Spiral Knights - Lockdown Loadouts

Lockdown Loadouts

5 replies [Last post]

Sat, 12/24/2011 - 22:12

Cleverpun

I present to the forums my T1 and T2 lockdown loudouts. I think of my self as being decent at LD, but I'm hardly perfect, so I thought I'd ask for opinions on this gear; any critique, compliment, or counter-arguments will be much appreciated.

I mostly play Recon, all gear is level 10.

T1;

Circuit Breaker Helm- Freeze med
Circuit Breaker Armor- Fire Med

Static Edge- CTR low, vs fiend low (<- lol)
Zapper- CTR low
Static Flash OR Firecracker

Heart Pendant x 2

Also have a Frost Gun and a Pummel Gun, I don't use them much unless I have an extra slot that day.

I mostly spam bombs as Recon in T1, but Depending on the number of enemies/teammates present and how much health I have I'll also take a moment to charge up my gun or sword. Once someone is shocked they either retreat or are easy targets. If the players are good enough to avoid my bombs I may go striker and pound on them with my sword, but I'm not a skilled striker TBH.

T2;

Quicksilver helm
Quicksilver mail OR Dusker Coat- ele low

Twisted Snarble Barb
Kilowatt Pulsar- Construct low
Lightning Capacitor

Tri Heart pendant x 2

I used to bring an Antigua in my fourth slot, but the damage is so pitiful and the pulsar interrupts actions well enough that I stopped bothering. Recently made a Sun shards, but have trouble aiming it (odd since I'm not bad with it in PvE)

The goal here is obvious- Spam capacitor or pulsar shots until the enemy is shocked, at that point they either retreat or I can finish them off with sword, but I prefer to let my teamates handle them while I keep a static cloud on the point im at. The main flaw with this loadout is that it doesnt have enough raw power to finish off the enemy if I'm outnumbered, and even with shield cancelling my barb its very difficult for me to break a guardians shield without any assistance, since the guardian often has faster weapons than me and a gun of his own.

Thanks for reading, and please do comment :)

Sat, 12/24/2011 - 23:32

Warlordx

I don't really play all that

I don't really play all that much tier 1 so i'm not going to comment on that but I play lots of t2 and I'm not terrible at it so here are my thoughts on that. I know you know this but FINISH HEATING YOUR SNARBLE, it's very important.

Other than that your stuff looks pretty good, since you seem to use bombs and guns and not just swords the quicksilver makes sense since you don't need dusker's sword bonus. I agree about ditching the antigua, when people shoot me with it I usually don't even bother to shield or dodge and just come right at them (it is the best gun for disrupting charges though, of either the sword or bomb variety). If you really want a gun for that 4th slot i would recommend a magnus, it's what I use in LD and can provide significant damage when out of sword distance and it's much harder to dodge than the pulsar.

That said it's probably in your best interests to get another sword for your final slot. You hit the nail on the head when you said you need power to cope with guardians. Guardians are really tricky to take out one on one as a recon (I don't really play any recon but I've played a ton of guardian so that's the side my opinions are coming from, obviously if any good recons chime in listen to them) and the best way i've seen is by popping out of cloak, hitting once, then hiding again and repeat until dead. For this pierce swords aren't the best option (unless you come across someone wearing no pierce armor but you shouldn't have trouble with anyone like that) since you need to do large amounts of damage per hit. The best two options for this are probably nightblade and sealed sword, nightblade because no one has shadow armor (if they do, kill with snarble) and it's not too slow and sealed just cause it does a lot of damage anyway and has a long range.

Also, you mentioned people having faster swords than you, it's just a couple thousand more than the normal price to pick up a flourish at the ah with asi low, and med asi is possible too for normal people (aka not those who spend +500k cr for an asi vh) if you save up for a while.

Sun, 12/25/2011 - 04:48

Cleverpun

Hmm, I do still know the

Hmm, I do still know the recipes for the Troika line, perhaps I'll make a spare Kamarin when I have the CE... t'd be tricky to use in LD without being a striker though.

Wed, 12/28/2011 - 08:34

Krysophylax

I play alot of T2 LD and I'd

I play alot of T2 LD and I'd consider myself a pretty good recon. my loadout is very similar to urs actually but i carry a blast bomb in the 4th slot (its surprisingly useful, and if placed correctly its possible to singlehandedly hold off multiple enemies with the knockback). i also wear dusker for the sword damage (every little bit helps), but the shock resistance of quicksilver would be nice too. in any case make sure everything is fully heated.

i find TSB/Flourish to be more than adequate as far as swords are concerned, the pure damage is just very potent along with the great range and speed. just remember to never use a full combo unless your 100% sure youll get a kill and there's no one else nearby. ive seen some recons use heavy swords to great effect but in general i think its a sword better suited to srikers tbh. its just too slow and vulnerable for a recon. the only other sword i would recommend would be a nightblade if you feel another sword is what you need, because of its speed and damage type. the status brandishes only apply status on charge, which is useless for a recon considering ur relying on ambush.

as for dealing with guardians i find the best way is to alternate slashing and cloaking while dancing around them. keep your movements as unpredictable as possible. their shield will break before too long but more often than not they'll just rage and start swinging randomly well before the shield breaks, take advantage of it ;). dropping a status bomb as well if u get the chance can make the situation more awkward for them. alternatively, cloaking and trying to get a death mark on them will usually have similar results. that doesnt apply just to guardians btw, also anyone else you happen to sneak up on.

above all else though, succeeding as a recon (any class really but especially recon) is all about playing smart, not so much what gear you use. you arguably have the most freedom of movement so make sure you use it to ur advantage. you can pick and choose when to fight, when to keep moving, when to cap, being able to switch between attack and defense seamlessly and that is very significant, something that no other class can really pull off as well as a good recon can.

best of luck to you in ur matches. i sincerely hope you do keep developing ur skills as a recon, there's far too few of us compared to the number of strikers out there :P feel free to add me in game if you like (ign krysophylax), i'm more than happy to answer any other questions you might have. i might see you around in matches sometime ;)

Wed, 12/28/2011 - 14:12

Aureate

People play LD t1?!

Never knew that before... I tried it once on a new character and spent ten minutes waiting for a match before getting bored.

Can't really comment on your t1 loadout tbh. xP

Anyway, my personal t2 Striker loadout is Solid Cobalt Helm + Armor, although I'm working towards the Quicksilver and Dusker sets personally, Twisted Snarble Barb (its charge attack is very useful at flushing out Recons, Swift Flourish tends to be problematic here), and Kilowatt Pulsar (also good at flushing out Recons, dealing Shock, AoE and knockback all in one package). Might get a new Drake Scale Mail instead of the armor, though, since a lot of people keep using the elemental Brandish lines. I don't have any token slots atm since I'm playing on and off, so they'd be wasted if I used them right now.

I've found that a Lightning Capacitor is extremely useful as a Recon, though, since you would not believe how many strikers or recons keep running into it - most LDers can usually attest as to how much of a pain it is, particularly since Dusker, Solid Cobalt and Brute Jelly (which are some of the most predominant armours used in LD) have no shock resistance whatsoever. It's excellent at keeping pads clear if you have a high enough CTR for bombs, as the Recon does, though it's still useful for a Guardian.

So yeah, pretty much everything that you've got. xD

If you've got a Flourish or Snarble Barb, you should be able to break through the shield with the assistance of a Lightning Capacitor keeping them down afterwards. Recon drops your sword damage output quite a bit, but I haven't had any trouble breaking through the shield... it might be due to the loss of the extra damage of the second and third strikes. I usually stick with changing direction mid-chain and getting all three strikes in if there aren't too many enemies around for it to be dangerous to recharge.

Otherwise your loadout looks completely fine. Stick with it and hone your tactics a bit further, it's one of the best available in t2 level.

Sun, 01/08/2012 - 07:08

Cleverpun

@ Krysophylax I just might,

@ Krysophylax I just might, and thanks much for the strategy tips!

@ Aureate T1 has the lowest match traffic of all tiers, anyone can tell you this :P But when you do get into a match the participants tend to play a lot since they may not get more matches XD

I do try and shield cancel my barb as a recon, though it's not as smooth as a PvE shield to me... or Im just too used to my BTB :3

I also recently added a Sun Shards to my T2 loadout, rather than a Kamarin, since I felt the damage output would be better. I may get a spare SS for my underused sworder loadout though.

Search

Lockdown Loadouts