Spiral Knights - Glacius - Sword user's Shivermist Buster?

Glacius - Sword user's Shivermist Buster?

12 replies [Last post]

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 21:50

Evilnut

I made a Combuster after the brandish charged attack change - I'm completely in love with it. I can even use it in Firestorm Citadel in place of Divine Avenger.

I also have a Freezing Atomizer, but with no bomber armor and trinket, it takes too long to charge and become rather useless. Especially because I solo a lot, if I keep spending time to freeze, all fights will become endurance challenges.

For a sword user Glacius would likely charge faster, swing faster and deal more damage. And since it's uni-directional, you won't accidentally freeze enemies around you and block off your own escape path.

So I am wondering about Glacius... can it be a weaker version of Shivermist Buster for a sword user?

1. Does it knock back then freeze, or do the enemies get frozen immediately when they touch the explosions?

2. Is the 5th explosion's range comparable to Shivermist Buster? i.e. can you use Glacius to hold Vanaduke in place?

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 22:00

Dremius

...

1) The charge attack works the same way the Fire counterpart works. Swing them backwards, then boom boom boom boom boom. In the case of Combuster, the monsters are burned on contact and knocked backwards. I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing that it freezes them in place and the explosions don't knock them back due to them freezing. You could try experimenting with Iceburst Brandish, it's not too costly to make.

2) I'm pretty sure Glacius freeze overrides Shivermist Buster freeze, on account of it being Strong over Minor. I think you can freeze Vanaduke with it but it's not as reliable as Shivermist because it's only good for one hit. But if you're soloing, it's no problem as you can use consecutive charge attacks on him without interference from team members. However, I wasn't really paying attention with the fire one, but I think Vanaduke's fireballs stop the explosions in their tracks.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 23:13

Gotti

Well.

Like Dremius said, Glacius is exactly like it's Fire counterpart. Only difference is color, and the status the charge does. However, because Glacius locks something in place, knockback is less reliable. It is very possible that a mondter won't freeze untill the last explosion, sometimes even the first one. If a monster is frozen in between the explosion though, it will likely freeze then break because of the explosion after. Thus, causing less knockback. I rarely ever get a monster riding all of the explosions with my Glacius.

Now, Glacius is very good at crowd control; I bring it to FSC all the time. However, freeze locking doesn't work all the time, since the status doesn't happen 100% of the time. Yes, a charge will most likely freeze something, but the explosions after will break the freeze and might not freeze them. So, because of this using the charge to freeze lock Vana isn't a very good idea. You'll likely just freeze him once, then try again to find out the freeze lock broke. Against smaller enemies though, doing this is pretty dang good. It'll probably only take 2 charges to kill a monster with a 4-man party.

TL;DR
1) Both can happen. Sometimes you'll break a monster's freeze because of the explosion after though.
2) Nope. It is completely unreliable against Vana, Shiver is better.

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 23:28

Evilnut

Thank you Gotti and Dremius

So while the 5 explosions will always come out (not blocked by a monster frozen early on), it will release enemies frozen earlier... the same problem as Cyro Alchemer.

I guess I will stick with Freezing Atomizer for FSC then. :/

Tue, 01/17/2012 - 23:43

Aemicus

If you want a 3 swing

If you want a 3 swing elemental, take the Voltedge for FSC.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 00:06

Antistone

Secondary explosions may break freeze, but in my experience Glacius still leaves the vast majority of enemies it its frozen; most enemies will ride the explosions until one freezes them, then get stuck and miss the rest. It's certainly not 100%, but it's decent crowd control if you want to use it like that.

Against Vanaduke, though, I don't think it would really help. There's no possible way it could replace a Shivermist for a party; the first attack from an ally will unfreeze him until you release your next charge. Solo, you could maybe try it, but if you're standing outside the fireballs and only hitting him with 1-2 explosions per charge, your damage is going to be awfully low--they don't do all that much, and I'm pretty sure Vanaduke is resistant to elemental damage. I could maybe see using it to immobilize Vanaduke briefly while you try to kill slags--basically as a poor man's freeze vial, not as a poor man's Shivermist.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 00:59

Evilnut

@Aemicus:
Voltedge line is out of reach for me, since I don't like to play LD much. Being in Hong Kong, latency is a big issue in LD - from time to time I will meet someone who can kill me before I realize I've been hit. To this day I only get enough tokens for one Mod Calibrator, which I'm saving to make a trinket some day. I won't be doing any more LD until there's an Asia server.

The knockback on Combuster/Divine Avenger is all the crowd control I need... Glacius and Voltedge block enemy movement and is not suited for my style.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 01:08

Darkbrady

I've had Glacius forever,

I've had Glacius forever, /because/ I'm a bomber. I chose Glacius over every other sword expressly because the freeze effect merges beautifully with Shiver, and it lets me have a freeze option if charging a bomb isn't an option.

1/ You use the charge attack to freeze shivered enemies, and it will override/refreeze them
2/ if you attack the frozen enemies while shiver is still up, then you'll break the glacius freeze, and shiver will re-refreeze them!
2.b/ Sayin' that, if you attack them and there's no shiver, the ice will break after one hit, no re-freeze allowed.
3/ the charge of the full new explosions is slightly longer than the *radius* of shivermist, so it will reach vana easily (easier, arguably) but you only get the one shot (Basically, Antistone nailed that one in the head)
4/ the ice effect does not last, like shiver; only mobs who are actually hit, get frozen
5/ in my experience, explosions rarely~never break/cancel the freeze effect
6/ the regular swings won't cause freeze, only the charge attacks

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 02:00

Jiasen

Riding explosions

i find that wolvers and gremlins and sometimes slimes ride all 3 of my explosions on my shockburst brandish and setimes shock isn't effected on them until the 2-3rd explosion

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 02:53

Batabii

two words strong

two words
strong freeze

Shivermist is not the same kind of weapon as glacius. With shivermist, you have insurance because it re-freezes. Glacius is for straight up damage. Once you freeze an enemy, ignore it and attack others, then when it thaws it will take massive damage.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 05:18

#10

Evilnut

@Batabii: How massive is it?

@Batabii:
How massive is it? I assume it's much greater than Combuster's fire since it's not DPS...

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 08:35

#11

Frederick

@evilnut

If you're looking for damage, then i'm afraid glacius's not for you, the thaw-ing damage only does around one swing damage, and it takes a while for it to thaw, around 7-10 second from my experience..
But glacius is really a great crowd control sword, especially with a gun, i suggest polaris cause i can do d25 fsc with barely
a damage with this tactic:
Charge glacius on the slags, they'll ride 2-3 explosion then freeze, shoot them a few times, repeat.
Be carefull though if your using polaris, the shock can break the ice.

Wed, 01/18/2012 - 23:20

#12

Batabii

it may not be as much overall

it may not be as much overall damage as combuster, but bear in mind that it completely immobilizes large clusters of enemies in the process, letting you focus on the others. Also compared to shivermist, the damage IS massive.

Search

Glacius - Sword user's Shivermist Buster?