Hey, could use some help in choosing gear. My current long term aim in Spiral Knights is to complete the first shadow lair (since I recently became a vanguard and tier 3 has gotten a bit boring for me). However since my current gear isn't really suitable for the shadow wildwoods, I need a bit of help deciding what I need to work towards. So far I'm pretty sure about:
Helmet: ????
Armor: Radiant Silvermail (undead med bonus, piercing and shadow defence, poison resist, the perfect armor for this run)
Shield: Dread Skelly Shield (I have a BTS, but the enemies I will find toughest in this run will be the kats and the turrets, so need a shadow shield, with poison resist)
Weapons:
Divine Avenger (nuff said, lots of undead enemies)
Barbarous Thorn Blade (again, simple for defeating the many many many wolvers)
Argent Peacemaker (a maverick decision, but I need a gun, and one that can get rid of howlitzers before they home in on me is ideal)
Shivermist Buster (generally helpful bomb)
What's great about the above is that I already have either the exact equip, or the 4* version of it and so it won't take too long to get them.
The main problem I'm having is for the helm. The difficulty is that the point of me wanting to do a shadow lair is to get the snarby set, which since it is ideal for the shadow wildwoods, I will likely use in any potential future runs. As far as I see it, with the radiant silvermail as my armor, my helm needs normal defence for the rabid snarbies, and some added shadow defence for everything else. I don't really want to go to all the trouble of crafting a new 5* shadow helm which I will use only once, for this run! Still, as I see it, my best options for a helm are:
1) Valkyrie Helm
gives normal and shadow defence, and poison resist, handy (but I will never wear it again after!)
2) Shadowsun Stetson
bit of a maverick move, but has the shadow and normal defence and a poison resist, with the added bonus of it being useful if I were to ever want to play as a gunner for a bit
3) Dread Skelly Mask
simple, shadow, normal and poison, but doesnt do anything else, and i wont use it again!
4) Deadshot Chapeau
Kinda groovy cos I would get more undead bonus, and gives me shadow and normal defence. Doesnt have the poison resist though, not sure how important it is
5) Crown of the Fallen
I guess it has the shadow and normal with poison resist, but I would NEVER use it after this one run because its a shadow helm with a penalty against fiends...fail. Does have an ASI low though, which could be handy for my DA.
The other option is to forget about crafting something new, and just wear my current shadow helm, the Divine Veil. Except then I would have no normal defence, which is IIRC what the rabid snarbies deal.
Any opinions would be greatly received, either on the set up, or which helm to use!
Your choices are excellent so far. Not everyone in your party needs a gun, and not everyone in your party needs a crowd-control bomb, but I guess you might as well take them. I agree that a shadow shield is more valuable (defensively, anyway) than a piercing shield. You don't need any more poison resistance than you have from your RS and your DS Shield, but of course it wouldn't hurt. You definitely want normal defense.
Any of the five helmets you listed would fill out your armor setup nicely. But are you saying that you have none of these? You just have Divine Veil? Don't use that, due to the lack of normal.
If you get any of these five (except for Deadshot), you will have normal, shadow, and poison on your helmet and your shield. At that point, you could actually switch to Skolver Coat for your armor, and have a nearly perfect setup with more offensive bonus. I know that this plan makes your Radiant Silvermail a waste, but that armor is really hard to fit into an optimized setup.
Another crazy idea: Ancient Plate Helm? Nah, probably not.