Spiral Knights - Damage type changes: rethinking a few loadouts

Damage type changes: rethinking a few loadouts

8 replies [Last post]

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 11:31

Nicoya-Kitty

Previously I had been using Volc Demo Helm and Ancient Plate Mail and Shield for gremlin-heavy areas; decon zones for the most part. Swapping in my Grey Owlite Shield seems an obvious change, but for the armor I'm not sure I want to switch to my Grey Feather due to its stun weakness. I'm thinking that Volcanic Plate Mail would be a good choice, since it has normal/ele and stun protection, and I've already got the recipes for it since I was planning to craft it for FSC...

But that brings me to the biggest change: FSC. Zombies now do damage if they hit you mid jump, which means shadow damage just went up a bit, and trolljans are now apparently pure shadow in T3 which means shadow damage just went up a LOT, and normal went way down. Previously I was running Volcanic Demo Helm and Grey Feather Mantle, with an eye to replacing the latter with Volc Plate for stun and more normal protection, but I'm thinking I'll be abandoning that plan for the moment.

I know, the first rule of T3 is don't get hit, and I usually do pretty well at that, but there's still times I mess up a blitz charge on a trolljan or don't dodge in time, or get hit by a bit of lag at just the wrong moment, or whatever.

Long story short, I'm thinking that the Divine set is looking a lot more favourable than it was previously, though there's still some unanswered questions. Namely: Do Slag Guards and Vana's 1/3/5 attacks do shadow damage now, or are they still pure normal?

If they do indeed do shadow damage, then full Divine seems to be the way to go for my non-bomber loadout. For my bomber loadout, a combination divine and volc demo seem a decent choice, since I'll be seeing more damage from shadow fire and fire traps than from trolljans and zombies.

If Vana and Slag Guards still do normal, however, it feels like Volc Plate and Divine Veil might be a better combination, while Volc Demo Helm and Divine Mantle still make sense for bombing.

Thoughts?

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 13:49

Nicoya-Kitty

As an addendum to this,

As an addendum to this, Trolljan sword attacks appear to still do pure normal, so full divine is out. The Fart and Charge attacks appear to do split shadow though. I didn't get slag charged or maced so I can't say for sure what damage type they are yet.

I think volcanic plate and divine might be a good direction to go.

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 15:04

Nordlead

you should have gotten hit in

you should have gotten hit in the name of science. However, I'm guessing based on the trojans sword still being normal that still taking my BTS will be fine. If it switched to shadow I'm 100% positive it would never be able to survive a single swing.

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 15:10

Antistone

Do zombies do pure shadow on T3 now, or still split normal/shadow? (I've been spending all my time so far working through the missions.) If they're still split normal, then normal defense is probably still at least as important as shadow, but if they're not, then a lot could change (even if the trojan smash is still normal, that's probably not the biggest source of damage for most players in FSC).

I would be fairly surprised if Vana dealt shadow now, since previously a lot of his attacks dealt elemental. Not that I would particularly object if he did; I always thought it strange and kind of annoying that he has a different damage type than nearly everything else in the stratum.

Should definitely play FSC once or twice and try to figure out all the new damage types before crafting anything.

You may want to keep the Fallen set on your list of options to consider, as it is currently the only armor to feature normal, shadow, AND fire defenses. (It has a damage penalty vs. fiends, though.)

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 15:16

Kalaina-Elderfall

I would be very leery of

I would be very leery of going full Divine even if Vana and Trojans dealt pure Shadow. Going without Normal is just dicey.

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 15:17

Nordlead

fallen's one drawback is that

fallen's one drawback is that fire protection with no elemental protection means that fire traps are still going to hurt a lot due to the initial elemental hit. I have Crown of the Fallen, but use Vog Cub Cap in FSC. Not counting UVs, My personal favorite setup for FSC would be Fallen + Vog (if I had it but both my pieces are caps). That setup would give you 2xFire, 2xNormal, 1xShadow, 1xElemental and would give you decent protection against everything but stun and jellies, and great protection against fire. When I run Vog + Ash Tail Fire High, I can run through traps with very minimal damage.

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 17:17

Antistone

Going without normal HAS been dicey in the past. The question is whether it still is.

If they removed enough sources of normal damage that elemental and shadow are both more common than normal in FSC, then full Divine would probably be a great choice. But that's a big "if".

Fri, 02/24/2012 - 20:45

Derpules

Any new info?

This stuff seems, well, rather important!

Fri, 02/24/2012 - 21:36

The-Rawrcake

I saw trojans dealing full

I saw trojans dealing full normal damage, only shadow damage on farts.

Not entirely sure though, but I swear seeing red numbers on a smash.

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Damage type changes: rethinking a few loadouts