Gear:
Vog Cub Cap
Vog Cub Coat
Dragon Scale Shield
Blackhawk
Cold Iron Vanquisher
Iron Slug
Is my gear bad enough to instantly doom me? Should I be looking at getting better weapons and/or armor? Or am I just doing something wrong to get me killed?
You're probably doing something wrong. I was still using Ash Tail set, Stone Tortoise, Ascended Calibur, and Silversix the first time I went into Citadel. Thankfully I had a great party with 2 Citadel veterans to lead the way.
DA (or flourish if you like for the body)
Argent Peacemaker
Owlite, omega, volanic plate
With a good team you can just be very defensive and careful with that gear and you can still finish (by being carried)
I have no real trouble getting TO Vanaduke. And honestly, I am keeping the Dragon Scale shield because it looks good with my Vog gear. Pretty silly, I know, but I like it.
But yes. Vanaduke crushes me.
Hopefully you aren't trying to solo Vanaduke. But yeah, I'd recommend an Argent Peacemaker. I don't know if it's just me, but half the time I fight Vanaduke (probably more than half.. Like every stage past his first), I just shoot at him constantly. While running around him in circles and avoiding the roof falling on my head.
The Blackhawk is just as effective at Vanaduke as the Silversix. The Silversix is just better against the Slags.
Cold Iron Vanquisher is currently so much weaker than Leviathan that it's laughable. Almost any other 5* sword is going to out-perform it (and if that other 5* has any kind of UV against Undead, it will out-perform it on Undead too, depressingly enough). So definitely consider getting another sword.
Well I dont need to beat on a dead horse when it comes to your items, people have pretty much said what needed to be said.
I'd say overall your dps is pretty bad and your shield is not that great.You don't NEED a shield for it but it acts as a safety net so you should perphaps think of investing on a shield exclusively for vanaduke if you're getting destroyed.
The rest of your stuff looks fine though, I'd say that you're doing it wrong, a few general tips :
Evade,evade,evade
Use circular patterns when kiting him
Don't melee past 2nd Bullet-Hell mode.
Avoid getting him on the south side while you're above him( i.g avoid blind spots)
Don't be lazy turn off some of the obtrusive lave tiles and lava orbs
I don't see how the Dragon Scale shield is bad for Vanaduke. Resisting Elemental damage is perfect for that bullet hell, especially with how bad the FPS gets down there. Not to mention the fire resist is gorgeous.
As far as the Cold Iron Vanquisher, I honestly very rarely use the sword. I prefer Normal damage swords to Elemental for general use, because even if it's a dual-type sword it'll do crazy reduced damage to Beasts and Gremlins, which are the enemies I'm most likely to use the sword against. It also has a UV for Low Damage Bonus vs Fiend, so that slightly helps against Trojans as well.
I chose the Blackhawk over the Silversix for general use. Because of the way dual-type damage is handled, the only enemies that the Silversix does significantly better damage to is the Undead... which, admittedly, is BETTER for the citadel, but not enough to make the Blackhawk USELESS. From my own observation, the Blackhawk has the longest range of any weapon in the game, and I'm sure the Sentenza builds on that but I'm not certain. Not to mention my Blackhawk is a UV for Attack Speed Increase.
Sure, my gear is not OPTIMAL, but it's not BAD as far as I can tell, either. I don't know how much of the loss I can blame on my team mates, and how much I can blame on my gear. I am just bad at handling large crowds, especially with the massive FPS issues the Citadel currently has. If I can manage to get the crowns, I'll certainly think about getting better gear, but I really like what I have so far.
If you come to the forums asking for advice on how to improve yourself, but then come out and say that you don't want to change anything, even if the advice is to do that, then what's the point?
Stardrinker come on. Have you actually read the thread?
I'm aware that my gear is non-optimal and I'll put forth some effort to change it, but there's more than just gear behind my consistent loss at Vanaduke.
Meow: since you've only posted about your gear, it's pretty hard to evaluate and comment on anything else. Come to think of it, your original post very specifically asks about your gear. Later on, you finally mention issues like lag, teammates (size? people? Gear they use?). But without knowing how well you do in preceding levels, or what you find challenging.... it's really not possible to help you.
To recap:
- It's ok to have more than one set of gear. As you play for a long time, you'll eventually amass a collection of equipment that's optimized for the situations you expect to face. Remember, you can change gear at terminals.
- Your default gun and shield are Not Good Choices for the citadel. Elsewhere maybe, sure. But you'll be facing a lot of normal and shadow attacks, so at most, your shield would let you film really stylish videos of your character dying every few seconds.
- We're not psychic. Barring the people who went to the citadel with you, no one here knows anything about your playstyle, beyond the fact that you should brush up on how damage and resistances work.
Again with people knocking the CIV when they just haven't noticed that with one of the recent updates the CIV's power was boosted, it is now about half a bar below the leviathan in power but still has its bonus. Perhaps the CIV isn't the weapon for you but it can no longer be said that the leviathan is that much better. (you can check the wiki)
As for your gear, i wear:
Skolver Cap
Vog Cub Coat
Dragon Scale Shield
Wild Hunting Blade
Iron Slug
Ash of Agni
I'm good with my stuff because it suits MY play style and i think your problem is your not comfortable with what your using, give a new weapon type a try and see if you do better, or maybe adjust how your playing a little. Also if you don't have any heart trinkets they may really help you, that last heart is the difference between a rezz and a flawless victory.
I got suggestions for armor and guns and I acknowledged that, and said I'd work towards better gear. I got what I wanted. Why are you attacking me, now?
As far as how the levels go for me, that's not something I can as easily describe here on the forums so I just chose not to. It's something I'll either figure out on my own or learn from better team mates. That's all there is to it.
This topic is effectively over. Thank you for the help.
Yes I have read the thread. Short of repeating what's already been said there's not much else I can say apart from getting gear better suited to Vanaduke. You say your gear is not optimal but it shouldn't matter. I say it does matter.
Losing a couple more bars every time your shield breaks due to non-optimal gear adds up, dragging out the phases because you're doing a few less damage due to non-optimal gear adds up. Both of those together adds up. Especially if you've already said you're having problems dying.
Just to add to CIV: yeah it does okay damage. Did 422 to zombies whereas someone with 1 scolver piece (=med damage bonus) did 430~ with a leviathan.
Not optimal for the body of course but good nonetheless.
About the shield: I use omega shell (not optimal at all but the most well rounded shield perhaps) and can take a vanaduke mace hit but sometimes catch on fire+stun. (you want to dodge these anyway). That's plenty.
Also about vanaduke: preferably you dont want to get hit. my second last run I didnt take damage till last phase. And get a party with shivermist. Slows down vana turning around->less mace strikes->less debris. In the last phase when you absolutely want to gun him down it really helps when he gets to swing only about 1/3 times. And be on your toes when he aggros you. You really want to make him swing that mace as little as possible. Running enough that he cant swing at you till he aggros someone else is good.
Also sorry if you want to solo him but I got no experience on that :<
edit: oh I thought graveyard was about gameplay help till I read the sticky.
Dragon Scale Shield
Blackhawk
Cold Iron Vanquisher
Iron Slug
Dragon Scale Shield: No normal defense means it'll break very easily. Don't use a shield that doesn't have normal defense unless you have a very very good reason for it and know what you are doing.
Blackhawk: Vast majority of mobs in Citadel are resistant to shadow and weak to elemental. I noticed you have no elemental weapons at all.
Cold Iron Vanquisher: An ok weapon I guess, considering there's lots of zombies in FC but any other 5* elemental weapon will be superior. Elemental bonus >>> dmg vs Undead bonus and you get bonus vs Gun Puppies to boot. DA, Glacius/Combuster. I'd even prefer Leviathan blade over CIV.
Iron Slug: Don't have much experience with this weapon but I heard that it's damage isn't that good and having to stop moving to shoot can either get you killed or reduce your dps because you have less chances to use it freely without getting hit. i.e. If you decide not to shoot because a mob will hit you then you just lost potential damage that you would have gained if you were using a gun that was more mobile.