What was your first 5 star item?
If you could go back would you drop the crowns on a different item?
I have 5 or 6 items mostly heated up at 4* and I'm not sure where to go now.
@ 4 stars I have
Ascended calibur, cold iron carver, silent nightblade,
master blaster, volt driver, freezing atomizer, master blast bomb,
mighty cobalt helm, heavy demo suit, might cobalt armor, mighty defender
My first five star item was Storm Driver. It was back then when we hadn't got Polaris and elemental Argent Peacemaker.
see edit. My armors are all pretty weak. I was going for the mad/volcanic bomber, but I feel that the right sword against the right monster is WAY more effective. And its way easier to never get hit as a gunner.
It took me a long time to get but my first 5* item was a royal jelly crown. I would not go back and spend the crowns on something else because along the way it got extra piercing defense as a variant so now it has maxed out piercing defense. Now I don't have to worry about getting the ice queen crown. :D
Divine Avenger, got it for FSC mob hitting.
Cold Iron Carver. Thought it'd be better than the Leviathan Blade. Boy was I wrong.
It's an awful, awful weapon.
Leviathan. Don't hardly use it now. But it got me where i am today, and its still a good weapon, just not the best.
Divine Veil. I guess I'm one of the few people who thought defense was more important!
I got my shiny DA, because of the extra sword projectiles. My triple-UV Miracle Hood will probably be up next, when the update comes through. After that it's a tossup between Polaris, Acheron, or BTB... after those are through it'll probably be working on a CTR UV'd AoA, Umbra Driver, Nova Driver, and that blasted Blight Needle you need a bajillion Krogmo Coins for.
I went for the Divine Avenger first, then...a Gran faust. Quickly followed by about 10 other items.
The Divine Avenger was a very good decision on my part, I'm just glad I read up on everything before buying :P However, I'm switching over to a ctr'd Voltedge, and is going to roll for IAS on my crazy overpowered Rocket-Stick.
My evaluation:
Ascended calibur, cold iron carver, silent nightblade,
master blaster, volt driver, freezing atomizer, master blast bomb,
mighty cobalt helm, heavy demo suit, might cobalt armor, mighty defender
First line: Do not under any circumstance craft CIC into CIV. Leviathan is simply a better all-round sword, and the Elemental swords are infinitely better at dealing with undead. Acheron is terrific, as Gran Faust has a very steep learning curve, you'll find your life much easier with Acheron.
Second line: Do not craft Valiance, unless you only want to use one gun for your entire Spiral Knights career, as normal damage just isn't that great. Storm driver is nice, but for a non-uv'd version, Polaris is probably a nicer choice. Or even Argent Peacemaker, now that it's probably the best gun for Firestorm Citadel. Shivermist Buster is extremely helpful in all sorts of situations, I recommend crafting it as soon as possible. Your teammates will love you for it. Conversely, unless you have mad bomber, Nitronome isn't so great. Don't craft it just yet (and maybe not ever, as the Dark Retribution/Dark Briar Barrage can do everything the Nitronome can do without the disruption).
Third line: My Azure Guardian set is costume armor. I'm planning to make an Aegis as costume armor as well. Skolver outclasses Azure, and Barbarous Thorn Shield outclasses Aegis, there's no reason why you should craft these. You might as well craft a mad bomber body, as Volcanic demo body only gives a low Charge time reduction bonus. If you're actually going to bomb, you may wish to pick up the dlc for $4 if you're P2P, as the Warmaster Rocket Hammer is excellent, and the Dark Retribution is the best dps bomb yet.
I think you may want to consider the Wolver line/Volcanic bomber/Mad Bomber line. Perhaps a sword bombing hybrid would work, but in that case, get the Volcanic helm, there's no reason to face the massive status penalties from Mad Bomber.
Btw,
:3 Aureate I didn't even know you had a Divine Avenger, bring it along to fsc sometime.
Callahan. I love it, such a good utility weapon.
Barbarous Thorn Shield. I /thought/ that's the only shield I'll ever need, but I was wrong! I ended up getting a Grey Owlite Shield for Vana instead.
Though I guess I am the only one who got a 5* shield first?
Grey Owlite Shield. You're not the only one, Aqua.
A couple months later I switched to Dark Thorn, then swiftstrike, and now I'm lovin' my BTS.
And my story of the shields I've gotten in my SK lifetime is ovarrrrr.
First weapon was Shivermist.
And then the Flourishes came out. My god.
Barbarous Thorn Shield. Why boost just one of my swords when I can boost all of them by a noticeable amount? Defense too.
My first 5* was my Final Flourish, then came my Valiance. Now I don't want any hate on the two weapons. I used Final Flourish strictly for Wolvers and Fiends, mostly because I had known nothing of the PvP really at the time. The flourish was my love in terms of swords, fast swinging with good damage. The Valiance came soon after, with an ASI Med, so it was very handy for my latter Tier 2 days.
I'd go with the Mighty Cobalt Armor, as defense is better than offense in my opinion =3... even if that's not the route I originally took
I only run with two weapon slots and I'm a gunner. I usually carry a either a sword or a bomb as my secondary weapon, although I rarely use my off weapon.
That said, my first 5* item was the Valiance. It still is the only 5* item I have (even though I could have an entire arsenal of 5* weapons by now.) What the Valiance lacks in damage it more than makes up for in reliability. It has served me so well that I would not go back and trade it for another 5* item.
Looking at your options, I'd say it depends on your play style. If you like normal damage weapons, then I recommend getting a Leviathan blade if you are comfortable with swords or a Valiance if you are comfortable with guns. If you are comfortable with bombs then you need to decide whether you run in groups a lot. If you run in groups a lot, then go with the Shivermist. If you run solo a lot, then get the Nitronome.
If you like special damage weapons more, then upgrade to a Storm Driver or Archeon depending on which weapon you're more comfortable with.
i had always loved support, i started the game as a bomber, and ill die a pure bomber :3 Chrys my shivermist is quite a loyal friend, especially in firestorm citadel.
you may now feel free to call me a newb fr naming my weapon n stuff
Shivermist Buster
I had just started doing FSC, and thought it would be more useful than upgrading armor. I was right. My bigger regret was my second choice of weapon: I did ash of agni before voltaic tempest. I love them both, but if I can only have one, I'll take VT over AoA.
Though I regret to say it, Acheron. I've long since converted to bombing and gunslinging.
Deeply Regret, pretty cool, but regret getting it. Soo much better choices out there but i just had to choose it >.>, but i sold it and now its (hopefully) in a better place.
Heater Shield.
That was before the AH patch, so I had someone craft it for me so I only paid 300ce plus 10kcr (5k crown crafting cost + 5k crown tip). I figured it was a good deal because it was cheap and matched my outfit well.
The first 5* I actually crafted myself was an Armor of the Fallen. It wasn't putting defense first though. It was putting my outfit first. In fact I STILL do that.
My first 5* non-vanity item was the Nova Driver.. actually arguable since I knew it was inferior to the other alchemers and just made it anyway because the bullets were pretty and I figured it would get buffed anyway, Thankfully, it did.
Why people say normal-damage weapons are underpowered is beyond me. There's absolutely nothing else I'd want to bring to an arena, and it's the fastest way I've found to eliminate Gun Puppies. Admittedly, I've only crafted two 5-star items so far (this and a matching Valiance), but I certainly wouldn't switch back. Even considering I could have gotten full 5-star already if I'd done a BTB, BTS, and Vog Cub.
As for your options, I'd pick up the Leviathan Blade (of course), then the Acheron, and then the Shivermist Buster. Volcanic Demo Suit might not be bad either.
Diamond, you name your weapons? Do you have an Ascended Calibur too by any chance?
Levi, then my 2nd was.... Vog
Necro. What a nice 2nd birthday gift!
My first 5* item was an Ultra Fire Vial, obviously.
Leviathan blade will soon be mine, ALL MINE!@@@@ MUHAHAHA!!!
Just kidding, i am actually close to it though. Probably if i can, later today!
My first 5* item was the Ironmight Plate Shield. I bet you can't guess what came next! That's right, the Biohazard.
Just carrying on with the necroparty
My first 5* was the Volcanic plate shield. As should be yours.
Followed by mercurial mail + helm, then the OCH weapons. the suda.
Since then the only 5* I've got is a storm driver, the other two plate shields and the savage tortoise.
Got a Gorgomega and mercurial demo in the works though.
Mercurial Mail > Mercurial Helm > Grey Owlite Shield > Fearless Rigadoon > Divine Avenger (for Roarmulus Twins ^^)...
Uhhhh... I think I'm a weirdo...
Combuster, which was also the first item I punched, and it got ASI VH from that 1-UV ticket.
@Qwez
I have a Fearless Rigadoon, though the Acheron patch made me put it away. My first 3* item was a Rigadoon.
@Bluencool
Ultra Vials are 4*, not 5*.
Dread Venom Striker.
then the Skolver set, I think. It's been a while.
My first 5 star item was Leviathan Blade. It's a bit too cheap to me, but it deals a good amount of damage with no reduction to any monster type
Argent Peacemaker. I don't even know why, I used swords more often than guns, I guess it was that awesome eagle shot. And I would still get it first if I made an alt.
It's interesting to see that quite a lot of people didn't actually go for a brandish or blitz for their first 5* weapons, despite the constant recommendations of those weapons for FSC.
It's a complete assumption but I'm guessing that most of the people who use the forum are slightly older players.
I wonder if the trend of first 5* weapons for current players is actually different to what's on this thread?
Interesting to see two people say DVS. it's certainly not one that I would expect. but then I suck with strikers. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When I started out, I didn't really read any guides or forums, I just knew two things.
1. I wanted the fastest sword.
2. I wanted the fastest sidearm.
I used the wiki to find out which these were and eventually settled for going for DVS and Sentenza. Easy as that!
When I started out, I knew one thing:
MOVEMENT SPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED
...and my dreams were crushed. (I really wanted to run fast like a Scout in TF2...)
EDIT:
as for weapons, I just picked whatever was convenient in the Auction House. I had intended to (eventually) get a Shadow Brandish and the Spur, but I saw a Flourish and looked it up. Since the Flourish complemented my goal of a shadow brandish, I went for it instead. In the end, I never made an Acheron, and used my first 4* weapon to make an Obsidian Edge.
@Parhelion: I also crafted the hood first, needed shadow defense for FSC
Snarbolax cap and coat
First weapon: dread venom striker
Or you could just ask us which equip you should grade first.
Mine was a divine avenger.