Spiral Knights - Ask a Shadow Defender anything

Ask a Shadow Defender anything

83 replies [Last post]

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 07:48

Zeddy

Hi guys! I'm Zeddy, and I'm a Shadow Defender. As you all know from perusing Hall of Heroes, a Shadow Defender is one of the 9 classes of Spiral Knights. (Striker, Gunslinger, Bomber, Specialist, Cobalt Knight, Guardian, Elemental Defender, Shadow Defender and Piercing Defender), and I have gone down the very equally valid path of being a Shadow Defender, because shadows sound pretty cool, dude. Here's my guide:

-Work your way towards a Dread Skelly Mask.
-Work your way towards a Dread Skelly Suit.
-Work your way towards a Dread Skelly Shield.

This is all there's to it! Hope I helped! Shadow Defenders don't have anything to do with weapons. We mostly just walk in front of other players and shieldbump enemies away from teammates and block bullets a lot. You might think we should use flourishes and brandishes to deal with shadow enemies, but that's the job of Strikers and Cobalt Knights.

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 07:51

Krakob

ヽ( ｡ヮﾟ)ノ

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 10:09

Feral-Cz

I has a question

Should i craft a crown of the fallen+Dread skelly combo (got these items at 4*), or should I set off on the path of upgrading my dusker shadow med set towards Snarby? Is it really worth going through the shadow lair?

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 11:37

Zeddy

As a Shadow Defender, I am only concerned with armours that have the most Shadow Defence available, which is, of course, Dread Skelly. This armour, and this armour alone is therefore my area of expertise. That being said, the title states you can ask me anything and as such I shall answer your question to the best of my ability; even if the ability is severely limited outside of the range of Dread Skelly.

First of all, being a Shadow Defender, I am of course well-versed in the mechanics of Shadow Lairs. It is a myth that Shadow Lair armour sets are prohibitively expensive. In a general case, you split the cost of an SL key in four, making your share 450CE. At current CE prices this runs at about 33k crowns. Is this much more expensive than the price of, say, a Gran Faust recipe at the auction house? I think it is not. You don't have to buy recipes for Shadow Lair armours. Consider also that you can make both sets in one run. If you pay 10k for the extra material in order to do that, you've spent a total of 43k on the Shadow Lair run as opposed to buying recipes for a full Skolver set, which runs at 50k. You have saved money!

As long as one or two of your teammates know what they're doing and the rest are able to not screw things up, a Shadow Lair run can go without any problems at all. My first SL Snarby run had no energy revives at all.

If sword damage bonuses are relevant to you (as in you don't spend most of your time using Argent Peacemaker, Polaris or Blitz Needle for example, in which case you might find Shadowsun to be of interest), then Snarbolax armour is a fine choice for you. It offers more total status defence than comparable class armours and is the only medium sword bonus armour to offer shadow defence. The shadow med on your dusker set would also make your Snarbolax set have exactly as much shadow defence as Dread Skelly, more normal defence and just a bit less poison and freeze resistance. If you do not have any UVs on the Dread Skelly piece I would therefore have to tell you, *gasp*, to avoid Dread Skelly!

Fallen has normal and special defence comparable to Chaos. It also offers protection from Fire, which is of high value, and protection from Poison, which is useful both offensively and defensively. Having just one piece of it gives you penalties against fiend. However, a medium penalty against fiends is not all that bad. The damage loss at medium is very small and the most dangerous fiends have little health anyway. The damage medium from your Snarbolax piece would nullify it, anyway.

Crown of the Fallen + Snarbolax Coat. You end up with:
-A decent amount of normal defence.
-A respectable amount of shadow defence.
-Damage medium with swords against everything but fiends.
-Low attack speed increase for all weapons.
-Some freeze protection.
-A bit more fire protection.
-Lots of poison protection.
-Some negative curse that nobody cares about.

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 13:09

Bopp

how many horns

How many horns are there on a complete Dread Skelly set, and what is their spiritual function?

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 13:11

Bopp

how many horns

Edit: Sorry. It seems that I am not immune to this plague of double posting.

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 13:32

Fehzor

So what do you wear when you fight fire/shock themed enemies? What about slimes?

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 13:55

Zeddy

@Bopp
-Two on the helmet (The teeth are not horns, they're teeth.)
-Eight on each arm. (The claws are not horns, they're claws.)
-Two on each hand when you are throwing the horns because you are listening to epic death metal of doom.

Altogether 22. Their spiritual purpose is to be totally awesome and metal, inspiring confidence in your team because their most important member is donned in the remains of the demonic dead.

@Fehzor
I wear Dread Skelly everywhere, of course! My role in the team is to defend against shadow. When I encounter fire, shock or slimes, I will leave that to the team's Elemental Defender, Piercing Defender or Specialist.

A well-balanced group, of course, consists of a Shadow Defender, Elemental Defender, Piercing Defender and a Specialist.

Thu, 04/18/2013 - 14:08

Fehzor

So basically, 3 people to take hits with varying degrees of success and one person specialized to deal all of the damage? Got it.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 01:08

Krakob

I bring one question!!

What would you consider optimal when heating my Skelly Gear, Black or Death metal? Maybe Blackened Death? Maybe Death/Doom?

Also, I believe that Zombies are us and are our friends, but how do we get our brain-dead brethren to stop attempting to eat our brains?

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 05:31

#10

Prophet-Of-Lies

.....I was planning to be one.

Who has Elemental and Piercing?

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 05:35

#11

Zeddy

Do not fight it, my brother! Once you are inside a zombie, you may wear it for optimal shadow defence.

I'm a fan of härdcöre bläkk dëäph mütäl of döôõóò0oøm, myself.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 05:35

#12

Zeddy

Dem double-posts.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 05:39

#13

Fleet-Miss-Gun

Since you said Ask Anything......

1. Isn't the best defense is a good offense?

2. Is this party setup good?
-Bomber
-Shadow Defender
-Striker
-Gunslinger

3. Do you have any defensive tactics against grave scarabs?

4. Do you wield any weapon?

5. Do you know how to ninja block someone?

6. Do you know how to spiral bump?

7. How does defense against shadow works?

8. What is shadow?

9. How do you deal with Howlizters kamikaze attack?

10. How many skulls does this suit needs?

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 09:04

#14

Aureate

Wait, so none of you bring any bombs, swords or guns along?
Genius.

(also can I be your specialist assassin class or something cool like that with my storm driver and dvs o 3o)

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 10:12

#15

Zeddy

@Fleet-Miss-Gun

1. That's silly. Defence is of course the best defence. That's why it's defence!

2. Just one shadow defender for the whole party? Well, if the shadow defender is skilled enough, it should work out.

3. Shield with your skelly shield.

4. Of course not! I'm not Shadow Offender over here.

5. Shield with your skelly shield.

6. Shield with your skelly shield.

7. Shield with your skelly shield.

8. A force you need to defend against.

9. Shield with your skelly shield.

10. Five out of five.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 10:32

#16

Xenonguard

So I was talking to the Konjuring Kat about the sacrificed virgin to souls of power exchange rate, and he told me I need a Kapala to collect the blood of sacrificed virgins. Where should I collect blood; the throat, the heart or the brain?

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 11:30

#17

Zeddy

@Aureate
There's always room in a party for a specialist. Just equip your Deadly Virulisk / Valkyrie / Dragon Scale set and bring along your Wild Hunting Blade, Heavy Deconstructor, Cautery Sword and Cold Iron Vanquisher. You are now extremely specialised!

@Unstable-Ordinance
Blood gets pumped from the heart, so that's where you go. Poke a drinking straw in there and it'll come out all on its own.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 12:12

#18

Rewopa

All jokes aside, Kat

All jokes aside, Kat claw/eye/hiss kinda qualify as 'shadow defender', they are retooled skelly but with status nerfs.
Perhaps 3* kat shoulda been a reward recipe that required 2* skelly as a base like most krogmo gear.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 15:16

#19

Zeddy

The Kat hats have all the freeze, shadow and normal defence of Dread Skelly, but there are three aspects of it that make it very much inferiour:

1. There is no poison resistance. When you're poisoned, your defence gets reduced. This includes the ever important shadow defence! What a terrible flaw for a shadow defender's armour.

2. There is negative shock and curse! Shadow enemies sometimes inflict those!

3. There are offensive bonuses on them. What on earth are they doing on my shadow defender hats? Get that out of here, I say!

Sun, 04/21/2013 - 13:04

#20

Etharaes

Can I be an elemental defender?

I wear full chaos, and I got the recipes to craft it from the elemental defender, Archilus. Do I qualify?

Sun, 04/21/2013 - 14:55

#21

Fehzor

I've almost got enough stuff to play as an elemental defender.. I just need to finish crafting my grey feather mantle. I do have full divine set though. I could also go as a specialist... because we're totally making that party.

Also-

I had a question for you- if you had to recommend a shield for me to become a shadow defender, which would it be? And what armor would you recommend if I wanted to be immune to freeze and poison in lockdown?

One last thing- what kind of UVs should I get on my skelly hat?

Sun, 04/21/2013 - 15:35

#22

Zeddy

@Etharaes Of course! Please refer to the thread called "Ask an elemental defender anything". I haven't seen it myself, but this is such a popular class there's got to be at least two per page in this forum.

@Fehzor
Well, there's a lot of choice in this regard. You could go with Skelly Shield, Scary Skelly Shield, Sinister Skelly Shield or Dread Skelly Shield. In order to become a Shadow Defender, I would recommend you start with Skelly Shield and work your way up. You do eventually want to work your way to Dread Skelly Shield, because your shadow defence is the most important thing to consider.

I can't really answer any questions regarding Lockdown. Last time I tried going there everyone just booed me out of the stage and called me a "noob", whatever that is. They were also questioning my lack of weaponry. The mode also took away my beloved Dread Skelly Shield so I did not want to have anything to do with it.

For your Skelly Hat, I would recommend a Shadow Defence UV.

Sun, 04/21/2013 - 16:29

#23

Houndoomwars

Unarmed

No weapons at all? Not even a piercing and elemental weapon so you can destroy both shadow families?

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 02:02

#24

Aureate

A real Shadow Defender defeats all enemies with the strength of their heart and their faith in their friends and allies. They have no need for such puny weapons!

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 02:20

#25

Diamondshreddie

Okay, okay wait...

I HAVE A QUESTION O' GREAT AND WISE SHADOW DEFENDER!

If I wear Mercurial demo suit, Mercurial demo helm, Lionheart Honor Guard, Electron Vortex, Voltaic Tempest, Stagger Storm, and Dark Briar Barrage.... what ...am I?

The heroes of each class in the hall of heroes sells each recipe right? I can't seem to find where these are anywhere!

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 03:16

#26

Zeddy

@Diamondshreddie

You are a dead man. Get some shadow defence!

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 14:03

#27

Grittle

I has question What is

I has question

What is better, Dread Skelly or Divine Mantle?

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 17:02

#28

Houndoomwars

class question

If I wear dusker armor ( will become vog) gunslinger hat (becomes shadowsun) bristling buckler ( upgrades to BTS if you can find Basil when he has the recipies) and wield nightblade as my main sword (becomes Acheron [duh]) cyro 2 as my main gun (becomes hail driver [again, duh]) oversized toothpick as secondary sword ( may turn into fearless ridgadoon simply to not look like a sheep) and antigua as secondary gun ( becomes sentenza, only secondary because having all your weapon slots use the same damage type seems pointless), what class am I?

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 17:22

#29

Zeddy

@Houndoomwars|

No specialization? Clearly you're a cobalt knight!

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 18:15

#30

Viorayne

Paladin?

Shadow Defender.

I am not sure if this is a Valid Class-Build, But I call myself a Paladin.
Effectively a specialist against Undead & Dark Forces:

Combuster: Deals good amount of Elemental Damage (Effective vs Undead & Constructs). Charge attacks deal a nice Fire DoT also, good for the Undead Hordes and such. Speed isnt bad to boot. Effectiveness vs Beasts & Gremlins have proven it to be problematic.

Crest of Almire: Protects against Normal & Shadow very well. Just what one needs in Dark Places against those Infernal Corpses and anything else that may be encountered. A good status defence vs Fire and Shock helps to cover up any gaps in my defences. A nice Health Boost gives the edge when blocking attacks also.

Radiant Silvermail: With High Pierce & Shadow protection, the armour provides good defence againts any Beasts, Gremlins, or Generic Denzien of the clockworks. A protection from Statuses like Poison and Curse helps keep my defence at its top, and attack un-hindered. A further bonus to Undead help the Combuster make light work of any shuffling corpses.

Blitz Needle: The pulverising Piercing power of the gun helps make up for the Combuster's lack of effectiveness against Beasts and Gremlins, and helps keep them at bay. Even though the Wolvers are quick, a few lucky shots puts them down quickly enough.

Valkyrie Helm: Despite the Weakness to fire (Made up in other aspects of my armour) it provides further Shadow Protection, along with High Normal protection as well. It guards against Poison and Curse, making it useful in my Defences and Attacks staying Pure to the light. A Damage Bonus to Fiends helps put those devillites down faster.

This all amounts to an Elemental Specialist with All-Around defence, but Higher Defence against Shadow. And increased Attack vs Undead 1st and Foremost.

I call myself a Paladin, but what would you class me as?

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 20:20

#31

Fehzor

^You're a specialist.

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 20:35

#32

Zeddy

Radiant Silvermail and Valkyrie? That's specialist armour. You're an undead/fiend specialist.

If you want to call that particular hybrid Paladin, then I think that's a neato name for it.

Wed, 04/24/2013 - 12:11

#33

Houndoomwars

I would have thought that or

I would have thought that or striker, because armor that lets you deal more DPS is the only trend there, besides shadow damage and a lack of slow weapons. That suddenly gives me a set name: Assassin. The definition of an assassin is a player who excels at dealing shadow damage at a very fast speed, allowing them to take down gremlins with more ease than anyone else in the game. Elemental armor lets them do this specific job better, though it should always be sacrificed in favor of more, faster damage

Wed, 04/24/2013 - 15:41

#34

Windsickle

Not unexpectedly, you seem to

Not unexpectedly, you seem to be in strong support of the Skelly series, Shadow Defender. What are your opinions on the Almirian Crusader Set? I hear the ancient Almirians were once renowned for their craftsmanship in the field of shadow defense.

-Windsickle

Wed, 04/24/2013 - 16:39

#35

Fehzor

I hear that ancient almirians often found holes in their armor because of their awful craftsmanship.

Wed, 04/24/2013 - 17:01

#36

Viorayne

Almirians?

Oh, you mean those old Knights who all but died due to the lack of effective arms?
Yep, I heard they have good craftmanship.

...Well, their shields are good anyways.

Thu, 04/25/2013 - 01:31

#37

Aureate

@Windsickle: You mean the guys who are dead right now? Should've worn Dread Skelly.
/shakes head

Thu, 04/25/2013 - 07:51

#38

Fleet-Miss-Gun

Doesn't rocket puppy is way

Doesn't rocket puppy is way more dangerous than zombies, greavers, devillites, and freaking kats?

Isn't the shadow defender is way more useless than skolvers?

Isn't the elemental defender kicks every single monster butt just by seeing them?

Doesn't elemental kicks shadow damage in it's face?

What if I wear grey feather set, grey feather shield, Divine Avenger, and anti slime bomb?

Thu, 04/25/2013 - 09:08

#39

Aureate

@Fleet

1) No. Everyone knows that homing Howlitzer skulls are the worst with their ridiculously small turning circles. Not to mention how fast they move and the fact that they can fire off a shotgun of bullets in your face before launching their last ditch suicide attacks... and Devilites and Zombies can easily ambush you from the bottom edge of the screen.

2) A Skolver cannot walk into Zeddy's Venom Veiler without getting poisoned, and would then get mauled by his mad Triglav skills, unlike a Dread Skelly user. Get your facts straight!

3) The elemental defender has no weapons, so he cannot kick every single monster butt just by seeing them. Only when the elemental, piercing and shadow defender unite in a full party can they unleash the POWER OF THE TRIFORCE and kick monster butt just by being in their awesome presence!
(The gunslinger dude shooting stuff also helps out. A bit.)

4) Elemental damage is shadow damage that failed its test of evil awesomeness. Shadow laughs in the face of elemental because it went for the wuss option of pretending to be 'light'.

5) Then you are weird. Next!

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 13:21

#40

Fehzor

So I was wondering what armor I would want to wear if I were to fight something like say... heart of ice, but with poison instead of beasts. Any suggestions?

Oh, and all of the enemies are golden and invulnerable, and I'm just running through. Without weapons.

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 13:38

#41

Zeddy

A Heart of Ice where instead of freeze beasts and freeze fiends, you fight a mix of freeze fiends and poison fiends? Such a level doesn't exist so I don't really see the relevance.

Since you're just running through, defence is of utmost importance. Some people would undoubtedly tell you that you should get an Ancient Plate set and roll max shadow/freeze/poison on it. That's as defensive as it gets, now isn't it? However, if I may make an unorthodox suggestion, I think that perhaps you should just go with a full Dread Skelly set instead. Funny how it works out, but the armour just fits perfectly into your scenario!

Mon, 04/29/2013 - 05:37

#42

Doctorspacebar

Node 53120 is credit to team

Multiclass.

Seriously. Multi-class as a Shadow Defender and Bomber. Use your shadow defense shield and armor to absorb damage, but use a Nitronome and Vortex to control where the crowds of mobs go if you need to. A Troika-line sword can also be handy for knocking enemies away quickly. And a gun for switches is probably necessary.

Assuming this ridiculous Dread-Skelly-pandering area exists in the first place...

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 06:35

#43

Fehzor

When I play as a shadow defender, I typically find that having weapons distracts me from the mountain of shadow damage I am to absorb, and drastically reduces how useful I am to my team.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 13:20

#44

Legend-Knight-Hadi

Ohh

God this is so lame, come on man you know no one plays like that anymore except some self centred noobs,

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 13:59

#45

Bluencool

...

ignore dis ^

Sounds awesome, dude. Should I get the CoA? Though it has less shadow resistance, most devastating shadow attacks have a bunch of normal damage thrown in. Such as trojan slams. CoA would protect better against pyromaniacs and shock dealing shadow monsters, which are more feared than their poison and freeze counterparts.

Tue, 04/30/2013 - 18:13

#46

Zeddy

While shock and fire are not to be trifled with, the most important shields you can have is a freeze shield. Imagine yourself in a freeze themed battlefield. Despite your best of efforts, you get frozen. What do you do?

You shield. You shield and wait for the next hit to break you free. However, this only works if your shield doesn't break. To minimize odds of your shield breaking when you're frozen, you need a freeze shield. The hit breaking you free is very likely to be freeze-based. If it's freeze-based, and your shield breaks, you'll just stay frozen. If it's not freeze-based, and your shield breaks, at least you'd be broken free.

In addition, poison weakens your defence and offence. What do you do if your attacks do nothing and enemy hits do more damage to you? Why, you shield of course.

Shock ticks don't do all that much damage and fire can neither be shielded nor hinder your mobility. There is no status more important for your shield than freeze, and poison resistance on your shield serves you much better than on your armour, and that is why I recommend Dread Skelly over Crest of Almire. That and the extra shadow defence, of course.

Fri, 05/03/2013 - 12:45

#47

Fehzor

Dread skelly armor is actually pretty good though... I used some to-day, and the defense really did make a difference, surprisingly. It was rather anti-climactic, and it wasn't that big of a difference, but I had a good time with it.

Fri, 05/03/2013 - 22:16

#48

Fehzor

So I have the following shadow defense helmets:
-Valkyrie helmet
-Snarbolax cap
-Shadowsun stetson
-Kat Hiss Cowl
-Kat Claw Cowl
-Kat Eye Cowl
-Black Kat Cowl
-Heavenly iron helmet
-Divine Veil
-Crown of the Fallen

And I was looking to expand my arsenal a bit. Could you think of any good shadow-resistant helmets to recommend to me that aren't almirian crusader or deadshot that I'm missing?

And what UV would I want?

Sat, 05/04/2013 - 08:13

#49

Krakob

A question for the defender...

What protection do you have against Strikers insulting you?

Sat, 05/04/2013 - 08:31

#50

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Insults are shadow damage. Duh.

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