I'm creating a set with a Divine Veil, Skolver Coat, Grey Owlite Shield, Divine Avenger, Final Flourish, Gran Faust, and ???
The ??? has to be a handgun.
These are the choices I have for handguns.
Blitz Needle
Argent Peacemaker or Sentenza
Polaris
Nova Driver and other Alchemers
Valiance
Callahan
I'm having trouble deciding, so which one of those handguns would go good with the set I'm using?
Your Polaris statement sounds pretty convincing, but some people say it's horrible for player versus enemy however it's good in player versus player that's why I'm still thinking.
I'm mostly 4* going into 5* and my Gigawatt pulsar has saved my life many times when I hit into difficulties--like tier 3 devilites, kats, mechanights, and in general knockback to survive. I even managed to survive a slime arena with that being my only non-piercing weapon, even though there were quicksilvers. (Shocked quicksilvers+other mobs=most of the wave dead in seconds. If you survive, not much left since shocked quicksilvers kill both other monsters and non-shocked quicksilvers when they hit into them.) Great for shutting down turrets while you shoot them too, spacing your shots using shield canceling after each shot typically keeps the turret off if the bullets have expanded.
As a sidearm gun, it's generally most useful to be elemental, because all turrets are vulnerable (gun puppies, howlitzers) or neutral (polyps) to elemental damage. I'd go for Nova Driver, based purely on its super-high potential damage from ricochets. Storm Driver is also a good choice. Magma Driver, Hail Driver, Polaris, and Argent Peacemaker are fine. Valiance is fine.
Blitz Needle does insane charge damage, which is useful for various situations including Vanaduke, Legion of Almire, Heart of Ice...
Telling people to get polaris is like shutting down their brain to pick better weapon to solve their clockwork problems while in actuality, there's way too many weapons better than polaris. The first impression indeed makes polaris looks good. After trial and errors of so many weapons, I could say that polaris is one of the mediocre weapons at clockworks. Hates it, unless I am going solo, I won't bother to pick polaris with party members.
Blitz needle could kill undead way faster than polaris. Brandish swords type could easily outdamage polaris by 2 - 3 times.
What other bosses? Divine avenger charge has the best dps for roarmulus twins. Shooting polaris at snarbolax would troll your other friends who are chasing him, Jelly King, better use sword charge, or Dark Retribution bomb.
I prefer dps (damage per second) instead of knockback which polaris didn't offer :p
High DPS would make you survive and finish faster as well.
Also hates divine veil + skolver set by the way. I've been using those set for a while and dislike the lack of asi/ctr/damage bonuses.
The spread out defense is not that great either.
You may think that the spread out defense isn't so decent, and if I wanted to improve that I could have gotten the Royal Jelly Mail with it. The reason why I didn't do that is, because I would still like to have a piece of my armor set to have some kind of sword bonus.
I would love more callahan users but it sucks.
The best weapon is a big fat arsenal.
I would say, go with polaris due to the AoE bullets and tricks you can do with it. The knockback is good because you are a swordie, you probably will only really use guns if you are low on health and need some distance. Now your armor may look appealing with resistance to everything, but that logic is flawed because you can switch your loadout almost every level to prevent taking more damage from damage types you find. (boss runs not included). Also, think of SSB or BTS for more options on shields.
Don't listen to Thin about Blitz. I consider blitz and brandishes the two best weapons in the game. You can use it effectively against anything not resistant to pierce.
About Polaris...it can keep most enemies at maximum handgun range with knockback, a very safe way to dispatch enemies; which is why newer players like it. For similar reasons and in most situations, it does very mediocre damage; which is why most experienced players don't like it.
I can explain its uses in LD if you want, but none of them are very sporting.
Argent peacemaker and Sentenza. Get both of them, use whichever one fits the level. You'll also want blitz needle at some point, so that you can switch it in for FSC.
Unless you're trying to do the thing where you make one loadout for everything. If thats the case, then you might want to get volcanic pepperbox/blitz needle. Blitz does a bit more damage (one shots everything it effects) but will leave you without much of a sidearm for slime/construct levels, and won't do much for turrets. Volanic pepperbox is only slightly worse for FSC (despite what people will tell you, it still performs) and will allow you something to fight most things at a distance. Valiance is an amazing option and would be my number one pick- but it can't fight vanaduke very well. Or well, I haven't really tried it, but just from the feel of it, no. I'd rather fight him with Argent Peacemaker.
Tl;Dr: If hybridizing in the least, using AP/Sentenza will increase your damage output by a ton. Blitz needle is worth looking into for FSC, but volcanic pepperbox would be the best option if you're planning on running everything with just one loadout.
Bella-Donna, I'm not a swordie; I'm a swordsman. Barbarous Thorn Shield doesn't sound like a bad shield to get it and I'll get it eventually.
Fehzor, I'll craft more than one loadout so I could get a Blitz Needle.
What you might want to use guns for:-
-Turrets. None of them resist to elemental damage.
-Blocks. Especially the ones that you have to hit 3 times to break. You have 2 slow swords so you have to do one combo+first hit to break them. You may also use your FF but AP/sentenza is faster.
-Switches. Other guns bullets are slower than antigua line, particularly the polaris is the slowest and in some runs switches take very important part. eg RT runs
Therefore, AP.
Blitz Needle is best used against Vanaduke. It is rarely a good choice otherwise. Not good for a general-purpose loadout.
Argent Peacemaker is good for a swordsman's sidearm, but not much else.
Sentenza is great for Lockdown, and not much else.
Polaris is fabulous against turrets, Vanaduke, most other bosses, and even against enemies it's not supposed to fight. Get it.
Alchemers are pretty strong, but are best used by a gunslinger, which your armor isn't built for.
Valiance is a great utility sidearm. Pushes back anything you don't want in your face, and keeps your foes at range.
Callahan is a gunslinger-only weapon. Don't get it.
Choose between Polaris and Valiance. Both are great utility sidearms. Both are great in Lockdown. Polaris is great against most enemies, while Valiance is good against all enemies.
It's a toss-up between the two. I'd say Polaris.