And by "weapon-balanced" I mean no weapon specialization. I'm sick to death of being a wolver-wearing sworder, but I don't want to abandon swords altogether. Is there any interesting gear that doesn't make you specialize? I'm okay with monster family-specialization, although I'm having trouble seeing the appeal.
I know Chaos Cloak used to be some of the worst in the game. Is it still crappy after the buff?
Azure guardian lol
Seriously, I'd go with chaos then. Universal damage and ctr med are powerful tools indeed.
"And by "balanced" I mean no weapon specialization. I'm sick to death of being a wolver-wearing sworder, but I don't want to abandon swords altogether. Is there any interesting gear that doesn't make you specialize?"
You mean that you want armor with bonuses to all weapons? Your choices are Chaos and (to a lesser extent) Fallen. Or just armor that delivers huge defense? This game is offense-oriented, so I wouldn't recommend forsaking offense. Maybe get a mixed sworder/gunner/bomber set, such as Nameless with Mad Bomber?
"I'm okay with monster family-specialization, although I'm having trouble seeing the appeal."
The appeal is that you deal more damage to the monsters, and more damage is always appealing. I don't understand this part. Are you talking about stuff like Deadly Virulisk Suit? I don't see the appeal either, because the offensive bonuses on these sets often don't match with the damage protections.
Chaos Set - CTR Med and Damage Med on everything. Bring Brandish, Driver, and haze bomb to suit your needs. Throw on a couple trinkets to do what you want. I'll probably add a Sword Damage and Sword Charge Trinket.
I actually totally plan on doing this. I'll have CTR Max on my Voltaic Tempest, I'll have some CTR VH on all my other weapons, and I'll get more damage all around.
Sorry, it appears I confused a few people. I have looked through the whole list of sets on the wiki multiple times, but it's not enough info to now if a piece of armour is truly useful or not. For that you have to ask people who've actually used the armour in question.
@Bopp: When I said I didn't see the appeal, I meant that it didn't seem appealing (as in good, or useful) to have set of armour geared primarily towards fighting one or two out of six possible monster families. But I haven't actually used such armours so I could be totally wrong. If you have anything good to say about them, go ahead.
I had my eyes set on the Chaos set, which seems ideal (offense-oriented but general, and with the unique all-inclusive CTR to boot), and none of you have bashed it yet, which gives some hope. I've also considered Quicksilver for the movement bonus (sadly, I've heard it's minimal). If anyone has any criticisms about these two armours, I'd really like to hear it.
Whenever you decied or need to farm fro cronws on specific bosses/levels, those armors will be appealing.
Monster-specific armors *could* be good for people rich/experienced enough to desire multiple highly specific armor sets. The problem with many of them is that the offense and defense don't match well. For example, Arcane Salamander Suit offers strong offense against monsters that deal piercing damage, but it doesn't protect against piercing damage. So, no, I do not recommend them.
Chaos is looking slightly better now, since the stun (and sleep) weakness was removed, although the other status weaknesses are still there. I have a friend who loves it. Go for it. Or maybe pair one piece of Chaos with one piece of something not so bad at status. For example, on a fire-themed level, pair it with a piece that gives fire resistance.
If I may offer some positive views on monster specific sets.
You can run a hybrid of any weapon type and still receive damage buff on the weapon. so sword/gun/bomb. This is if you use the weapons almost equally to fight enemies. May or may not be your type, just a thought.
That gear offers bonuses to one particular type of weapon doesn't mean that's the only type of weapon you can use. I usually carry two swords, one gun, and one bomb, regardless of which armor I'm wearing. That some mobs are vastly easier to fight with one type of weapon than another completely overwhelms any bonuses you might get from gear.
I am rather eclectic, too, though I am taking a long time to get into bombing. I really don't feel that I need pay attention to specialised bonuses, because I don't feel a big difference, let alone that it "makes me" specialise in the weapons they buff. My first highly effective RJP loadout ended up being full Dusker, Twisted Targe, twin Roarmulus guns, and no trinkets or additional weapons. Unless you've got some kind of tic compelling you to keep the bonuses balanced, I recommend trying guns and bombs with the armor you have, because IMO the most interesting gear choices by far are between weapons and I doubt that you're likely to be crippled by "losing out on" whatever you'd get in exchange for your Wolver stuff's sword bonus. If you have the defenses you need for the monsters you fight, spend your resources on moar weapons next because that's where you get the most "interesting" for your investment. If you do have such a compulsion, I guess you can generalise by spreading your class-specific bonuses over all 3 classes if avoiding them proves difficult.
I suspect that more experienced players could use more info on what size of target you are thinking about. More generally, more info on what your goals, means and other factors is, the more likely some one will be able to give you information that's helpful for you. For an exaggerated example of the GIGO principle at work, (unless you're really lucky) the "default" terms in which I myself am inclined to think are, "how to meet the specified requirements as affordably as possible with gear that continues to do so all the way through 5-star." For the most specific armor ideas I can come up with for such a general request as, "no weapon specialisation," my reasoning goes like: The armors with no Normal defense allow coverage of all 4 damage types with the lowest crafting investment, which is one set, by mixing with the much more common defense types. I am aware of Divine set for Elemental/Shadow, which becomes abnormal at 5-star, SilverMail (bottom only) for Pierce/Shadow, becoming abnormal at 4-star, and Dragon set for Elemental/Pierce, which becomes abnormal at 3-star. None of those have weapon class-specific bonuses, but only one lacks monster family-specific bonuses. Since the Dragon line offers its unique defensive property first, at 3-star, that seems the most practical choice. The Skelly line seems to be most popular Shadow armor recommendation in similarly pragmatic terms even before the recent buff, so that's an easy choice. If I had to choose to have only one shield for all purposes, ignoring aesthetics, I think it would be Ironmight Plate. Its line starts at 2-star, so that's an option. I think the sum would be Dmg bonus vs. Beast, positive Poison and Freeze resist on armor with Normal defense slightly lower than the other 3, and the shield has bonus Pierce defense at 5-star and Stun resist from 2-star on.
If you're willing to invest more than that bare minimum and/or have a particular damage type and/or status effect(s) you want to focus on, Dragon-Skelly-Ironmight could be very far from the best recommendation for you. Actually, it's probably a weak recommendation for most players because it might be so generalised that it won't perform in any level much better than any random inappropriate loadout selected accidentally. It's one of my top candidates, though, because my "default" assumptions are based on my own tastes, which are probably off-center. I'm the sort who thinks combining RSS with Graviton Bomb would be really cool.
If u really wanna go for balanced armor maybe go with a Grey Feather cloak and then mix and match a helm that gives u a certain bonus/resistance u find particularly fun. The chaos cloak can keep u well protected in a lot of situations. Grab a tanky shield with a good UV to cover it's weakness/weaknesses.
The only problem is that it's suboptimal to specialized armors. But i suppose you are assuming that you are kinda giving that up when u want to divert from wolves stuff.
Another suggestion i may suggest is that you can get double and triple uv's (med+med) etc with useful uv's to cover your weaknesses for relatively cheap if u nab them at 2 or 3*. I will say it is gonna be a more expensive route to armoring yourself, but there is something very rewarding about being able to roll out some triple uv's for surprisingly effective armor combos. Magic cloak with med shadow+med pierce+normal/freeze can be found for relatively good value for how good it is. Up grade that to Grey feather. Add a double/triple uv 5* virulisk mask with shad med+elem med. And suddenly u are pretty versatile.
One last consideration is: what are u playing? If you play solely JK then a lack of elem defense+status resists aren't really gonna matter. IF u do only jk and vana then grab some a piece of pierce defense, a piece of shadow defense, or a volc bomber with shadow med-high. Then buff with fire med/high uv's. If done strategically can "affordably'" cover ur bases.
Hope that helps :)
Well i do suppose you could have a combination of Drake Scale and Magic or something similar, but I don't have any experiance with these set of armors. Alot of the other armors are outclassed by the Wolver set however, and you could just go with it along with a sword + gun, or gunslinger if that suits yer fancy. Perhaps even Wolver/Gunslinger if you are willing to go there.
Have a look at the wiki for a list of sets if you haven't already, you'll see some sets have quite a downside or not enough of an upside to them and are generally unappealing over wolver.
I myself went to the gunslinger path and up to ShadowSun leading its buff.