Spiral Knights - The "right" equipment?

The "right" equipment?

9 replies [Last post]

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 08:01

Fazan

Legacy Username

A casual glance over the Wiki about damage, levels or gear reveals a very specific design decision in Spiral Knights, that being that specific gear combinations seem to be better against specific foes and... "Not better" than specific other such. However, my question here is how pronounced this is. Can I, for instance, pick one set of gear and just run Clockwork instances with it, or do I really need to try and predict what I'll be fighting and what to pack for it?

Just as an idle example, I kind of like the Cobalt armour set, as while it doesn't have any elemental strengths, it also has no elemental weaknesses. I'm currently equipped with a Hod Edge one-star sword and thinking of swapping to something else that's similar, which is to say an even split between normal and elemental damage with a chance for Fire status (I assume such a thing exists). Ignoring other items, if I went with just those, would I be SOL? Would I need to pick specific levels? Would I need more gear to "adapt" to specific other instances?

I ask because while the T1 Clockwork levels are fairly doable with... Pretty much any gear you drag along, I assume the lower levels are less so. Mostly because the game has warned me about this on at least two separate occasions. But do I need to just snag two-star gear and go for it, or is it really, really crucial to pick the RIGHT two-star gear?

In short, is there such a thing as universally decent (not great, just decent) gear, or do I need to try and predict what I'll be fighting and bring the right gear for that?

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 08:22

Duskdash

Yeah, a fire/normal sword

Yeah, a fire/normal sword exists with the Brandish line, which goes all the way from 2* to 5*.

And as for gear, I'd describe them as ... helpful, definitely helpful, but if you're skilled enough, not necessary for anything except bosses. All that gear does is give you more room for error. What'll happen later in the game is that damage avoidance becomes way more important than armor mitigation, and just because you brought all Piercing defense to a floor full of Retrodes doesn't mean you're SOL. You just need to know their attack pattern well enough to avoid it.

At least that goes for Armor. Weaponry, I'd just say pick two or more weapons that complement each other. Do at least neutral damage to everything.

As long as you have a plan and playstyle that you know with the gear you've got, you can pretty much go on any non-boss strata (and I'm only giving that caveat because I haven't even touched Fire Storm Citadel yet, it could still apply to boss strata). Just going in with your fists swinging is going to get you killed, geared-out or not.

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 08:42

Fazan

Legacy Username

You know, among everything

You know, among everything I've heard or read about Spiral knights, I think what you just told me is among the most convincing arguments for why I should pay money for the game. Having to pay inordinate amounts of attention to what I'm fighting and, by extension, paying piles of real money for multiple sets of gear, would have been quite disheartening, but seeing that I can do with good gear and decent skill negates most of that. This is good news all around.

I'll still have to sit down and figure out which level icon means what terrain and what monsters, but I'm sure the Wiki will have articles on that. Not having to grind for gear or sit on my hands for long periods of time waiting for the right locations to pop up, however, is reassuring. I'm surprised how little I've found to really complain about when it comes to Spiral Knights, and I'm the sort of person who hates most things that have to do with MMO-like design :)

One final question: Would a full set of Cobalt gear be decent, or should I mix-and-match effects?

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 10:35

fredman86

Legacy Username

For a generalist approach,

For a generalist approach, the Calibur (2*) down to Leviathan (5*) line is going to be excellent for you. It is a very powerful sword overall, but particularly if you like weapons that are neither strong nor weak to anything. It is already popular due to the strength of it's charged attack which competes with Divine Avenger's for being the most utilized. It is especially convenient that the recipes for crafting this weapon line are all sold in town, and thus are readily available.

I am fairly confident though, that later you will choose to add weapons with varied damage types to your arsenal. Being able to match damage types to monster weaknesses is a great advantage. Don't worry though: the Leviathan line stays useful all the way to the end.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the cobalt set. In the past, when almost nothing inflicted piercing damage, this armor was not viable. But there are plenty of piercing mobs out there now, so use away.

But I just want to lay out some things to consider:

In tier 1, status effects like fire, shock, and freeze do very little except annoy you. In tier 2, they start becoming a little more deadly when inflicted, and in tier 3, these effects can be absolutely devastating. Fire and shock in particular are the prime killers in the current late game.

To this end, selecting an armor with no elemental weaknesses won't make you any MORE vulnerable to this, but consider also that this set does not help you here.

Many players find that in the end, they like to pick a suit of armor that fits their play style. Certain lines will end up increasing gun damage, gun attack rate, sword damage, sword attack rate, reducing bomb charge time, etc. Others will increase your damage against certain types of monsters (beasts, undead, etc.)

The cobalt line has the disadvantage of not having any of these modifiers. If you play around for a little while and find that you take a particular liking to a line of weapons, or a particular hatred to a line of monsters, then it is possible you would wish you had some of these modifiers.

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 11:01

Metaphysic

Legacy Username

The most efficient way to

The most efficient way to gear is to look at the current end-game, then determine what line of equipment you should follow. At the moment, the only end-game boss is Vanaduke in FSC (a fire zone), thus most players get gear for that. A common line of gear that people follow is the wolver set, which gives you normal/piercing defense for JK runs and can then be converted to the vog cub set at 5 stars with normal/elemental defense and fire resist for Vanaduke runs. The wolver set also gives bonus sword damage, and most people tend to use their swords more often than any other weapon.

All that said, your gear doesn't matter that much in tiers 1 and 2 because monsters will always do at least half normal damage. You really start to notice significant difficulty differences when you get to tier 3 because monsters start to do pure damage and status effects become a lot more deadly. You can still do areas with no defense to their specific damage type, just be aware that getting hit with no defense to an attack will usually take off 6+ bars of health.

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 11:13

Fazan

Legacy Username

I don't know. I kind of wish

I don't know. I kind of wish to go all over the place, at least focus on both a sword and a gun. I'll probably go with Cobalt for the time being and see if I last long enough to snag a three-star anything :)

Sat, 06/18/2011 - 16:46

Mohandar

T1 only has normal damage, T2

T1 only has normal damage, T2 deals 50-50 split, and T3 deal pure/heavy special split. With a little skill you can get away with running any sort of armor in T2, as long as it has adequate normal defense. In T3 you'll want high normal defense and then stack against what you'll be running into; also consider what you'll need to block with your shield. Because I'm usually blocking turret fire, I use Grey Owl (and swap to Crest of Almire for fiends). That said, 5* gear is expensive so you'll probably want to optimize (with consideration to your own skill and strengths) such that you will be strong in a few strata, neutral in most, and weak in only one or two.

As far as your loadout is concerned, it's hard to go wrong with a Leviathan Blade paired with a status bomb or alchemer. I highly recommend opening at least one weapon slot so that you can run a second sword, like a Divine Avenger or Acheron (depending on what you'll be fighting).

Sun, 06/19/2011 - 07:38

Fazan

Legacy Username

I think I see what you mean

I think I see what you mean by "strata." I'd inferred that each type of level environment came with its own enemies, each of which came with its own attacks. Mostly, that's because I saw the same clockwork background on all T1 levels and thought that was normal. Turns out a whole SHAFT can get a uniform theme, in my case fire (which I suspect is still bugged), and all five levels I saw were packed with fire enemies. If I had armour that protected from fire and weapons which dealt damage to fire critters, I'd have been well-served to use those. Planning ahead under these circumstances sounds a lot more plausible to do ahead of time, as I can see the entire shaft all the way down to the core from the level progression menu. I'll definitely keep that in mind.

Sun, 06/19/2011 - 11:59

MeSako

Legacy Username

Dont see fire as its own

Dont see fire as its own element in Spiral Knights..

The enemies are divided into 6 groups, where fire,ice,shock and poision exists in all.
What you have to do is look at what enemy group you are about to face..

Undead and fiends for instance are weak to elemental damage, wheter they do fire, ice or what not.

Sun, 06/19/2011 - 12:03

MeSako

Legacy Username

Oh, and about defense.. Fire

Oh, and about defense..

Fire deals elemental damage to you..
And as an example an fire zombie (undead) deals shadow damage (as showing on the purple aura before it attacks). But as it is a fire zombie, it can make you burn.. and the burning deals elemental damage.

So as you can se, when entering an unded strata, you can encounter different status effects. But it will be mostly indead enemies, that U want to use elemental damage on And defend against wiyh shadow defense.

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The "right" equipment?