Spiral Knights - First hand experience with 5* guns since release?

First hand experience with 5* guns since release?

9 replies [Last post]

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 01:14

FossaFerox

Legacy Username

I'm wondering if anyone has much experience with five star guns since beta ended. I suspect the wiki is woefully outdated in this area.

I'm most interested in the distinctions between the Callahan and the Iron Slug. Specifically...

The wiki suggests the IS has increased range over the magnus line it builds off of. Is this true? Does the Callahan?
The wiki says the IS has "Splash damage". So does the magnus and mega magnus. Is it larger? If so, how much?
The wiki suggests the IS no longer stuns off the normal attacks. That true?
How does the damage compare between them on piercing neutral mobs (undead and gremlins)?

Other than that, do the 5* alchemers still not gain any additional ricochets from their 4* variant? The flavor text on the hail driver suggests it does, but in beta I heard it didn't...

If it only gains damage, any idea how much (on a percentage basis)? Thanks.

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 01:20

Espeonage

Just noting

I tried the Hail Driver during the last moments of the preview, and it did not have any additional ricochets.

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 02:28

Game0ver

Legacy Username

I just made my Umbra driver

I just made my Umbra driver and I am EXTREAMLY dissapointed in it. It does not get any additional bounces, it does about 5 more dmg then my Shadow driver did, and it lost its knock down effect to gremlins and wolvers. If I had known this, I woulda just stayed with the Shadow driver level 10 instead of spending 48k crowns, 300 CE and all the materials that it took to upgrade the weapon.

I really hope this is just a big glitch, and the weapon will be fixed once the admins know about it but as is, I suggest nobody upgrade their shadow driver, cuz its not worth it at all.

My Firo Driver is about to hit lvl 10 also, and now im scared to upgrade it to Magma driver....

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 05:51

aeolianmode

Legacy Username

Hail driver

Is just as disappointing.

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 16:34

FossaFerox

Legacy Username

You level it up? How's the

You level it up? How's the damage compare over the 4* version?

The knock down going away on the umbradriver is downright scary. That's what makes it as good as it is at 4*. Maybe it will come back as you level it up? D:

Anyone have experience with the 5* magnus... magnuses... magni?

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 16:49

Dogrock

Five-star weapons don't

Five-star weapons don't really show much improvement until you level them a few times and use them near the bottom of T3. At that point the will really take off.

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 17:05

FossaFerox

Legacy Username

Voice of experience?

This the voice of experience talking dog? If so, are you talking about guns specifically?

All the swords and bombs I know of get appreciable gains going from 4-5*. The charge attacks become amazing on swords, the radius on bombs goes way up to the point of being silly in some cases, etc.

Alchemers, though, seem to get worse as they move up to the final tier. As marksman we can't typically knock things back to interrupt movement, casting, or attacks. We rely on the knockdown of the shadow driver to kill gremlin healers (seriously the only way we can ever kill them since we don't have on-demand poison either), for example. The fact that the 5* version no longer has this is deeply troubling.

I'm still wondering about the specific flavors of the Callahan and Iron slug though. If anyone has used both since release (or has either one, at this point) I'd live to hear your impressions.

Tue, 04/12/2011 - 18:20

Dogrock

More experience. I just

More experience. I just remember using a Blitz Needle and Magma Driver a lot in the preview and how much their effectiveness would ramp up in the back half of Tier 3. Also, to get 5-star weapons you need a lvl 10 4-star so the jump isn't nearly as dramatic (in some cases negative at first) since the old weapon was so powerful. Though there is less knockdown occurring, the Alchemers are silly powerful if you get the hang of the bounce shots. A well placed charge shot can strike an enemy a good six or seven times for hundreds of damage (playing weaknesses of course).

As for the knockdown, I can comment that the Mega Magnus looses it's chance to knockdown as you go deeper. In the beginning of T3 is happens nearly every hit on Beasts, but lower down it only happens reliably with the charge shot. If I ever get around to crafting my Callahan I can comment again then.

As for the Menders, I just bash them into a corner (along with any other unfortunate enemy in the way) with the Khorovod.

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 11:44

FossaFerox

Legacy Username

d0g, I've been to the core

d0g, I've been to the core with my mega magnus, it knocks down every non-alpha wolver, every gremlin, etc all the way down. If a wolver "tunnel-ports" away as the shot lands they're off screen for the knockdown, but you will notice that they resurface late. That effect never goes away. Same with the 4* alchemers.

However, in talking with some other gunners it looks like what happened is they made the 5* preview alchemers the new 4* and made new 5* alchemers. In the process, they didn't make the new 5* fully effective.

As evidence of this fact, in preview the 5* shadow alchemer was called the shadow driver. The Shadow Driver DID knock down gremlins. Post-release the 4* shadow alchemer is now called the shadow driver and it still has the knock down effect. However, the new 5* (Umbra driver, formerly called "Nova" driver for a few days) does not.

Looks like an obvious bug, but it should be an easy fix and they haven't fixed it or event commented...

Wed, 04/13/2011 - 11:57

Game0ver

Legacy Username

The Umbra driver has

The Umbra driver has completly lost its knock down all together, even against tier 1 mobs, there is no longer any knockdown. The shadow Driver could knock down all the way to the last gate of Tier 3 as a Level 1 item. Knock down does not get gained upon leveling, I have leveled my Umbra driver quite a few levels now and its just as useless as before. I personally think something happened when they were renaming weapons, since Shadow driver used to be the 5* version and its now the 4* version yet with all the benifits it had as a 5* version in the preview. Hopefully this will get fixed soon, since the Umbra Driver is a Useless clump of pixles that cost a whole lot to make, and was upgraded from a gun that worked just fine.

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First hand experience with 5* guns since release?