When you first start the game, you'll end up being rank 3-1 in no time. From there, you'll be running missions to get your 2* gear, the Cobalt Armor and the Calibur/Blast Bomb/Blaster line. From there, players keep the equipment. But, its a bad idea to do that. Sure you save money, but you need to have a proper gear line to survive the depths of the clockworks.
Alot of people who stick with the Cobalt gear line die easily in Tier 2 and 3. The same thing with the Dusker line.
This is where people are confused. You dont follow the same line...You mix the lines.
For instance, a Champion could have a Divine Veil and Skolver coat for armors in all 4 damage types: Piercing. Normal. Shadow. Elemental.
3 of the most important status resistances in the game are Poison, Shock, and Fire. Alot of people say curse and freeze are important, but you'll rarely need them.
You'll want to mix your gear a LOT. In this case, you should have alot of shields, armors, and helmets in your inventory. Some of the most important gear lines you'll want in your inventory are:
Skolver/Snarbolax/Vog Cub
Divine/Chaos
Skelly
Gunslinger Line
Bomber line
People say skelly is worthless, but alot of people tend to DESPISE Fiends and Undeads. I'd use it if i were them.
Skolver/Snarbolax gives a good set of Attack damage. However, they are 2 different armors and Snarbolax is hard to get. Skolver gives Piercing with normal, and Snarbolax gives Shadow with normal. Snarbolax armor can be a great replacement over skelly if you can do the shadow lairs.
Vog Cub is for people who love to do FSC, and can survive there easily. With Normal, Elemental, and Fire resistances, FSC is nothing to them. However, you have no shadow defence for FSC. It's good, but not alot of people use Vog Cub anymore.
Divine is probably one of the greatest armors to mix with Skolver, because divine only gives Shadow and Elemental armor. Its good for fiends and robot levels. Its probably one of the most used armors in the game so far. I would only mix it with Skolver if you had no more plans for any other armors.
Chaos is one of the MOST used armors by Experienced players. It gives normal and elemental armor, and a whopping huge damage bonus and charge time reduction for ALL weapons. However, it gives really bad status effects. If you feel you're experienced enough, go for it!
The Gunslinger and Bomber lines give good bonuses for their respective weapons. Guns can have damage/charge time reduction/speed increase, and so can bombs. There are a LOT of ends to both of these armors. At the end of this guide, there is a link to the spiral knights wiki's list of sets. Check it out and look what gunslinger/bombing sets can give you!
Now that i've said this, lets get in the armor lines.
Wolver > Dusker > Ash Tail > Skolver/Snarbolax/Vog Cub
Magic > Elemental > Miracle > Divine/Chaos
Skelly > Scary Skelly > Dread Skelly > Sinister Skelly
For shields.
Theres the Barbarous Thorn Shield, Crest of Almire, Swiftstrike Buckler, and the Grey Owlite Shield.
I see them used a LOT. I'd reccomend them.
BTS gives Normal and Piercing armor, along with a nice medium sword dmg bonus. I'd reccomend using it if you're a swordfighter.
The Crest of Almire gives Normal and Shadow armor. It's good for FSC and for Fiend levels and such.
The Grey Owlite Shield gives Normal and Elemental Armor. It's one of the most used shields in the game.
The Swiftstrike Buckler gives high attack speed for every weapon. While it's good for Tier 3, it's only capable of blocking ONE hit. I wouldn't reccomend using it in tier 3 if you're not experienced.
Shield lines.
Bristling Buckler > Twisted Targe > Dark Thorn Shield > Barbarous Thorn Shield
Blackened Crest > Crest of Almire
Owlite Shield > Horned Owlite Shield > Wise Owlite Shield > Grey Owlite Shield
Swiftstrike Buckler is only itself, a 3* shield.
Now, where can we get these shields and armors...?
Skolver/Vog Cub
These recipes can be found from Echo in Hall of Heroes.
Divine/Grey Owlite Shield/Chaos
These recipes can be found from Archilus in Hall of Heroes.
Skelly
These recipes can be found from Sylvin in Hall of Heroes.
Bomber Lines
These recipes can be found from Remi in Hall of Heroes.
Gunslinger Lines
These recipes can be found from Daxen in Hall of Heroes.
Barbarous Thorn Shield
The Bristling Buckler can be bought from Brisks for 10 Frumious Fangs, and the recipes from there on can be found from Basil in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Clockwork Terminals.
Crest of Almire
The Blackened Crest can be bought from Brisks for 30 Almirian Seals, and the Crest of Almire can be found from Basil in the Tier 3 Clockwork Terminal.
This is all I can say. For more info, see:
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Shieldbearer_Guide
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/List_of_sets
My guide may not be good, but I hope it helps you new players.
Good luck in the Clockworks.
Your advice is generally good, and may help new players. As someone who has written multiple guides over the years, I have a few pieces of constructive criticism. I hope that you will find them helpful rather than irritating.
1. Your advice is oriented toward swords. Not everyone uses swords. So either enlarge your coverage or make your sword focus explicit.
2. Divine Veil with Skolver Coat is a great general-purpose set. But the only reason to get DV+SC is that you're not going to get any other armor. If you have several pieces of armor and are going into a fiend level (or any other level), then you should choose a set specialized to that level.
3. What about Chaos and Swiftstrike Buckler? Expert players regard them as the most powerful offensive armor/shield. Even if you don't like them, your armor guide should probably explain why.
4. Try to trim your text down, so that it is as concise as possible, while still hitting the most important points. When given the choice, people would rather read a little text, than a lot of text.