Seerusly, they aren't general-purpose swords.
Two of the most common monsters (Wolvers and Menders) have Elemental defense. If you're an FSC runner, go with the Brandishes. But if you play Clockworks, like me, use a Normal sword.
Or you could use them in conjunction with a Shadow or Piercing sword.
You know there are these things called Arsenal Stations that enable loadout adjustment before every level, so you can swap your elemental Brandish into other weapons every time you're expecting gremlins and beasts. If you're going to run Clockworks with single sword from Haven down to the Core then you're doing it wrong.
Soarel loves posting random thoughts that come up on his/her mind.
His.
Yes, I use the Valkyrie helm.
But I'm a guy.
@Merethif
More swords = more CE to craft = bye bye money
Your goal should be to create a versatile arsenal anyway.
"...two of the most common monsters (Wolvers and Menders)..."
Maybe work on your deliver a bit and people will appreciate your jokes more.
"Seerusly, they aren't general-purpose swords"
Get two Brandishes. Make a Nightblade and an elemental Brandish. Boom, all types covered. Doesn't get more general purpose than that.
Bah you can deal with almost everything with a combuster since fire is normal damage. The only things you would have trouble with are fire typed beasts and flamethrower gremlins.
No, fire doesn't deal normal damage. It deals fire damage, which have it's own resist table (see the wiki, I don't remember on which weapon, I think it's Ash of Agni, you can clearly it doesn't follow either normal or elemental damage table).
But I guess doing a special graphic just for fire was too much, so the devs choosed to represent it by a red pipe, which is normal damage, that's why there is this confusion.
Also, on your stuff, only fire resistance protects against fire damage.
To learn more about Fire, read the wiki page......................."Fire".
My Voltedge does a pretty good job at killing Gremlins, so I don't know what you're talking about.
Wow. Not sure what to say to that. I guess you only have one set of armour, too?
Your last line answers solves your problem...
IMO Normal weapons are the best for derping in T1 :J
You see, you can't rate weapons on their own. Make combinations, then praise the weapons that fit into most of them. Examples;
Say you have two shadow weapons. This pervents you from dealing good damage to undead and feind. They both deal shadow, so get a skelly helm.
Say you have all fire weapons. You'll do poorly on fire levels, so get volcanic armor.
Say you have an elemental and a peircing weapon. Get angelic and dake scale mail, you get bonuses for beast and feind, the monsters weak to peircing, to cover up for not having a peircing weapon. Plus you get all four defense types, and posin and curse ressist.
Brandish is a good sword in conjunction with other armor parts and weapons. It's like rating someone in lockdown based purely on their damage, if they were dropping shock and haze bombs, they might have been the MVP and helped their teams sklovers get the high score. In that sense, you can use a brandish charge and flourish melee to basicaly have a mega sword in LD. Use it like one weapon.
Wait, why don't you use the azure set that the mission gives you almost for free? Free recipes, and the 2* to start you off. Why did you waste money getting valkyrie?
Y U NO SAVE CE
@Orangeo: wat
that is the biggest derppost I have seen in quite a while.
(...okay, maybe since I looked at Soarel's post.)
Volcanic armour confers fire resistance. This does not make you do more damage against monsters that inflict fire.
Fire weapons are generally elemental, with the sole exception of the Flamberge and Pepperbox line, and will do lots of damage against Slag Guards or Red Rovers, both of which inflict fire.
Shadow weapons do poorly against shadow enemies such as fiends or undead. Getting Skelly will protect against their attacks, but won't make you do any more damage.
Why are you saying you don't have a piercing weapon when you already mentioned you had one earlier? In addition, Drake scale is crappy due to its lack of normal protection, the family bonus isn't that useful, poison isn't generally fatal, and curse is the most uncommon status on a knight other than Sleep. Skolver/Justifier Divine Veil would work better, you get Shock and Fire as well as sword damage/gun speed, Curse and Freeze/Stun.
Y U NO MAKE SENSE
@Aureate
I meant elemental and shadow on the drake/angel armor one. Typo. I had a nightblade and prismatechalchemer as a noob, found that I should deal more damage to beasts and feinds, looked on the wiki, and found that I could do it with completly well rounded armor. Mind you this was looooong before the azure quests.
Volcanic does make you better vs monsters that inflict fire, because the don't set you on fire. Its for when you can't set them on fire, they cant set you on fire. Levels the playing feild.
Same goes for skelly. The shadow defense is for when you weapons don't work. You have a harder time damaging them, but in exchange they have a harder time damaging you.
One is expected to craft a set of armour for each damage type anyways, or be good enough to dodge and instead use a more offence based armour. It doesn't really give you an advantage you don't have.
"One is expected to craft a set of armour for each damage type anyways"
Thats what THE MAN wants us to do!
I like the angelic and drake still. Having slight defense against everything is good. Theres some rule, I'm rusty on this, where if you have over X health, and you get hit by a weapon that will put you below X health, the weapon will only put you down to X. I think the number was three, its basicaly to pervent instakilling. I recall the well-rounder set I had put you just above X, then you could take a hit and it would only move you down like a plip. You have less defense but can take more hits from any monster.
Plus chroma for FSC (and jelly) runs, but that's basicaly making a set of each damage type etc, you just get it at 4* and you don't need a 2*.
"Same goes for skelly. The shadow defense is for when you weapons don't work. You have a harder time damaging them, but in exchange they have a harder time damaging you."
That is a horrible exchange. The damage reduction from shadow armour is nothing compared to your damage penalty for using shadow weaps against these monsters. You'd be far better off having inappropriate armour and an appropriate weapon type.
And the "no-instakilling" thing is just 1 pip, and has nothing much to do with the supposed benefits of having slight defence.
I've used ash tail, skolver, mad bomber, and shadowsun in fsc. I've experienced that 1 pip of health after taking a hit that should have killed me. I didn't notice a difference between the frequency of this mechanic between my armour sets.
How about I offer you an alternative. By giving up 2 defence, you obtain more normal, more of 1 defence, and a weapons bonus? Or even another all round set.
Your current set:
Angelic
Drake Scale
You have all 4 defences, high poison, high curse, neutral-ish fire, beast med, fiend med.
All-rounder Set:
Divine Veil
Skolver coat
You have all 4 defences, fire high, shock high, curse high, freeze high, sword damage bonus, fiend medium.
I fail to see how you can convince people to use a all around set, when your own is pretty bad. And you have the mindset of someone who considers defence to be more important than that of offence. May be true in other areas, but not in this game. You want to kill the enemies before they kill you. You will never, ever, out tank them. Except maybe T1. Hit for hit, enemies are stronger.
Derpules, it's more of insurance than a tradeoff. For when you don't have money any other peices of gear.
I don't consider it more imortant than offence Demonicsothe, I just consider it more workable since armor is passive, and you can combinde parts easier. Offense is like "get a flourish" ,"get a polaris", "get a shivermist", "get a needle", or some quick weapon suggestion, and then you're done. Less of that building aspect.
Sklover has less peircing and more normal, and you cant get divine veil until 5*. I'm just talking for noobs who need to pick their first armor set. Obviously its better to make one for each occasion. I don't use angelic and drake anymore, but I did at one point and it was effective I'd be able to take allot of hits that I'd though would kill me. If you abouse the instakill-blocker, you effectively lower enemy attack damage. It forces them to hit you twice even if you're in really low health.
Also, say you're in some slight peircing gear vs some peircing enemy;
If you have 11 health points, and they deal 4 to you each time, you die in 4 hits.
If you're in well rounded mail, still have 11 HP but they do 5 each time, you still die in 4 hits.
So it's less, yet it's equal. Now if you defense is even and you can defend 4 hits against anything, you have a 4 up on the other armor, that can defend 4 against one thing. Of course, you can't outdo skelly, jelly, or magic items at their respective damage areas, but new players shouldn't be wasting time trying to get those sets.
Just because you can tank does not make you safer. You aren't supposed to be getting hit, so the few occasions in which you take damage is not important. If you are relying on your armour to tank, you have to get specialized sets. If you looks around the arsenal for threads asking which armour to craft/use, you'll find that most people ask op where he wants to use the set. This way, we can suggest the best kind of armour for him.
"you abouse the instakill-blocker"
Anyone can do this with any set, it isn't proven that defence type is required to activate it.
"you still die in 4 hits"
But that guy next to you in the skolver, he was forced to play better because he can't afford to take as much damage as you do. And in the end, he dodges and attacks better, while dealing more damage because of his bonuses on his armour. While you trade hits with an enemy, he's killing them before they can touch him. That's the main difference between offence and defence in this game.
Using an all rounder set is fine, but advocating it the way you do isn't. This makes people think they can trade hits, tank, and otherwise outlast the enemies. And once you built everything, you find out that you spent more energy and time than others who decided to skip an all round set.
I mean it's easier to make use of the instakill block with well rounded defense. I never said it "awakened" anything. You get just above the limit, then you take a hit and get basicaly no damage, then you take a hit and die. Far from tanking.
"But that guy next to you in the skolver, he was forced to play better because he can't afford to take as much damage as you do. And in the end, he dodges and attacks better"
???
Does his armor give him evasiveness? Why is he better at dodging than some guy in drake? If you're just going to assume that anyone with a well rounded armor setup isn't going to dodge, then you aren't getting the point.
Look at offense, it works the same way you can take more hits.
Say the enemy next to you has 11 health points.
Your ally has low damage bonus and deals 5 points of damage. Kills him in 3 hits
You don't have the bonus, but you deal 4 points and still kill him in 3 hits.
Combinde with the possibility of you being able to take more hits, you're better. Now, a well rounded peice isn't going to beat any stacked setup at its own game, but it can actualy do more than average on all playing feilds. I'm not saying you can trade hits, but you have more chances to make a mistake than you otherwise would, and still kill enemies just as quickly by avoiding overkill.
"easier to make use of the instakill block "
So a hit that will do 11 to me because I have defence, puts me to 1. A hit that will do 15 to me because I don't have that defence, puts me to 1. How is it easier to make use of? That's like your overkill thing. It doesn't matter, because you are going down to 1. And since defence doesn't affect it, your well rounded set leaving you with 1 hp is no different than another set leaving you with 1 hp. In fact, one can argue that because he didn't have that defence, he benefited more from the 1 bar mechanic. He had an effective hp of 16, while you only had 12.
"Does his armor give him evasiveness? Why is he better at dodging than some guy in drake?"
Because he can't afford to take as much damage as the guy in drake. He doesn't have your well rounded defence. I'm saying it gives the skolver more incentive to dodge, to play better. On the other hand, the drake doesn't have to put so much effort into it, because he can spare the hits. And it is that mindset that's dangerous, "I can spare a hit because I take less damage".
"Say the enemy next to you has 11 health points."
A fair point. But that only works if you rarely fight. If you are one of the party members dealing damage and trying to kill an enemy, you roll with as much bonus as you can. Last hits in sword combos deal more damage. Alchemer ricochets deal more damage. Charged weapons usually deal more damage with damage bonuses. For example. With max sword damage, I kill zombies in 1 less hit than a vh sword damage oh my DA. If I take off my bts, I need another hit to kill them.
The overkill works when you aren't in max HP. If you line your health up right, you can basicaly take an extra hit with almost no damage dealt, in spite of having low defense.
Just because you have less defense, dosen't make you a better dodger. Just because I have better armor dosen't mean I'm going to try any less. Skill is separate from armor.
Of course you can kill things faster with max sword damage. I said; "A well rounded peice isn't going to beat any stacked setup at its own game, but it can actualy do more than average on all playing feilds." You can just get more bang for your buck. It's like when you bomb plate mail and avoid the low ASD. (Not that I'm promoting that, plate mail is stupid. I could understand ironmight in LD, but you should have something else too.)
Some isn't. Like this: "Say you have two shadow weapons. This pervents you from dealing good damage to undead and feind. They both deal shadow, so get a skelly helm."
Here, we're not talking about the trade-off between the added protection of Skelly vs the med sword bonus of Skolver.
We're talking about the idea that you can, to any appreciable extent, make up for the massive damage penalty from using an inappropriate damage type by equipping an appropriate piece of armour.
This is sheer nonsense. Do you know how big the penalty actually is? I'll wait while you wiki it.
Brandishes are not overrated. You can have a shadow brandish and an elemental brandish. They deal a hefty amount of damage, and can be used effectively for everything. Btw, wolvers and menders are NOT the most commonly appearing monsters in the game. Think constructs and slimes, both monsters that are weak to the brandish line. Soarel is painfully wrong...
Soarel has an unfortunate habit of making a new thread whenever something stimulates his mind, regardless of the matter's significance.
"Or you could use them in conjunction with a Shadow or Piercing sword."
This is the part of your post that makes your thread obsolete.
Also, by "Brandish" you apparently mean "elemental Brandish".
Edit: I probably shouldn't have dignified this troll with a response. Sorry, all.