Spiral Knights - A Chaos User's Woes! What shield to pick.

A Chaos User's Woes! What shield to pick.

8 replies [Last post]

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 10:42

Bossbane

Hey there! Neo here.

I am getting closer and closer to that Chaos set, which makes me realize that my Defence and resistances are about to go down the drain. In order to counter this, I chose a very defensive weapon to get good at, the Pulsar line, in hopes that it would keep most beasties at bay, but alas, I am still getting used to it. I imagine that someday, fearless with a swiftstrike buckler, but today is not that day.

In the mean time (And for those trap riddled levels) what would be a good shield to invest in? In order to advance to the next series of quests, I need a four star shield anyways, and it's not like I am going to go through the trouble and cost of making one and then just sell it. I have look at many options, and here are the ones I have gotten it down to:

Omega Shell Line
Dragon Scale Shield Line (Bonus - is on fire and looks sweet.)
Grey Owlite Shield
Crest of Almire (<-- Very hard to get but is likely best.)

For those who don't know, I will go through them quickly!

The Omega Shell offers nothing other than normal damage and health, but has the highest of both for the game.

The Dragon Scale Shield offers good elemental and piercing defence as well as poison and fire, but no normal defence (Not sure how that factors in!)

The Grey Owlite Shield offers good elemental and normal defence as well as fire and shock, the two scariest status (besides stun/freezing if you're on your own, maybe.)

The Crest of Almire is basically the Grey Owlite Shield, but with shadow defence instead of elemental. Unfortunately, you need to do FSC runs for it or buy it for huge amounts in the AH. Not so attractive there.

So, thoughts? I am sure Bopp is going to come and tell me there is a post for it somewhere, but I just love to hear from you guys instead of reading old posts xD (I actually do do my own research, but there are often gaps inbetween updates, either new monster threats, value shifts, new items, meaning that asking it outright is usually the best, especially if you are doing dicey sets like full Chaos!)

Thanks very much!

-Neo

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 23:13

Shadowstarkirby

While I haven't used a 5* shield in forever...

I believe the general consensus for the best defensive shields would both Grey Owlite Shield and Crest of Almire. They both protect against the most vicious statuses, shock and fire as well has giving you a sturdier shield to defend against the more dangerous enemy attacks, shadow and elemental.

Omega Shield from what I'm told only looks good on paper. While it has a lot of health, it only provides defense against normal damage, which isn't good considering the majority of enemies do split. Status resist on shields is also pretty important so if you want a shield that's step up from this, you'd get Volcanic Plate Shield instead with incredible normal, elemental, fire, and stun resist.

Dragon Scale is bad because it has no normal defense, a big deal against majority of enemies. Plus there isn't any enemy that deals both elemental and piercing damage at once making it very weak unless the damage is pure elemental or piercing. However, the one place that it shines over every other shield is C42, but you could just use Grey Owlite alternatively.

If you want more insight on the Omega and Dragon Scale shields, you could check an old discussion here that explained their uses more specifically.

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 12:22

Poopsie

being ignorant

swiftstrike buckler and barbarous thorn shield is all you need.

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 12:48

Malignant-Manor

For 4* certification4*

For 4* certification
4* owlite is good for learning FSC and can do really well against flamethrowers, turret spam, and rocket puppies. Don't bother upgrading to 5*

For 5* certification
Crest of Almire is great vs shadow projectiles.
If you use swords, barbarous thorn shield is good enough for FSC when you know what to expect and most arcade levels when even slightly competent.

If you are using guns only, you should still try using swiftstrike especially when in a group for anything other than FSC, danger missions/rooms, and arenas. Then work your way to using it pretty much all the time.

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 13:55

Mushy-Bucket

---

All you need is a swiftstrike - I may add that I use chaos as well.
I haven't used my 5* shields in over 10 months.

Best route for missions: Make the Aegis, it's cheap and easy to make and is perfectly worth vendoring.

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 14:25

Tenkii

Dragonscale is actually surprisingly good... for T3, when things stop doing normal damage. Beast/Jellies (jelly turrets included) do Piercing, and Turret projectiles tend to be Elemental. It can also tank Vana's mace and sit through onslaught of slag firebreath.

Also, if you want to be economical, instead of getting crest of almire, if you need 5* certification, you can get Ancient Plate shield. I helped my brother get that so he could get t3 certification at the time (as he only owned swiftstrike).

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 16:48

Glacies

Volcanic Plate Shield for Normal. (Ancient Plate Shield makes a suitable substitution)
Ironmight Plate Shield for Piercing. (Dragon Scale Shield is a useful replacement on Elite) Barbarous Thorn Shield is also useful I guess if you plan on using Swords and don't want to use a Trinket Slot up.
Grey Owlite Shield for Elemental. (Dragon Scale Shield is also a useful replacement on Elite)
Crest of Almire for Shadow. (Dread Skelly Shield works too)

My Vote however goes to Volcanic/Ancient. Nothing can beat it. NOTHING I SAY! (Except Swiftstrike)

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 20:24

Sirius-Voltbreaker

Yeah..

Volcanic Plate Shield is the best for me. I really do hate fire. In fact, I am trying to roll a fire UV at the moment. It is completely immmune to a slags fire breath. You can pretty much stay there and you will keep on flinching while your shield takes no damage.

Tue, 12/10/2013 - 23:18

Midnight-Dj

My verdict

Omega Shell Line
I heard from a friend that this shield was the highest in terms of health, not defense though, I think plate shield took the crown in that catagory. I often seen bombers use the shell for it durability in all situations. But for chaos set you may want some legit status protection over just pure defense, I learned my lesson the hard way with my Aegis, the worst shield in the game, period.

Dragon Scale Shield Line (Bonus - is on fire and looks sweet.)
If you read the wiki alot you might know that dragon scale is unrivalled in compound 42, a danger mission that you will not want to do with chaos. Dragon scale is a decent shield, I own one. I bring it to any poison/fire piercing level, it did okay. But the lack of normal defense means this shield can be one shotted by trolljans or vanaduke, who does almost pure normal damage even in T3.

Grey Owlite Shield
This shield is essential in FSC, forget about CoA for now as it is something for the end game. Grey owlite is crucial if you want to survive in mechanized miles or deconstruction zone. The fire and the shock resistance on the shield is more than make up for its lack of shadow defense in FSC.

Crest of Almire
A shock and fire proof shadow shield, what more do I need to say, this is probably the most picked shadow shield in the game, the dread skelly shield pales in comparison. I own a dread skelly and I can tell you that the shield performs almost as bad as my Aegis in fire/shock themed shadow levels, why? Because skelly lacks a fire and shock defense. So get the CoA if you don't have time for skelly.

Search

A Chaos User's Woes! What shield to pick.