Just picked up this game again to check out all of the new stuff, haven't played since early release-ish. There seems to be a lot of new items and I'm not sure what's good anymore. Any advice on what I should work towards with gear upgrades?
Right now I have this for gear:
Ash Tail Cap ****
Ash Tail Coat ****
Gran Faust ******
Defender **
Proto Gun
I was thinking of going for the following weapons to cover my elemental and piercing damage types:
Polaris
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Polaris
Barbarous Thorn Blade
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Barbarous_Thorn_Blade
I need to upgrade my shield pretty badly and was considering these two. Mostly just like the way the Thorn Shield looks. Are there any piercing damage monsters now? I'm assuming the Owlite is still the prudent way to go?:
Barbarous Thorn Shield
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Barbarous_Thorn_Shield
Grey Owlite Shield
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Grey_Owlite_Shield
Yes, there are piercing monsters. This happened in an update back in...June? Look it up in the Announcements forum. In the shallow strata (1 and 2) monsters deal normal damage, but by Strata 5 and 6 they deal a lot of their damage in their preferred type: piercing, elemental, or shadow. See the wiki page on "Damage". Both Barbarous Thorn Shield and Grey Owlite Shield are wonderful.
Your plan to have Polaris (elemental), Barbarous Thorn Blade (piercing), and Gran Faust (shadow) seems good. Consider Final Flourish instead of BTB (both are good). Your gun will let you take out gun puppies well.