I have a detailed sword guide written for people in your position. Check out the armor section. Keep in mind that Snarbolax armor is obtainable only through the Shadow Lairs. I don't know why you've dismissed Skolver.

If you want to see more opinions on this subject, try searching Google for something like "vog skolver site:forums.spiralknights.com". This question has been asked many, many times. Good luck.

My guide gives you a complete description of both sets, comments on their offense and defense, and remarks that Vog is more defensive and Skolver more offensive. The guide then goes on to suggest that you build a mixed set, with one piece of each. I'm not sure how much more "detailed stuff" you want.

Maybe I can help more if you answer these questions: Why have you decided not to get Skolver? Is it because you don't play Lockdown? Have you ever attempted Firestorm Citadel? Are you aiming for Vog because of that? Do you have expert friends who can help you through a Shadow Lair run? (If not, then don't consider Snarbolax any time soon.)

1. They do the same damage. The Eggnog Driver will make you look swag, but it is a limited item, so unless you have the materials for the eggnog, get the Nova Driver

2. Don't bother getting a toothpick. Get an Acheron instead, because Acheron a) does more damage to beasts than toothpicks, and b) Acheron does more damage to Undead than CIV. You may say that Acheron is useless against Fiends, but that is false. You COULD use your Gigawatt against them. In fact, before you upgrade to Polaris, get a Strike Needle, as you will find it very useful against undeads and fiends. Over time, you will find that you stop using your Leviathan, and that is true. I had to do that with my Rigadoon. I did upgrade it to 5* before the Battle Sprite patch came out. Now it is left poking Dust Bunnies in my inventory instead of Dust Bunnies in the open Clockworks. All because of Acheron. So yeah, get an Acheron.

3. You won't find me on SK any more, I haven't played in a few months.

This thread must be a troll.

@Usevnsevnsixfivfor I wouldn't say "don't bother", it's still one of the best weapons in PvE!...otherwise yeah, you could just Combuster and Acheron your way to victory in the PvE.

Anyway, He...might legitimately may not know how silly that popularity statement sounds.

*takes a deep breath and claps* Okay! To answer your questions:

1. Cutter is a niche, but fun weapon. Cutter does a 5-hit combo that hits 2 times per slice for a total of 10-hits. DVS (Dread Venom Striker) is preferred over WHB (Wild Hunting Blade) due to it dealing strong poison vs. beast DMG bonus against the weakest monsters in the game. That sounds good on paper, but the problem is that it's hitbox is narrow, does terribly vs. groups of monsters, and staggering enemies difficult unless you get off the whole combo. I wouldn't recommend getting it until you have all your important pieces of gear.

Dibsville answers your other questions, but I'll add my two cents cause I can.

2. If you get an Acheron, you can dump your Leviathan, as Acheron will do more DMG vs. any enemy, including those resistant to it. As for Obsidian Blade, it has it's uses when healing enemies are around due to strong poison, but the majority of the time (which is everywhere except when there's healers), Acheron dominates through it's sheer power.

3. Umbra is better than Carbine because Umbra is an alchemer and Carbine isn't (from my Gunner point of view). But seriously, as a swordie, you really shouldn't care to much about getting a shadow gun, but if you're considering getting one as for RJP (Royal Jelly Palace), C42 (Compound 42), and OCH (Operation Crimson Hammer), you can get either, much like Argent Peacemaker and the elemental alchemers. If you want mobility, utility, and an easier time vs. Gremlins grab Carbine. If you want power and an easier time vs. Slimes, grab Umbra.

4. You shouldn't care about whether a weapon is popular or not, you can't help it if a weapon is better than others, that's just how the game is. If you wanna be unique, think about that after you have gear to destroy your enemies with ease, then you can expand your arsenal to new playstyles and gorgeous costumes! Now your question, the closest thing that comes to the monstrosity of a Blitz Needle is a Blight Needle, but like Voltedge requires that you have to get 300 tokens (or 250 with a premade 3*) in PvP to get the recipes. It's also not worth it as the poison status doesn't make up for the DMG reduction it has. You should get the Blitz Needle.

5. Quoting Dibsville on this, " Volcanic Salamander is probably one of the worst sets in the game, just behind Azure Guardian, Arcane Salamander, and Heavenly Iron, respectively." Don't get any set that only gives you a family DMG bonus, they're awful. If you want to get a set good for RJP, get Skolver. If you want a good set for FSC, get Vog.

EDIT: Much questions. Very post. Such spooky.

1. Acheron does Shadow and Normal. The damage it deals makes it better than Leviathan in every way.

2.There are different shields for different situations. A swordie usually settles for BTS (Barbarous Thorn Shield) for it's sword DMG bonus med. It's also tanky enough to be the only shield you ever need as a swordie. If you want to be even tankier, grab these:

Piercing stratums: Barbarous Thorn Shield
Elemental stratums: Grey Owlite
Shadow: Crest of Almire, and if you want to be even more flexible with status resistances, get Dread Skelly Shield too.

What you're working with is just fine, you might be a teensy bit slower in FSC if you use Acheron over an Elemental Brandish, but it's just fine cause it's really strong regardless.

Grey Owlite Shield. VPS won't do great against any enemies with split DMG.

That set looks good. Go for it if you want to.

My usual FSC setup.
Chaos set, Volcanic Plate Shield, Voltedge, Hail Driver, Blitz Needle, Electron Vortex, Maskeraith, Healthy Boost VI Perk, Penta-Heart Pendant (x2).

My usual RJP setup.
Skolver set, Aegis, Acheron, Biohazard, Dark Retribution, Gran Faust, Maskeraith, Bomb Focus II Perk, Elite Sword Focus Module, Penta-Heart Pendant.

My usual RT setup.
Mercurial Demo set, Grey Owlite Shield, Divine Avenger, Polaris, Warmaster Rocket Hammer, Gran Faust, Maskeraith, Grounding II Perk, Penta-Heart Pendant (x2).

"What happened to your Chaos everything strategy?"

I got bored.
But I still give a special exception to FSC because it's boring as [redacted]. There's no way to make it fun for me, so I still use Chaos.
Don't judge me.

Maybe you should get on more often.

/look Sammich-Petater

Haha--let's not do that. Much like what Bopp said at the beginning, if you have more questions on gear, first search your question on Google first. More often than not the questions brought up in the Arsenal have been answered many times before in the past. The sword guide Bopp provided actually gave you the detailed information on your sword and armor questions; don't disregard it.

As for your gear, you're pretty much set. Have fun.

^
UFSC ;)

I'd have to agree vog is the standard first set. RJP is only tier 2, so grinding it with vog instead of skolver isn't bad at all. You get to grind vana much more easily in vog rather than skolver though. Vog is also a must in LD if you don't have asi'd weapons and you play as striker with swords.

Also, am I really on that much? :I
This week is an exception because I burned out my play laptop's trackpad and it's currently under repair. Last week was also an exception because I was temp banned for spam buying vees (I bought them because it was hilarious to have a ton, I never sold one).

I use a combuster on purpose at vana because it lets me make sure slags don't get caught in my face. Freeze and shock will lock slags in your face sometimes when you charge brandish them. Combuster can let you keep a distance so their fire breath has no effect. I used to use a DA or hammer, then switched to glacius/voltedge, and now combuster. DA is annoying as balls as you can't double hit them or they jump on you. Hammer can fling you into them if you aren't perfect on shield canceling it, not to mention lower dps than a brandish charge. Voltedge and glacius cause slags to be stuck in your face spamming fire. Combuster is definitely best pony for me there.

Yes, riding the wave is another factor. Teamwork to make the other swords op? Yeah, the average pub doesn't carry a vortex and people push stuff into you in pub runs anyhow (there's always a mr. Polaris)

Yup,same findings myself on the hammer. It's precarious to use and annoying to shield cancel every time.

I feel that I don't need a vortex bomb (shocked slags from electron line causing 'stuck in your face slags' and public parties often don't kill the slags before they get flung out by the end explosion). Namely if you have AT on turn it off at vana. You can position your charges better for more slag coverage without AT than with it on. I'll turn AT on for devilites, but I sure won't on slags. Not to mention sometimes ill do vana solo when the public parties are suckier than usual (or if you pretend to fight and just run around and occasionally Polaris spam I'll leave to solo). Anyhow, with AT off you can approach the number of slags as with when combining it with a vortex. Also that wheel destroy trick fails usually with AT on, whereas it'll work easily without it.

Then that moment you don't shield cancel and you wind up flinging yourself into the fire traps. Combuster keeps your distance while a hammer literally wants you to put your face into them. Guess which one is easier at avoiding slag breath. Chaos set pairs up nicely with the fire breath avoidance of combuster

I mention AT because brandish charges tend to only line up with a single slag with AT on. Disabling it lets you adjust the angle of attack rather than having it heavily aliased to one direction. I do public runs a lot, mileage does vary, but there's a lot of people who still don't have a grasp at fsc yet. In any case, I have my own solo load out that doesn't rely on having teammates, guess I'm just used to not relying on a party (way too many parties fall apart and go from 4 to solo... I help 4 stars at vana a lot). It's usually faster for me if I solo, even though monster health only goes up 33% hp for each additional party member. Yes, tons of those "just became vanguard" parties exist and I do join them. And no, shock influence is still rng based, and still can make slags get stuck in your face where it's hard to maneuver. There's reasons I use a combuster after thousands of hours at vana. Shock is very useful at UFSC though (harder to keep distance at UFSC than it is at fsc).

Get Barbarous Thorn Blade, not Final Flourish.

No, I know how brandishes work, I don't use AT on them when charging cause you do miss enemies in the clockers. I'm not gonna argue the party thing, it varies; I get the opposite when it comes to parties, much more sensible folk.

I'm not sure why you think that EV = party weapon though, it does work when you're alone, arguably better since you're the only one with aggro, you just need enough CTR on both EV and Voltedge to do so. When you do, you become a slag killing machine, greater than a Combuster by it's lonesome where you have to charge the whole group of 'nearly' clumped enemies that you can't hit all point-blanck, then do 2-3 more charges to finish them, then a few whacks to the stragglers. Why do that when you could just clump them with EV and Voltedge charge them point-blank then do a quick combo when they stagger from the charge? Combuster beats the combo when you can't use it or when it's not necessary, making it the absolute best all around, sure, but even Combuster's charges can't beat the mob clearing ability Voltedge + EV has in FSC.

Yeah, shock is RNG based and it blocks your path sometimes, but if you're using EV, they're being concentrated into one area, allowing you to move out of the way (unless you're in a narrow spot) and use the charge attack when you deem it's safe to move in and do that, which is why people kite around charging so the slags aren't even doing an attack because you're not in range for them to even do so.

If you're the Voltedge + EV it incorrectly by:

-Dropping EV directly in front of a slag's swiping range.

-Dropping EV dead center in the middle of an already spawned group slags.

-Voltedge charging while a slag is in mid-swipe.

...you're of course gonna get hit. It's not really the shock's fault, you were just in the wrong place/timing was off.