Spiral Knights - recommended gear for UGW Shadow Lair?

recommended gear for UGW Shadow Lair?

14 replies [Last post]

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 15:43

Chainguy

I was thinking of going into the UGW shadow lair, i have a shadow key on me. I asked people in my guild if they wanted to do it, everyone was busy through. However, i changed my mind about it due to my gear. This is my set right now:

Azure Guardian set
Valiance (CTR: low)
Leviathan Blade (DBV: Fiend and Undead, low)

This set i was thinking of using for the shadow lair:

Helm: Shadowsun Stetson
Armor: Deadly Virulisk Suit
Shield: Barbarous Thorn Shield
Sword: Barbarous Thorn Blade
Sword 2#: Glacius/Combuster/Voltedge
Handgun: Blitz Needle/Argent Peacemaker/Polaris
Bomb: Radiant Sun Shards/Shivermist Buster

Feel free to recommend me sets for this shadow lair if this set is not good for it.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 15:59

Bopp

by UGW you mean Shadow Gloaming Wildwoods

There have been many threads on equipment for the Shadow Gloaming Wildwoods; search for them. Also read the wiki page "Shadow Lair", if you haven't.

Your armor looks good, except that the slime bonus on your suit will be wasted. No big deal. BTS is a great shield, because of the piercing protection and sword bonus, but I do feel that shadow protection is a bit more valuable on the shield, due to the howlitzers about.

If you use any swords at all, then you want a piercing sword and an elemental sword; good. You also want either an anti-howlitzer gun (Polaris is good) or a crowd-control bomb (Shivermist is good). You don't need both, but your party needs (wants) both. I've never used RSS there. So in short your equipment looks good. If your party is similarly equipped and decently skilled, then you should have good fortune.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 16:12

Chainguy

@Bopp

Thanks for the feedback, i will use the weps you recommended (Polaris and Shivermist)

Since you said that some better shadow resist is recommended, i will bring along some trinkets to give more shadow/piercing resistent. (Dread Skelly Charm and Royal Jelly Band)

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 17:41

Bopp

I'd just use offensive trinkets

You have plenty of armor. I specifically recommended a shadow shield, because sometimes you just can't dodge all of the projectiles coming at you. I'd just use offensive trinkets. Heart trinkets are another option (if you have them), but you're going to have such a big vitapod (+25, if I remember correctly) that heart trinkets are not as big as they seem.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 17:54

Chainguy

Oh ok

Sure then, i will use a shadow resistent shield. Dread Skelly Shield should do, since it gives both very high poison and freeze resistent. (althrough freeze resist wont be needed here.) Plus gonna use other trinkets. Elite Quick Strike Module and Elite Bomb Focus Module should be a good idea. (Attack quicker with swords and place bombs faster.)

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 18:00

Bopp

great

Sounds good. Your loadout also sounded good with BTS instead of Dread Skelly. It comes down to how confident you are about defense, that you can optimize your offense a bit. Anyway, you have options. Enjoy.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 19:41

Halifix

A pierce shield is actually

A pierce shield is actually pretty unimportant. Snarby itself does normal damage. However, the dungeon is only slightly harder than FSC now, so you can bring whatever you want and still do well. For armor, any mix of pierce/shadow works. You can even bring some elemental resist/uvs so lumbers don't deal over 10 damage in one hit.

As for weapons, I bring:
Final Flourish. fast pierce damage.
Polaris: ranged knockdown spam, and combos well with...
Electron Vortex: useful when there's zombie spam, and also fairly effective against kats. Mostly useful on the two arenas in the first level, and maybe the left side of the second level. Also, when fighting Snarby, you can set a vortex below the bell, and it can suck up either Snarby if he digs under it, allowing for an easy stun. It's a useful trick you can try against normal Snarby first.
Shivermist Buster: I usually follow my vortexes with this if I'm unable to kill mobs. It also works by itself against lumbers, kats, and beasts (although beasts no longer have homing attacks).

Other weapons I would suggest:
Warmaster Rocket Hammer. I love it in LoA, but I don't bring it here because I want some non-elemental damage.
Elemental Brandishes: Also good for sword elemental damage.
Blitz Needle. I don't use it, because if I'm charging I might as well charge a bomb, but it deals a ton of damage. 1-2 blitzes makes the boss fight much easier.
Graviton Vortex: Similar to Electron, but less damage, doesn't damage skellies much, and no shock.
Voltaic Tempest: Similar to Shiver. Very effective against Kats; any shock tick during their dash-attack stops them.
Dark Briar Barrage: Gives nice AoE damage, and often knocks down.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 20:22

Bopp

the undead are dense enough

The undead are dense enough that a DA swing can hit multiple enemies at once, regularly. So I actually prefer DA in there, over the elemental Brandishes. But those are also great, so I didn't feel it necessary to bring up, until Halifix chimed in.

Sun, 07/29/2012 - 22:37

Dukeplatypus

Radiant Silvermail would help

Radiant Silvermail would help you considerably more than Virulisk. You get split pierce/shadow defense, poison resistance, and an undead damage bonus you can actually use in the slime-less woods. Also doesn't look too shabby as costume.

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 10:06

Chainguy

That would be a good mix with...

I didn't notice the Radiant Silvermail armor, looks good. A mix with that and Dragon Scale Helm can give me resistent to all 3 damage types plus a lot of poison resist. But the problem is that they give no normal damage resist at all, making certain attacks still quite deadly in other places in the game. (Such as Lord Vanaduke's mace attack, which does a ton of normal damage and can inflict both fire and stun, althrough the fire resist from the Dragon Scale Helm can counter that. the mix would also be good for Darkfire Vanaduke, since his mace can now inflict curse.)

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 10:24

#10

Bopp

yes, you want normal

Yes, in general you definitely want normal armor, in almost all situations. Hailfix claims that Rabid Snarbolax does lots of normal; I can't verify that, but it seems reasonable. So you want normal armor in SGWW too.

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 11:02

#11

Chainguy

Alright, i choosen my set

I have choosen what i am gonna use for the run, heres what i am going for:

Helm: Shadowsun Stetson
Armor: Radiant Silvermail
Shield: Dread Skelly Shield
Sword: Barbarous Thorn Blade
Sword 2#: Combuster
Handgun: Polaris
Bomb: Shivermist Buster
Trinket: Radiant Crystal Pin
Trinket 2#: Radiant Crystal Pin

With this, i should get:
High shadow damage resist
Medium pierce, elemental and normal damage resist
Very high poison resist
Can inflict fire, shock and freeze
Can inflict piercing and elemental
Shield lasts longer against shadow damage
Crowd control

I have also placed this on my notepad so i wont forget the items to craft them. (Althrough the Radiant Crystal Pin wont need to be crafted, it costs 100 forge sparks but i need 2, that would cost 200 forge sparks.)

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 12:19

#12

Bopp

great, except for one thing

Your loadout is great, except for one thing: You're using both of your trinket slots to get elemental defense, but (as is explained at "Shadow Lair") there is almost no elemental damage in there. Replace both trinkets with offensive trinkets, and you're in good shape. Enjoy.

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 12:34

#13

Chainguy

Alright then so

I will use Elite Quick Strike Module and Elite Bomb Focus Module then.

Mon, 07/30/2012 - 14:43

#14

Halifix

If I remember correctly,

If I remember correctly, Snarby's bite attacks deal normal damage, while his spikes should still be piercing. I could be wrong.

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recommended gear for UGW Shadow Lair?