Greavers *shudder*

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Darkbrady

Too many threads on all the medium difficulty mobs being nerfed and the game becoming easy lately, so here's a change of pace.

From the perspective of someone who isn't soloing shadow lairs with every weapon available and enough CE to rage-revive, just as someone who's moderatley well built, decent enough skill-wise and solo-core capable, what's your opinion on the harder mobs?

Right now, devils and greavers are the hardest mobs in the game, greavers especially so, and I'm a pure bomber so very certainly for me. What's your tactics for dealing with greavers when you're not expecting them?

Considereing of course that about 50% of the time Greavers will see you off-screen, and flock around you before you're even aware that they're there, and tend to have a silkwing or two with them and be in groups of 3~5. When they're on a shock stratum especially, I find them near impossible to cope with. DBB deals a fair amount of damage to them, but with them moving faster than you and shock interuptions it's entirely impractical to try and bomb greavers unless you get the heads up. Swords can deal better, but with groups flying around you that becomes difficult too. Guns can't tend to kill them fast enough, and polaris falls short on shock greavers.

What's your gameplan when you get ambushed by Greavers?

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Batabii
BTB is all you need.

BTB is all you need. Period.
Guns are generally useless against greavers since they'll rush you as soon as you fire a single shot.

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Darkbrady
Your strategy for countering

Your strategy for countering unexpected Greaver ambushes is to..have a weapon handy, that some people might not have? o.o

What about the people who don't have that? Or if the Greavers are shock based?

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Paweu
lol pure bombing

lol pure bombing

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Fehzor
Plan?

Radiant
Sun
Shards

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Darkbrady
Never actually tried RSS on

Never actually tried RSS on them before..they never come up on any maps where I'd really need them, DBD tends to solve most problems of that map. Should work well if they fly straight into it and get hit with all..unless they just fly past/around and avoid them all...

Altough, how does that solve your problems when you get ambushed, and before you even see them, you have four of them literally surrounding you?

I wasn't just trolling here, I was asking a real question aobut how people cope, is everyone just gunna list a single weapon and hope that anyone in the game who comes across Greavers sees them in advance, has the weapon at all, has the weapon equipped and is prepared to fight them?
What aobut the people who don't have the weapon at all, or even just not equipped?
What about the people who didn't see them coming?
What about the people who simply can't kill four T3 greavers (with silkwings) fast enough before they get shocked/status'd/killed?

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Juances
Nicoya posted some videos of

Nicoya posted some videos of shock and fiends. Now lemme find the link.

EDit: here's one, the rest should be linked there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMh7YZ3ZX9o

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Darkbrady
S'nice run, he's successfully

S'nice run, he's successfully doin' what I try/fail to do with DBB, altough it probably doesn't help that a/ mine is only 4*, b/ I'm on T3, and c/ the greavers I have trouble with are the ones that do all attack in groups (i.e, 4 at once+silks), although it's a nice example. Need to just find obstacles more often to run around to let them slow down from their swoop attack.

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Batabii
Well jeez any medium speed

Well jeez any medium speed sword will do, as soon as you hit them it interrupts their attack.

Guyinshinyarmour
--

BTB/FF shield canceling first slash, constantly backpedaling. It'll funnel them all in front of you, and you slashing at them will interrupt them. You must always be on the offensive. Trying to shield or outrun them will result in your death. It pains me when I see people trying to run away from greavers.

It also helps to use the keyboard to move instead of the mouse, if you are doing that. I've seen an alarming amount of people using mouse to move in T3 these days

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Batabii
what do you mean FIRST slash?

what do you mean FIRST slash? You might as well do the second; you can cancel it even as it hits.

People using the mouse to move are stupid. People who use the arrow keys are worse.

Gotti
I find Greavers easy.

They're not the hardest mob in the game, in my opinion.

I simply use a FF/BTB while back pedaling and shielding, doing the first attack only then quickly shield cancel.

They're not that hard, but I guess for bombers and gunners they might.

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Darkbrady
Gotta say Batabii, for a

Gotta say Batabii, for a thread seriously asking about opinions and strategy, you're being incredibly useless. Listing one weapon and half-assed rationalisation? Completely useless to someone who, say, is asking for ideas. Take Guyins post; useless to me being bombs (although I did ask for suggestions outside bombs, so my gf should be able to take something from it, with luck!) but at least is a solid explanation of what to do when it comes up again. Think just having the sword solves the problem? If it did, this post probably wouldn't be here so...honestly, if you can't post something helpful , just go to the /trollol thread and find somethin' there.

Cheers Guyins, have linked this to my gf, hopefully next time we get them she'll be able to survive in the very least. I'm still tryin' to get the hang on bombin' them; I can do enough damage but no matter what the case, I can never seem to get a bomb off before they get to me and cancel the charge, and with the current gates, all greavers are shock themed, which pretty much guarantees I'll die before I can ever get a bomb dropped. :(

edit: @Gotti: what do you find harder than greavers then? I just can't find any mob at all that gives me any kind of hassle anything like shock greavers

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Slayzz
^ mob of gremln bombers: not

^ mob of gremln bombers: not too bad, but still a bit of an annoyance.
Also, unless you have shock resistance, you pretty much have to use a sword. The shock makes it impossible to charge bombs, so a sword or gun would be your best option. The only other way I can see is using a shivermist, and then alternating between that and DBB.

Gotti
Well..

Shock Fiends :<
My BTS can't take that type of abuse, and since I just reached 5* gear this month...
Well, it's all I really have.

I'm not a pure bomber, nor do I have any bombs at all, so I can't be of much help. Especially since I'm full Swordsman. But, FF/BTB really makes them easy.

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Batabii
Dude "medium speed swords"

Dude "medium speed swords" are not "one weapon". Plus BTB is super common. And you get the Snarble Barb as a boss reward so it's virtually free.

If you HAVE to use a bomb, use RSS. But you really shouldn't be stuck with nothing but bombs, they take time to charge no matter what your setup is.

There's really no explanation needed. A greaver charges you? Slash it in the face! What else is there?

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Darkbrady
@Batabii: You're saying "use

@Batabii: You're saying "use this sword" to both someone who obviously isn't finding any joy using that sword, and is actually specifically asking for strategies in HOW to use the sword since "just using it" isn't quite enough. Charges you, just slash it? Great, will try that next time four greavers appear off-screen and attack me, 1/4 hps left and shocked. I'll hope that I can kill them all before the shock spasm's me, and that the silkwings next to them decide healing them just isn't worth it.
And yeah, you're also saying "use this sword" to someone who's mentioned themself as a bomber. I use bomb armour and trinkets and carry a sword around primarily for single mobs and switches, not for full blown sword combat, so that's not much use to me either.

@Slayzz: Yeaah, fair enough. Back when I sworded I *hated* bomb squads, and pretty much refuse to ever deal with them with swords ever again, just made me tear my hair out. Completely forgotten about them as an option for scary mobs these days though, Knights simply out-bomb gremlins! :D
And yeah, I've come to terms that when greavers come at me with shock, I'm pretty much dead if they see me first, but I'm tryin' to make sure that when I get the jump, I at least have a chance at gettin' past them w/o requiring assistance!

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Kalaina-Elderfall
As a gunner, this is my game

As a gunner, this is my game plan for Greavers:

1) Charge Blitz Needle while backing away from the Greavers. Pray that they don't attack me before I finish charging.
2) Shoot charged Blitz Needle into Greavers. Pray that I kill all of them (I never do, usually only killing one).
3) Shield the Greaver hit and then bump the Greavers away from me. Pray that they don't attack again immediately.
4) Repeat (Usually involves taking damage and then running far away in an attempt to find a safe place to charge the Blitz again).
5) Give up and slugfest them with my BTB which I keep as a utility sword.

* Optional step (this may be done at any point during the process): Die.

Portrait de Darkbrady
Darkbrady
Lol, Kala. S'how I feel. A

Lol, Kala. S'how I feel. A lot of praying and more dying than I'd like xD

Guyinshinyarmour
--

@Batabii
The first slash where you got the massive arc is what I mean. The second & third attacks have you dashing forward into the greaver pack when the point is to keep them all in front of you where the first slash's arc will hit them all and keep them disabled. You'll still die with this strat if you're surrounded after all.

Not sure what your point is about the arrow keys comment. My point with using the mouse to move is that you have to spend that much more time turning around and attacking when you use the mouse instead of just backpedaling using the arrow keys/WASD and the mouse to face backwards.

@Darkbrady
Oh. I didn't really think about bombs. You didn't really specify for a bomber set up, and since I'm a sword user it didn't cross my mind.

Yeah, I can see greavers being a massive pain w/o a sword. All you got is RSS/DBB and those take time to detonate. If they jump you you're kinda screwed, as you have pointed out. Better off hanging back and letting sword users handle them (if you're in a party). :|

Though you say you carry a sword anyway to back you up. You're just better off learning to use the thing, even if you hate it. Better to use a tactic you don't much care for than to die.

...And simply "Guy" will do. :p

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Thimol
-----

People using the mouse to move are stupid. People who use the arrow keys are worse.

So, what, you use a gas pedal and steering wheel?

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Heavy-Duty
...

@Sylvanius
I prefer skeet shooter and spork jabbed into the hardware. Maybe a steering wheel, but I'm not so sure...
@Thread
Shield when you see you're swarmed and dash out a sword here and there? Or a VERY FAST bomb (since they don't attack immediately after they had just attacked). I actually wish these guys were harder, but they're plenty fun for me.

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Darkbrady
@Guy: Yeah, I can use swords

@Guy: Yeah, I can use swords well enough as it is but I'm in the same place as my gf (who does use swords primarily) and both of us just have such trouble dealing with them. To be fair, regular greavers (posion, fire etc) can be deal with enough, just taking the odd hit of the status, but the shock ones spell insta-death, basically.
Especially since I use mad bomber *sad*

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Batabii
@sylvanus wasd of course. the

@sylvanus wasd of course.
the worst is GUNNERS that use arrow keys, because it means constant spinning around to attack pursuing enemies instead of backpedaling and strafing. It's also kinda lazy.

@guy I didn't think of that. but I don't generally get surrounded by greavers, only blocked on one side.

@kalaina lol no strategy should involve so much prayer.

@darkbrady you really only need to slash, which sword isn't generally critical, and if you're already shocked no strategy would really make much difference. And greavers rarely spawn all at once in open spaces, they tend to appear behind walls and blocks. And again, maybe you should rethink your loadout if you don't have anything useful that isn't a bomb. I actually recommend getting a gun because it will help you beat most things that are hard to get close enough to to bomb, like gun puppies and lumbers, plus letting you hit distant switches without resorting to pots.

What guy said is right though, RSS is great with a bomber set up, all you have to do is set it, take one step back, and shield, and all 8 shots are virtually guaranteed to hit as the greavers rush right over it.

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Darkbrady
I use RSS for anything that i

I use RSS for anything that i could use a gun for; I have no decent guns and no interest in them, not good armour.
I do use swords, and tend to need to on Greavers, but I don't want my solution to every problem being "use a sword". I want to be able to solve my problems with my preferred choice, even if it takes longer to get the hang of it.

Altough saying that, they are far more cope-able when they spawn individually behind the crystal blocks, penned up one by one, but for whatever reason, we have a horrible, horrible habit of walking into a room and having a full flock of greavers just fly out at us from the side/bottom and totally swarm us without warning. There's about a 2, maybe 3 second period in which to react before you just completely die, but nothing we've done thus far has worked other than "fail, and die." Bombing goes ocmpletely out the window if they're shock, and even swords are hard to get a swing off when there's four surrounding you.

Maybe that's just my bad luck?

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Velcro
If you're hard pressed to use

If you're hard pressed to use bombs, here's my solution. (Note: Swords are 'the' answer to Greavers, anything else is like trying to push a square block through a round hole.)

If you even slightly suspect that Greavers may spawn in the room you're approaching, have one of you (note this does rely on two people being there but you seem to be playing with your gf usually) enter the room. If Greavers do spawn, try to fight but keep the other player held back WAY back. Then if the Greavers die, good job and do a little dance.

If they don't die, and the one in the room dies, then the other can walk into the room with a charged bomb already and just bait them to it and kill them that way. Try not to pull too many if you can. This should give you the upper hand but regardless revive your partner BUT HAVE THEM STAY DEAD. Then just try to fight them, making sure to fight around your partner's corpse. If you die, have the partner rez, rez you (you stay dead), and fights the Greavers. Rinse and repeat making sure to abuse the invinicibility period of revival to charge up a bomb until either all Greavers are dead or you're both dead.

Note this method of reviving your partner but them staying dead til you're dead and fighting around each other's bodies could be used in any situation really. It's kind of the slow (VERY slow) and steady method of doings things.

With the long invinicibility time after revival doing this should work I imagine.

So that is my solution if you wish to keep using bombs and get surprised.

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Batabii
Incidentally, early on I

Incidentally, early on I tried using DBB on greavers. It doesn't work too well...

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Alice-In-Pyroland
Too lazy to read every

Too lazy to read every individual response so here's the gist of how you bomb against Greavers;

First and foremost we're going to assume you have Radiant Sun Shards. If you're a pure bomber then there are no ifs or buts, if you suspect Greavers are going to appear in the upcoming statum you bring RSS (Well if you're in a group you can instead use status bombs to restrict their mobility for your team mates, but I'll get to that in a minute). If you can see the Greavers up front, simply charge RSS place it as they get just into charging range, then step just behind the bomb so that when they come up to atttack you it is directly underneath them. Soloing and in smaller parties this will one-shot them flat-out, if it doesn't then simply repeatedly place RSS and repeat the strategy, the fast charge and fuse times on the RSS means you can get it off quick enough to kill even moderately large groups of Greavers; in fact RSS will often kill large groups with ease. Now if you end up in an area where the Greavers spawn around you and you aren't immediately prepared (Arena's tend to be a good example of this) the simplest thing to do is drop RSS as quickly as you can, shield their attacks, and then start RSS chaining. This shouldn't happen often though as for the most part you'll be spreading status in arenas ensuring that if they do spawn they can't effectively attack you anyway.

Going off of that last point, failing RSS status bombs ruin Greavers. Shivermist obviously locks them in place and enables you to walk right up and drop RSS on them if you aren't confident using it around moving Greavers, or you can use DBB/Nitro if you don't have RSS on you and being a crowd control bomb by nature Shiver also ensures that you won't be blindsided by anything else. Voltaic Tempest works similar wonders against Greavers; quite like Kats their mobility is restricted by it and although not as effective as Shiver you can use it to slow them down and then drop whatever DPS bomb you have on you (Or allow team mates to finish them). Although you likely won't be bringing it into the Clockworks, Stagger Storm is also extremely effective against Greavers as it not only slows down their attack animation but their movement and you end with a bunch of Greavers flying around in slow motion, which is honestly worth doing just for the entertainment value.

Now if for some bewildering reason you haven't got RSS, Shiver, Tempest or Stagger; maybe you ended up in a Fiend danger room in a stratum Greavers would never spawn in! You're going to need to rely on either Nitronome or DBB. Nitro is more effective since the knockback and faster use time means you can chain it with relative efficency and if you have chance to start chaining in advance the Greavers won't touch you. This of course would be dangerous in that particular example though as the Devilites would probably have a field day, thus you'll need to kite within Nitro and ideally eliminate the Greavers as quickly as possible. DBB works if you can kite them and can prepare it in advance, but unlike Nitro it lacks knockback and goes off slower which means it requires much more skill to effectively use it and this is why I wouldn't recommend it to someone whom is having difficulty with greavers in the first place.

TL;DR
*Radiant Sun Shards is your best friend
*If you don't have RSS, spam bombs that restrict their mobility!
*If you cannot do that either, Nitronome! Or DBB if you're a) Confident b) Don't have Nitro
*If you have none of the above, and also don't have a sword... well good luck (Also take better loadouts into the Clockworks)

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Stavrosg
Guns!

To the people saying that guns are useless against grievers, have you tried using an Argent Peacemaker on them? Autotarget works wonders, allthough it is extremely usable and without it. Yes, devilites will most probably dodge most of the shots if you're not careful, but grievers have no chance against it.

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Gfjmember
I've had mixed results with

I've had mixed results with my cryo.

Shoot a bullet, backpedal, hope it freezes, if they charge, raise shield and hope you shield bump them back. However, this strategy isn't great if there are more than a couple. I have had to backpedal pretty far in the past

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Otaia
Greavers

@Kalaina-Elderfall
"As a gunner, this is my game plan for Greavers:

1) Charge Blitz Needle while backing away from the Greavers. Pray that they don't attack me before I finish charging.
2) Shoot charged Blitz Needle into Greavers. Pray that I kill all of them (I never do, usually only killing one).
3) Shield the Greaver hit and then bump the Greavers away from me. Pray that they don't attack again immediately.
4) Repeat (Usually involves taking damage and then running far away in an attempt to find a safe place to charge the Blitz again).
5) Give up and slugfest them with my BTB which I keep as a utility sword.

* Optional step (this may be done at any point during the process): Die."

You're making it hard on yourself. Hitting them at any point while they're "locked on" to you will make them back off. All you have to do is wait for them to zoom in, shoot them in the face with the regular attack, shield cancel, and backpedal. They have very little health and die quickly. The only hard part about this is making sure you don't miss. Or when they come at you from different angles, making it impossible to hit them all. That only seems to happen in groups when people are knocking them around, though.

Swordies have it easier due to the wide arc on their attacks, but generally the best way to deal with Greavers is just to hit them with a quick attack and back up. They're really quite easy as long as they're not supported by something that makes standing still for a second dangerous. Bombers have a harder time since they don't have a normal attack.

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King-Tinkinzar
Use your Striker non-stop,

Use your Striker non-stop, don't even shield!

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Frostythepyro
any non-shadow sword will

any non-shadow sword will work to interupt them consitantly, though the medium and fast swords are better than the slow ones i think. for the peirce swords you want the first attack as oposed to the combination if there are multiples, becasue the first attack is a wide swing (hits lots) and the later are thrusts (likely to only hit one). Greivers alone are pertty easy asuming you have a sword (and its not shadow damage), as just about anything and everythhing will interupt their attacks. Finding a corner and just spaming the attack can work alright but you need to be carefull about em droping one of those haze things on you..

When I was running with just a achereon and a fire alchamer i was kinda screwed with greivers unless i outsmarted them, get them stuck behind boxes/gates and hook alchamer shots around corners at em, things like that. But now i have a voltedge and a BTB, so greivers arnt that big a deal (alone), they can still mess me up when there are other monsters i need to deal with at the same time (devilites especialy).

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Traevelliath
Stabby!

I use a FF and shield cancel.

IMO, whats more important than the weapon is the shield. Against fiends, they are generally unpredictable and hit hard. Devilites in particular give you little warning and can hurt like hell. If you bring a Bristling Buckler against them, you can last for a few seconds, and then your shield breaks and you are screwed. A skelly shield, crest or any shield that has shadow resist IMO is a must.

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Nechrome
Get a Troika line sword. If

Get a Troika line sword. If you use it correctly, you'll be able to kill those Greavers before they even touch you. That's why I love Greavers; so easy to kill (for me anyways).

If you want to use a bomb, though, I have no suggestions.

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Asukalan
Greavers? :D Moar plax. So

Greavers? :D Moar plax.

So easy to kill with right weapon. You dont have right weapon? Make it. You dont want to make it? Die or deal with it and do other runs.
This game is about crafting and being ready for random dangers. Thats why we have arsenal stations on lvls so we can get ready for diffrent stuff.

All arguments here that claim that Greavers are too hard to kill are just silly. Doh, saying its bad that something lurks in corners and attack you in group suddenly? SK is fast peaced action game. You are in deadly world. Get ready for everything if no, just die. They are too fast? DOH, they can fly, they can go faster than running knights. They are meant to be faster.

Where this game is going to? Nefred zomgies, DONE. Nerfed wolvers? DONE Enemies dont move after spawning? DONE. Now its going to nerf greavers just becouse someones ego got slapped by them and they died and instead of taking lesson from it he just wanted to complain. What will be next? All Fiends?

This game will end up as one big Scuttlebot fest.

Also its intresting that those topics that some enemies are too strong are appearing just now. Guess why? Didnt we had recently big promo when ppl could get rich with real $$ very easly? Yeah, X-mass promo. It seems that in that time, many new players just bought their way into T2 and T3 by buying high star equipment without even learning how to play. They got owned there since they dont have skill or just bought stuff without thinking. And now? OMGOMG IMA ALL 5STAR AND I DIED. DAS THING IS TOO OP. OOO PLEASE NERF IT.

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Darkbrady
@Asukawhatever I'd like to

@Asukawhatever
I'd like to point out that this thread wasn't asking, or even encouraging nerfs on Greavers in any way. I opposed the nerfpatch along with everyone else, and do enjoy a challenge. I'd like to do a wee self-quote, if you won't mind:

"What's your gameplan when you get ambushed by Greavers?"

Not "nerf greavers they took hard" or "QQ get rid of them". I was asking people for different strategies on killing greavers, how others cope. Not asking them to be changing, asking how they're bested as they currently are. You're clearly getting mixed up with the QQnerf-request in Suggestions, to which I also disapproved of.

And the "make the weapon to kill them" is...honestly stupid, when you're saying that the game is about crafting.
WHy bother having a crafting option and arsenal station if every player just gets the exact same weapon out on a fiend level?

No one was saying "how do I kill a greaver with *THIS EXACT* bomb/sword/gun". It was a "what bomb/sword gun do you use, and how do you use it?"

There have actually been some very helpful replies. Since I made this thread, I've been able to successfully fend of Greavers (not shock yet, but I haven't met any more T3 shock greavers since this threads creation, so who knows...) with bombs. I haven't just gone and made a BTB "because that's THE answer" I stuck to the actually helpful/useful advice and practiced. What do you know, a BTB wasn't my answer after all.

Not that it'd do me much good, walkin' in with pure bomber armour and whippin' out a pokey sword...when everyone around me walks in with "I stab things for breakfast" armour and mighty face-stabbers.
Let the swordys use their sword (yes, I'm sticking with the concept that swords are better for greavers, no one's denying that) and let the bombers do their thing, with greaver appropriate bombs, not swords.

Get it?

Portrait de Alice-In-Pyroland
Alice-In-Pyroland
Asuka I realize the pain of

Asuka I realize the pain of watching Three Rings paralyze your pet Retrode right in front of you was very traumatic, but it's time to put the pitchfork down before you end up murdering someone over an imaginary complaint.

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Scourgething
Greaver Campers

Today i was soloing the Jade King gate frost stratum, going past a barrier to push down a switch, 3 Beryl(?) Greavers spawned and spammed their frigid haze which constantly froze me, and since my attacks could not go through the barrier while their haze could, my only choice was to die. Quick attacks and annoying, shield draining status hazes make them absolutely agonizing to fight against as a swordsman, even if you have the Snarble Barb.

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Disciplina
My preferred weapons against

My preferred weapons against greavers are, by type...

Sword: Yes, the Snarble Barb line. You knew I was gonna say this. That said, I only recently started using it and its representatives...
Bomb: Freezing Vaporizer line. As others have stated in this thread, a greaver that can't move is a worthless Greaver.
Gun: ... Magnus through Callahan. Yes. Seriously. It hits with a wide enough impact to potentially halt multiple greavers in my path, and from a considerable distance. Granted, I have considerable luck getting greavers to back off and stay away most times, that I admittedly don't always have!

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Kilbride
Heavy swords...

Otaia and Necro both touched on this, so I'll just summarize what I've found to be the best strategy for Greavers.

The sealed sword line and the troika line have a very wide arc on both swings along with decent reach. The key to handling Greavers is to get in there and swat the group before they get behind you. Your swings will interrupt them and you can knock them back. If you are surrounded, a couple swings with the big sword should cover almost 360 degrees. With a little practice, they can be dispatched very easily. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I think it is grimly amusing when a few Greavers start decimating my teammates. I wade in there and swat the little fiends and start reviving.

I think much of difficulty is that Greavers are hard to read, which is why you just get in there and swat 'em. Don't be psych yourself out.

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Kilbride
Sheesh.

Asukalan, could you at least try to be helpful or constructive? Darkbrady wasn't calling for a nerf, he was asking for tactical advice, which is a pretty good use of these forums.

Stop being a jerk.

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Sgt-Brownie
For those Gunners out there havin' problems, this is for you!

The goal for a gunner against Greavers is to make absolutely sure they never go behind you: Your shots have direction, and you have to reload when you shot all bullets, so caution must be taken against these fast enemies.

There are two ways to deal with groups of Greavers followed by Silkwings, each that have their own preferred weapons.

-"Destroy the heavy resistance!" (Preferred weapon: Blitz Needle): A simple, fast, yet risky tactic that will obliterate the Greavers before the Silkwings even notice someone is in need of healing. Make them come to you, block their first strike, then charge your Blitz. If you're still charging and they'll start attacking again, backpedal and strafe after they got close to you. When you are fully charged, unleash the hell fire, then shield as soon as possible if there are greavers remaining. Rince and Repeat until you're done, then kill mercilessly those annoying butterflies.

"Take priority on the Healers!" (Preferred weapon: Callahan): A longer, safer tactic that requires good aim and fast reflexes as you'll be killing the Silkwings before going for the Greavers. Approach the Silkwings as fast as possible and shoot one bullet at a time so you have your shield ready. Push the Greavers away with your shield, shoot them if you need to to make them stop in their attacks, or when your shield can't take more damage. Remember the Callahan's shots have a bit of an AoE, which you can use to stop 2 greavers from attacking you. Once you're done with the Silkwings, go after the Greavers. Same strategy from the first tactic still applies, though you don't need to charge your shot with the Callahan.

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Doctorspacebar
Node 58425 - Guile's theme goes with it.

'Twas a dead thread, but it's worth necroing.

Unfortunately, the RSS was changed. Any reviews on its effectiveness against Greavers and Devilites would be appreciated; however, I'm quite sure it can't wipe out a large group of the suckers in one blast like it used to. Such a pity...

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Michaelb
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/58425

Ah, they're no hard pure bombing. I just plant a bomb, then shield as they dash in. The DBB usually knocks them down long enough for me to charge up another bomb. Lather, rinse repeat.

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Darkbrady
@Sgt: I've found

@Sgt:
I've found alch-switching to be an incredibly effective way to gun down Greavers as it lets you backpedal without stopping while spamming them with interrupting shots and spreading status effects.

@Doc:
I just can't imagine the new shards being effective to any real degree as the range of them is so limited. Then again, just bumping them into the rad (as Micheal said) should be able to work...mind you each shard does about as much damage as a well thrown chestnut to the face so I expect it'd take far too long 1v1...maybe better for groups?

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Dukeplatypus
AP works wonders as even the

AP works wonders as even the smallest hit will interrupt them.

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Obsidious
Some personal experiance when bombing Greavers

Much of what's been said here I'll summarize in one quick quip: The best defense against greavers is a quick offense."

With that being said, however, if you're familiar with the the general clockwork layouts and the where the spawn triggers are (The invisible line that cause enemies to pop up), priming a bomb before hitting the spawn trigger can be handy. Honestly, after having gone through a lot of clockwork tunnels, it's generally very easy to know when and where the enemies will pop, which can allow you prep and place a bomb before hand.

I recall one lovely moment in when I was running a Infernal passage when I came across an area that I was positive I knew where the trigger (And more, paranoid that Greavers would spawn). I ended up placing nitro just right when I hit the trigger, and when all the greavers swarmed me, the nitro went off at that exact moment. Now, I could have primed another nitro, but I actually transitioned to my Levi blade, and because of the high bomb damage (While lacking a boost in CTR), it was a satisfying clean-up with no scratch at all.

To be honest, I've enjoyed plopping one or two bombs (Usually solo) and then switch to my sword to hack and slash certain monster like silkwings, knowing that my bomb will provide some cover while against the mob surrounding me. I was very fond of doing this in wolver dens.

But I digress. Pure bombing is rather tricky VS the buggers, Michaeld's technique seems doable (Never tried it, but I assume it's been done). Regarding shard bombs, while I'll admit some tweaking needs to be done with them, but they do have their uses. Particular in against groups and longer fights (And occaisonally Shadowmane Stalkers). Part of the trick is chaining bomb explosions, which can usually be done my placing a sharb bomb close or around the circle of shards of the previous. If you got it set up right, greavers can often get hit quite a few successive times, though it's not easy to pull off.

That said, one neat trick is actually use the shard bomb and another one at the same time. Or rather have them explode around the same time, as the nice thing about the two stage shard explosion is that it gives you time to place the different bomb over it. For example, with enough CTR, you can place a DBB right when the first stage explodes; or, with proper timing, having them explode one after the other. Granted, you could just spam DBB, but that would be a constant explosion after each +2 seconds, where else this is can be a quick, rabid spurt.

Now I have no idea how effective this would be directly against greavers, since I haven't fought them purely with such a technique (Usually I do the double whammy during or right before a spawn wave). However, theoretically, you could use the blast-style bomb (DBB or nitro) to interrupt greavers in general, and then follow up with a shard chain, timing it in such a way that the first stage can help to interrupt the next attack. Or you could do it vice versa, using the blast bomb as a finisher.

Well that's all I have to share when it comes to greavers for the moment.

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Zeddy

With any weapon but a bomb, one or two greavers are easy. Any more than that and they're still easy if you have a sword.

With bombs? Run a tight circle. The greavers are fast, but they do not turn fast, so if you run in a circle they'll miss. After they miss you, you can drop a bomb. Keep running in a circle to keep the greaver in the bomb's radius.

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Kraanx
i just combo them with a

i just combo them with a triglav. the range and wide arc of the sword can hit the whole swarm and if done solo even the first strike can interrupt their attacks. IF they mamage to attack after the second hit, they would have been hit to a safe distance. if they go around you in a circle, you can use both your 180º slashes to hit the ones in the back. so i'm guessing a DA would be even better, right?

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Severage
...

I don't find Greavers so difficult to fight.

When gunning, AP works just fine by pinging them once to interrupt them, like bombers in LD prior to the charge-attack change. Alchemers are also very deadly to a mob of greavers dashing at you.

When using swords...I can't think of many that wouldn't work well. Brandishes would probably not be too effective, but you could still spam charge for the win. Any 180-degree slash sword will work just find I'd imagine - even the slower ones.

When bombing...I don't really know. I don't use bombs. I know RSS used to be good on them. I've heard DBB is good on them.

My main strategy is to backpedal the majority of the fight. Greavers are one-minded and stupid like a school of fish (That all got F grades), and will bunch up in a clump and chase you. When gunning it makes it easy to interrupt and hit multiple targets, when using a sword you have an easy advantage, and even with a slow sword you can interrupt all the Greavers, instead of being surrounded by them, and when bombing I imagine that it makes it easier to land them in your radius. I suppose for bombers it wouldn't matter as much though.

Devilites are the real suckers for me. Probably the only enemy that I have had trouble with in Spiral Knights...well, since Alpha Wolvers stopped tracking, anyway. Their virtually infinite range and swift attack speed in bunches is super deadly, and unlike Greavers, you have to chase them down, they don't come to you.

~Sev