Spiral Knights - Choosing between Faust, Avenger and Vile Striker

Choosing between Faust, Avenger and Vile Striker

13 replies [Last post]

Sun, 08/28/2011 - 23:43

Evilnut

I already got all their prerequisites (including 2 lvl. 5 sealed swords), recipes and materials. I will have the CE to craft one of them tonight.

My gear:
Sword: Ascended Calibur
Gun: Heavy Pulsar, Cyro MK2, Super Blaster
Helm: Miracle Hood
Armor: Rock Jelly Mail, Dusker Coat
Shield: Wise Owlite
Exta Slots Unlocked: None

My target is to be able to solo Jelly King, to get more tokens for the gun (already have silver six recipe). For that, which one do you think I should craft first?

== Vile Striker ==
Pros:
Poison is essential vs JK.
You only got 3 poison vials without it... miss and it will cost you.

Cons:
Striker line's attack pattern can be dangerous.
Is "slight" chance often enough?
Poison vials are common, you are almost guaranteed to have 3.

== Avenger ==
Pros:
It will be my first elemental damage sword.
Charge attack can double as ranged attack, allowing me to carry another sword as backup.

Cons:
Not especially useful against JK himself.

== Faust ==
Pros:
Curse vials are harder to come by; when JK spins, curse will make him kill himself.
Shadow is good for killing other jellies.

Cons:
I don't have Divine Hood yet, so using its charged attack is not an option.

I'm leaning towards getting Faust first... what are your opinions?

Sun, 08/28/2011 - 23:50

Yuyukosama

The DA is pretty useless for

The DA is pretty useless for JK.

I have a Faust and it's nice. However since JK isn't actually weak against shadow the low curse proc and terrible single target DPS will make soloing JK pretty hard.

Which makes vile striker prob your best bet. Not so much for the poison but for the higher damage output. Just be careful not to get mobbed.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 00:11

Evilnut

Wiki said Faust has a "fair" chance to cause curse... if you say Faust's curse proc is low, then it will be hopeless to rely on Vile Striker's "slight" poison.

If that's the case, would I be better off keep using Ascended Calibur, but instead upgrade my Dusker into Ash Tail for the bonus sword damage? Does Vile Striker's higher speed really give it an edge in DPS compared to Ascended Calibur?

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 00:28

Fraxur

What you must know about Vile

What you must know about Vile Striker is that it is a 10-hit combo sword, because it has that many hits, there is only a slight chance of poisoning the enemy with each hit so actually it is just like a 3-hit combo sword with good chance of poisoning an enemy! I have a Toxic Needle which also has a slight chance of poisoning an enemy but since Toxic Needle can fire 12 shots before reloading and each and every of those shots can poison, it means it actually have a very high chance of poisoning an enemy if all of those 12 shots hit, this works the same way with Vile Striker.

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 03:02

Evilnut

Thank you very much for your

Thank you very much for your explanations, EliteChamp and seitsuki!

I'll make a Vile Striker tonight!

Mon, 08/29/2011 - 09:39

Evilnut

Update

Made Vile Striker... tomorrow I'll see how I fare solo'ing JK.

Fri, 09/09/2011 - 19:30

Lazypinoy

I solo JK with my DA in

I solo JK with my DA in seconds... without dying. You don't need the charge attack for the fight cause the fight is easy..

Fri, 09/09/2011 - 23:56

Fraxur

@GodisPie

Can I see a video of it pls?
I am really curious how you can use DA and DA only to beat JK in seconds.

Sun, 09/11/2011 - 18:45

Volebamus

He's exaggerating with his

He's exaggerating with his results of using the DA, I'm sure the DPS of using it against solo JK doesn't do enough to kill JK faster than 3 tantrums, even with Maximum sword damage boost.

As a person who made Dread Venom Striker as my first 5* months ago, I wish I stumbled into this topic earlier, as it's a sword I would never recommend to use. Against popular opinion, poison is not truly necessary at all when calculating the damage you can deal over time with a knowledgeable use of Calibur or Brandish line charge attacks and combos. Additionally, many times the striker line acts too suicidal due to the final-hit-stun existing as your 5th keystroke, rather than the common 3rd swing for normal swords, or 2nd swing for heavy swords.

Lastly, unless you make it 5*, the poison probability was in practice not so reliable. I've solod and teamed when I main-used Vile Striker, and it seemed one out of three fights JK would die before I've poisoned it once, and I actually reliably poison during the second combo-string rather than the first.

Sun, 09/11/2011 - 23:08

Vyftien

Why wouldn't it? DA does the same damage to JK as a GF. Apart from the occasional curse GF inflicts which you can't depend solely on.

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 04:48

#10

Volebamus

Yes, DA and GF do the same

Yes, DA and GF do the same damage to JK, but what does that have to do with anything I said? I've made no mention to differentiate between the two in a fight against JK.

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 06:53

#11

Vyftien

What I meant to say is,

What I meant to say is, people have been soloing JK in seconds using GF including yours truly. So with that in mind, I dont think its unlikely that Mr Godspie here could do the same with a DA.

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 07:15

#12

Volebamus

Sorry, had the assumption

Sorry, had the assumption seconds implied a quicker kill than initially let on. From your experience then, how many tantrums does JK initiate when using your DA?

I haven't tried with GF/DA in the longest time, but what I consider seconds usually is killing JK when he initiates 1 tantrum at most, which is consistent when using something like a Combuster.

Mon, 09/12/2011 - 09:06

#13

Bluescreenofdeath

I love the Ascended Cal for

I love the Ascended Cal for soloing the JK. I back mine up with Elite Sword Focus (CTR Med), Elite Slash Module (Sword Damage Med), a Dark Thorn Shield (Sword Damage Med), plus my Ash Tail Set (Sword Damage Med). That plus the CTR Low UV my Cal gives me a total of CTR Ultra and Damage Ultra not to mention piercing protection on armor & shield. The Cal's charge attack wrecks the JK because he gets hit by all three hits & the 360 swing clears out the little jellies a bit so you can get some breathing room to charge again. You just need to keep status effect on the JK so he can't heal. Poison works great, but so does curse & fire (even shock helps).

That said, I have seen a vid of DVS solo on JK that took less then 60 seconds, so the potential for faster kills is there.

Opens with CIV charge, switches to DVS, uses 2 curse vials, 1 poison vial, and 3 health pills, no UV. ~1min kill time (no not me in vid):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tLbWDAzwLM

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Choosing between Faust, Avenger and Vile Striker