Spiral Knights - Need gear advice for FSC/Vanaduke.

Need gear advice for FSC/Vanaduke.

10 replies [Last post]

Sat, 01/30/2016 - 20:24

Swordstalker

Based on users' experiences with the Firestorm Citadel and knowledge of what works effectively (as opposed to what doesn't), what would any of you say are the best items to have for running "The King of Ashes" alone, albeit with certain restrictions? The restrictions being, of course.......No trinket slots, no additional weapon slots, no "glass cannon" gear, no Coliseum-only items, and no event-only (i.e., Tortodrones, Apocrea, etc.) items.

It would be quite helpful if any of you could offer your recommendations and/or opinions.

Sat, 01/30/2016 - 21:26

Flowchart

Are UVs ok then?

Shadowsun Stetson (Fire Max)
Shadowsun Slicker (Fire Max)
Combuster (CTR VH, Undead VH, ASI VH)
Blitz Needle (CTR VH, ASI VH)
Barbarous Thorn Shield
Trueshot (or whatever the gun damage medium perk is)

but really, even without UVs my answer would be close to it anyway.
Perfect Mask of Seerus (or Shadowsun Stetson if that isn't allowed)
Shadowsun Slicker
Combuster
Blitz Needle
BTS (not really glass cannon gear, it can take a few hits)
Maskeraith w/Sword Focus/Gun Focus/Gun damage perk (Seraphynx is ok too)

Sat, 01/30/2016 - 23:29

Fehzor

No glass cannon gear? I can think of two obvious loadouts/loadout styles-

Mild UVs

Seerus + Volcanic demo + Volcanic plate

Blitz needle (ctr med)
Shivermist buster (ctr med)

Maskeraith@Deadly shadow cloak
or
Seraphynx, for heart attack/barrier

Sprite perk = gun damage

No UVs

This is if you can afford the UVs. It's the "best" because it gives you the most safety and a hard counter to everything you meet with only mediocre help needed from team members, who will often be terrible at the game. Shiver is better than a second DPS gun for a number of reasons-

1. Trojans can be held down with it
2. Zombies can be stopped in place, so that you can blitz trojans, vanaduke.. whatever
3. Vanaduke can be trapped for free hits while soloing, after your friends abandon you

The other loadout that I'd see being 'best' is if you can't afford UVs, like at all.

Full elemental or shadow/fire/puredamage padded armor +

Blitz needle
Nova driver or storm driver or hail driver, but preferably nova driver

Same sprite as before, but with gun CTR as a skill

If you can't have the utility of shivermist buster, the next best thing is some form of elemental damage. Since you already need gun CTR it makes the most sense to get something that follows suit and complements your blitz needle. Since you can't get the elemental tortofist for this, the alchemers come into play. Of these, pure damage makes for faster, cleaner runs which is what you'd be looking at- i.e. nova driver. It's somewhat redundant to run it AND blitz needle since they both do heavy single target damage, but it's still beneficial since it does effect enemies at a range better, is elemental, and can effect more enemies at a time than just one.

Sun, 01/31/2016 - 08:25

Bopp

many threads, but okay

We've had literally hundreds of threads about this, which you can find by searching Google (not the forum's built-in search) for something like "FSC loadout site:forums.spiralknights.com" (without the quotation marks). But most of the recent ones recommend a lot of Chaos and Black Kat, which you don't want for some reason. So here is some advice.

Your ideal setup depends somewhat on you: How well you know Vanaduke's AI, how laggy you are, etc. For example, I consider shadow defense completely unimportant, because no zombie is ever going to hit me. But I consider fire resistance important, because I might lag into shadow fire.

Anyway, here is a balanced loadout (lots of defense, lots of offense) with no UVs:

* Blitz Needle: for trojans, slag guards, and Vanaduke
* Combuster: for killing everything else without much skill needed
* Perfect Mask of Seerus
* Vog Cub Coat
* Barbarous Thorn Shield

If Perfect Mask of Seerus is against your rules, then replace it with a Firefly Shade or Firefly Sentinel helmet.

Sun, 01/31/2016 - 17:06

Uberer-Alt

I'm just gonna say that glass cannon is by far the best way to go in sk imo. If you get set on fire you can just use a remedy capsule. Also, I feel much safer in chaos than in defensive gear. It takes so long to kill anything without proper buffs that I probably end up getting hit more. I can't even think about soloing vana without ctr and dmg bonuses.

So yes, I recommend getting chaos set, combuster, blitz, and barbarous thorn shield. Use fire sprite perk to get rid of some of that fire weakness.

Stop wasting time by using defensive sets, once you start using offensive gear you won't ever wanna turn back

Sun, 01/31/2016 - 19:34

Traevelliath

You don't need to sacrifice defense for offense in Vana. Just throw a Perfect Mask of Seerus over a Chaos Cloak and you'll have both firepower and fire defense.

Once you realize there's more to late-game than Vana, you'll learn to appreciate a bit of defense in your life. The benefits of Trinkets is that you can both get respectable defense while having devastating power.

Sat, 03/19/2016 - 21:12

Swordstalker

Final Results

Sorry it took so long to reply to this thread......real life getting in the way of fun, as usual. :/

The loadout I went with was as follows:

Perfect Mask of Seerus
Vog Cub Coat
Crest of Almire

Combuster (Fiend:VH)
Blitz Needle (CTR:High)

Maskeraith (Elite Golden Harness/Hot Blooded III)

Survived all the way to the boss on Normal difficulty. Only had to use one SOL......should've concentrated on shooting Vanaduke instead of eliminating his troops during the second phase, but meh. Going to try it again on Advanced with the same setup, or perhaps with the Seraphynx & the Barbarous Thorn Shield.

Commentary/Responses

Bopp
But most of the recent ones recommend a lot of Chaos and Black Kat, which you don't want for some reason.

Well, that's because the first one is too much of a gamble to use while dealing with heavy lag, and the second one requires people to play through a rather broken event that involves more grinding and farming than what is logically necessary.....that's time that could be better spent attempting to farm Radiants and/or searching for some rather elusive recipes. The Perfect Mask is (or rather, was) definitely viable, though.

Traevelliath
Once you realize there's more to late-game than Vana, you'll learn to appreciate a bit of defense in your life. The benefits of Trinkets is that you can both get respectable defense while having devastating power.

If there were another way for me to get the Crest of Almire without farming tokens from KOA, then I would do that instead. That, and since trinket slots aren't permanent, there's not much sense in throwing away crowns or money to buy them when I'm not online every single day. :/

Thanks again for the assistance. (b'')b

Sun, 03/20/2016 - 04:48

Bopp

response

If there were another way for me to get the Crest of Almire without farming tokens from KOA, then I would do that instead.

So how did you use Crest of Almire in your run? Are you already an experienced FSC player? Or did you buy it from someone?

that's because the first one is too much of a gamble to use while dealing with heavy lag

That's a fine reason, and good for us to know, as we try to advise you.

the second one requires people to play through a rather broken event that involves more grinding and farming than what is logically necessary

It is really easy to get the 3-star Black Kat helmet: 70 Ancient Pages, no whiskers, no book. Its offense is as good as any Black Kat armor, and its defense is only slightly worse than others. Everyone should try it. (But maybe not you in FSC, due to your lag.)

Sat, 03/26/2016 - 22:18

Swordstalker

Bopp
So how did you use Crest of Almire in your run? Are you already an experienced FSC player? Or did you buy it from someone?

I got one from farming & grinding FSC with other parties a year or so ago. I wouldn't say I was "experienced", though......XP

I'm getting a second one for someone who would rather pay the unbinding cost for the Blackened Crest than have to go through the catch-22 of needing to complete the KOA mission 10 times, just to get the very item they need to defend themselves against most of the creatures in said mission, as well as most of the other fire/shock missions with fiends & undead in Rank 8 & Rank 9 before it.

Wed, 04/06/2016 - 21:25

Rodent-Queen

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I use full Chaos, though once I get my skele armour set up to 5* and some higher levels on my weapons I might go for more shadow defense. Ten seconds of fire is really not very nice...

Sun, 04/17/2016 - 19:56

#10

Fight-Beetle

...

Stack fire debuffs and bring loads of elemental and shadow
work using your own skill

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Need gear advice for FSC/Vanaduke.