Spiral Knights - Magma/Storm/Hail driver for MY play style? (I know this is frequently asked question)

Magma/Storm/Hail driver for MY play style? (I know this is frequently asked question)

14 replies [Last post]

Mon, 11/19/2012 - 17:59

Eclaium

What title said.
I'd like to hear opinions of you guys to help myself to decide which line of alchemer I should take first.

I know those "which one should I go for?" type of questions are OFTEN asked and probably people of The Arsenal got bored of this type of question. I even have posted replies to some of those threads that I was interested.

So, I have played this game for about 1400 hours, but have NEVER touched an alchemer line because simply it looked tricky to use (slow reloading, ricochets etc). But now, eventually, I'm going to make an alchemer line as I want some change in my SK life and I've been working on a chaos set with fire med UVs for CTR/DMG.

As you could guess from what I've been working on, which is a chaos set, I'm a hybrid Sword/Gun/Bomb user who uses sword(Brandish) mainly.
I daily go to FSC and play LD and also I do every prestige missions even though I already have 45k prestige. I mostly solo prestige missions, arcade, I go FSC with party as depth 25 is faster not to solo.

Current arsenal is:
=Sword=
Voltedge/Acheron/GF/DA/WRH/FF/FoV/Lionheart

=Gun=
AP/Sentenza/Blitz/Polaris

=Bomb=
EV/Shiver/Stagger/DR

I mainly use EV+Voltedge/Blitz combo in FSC, and in other clockworks arenas I just spam Voltedge/Acheron charge with CTR trinket. Guns for side arm, I use AP/Sentenza quite often.

Since I am a fan of EV and not a fan of shiver in FSC, I thought about cutting Hail off. But I also thought that it might help me to escape and heal in a case emergency(there is unlikely a case of emergency lol)..?
Since I have Voltedge, EV, Polaris, I thought about cutting Storm off. BUT the gun REALLY annoys(not as much as polaris though) me in LD and it should be nice combo with EV, so it is still a candidate.
Magma, I don't see people using this often, but it is still on my candidates list. There's a simple reason for that -- I don't have any fire weapons in my arsenal. But there is no or negative affect in FSC so that is the drawback.
I've already cut off Nova and Umbra because I am a sword-main-hybrid person, not a damage gunner.

So what do you think which alchemer I should take as my first alchemer? Which one fits my play style, what's the reason for that?

(If you didn't understand what I'm saying, sorry for bad English, feel free to ask questions to my questions lol)

Mon, 11/19/2012 - 19:36

Forum-Brady

I'd suggest Magma. Nova/Umbra

I'd suggest Magma.
Nova/Umbra won't do you any favours for damage, and Magma will actually out-dps them (more often than not) on non-fire themed maps.

Why Magma?
Well, you use EV and Voltedge, so inflicting shock shouldn't be a concern for you; using Stormy just for shock alone won't help.
Hail is useful for pure alch gunners as a method of safeguarding and control, but you have EV to control and the prime freeze targets are Trojans, but you have a Blitz to deal with them.
Magma may not be as widely useful in FSC (as it will act only as a gun with dps) but in every other aspect of the game it'll allow you to inflict fire, which deals a lot of damage fast. This is encouraged by the fact that you said you have no other fire gear, and fire+shock is a good combo to cause.

Mon, 11/19/2012 - 23:18

Tenkii

Sword-main-hybrid, eh

I like the fire-shock idea but honestly, they won't be seen anywhere much than the lesser-played portions of PVE. In lockdown, I can see EV/Volt charge as opening attacks (EV as opening if used as a trap), but fire rarely gets to have enough time/damage to really deal its damage, and it doesn't slow down your targets.

I've really grown to love using Hail Driver as my sword-based sidearm for Lockdown (I play recon). Freezing enemies and getting a free slash/charge is just too fun, and can really save your butt when you're in an outnumbered situation. Imagine a Freeze > [Vortex >] Volt Charge combo.

Mon, 11/19/2012 - 23:44

Forum-Brady

My bad, never saw that he

My bad, never saw that he plays LD: I was thinking as a purely PvE perspective. Personally, I love my Magma in all the DMs (sans C42).

If you play LD regularly, then Hail is the alchemer for LD. That really just comes down to what your cw:ld ratio is~

Tue, 11/20/2012 - 11:13

Eclaium

Well, my case is more like a

Well, my case is more like a "purely PvE perspective" even though I play LD regularly.
I don't use guns as a striker which is my main class, since I don't have mouse to aim with. I'm an arrow keys+Z/X/C+space key user, that is the main reason why I'm a sword-main-hybrid-man, not a pure gunner. I can aim roughly with my trackpad attached to my laptop in PvE(where doesn't require as much speed or accuracy as PvP does) but to aim with a trackpad in my current control settings, I have to stand still to use a gun. So I will be using my alchemer in PvE, not much in PvP.

Consequently, I am on the Magma side now. Fire(+shock with my weapons) should be nice to cancel out silk wings healing, kill turrets as they are constructs, undead and jelly(weak to fire status). Plus I could bring the gun to Icequeen instead of polaris to melt Icecubes+Lumbers.
In addition, I usually take Pills, Remedies, Freeze vials, and poison/stun vials, I never take fire vials unless I'm in JK or something. Therefore when freeze status is needed, I will just use vials/shiver, when shock status is needed, I will just use polaris/voltedge/EV.

Alright then, I've decided to go for Magma as my first alchemer. Thanks for two people who have posted replies, they helped a lot, especially Forum-Brady's.

Other opinions are still welcome even though I decided the line I go for. If you have anything that you want to say about alchemers, feel free to post your opinions to this thread.

Tue, 11/20/2012 - 11:19

Forum-Brady

If you have anything that you

If you have anything that you want to say about alchemers, I'd like to hear the opinions for later days.

If you're just asking for some more relevant discussion on alchemers in general, then this thread might be worth a look. It's on the first page of the Arsenal so you may have already seen it; it was made by the OP as something else entirely, but we did start to derail it quite a lot; I've linked to the post where the alchemers only discussion begins.
It's only one page long and none of the posts are that heavy: a few of us discuss alchemers in detail, to the point of giving test results and accurate and up to date figures from the guns.

It's somewhat relevant to this thread; it is more of a general "alchemer" discussion, although it may still interest you.

Tue, 11/20/2012 - 11:18

Forum-Brady

triple-post ftw~

Tue, 11/20/2012 - 11:18

Forum-Brady

triple-post ftw~

Sat, 11/24/2012 - 02:23

Blue-Flood

tick-tick

In LD all alchemers are pretty fun. Running Magma/Storm driver mostly these days. Wana shock and burn those skolvers a bit before they get me. Then you get to watch their health tick away as they try to run back to the heal pad.
Nothin sexier then a flaming skolver!

Sat, 11/24/2012 - 03:16

Forum-Brady

Then you get to watch their

Then you get to watch their health tick away as they try to run back to the heal pad.

Few things in LD are as satisfying as watching them drop dead two feet away from their heart pad, inside their forcefield.

Sat, 11/24/2012 - 06:58

#10

Paweu

With your setup, all

With your setup, all alchemers are equally useless. How about instead of an alchemer you get a mouse?

Sat, 11/24/2012 - 10:28

#11

Warlordx

"With your setup, all

"With your setup, all alchemers are equally useless"

Now that's not true. As a keyboard only player I've found alchemers to be quite useful in PvE, not as precise as with a mouse but except for bombs nothing is. For LD, yeah, alchemers aren't really viable for keyboard players.

Anyway, if you do want to try out a gun in LD play around with a callahan (or magnus in t2). I agree that most guns are unplayable in LD for keyboard players but callahan bullets go fast enough where you don't have to lead your target like you do with alchemers or other guns and it hits pretty hard too. Just try to time it so that you're hitting them just as they finish strike-boosting or if they're moving in a straight line towards or away from you. Just putting that out there as something to check out.

Sat, 11/24/2012 - 11:20

#12

Forum-Brady

but callahan bullets go fast

but callahan bullets go fast enough where you don't have to lead your target

A majority of gunners' need to lead shots comes from latency, rather than bullet speed, just to put that out there. Even with Calla, he'd still need to lead shots unless he was <50 ping.

Sat, 11/24/2012 - 14:53

#13

Warlordx

Sorry, I wasn't totally clear

Sorry, I wasn't totally clear about where the bullet speed advantage comes in. The idea with the callahan in a keyboard only setup is to hit the other player (assuming for now that you're just fighting against strikers for simplicity's sake) either just as they're coming to rest at the end of a boost, changing direction, or moving directly toward or away from you. Bullet speed matters because if you're shooting an alchemer in this manner the other player has probably already started moving again by the time it gets there.

Sun, 11/25/2012 - 01:57

#14

Forum-Brady

Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with

Oh, I wasn't disagreeing with your point, you were quite right about leading shots being easier with the bullet speed; I just wanted to point out that trying to do so without a mouse would still be difficult, as leading shots would still be all but required in most situations.

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Magma/Storm/Hail driver for MY play style? (I know this is frequently asked question)