduke, and usable in Legion of Almire. Wouldn't recommend for the absolute first sidearm, but most definitely the second.

- Argent Peacemaker: Good at gunning turrets, just be careful about the lack of stunlocking you would get with other options. Also great for killing weakened enemies, especially if it just happens that at the current number of players in your run that the enemies just survive barely.

- Polaris: Stunlocks turrets. Does great damage, good knockback, would take it first, but as said above, don't spam it too much and knock enemies into annoying places.

- Electron Vortex: Best support bomb ever. Seriously... Especially in cases where there are lots of enemies, if you gather up more than two or three, the explosion won't scatter the enemies everywhere. If you do your clockwork runs with multiple people, this bomb is really nice. Solo... can be useful for chainpulling enemies away from areas you don't want them to go (see revival fields or spikes), and also useful if you have a lot of CTR on your combuster/acheron, but otherwise, not really very solo friendly.

If I had to recommend just one sidearm, it's definitely the Polaris or the AP. Not having to get next to turrets is a very nice thing. I haven't had personal experiences with the Valiance nor the Volt Tempest, but I can definitely say that an elemental gun is probably the right choice over a normal gun.

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 10:09

Atacii

...

There's no one bomb you'd wanna take as a sidearm, but...VT for Kats, Ash for RJP, Vortex for FSC, Shiver for Vana.

You should get two sidearms. An elemental gun and blitz( or shiver, I suppose). But that's if you're worried about what you should get.

It sounds more like you're bored with what you've got, in which case I would suggest alchemers. Playing around with the ricochets is good fun.

Catalyzer's can be fun too, but they're kind of bad and stacking charges gets tedious. AP is good and easy and Polaris is good and stupid easy, but neither are fun after awhile...in my opinion, at least.

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 14:21

#10

Not-Logged-In

Swords.

Hello everyone.i was just wondering which sword to get-
1)nightblade
2)Tempered Calibur(currently equipped)
3)Flameberg
4)Rigadoon
If you know,please post answer

and if you have a good sword to suggest me that is 3* please tell me

Thanks!;D

Mon, 07/02/2012 - 14:29

#11

Bopp

totally different

These swords are of different damage types, so they are not comparable. You might want to check out my sword guide, to organize your search for your perfect sword. You could also tell us what other weapons you plan to equip with this sword you're getting.

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Best Gun/Bomb Sidearm for a Swordsperson