Spiral Knights - Beginning loadout?

Beginning loadout?

6 replies [Last post]

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 17:48

Biligum

I'm fairly new to the game (so far, all 2-star equipment except for a 3-star sword), and I'm trying to figure out a good beginning loadout that still remains useful if upgraded to five stars. I've mostly just been grabbing random recipes and bits of equipment as they show up or as certain guides recommend, so I'm a bit mismatched at the moment and was wondering whether I should stick with what I've got (Cobalt Helm, Jelly Mail, and Owlite Shield) or if it's worth it for the long haul to switch over to the Wolver line or somesuch? Not necessarily the Wolver line, mind you, that line just seems like something useful with its later upgrades.

In particular, I've been wondering about weapons - though, I should probably point that for the moment, I'm not planning on getting any extra equipment slots, so I already know my selection will be fairly limited. Probably once I've got a steady income of crowns and can better afford to buy CE. But anyway, I've been wondering - I know people often try to specialize to one weapon in order to maximize their variety of damage types and status effects, and I've heard of people hybriding between swords and guns, but is it generally possible to hybrid between swords and bombs, particularly for a noob such as myself? I find my line of reasoning being that I usually prefer and employ swords given their largish damage output, but often find myself overwhelmed and needing a second weapon for kiting, and bombs seemed like a better choice. My experience with guns for this purpose so far hasn't been pleasant. Basically, in a fit of uninformed fervor upon realizing that I could get to tier 2, I got an Autogun for kiting (big mistake) and realized that I since I couldn't move while firing, it was even worse suited for kiting than probably any other gun. I was thinking of maybe getting a Blast Bomb, since it eventually upgrades up to Nitronome?

Anyway, I'll much appreciate any help. Thanks in advance!

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 18:41

Bopp

some advice

The Cobalt and Jelly armor/helmet lines are some of the worst in the game. They offer normal and piercing protection (good), but Cobalt offers no status protections and Jelly offers some of the least useful status protections. Wolver is better for swordsmen, and Gunslinger is better for gunners. Sorry, but there's a reason why these are popular. Owlite is great.

Yes, it should be feasible to play with one sword and one bomb. (I've never done it, except in specialized situations like Firestorm Citadel.) The obvious choice is Leviathan Blade and Nitronome, because they are bad against no monsters. But let's be more creative. You could get Dark Briar Barrage (piercing bomb) and an elemental sword; use elemental against constructs, undead, and slimes, and piercing against beasts, fiends, and gremlins. Somebody will probably chime in with a better idea.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 18:59

Kreuz-Drache

Your shield(Owlite) is good,

Your shield(Owlite) is good, but I would definitely replace the armors(Colbalt Helm and Jelly Mail). Cobalt Helm is weak when compared to something like Wolver Cap which also gives you pierce defense, gives you a small freeze resistance, and a boost to your swords. Jelly Mail has two resistances, but you'll (VERY) rarely need sleep resistance and most stun based attacks are fairly easy to dodge.(In my opinion at least.). I dunno, I feel you'll be a lot more happier with something from the Wolver lines.(Of course, you should keep the other two. Just in case you have the urge to make them into your costume for your knight.) Besides full wolver(Wolver Cap + Wolver Coat), you could even try something like:

Magic Hood + Wolver Coat

This gives you elemental and piercing defense, as well as some pretty useful status resistances(Fire, Freeze, and Shock. Especially the Shock.). Sure, you have negative resistance against stun, but I honestly feel that most stun attacks are fairly easy to avoid. But that's just me. The hood can be upgraded into a Divine Veil at 5* which loses it's normal defense and it's negative resistance to stun(But that's actually a good thing. :P); but gives you a boost against fiends, shadow defense to compliment your elemental defense, as well as some curse resistance(Not a big deal, but it's a welcome addition. Better than negative stun for certain.) too. What some players do, is go with Divine Veil + Skolver Coat as their 5* armor set for "the end game". It gives a well rounded defense(Obviously not too amazing, but it does help as a general purpose set.), some good status resistances, a boost for your swords, and a boost against a particular race of monsters.

Spiral Demo Helm + Wolver Coat

I mention this, since you shown some interest for bombs. The helm will give you a charge time reduction, which is VERY important for bombs, since that's how you start them up. Having a faster charge time will make you be able to kill things much more faster and safer with your bombs. It too, has elemental defense. So...you get a charge time reduction with your bombs and a Sword damage boost. As well as piercing and elemental defense.

A gun would probably be safer, but bombs and swords can work well. The bombs being your crowd control while the swords are for more safer close range battles.

The Blast Bomb series is good, but it's not really the most group friendly bomb.(Sends monsters flying into your team mates, the blue explosion can blind some of them.) Not saying it's completely bad in groups, just be careful with it so you don't end up being a bother for your team.(That is, if you go by teams.)

EDIT:
This is kinda what I went with as my early weapon choices, just to give an idea.:

Freezing/Fiery Vaporizer series(Bomb)
Calibur series(Sword)

^ Admittedly not the best weapon set up, in my opinion, but that's only because the bombs I use were more for crowd control or weaken some dudes and less on damaging; so I went with a normal damage dealing weapon to take care of every critter while the bombs took care of crowds for a bit. Bopp does bring up a point, that it might be better to go with different damage types(Like the elemental sword and piercing bomb.) so that you could better handle certain races better. Pure normal damage isn't bad, but you won't be able to kill things as fast.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 18:48

Culture

Hmm

I'd put aside the Cobalt and Jelly armors for now and start with something else. Anything else that goes to 5* is more favorable than those two lines. Hang onto them though, in some time you can upgrade them into very nice end game costumes.

After a while you will be making a lot more crowns and the cost of weapon slots won't be painful. You can either plan ahead for carrying four weapons or just stick to building a two weapon loadout until you need to get more slots. Whatever you are comfortable with.

Sword + Bomb Hybrid work great. Swords for the damage, Bombs for the status effects... both doing what they do best.

If you only want to carry two weapons you do something like: Leviathan + Ash of Agni. Levi is normal damage so it has no weakness, but no strength either. Ash is a great kiting bomb because you just drop it and let it do damage, very simple and effective in arenas and danger rooms. Of course, can't use it in Fire themed areas, in which case a Shivermist will come in handy to stop up the crowds and introduce them to your Levi charge. Shiver, by itself though, does very little damage.

If you want to plan ahead for four weapons, go two swords + two bombs. In this case you should get two special damage sword such as Divine Avenger and Gran Faust, or Voltedge and Final Flourish... depending on your playstyle. With two typed swords you will always do optimized or neutral damage. See http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Damage Then toss in two bombs of your choice.

Check out the Hybrid bomber on the Bombing Guide:
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Bombing_Guide#Armor

That is what I usually use... Volcanic Demo Helm + Vog Cub Coat or Skolver Coat. That way I have sword and bomb bonuses. After that I'll equip trinkets to reach Bomb CTR Max then whatever bonus will improve my sword choices the most.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 18:57

Biligum

Ah.

Wow, I really messed up there, didn't I? :P Brilliant, this is all very helpful. I've heard there could be problems with Blast Bombs in groups, but I thought with practice I might be able to overcome that... Although, now that I check the wiki, the spine cone line does look better for a beginning bomber. Better start some Snarby runs, I suppose. Thanks!

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 19:05

Biligum

Hm...

Oh, and Culture, would you say that Ash of Agni and its earlier forms are better at crowd control than Dark Briar Barrage and its line? Because now that I'm looking at Ash of Agni, I'm having difficulties deciding between which one to pursue.

Tue, 12/06/2011 - 20:49

Culture

No...

Ash and its earlier forms are pure DoT (damage over time) and has no crowd control in the traditional sense like Shivermist which freezes everything in place or the Vortexes which draw all the mobs together. But it is great for kiting because you can just drop it and walk away while charging the next one. The fire damage will have the mobs turn their attention to you, so they'll follow along catching on fire over and over again. So you can pick up their aggro, but that's about it for Ash's CC abilities. If you have room to walk in a big circle you can just do this continuously until most of the mobs are dead, then pull out the sword to finish off the stragglers.

DBB is a different creature altogether. It aids the party by performing knockdown and interruption on many types of monsters, and without knockback. This makes large groups of mobs much easier to deal with. The damage is great on everything except Constructs and Jellies due to the pure piercing damage type. Nitro has a lot of knockback which is why Nitro isn't frequently used in parties (awesome for solo play though!)

Get the 2* version of both and see if you like them. Both are great bombs, eventually you'll probably get the 5* of each. Ash really shines in arenas and danger rooms, as long as it is not fire themed. DBB is great for Wolver Dens, Fiends and T1/2 Gremlins (T3 Gremlins get shields, making DBB more difficult to execute.) And both work well on Zombies.

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