For when I finally reach all 5* armour, I'm going to get Royal Jelly Mail/Dragon Scale Helm/Dread Skelly shield. But since I have a Dread Venom striker, I was considering going wolver coat, but I think the stun resistance is useful and can get the damage boost via trinkets.
Also, how much would an icequeen recipe cost?
And just to finish that thought, look at Divine Veil with Skolver Coat. This is the champion of all general-purpose armor sets, because it protects against all four damage types, protects against the four most important statuses, and offers two offensive bonuses (fiends and swords).
Here's another one: Dragon Scale Helm with Dread Skelly Suit (or vice-versa). This set protects against all four damage types, protects against two statuses (poison and freeze), and offers one offensive bonus (beasts). Is it as good as Divine Veil with Skolver Coat? Probably not.
So as you construct your own general-purpose set, consider how it stacks up against these.
I’m just going to hop on this thread since it is similar. I’m relatively new (played for about a week) and I have started piecing together a decent set on the wiki to go after.
Right now I have Flourish, Brandish, Magic Hood, Wolver cap and coat, and Protector.
I was thinking about going with an armor combo of Chaos Cowl, Radiant Silvermail, and Aegis
And getting the swords to Final Flourish, Acheron/Voltedge, and picking up a Divine Avenger/Gran Faust as well as some kind of gun. I’m not exactly concerned with weapons right now, so we’ll save that for another day. My concern was the armor.
Is the negative status effects that Chaos Cowl give not worth the physical defense it offers?
Would I be better off just going with the relatively tried and true Divine Veil, Skolver combo instead?
Chaos Cowl with Radiant Silvermail covers all four damage types, and it gives two offensive bonuses, but the Chaos Cowl pretty much wrecks your status protections. It's interesting to consider, but now that I have considered it, I would not recommend it. Sorry. I don't like seeing everyone in the same armor set, but there's a reason why the popular sets are popular.
Aegis is just not a great shield. Since you're into swords, Barbarous Thorn Shield is a much better piercing shield than Aegis. When you said "Protector", did you mean Defender? The 2-star one? Then you're not very far into the alchemy path, so you should switch alchemy paths. (Even if you were at 4-star, I would suggest switching.)
For what it's worth, your weapon list (Final Flourish, Acheron/Voltedge, Divine Avenger/Gran Faust) sounds great, except that it should be written Final Flourish, Acheron/GF, Voltedge/DA. Damage type should be your primary consideration, not feel, in my opinion.
@Bleed-Blue
What in cradle is a "Protector"?
Chaos Cowl? Why? Weak to all status for a small weapon damage buff.
Aegis? There is no reason to use this. Kill Snarby ~4 times and get a Bristling Buckler->BTS. It has the same protection but gives a sword damage buff.
As far as armor goes. What do you plan on running? If you are gearing for FSC Vog is the gold standard. Divine/Skolver would be good for other random T3 work. If you are gearing up to run Shadow Snarby than that Radiant Silvermail would be perfect (though it doesn't look too useful elsewhere). Any 5* armor that has Normal on both pieces will be fine for T2/T1 work.
Personally I have a Vog set that I use most of the time. I switch out my shield between Wise Owlite Shield, Dark Thorn Shield, Sinister Skelly Shield, and Swiftstrike Buckler depending on the stratum that I am diving. I also have a Sinister Skelly set that I throw on sometimes for Fiend/Undead stratums. This has been working really well for me. I don't have any Piercing armor at the moment, but this has not been a problem because T2 is split normal and even in T3 I feel like Slime & beast are the easiest enemies. I am working on a Skolver set anyway though (mostly for the DMG buff). That and the nice thing about Vog is the wolver line is Piercing 2*-4* which is nice for Snarby/JK runs while you are first starting out.
Another useful mixed set: Volcanic Demo Helm + Radiant Silvermail. Gives Bomb CTR for folks who like to pack a vortex or status bomb, plus damage bonus against undead, and protection against poison, fire and curse.
Yeah, I meant defender. My mistake.
As far as what I'm planning on running with it? Nothing yet. I just want to get a set that will serve me well enough without wasting time upgrading a useless line of alchemy. I just the other day made it to tier 2 and I only have a couple of snarby runs under my belt.
Thanks for the heads up both of you.
@Bleed-Blue
That Wolver line will serve you well for all of the regular (non-shadow) bosses. It is Piercing/Normal/Freeze/Sword DMG+ with the option of diverging to Elemental/Normal/Fire/Sword ASI+ at 5*. So, from 2*-4* it is perfectly suited for Snarby (well proto is fine for this) & JK runs. You might find it lacking for ICMF runs, but after you run ICMF once you will get the hang of it quick (this would be a good place to put on that magic hood). Then if you take it Vog you will be set up for FSC and have more then enough Normal protection to handle any T2/T1 work.
Your current gear is all good. I just would not bother upgrading that Defender (switch to Bristling Buckler instead) and I would take that Magic Hood to either Divine Veil like Bopp mentioned instead of Chaos Cowl. Some people like Grey Feather Cowl for FSC, but I would think that Stun weakness would be killer if you ever got bonked by the mace (pretty easy to avoid).
Wolver also saves money because you can get 2 different sets of 5* armor with just a couple extra recipes instead of having to hunt down a whole set (2*-5*). Downside is looking like everybody else, but that is what the costume slot & accessories are for.
The Ice Queen armor requires you to complete at least one Shadow Lair expedition (or more, if you don't buy the key materials ahead of time). There is no recipe; you craft it in the Shadow Lairs. A Shadow Lair trip costs...a lot.
Royal Jelly Mail protects against normal and piercing. Because you use swords, consider instead Skolver armor. The Dragon Scale Helm protects against piercing and elemental. You probably want more normal protection. At some point (not necessarily soon) you'll also want some bona fide shadow armor.