Spiral Knights - Good sidearm for a Swordman

Good sidearm for a Swordman

13 replies [Last post]

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 07:02

Frederick

So i just reached tier 3 few days ago, i currently have all damage type sword except pierce. And i was thinking about my Sidearm...
got 3 Slot for my swords, 1 slot left... i decided to use a gun instead of bomb,
i currently have 4 guns:
Super Blaster
Blackhawk
Pepperbox
and... proto gun (lol)

i was using blackhawk lately cause it's good against wolvers, and decent against jellies, since i mostly do JKs. Anyone suggest i use my blaster instead?
i'm also started farming roar tokens for polaris, but i really want an all-round gun like the valiance or those kind of guns.

Any suggestion?

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 07:13

Zajarism

For pierce straight up damage

For pierce straight up damage go with Flourish. I'm using a Final Flourish with 3 UV's. It's awesome.
I recommend the Flamberge line as well mostly because the burn could be of assistance.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 08:37

Bopp

piercing, elemental, shadow

It's good that you're thinking about your swords in terms of damage type. Zajarism recommended Final Flourish for a piercing sword; consider also Barbarous Thorn Blade. They're equally good, I think; see the many threads comparing them.

The same damage-focused thinking that works for swords also works for guns. Valiance is perhaps the best normal gun, and hence a good general-purpose gun. Sentenza does split non-normal damage. It's good against gremlins and beasts, and pretty bad against everything else, and there are better guns against gremlins and better guns against beasts. So it's not great (except perhaps in PvP?). Volcanic Pepperbox (also normal) has some fans, but the consensus seems to be that its offensive power is not worth the loss of mobility.

Swords have an especially hard time dealing with fields of turrets protected by spikes. Of the three kinds of turrets, two are weak to elemental, and the third is neutral to it. So people tend to use elemental guns as anti-turret guns, and hence as swordsman sidearms. Any elemental gun, including Polaris, works.

So I'd say get Valiance to use on just about everything, or get an elemental gun to use on everything but beasts and gremlins. There is also the issue of monsters dodging your bullets, which I'll leave to another poster.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 09:26

Culture

Hmm

If you have three swords they should really be one of each damage type. That way you don't need a normal sword, and you don't need to double up on any type of damage either. You can always do bonus damage that way. And it just so happens that swords with a bonus damage type have ideal attack patterns for their respective monsters.

For the gun though, I got a Valiance because I really liked the proto gun and wanted something with a similar style. Since then though I've left it for a Polaris because it is the perfect sidearm. The elemental, shock and knockback aspects of the gun are complimentary to a sidearm's purpose. The primary times when a swordmaster pulls out a gun will be: deal with turrets, large groups of constructs/undead, Giant Lichen Colonies, kiting in arenas and Vanaduke. The Polaris does a better job at all these things than the Valiance. I would recommend the gun solely on its ability to take down turrets. The long shots interrupt, it has incredible range and does bonus damage to two of the three turrets currently in game. Really can't go wrong.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 12:46

Batabii

If you need a piercing gun, I

If you need a piercing gun, I highly recommend callahan, since Blitz Needle makes you stand still way more.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 14:00

Bluescreenofdeath

I'm use swords primary too

I'm use swords primary too and I tried many 2* and 3* versions to figure out what I wanted. I also solo a lot which had an impact on my choice. I found that I didn't like the guns that you could not walk and fire like the Magnus or autogun lines. I got really annoyed when I would find myself with low health trying to gun down wolvers with an Alchemer while I kited for my life (solo) or trying to take down a gunpuppy with a piercing gun like the Magnus. I ended up the Blaster Line and I love my Valiance. The little extra knock-back and the larger projectiles are actually worth the upgrade from the 4*. That said I'm really loving my Gigawatt Pulsar and it may end up replacing my Valiance because it really does slaughter Constructs. However, the Polaris does obstruct the heck out of vision & I have had teammates annoy the piss outta me by spaming near me while I am engaged in melee blinding me and knocking enemies into me or out of my sword's arc. The Polaris seriously is a Blue Screen Of Death (that and the Nitronome).

I have found myself running Dark Thorn Blade, Voltedge, Silent Nightblade, & Gigawatt Pulsar a bunch lately and so far have not found that lacking as turrets are about the only thing I shoot these days (other then blocks and crystals which I really do miss my fast Valiance shots for, but its not like they fight back so meh).

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 14:19

Bopp

monster resistances

Bluescreenofdeath said, "I got really annoyed when I would find myself with low health trying to gun down wolvers with an Alchemer while I kited for my life (solo) or trying to take down a gunpuppy with a piercing gun like the Magnus."

In case it's not clear to the reader, this was annoying because wolvers resist elemental (which most alchemers deal) and gun puppies resist piercing. Nothing resists the normal damage of the Valiance, so it's okay against everything. Fighting wolvers with the Polaris would also be annoying.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 14:37

Dirty-Harry

I'd say one of the most

I'd say one of the most popular side-arms for swordsmen nowadays is definitely the Polaris because of being able to handle turrets well without having to get close. Though seeing how you're more interested in getting a multipurpose gun, and how you have no good pierce weapons, you should definitely think about getting a Valiance. The knockback will help out in low-health situations, the bullets are fast enough to hit wolvers with decent damage (the Sentenza is absolute poop vs Wolvers in T3), and the normal damage means it could be used against all mobs for a great all-purpose sidearm.

If you're wanting a pierce gun, the only I can recommend personally is the Callahan. The damage isn't astounding, but it knocks down wolvers and you can use it safely around fiends without leaving yourself wide open.

Mon, 10/31/2011 - 17:09

Batabii

Don't bother with valiance.

Don't bother with valiance. If you must shoot wolvers, use callahan and get an elemental sword or haze-type bomb for the gun puppies. There are no real "all around" guns. Most of the time you'll be using them on slow targets it's too dangerous/hard to get close to, like Lumbers and Gun Puppies. They're generally useless against Gremlins, Wolvers, and Greavers.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 03:37

Frederick

Thanks for the suggestion

Thanks guys for the suggestion, I wasnt really looking for piercing sword suggestion, but thanks anyway, I was already planning to get flourish.

And for the sidearm, I decide to use blaster more oftenly until I get my Polaris.

And, out of topic, I'm getting a Full vog cub or with a mix of skolver, with BTS for the shield. Do they work on T3?

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 04:08

#10

Bluescreenofdeath

@Batabii I would have to

@Batabii
I would have to disagree about shooting gremlins. They mostly just dodge backwards and are really easy to gun down.

Vog, Skolver, and BTS are all highly viable in T3, but how useful is stratum dependent. Until recently the only T3 boss content we had was FSC so I would have said get the Vog first because it is better for that. Now we kinda, sorta, have other T3 boss fights so Piercing resistance could be nice in T3 if you are running the Rabid Snarbys. I would ultimatly recommend working on having 3 complete sets (helm/armor/shield) for each of the non-normal damage types (Elemental, Piercing, Shadow). The route I went was to get 3 shields early on and just switch them out based on the stratum I am going into (Wise Owlite, Dark Thorn Shield, Sinister Skelly Shield) and I just went the Vog route because I was concentrating on gearing for FSC and it was the only boss in T3. That's fine though because I am way too cheap to do the shadow remix content until key prices crash anyway.

Tue, 11/01/2011 - 17:04

#11

Xylka-Mkii

TL;DR (Sorry Just wanted to

TL;DR (Sorry Just wanted to list my thoughts quick)

Go with:
Argent Peacemaker
Sentezza
Polaris
Supernova (If you want Normal Damage)
Alchemer line (Nova Driver for Normal Damage)
Callahan (Piercing ownage)

I think that's all needed. Experiment with lower star versions, check wiki for 5* stats and just go with which one you like

BTW those are all the "top-line" Guns for Swordsman. (Not Blitz Needle, that's good, but not for a Swordie imo)

~Xylka

Wed, 11/02/2011 - 01:02

#12

Fradow

I'm going to disagree, Argent

I'm going to disagree, Argent Peacemaker and Sentenza are terrible, both. The only reason to use AP is to carry only 1 gun in FSC (instead of an elemental and blitz needle). Sentenza don't really fill any purpose other than Lockdown.

Polaris is very good as a side-arm for swordsman. Supernova is outclassed by Polaris, as you don't shoot gremlins or beasts with a gun as a swordsman anyway.

Alchemer are also valid for more general purpose elemental damage (where polaris is mainly for turrets).

Callahan is good for piercing yes. But as a swordsman, you'd rather use a piercing sword for that purpose.

And Blitz Needle is valid for running FSC. In fact, if you bring only 1 gun in FSC, it should be Blitz Needle (or AP if you have trouble with zombies ...)

Wed, 11/02/2011 - 02:23

#13

Cleverpun

I know youre asking for gun suggestions...

I know youre asking for gun suggestions, but if you don't mind tricky weapons try a Radiant Sun Shards.

The shards have amazing range (greater than most guns), and interrupt turrets. The shards also travel fast enough to hit dodging/shielding mobs before their defenses kick in in many cases. The damage typing is far from ideal, and it requires a good bit of practice to truly be helpful, but it's a great weapon. The line stopping at 4* doesn't hinder you in tier 3 either, and ends up being a boon if youre on a budget.

That said, if you're after an all purpose gun, my sword playing friend just got a Valiance. The damage isn't high, but it's adequate, and the little knockback on regular shots and huge knockback on charge shots is incredibly helpful

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Good sidearm for a Swordman