Spiral Knights - What's the point of upgrading to 5* weapons?

What's the point of upgrading to 5* weapons?

13 replies [Last post]

Sun, 02/16/2014 - 20:46

Jcolin

I'm wondering what the point of upgrading to 5* weapons is(not all of them, but most of them.) A level 10 4* weapon tends to do significantly more damage than a level 1 5* weapon and because radiants are extremely rare and you practically have to buy them so you almost can't level up, what's the point of upgrading to 5* at all? If you stay at a level 10 4* weapon you'll dish out more damage than if you decide to upgrade to 5*(and probably get stuck at lower levels that still deal less damage.) I know that there a certain weapons that upgrading to 5* make up for it in some sort of way, whether it would be upgrading the charged attack(like how Divine Avenger shoots 3 beams towards where avenger only shoots 1.) So should we just stay at level 10 4* weapons or upgrade to 5* for some reason?

tl;dr 4* level 10 deals more damge than 5* (until about level 8+ or so which is hard to get because radiants are very rare.) What's the point of upgrading unless there's a bonus to the 5* that the 4* didn't have? (Divine Avenger's 3 beam charged attack to Avengers 1 beam charged attack.)

Sun, 02/16/2014 - 20:50

Fehzor

There isn't a point to upgrading, and you're going to be 4* until you are able to farm shadow lairs/buy your way there.

Sun, 02/16/2014 - 21:05

Klipik-Forum

As Fehz said, for weapons that have no mechanical change such as cutters, pulsars, and catalyzers, It's better to stay at 4*. However, for weapons that do have a change like the DA or brandishes, you have to decide if the charge attack mechanic advantage is enough to compensate for the damage and CTR reduction.

Sun, 02/16/2014 - 21:05

Jcolin

Shadow Lair Vana

Yeah, I was thinking of just doing shadow lair vana with my guild since it would split about 31k crowns between 4 of us and since there's a lot of radiants and crowns there, I think it's well worth it. The only problem I can think of is sparks.

Sun, 02/16/2014 - 22:36

Fehzor

The real problem is that the game isn't fun when all you're doing is shadow lair vanaduke. It takes like, 20 of him to heat an entire 5* loadout, and you want to keep going after that.

So even if you can afford to buy keys and carry your party through, you aren't going to win.

Sun, 02/16/2014 - 23:43

Bopp

so it's another

So it's another thread about Radiants.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 00:36

Jcolin

It's not entirely about Radiants

It's more of why we should leave some 4* weapons at level 10 instead of upgrading to 5* because we can't level them up and since we can't they're worse excluding people who prefer any differences the 5* weapon brings. Radiants is just a factor because we need them to level up.
As for the Shadow Lair Vanaduke, I'm not really sure how else to get radiants though besides spending a lot of money, I'll probably only get radiants for weapons that would really benefit from becoming a 5* level 10, like a blitz needle possibly.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 00:58

Scirio

Case closed.

I'd choose a 5* charge over the 4* charge any day of the week.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 01:17

Jcolin

It's not that simple though...

With some weapons that go from 4* to 5*, the charged attack doesn't change. With the 4* level 10, you have a CTR: Med and more damage, if you upgrade to 5* level 1, you lose the CTR: Med and your charged and normal attacks do less damage. Although, that's only some of the weapons.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 01:29

Mayaura

3 reasons

1 - psychological: Are you really going to be satisfied in the long-term knowing that a better version of your gear exists and you're too whatever to go and get it?

2 - appearance: 5* gear always looks better

3 - Value return for effort: It really doesn't take that many radiants to heat gear to level 5, and it's well worth it.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 02:13

#10

Blue-Flood

To piggy-back on what Mawa said, in actuality you just have to heat the weapon to level 7 to meet/exceed the damage of it's 4* counterpart. Combine that with a level 1 Chaos set and a sprite perk and you have near-max damage output/CTR. After playing in the clockworks long enough your dodging should be to the point where the Chaos won't matter, or you can spend a few extra crowns and get two health trinkets which costs NO RADIANTS!

So in reality yes I think it'd be worth it. After you get an established set that works, you have a choice to support the game and buy Radiants, farm for CR/CE to buy them, or play the market for a week or so and purchase them from there.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 15:09

#11

Jcolin

Very True

It does constantly bother me knowing my weapon could be a lot better, 5* gear looks amazing compared to 4* gear, and it still takes quite a bit of radiants to get to level 5 considering they're still hard to get and you have multiple weapons, but a little effort never hurts.
The thing about chaos set, is no one is perfect, you're going to end up messing up and the Chaos Set has very little pity on people that do. Even if it happens to be you're a godly pro who can dodge anything, things like lag or bad PCs still exist. D: I'm not sure I want to spend crowns on health trinkets when I could be using trinkets for something else, the sprite perks help a lot but it might take a while before you get the ones you want.

Overall though, if you manage to pull through and get the radiants, upgrading to 5* is definitely worth it, I just think that until you have the materials necessary to upgrade you should probably wait at 4* level 10 unless you really like the cosemetics/differences the 5* brings.

Mon, 02/17/2014 - 23:15

#12

Fehzor

@"Yes, the 5* is better and you'll want it!"

Well if you already have the fire crystals then yes, upgrading to 5* gear is going to be better. But until then it will only hinder you in your quest to beat the harder content so that you can upgrade your gear to fight the harder content.

Also-- "value return for effort" doesn't even work that way, as for 6,300 = (700 * 9; to buy 450 fire shards) energy I could flat out buy a couple 4* weapons/armors from the supply depot... having a broader arsenal of gear would likely help me more than the often slight bonus that upgrading from 4 to 5* brings.

Tue, 02/18/2014 - 17:38

#13

Skepticraven

Reasons to upgrade to 5*

Charge attack is different:
Example: Drivers. (MOAR pellets!)

Damage type changes:
Example: Mega Magnus -> Callahan

Status added:
Example: Obsidian Weapons

Bonus added/changed:
Example: Vog Cub/Chaos

Armor type changes:
Example: Snarbolax

Status resistance added:
Example: Any upgrade for Sunset set (4* gunner)

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What's the point of upgrading to 5* weapons?