Elemental Defense Usefulness
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 15:20
If I have maximum shock and fire resist, how useful is elemental defense? I know a lot of creatures have melee attacks that deal elemental damage, but most of the time they are casting spells on me because I'm a gunner and I'm usually a good distance away.
Trying to decide if I can look into some of the Normal/Piercing armors instead of restricting myself to Normal/Elemental. I open up a lot more possible armors if I can find a way to loosen my dependency on Elemental defense.
Creatures I can think of that do elemental damage at range without the use of spells:
Gun Puppies
Healers
Do creatures like the flamethrower gremlins do any damage to someone with fire maximum? For example, does it initially do X damage as Elemental Damage followed by X ticks of burn?
Thanks guys.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 15:39
#2
Unless you aim to do
Unless you aim to do Firestorm Citadel in the very near future, I wouldn't worry about the metagame influencing your armor choices.
I consider Elemental defense the most useful because of the current prevalence of Gun Puppies in just about every existing level.
As for Piercing damage, only spikes and spiky slimes do that for now. And now I can't remember if flamethrower gremlins actually damage you with their fire, or just set you on fire. They do occasionally shoot out elemental-damage energy balls, though.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 15:42
#3
I believe the flamethrower
I believe the flamethrower part is only Normal at the moment with a chance to set on fire.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 15:53
#4
Retrodes can attack from long
Retrodes can attack from long range with a powerful laser. They might actually be LESS dangerous at close range, because their melee attack is easy to block.
The fire from Gremlin Scorchers inexplicably deals Normal damage on all tiers. I will never understand why it's not Elemental. Same with the bombs from Gremlin Demolitions.
Also, there are almost no enemies with Piercing attacks. The only one you're likely to meet regularly is the Lichen Colony (and in most cases this is preventable-- just don't let them merge). Kozma's armor recipes are... kind of a trap, really.
If you're some kind of ranged dodge-master, then you'll want to think about Shadow defenses. Many Shadow-based enemies can quickly close the distance (Spookat, Zombie, Greaver, Phantom) or attack from range (Spookat again, Phantom again).
Elemental attacks are still more common than Shadow attacks though.
You can use your costume slots to have the looks of a piercing-based armor but the defenses of an elemental-protective armor.
If it's the Gunslinger outfit you wanted, it's cool-- go for it! There's an upgraded 5* version with Elemental defense (Nameless set). It swaps out the damage bonus with a considerable attack speed bonus.
Tue, 05/17/2011 - 16:39
#5
I was hoping to lower the
I was hoping to lower the necessity of elemental damage to a point where it would be reasonable to swap my Nameless for somelike like Deadshot or Shadowsun. I know for the most part I shouldn't be getting hit by either shadow or piercing so that portion of the new armor would be less useful.
Basically anything that has a green aura or green lines coming out of the front of them is using an elemental attack. That includes almost all (if not all) gun puppies and most retrode attacks to name most of them. The fire resistance and shock resistance lowers the chances of getting those ailments, and apparently dramatically reduces the damage taken at high levels.