For FSC, sure (but why would you use it there?). For general use. . . I don't know about you, but I fear shock fiends more than fire fiends. Fire hurts, but it's nothing compared to the hurt dealt by actual attacks while you pause from shock. They both seem like totally disproportionate penalties to me.

I'm hopeful. Skelly, Magic, etc. have gotten theirs (though some still have a ways to go); maybe these will, too.

*noms*

In my opinion, high end shadow armor should be more like the chaos cloak, high risk, high return.

Almirian: Change curse resist to curse weakness and move both weaknesses to very high, add damage vs undead med and global ctr low. Reduce the resistances to shadow/normal by about 50 percent as well.

Basically, it would end up as an undead killer that would be hard to use in FSC- but when paired with something like the mask of seerus, would create a really nice asset to your blitz/shiver/ctrable sword, should you be one of the 99% of people using them there. It'd also remain somewhat balanced in graveyards and other undead themed levels, due to the much lessened damage bonuses.

Heavenly Iron: Remove normal defense, Movement speed increase low, Sword damage med; Damage vs fiends low

Exchange your normal defense for a pure shadow set with MSI. It'd be hard to pull off, given that you'd take a lot more damage without the normal, but with buffs like I described above, in the end it'd be worth it... the fiend low is just a bit of a small bonus, it'd obviously remain a swordie armor.

Arcane salamander: Remove normal defense, Beast med, Slime med, global ASI low

Grant beast very high, and slime very high with a full set- in exchange for taking a lot more damage against them. If you can kill them easily and not get hit, you'd deal a lot more damage. Pair it up with a piece of class specific armor to get a very balanced set that would buff your primary mode of damage (Probably swords) and buff your side arm against the main enemy types. The ASI makes it more viable over other armors like skolver that would grant you both the damage (given that you're using only swords) and the defense. ASI med out of nowhere for your guns and swords is quite a nice incentive to essentially downgrade from weapon specific bonuses.

Ice Cream Clown, erm Ice Queen Crown and Mail: change all normal defense to pure piercing defense, and even add to that a bit extra. Solve skolver+toothpick+heart trinkets in lockdown forever by offering a set that directly counters them and stagger storm. In terms of PvE, damage bonuses will ALWAYS win out against pure defense sets- as can be proven by the massive number of people not using the cobalt armor that is provided to them for a massively reduced cost, and instead going towards the armor sets that cost them more of everything like wolver. The only people interested in this set would be the lockdown players, or anyone whom hates skolvery people in their faces.

I really feel like these would be challenging to use, and would go above and beyond to buff a player's skill once they're at the top of the game- like using a more effective chaos cloak that was made for a specific situation.

*Lands Back on Ground*

What'd I Miss?

I support this. If shadow lairs require a key costing 1800 CE just to play, and having the most 'difficult' levels, the armor shouldn't be outclassed by gear you can get normally.

Snarbolax gear is a good example of how good the items should be. It offers very good defense against two different statuses with no weaknesses, giving a medium damage bonus, and giving a type of defense completely unique compared to the rest of the gear it's crafted from. While I'd like to see it have ASI + Damage Low to Swords on either piece or just CTR Medium Swords for the sake of being completely unique, it's comparable, if not better than, other high-end gear.

The other armors should be just as powerful if not more. Ironically, Snarby armor is the first 'available' to craft, and the best at the same time, overall. I'm not saying nerf Snarby, I'm saying make the other gear comparable; heck, the hardest gear to get, the Almirian set, is just the Almirian Costume. It is, in my opinion, the worst of all the SL gear in terms of stats.

Yes, I want these other armors buffed, so we don't just have them as flashy costume things and nothing else. So here's my two cents on how they could be brought in line:

Almirian Crusader
Offer universal ASI and CTR+ Low. Give extreme weakness to Curse (fitting given the lore) and Poison. Give slight resist to Shock, Fire, and Freeze. It's the hardest set to get in the game so far; it should be worth the trouble. Since the Shadow Lairs were meant to give challenge, it's only natural that Curse and Poison should be the weaknesses to make up for the boosts; they're the statuses that force you to improvise the most, while Shock, Fire, and Freeze are just... cheap, I don't know.

Heavenly Iron
Make the sword damage boost universal, not just for swords. Replace the Shock weakness with Freeze weakness. Giving it Shock weakness when it's meant to combat fiends is... really cruel.

Arcane Salamander
This is one of the most confusing sets in the game. It gives boosts to Slime and Beast damage... but has elemental defense? I don't know what to say here, maybe change the damage to Gremlin and Construct? Witchcraft revolves around control of supernatural powers, so it makes more sense for the two tech-based enemy types to be weak to it, and it already has Elemental defense... Perhaps give some Curse/Poison resist following the whole witch's familiar thing. IMHO, Volcanic Salamander needs a change too, for the same sort of reason, mismatched defense. You don't make a Piercing defense set to fight Fiends with, you make a Shadow defense set. It'd be unique anyways, nothing in the game naturally has damage + to Gremlins and Constructs. Armor, I mean.

Ice Queen
Universal low damage + to Slime. Weakness to Fire. Up the health boost by +1 or +2. Slime Low because of the IQ's control over so many other slimes, and extra health because slimes are generally about having huge amounts of health. Maybe give the Slime Low to the Royal Jelly gear counterparts, at that.

Mercurial Demo
Damage reduction low to Gremlins. Add CTR Low Bombs. Add slight Stun/Freeze resist (the set aims for mobility, why not focus on it?)

I kinda think giving a Slime damage bonus to the Ice Queen set is kinda hilarious, given that she probably beat the Royal Jelly senseless before kicking him off the stage. At the moment, it's practically a direct upgrade from the Royal Jelly set, truth be told.

I like the Gremlin + Construct bonus idea for Arcane Salamander. Yes, please!

What flavor? Why, This one!

~Tsu

@Thinslayer

I thought about curse weakness, but you know, it doesn't make sense, because... well, it's HEAVENLY.

Just out of curiosity, do you guys believe the sanctuary armours should have a slight edge over all other armour (given how hard they are to obtain), or do you believe all 5* armour should try to be equal?

Agreed. Goes without saying that some armours are more situational than others, but if they have the same *-rating they should be equal in terms of usefulness, regardless of how difficult they are to obtain.

My question with Heavenly Iron is why no one simply wears a raincoat underneath it. Shock weakness gone.

Seriously, though, no idea why the shock weakness is so huge in exchange for a status done by only two types of rare enemies.

First things first, saying that Snarby is the easiest and Almirian is the hardest to get is absolutely 100% opinional.

Regarding adding Med CTR to Heavenly-No. -too many #s.
Take fire away from Almirian, yes. Make it Med/Med Fire/Curse for the set. +1
Adding Shock to Heav-No. Just take the shock res away. And all because it give a sword bonus, that doesn't mean it's a "Swordies' gear". I use some of my sets for other purposes, such as when I go in my Seerus mask for a certain resist when carrying all swords.

I suggest:

Make Almirian Med/Med Fire/Curse.
Make Heav. have no Shock penalty, but don't make it have Shock resist. Also change the Damage to a universal Low Damage Boost.

EDIT: Read that wrong. Med CTR for Swords on Almirian? Even worse. I'm a swordy, and must say, nonononono to that. Maybe Low DMG per piece, as a Universal Damage boost.

I saw a suggestions thread not too long ago with a big list of buff suggestion including Almirian and Heavenly, but I can't seem to find it again. :<

They do need a buff though.. I think Heavenly Iron needs Poison resist like the other angelic sets, or maybe just no shock weakness. Almirian either needs to trade the fire weakness for resistance or needs some kind of weapon bonus.

I'd also argue Mercurial Demo should get medium damage and drop the useless movement bonus.

SHAMELESS BUMP

It's the same with Snarbolax armour, supposedly it's the same set as Barbarous Thorn, which has piercing defence.

I guess SL armours aren't very conformist.