I'm a swordman and I was just wondering if I should get a blitz needle just for FSC
or to just stick to the AP ( I only have a sliversix) since I suffer from quite a lot of lag and
don't use guns often.
My current equipment :
Vog Cub suit
Divine avenger
leviathan blade
Sliversix
Grey owlite shield
If other members of your party use Shivermist and an autogun then you'll most likely be delegated to watering on Vana. This is a very helpful role and your party members will genuinely appreciate it, so don't feel put off by it. If no Shivers or autoguns are involved from other members in your party, use whatever the starbucks you want.
Needles and shivers aren't remotely mandatory to defeat Vanaduke, they just reduce his difficulty a lot.
It's ok to go without a Needle. Back before the Shiver + Needle strategy for Vanaduke was discovered, AP was the gun of choice for Vanaduke (and the rest of FSC), and people didn't have that much trouble doing it. Though you may be a sitting duck at Vanaduke if the rest of your party is doing the Shiver + Needle strategy (since firing AP would only de-freeze Vanaduke, which would be a bad idea). But if they, they don't require that much help anyway, help by handling slags and using the water.
For the rest of FSC, since you may not even reach Vanaduke yet, especially if you don't run with experienced players, AP is fine. Actually, it's more recommended in the sense that it's way safer than Blitz (although it's slower, you can't have everything).
All in all, you should stick with your current choices, which are good, and perhaps get a Blitz later, when you are more experienced and have some spare money. If people kick you for not having Shiver or Needle, they are narrow-minded. You can't do anything about that. Run with guild/friends to solve that problem.
This may be premature, but when you eventually try to solo Vanaduke, you may find that you prefer a highly mobile gun such as AP over an immobilizing gun such as Blitz Needle.
If you do take AP into a party Vanaduke fight, don't use it unless your teammates have approved it. If they're doing the Blitz+Shivermist tactic, and you keep firing AP at Vanaduke, then you will ruin their fight by constantly breaking the freeze. So, as Zeddy said, your job is instead to water his orbs, his mask, and any shadow fire that arises. Killing the slag guards may also be your job (and it's not really an easy job).
Argent is actually less mobile than people are saying; it cuts your movespeed, but has a large clip so you're doing consistent damage without having to worry about your timing. The fast bullets help you hit past Vana's orbs, too.
If you're looking for mobility, get an Alchemer; they deal heavier damage per bullet, especially if you get the hang of ricochets. I'd recommend a Storm Driver, but you'll have to be careful using one because of the Shock breaking Freeze often. It can stop his dashes, but he'll still turn.
Blitz is just used to speed things up. I've done full FSC runs by purely alch-switching and been fine; the Blitz is just to help speed up trojans/vana, little else (unless you planned on using it on zombies)
For the stages, you can bring and use any weapon you want, though it's mostly elemental-stuff with the exception of some piercing for trojans.
Most people use blitz needle for the vana fight because the fight lends itself to the charge playstyle - you charge while you wait for the target to be vulnerable (either frozen or just after he attacks), then you counter with the charge attack.
Recently though, I've been moving away from the whole blitz thing altogether and am now doing the boss fight with Sudaruska as my main weapon :V
It's not anywhere near as fast as blitz, but it's doable, especially since Sudaruska's charge can hit across the fireballs.
The regular sword-based way to defeat vana is to use water to get rid of the inner fireballs then attack before they respawn. This also helps the eople gunning, since fireballs block bullets.
Fact-check needed, but I've heard that:
- Fireballs take about 20 seconds to respawn
- Poison can keep fireballs from respawning (?)
- Poison can keep fireballs from respawning (?)
I don't believe so; when I bomb at Vana I use a 2:1 shiver:venom spam and his fireballs respawn normally. Mind you they don't get put out often, but unless it just vastly increases the time to respawn I can't say that I've ever seen this to be true. Mind you, s'not somethin' I've ever actually looked for, so it's entirely possible I've just completely skimmed past it.
If you want to win without actually learning to be the greatest, then you'll need a blitz needle. If you just want to win easily and quickly, you'll want a blitz needle. If you want to spend two hours dodging maces and putting out fires or are just a boss at dodging/playing the game, don't bother with it.
If you want to win without actually learning to be the greatest
Ever tried alch-switchin' Vana to death?
Slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow~
Realised it was faster just nailin' him w/ Hail shots. Then realised it was faster to nail him with Hail shots then switch to Blitz.
Then realised it was faster just blitzin' him to death.
Screw the pros, go blitz.
Its ok to do it without piercing gun but it just makes you slower at all the levels, cant wait to make a needle shot! lol
Oh and silversix is fine although trojans are a problem......I ru in that problem every day and its hard, my silversix doesnt do much compared to blitz and so will the AP (i guess)
Calllahan is perfectly fine(no risk of getting stuck in place) but it's damage is worse than the blitz
@Draycos "Argent is actually less mobile than people are saying" No they are not. When you use a gun, the really dangerous part isn't the slower movespeed when you fire. It's when you are stuck in the reloading animation, which is slow and prevent you from shielding. From that, it seems obvious that Alchemers are going to be in that reload animation much more often than AP since they have a 2 bullets clip. Perhaps "mobility" isn't the right term and we should say "ability to shield" instead. But that's my main reason for choosing AP over alchemers anyday.
@Luckyle if you are a swordsman and don't have Blitz, just use your sword against Trojans. It's not THAT slow, you can land at least 2 hit during each of their swings. Using AP against them is really a last recourse.
much more often than AP since they have a 2 bullets clip
alch-switching = endless fire, no reload
@Fradow It's best to fire single shots with Alchemers unless you have a clear opening. The less you're firing, the easier not having to shield gets, which means you have to be careful and not rely on a high clip size to prevent you from accidentally reloading. If you don't, then they're great.
Alchemers also get more out of single bullets, like I said, which follows the same 'more ability to shield' argument in the sense that you need to fire for a shorter time to get the same effect.
To a careful player, Alchemers are better for the job. APs are admittedly better if one has a tendency to misclick often. APs are flexible, but not mobile. Alchemers are mobile, but not very flexible.
...And then there's the switching bug that you can mess with, like Darkbrady pointed out.
Aye, the switching trick changes all that. Suddenly you can be more mobile than AP, shoot as fast and hit for double damage as well as spreading status effects crazily.
Don't forget that the OP is a swordsman and is only taking a gun. So switching trick is all fine and dandy, but it's out.
Doing only 1 shot without reloading also works, but it's a pain if you are not a primary gunner. All I want of a side-arm is to be able to switch, fire a few bullets and switch back to swords, without having to worry too much about not taking too much shots or aiming for ricochets.
The Blitz is mainly preferred for high damage versus Vanaduke and Trojans, but if you're not going all the way down you would probably be better off with an Argent Peacemaker. It depends whether you're running the full 5 levels or not... although given you mentioned you lag badly, a Blitz would be quite dangerous for you to use.