I recently decided to expand my collection of swords even further by trying to get myself a DVS, but, considering the fact that a) it does pure normal damage while inflicting poison status and b) it's difficult to make things flinch with it, what situations/levels/type of monsters is it good for? I may still end up getting it for the sake of collecting swords, but, I obviously want to gain some sort of use out of it, you know?
What's DVS good for?
Sun, 06/01/2014 - 06:29
Sun, 06/01/2014 - 07:10
#2
I think they can be useful vs undead, beasts, and fiends.
The undead are usually just a bunch of slags and slags are slow and easily avoided. Therefore, you can just dance around in a crowd of undead like it's no big deal.
Beasts require good mobility to fight, or you'll find yourself getting bitten in the butt. Since DVS has mobility in its combo, it's easier to not get hit while using cutters if you are to compare to a slower or less mobile weapon. That said, anything that's not an elemental sword will kick beast butt because they're just so eays to kill.
Fiends are by all means a tricky family but poison is very useful when silkwings are around as poison prevents healing (and makes some healing moves deal damage instead). Additionally, the many hits of DVS will keep devilites and greavers at bay because they're interrupted by a single hit.
As for the other families...
Slimes require a lot of crowd control as they tend to come in numbers. While DVS can be good vs Lichen Colonies as they're a single target at that point, and DVS can be shield cancalled very quickly to block their attacks, you're ususally best of charge spamming with an Acheron or throwing out some well placed Gran Faust combos.
Gremlins are all about interruption or knockdown, which is why DBB is the best anti gremlin weapon ever but DVS doesn't have that at all.
Same kind of goes for constructs. While you'll handle Scuttlebots, Retrodes, and Lumbers just fine with DVS, the big construct threat is Mecha Knights and those REALLY require interruption/knockdown.
Sun, 06/01/2014 - 07:58
#3
not much
In my sword guide (I forgot how to link to it) I give a "purpose" or "strength" for each sword. But I can't find any purpose for DVS/WHB. They are fun swords. The poison on DVS is nice. But there is no particular tactical reason to use these swords over other ones.
I'd like to see DVS enhanced with WHB's extra interruption capability. I'd like to see WHB's useless beast bonus removed, and WHB enhanced in some other, more interesting way. For example, the Cutter combo already causes your knight to step forward significantly. The WHB combo could have an increased step size, letting you move through battle with constant attacking. (Of course this would require testing.)
Edit: See also these current Arsenal forum threads:
* DVS on vana's mask
* Cutters, not quite as useless
Sun, 06/01/2014 - 08:08
#4
I mean, poison and fire are the only statuses that have all four damage types, after all.
That's about all I can think of...
Oh, and it's good for annoying your teammates while still doing solid DPS.
Just lowering the overall DPS in a party.
...
It's good for solo play.*
Sun, 06/01/2014 - 13:45
#5
DVS 10/10
@skepticraven
I wouldnt really say its purpose is to battle silkwings, since you dont really need to poison those, you just need to poison the ones they are trying to heal. That said DVS does take silkwings down quite fast.
@krakob
I agree killing darkfang thwackers with DVS is not easy because they turn around so much. They stay alive for too long because some hits land on their shields, and when you are actually getting targetted, you'll be able to hit them but their attack is too fast for you to safely interrupt.
I must say I sometimes use DVS in ghosts in the machine to attack mecha knights with, and you can actually interrupt them before they do their attack. Although you should make sure you have an elemental shock shield there, so you can shield if you notice you will not interrupt them in time.
@OP
I like DVS, you can get some use out of it if you try. I often take it with me, kats, turrets, healers all are good targets. Like I said before, you can also battle for example mecha knights with it, but not on arenas where 20 of them spawn at the same time, but its good to fight single targets with, and it also functions that way, since it pushes one monster back so much, it lets you kill that monster while moving you out of range for its allies.
Id say, get it if you already have the stronger swords so you can always fall back on those if a mission seems to be too hard.
Sun, 06/01/2014 - 15:22
#6
There is no one 'good' situation for them. They'll always be outclassed by something on every level, but they deal normal damage and the difference between them and the "better options" slowly shrinks away as you get more damage boosts. Buff them a ton, and then use them to sneak up on random enemies while using other tactics most of the time; i.e. bring something like dark retribution or magma driver to do the heavy lifting, but use the cutter whenever they aren't paying attention to you.
It is hard to find a place for DVS, but it still has the potential to be one of the best weapons, purely on the basis that it can effect everything and ramps up quickly when given damage boosts. In this regard, it is very future proof.
Poison is great for stopping healing.
Most poison weapons are shadow.
There are 3 main healers (2 + 1 boss type).
Silkwings (resistant shadow)
Gremlin Menders (resistant elemental)
Battlepods (resistant nothing)
I'd say it is a weapon built to combat silkwings.