Spiral Knights - ~Lockdown Tier List~

~Lockdown Tier List~

15 replies [Last post]

Tue, 12/30/2014 - 23:12

Gianor

Other competitive games have tier lists, why not Lockdown?

For those who don't know, a tier list is a list containing all of the items of a competitive game, and ranks them in order from best to worst through their usefulness and popularity among players.

This list is still a work in progress, as I haven't had alot of time to gather information from spectating games. If you think something deserves a higher spot on the list, let me know. Armor tiers coming soon.

---Tier 0: Game-breakingly meta.
(none)

---Tier 1: Current meta-game items.
--Swords
-Acheron
-Divine Avenger
-Gran Faust
-Final Flourish
-Barbarous Thorn Blade
-Voltedge
-Warmaster Rocket Hammer
-Combuster
-Glacius
--Handgun
-Overcharged Mixmaster
-Arcana
-Riftlocker
-Argent Peacemaker
-Obsidian Carbine
-Gilded Griffin
-Storm Driver
-Umbra Driver
--Bomb
-Voltaic Tempest

---Tier 1.5: Meta-game items that are relevant, but slowly fading into obscurity.
--Handgun
-Valiance
-Phantamos
-Sentenza
-Polaris
-Nova Driver

---Tier 2: Items that can be considered competitive.
--Swords
-Obsidian Edge
-Fearless Rigadoon
--Handgun
-Hail Driver
-Winter Grave
-Callahan
-Permafroster
-Wildfire
--Bomb
-Stagger Storm
-Venom Veiler
-Dark Briar Barrage
-Nitronome

---Tier 3: Items that are useful in certain situations, but can be a waste of a slot in a certain matchup.
--Swords
-Furious Flamberge
--Handgun
-Magma Driver
-Omega Tortofist
-Savage Tortofist
-Gorgofist
-Blitz Needle
-Grim Repeater
--Bomb
-Shivermist Buster
-Ash of Agni

---Tier 4: Items that are often outshadowed by their own counterparts, or a weapon with better stats and same usage; useful as an alternative.
--Swords
-Triglav
-Sudaruska
-Celestial Saber
-Leviathan Blade/Scissor Blades/Lionheart Honor Blade
--Handgun
-Grand Tortofist
-Iron Slug
-Plague Needle
-Supernova
--Bomb
-Big Angry Bomb
-Irontech Destroyer
-Electron Vortex
-Shocking Salt Bomb

---Tier 5: Items that are not meta-relevant, usually used by people who want to "have fun".
--Swords
-Dread Venom Striker
-Fang of Vog
--Handgun
-Volcanic Pepperbox
-Biohazard
--Bomb
-Obsidian Crusher
-Graviton Vortex
-Dark Retribution
-Scintilating Sun Shards

---Tier 6: Items that are in no way a threat to the current meta-game. Hipster category.
--Swords
-Cold Iron Vanquisher
-Wild Hunting Blade
--Handgun
-Neutralizer
--Bomb
-Deadly Crystal Bomb
-Deadly Dark Matter Bomb
-Deadly Splinter Bomb
-Deadly Shard Bomb

Change Log:
(none)

Tue, 12/30/2014 - 23:38

Abelisk

koe

Callahan and Winter Grave should be in 1.5. Dark Retribution should be in Tier 3. Otherwise, great job on this.

Wed, 12/31/2014 - 04:16

Valtiros

Polaris should be t1.

Wed, 12/31/2014 - 05:19

Theirillusion

Overcharged Mixmaster is the definition of game breaking in todays selection of items.

Wed, 12/31/2014 - 08:51

Krakob

Does the order within the tiers bear significance? I'd definitely rate FF/BTB over SSs, either way. They're both top tier, though. Same goes Glacius/Combuster. Glacius > Combuster because freeze lock. I'd probably put Combuster in the same tier as OE, in fact.

Biohazard should be moved to the bottom tier, it's worthless now.

No reason to have Nova in lower tier than Umbra. They work as well and quite frankly, Nova is better for high level opponents who mostly use Shadow defence.

Pola is top tier, as Valt said.

Stagger is by all means as good as VT.

Quite frankly, you can merge the two bottom tiers. Both categories contain for fun weapons.

Wed, 12/31/2014 - 10:40

Valtiros

And considering all weapons

And considering all weapons as their most efficient use shape, I would put the warmaster rocket hammer in the t0.

This, with asi vh and auto aim can really OS any striker and 2S the other classes. The second swing is devastating for it contains several hits in once. If the ooponent is not one shot you just have to finigh the combo and it's done.

Wed, 12/31/2014 - 12:10

Gianor

You all bring up good points.

This list merges together their usefulness with the amount of play they see. For example, if Blitz Needle shot up in popularity, people would wear more protective gear to protect against it, along with other piercing weapons that would likely follow suit. Polaris is still by all means a good weapon, but it's being neglected in favor of a blaster/driver/antigua. It's position at 1.5 seems justified. Likewise, the guard bomb/sword playstyle has been dwindling very fastly since around October, dropping SS and VV to tier two, if this were still a giant competitive threat, SS would be moved to Tier 1 and VV to 1.5, possibly 1. Same goes for Nova and Umbra Drivers as well, Umbra sees more play. Callahan and Winter Grave suffer the same fate. DR might actually be moved down to Tier 5.

As for Combuster being higher than Glacius, that's for one simple reason: Three of the five Tier 1 armor sets are extremely immune to freeze, while only one (if you want to count Vog Cub being Tier 1) can protect against Fire. With a higher infliction rate, taking 2.5 pips x 3 across six seconds is never good, especially in the case of a recon wearing chaos. As for heavy swords, they are a bit more splashable in any loadout rather than a toothpick, as you can throw it in with a brandish or toothpick and have it be viable, but not the other way around. I consider them equal.

If Mixmaster wasn't hard to get your hands on, it would be at a Tier 0 position. WRH may create a Tier 0.5 if it sees more play.

Wed, 12/31/2014 - 20:31

Comics

Triglav is a force to be

Triglav is a force to be reckoned with

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 02:00

Klipik-Forum

pls better formatting ;-;

-Move WRH down to Tier 1.5 or 2, as it's more of a substitute for other weapons and for skill. Other weapons (DA,GF,FF/BTB) are more effective in most situations. That said, it's by no means bad. Just not quite as good.

-Move Phantamos up, possibly Valiance as well. Phantamos is no different from the other specialized blasters, Valiance is only a tiny bit worse.

-Move the Antiguas to T2 or even T3. They're only good situationally.

-Move Acheron to Tier 0 or Tier 0.5 since it has the highest non-invinciframe dps in the game by far.
--->Alternatively, move other brandishes to T2.
--->Whatever changes, Acheron and other brandishes should not be on the same tier.

-Move Mixmaster to Tier 0. It has everything - Interruption, CC, damage, range, speed, AoE.

And actually, I would remove T1.5 entirely. Maybe mark those weapons with asterisks saying they're probably going to be moved down soon, but just leave them in T1. (Except the ones I said you should move to T2.)

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 02:01

Klipik-Forum

P.S

@Krakob: T6 is like a worse version of T4. Bad versions of bad weapons, instead of bad versions of good/ok weapons. Would you really put DVS and WHB in the same tier?

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 07:08

#10

Valtiros

WHB is OP.

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 12:34

#11

Gianor

Why do people always ignore...

This list brings an items popularity among players into consideration aswell, not just how good or bad an item is in the current meta. An item can be the best in the game, but if people don't use it, it won't get recognized.

WRH is there for a reason, while it is an alternative, it is a better one dealing pure elemental damage. Nobody can deny the hammers power and popularity among players.

Phantamos has seen a drastic drop of usage in lockdown, mostly because a lot of meta armor now provides shadow defense. Most players prefer to use an Arcana or Riftlocker over the Phantamos.

Antiguas may be the best (if not the best) "parrying while out of shield" gun there currently is, being able to deal chip damage while keeping your opponent off bay waiting for shield recharge is never a bad thing, and while they are seeing a little less play, their popularity will need to drop a bit more before they even hit Tier 1.5

Ah the brandishes. It's something to see that Acheron has actually been seeing less play recently due to the amount of shadow armor floating around, most people nowadays will prefer a toothpick or an elemental brandish over an Acheron for that reason. It's at the top of the Tier 1 list for a reason, but it certainly doesn't escalate to a Tier 0/.5 position at all. The items on tier lists are ranked in order from most meta to least, and Combuster and Glacius are in danger of being pushed off. But, this doesn't take away from their usefulness.

Mixmaster would be Tier 0 if it was readily available and not a promotional item.

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 12:48

#12

Tempas

You probably don't obverse

You probably don't obverse enough USA lockdown if you think that the popularity of acheron has dropped. Js

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 18:17

#13

Klipik-Forum

Why should a tierlist care about popularity anyway? It's supposed to represent the "best" weapons, not the most popular ones. Directly related to that, I'm not sure how much effect shadow armor actually has on the power of shadow damage weapons like Phantamos and Acheron, but based on this I'd venture it's not all that much.

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 18:46

#14

Bonjourhippo

Hammer may be powerful but it

Hammer may be powerful but it certainly doesn't qualify as the same tier as Gran Faust or Divine Avenger. Allow me to explain briefly:
- A full damage bonus Gran Faust/Divine Avenger deals as much damage as a hammer, with less risks of defence issues, as they deal part normal/part other damage
- The amount of control with DA/GF is far greater than that of the hammer, especially when it comes to combos

Just remember your average LD game where you often die or take massive blows from DA/GF second swings, and mind how much they hurt. Also mind damage outputs: I don't recall often seeing a hammer user dealing more than an equally skilled and geared DA/GF user (not that damage matters much, but since this is a weapon meta thread)

Thu, 01/01/2015 - 22:21

#15

Gianor

Popularity matters in a game too, sir.

Mixmaster, it's hella great of an item. Would be meta if it had standard crafting recipes, however since it doesn't, it can't be used a majority of people, forcing it to reside at Tier 1 instead of escalating to Tier 0.

I personally never found much truth in Zeddy's tests. I also find the damage calculation is off, as he has proven with the "if you attack a person for more HP than they have, you get damage equal to what you would have took, not what you did take" thread. I believe it was called something along the lines of "Increase your damage using science!" or something like that. This leads me to believe that damage numbers always display what damage you would have taken, not the damage you did take. And, also, it is quite noticeable the amount of damage difference there is when you shoot a Riftlocker at a guy with piercing defense compared to a guy without it. However, if a guy wearing full BK set with an Acheron hits another full BK, the damage bonus probably evens out with the armor anyway, so that's a giant bundle of speculation.

And thusly, WRH is ranked lower than DA and GF. It's for that very reason. That, however doesn't stop it from being a great weapon, or popular among players. Most players fear it equally, or more than a "skilled DA/GF user". While it is worse than DA/GF in a sense, they are not on two seperate scales of power.

Even though it has only been two days, quite a bit has changed in the meta (from both USA and EU servers); piercing guns have seen a drastic decrease in use and elemental weapons in general have seen a spike in play.

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~Lockdown Tier List~