Yep, scrap the shadow defense trinket and go only with what kolela said. If you're playing style if more of in your face hack and slash, then asi even you have dual vog, but if you like kiting and more of bomber kind of play style, the charge attack plus trinket on the calibur is IMO one the combination. But if you like to charge with cali, PLEASE don't send enemies flying into someone else's face; learn to use the charge attack properly. However, that doesn't mean it shouldn't be used much, since for example, I spam cali charge almost all the time and once in a while i go in slash.

But for money, unless you're doing a gate like the one htat just cycled out with three arenas, vana is your best bet. As for shadow levels, either get the correct gear for them or skip them if you keep dying in them. Full vog/grey owl shield in a fiend stratum is like using divine avenger with full divine set and drake scale shield in non-status-effect gremlin statum. Not saying it can be done, but if you get hit, you'll see what i mean.

But yes, a levi, along with a gun should cover you for vana. Personally, i like the polaris line better for the knockback as i'm not a gunner adn this gun is basically my one and only for all situations.

Don't get hit. That's basically what you need to know.

Also, in another thread, you said you don't like bombs. You really should change that if you're going to try to solo. You can perhaps get away with letting someone else handle bombing duties when you're in a group. But that's no good when you're solo. When you've got eight mobs chasing you, there's no substitute for running away while charging a bomb, laying it on the ground, and hitting them all at once.

What you really need for your gear to be viable is a decent variety of gear. You need a piercing defense armor set, an elemental defense one, a shadow defense one, shock defense, freeze defense, and fire defense. For a shield, you need all of that plus a poison defense shield. Now, that doesn't mean that you need a ton of five star gear. Four stars is perfectly viable in tier 3, all the way to the core. Furthermore, a single piece of gear can satisfy several things. Grey owlite shield gives you shadow, shock, and fire defense all in a single piece of armor, for example. So realistically, you need three sets of gear. But three sets of four star gear doesn't cost that much more than one set of five star gear, so the cost isn't too bad.

I would propose the idea that damage is more important (in most scenarios) than DPS.

That's why kolela recommended the "charge -> release, enemies got knockback -> shield -> run away -> charge -> release" tactic.

Your damage over time will defeat mobs but your pure dps will look low due to longer times of non-damage dealing.

Of course this changes when there are healers involved.