Spiral Knights - Wanted: Sword for Graviton Bomber

Wanted: Sword for Graviton Bomber

17 replies [Last post]

Thu, 09/05/2013 - 23:42

Awoogawooga

Hi, I have no experience with swords outside the Tutorial and the one time I tried a Sealed Sword (I kept missing and/or couldn't get the shield fast enough to avoid a counter attack).

I used to be an all-gunner but just turned full-bomber. When I got the Graviton Charge/Bomb, I was lucky enough to be in parties that took advantage of the bomb's sucking ability. But since upgrading to Graviton Vortex, I've ended up with several parties who had refused to take advantage. I literally had around 10 slimes/lizards/wolvers/gremlins clumped together on several occasions, and I think I held those groups together for anywhere from 30 seconds to a couple minutes (I was willing to tank damage), but I noticed that not only did my party not attack, but they sometimes ran away or gang up on like, 1 stray enemy. I even asked them to charge up and attack, but they refused to take advantage.

Phew, sorry for the rant, but the point is, I think that I'll need to bring a sword when I go Graviton Bombing. Just in case.

So, what sword should I get? Due to the relatively short period of vulnerability, I'm thinking I won't have time to charge, so a sword that can do good damage without needing to charge is probably preferred. I'm such a newb with swords that I don't even fully understand how all this "split damage" thing works. I'm used to the pure damage types of guns and bombs.

Should I go for the Granfaust since it can cause Curse on a regular swing. Would Grandfaust do good damage to Undead and Fiends?

Or should I go for that freezing sword I see people using. But that seems to require charging.

Thanks for any recommendations.

Edit: Or should I consider the Sudaruska? It doesn't seem to have a status for the second hit though. Which does more damage on a regular swing? Sudaruska or GF/DA?

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 01:01

Zeddy

If you have access to Operation Crimson Hammer, then the best sword for dealing with clumped-up enemies is Dark Retribution.

No, you read that right. Swords are for chumps.

Voltaic Tempest is also good at making mincemeat out of clustered enemies since the shock spasms hit in an AoE around each enemy that spasms.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 01:45

Awoogawooga

Unfortunately, DR is out of

Unfortunately, DR is out of my reach.

Hmm, would you recommend a Shard Bomb or Nitronome to follow up on GV? I love GV + DBB, but that's dependent on the enemy types for me. I'd like something that can do high damage against all/most types.

Haha... I never had to ask too many questions when I was a gunner. It's a pretty straightforward "class" that you can just read the wiki to get an idea of what you need. Bombing's a lot more dynamic and situational, but of course, way more fun.

Edit: I've been doing GV + VT, but I've only been using the VT to inflict shock while I GV. Like I said, it's great when the party charge up and OHKO the clumped together+shocked enemies, but parties that run off is why I'm looking for a method of DPS. Should I run right up to the clumped up enemies to drop the VT, thereby doing blast radius damage?

Thanks.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 02:19

Zeddy

The VT in itself can do a good amount of damage, yes.

Here's something you can try if you have three slots:

1. Drop a Vortex.
2. Drop a shivermist.
3. SUDAAAAAAAAAAA

Alternatively, you could use shards instead of Suda. Will also work with VT instead of shiver.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 03:17

Awoogawooga

Thanks. Guess I'll start

Thanks. Guess I'll start checking the wiki for appropriate Shards.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 05:15

Bopp

obligatory

You might find my detailed sword guide helpful. It gives you figures such as damage per second, charges per second, etc.

Gran Faust doesn't curse very often, so don't make that a major consideration. Warmaster Rocket Hammer is probably the best choice --- shield-canceling after the second stroke results in colossal damage per second --- but you don't have Operation Crimson Hammer? After WRH, the brandishes do the best damage per second in regular attacks. So you should probably go for one of those. If you can get a lot of CTR and fire protection, then consider also charging Fang of Vog. The charge is extremely powerful, and the experience is really fun. I haven't tested it with vortex bombs, though.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 08:47

Awoogawooga

Thanks! I'll give it a closer

Thanks! I'll give it a closer read. As I said, I was never one for swords to begin with. I might go for the Fang of Vog now that you mention it, since I can just do some Vana runs for it and save myself the trouble of crafting it. Worst case scenario, if it doesn't jive with me, I can just sell it.

Oh, by the by, I was just in the 5th Stratum mission, "In Cold Blood". I was there mostly on a whim. Anyway, in the very first room, I found myself surrounded by what was probably over 20 Wolvers and 2 effin' Gremlin Darkfang Menders. I wasn't expecting to survive, and indeed, played carelessly and let them reduce me to 2 ticks without doing any real damage to any of them.

So I thought... eh, let's try it out. I started spamming my VT, then switched to alternating VT and GV... my god. Everything just suddenly disappeared! I'm not exaggerating when I said I was surrounded 20+ to 1, and the only numbers I noticed were a bunch of little grey numbers. But I made sure to GV more or less in one location and boompf! 20 + 2 menders suddenly turned to just 2 wolvers, which I finished off with GV.

My GV+VT cherry's been popped.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 08:51

Little-Juances

Ability 1 of whatever sprite you have deals damage. Use it too.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 17:54

Rodovisky

buddy I tryed to mix elctron

buddy I tryed to mix elctron charge wit kamarin but it was almos useless and now im mixing kamarin(soon wil be suda) with the freezing vaporizer mk2 and its being pretty nice. the best weapons to mix with the graviton/elevtron in my opnion are the brandish lines cause you can charge fast

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 19:20

Awoogawooga

Thanks for the input, I'll go

Thanks for the input, I'll go read up on the Brandishes then.

Fri, 09/06/2013 - 20:49

#10

Culture

Hmm

There's enough time to charge up a brandish-line sword after dropping a 5* vortex bomb. It does exceptional damage too since the explosions following the charge attack can hit multiple times. Also, after releasing the charge attack you can immediately go into a normal combo. I like to use a Voltedge since the shock helps to lock in the enemies so they aren't blown away by the vortex. The enemies are now grouped together, which helps amplify the shock damage. But really, any 5* brandish will work well for vortexes.

I prefer brandishes to a Divine Avenger charge attack since the knockback from the DA can disrupt the clustering for someone else that is trying to do a charge attack into the center.

Sun, 09/08/2013 - 10:50

#11

Troll-Lolo

Like mentioned above:

If you have the normal CTR Med from a fully heated 5* Brandish, you can hit your own vortex(except when pre bombing before standing on a party button). If you have the vortex and Combuster( probably the easiest to use/get even though I prefer mu Voltedge) in slots adjacent to each other and you're using a mouse wheel to switch weapons. If you use a piece of chaos it is even easier.

Drop vortex> quickly switch to Combuster(fire also lets enemies ride waves)> Charge while the vortex does the initial explosion(or ASAP) > release and follow up with a combo or two with a few seconds left to go on vortex> repeat until enemies are dead.

Make sure you familiarize yourself with attack patterns of your swords, bombs, and enemies, as well as their weakness.

Sun, 09/08/2013 - 22:36

#12

Awoogawooga

Thanks Troll-Lolo, I see

Thanks Troll-Lolo, I see about adapting all this to my use.

Mon, 09/09/2013 - 16:50

#13

Batabii

@zeddy
I love that combo, except I don't really see the point of shivermist. Any ctr boost (i.e. armor, perks, trinkets) should be fast enough to hit them before they disperse.

As for the OP, pretty much any sword combos with vortexes.

Tue, 09/10/2013 - 01:02

#14

Krakob

@Larry

Means they won't fly away. That's why Shiver.

Tue, 09/10/2013 - 10:43

#15

Writhes

The best...

As a player well experienced in both bombing, swords, and hybrids of the two I feel obligated to lay out my opinion.

The best swords for a clump of enemies are going to be swords with a heavy aoe charge attack. Charge attacks allow players to keep distance from the clumped enemies and I assume anyone going hybrid will use a chaos set which will give bonus charge for all weapons.

With that said the best would be...
-Brandish (Whichever element)
-Divine Avenger

These types of swords have very powerful charge attacks with ridiculous ranges.

Tue, 09/10/2013 - 11:14

#16

Writhes

Shiv.... Meh

When using a vortex bomb it is a better strategy to kite mobs into a vortex rather than placing a vortex directly on mobs. Shivermist will force you to hug mobs in order to chain the following vortex which can easily lead to unnecessary damage. Now if a player decides to use electron instead of graviton the shock will conflict with freeze.

My advice is to chain 2-3 vortex or however many it takes to clump mobs in the area and when it is time charge a powerful sword attack and laugh as everything dies at once. I do this all the time in vana runs and I often find myself quite satisfied watching 10 slags disintegrate after launching a Divine Avenger charge in their face.

If going a gunner/bomber hybrid electron vortex and polaris work incredibly well together. There is nothing sweeter than having a tool that keeps mobs at bay so you can get those ranged polaris shots while 20 slags are being shocked to death.

Thu, 09/12/2013 - 04:31

#17

Viconaut

Awooga!

i am basically the everyman in groups, have two swords a bomb and gun. most of which work together well/with my build. i am as glass cannon as possible. my bread and butter though is graviton vortex and triglav. the combo they make with this build is just amazing. my Charge time reduction is high enough for me to easily land a charged triglav hit before graviton times out, with time enough to spare to position perfectly and how you want everytime. with sword damage max as well as the most overall non specific dmg increases you can get off of armor. its a semi truck fired out of a sniper rifle. i vote you try a triglav, its brother or another slow but strong charged sword. the brandish line is a great charge attack that works well with the combo and is average if you want to not lose speed with the big boys. just be sure to test your CTR requirement, and even once you have enough to be in the clear, it takes practice to do it all on the fly (the less CTR you have the harder it is to use in meaningful situations until you get in the practice/master it). and if you want the combo to work you NEED to master shield break and shield charge. that few seconds you shave off by not swinging to start the charge is too much easy time to pass up. hit me up in game @viconaut if you want to see it in action/ use it in the clockworks with me. have videos of my group and i not dying once (back when heart res was not murdered and stolen from us) through entire T3 arenas with this combo leading the way through the dreaded last stage of ring 3. among other tight spots. really hope you check it out

vico

edit- last test hit i did before this with triglav is 596 on the charge hit with a 647 on the secondary wave of the charge hit. and im not sure if theres resistance from the particular mob being taken into account on that, would like to know. pretty sure it wouldn't matter usually since its normal dmg

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Wanted: Sword for Graviton Bomber