Both Vog and Skolver only apply their bonuses to swords

If you have no real need for bonuses, go divine veil and skolver coat to cover every dangerous status and damage. Also consider that if you go full vog, you can get damage trinkets and vice versa, skolver with asi trinks.

@Fradow

The 5* BTB adds a hologram snarbolax. Besides being wicked awesome, it also does damage on top of the spikes (according to the wiki, and seems to in my general use, but I've never thoroughly checked).

As for it's usefulness, I find it is most useful in non-boss runs and T1. Other than that I almost never carry it since I'll normally carry my Combuster and Acheron.

@abbreviations

SDI isn't a common abbreviation, but it stands for Sword Damage Increase.
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/List_of_commonly_used_abbreviations

As for needing weapons, just buy/upgrade whatever helps the most. If you have problems with gremlins/jellies, then a shadow weapon would be really useful. If you are having a lot of problems with beasts/fiends, then pierce would be more important and should be upgraded first.

If you have 2 types of special swords, then you'll be weak against no enemies. Since FSC has tons of Undead, you should get your elemental weapon going first (if FSC is your goal), and then upgrade either shadow or pierce depending on which monsters give you the biggest problem. Eventually you'll get all 3 and it won't be an issue any more.

I also use my BTS (barbarous thorn shield) almost everywhere. When you get better at the game you can get away with a non-optimal shield in various levels. However, I'll still switch out my BTS for a Crest of Almire if I play a fiend stage, since they brake my shield so often.

And which shield was best overall in T3 Grey Owlite or BTS?

I'm afraid there isn't such thing as overall in this game.
T3 can have any theme - so, for example if it there's construct theme you'll be doing better with Owlite, but if there's beasts theme you'll be doing better with BTS. If there's fiend theme you'll be having hard time with any of those two though.

Generally it is best to have at least three shields: one against elemental damage, one against shadow damage and one against piercing damage.

For the shadow armor, I recommend using Crown of Fallen + Snarbolax Coat. Full set of snarby coat has no fun resist and may be a pain in the ___. Crown of Fallen has a universal ASI and fire resist. Even though it has a curse penalty and fiend penalty, I still find it a great headset to go with the snarby coat.

Oh, and I find it funny how no one mentions the word "bomb". If you can afford it, try to slowly get at least one status bomb and it could be reeeeally useful in shadow lairs. It could be shiver or the shock bomb, but I guess a real bomber can give you some pro tips on that.

What are you using these sets for? All around diving? Without switching armour(s) to fit the stratum?
If your answer to this is yes, then Nr. 1 would be your best all around set.

Do you actually have these items and is trying to figure out how to fit them all in one?
If you have both vog/skolver, fit the correct armour for the strat. Seeing as how you lack shadow armour, it is advised for you to start crafting a piece, if not a set.

Do you mean using snarbolax for SL, or doing Sl to get snarby?
You will definately need a 5* set for shadow lairs, unless you find a group to carry you through it. There should be a thread with such groups in general discussions.

Might as well go half vog and half skolver. Craft the vog with the ashtail that has fire resist uv, and skolver with the other one. Unless you know you will be only doing fsc, in which case craft all vog.

Absolute lack of Shadow defence doesn't make any of those sets an good "allround" armour IMO. Greavers and devilites are most deadly enemies. Especially now since wolvers being nerfed, Piercing defence isn't much useful (honestly if there were no Polyps it would be virtually useless).

Actually there's, more or less, the same number of Shadow, Piercing and Elemental Damage in T2 and T3.
There are 6 monster families: 2 of them deal mostly Shadow Damage, 2 of them deal mostly Piercing damage and 2 of them deal mostly Elemental damage. So theoretically damage types are pretty balanced and you should encounter all of them equally in T2 and T3.

If you haven't encounter many monsters that deal Shadow Damage in T2 that's probably because you're avoiding Fiends and Undead Stratum and levels (like Devilish Drudgery, Candlestick Keep, Scarlet Fortress or Concrete Jungle).

And BTW, Shadow Damage doesn't have much in common with Shadow Lairs. Actually in two out of four Shadow Lairs you won't encounter even a single monster that deals Shadow Damage.

Really, it's up to you.

Just be careful, your shield doesn't count in your stats when you get hit. Imagine it as a friend you use as a shield, with its own stats. If you want to take less damage from shadow damage, you'll have to take an armor or a helm with shadow resist. If you want your shield to last longer, take a shadow shield.

Also, it'll be a while before you can include a Snarbolax part on your stuff, because you need to run Shadow Lair, and you generally don't go there with less than 5* stuff. Same goes for Crest of Almire, which requires you to beat Vanaduke several times.

A last note for future questions : we don't care about your costum, use Proto if you want, it doesn't change your stats and thus is not something we are going to recommend you on.

Indeed the set n°3 is the best for all-around, much like the Skolver Coat + Divine Veil set. Compared to that, you gain ASI med and loose DMG med vs all and DMG med vs fiends, and have different status resist.

And Owlite shield is a good all-around shield, because it protects against elemental, which is the most common, and the 2 most feared status.

But, knowing that there are arsenal stations everywhere now, in the long term, you may want to have a specific armor for each damage type. The all-around set is a good starting point, but it's better to have both part defending against normal + the most present special damage of the current level than an all-around defense, once you have enough money to afford that.

To answer to that question "But do i really need a Shadow Dmg sword after i've left RJP? :)" there really is 2 things to know (the final answer is up to you) :
- in FSC, a shadow weapon is useless. The few oilers down there can be taken out by any weapon beside piercing ones without too much problem.
- but T3 isn't only FSC. If you intend to do the rest (or run to the terminal), there will be some times when you will encounter gremlins and slimes. It's good to have a shadow weapon ready for them. But really, if you only do FSC and thus will not need a shadow sword for strata 6, it's not worth upgrading your Silent Nightblade to 5* before the rest : the damage difference isn't a lot before strata 6.

But concerning the Striker series sword : why do you want to use it ? It's normal, thus inferior to BTB/Combuster against their intended targets, and it's hard to use in T3 because of the overly agressive style play. The only valid reason to use it, in my opinion, is to destroy Vana mace (aside for change of playstyle/novelty/graphical awesomeness).

If you really want to go down the Striker line, the most effective is the Dread Venom Striker, because the beast bonus on Wild Hunting Blade is meh (BTB do so much better against beasts), but the most classy (by far) is the Wild Hunting Blade.