Spiral Knights - Polaris or Driver? Which trinket too?

Polaris or Driver? Which trinket too?

7 replies [Last post]

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 03:48

Nubskills

Hiyas, Nubskills again.
I was considering switching over to a driver instead of using the pulsar line, since I usually make sure I don't affect my allies with it by watching them, resulting in not watching myself. Plus the drivers also deal good damage for most situations.
So, which one would be better for a (current) wolver clone? And which driver, if I should go with a driver?
Would drivers work just as well on vana as pulsars do?(as an average "i-don't-have-a-blitz" type vana gun?) I'm currently very divided amongst these two, I'll probably end up getting both in the far future lol....

I was also considering which sword trinkets I should get, out of pentas, CTR and ASI.
Pentas are good for LD and average for other weapons too, CTR helps me spam DA/DTB charges and ASI helps with my DA/Faust.
CTR isn't as good for LD, but great for clockworks, ASI is great for LD, but not as good for clockworks.
I generally do LD at least a few times a week, I'm also very divided with these. Course, I plan to get them all in due time, along with a gunner and bomber loadout, so that "due time" will be a while, pretty much why I'm asking about this now. XD

Oh yeah, my current loadout is:
Snarby set
DA/Faust/Dark thorn blade
Crest of Almire/Dark thorn shield(using this less now, i'll upgrade it sometime)
Kilowatt pulsar and Sun Shards(waiting to see if they get patched) are collecting dust in my inventory. :/

Sorry for the short thread, I'm starving and it's 9:20pm here already :P

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 05:37

Aureate

Speaking as a gunner

Alchemers rock. Main attraction is the ricochet effect. Although this may be annoying with large numbers of switches/explosives about (IMF is a bugger for these), it is possible to get internal ricochets within an enemy and rack up large damage from a single charge this way. This takes some time to get used to, though, and can take a bit of practise. With pure damage alchemers, you should focus on using the charge for the pure damage and internal ricochets. For status infliction, you may be better off with using the plain attack and shield cancelling after every shot in order to spread status faster.

Focusing on FSC, I wouldn't really favour either gun for Vanaduke, tbh, due to the slow bullet speed and shadowfire shield in the last stage. You'd be best off with a AP or Callahan for sniping purposes.
Polaris will be best for taking out the gun puppies and their relatives (shutting them up due to the knockback), as well as those pesky spinning wheels and herding pretty much anything into a corner. A Nova Driver will be more useful for cutting large groups of slags, however. It's simply a matter of which you find more irritating.

In your case, with regards to alchemers, I would go for either Nova Driver, if you want pure damage (preferably with a CTR bonus) or Storm Driver if you like shock (preferably with ASI). Magma is not a good idea down here, due to the high number of monsters resistant to fire and the Oilers. Hail is also not a good idea in general, since the freeze has a tendency to be broken by ricochets, but it's possible to make it work for you.

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 06:10

Nubskills

Hmm, yeah, I also considered

Hmm, yeah, I also considered a nova driver for pure dps and no knockback, but the polaris line seems to have a lot of utility(I think the explosions hurt vana instead of the bullets, with the shield). I'll try outlining some pros and cons to me for the two guns:

Polaris Pros-Knockback, Easy to use AoE,decent damage, 3 shots, flinching, shock, easy to use
Polaris Cons-Knockback reduces dps, watching teammates increases vulnerability and lowers dps, requires more careful use in a party

Nova Driver Pros-Higher dps if used well, no need to worry about affecting teammates
Nova Driver Cons-2 shots, doesn't always hit twice for enemies with smaller hitboxes

Argh, don't really like alchemers....the difference between alchemers and drivers is huge to me....although I'm sure you mentioned the alchemer lines as in drivers lol
I'm seriously considering getting the nova driver for a gunner set(loooong way away) though, just not sure whether to use it for now or not :/

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 08:18

Otaia

Yeah, the 2* and 3* versions

Yeah, the 2* and 3* versions of Alchemers are awful. Terrible. Not worth using at all.

In LD, Polaris is good for area denial, while Alchemers are much better at actually getting hits in a fight and causing damage. Polaris shots are simply too slow to hit a moving target, and the damage they do is pitiful. I have CTR med on my Magma Driver, and the charge can be useful for looking for a recon, or firing into the midst of a battle and shocking/igniting multiple people. But ASI is definitely more useful overall.

I'm not a fan of using any gun on Vana that isn't Blitz Needle when you're doing the Shiver/Blitz strategy. Vana has something like 45k hp in a 4-man party and Blitz Needle takes out about 3k of that at a time. Plinking for 150 damage and breaking the ice hurts more than it helps unless your party is good enough at dodging and doesn't lag.

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 09:12

Somenubcake

nubskills you got all the

nubskills you got all the pros and cons spot on. if you have both guns already, why not try a few run with one or the other and see which one you like better? I got both guns and i pretty much never use my polaris unless it's against those wheel things in FSC (or cutting grass if i feel like it lol)

Wed, 02/22/2012 - 23:54

Nubskills

@Otaia
Hmm, I see, yeah, that makes sense, but with shooting vana, that's when there aren't any shivers around, would that strategy still work? If vana doesn't block bullets with his fire shield, drivers would be sooo good against his large hitbox lol

@Somenubcake
Ah ok, I don't have any drivers, just a shadowtech alchemer(which i only used once for rjp), I guess I'll go buy a prisma then....Oh yeh, can i haz sum of ur cake pl0x?

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 08:08

Kalaina-Elderfall

Here's my take on the pros

Here's my take on the pros and cons.

Polaris

- Utterly destroys turrets, and if turrets are what you want it for, then that's your pick (major advantage)
- Can push back crowds (utility that you might not need if your sword does this)
- Can shock Vana (minor utility that usually isn't relevant)
- Rocket puppy room
- Does well spammed into groups of zombies, easy to learn

- Sucks at single-targeting mobile enemies because of the knockback
- All the reasons people hate Polaris (although it's a bit hypocritical of them, since they tend to sword enemies out of the way of my alchemer charge shots, which really kills my DPS)

USAGE TIP: Do not fire all three shots in a straight line; hit a different target with each (or two different targets with each)

Nova

- Good single-target damage that's easy to use (with Polaris you have to be like "ok I am now Polarising," with alchemers you can just shoot)
- Good group damage; Polaris will have better group damage unless you're REALLY good with an alchemer, but Nova group damage is not bad
- Charge shot is useful
- None of the reasons people hate Polaris

- Can feel pretty constrained by the low clip size (you spend a lot of time reloading)
- It's a tricky gun with a lot of potential, and you really have to practice with it to learn to use it well

USAGE TIP: Shoot the sides of enemies to get the bounces to go where you want them to; it matters a lot

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 23:11

Nubskills

@Kalaina-Elderfall

@Kalaina-Elderfall
Ah ok, thanks for the reasons, with the Polaris usage tip, I find that firing to the left, right and centre can help with both enemy groups and single enemies.
Lol I hardly reload with the alchemer lines, I just fire again once the gun returns to the original position, skipping the reload. Hahaha love the "ok I am now Polarising" line, I've tried to internalise the ricochets for single enemies, it seems to work on turrets, but I don't see any sign of a second damage value. it's usually: fire>bullet makes contact>riochet plus damage value appears, for me, so I can't really tell. Is it supposed to do that even with an internal ricochet? I've tried experimenting on minerals, the first hit always reduces the mineral size by one factor, even if i shoot the sides, and two hits in the same position breaks the mineral. Experimented with my prismatech alchemer Mk II.

Search

Polaris or Driver? Which trinket too?