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Ultimate Shadow Lair Gear

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Wed, 03/05/2014 - 16:08
Mayaura's picture
Mayaura

I recently compared the new Tortodrone 5* Wild Shell shield to the Snarbolax 5* Barbarous Thorn shield here, and decided that the Tortodrone shield would be better for the Snarbolax Shadow Lair mission.

Then I started thinking about what would be the ultimate best loadout for each shadow lair.

Although I've thought about this before and there have probably been a few threads about this already, let's see how our opinions match up.

Snarbolax: a poison environment with beasts and undead monsters.

Helm: Skolver for pierce defense with a max pierce or max poison UV.

Armor: Radiant Silvermail has defense against both Undead (shadow) and Beast (pierce) with additional medium damage vs. undead. I'll go with a max UV in shadow or pierce defense.

Shield: Savage Tortoise is a pierce shield with as much pierce defense as a Barbarous with a max pierce UV. In other words, it has more pierce defense than any other shield. The speed movement low penalty is hardly even noticeable, and you're not looking for speed in a snarbolax run anyway.

Sword 1: A needle sword with damage bonus vs beasts

Sword 2: Combuster with CTR VH

Gun 1: Argent Peacemaker for Undead

Gun 2: Polaris with ASI VH

******************************************************************************

Roarmulus Twins: a fire environment with construct and gremlin monsters.

Helm: Vog for elemental defense and max fire UV resist.

Armor: Vog for elemental defense with a max elemental UV.

Shield: Dragon Scale has both pierce (for the considerable number of slimes) and elemental defense with max fire resistance. Grey Owlite and The Bitter End or also good elemental shields with max fire resist.

Sword 1: Acheron with damage bonus vs gremlins or ASI

Sword 2: Combuster with damage bonus vs constructs or CTR

Gun 1: Sentenza with damage bonus vs gremlins

Gun 2: Polaris with ASI or damage bonus vs constructs

***********************************************************************************

Ice Queen: a freeze environment with mainly slime and a few construct monsters.

Helm: Skolver for pierce defense and its freeze resistance.

Armor: Skolver for pierce defense and its freeze resistance.

Shield: Barbarous Thorn Shield is a pierce shield with a unique medium sword damage bonus. Royal Jelly would also be good if, you know, you get sleepy while playing.

Sword 1: Acheron with damage bonus vs slimes or ASI

Sword 2: Combuster with CTR

Bomb: Ash of Agni with CTR

Gun 2: Polaris with ASI or damage bonus vs slimes

*****************************************************************************

Vanaduke: a fire environment with mainly undead monsters.

Helm: Snarbolax for its shadow defense and sword damage bonus with a max fire UV resist.

Armor: Snarbolax for its shadow defense and sword damage bonus with a max fire UV resist.

Shield: Crest of Almire has shadow defense with max fire resistance. Grey Owlite and The Bitter End or also good elemental shields with max fire resist.

Sword 1: Divine Avenger with CTR or ASI

Sword 2: Glacius with damage bonus vs undead or CTR

Gun 1: Argent Peacemaker for its Damage Bonus vs Undead: Medium with ASI

Gun 2: Polaris with ASI or damage bonus vs undead

Wed, 03/05/2014 - 16:25
#1
Finale-Flare's picture
Finale-Flare
Grey feather for

Grey feather for roarmulus.

Ice queen for ice queen

Divine for auFSC

Snarb looks good

Chaos for everything if ur pro

Wed, 03/05/2014 - 22:41
#2
Janeks's picture
Janeks
blitz for fsc and snarb

blitz for fsc and snarb

Wed, 03/05/2014 - 22:59
#3
Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

A handful of thoughts--

0. You forgot about shock during ultimate roarmulus.
1. Snarbolax has negative curse resistance. Snarbolax also does a better job deflecting normal damage than shadow damage.
2. Skolver doesn't resist poison; if we're to make the ultimate loadout, perhaps shadowsun stetson would work better for uGWW?
3. Blitz needle + electron vortex are a powerful combination against the snarbolax. Could these be considered for that fight?
4. A blitz needle is also typically used for fighting vanaduke. Since this is the "ultimate loadout" thread, shouldn't that be listed?
5. Divine avenger outdamages brandishes vs the roarmulus twins.

6. Shouldn't this thread address the concept of specialization? As in, if my friend is bringing shiver, its better for me to bring blitz. Only one person really needs sentenza during roarmulus, and the slot might be better spent on nitronome. If my 3 team mates are all primarily using magma driver, my ash of agni won't see much use when fighting the ice queen.

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 03:34
#4
Mayaura's picture
Mayaura
@ Fehzor

I'm not an arsenal pro, so I'd easily defer to other playes who have more insight.

0. Although the normal T2 twins mission is shock, the shadow lair version is primarily fire.

1. I think the snarbolax helm is also fine choice, maybe even a better choice, for the sl version since there are a lot of ghosts and zombies trying to take bites out of you, but Radaint Silvermail seems custom made for that mission.

3. I won't argue against the effectiveness of Blitz - I just hate its immobility issue.

5. I don't like the swing motion of a Divine Avenger due to the way it leaves you vulnerable.

6. Specialization and team work are far beyond the modest goal of my OP.

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 10:11
#5
Shadowstarkirby's picture
Shadowstarkirby
I forgot to mention this many times...

...I like your name Mawashimono, it's pretty fun. If you were in the guild I was in, I could make so many nicknames!

Hah, anyway, this stuff is very very particular. I can't say if there truly is an ultimate gear set up for these lairs since you're always giving up something in exchange for something else (unless you have ultimate UVs, where obviously your armor is BKC + Chaos and your weapons are some brandishes, Blitz, Polaris and Shivermist).

But here's my opinion that isn't BKC + Chaos set, without UVs factored in, for a swordie that isn't taking into account of what other players are bringing into the party. These sets around balanced offensive and defensive capabilities to ensure you kill, but also survive:

-SL GWW

Armor set: Snarbolax/Skolver (I prefer the former for the poison resist, Skolver is only slightly better when you face the boss) + Radiant Silvermail.

Weapons: FF/BTB (maybe Acheron if you want to squeeze out that extra bit of DMG it has vs. Beasts), Combuster, Shivermist, and Polaris.

Shield: Savage Tortoise/Barbarous Thorn Shield.

-SL IMF

Armor set: Vog + Grey Feather.

Weapons: Glacius, Gran Faust, Shivermist, and Hail Driver.

Shield: Grey Owlite.

-SL RJP

Armor set: Skolver + Ice Queen.

Weapons: Acheron, Combuster, Ash of Agni, and Supernova.

Shield: Barbarous Thorn Shield.

-SL FSC

Armor set: Divine Veil + Snarbolax/Chaos.

Weapons: Combuster, Shivermist, Blitz Needle, and Polaris.

Shield: Crest of Almire.

EDIT: Replaced Vog with Divine Veil under SL FSC. Honestly forgot it existed.

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 09:29
#6
Krakob's picture
Krakob

For UFSC, there are several good combos. In my opinion, the best might be Chaos+Divine Veil. You can get enough fire resistance to get by while getting +5 curse is just a sprite perk away. The Chaos really helps if you're using charge dependent weapons (I personally do this) like Brandishes, Autoguns, bombs.

@Fehzor
1. Snarbolax has negative curse resistance. Snarbolax also does a better job deflecting normal damage than shadow damage.
Well, that turned out to be false. We found that Snarby takes extra damage from curse because you hit harder and thus get damaged by the curse harder.

@Mawa
0. Although the normal T2 twins mission is shock, the shadow lair version is primarily fire.
Yes, but the shock is still plenty and it's twice as lethal. PMoS is in my opinion perfect for UIMF. Especially if you bring VPB or some other gun.

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 13:52
#7
Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

^Oh. That's really interesting-- thanks for the update!

I'd still have to say that I value curse max + fire max + shadow max over normal max + sword damage med though... but this is from the standpoint of someone that would bring-

Mask of Seerus
Divine Mantle
Blitz Needle

As her primary setup.

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 16:27
#8
Poopsie's picture
Poopsie
Let me dump this polaris in recycle bins...

Pulsar is just not effective on most likely party setup. Damage is not really that good, and you also endanger party members who choose to be front liners as they can't see any incoming attacks due to blue light bulbs. Also, due to low damage of pulsars, monsters tend to target these front liners instead of you thus gets them into worse situation. Another thing is random knock back effect, I got hit so many times by monsters that I've dodged, because someone pushed the monsters right back into my location. Antigua is a good gun, however, the damage part makes it far from effective weapons. Autogun use just need to follow simple strategies either you dodge the monster attack first (monsters need a few moments to charge another attack against you again) or you let your friends to be front liners and support them from behind.

Ignorant Universal Loadout (which I most likely would choose)
Black Kat Cowl (any uv)
Mercurial Demo Suit (any uv)
Swiftstrike Buckler (any uv)
Sword Dmg + Gun Dmg Trinkets + MSI Battle Sprite Perks
Volt Edge ASI + CTR VH
Acheron ASI + CTR VH
Blitz Needle ASI + CTR VH
Electron Vortex CTR VH

On more serious note,
Trinket/battle sprite perk (3 slots) choices... I always pick either 3 pieces of CTR/Damage/MSI boost on weapons I use the most or 2 pieces of CTR/Dmg/MSI + 1 piece of health boost on harder places.
Shield choice... offensive would go swiftstrike buckler or barbarous thorn blade. Defensive shields wouldn't do too far due to high damage (1 rockets at roar takes almost 70% hp of grey owlite even though it matches all defense needed), but prioritizing on status effect seems good idea (adding with any good status effect uv that shield doesn't have, otherwise fire max on owlite would be useless). Most likely you still want a normal defense because there are many split damage. Gremlin and mecha knights are doing split normal + elemental for example. I still don't have any idea about shield bash damage though.
Strategy on surviving nasty status effect/damage... while always keeping remedy in check, never hoard heart drops, takes only one or two hearts (gets around 7 or 8 health bars) during battle moment when you left out with one (or a bit more) health drop. This is due to "last mercy" feature where you are supposed to die taking a lot of damage but left out with one health bar instead. This "last mercy" however does not really work on continuous attack (like zombie lunge) or attack combined with damaging status attack (zombie swipe that also deals fire damage). You may hoard after the battles over.

For each specialization...
Rabid Snarbolax: Snarbolax Set for swordie, Shadowsun for gunner (shadow damage is more appealing than piercing because wolvers is easier to deal than kat + howlitzer, rabid snarbolax is a bit special case for me which I'll explain below)
Notable weapon: Vortex, cuts snarbolax fight potentially 5x shorter, because you can force snarbolax into area near the bell even if they are still burrowing. Hence, I don't think you need piercing defense that much if your party members effectively mutilate snarbolax with vortex help.

Ice Jelly Queen: Freeze resistance shouldn't be needed if your teammates takes care each other. Gunning immediately when they saw you got freeze. Hence, more freedom on picking gears.
Notable weapon: Volcanic pepperbox (until grim repeater update), especially with flash charge bug, it will destroy Giant Lichen easily, or just left it with 5% - 10% hp.

Red Roarmulus Twin: I am afraid more getting shocked instead of fire. So I tend to equip shock defense gears more.
Notable weapon: Divine Avenger, weapon specialized to kill roarmulus twin, the charge has the best damage due to each of the three beams damages roarmulus altogether that even volcanic pepperbox charge loses in comparison.

Darkfire Vanaduke: I have funny feeling about this area. I rather die in curse than waiting the curse ended.
Notable weapon: Blitz Needle on Zombie, I think this is the most effective weapon to kill them. Brandish does not work too well because of zombie's shield (except combuster I think).

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 19:37
#9
Shadowstarkirby's picture
Shadowstarkirby
@Poopsie

Pulsar is most definitely effective in party play...for UFSC, it's all about knowing how to use it (which is why it gets a bad rep cause many people don't know how to). The knockback isn't random, you shoot the enemy, it goes in the opposite direction where the hit landed. The damage isn't bad either considering you're hitting up to 3 targets regularly if they expand. While it can blind and (I spite those who use it recklessly), in this place you should know where the enemies will fly to and do a charge attack when they stop traveling (which usually isn't far). It's not hard to predict here because there are so many slags that cushion the ones being knocked back, they actually don't fly everywhere as most people believe.

Being the absolute most effective crowd control gun in a place like UFSC, it's where it shines most where in particular rooms in UFSC where enemies spawn at the top of the area while you're fighting at the bottom. Most notable example being in D26 where slags are coming down across a sea of spikes while two sides have two Howlitzers ready to scorch you. While Blitz can makes this area easy with enough CTR, you won't find yourself having any time to use it safely in say, the final room of D27, the immobility hurts and Polaris can admittingly help you here if you can get some expanded shots. That's why I suggest that you carry both Blitz and Polaris so you get both benefits, AP isn't even considerable in SLs honestly. Even if you do carry these guns, you should be brandish spamming/swinging heavy swords far more than using either of these guns.

All the other SLs I mentioned, they're solely for shutting down turrets and pylops as quickly as possible without their retaliation. You could use Polaris to give you some space in these arenas, but again, you'd be better off spamming brandish/swinging heavy swords.

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 21:04
#10
Tiasthyr's picture
Tiasthyr
Seerus + Deadshot = UFSC?

I've been planning on Perfect Mask Of Seerus + Deadshot Mantle for UFSC. Seems to tick all the right boxes, and I want the Mantle as a costume piece anyway.

Is it a trap?

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 22:08
#11
Red-Galaxy's picture
Red-Galaxy
what i do is

go chaos on everything, making everything blow up. Its what got me through ice queen and UFSC. :)

Thu, 03/06/2014 - 22:15
#12
Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

@Polaris conversation

I'm with shadowstarkirby on this one, but I'd like to add one thing that I overlooked before: more damage would likely be better than shock status on the royal jelly, and the ability to effect gremlins would be good for roarmulus. Perhaps change those to supernova?

Fri, 03/07/2014 - 10:17
#13
Shadowstarkirby's picture
Shadowstarkirby
@Fehzor

I think that would be better now that I think about it. Knocking back Jellies in URJP as much as possible will keep you far safer than shocking them, which could actually be a bad thing since they move quickly towards you when they aren't knocked back from the expanded shot...and shocking a Giant Lichen Colony can really wreck you in this case. I'd replace Polaris with Supernova here.

As for UIMF, I honestly don't think that even Supernova can be used effectively because most enemies close the distance you made with your shots very easily, especially the Quicksilvers and Oilers which respawn very often. It's almost futile, especially when the rooms are also just insanely claustrophobically tiny.

EDIT: After watching a solo of UIMF, the enemies don't clump together like they do in other SLs either (dumb 'ol gremlins). I really wouldn't recommend Supernova here.

@Tiasthyr That's no trap, you can go with that and do extremely well with all the huge amount of relevant resistances and Undead bonuses. If you carry along a DMG trinket or two to boost your Undead bonus, that'd be even better.

Mon, 03/10/2014 - 00:05
#14
Blue-Flood's picture
Blue-Flood

I totally should have read something like this before going to the twins. My party and I fully decked out in shock resist since it was our first time and didn't know any better :)

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 08:05
#15
Mr-Happykiller's picture
Mr-Happykiller
HAMMER!!!!!!!!!

USE the Dark Retribution for Ice queen and HAMMER for UFSC

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 08:59
#16
Shadowstarkirby's picture
Shadowstarkirby
Stop

STOP bumping OLD threads. This has been answered and the OP hasn't replied, let it rest.

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