Spiral Knights - Barbarous Thorn Blade: Hints & Tips

Barbarous Thorn Blade: Hints & Tips

17 replies [Last post]

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 18:40

Iron-Volvametal

Well, seeing how much I despise Devilites & I can't seem to get them when they're Alone, as they Dodge my DBB nearly all the Time unless Grouped up, I've been thinking of getting a Piercing Weapon. I don't much like Guns & I'll be getting my Sun Shards(And Possibly Salt Bomb if they Change it), but I decided on getting a Piercing Sword Instead. I don't much like the Flourish Lines & their Charge Attack, so I've Decided to get the Barbarous Thorn Blade, as its Charge Scatters, much like a Bomb, so I'll be a bit more Comfortable using it & it'll take care of those Grievers.

This is where the Questions Start.

1. Do the Projectiles deal the Same amount of Damage as the Final Flourish's Charge?
2. Do the Projectiles disappear if you're "Wall-Hugging?"
3. How, When, & Where is the Charge Attack most Effective than the Final Flourish?
4. Would you recommend this Weapon?

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 20:06

Demonicsothe

1. Individual thorns do not

1. Individual thorns do not deal as much as a FF charge. If one manages to land all 12 thorns, or however many, you might deal as much, if not more, than a flourish charge.

2. Nope.

3. Almost anywhere, to be honest. Against trojans, ff dash might shoot past it, losing out damage on the last few hits. FF charge is also dangerous. If you don't hit, you get hit. Btb charge is fast compared to ff combo, and allows you to shield that armchair and back off.

4. Yep, although getting good uv's on it will be more expensive than on a ff.

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 21:03

Bopp

very slightly prefer FF over BTB

I've used both FF and BTB extensively. I like them both about equally well. If you have one, then I would not recommend switching to the other, unless cost is truly no object and you like sampling weapons widely.

That said, if I had to choose between them, I might slightly prefer FF over BTB. The reason is that the FF charge attack is more likely to completely kill a single monster than the BTB attack is. It also works wonders on tight groups. On one occasion, I was in a Tier 3 arena, and one FF charge took out two gremlin menders and three wolvers. I've never seen a BTB attack do anything like that.

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 21:18

Iron-Volvametal

@Bopp

I wasn't asking much for a Comparison of the two Swords, just Performance of the BTB.

But thanks for the Info.

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 21:56

Bopp

well

Well, Demonicsothe's analysis is fine. But these two swords differ only in their charge attacks, so your Item #3 is exactly asking for a comparison of these two swords.

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 22:27

Sternlock

The FF charge attack 'misses'

The FF charge attack 'misses' its first two stabs when used against an enemy right in your face. The BTB does not have similar issues because the charge attack makes you take a step back, like with the DA/GF (which happen to be my two other swords, so consistency!).

That's enough to seal the deal for me. Also, I like shotguns.

Sun, 02/19/2012 - 23:49

Evilnut

IMO

For RSS: Devilites will try to dodge it. At long range the shard may miss. A bad side effect is it will make far away devilites dodge as well, endangering your melee teammates.

For BTB: In most situations you don't have a chance to charge facing greavers, except that very first strike, and you must get them to swarm you from the same direction. Like FF, it's best to stick to first swing + shield cancel.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 00:46

Demonicsothe

I didn't read op completely.

I didn't read op completely. You say devilites dodge dbb? They shouldn't, not beyond the usual dash in circles around you. Dbb already has a large radius, no need to get up close and personal with devilites.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 00:58

Iron-Volvametal

Woops...

Kinda mislead you guys there. I didn't mean that they Dodge my DBB. what I meant, is that it's Time-Consuming/Risky to kill them with my Combuster & they seem to hit me before I can Plant my DBB, so I'm getting a BTB to get up Close & Kill them as Quickly as Possible. I also hate Greavers & Wolvers that Gang up on you, so I think the Charge would be more Beneficial than the FF's.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 01:53

Evilnut

Even with thorn blade it's

Even with thorn blade it's not going to be easy...

- Don't move in a straight line, keep changing directions. That can delay devilites from starting their attack animations, just like when you're holding up your shield.

- Use obstacles. Hide behind them and try not to break them. Like traps don't hurt monsters, monsters can't hurt blocks. Devilite projectiles are like retrode's beam, those brown unbreakable blocks can stop them.

- Divide and conquer. If you have space behind you, get a devilite's attention and duck behind an obstacle. Make it come to you.

- If in a party, hope that you have good teammates that can get some of them off your backs, and that none of them start spraying bullets all around.

- T3 greavers is always highly annoying. Shock and fire ones are super deadly. Attack and stop them from deploying haze at all cost. Hope you got teammates to distract other monsters.

I'm still trying to improve my skills against them in T3, while carrying one weaker teammate.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 02:32

#10

Fradow

Actually, Greavers are very

Actually, Greavers are very easy with a piercing sword. Just shield cancel the first hit and backpedal (so that greavers don't end up in your back because of their charge).

They will not be able to land a single attack that way (so no annoying status).

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 02:36

#11

Metagenic

My opinions

3. How, When, & Where is the Charge Attack most Effective than the Final Flourish?

Nowhere, actually.

If you aim an FF charge into a group, you'll likely get a kill; maybe two if they're close together.

BTB's charge, for me, has failed to kill anything in the presence of a mender; it just knocks multiple targets down. Then the mender heals the injured monsters back to full health while I'm trying to charge my next shot.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 05:28

#12

Evilnut

@ Fradow

"Actually, Greavers are very easy with a piercing sword. Just shield cancel the first hit and backpedal (so that greavers don't end up in your back because of their charge).
They will not be able to land a single attack that way (so no annoying status)."

It is easy to disrupt them, but only if they swarm you from the same direction, and you can afford to stand still for a moment to swing. Bad timing/teammates/arena mean sometimes you can't satisfy those two conditions.

Then things go down hill very quickly.

Now my tactics if I can't satisfy those two conditions is that I'll go berserk... use the full combo of thorn blade, and take as many greavers as I can. With luck I may be able to escape some of the damage by thrusting forward.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 09:05

#13

Culture

Bombing Devilites

Those pesky little devilites are tricky to bomb. Just about every mob in the game you can simply spam a bomb to dish out optimal damage and take minimal damage due to knockback/knockdown. A devilite that is tracking you though will toss a chair when you plant a bomb. (Or cancel a charging bomb.) Might still get the bomb down, but will likely take some damage. The trick is drop the bomb right after they toss something. They have a long enough attack cooldown so that you'll have time to recover and start charging up the next one.

If you have a lot of devilites tracking you, try stopping for a brief moment to trigger their throw, then dodge and finally drop the bomb. Also try to keep all the devilites grouped such that you can move perpendicular to their gaze.

Once all the devilites in your radius are getting knocked down by the DBB then you can just spam away as one would in, say, a Wolver Den.

Waiting till they attack first is especially true when using RSS due to their close proximity when using the bomb.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 13:18

#14

Iron-Volvametal

I gotta a few more Questions...

5. Does Charging the BTB slow you down the same as the FF?

6. What would benefit BTB more, ASI or CTR?

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 16:47

#15

Nicoya-Kitty

ASI on a toothpick will suit

ASI on a toothpick will suit you best for dealing with devilites and greavers. The strategy I usually use is two hits and shield cancel, and the faster you can do that the better. With a bit of dmg up, two hits is enough to take down a normal devilite (overtimers will take 3, pit bosses and yes men have over 9000 hp but don't actually harm you so w/e) or greaver when soloing.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 20:34

#16

Traevelliath

TL;DR

I sorta went TL;DR through most of the thread, so forgive me if I repeat stuff.

I have a FF with +dam vs beasts med and a DTB with +dam vs fiend med. The reason the DTB isn't fully upgraded is because I like my FF over my DTB.

First of all, the most important and significant factor to my decision is that the FF looks cooler than the BTB and goes with my costume more. The white streaks from the blade is AWESOME and looks like a glowstick!

The second is more of my own personal problems. The first time someone in my party does a BTB charge attack, my computer freezes up for like half a second. The same thing happens with Argent Peacemakers, Sentenza, and some bombs' charge attacks (in the case of the bombs, the detonation). I've gotten used to it, and it only happens the first time.

I use my FF charge shot on pretty much only Trojans and the occasional annoying Alpha Wovler. Against Trojans in FSC (While wearing full snarby so +dam VH), each swing in the charge combo does about 450 damage, with the final hit doing around 550 damage. I prefer the FF over the Blitz even, because the FF feels... more agile. When I kill a Trojan with a Blitz, it feels like I'm talking a Machine Gun to a log that almost fell on me. Satisfying, but its more of a Brute Force method. When I kill a Trojan with a FF, it feels like I've skillfully evaded a huge lumbering opponent and finished him off with a certain dramatic flair that makes me feel like a total bad@$$.

As for other Fiends, I never risk the charge shot in the first place. Against Devilites, their attacks are so unpredictable that I shield constantly. I find myself slowly waddling up to a Devilite with my Crest of Almire defending me, watching projectiles bounce of the shields, until I am just in swinging range, where upon I do two quick strikes and then shield cancel. Repeat as necessary. For Greavers, I'm just running away from them, occasionally doing two strikes and then shield canceling. I still prefer the FF though over the BTB though because Greavers tend to stack on top of each other. If you can land a charge shot on some Greavers chasing you, you hit the entire clump with huge amounts of damage.

Because I did it to the rest of the thread:
TL;DR: I like the Final Flourish over the Barbarous Thorn Blade because of small things that aren't really important.

Mon, 02/20/2012 - 22:33

#17

Iron-Volvametal

...

"When I kill a Trojan with a FF, it feels like I've skillfully evaded a huge lumbering opponent and finished him off with a certain dramatic flair that makes me feel like a total bad@$$."

...

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Barbarous Thorn Blade: Hints & Tips