I can't find out what is the best FSC Gunner gear - Please Help Me -

26 replies [Last post]
Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard

I have a question i can't find anywhere because people don't talk so much about the new gunner gear.

I have to make a choice about what gear to go after for my FSC runs and here is what i am thinking about.

Helmet
- Perfect Mask of Seerus --------- CTR +2/ASI +1/ELE def/Fire res
- Chaos Cowl -------------------------- CTR +2/ADI +2/ELE def/ Negative Fire res
- Sacred Firefly Shade Helm ----- CTR +1/ADI +1/ASI +1/SHA def/Fire res
- Sacred Firefly Sentinel Helm --- CTR +1/ADI +1/ASI +1/ELE def/Fire res
- Black Kat Cowl ---------------------- ADI +3/MS +1/SHA def/ Negative Fire res

Armor
- Shadowsun Slicker ---------------- ADI +2/SHA def/ No Fire res
- Chaos Cloak ------------------------- CTR +2/ADI +2/ELE def/ Negative Fire res
- Sacred Firefly Shade Armor ---- CTR +1/ADI +1/ASI +1/SHA def/Fire res
- Sacred Firefly Sentinel Armor -- CTR +1/ADI +1/ASI +1/ELE def/Fire res
- Black Kat Raiment ------------------ ADI +3/MS +1/SHA def/ Negative Fire res

Shield
- Swiftstrike Buckler ------------------ ASI +3

i can't find out what too pick is Elemental or shadow def best or a mix and all the CTR, ADI and ASI confuse me what is best. and how much fire res do i need?

Sorry if it looks like a mess :D

Sir-Henry-Cooldown's picture
Sir-Henry-Cooldown

Being a gunner, and with your ability to strafe and shoot enemies back, then you're only real danger is lagging into/just shadowfire contact. Therefore, the only real danger is the tiles of fire and Vanaduke. It depends on how well you can maneuver; if you're the type to bring Swiftstrike everywhere, you should be basically conditioned with slightly better dodging strategy, ergo, Chaos Cloak will be great for a majority of the main level and Vanaduke.

So in my opinion, I believe you should choose the Chaos Cloak and Mask of Seerus. The Mask gives a higher fire resistance than the Chaos Cloak's decrease, giving you positive fire defense in the end. Since Vanaduke, Red Rovers (easily avoidable either way) and shadowfire do Element damage, that's your priority.

(P.S., you should move this to the Arsenal for more activity)

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
What about the CTR, ADI and

What about the CTR, ADI and ASI??? can you explain that to me

Bopp's picture
Bopp
oligatory

I don't want to derail your discussion, but this is how you search Google for such a question:

FSC gunner site:forums.spiralknights.com

FSC calls for normal, elemental, shadow, and fire armor. In my opinion, shadow is the least important of these. The obvious armor choices are Seerus and Firefly, or Chaos if you can withstand the fire penalty. To some extent the answer depends on which weapons you're using.

Edit: If you want to know what CTR, ASI, and damage bonus do, read the wiki page "Abilities".

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
im just confused because what

im just confused because what about the Damage bonus? is CTR and ASI soo much better? or am i missing something here because

if i pick Seerus i get CTR +2 and ASI +1
but if i pick Firefly Sentinel helm i get CTR +1, ASI +1 and ADI +1

so is the ADI +1 not better then CTR +1 or is it most important to get CTR in FSC

and you can not get ADI from UV's but you can get CTR and ASI

Bopp's picture
Bopp
I don't get it

Your question is whether damage bonus is better than ASI or CTR? There is no simple answer. It depends on which weapons you're using (as I already told you in post #3) and your tactical situation.

For example, if you are using charge-focused weapons (autoguns, magnuses, etc.), then CTR is highly valuable.

If you are using regular attack-focused weapons, then ASI is valuable. ASI also affects charge attacks somewhat. It always speeds you up by about 4%, which helps with killing, shielding, dodging, etc.

Damage bonus boosts your net damage by about 5%. Sometimes this makes no practical difference, and at other times it makes a huge practical difference. The other thing to know is that ASI and CTR can be achieved through unique variants, whereas universal damage bonus cannot. Therefore damage bonus on armor is disproportionately valuable.

Since you want to know the basics about how to plan armor, you might find my detailed armor guide helpful.

Traevelliath's picture
Traevelliath

I'm an old fashion gunner who charge spams all over the place. If you prefer alchemer switching shenanigans, I can't help you. However, this is my usual loadout.

Helm: Perfect Mask of Seerus
Armor: Chaos Cloak
Shield: Swiftstrike Buckler
Sprite: Maskeraith -> Gun damage med (sometimes I go Seraphynx if no one else has one)
Trink1: Gun Damage Med
Trink2: Heart Trinket
Wep1: Iron Slug
Wep2: Blitz Needle
Wep3: Polaris
Wep4: Nova Driver

With this loadout you have ASI VH, Gun damage Max, CTR VH (Max with heat lvl 10), good elemental defense, shock resistance and fire resistance. I fell in love with the new Iron Slug charge, and I just take it everywhere when I'm gunning. Before said buff, I'd charge spam my Nova Driver all over the place, with a bit of Blitz peppering here and there. Polaris is for gun puppies mainly. It's rather unnecessary. However I have 4 wep slots so I might as well get the most out of my money.

As a charge spammer, CTR is the most important thing, followed by damage. Attack speed is secondary, and swifty will give you all the ASI you need.

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
Lets say i wanna be a Glass

Lets say i wanna be a Glass canon that is realy squishy but do ALOT of Damage what is best then is Black kat set viable or am i TOO SQUISHY then

Neometal's picture
Neometal
/wave

The BK set is the best endgame set, given if you have asi/ctr uv-d weapons to support it (and then you can use the msi perk for vh speed, and trinkets for + status res or hp).
Ofc the 5* set (at least the armor) can be costly to get, the 3* is somewhat easier, but you'll have less base hp and defense; the max dmg and the med msi is the same, though.

If you feel that you can go glasscannon, just pick the chaos set and the swiftstrike, that way u'll have vh dmg and vh ctr - max ctr with lvl 10 weapons - and asi high (and ofc not only for guns, but the other 2 weapon types as well). You can then add a gun dmg and a gun asi trinket, which will result in ultra gun asi and max gun dmg. You can choose to have the gun ctr med perk (if the sprite you are using has it) so you'll have max ctr even w/o lvl 10 guns (but they'll be doing less dmg than at lvl 10) or you can just pick up the ultimate favourite msi med perk.

This can result in you having max ctr (with lvl 10 weps) + dmg and ultra asi for guns and med msi (without any uvs).
If you have asi low uv-d guns (which are dirtcheap), you can have 3 maxes with this setup.

Bopp's picture
Bopp
again

Tolleboy, you're asking questions that are discussed in the armor guide that I linked for you in post #5. Of course you should seek opinions other than mine, but you should also give some indication that you're reading and understanding the advice that posters have already given you.

Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

"Best" in general is somewhat fallacious as an ideal- all of the sets offer a bit more than the others, even if they aren't generally preferred by many players.

But generally, Traevaelith has it right- Chaos + seerus + 2x damage med perks + 1 asi or health perk. After that, it only makes sense to invest in black kat pieces and CTR UVs. So once you get CTR med on all of your guns, you can replace chaos with black kat and get extra 'free' damage and MSI high, should you choose. After that it comes down to getting fire resistance on your black kat and transitioning into full black kat with fire resistance. The only reason that isn't just "best" to begin with is because of how costly it is- by the time you can afford it, you won't hardly need to farm FSC anyway.

The gunner armors are also quite passable in all of this- leveling them up is more balanced early/med-game than chaos + seerus, which just sort of blossoms out of thin air in T3, and the 3 offensive stats they provide are quite potent. The big thing they have over chaos is a positive status resist, however. If this is your first set for FSC, the shadow + fire gunner set (paired with a CTR perk) would be my recommendation by far.

When it comes to elemental vs shadow, it comes down to what you'd rather resist.
Shadow = Zombies
Elemental = Vanaduke

What I will say, is that it doesn't matter nearly as much as you think it does. What does matter is fire resistance (especially that it's positive), and often times shield strength has helped me quite a bit.

Fangel's picture
Fangel
Eh

Depends on what you get hit by. I find myself getting hit by zombies more often than Vanaduke, and since being hit by zombies doesn't incapacitate you anyways I just kinda run with it.

Personally my FSC gunner loadout, slotless, is sacred firefly shade armor + ghost firefly shade helmet... Or whatever the fiend boosting one is. Initially I had made that so I could 1-shot trojans still but realized afterwards that a sprite perk would do just fine, but it's no biggie.

If you're good at dodging, black kat set is pretty amazing. Chaos is a good craftable alternative. Glass cannons are very rewarding to those who don't get hit, but if want to soften certain blows you can try for those.

So if you're good at dodging Vanaduke's attacks, then go for shadow defense. If you're not as great at dodging those attacks, go elemental. If you're inflicted with fire several times per level fire resist will be helpful, otherwise you can neglect it for combat bonuses.
There is no "best loadout" because people have entirely different needs and styles. When you find your niche it'll surely stick.

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
What Works For Me.

okay i have tryed and see on you guys posts and i have done 20 FSC runs now with some different weps/shields and gear.
This is what i think works best for me.

Helm - Chaos Cowl
Armor - Chaos Cloak
Shield - SSB
Trinkets - (No Slots)
Weps - Blitz + AP
Perk - Damage Bonus Low

but are there a gun that can kill the zombies faster then AP?

Ironclaw-Mender's picture
Ironclaw-Mender
a

"but are there a gun that can kill the zombies faster then AP?"

blitz needle
if it's not against jellies or constructs then 9 times out of 10 the answer is always blitz

Bopp's picture
Bopp
lots

but are there a gun that can kill the zombies faster then AP?

As Dreemur said, Blitz Needle. Or elemental alchemers, or Iron Slug or Callahan. Maybe Arcana too.

The antigua-style guns don't do an especially large amount of damage.

Traevelliath's picture
Traevelliath

Don't run an Antigua on a gunner build. Antiguas are great for chip damage and pulling damage. Gunners need neither of those. Run an Arcana instead so you can push/slow enemies down. Or, run an Alchemer for the spread damage.

Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

In your situation, I'd go nova driver for the charge but optimally iron slug + a vortex bomb would be better-- the only issue is that you'd either need a reliable source of people dropping vortex bombs for your runs, or a third slot + your own vortex.

------------------
Nova driver's charge can one shot or heavily damage about 2-3 zombies at a distance when aimed correctly between them, but is mostly going to just heavily damage single zombies. Against a vortex it won't pierce, and so will still just heavily damage those 2-3 zombies.. if you can even get there first and aim at the spinning cluster.

Iron slug's charge, when used with a vortex, heavily damages as many zombies as you can fit in a vortex- which can be upwards of the entire mess spawned. The big benefit is really in how quickly the combination can speed up your runs.

And of course, blitz needle can get the job done just fine. All of the jobs, actually. Even the slimes, since there are like 6 slimes total on the entire mission. Other weapons are just there for fun. If you are going to use just blitz then bring shivermist buster. It lets you trap trojans and slow zombies, making blitzing safer, easier and faster.

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
Okay so for main dmg Weapon

Okay so for main dmg Weapon for vana, trojan's and mabye the zombies i go blitz like i normaly do

And for the gun puppies what gun is Best there because im using AP Rights now because i Can easy Dodge there shoots because of the mobility but im starting to be realy realy good at dodging and staying alive so i Was thinking about taking a alchemer Line gun but With one is Best there the storm driver for the Stock or the hail driver for the freeze or just the pure DMG driver...? Or another ele gun...?

P.S i hate the pulsar Line guns they are anoing to use and anoing for the team...

Bopp's picture
Bopp
well

Nova Driver and Storm Driver are both very powerful. They're about equal in my estimation. I don't recommend Hail Driver, because it often ends up breaking its own freeze. But some players like that too.

As I mentioned above, Iron Slug and Callahan are also quite strong. Their charge attacks can tear through a whole crowd of zombies. And Iron Slug can easily take out those scattered gun puppies and slimes.

The pulsar-line guns are really for crowd control. They are very good at that when used well (and annoying when used badly). No, I don't recommend them for FSC.

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
@ bopp If it Was you would

@ bopp

If it Was you would you Pick Nova over storm because of the Extreme dmg or storm for the Stock....?

Bopp's picture
Bopp
well

As I said above, they're about equal to me. I have both, and I use Nova more just because it has better UVs.

The simple answer is to get Storm, because shock is useful in a way that slightly more damage isn't.

The only reason I hesitate is that I don't know whether Storm's charge attacks can still one-shot-kill various monsters (as Nova's charges can). So I would research that carefully, if I had to. If you don't want to do that, then just get Storm.

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
Do you know if they both Can

Do you know if they both Can oneshot gun puppies because if they both Can, i go With storm driver... :D

Bopp's picture
Bopp
I don't

Sorry, I don't know. Or rather, I'm not sure that Storm Driver can one-shot-kill gun puppies on all depths. We'd have to look up monster health tables and compare them to Storm Driver damage tables.

Tolsgaard's picture
Tolsgaard
it only need to oneshot

it only need to oneshot gun-puppies in FSC

Sir-Pandabear's picture
Sir-Pandabear

I can answer that one.

Before getting to the hard data I wanna say my initial gut reaction is "duh yes, it's an alchemer and they wreak havock".

But let's examine how much havok, exactly.

Damage chart by depth

Enemy health by depth

There are no gun puppies in FSC at depth 28, so let's examine depth 27.

Gun puppies have Gremlin health, so that makes 1134 at Elite. We're assuming you're playing full party, however, so that makes:

GP health = 1134 * 1.99 ~= 2257 hp

Storm driver at depth 27 has a more or less a base damage of 251 shot and 427 charge. We're assuming max damage so that's a 24% increase, but we also have to subtract the defence, which is roughly 78 at depth 27.

Shot = 251 * 1.24 - 78 ~= 233 dmg
Charge = 427 * 1.24 - 78 ~= 451 dmg

So you hit the puppy with your charge and the puppy has

2257 - 451 = 1806 dmg

And you need to hit with
1806 / 233 = 8 sub-projectiles

Storm driver does split into 4 projectiles that can each hit at least 2 times.

So the answer is yes, storm can definitely one-shot puppies but your shot will need to be close to perfect.

Holy-Nightmare's picture
Holy-Nightmare
......

Firefly Shade is the best.... sooner or later you make a mistake or lag strikes when that happens you want the best damage and status resist you can get.

Chapiy's picture
Chapiy
Sacred Firefly Sentinel set

Vanaduke, Shadow fire, fire traps, Red rovers all deal Elemental damage.
That's why Sacred Firefly Sentinel set + Grey Owlite Shield