Spiral Knights - what to upgrade?

what to upgrade?

5 replies [Last post]

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 00:07

Lancelot-Albio

I'm nearing the stage where i will need to craft 5* items. i was wondering which to prioritise in terms of heating and upgrading. i plan to farm vana and enjoy playing Lockdown. i am having difficulty in deciding whether to craft skolver or vog. i currently have the following:

armour:
- ashtail cap
- ashtail coat

shield:
- wise owlite shield

swords:
- avenger
- silent nightblade
- faust
- cold iron carver
- grand flourish
- fireburst brandish

guns:
- silversix
- gigawatt pulsar
- prismatech alchemer mkii

bombs:
-freezing vaporizer mkii
- static capacitor

oh on an extra note, is it better to roll for uvs from the gremlin guy or repeatedly craft the 2* until i get the uv i want?

thanks in advance.

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 02:01

Krysophylax

in terms of upgrading: shield

in terms of upgrading: shield > weapons > armour (shield helps your survivability the most. 4* weapons are usually good enough, the 5* are just a bit more powerful.) the exceptions are DA, all alchemers, all bombs, possibly brandishes (and apparently blackhawk is bugged so it has less range than it should so sentenza might fall in this category as well) which get noticeably better at 5*

in terms of heating: weapons > everything else (weapons gain CTR bonuses on heating in addition to more power, where as you wont notice the difference much between fully heated and unheated armour/shield)

as for skolver vs vog, it depends. check Bopp's sword guide on the wiki if you havn't already, he covers this quite well. its worth noting that there is no 'universal' damage UV so skolver might be 'better' as you can get asi from UVs. ASI is more valuable if you use heavy swords, so vog might be better in that case, or get some trinkies. in fsc, the fire is avoidable (unless you lag of course >.<) so skolver should be fine. you might wanna consider a split set for general use until you get enough funds to make both complete sets.

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 02:02

Snipebomb

the UV rolling......

You should UV roll from the gremlim, But that would limit you to 1 UV(depending on your budget) per roll, the UV roll by crafting is less predictable but there is a chance that you will get 2 or more UV's that are good (i got two good UV's on my alchemer by craft rolling)

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 02:12

Fradow

First, don't UV roll, that's

First, don't UV roll, that's a waste of money if you don't have already all your stuff 5*.

After that, it will depends of what you want to play most (Vana or LD) and what weapon you want to use. Here is some advice, in order of upgrade :

- for FSC, at least one part of Vog Cub makes a big difference because of the fire resist and the ASI for swords (especially if you choose DA)

- for LD, Skolver is king, but it's not that much of an upgrade from Ash tail, I would upgrade weapons first.

- you'll have too choose which swords you want to use : at least an elemental one for FSC, probably a piercing one for LD, and eventually a shadow one for common clockwork use. Don't upgrade the Cold Iron Carver, except if you want one for Vana mask. But that's very very low priority.

- you'll probably want to have a Vanaduke-specific weapon to farm it : either a Shivermist or a Blitz Needle. You already have a Freezing Vapo, so you could go for Shivermist.

- if you want to use a bomb in LD, go for Voltaic Tempest. It's great as not much people have shock resist and shock is very good.

- for guns, you'll probably want to choose one and upgrade it as a side-arm. Not that much of an upgrade either way, as it is a side-arm.

- lastely, your shield. Contrary to what Krysophylax said, I don't consider it that much of an upgrade. At least less than Vog Cub for FSC, and definitely after your main weapon. And probably after your vana-specific weapon. But perhaps before your side-arm. You decide.

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 02:16

Lancelot-Albio

Thank you all :D very helpful

Thank you all :D very helpful :D gonna check bopp's guide now.

Wed, 06/06/2012 - 06:06

Bopp

my two cents

For FSC I'd certainly recommend at least one piece of Vog Cub, and either DA or Combuster. (In most of the Clockworks I prefer Combuster. In FSC I prefer DA. But both are great.) Shivermist Buster is really useful for parties, as most parties run the Vanaduke offense through Shivermist Buster and Blitz Needle. When playing solo, Final Flourish is my preferred way of taking out the trojans in FSC. You don't need an elemental gun, unless you're going to solo Vanaduke maybe.

"oh on an extra note, is it better to roll for uvs from the gremlin guy or repeatedly craft the 2* until i get the uv i want?"

Suppose, just for the sake of example, that you want ASI+3 or ASI+4 on a Flourish. The best data we have suggests that ASI comes up 1/8 of the time that you get a UV, and that +3 or +4 comes up maybe 1/8 of the time that you get a UV. So you expect to roll maybe 64 times, for a total cost of 1,280,000 crowns. In contrast, if you craft and get a UV 1/10 of the time, with the same odds, then you expect to craft maybe 640 times, for a total cost of 32,000 energy, 256,000 crowns, and materials.

So crafting is much more expensive. On the other hand, if you have alternate accounts with their own ME streams, and you are patient, then you can use these ME streams to mass-craft 2-star items to get UVs. Because you're getting the ME for free, crafting becomes the cheaper option.

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