Spiral Knights - Armor and Gun choices for vana and beyond

Armor and Gun choices for vana and beyond - opinions appreciated

6 replies [Last post]

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 19:01

Captain-Teemo

Okay I've been playing only gun / bomb the entire time I've been playing sk, and have had a jelly complex on swordies b/c of their awesome dmg <_<

It's sucked - but I'm starting to see my guns work... to some degree... as well as a swordie would with his swords. Although the situations for us to shine are different, my shining is there. More so with bombs though... bombs are awesome O_O

Anyway here are a few questions I would like everyone's opinions on as I take my steps into 5* gear...

1) Vana... I already have 5* shock and shadow alchemers, and a callahan. I just did vana for my first time and one of the guys suggested I pick up ardent peacemaker because it will work better on vana. Better range, and faster rate of fire to hold aggro.

So first question - what guns are considered 'best' for vana? Obviously AP is a high contender, I've seen hail driver also... Is it all tradeoff? AP is best for rate of fire / mobility, while hail driver is best for raw dmg? Are there other guns in line? Is the callahan a good gun for vana if I get ASI, or should I simply drop it for these runs?

Also - on a side note - I've enjoyed certain things about the callahan, but it is REALLY tough to use... Should I simply use an AP instead and put up with less damage for ease of use? Or is the callahan's damage enough up on the AP that it's worth it? (I ask this because the fiends especially seem to punish any lack of straifing which means 1 shot with the callahan seems to net a few chairs to my face)

I guess this could be answered as "it's situational - take the best gun for the situation" and that is kinda my question - which situation is the callahan's pure piercing best vs the AP's low damage + mobility? Also - how reliable is the AP for hitting mobs with a dodge ability? The callahan's greatest strength is hitting these guys and preventing them from dodging... Can the AP at least hit them?

2) (wow, first question was long) About armor... I currently have 4* gun slinger and bomber, I'm looking at which armors to get for 5*, and considering which mix / match might yield the best results with a single 5* set to improve my play until I can craft more gear.

Mad Bomber - obviously bomb charge time reduction is helpfull, but the bomb damage doesn't effect the status, and I'm using fire / ice / poison bombs depending on the situation. I think using maybe 1 piece of this gear would be cool, but not both...

Nameless Pancho - The damage increase and elemental resists are great, but I am mostly afraid of fiends... The Deadshot comes with shadow resist, and a decently useful damage increase for fsc... but no asi. So first I wanna know - if I get 1-2 shadow resist trinkets 5* would that be enough to take the edge off the fiend / undead damage so I could go with nameless? Or would I still want some more shadow resist? Fiends in particular are my nemesis so far in this game... So this is a pretty important question for me.

Anyway - what I'm kinda considering is using 1 mad bomber or vulcanic bomber + one nameless or deadshot... Opinions on these mixes, and other gear options are greatly appreciated. I use guns and bombs a lot, both of them...

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 21:00

Nodocchi

I'm not sure where you heard

I'm not sure where you heard that AP has bad damage but it's rate of fire gives it pretty much the best damage output of any gun on certain targets like Vana. As for armor I would suggest a Volcanic Helm for the Med CTR and a Deadshot for Vana, Nameless for everything else.

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 21:29

Dirty-Harry

AP vs Callahan

The reason people say that the AP has bad damage output for Vana is because it's only half piercing, Vana is slightly weak to piercing and slightly resistant to everything else, so the AP won't get the full bonus as the Callahan. Also in regard of rate of fire, in the time it takes to fire a full clip of the AP with Max IAS I can give about 3-4 shots of Callahan, which have a chance to stun. Also if it's strictly damage, then Blitz Needles will out damage either anyway. So when you have good teammates that can kite Vana well, pick one of those two.

Sometimes because of the ceiling and flame orbs you can only really get one or two shots off, this is where the Callahan is great for since you can just shoot once and shield. The AP's main benefit is it's very long range and mobility, so for Vanaduke this is great as you can keep your distance, keep moving and be fairly safe as long as you remember not to reload. Keep in mind that the only time I find the AP useful is during FSC, Callahan will solve your piercing damage needs for everything else.

I completely agree with going Volc Helm and you should try going for a Fire Resist Deadshot.

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 22:32

Captain-Teemo

How much effect does asi have

How much effect does asi have on guns? Specifically the Callahan?

My buddy suggests to me that I should go bomber gear because the ctr on bomber is more useful than the asi for a gunner, and since I use both a lot he thinks I'll notice the ctr for bombing more. Also my bomber head piece has a uv of shadow resist, so I could get good resists with a vulc piece, mad bomber piece, this uv and a shadow resist trinket0...

For the weapons - I'll just stick with what I have for now, after I take care of my armor I'll prolly upgrade an AP (I have silver six already) and play with it to see if I like it more... I could prolly take both guns on a vana run since I have 4 weapon slots and umbra driver isn't very useful there anyway... so like shock alchemer, AP, Callahan, and Shivermist so I could do pretty much whatever I needed :\

Pls - input still needed / appreciated! ^_^

PS: When I started I used blaster series, then got a silversix and blackhawk... they were impressive compared to my master blaster, but seemed ridiculous in damage compared to everything else... There were no mobs I even got orange numbers on, and fiends / wolvers would dodge them all day... When I crafted my first alchemer I was amazed at the damage per shot, it's about 2x as much O_O I can fire about 4 shots off any gun in the same time as 5 from antigua and the damage is prolly at least 50% more per shot, if not more... Maybe AP has a good damage increase compared to the silver six, but the silver six was very unimpressive imo ~
(although the antigua line has the best look and animations, I really wish they would make antigua pure elemental and shadow for each gun, then make a new one with similar mechanics on the t1 boss with pure pierce... then they would be the best guns in the game XD)

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 22:57

Sunless

There were no mobs I even got

There were no mobs I even got orange numbers on

Undead.

When I crafted my first alchemer I was amazed at the damage per shot, it's about 2x as much

Because it hits 4 times less in the same amount of time.

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 23:14

Diggidy

Legacy Username

From experience

In terms of absolute DPS, Blitz Needle is the best gun against vanaduke. I would only recommend it to experienced duke fighters, however, since avoiding attacks is more difficult with that gun than most others.

Unfortunately, the gun is pretty much useless in every other scenario. But, if you're set for the rest of FSC, and just want vanaduke to go down faster...

Tue, 07/05/2011 - 23:26

Captain-Teemo

@Replicant

No - I can shoot at least 4 times with an alchemer in the time it takes to fire 6 rounds with AP without reloading :\

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Armor and Gun choices for vana and beyond - opinions appreciated