Spiral Knights - Are these good Helmet & Armor pairings? Which one?

Are these good Helmet & Armor pairings? Which one?

6 replies [Last post]

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 07:38

Rothni-Halias

I've always felt that Helmets and Armor were the hardest choices to make. After a lot of research I've found some matches that I think are very good, but I haven't been able to decide which one to commit to.

Divine Veil + Skolver Coat
Has defense against all four damage types and resists fire, shock, curse, and freeze. Has a damage bonus of medium for swords and a medium damage bonus vs. Fiends.

Chaos Cowl + Justifier Jacket
The normal and piercing defense compliments the normal and elemental defense of the Chaos Cowl. Has a medium damage bonus and medium charge time reduction bonus with a medium attack speed bonus for guns. Has an adequate resistance to stun attacks with a mild weakness to poison, fire, freeze, shock, and curse.

Chaos Cowl + Shadowsun Slicker
The normal and shadow defense compliments the normal and elemental defense of the Chaos Cowl. Has a medium damage bonus and medium charge time reduction bonus making for a very high damage bonus for guns. Has a slight resistance to poison but a weakness to fire, freeze, shock, and curse.

Chaos Cowl + Chaos Cloak
Good normal and elemental defense with a very high damage bonus and a very high charge time reduction at the cost of a weakness to poison, fire, freeze, shock, and curse.

I mainly play as a hybrid sword and gunner. I plan to get the Crest of Almire as my primary shield. If someone with more end-game knowledge could lend some light on this I would be grateful.

Sat, 01/31/2015 - 09:20

Bopp

sounds good, but here are some points

Yes, your combinations are entirely reasonable. Yes, you can mix and match sworder and gunner armor. I would downgrade Justifier, for the reasons outlined below. Consider also Perfect Mask of Seerus, if you plan to get Operation Crimson Hammer access. Also, since you play mainly as a hybrid sworder-gunner, you might find my detailed sword guide useful.

In my opinion, your post focuses too much on damage protections. Let's recognize that armor does four things for you: resists statuses, protects against damage, gives you health, and gives you offensive boosts (abilities). Almost all 5-star armors give you exactly the same amount of health, so there's little point in discussing that. The other defensive benefits should be prioritized like this:

A. Shock, fire, and freeze resistance. (These statuses can wreck you, no matter how much damage protection you have.)

B. Normal, elemental, and shadow protection. (Player tests suggest that damage protection has less practical benefit than you might think.)

C. Piercing protection and poison resistance. (Piercing monsters include slimes, which are moderately hard, and beasts, which are easy. Shadow and elemental monsters are generally more difficult and more common in the late stages of the game.)

D. Stun and curse resistance.

What about offense? If you are a risk-taker or an expert player, then you should prioritize offensive bonuses before A, and use armor such as Chaos and Black Kat. If you are risk-averse or have a weak computer or network connection, then you should prioritize offensive bonuses between A and B, and use armor such as Wolver, Gunslinger/Padded, and Demo. If that is still too dangerous for you, then you should work on your skill, but you might also consider truly defensive armors such as Grey Feather and Dread Skelly.

Sun, 02/01/2015 - 06:24

Rothni-Halias

Subject:

I've made my choice so I guess I'll post it here for the record if nothing else. I'm going to get the Chaos Cowl and then either the Shadowsun Slicker or the Chaos Cloak. I'm going to stick with normal damage weapons and first upgrade my gun to a Magnus, a Mega Magnus, and then the Iron Slug. I'm well versed in the negatives and positives of that. In all likelihood if my time with a piercing Mega Magnus doesn't teach me something about attack power then I'll probably cop out and stick with the Calibur line. I've got the three-star variant so I can still choose which of the two lines I go down. I've "helped" with enough Tier-3 and FSC runs to think that a sheer boost in damage would benefit me the most.

Sun, 02/01/2015 - 08:57

Bopp

okay

You haven't discussed your weapons until now, but I guess you have some plan, so I won't harass you about it. All I'll say is that you seem to be choosing between Leviathan Blade and Cold Iron Vanquisher, and I can't imagine why you are even considering CIV.

By the way, I really like how you've linked to wiki pages in your post. For readers who don't have these items memorized, that must be really helpful. Happy travels.

Sun, 02/01/2015 - 16:26

Rothni-Halias

Subject:

Thanks for warning me about the Cold Iron Vanquisher, it's definitely a worse choice than the Leviathan Blade.

Feel free to say what you want about my choice of weapons and the equipment I plan to use with them. If I didn't want feedback I would not have made this thread. I'm going with this route because I think managing and leveling up the better specific-use weapons would be less frustrating after I've got reliable five-star weapons and armor.

Sun, 02/01/2015 - 17:40

Bopp

then I'll give my two cents

CIV is much worse than Leviathan, but Leviathan is not an especially powerful sword either. It has a nice charge attack, except for the fact that it frustrates your teammates by throwing all of the monsters around. Its regular attacks are okay but not great.

My recommendation is that you stop working on Calibur and go for Combuster instead. Meanwhile, continue your gun toward Iron Slug or Callahan --- both are great.

* Combuster is extremely powerful against all monsters except beasts and gremlins. Because it is half-normal, you can even use it to kill beasts and gremlins, but more slowly. (And you'll have your gun for those monsters anyway.) Let me emphasize that even though Firestorm Citadel is fire-themed, Combuster is very powerful there because fire does not disrupt its charge attack.

* Ever since the recent gunner update, Iron Slug and Callahan have really powerful charge attacks. If you aim them into the target's face, then they can one-shot-kill many monsters. You can also use the regular attacks to interrupt devilites and menders nicely. Whether you go for normal or piercing, the damage type works with Combuster's elemental damage.

Now you might be saying to yourself, "I've already invested my time into the Calibur line, all the way to 3 stars. It's too late to change now." That's wrong. As you go up the star levels, each upgrade requires much more resources than the previous upgrade. Consequently, at 3 stars you are much less than halfway to getting a 5-star item, let alone heating it. Do not continue down a path that you don't really want. Even if you were at 5-stars-heat-level-1 I would advise you to change.

Sun, 02/01/2015 - 19:02

Fehzor

You should also consider getting divine avenger, because everyone gets combuster and I'm tired of seeing nothing but combuster everywhere. Will it be better/worse than combuster? It's a sidegrade that trades a bit of single target damage for a bit of crowd control. Get the 3*, which is basically free for jelly gems, and see if you can pull it off while pretending that it's elemental and does more damage.

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Are these good Helmet & Armor pairings? Which one?