Spiral Knights - Ultimate Armors <<<Spoiler Alert>>>

Ultimate Armors <<<Spoiler Alert>>>

19 replies [Last post]

Wed, 10/19/2011 - 17:08

Culture

This post contains info that isn't yet in the Wiki, but will be soon, I'm sure. If you want to be surprised by whatever is at the end of the Ult Bosses, stop reading now.

I'm quite a gearhead, and the new armors are rather lacking in my opinion. Here's the stats for each below. Statuses are "max" unless otherwise specified. Bonuses are on one piece, so medium + medium = very high, just like Vog/Skolver sets. Data source, with additional Spoiler screenshots:
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/29964#comment-178017
Spoiler - do not view the link's slideshow if you do not want to know what happens. The screenshots are revealing.

Almirian Crusader Helm & Armor
Normal/Shadow
Negative Fire Medium
Curse Medium

Arcane Salamander Mask & Suit
Normal/Elemental
Fire
Damage Bonus to Slime: Low
Damage Bonus to Beast: Low

Heavenly Iron Helm & Armor
Normal/Shadow
Negative Shock
Curse
Damage Bonus to Fiend: Low
Sword Damage: Low

Ice Queen Crown & Mail
Normal/Piercing
Stun
Freeze

Mercurial Demo Helm & Suit
Normal/Elemental
Shock
Movement Speed: Low
Bomb Damage: Low

Snarbolax Cap & Coat
Normal/Shadow
High Poison
High Freeze
Sword Damage: Medium

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First of all... nothing for Gunslingers? That's a shame. I thought with the IMF release giving Gunslingers lots of love that tread had changed.

Three new shadow sets! Yay! That is something that is certainly missing from the gear options. So first some comments on those...

The most useful being the Snarbolax which is a great alternative for Skolver. Also it can be used as a shadow alternative to Dread Skelly, Divine, etc. but with a sweet sword bonus. I guess maxed status would have been too much, so it is stuck with Highs instead. On the plus side, if you do mixed Skolver/Snarby you should be immune to SMB in PvP and it would help with GF hits just a bit. Of course, you'll then be partially vulnerable to piercing, so might not be the wisest course of action. I'm guessing that wearing full Snarby should get you caught in SMB, even if just for 3.5 seconds. Maybe have both sets available and switch it out depending on the other team's weapon of choice (and hope they aren't well armed.)

Heavenly Iron could be useful for UFSC. No fire resistance means you'll want to grab a high/max Fire UV for it or avoid catching on fire. Clearly it is meant to be a Fiend killer as a full set will match Divine's bonus. But the negative shock is unfortunate as T3 Shock Fiend Arenas are problematic and would be downright deadly in this set. Do not use it in PvP. As if Polaris or VT needed to be any worse.

Almirian Crusader - yeah... negative fire and no weapon bonuses? Thanks, but no. What niche does this fill exactly? Graveyard? Looks nice though.

On to the new Bomber gear - the Mercurial Demo Set. If you like the traditional Mercurial Set you'll love Mercurial Demo. Elemental instead of Pierce makes it more useful, especially for IMF/UIMF. I'm glad to finally see a bomber set with Shock, but sadly no serious bomber would be caught dead in this travesty. The same bonuses as Bombastic means its predecessor, the Heavy Demo Set, gives you better DPS. Rather nice costume though. I don't recommend this instead of Mercurial for PvP. Elemental isn't as common as Pierce and the bomb damage bonus might as well not be there.

Arcane Salamander... where do you need Normal/Elemental/Fire? UIMF? Actually, that looks a lot like Volcanic Salamander, but that set has a Medium Slime bonus on each piece, not Low. Oh! I know where I've seen that setup before... Vog set. (Derp) But that has ASI Medium instead of low damage bonuses... how very strange. I don't get it. Maybe this one really was meant to just be a costume. Or maybe someone booched the stat tool tip. Time will tell.

Finally, the Ice Queen Set is a rather regal looking costume. The stats are similar to Skolver but with better piercing and Stun instead of a Sword Damage Bonus: Medium. If you aren't already using full Skolver for URJP then Ice Queen would be a nice alternative, especially given all the Lumbers running around. Also if SMB and Stagger Storm has got you down in PvP then you can finally nail those bombers, at least until they pull out VT. All in all, it is kind of a sad version of Skolver.

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@Devs - Could you reconsider some of these stats? Snarbolax is a good example of filling a hole of something that isn't in the game while still being attractive in terms of bonuses. The other sets are either unappealing versions of something existing or have bonuses that aren't appealing to an endgame player.

I think my biggest issue is with the bonuses. 5* should have Medium bonuses, as everything else in the game uses. Low bonuses don't work well with anyone's endgame arsenal because by that time they would have everything built around Medium, Very High, Max. Which is why people rush to 5* because 4* bonuses don't gel well. Also why WHB and CIV's High is so weird, you are going to end up wasting some bonus or sitting with Ultra.

Wed, 10/19/2011 - 18:43

Orangeo

Yhea, allot of this seems

Yhea, allot of this seems random.
Snarbolax makes sense, and using an almarian helm with, say vog, grants you medium fire and curse, the two peices of UFSC. I think the point is that they don't want to make armor specificaly geared toward UFSC, thus making it harder than FSC. Either way, I'm playing red roar until I get a deadshot peice to use with my volcanic on UFSC.

Wed, 10/19/2011 - 19:19

Fehzor

Mercurial mail is now worthless.... this has more bonuses, especially for bombs, and provides better protection.... why can't merc mail have movement med...

Wed, 10/19/2011 - 20:32

Draycos

This is supposed to be the

This is supposed to be the gear that you get for clearing the hardest areas in the game, the hardest areas to even get to to begin with? WHAT?

No, seriously, the Almirian Crusader set is more like the Almirian Crusader Costume. The stats on these equips should be very high, higher than the normally attained equips, and not weaker than them... ESPECIALLY when Three Rings insists on making everything you do a gamble in this game. Really, the only viable piece of gear here is the Snarbolax set, and even then it seems weak for the hell you have to go through to get it ( and then spend a lot of CE and crowns to craft the darn stuff ).

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 06:25

Volkani

My thoughts.

First off, I want to see these machines from a non-Snarby shadow lair, because this is the only way I can make sense of some of these stats (i.e. maybe Almirian Crusader has to be crafted out of the UFSC machine to have full stats?). Anyways...

Almirian Crusader: You horribly messed up the stats and this will be fixed soon, right OOO? Right? Or is my theory up there any good, OOO? In an endgame where resists and added effects carry more importance than actual defense stats, there's no way you can expect an item with 3*-level resists (and crappy ones at that) and no other bonuses to be made.

Arcane Salamander: This might have had a chance at being a choice for general Fire strata use (take less from elemental while having bonuses to every pierce mob to wipe them out faster), but Med for the full set isn't enough with Vog Cub existing and being easier to get. Maybe one of the pieces going up to Med boosts (or if you don't want that piece being used alone, something like Slime Med/Beast Low on the helm and Slime Low/Beast Med on the armor) to get High overall would do the trick?

Heavenly Iron: New boost mix (Sword Damage vs Fiend: Med, Gun/Bomb damage and Sword damage vs non-fiend: Low) is interesting, but Shock weakness why. Devil-ITs don't need to be scarier, thanks.

Mercurial Demo: Which armor set is required to make this? This is either a complete disappointment (from Heavy Demo) or a lackluster upgrade (Quicksilver). Who's going to care if it fills a defensive niche if the boosts are no good?

Ice Queen: It's sad that this is probably the second best set here, and even then... Skolver. I guess those that don't plan on getting Skolver for a long time can pick up this fairly easily? Stun resist IS underwhelming (especially with no slime/beast mobs capable of Stun, but that isn't for this topic), but hey better than some of the other stuff here.

Snarby: I was expecting CTR boosts when I first heard of this. Also was only expecting Poison resist. At least I got it being a Wolver line variant right, but instead we get something that obsoletes the Skelly armor/helm line with the only problem being the difficulty in obtaining it.

(tl;dr I want to see a UFSC machine, and if the gear is the same, Wolver master race.

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 11:47

Skaiwalka

These are pretty bad. Not

These are pretty bad. Not even close enough to even give Vog a run for it's money. Only reason I'd want any of these is for purely cosmetic reasons.
Making this gear beyond end-game is a bit... odd. The attainability of these armors is beyond ridiculous so the stats should reflect that in my opinion, but they're worse than quite a few 5* sets as is. hah

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 12:14

Dragonist

I think Ice Queen is pretty

I think Ice Queen is pretty Shity, Just replace Sleep on Royal Jelly...

The Mercurial Demo Looks awesome :o

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 12:46

Culture

Well...

Items in the game shouldn't be god-like even if they are beyond endgame items. Fantasy armors we all have dreams about would put Wolver in its place, but such a fantasy wouldn't be good because it would not be balanced.

The best things we have now is Vog and Skolver which aren't even close to god-like, they are just better than everything else where it counts the most. Their weaknesses are trivial, unlike say Mad Bomber which has insane bonuses but is perfectly balanced by some of the worst resistances in the game. I certainly didn't want something better than the Wolvers, just something different while being on-par with the Wolvers.

I really like collecting gear, and always have a long list of things to do and try. These armors aren't even on that list, except for maybe Snarby but that is still pretty far down the list. I'm the definition of an endgame player (played since beta, over 50 Duke wins) and I'm not looking forward to the beyond endgame. That fact is rather ridiculous. For now I'm just going to keep playing like I was before as though the beyond endgame content does not exist, cause I'm happy with that. It is sad that the endgame achievements are not appealing to someone like me, but I can do Duke another 50 times, it is both enjoyable and relaxing, and doesn't require believing in luck or AH bidding.

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 14:07

Skaiwalka

Well I'm not saying they

Well I'm not saying they should be god like, but they should at least be on the same tier (if not just a little more powerful, just, not god like haha) as the Wolver line. They're on the right track with norm/shadow though.

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 18:53

Avixi

It would be useful if we got

It would be useful if we got the actual damn recipes too instead of just stats. =__=

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 19:14

#10

Goldmaker

Crusader armor: Only usefull

Crusader armor: Only usefull in the Ultimate FSC , crappy in normal FSC
Arcane salamander: The Jack of all trades salamander xd
Heavenly Iron Helm & Armor: locks good... but i think veil is WAY better for fiends...
Ice Queen Crown & Mail: Ice queen > normal jelly armor just that.
Mercurial Demo Helm & Suit: Now this is just a waste.. the speed buff is really minimal...
Snarbolax Cap & Coat : The new Skolver for vanaduke ?
Gunslingers: Oh you did it again OOO >=(

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 20:01

#11

Flamaxe

Hey! ^_^

If you could, would you post the Recipes for the Snarbolax coat and Helm... i need to know what to buy when i go there...

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 20:03

#12

Spamisalreadyinuse

good info. it also seems like

good info. it also seems like the base item to upgrade into those are the ash tail cap and armor, so you might want to add that to your OP.

they don't feel like they worth the effort at all right now. perhaps they anticipate them to be a lot more common later on? Also the lack of gunner sets kinda perplexed me. maybe they forgot the pewpewers.

Thu, 10/20/2011 - 20:18

#13

Mohandar

Why the new stuff can't be super-awesome

The new armors are locked behind a giant CE wall. Making them too good would create a giant gaps in player power, and would completely break SK's F2P feel. That said, I believe the solution is not to wall off Shadow Lairs with a giant CE price tag, but to give the perception that it is accessible by making Shadow Keys be bought for some amount of all the boss tokens. The effect will still be the same, that CE is burned, but it will allow more casual F2P players to feel like they are making progress toward getting a Shadow Key, rather than resenting OOO. Energy gets used for far too many things, so giving a price in CE breeds more resentment and unrest than a price tag in boss tokens, even if the equivalent energy cost is much higher.

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 01:47

#14

Pawn

A vague hope, a theory that makes sense

The only way some of these armors make ANY sense is if they scale up their perks @ lvl 10, similar to DA/status bombs getting better CTR at lvl 10. So these kinda make sense if lvl 10 mercurial gets med bomb damage and/or movement sped.

If salamander gets med beast and med slime @ lvl 10. BTW, anyone think low beast + low slime seems downright stupid when snarby gets med damage vs...oh...EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!! I'll say that again, EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!! How damn stupid is that?

heavenly set, bonus vs fiends...see above @ snarby med vs EVERYTHING!!!!

And the almire crusader "Costume" (compliments to Draycos for naming this). Is a beautiful, beautiful, dumpster fire. Weak to fire too. I have no idea what this will scale (won't, but what it could) scale up to @ lvl 10. Really looks unredeemable. Unfortunately, it happens to be my favorite armor on the game by appearance.

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 03:53

#15

Abathur

seems to be gunslinger

seems to be gunslinger costumes eh? :D

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 03:55

#16

Floipd

@#11

Listen to the n00b;
no wait just click this link i found :P

http://kelgis.imgur.com/sanct

The 13 last photos show the stats, on 6 six of em u actually see the Snarb requirements
The materials r just the same as for the other pieces of wolver line, except you'll need dark shards instead of green, some blighted bones in addition and the Special Snarb 5* material "Nightmare Mane". Oh and a piece of Ash Tail of course

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 09:23

#17

Volkani

"The new armors are locked

"The new armors are locked behind a giant CE wall. Making them too good would create a giant gaps in player power, and would completely break SK's F2P feel."

True, but there's also the reverse problem of it not being worth it to scale that CE wall if the end results aren't up to the standards of what we can get already. Let's think about if they just dropped these six items into Basil as new recipes. Everyone would be all over Snarby, obviously, but what about the other five? Ice Queen would probably be a common alternative to Skolver, and you -might- see Arcane Salamander, but:

- Almirian Crusader got stealth patched, right OOO? Nobody's said to the contrary yet <_<
- An almost unnoticeable movement speed boost does not make up Bomb Damage boosts failing. (Mercurial Demo)
- That shock weak is going to scare everyone off Heavenly Iron, even if it has good boosts. I still don't get why Almirian Crusader and Heavenly Iron have to take weaknesses, unless that heating theory is right, but that'd have to apply to these two only.

And then Snarby has a problem from the other end: It's inclusion means the Skelly line is currently entirely obsoleted, except for ease of acquiring. Perhaps the real problem when making new armors is the unusually high bar all the 5* Wolver equips set should the new armor overlap in defenses and resists.

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 11:36

#18

Giannii

I have absolutely no idea why

I have absolutely no idea why snarby has to resist freeze, its a shadow piercing poison level. Had they made it have poison resist sure people would say it sucks because poison is this and that, but it wouldn't obsolete anything and still have its own place thanks to the damage bonus. They could have added a minor piercing resist, or make it extra resistant to poison (over a regular 5* armor) or whatever too although I don't think its necessary.

For mercurial demo, its aimed at ctr max rich bombers, they could use two damage trinkets and full bombastic demo set for "maxed bombs", now they have a better alternative, full mercurial will also add movement bonus, slight or not but still a med bonus.

Fri, 10/21/2011 - 17:27

#19

Culture

Heh

I'm very disappointed that Ice Queen doesn't have sleep resist ._.

That aside, every bomber does one of two things:

Wear Mad Bomber or Mixed Volc+Mad so that their Level 10 Bomb is Max CTR
or
Wear the Mad or Volc Helm then add an Elite Bomb Focus trinket so that their Level 10 Bomb is Max CTR

No bomber uses Bombastic now and there is no reason for a bomber to use Mercurial Demo. Amazingly, one piece of Mad has the same damage bonus as the entire Mercurial Demo Set but also has a CTR bonus. There are no "rich" bombers running around with all UV CTR VH on their bombs, that would be insanely expensive since bombers need many bombs since most are situational. It is cheaper and more logical to rely on the above options for Max CTR instead. I would say that Mercurial Demo is as much a Bomber's armor as Deadshot is a Gunslinger Armor.

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Ultimate Armors <<<Spoiler Alert>>>