I just jumped from 1 to 2 and took tons of damage and felt completely useless. I have vitasuit plus, wolver cap, jelly shield, stun gun/autogun (Stun for kite/solo and autogun for group) and a flourish. Is that good equipment to start with or am I doing it wrong?
Also, the enemies in Tier 1 seem to take much more damage than before even when they don't resist the type of damage. I see proto swords 3 shotting enemy while I struggle to kill one enemy.
The enemies in tier 2 do half normal damage and half their damage type. (Piercing, shadow or elemental) If you have good normal damage resistance, you're only blocking from half the damage pool, there's a lot of cheap armor out there that will protect you from the other types of damage. A vitasuit may not be the best idea for the lower levels, as it only protects you from normal damage.
Also, higher level weapons get nerfed in the earlier levels. It wouldn't be fun if someone was doing hundreds of points of damage with a five star sword and everyone else in the group followed along behind.
Thanks for the help. I took the advice and got some elemental defense (Magic Hood, soon to be Elemental Hood). I also bought the recipe for the Skelly suit (Shadow) and am going to make it once my ME recharges. My shield is Brute Jelly shield (For Pierce). I'm staying with Flourish. Are these good choices?
Could someone recommend a gun that does any damage aside from Pierce that is good in Tier 3? (Preferably allowing me to move while shooting but whatever)
The armor is good, though the resist on your shield only counts when your shield is up. You may still take a good deal of damage from beasts and jellies who do piercing. With your rapier though, you should be able to make quick work of the beasts. If you want to do well against jellies, you could pick up a shadowtech alchemer. Otherwise, I'm a fan of firotech, setting things on fire makes me feel good. If you solo a lot, an ice pistol would be a good plan as well.
And when you go to upgrade your sword, I would suggest the normal rapier, not the stun or fire ones, it does a good deal more damage.
You're not useless. ^^; Your equipment is OK for Tier 2, but the Tier 2 monsters are higher in number and don't go down as easily. The thing I found most useful is to rely on your shield (when surrounded), make the most use of hearts or health capsules, find teammates to watch your back, and don't expect to go in there and kill everything on the first try. :)