Spiral Knights - Need help on choosing a sword

Need help on choosing a sword

8 replies [Last post]

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 09:17

Lieutenant-Steel

Greeting fellow knights!!
I kinda need some help in picking a sword, i looked around the forums and the wiki for some tips but i couldnt find the answer that i was looking for, so i decided to create this topic to ask all of you what should i get.
First thing im going to do is tell you my current equipment because almost nodody in the forums says what they have.
I only do snarbolax runs when a recruit in the guild needs help with it, its around 3 or 4 times a week.
I usually do jelly king runs with recruits and other people from guild.
Almost everyday i do roarmulus twins, prestige missions and normal missions.

Helm: Ash Tail Cap *no uvs* (going for vog cub cap)
Charged Quicksilver Helm *stun low - poison low*
Sinister Skelly Mask *normal low*

Armour: Vog Cub Coat *fire med - freeze med*
Charged Quicksilver Mail *curse low*
Sinister Skelly Suit *no uvs*
Heavy demo suit * no uvs*

Shield: Wise owlite shield *freeze med*
Barbarous Thorn Shield *Shock high - shadow low*

Handgun: Gigawatt pulsar *damage beast low*
Blackhawk *damage undead low*
Antigua *no uvs*
Catalyzer*no uvs*

Bombs: Spine cone*no uvs*
Lightning Capacitor *no uvs*

Swords:Sealed Sword *no uvs*
Dark thorn Blade *damage slime low*
Calibur *no uvs*
Brandish *no uvs*
silent nightblade *attack speed increased low*

Trinkets: none at the moment

ok now here are my questions:

should i go for Leviathan Blade? because it has a reasonable charge attack and it only does normal damage so its good for all kinds of monsters

combuster? charge attack is insane and does status damage like fire but against beasts and gremlins it does poor low damage because they are strong againts elemental

divine avenger? charge attack is good for crowd control and does knockback but i dont like it much because its slow and i shield alot but i have vog coat and going to get cap, do they make a difference in its speed?

Dread Venom Striker? its super fast and does poison status and normal damage only, charge attack is ok i guess

ok i want to know your opinions/thoughs on what sword is good so it can be easier for me to choose.

thank you all for sharing your knowledge with me.

salutations

Steel

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 09:29

Bopp

missed crucial info

You gave us a lot of information --- thanks --- but you left out one crucial piece of information: How many weapon slots do you use, and what mix of weapons (swords, guns, bombs) do you want in them?

You are the ideal audience for my sword guide. The most important point is: If you're using more than one sword, then none of your swords should be normal. So no Leviathan Blade, no Dread Venom Striker. Instead, you want to carry two (or three) non-normal damage types. You are well on your way:
* piercing: Barbarous Thorn Blade (from your Dark Thorn Blade) is awesome.
* elemental: Combuster/Glacius/Voltedge (from your Brandish) are all great. So is DA (from your Sealed).
* shadow: Acheron (from your Nightblade) is great. So is GF (from your Sealed), but I would use the Sealed to get DA before GF.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 09:36

Kraanx

arsenal stations now exist,

arsenal stations now exist, so you can chage swords(among other stuff) when you go down most levels.
if youre still developing your arsenal, though, make a leviathan blade or a dread venom striker first, because theyre normal dmg dealers and you can use them against everything while you get ready for specialization.
another less expensive way to go, however, would be to make a barbarous thorn blade then make an avenger, so youd have 2 types of damages coming from t3 swords in just 2 craftings, since brandish and calibur are 2* still, and you dont seem to have a cutter.

vog cub coat will give you a high attack speed increase, so yeah, itll help with your DA.
also, you can use shield cancel to help secure your openings

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 10:10

Lieutenant-Steel

thanks for replies

bopp
you are right forgot about those, i always use the dark thorn blade gigawatt or blackhawk and the silent nightblade.

kraanx
yeah i know i normally change my weapons at the beginning of the missions, i see what type of monsters im going to face and change, the vog coat and cap give ASI very high i think. i dont have a cutter but i can easily get one if i want.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 11:01

Fradow

First, you shouldn't list

First, you shouldn't list your uvs. Unless you are a 5* player looking for optimization, they are totally irrelevant.

You have way too much things. You should concentrate on just a few and upgrade them up to 5* before having multiple sets, for example :

- you don't need that much armors and helms, chances are you are only going to use Ash Tail to sword or Heavy Demo to bomb. I bet you did Sinister Skelly because of some fiends which were too difficult ? You'd better learn to dodge, in T3 armors lets a lot of damage through.

- on contrary, 2 shields is not that much, you could probably use a shadow shield for fiends (your only choice before FSC is Skelly Shield). Having a shield which doesn't break is crucial against fiends.

- you could refrain from listing 2* / 3* stuff, unless you really think you are going to upgrade them. Do you ? You shouldn't. Those Antigua, Catalyzer, Sealed Sword, Calibur and Brandish should probably stay as such until you are all 5*, unless one is needed to compliment your arsenal.

- talking about that, you lack an elemental sword. I bet you are a swordsman, so you'll need to upgrade either Sealed Sword to Avenger or Brandish to one of the elemental ones. Either way is good. See Bopp guide for some more, or the tons of threads talking about that on the forum.

- and to answer the principal question, no you shouldn't make a Leviathan Blade or a Dread Venom Striker. It would bring very little to your arsenal, contrary to an elemental sword. The valid reasons to make one would be : you bring only 1 sword and want one for everything (mainly for bombers, gunners or people with only 2 slots) and for Vanaduke Mask (which is in late T3, you are not there yet). Note that even if you only carry 1 sword, with arsenal stations it can be a non-normal one, as you already have several damage type.

P.S. : you didn't answer Bopp's question : how much slots do you use (that's a number). I can't guess if it's 2 or 3 (seems it's not 4 tho). And is it a gun + a sword or 2 swords depending the situations ? 2 swords being DTB and Nightblade, the gun + sword being Blackhawk + Nightblade ? While the first is ok, the second would be terrible.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 11:20

Bopp

I think...

"i always use the dark thorn blade gigawatt or blackhawk and the silent nightblade"

Fradow, I think that he means three weapons: (A) DTB, (B) GP or BH, and (C) SN. So two swords and one gun? If this is what you meant, Lieutenant-Steel, you can do a really good setup: piercing sword, elemental gun, shadow sword. This will wreck all monsters.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 12:16

Lieutenant-Steel

i need to explain myself better

Bopp
yeah i didnt explain that part so good back there, sorry
i have 3 weapons slots maybe going to buy a fourth, slot 1 DTB, slot 2 Gigawatt pulsar or blackhawk (it depends on lvl) and slot 3 silent nightblade.

Fradow
I said uvs because it might help describe my items. i dont really care about them in weapons, in armour its cool.

To be honest i have no idea why i have the demo suit, bought it but i dont use it, i hate bombs, i have those bombs because they were from boss tokens, i upgraded lightning capacitor just to check if it was good, i never use it, waste of ce and cr.

the charged quicksilver set was boss tokens reward and to have a piercing defense armour since im going to upgrade ash tail cap to vog cub cap.

the skelly was to have shadow and freeze armour.

the shields are fine i like both and use them alot, shadow shield i might get crest of almire later on.

the antigua is to have a piercing handgun just in case..., the catalyser i dont use it.

i wrote that i had calibur, brandish and sealed sword just to show my intention of upgrading one of them.

but now after all this, im going for DA or combuster. just going to check which one is better for me.

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 12:36

Fradow

Ok, that explains a lot of

Ok, that explains a lot of things. The setup Bopp said is very good in most situations, I recommend it as well.

On UVs : on contrary, the only really useful UVs are on weapons. Most useful are ASI and CTR, depending on the weapon (but they also cost a lot). Less useful is a DMG against one of the family the weapon is strong against (for example, beast low on Pulsar is useless. I bet it was a Punch try to have an uv). But for the moment, don't invest in UVs : they are horribly expensive and provide very little compared to an alchemy upgrade.

When you are going to have Vog, you'll probably don't need piercing defense that much : by now, you should be used to jellies, and wolvers are not very dangerous. As for shadow, as I said, against fiends (but also undeads, especially kats and howlitzers) a shadow shield is, in my eyes, more important than a shadow armor. But that's your call. You can probably avoid a lot of fiends level if you want to.

The antigua, sadly, doesn't upgrade to piercing. I advise you to not rely on it. If you don't upgrade it, it will do next to no damage in T3. If you do, on the other hand, it will not be piercing anymore (but both sentenza and argent peacemaker are side-arm guns I would advise tho).

To help you choose between Combuster and DA : first, your main targets with those weapons are undeads and constructs, so you don't need to worry about gremlins, beasts or fiends (tho both can do ok against jellies) : for that, you have piercing or shadow swords. The main selling point of Combuster is indeed its charge : it's powerful, and enemies will ride all the wave (if there is enough space for it). On the other hand, DA is a classical heavy sword : very good at hitting multiple enemies. And yes, ASI makes a big difference : it will drastically shorten the time you need to shield after hitting, as well as the time between the 2 swings (which is crucial to interrupt enemies before they retaliate).

Fri, 05/18/2012 - 13:39

Lieutenant-Steel

done

ok thanks.

goal: going to upgrade:

ash tail cap to vog cap

DTS to BTS

wise owlite to grey owlite

blackhawk to sentenza

gigawatt to polaris

DTB to BTB

silent nightblade to acheron

get a blackened crest and upgrade it

might go for DA because vog gives attack speed medium, I will post if I liked it or not.

thank you for your help

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Need help on choosing a sword