Hi,
I'm playing this game since the start and I have never done a shadow lair and I think I'm ready to do one. Altho, I have 5* vog cub cap and armor, 5* Omega Shell and 5* DA and Blitz Needle I think the Snarbolax sword and shield are better to do a T1 shadow lair gate.
I have a 4* Dark Thorn Blade and Dark Thorn Shield but I don't know if this enough to do this.
If this is good enough I will start making a group to go down.
Let me know what you think
Actually, in Rabid Snarbolax's lair, there is a surprisingly large amount of shadow enemies, more so than anything else. To my knowledge, there are howlitzers, not gun puppies.
Basically, it's 85-90% shadow damage, with some lumbers/alphas.
Piercing defense is fine and dandy and all that, but the major source of damage in the Snarby Shadow Lairs is from undead (which is shadow). Nothing wrong with piercing armor, but having a shadow shield would be much better to tank out all the howlitzer bullets and the zombie swipes when you are mobbed into a corner. The Rabid Snarbys themselves are not very hard. It's getting there that is.
The monsters there are mainly undead, with a couple constructs, and a handful of wolvers. Your Dark thorn blade and shield will be fine for the boss, your DA fine for the rest of it. Your Vog armor won't really offer you much protection, so getting hit here will hurt. Same goes for your shield, it'll break pretty fast. If you have no other weapon than your blitz, I guess it can't hurt to bring it, but you won't really have the space to charge it and use it safely ('cuz it gets REALLY CROWDED down there...)
All in all, if you plan on going, go with experienced Shadow Lairs runners, not with people who haven't been there before. If you choose the latter, you will die and have to rezz a lot. (there's also the unknown passage to consider too, in terms of difficulty)
Good luck!
Vog Cub Set - normal, elemental defense; fire resist (protecting against fire mainly)
Omega Shell - normal defense shield (tanking hard blows, esp. from Vanaduke's mace which does normal damage)
DA - normal, elemental damage; wide swings and charge attack allow high dps when facing large groups of enemies (zombie mobs in FSC)
Blitz Needle - piercing damage; best single-target damage gun in the game (it's a known fact that this is the best gun for killing Vanaduke)
Clearly the gear you use the most is completely oriented towards Firestorm Citadel; I'd advise you to wait and craft up some better stuff before you bother trying a Shadow Lair.
I have a 4* Dark Thorn Blade and Shield but the only armor I have is Vog Cub. I learn if I read Dark-Flare's post that my armor is the main problem. I spared up 2k CE now and I have all ingredients to make the Snarbolax Helm and Armor when I beat it.
So mainly, I can be of use when I do it with some experienced players but a party of fresh man will be a big fail.
Tnx for the explanation :)
Also if its your first time I wouldnt go without having a nice portion of Ce reserved for revives. I would hate to see you get 1/2 way thru and have to make the hard choice of wether to dip into your snarby set funds or quit the run. Even with experienced players along getting to the crafting station is a burden that is ultamitly on you if you want to prevail. Other players who are already geared have ALOT less incentive to want to revive when the revives start costing hundreds of Ce.
I havent tried one sience before the wolver nerf so hopefully things are a bit less hectic down there now.
Check the wiki. There's a lot of good info on shadow lairs, expected monsters, and the swarm. I did a run while wearing two pieces of 5* armor with shadow protection, and still took a surprising amount of damage. So don't wander in with the wrong gear.
Other notes: if you buy the ingredients off the auction house (and have the appropriate 4* precursor made and leveled), then you can make as many rewards off the sanctuary alchemy machine as you want in one trip. A friend made 3 different pieces on her first trip. Since the chance to craft special armors is one of the main rewards for beating a shadow lair, planning ahead can make the run much more rewarding.
I did my first run about a week ago. I rolled with Shadowsun Stetson and Shadowsun Slicker, but provided shadow defense and poison resistance. That's the damage and status you'll encounter the great majority of the time.
My most used weapon was the BTB for beasts, and the Combuster for the undead. I think I used a Nova Driver for puppies.
Oh, and Grey Owlite Shield, which did the job but I'm sure there are better shields out there for the task.
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The Arsenal
Discuss the wide range of weapons, armor and items of Spiral Knights.
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Someone is asking for help, does it matter if this is the incorrect forum? No, it doesn't. Clearly there is nothing wrong if the mods haven't moved it or such.
And by your logic, your post actually belongs in Gremlin Chatter as it has no reason to be in General Discussion due to the fact that quoting a forum directory has nothing to do with Spiral Knights in-game. But then I'll probably just make you mad with a bad attempt a giving an example and you'll just start attacking me.
As for the original poster, I would suggest getting something other than a Vog Cub Coat. Radiant Silvermail give protection against both Shadow and Piercing Damage while giving a bonus to Undead. Your 4* weapon should overall be fine though as there is only a slight decrease in damage with the Dark Thorn Blade.
I use a hybrid of Skolver and Snarby in my Rabid Snarby runs. In your case, Skolver would be highly suggested, as well as maybe some sort of Shadow Armor like Angelic (if you can afford it).
I also highly suggest going into your first SL with almost full 5* gear. A few pieces of 4* gear isn't bad, but they will be a major hindrance.
I advise against the Blitz Needle because you will neither have the space nor opportunity to use it effectively.
Despite never having been on any SL, I can give you a rundown of what to bring.
You'll obviously need a weapon that does piercing, but don't forget to bring another one that does elemental; if enemy placement hasn't changed between the original and the SL version, you'll be finding Kats, Zombies and Gun Puppies.
There'll also be a few swarm stuff that'll stun you and give more resistance to enemies, so bringing a fast-damaging, high-damaging weapon like the Blitz or the Flourish is a good choice.
As for armor, you'll obviously need resistance to piercing. If you're having problems with gun puppies or kats, you may wanna equip a piece of armor resistant to elemental or shadow respectively. If you can have poison resistance than you are well than welcome to bring some.
For shields a Rock/Royal Jelly Shield or Dark/Barbarous Thorn Shield will do the work. However the one shield that'll really shine here is a Wyvern/Dragon Scale Shield. Resists piercing and elemental damage AND poison status. True it won't be amazingly great against wolvers or gun puppies, but you'll have decent, if not good defense against both.