Difference between revisions of "User:Tqs Remx"

Revision as of 14:08, 31 August 2013

Tqs-Remx

Current Guild: Impervious (Guild) Timezone: AEST (GMT +10hrs) Achievements: 60 / 60 Personal Philosophy: "I can see you with my ears."

Who is Tqs-Remx?

If I were to summarise myself in three words they would be:

• Analyser
• SEA's PvE-King (dude that's not 1 word)
• Insanity

As a 90+ day 'total game time' player (game timer at 96:18:36:29 as of now), there are very little things that an endgame Knight, especially if they're F2P, can do that will have a significant impact on their gameplay style or on the value of their weapons and equipment.

I am, and I acknowledge that I am, on the verge of quitting Spiral Knights as long as it does not offer any new content. I still continue to play as I have not reached my personal endgame which consists of optimal uvs on certain weapons and completing all the shadow lairs. But once I have acquired said uvs and conquered all shadow lairs, I will most certainly disappear and leave this wonderful game that I have invested so much time and effort :C

Of course, I'll come back for the new patches and content.

Anyway, let me expand on the three words describing myself:

• Analyser

Spiral Knights, in my perspective, is not a complex game in comparison to AAA MMORPGs out there. Therefore it does not take much effort to understand the fine details of the game in terms of game mechanics, armor and weapon stats, enemy stats. All it takes is experience, access to the number values of armor and weapons stats (in which SK wiki is so useful) and most importantly - Intuition. I cannot stress how important intuition is in determining the gamestyle that you develop, which in turn dictates the overall difficulty of any improvements and achievements. Intuition also plays a significant role in your decision towards optimisation of your weapons and armor as, for example, if your... ah use your intuition to figure out what I mean.

• SEA's PvE-King

Yes, I dubbed myself as PvE-King of SEA, with absolute confidence. For I have not seen anyone who has the same high levels of latency as me and still be to achieve such pro gameplay (once again, experience and intuition allows me to objectively judge). Furthermore, as SEA's PvE-King, my gameplay style allows me to survive much, much longer than players with full OP US connection. (Hey! A king must survive all his battle to be able to rule his kingdom :3)

I guess paying $100+ per month on an excellent internet connection is a good investment.

PvP on the other hand, well that's a different story. High latency + data packet loss = tp everywhere + getting hit from attacks 10 meters away. It's just not fun.

• Insanity

Does one need to explain Insanity?

What is the purpose of this and everything else below?

The sole purpose of this page is to document all experiences that I have gained throughout my Spiral Knights career and to share any wisdom that I have retained, for free of course :3. In addition, opinions and free thought of mine will be presented here and thus as an early warning, it will all be subjective and through my perspective. Therefore, I am required to show you this warning:

	The topic of this article or section is subject to personal opinion, and does not represent any one absolute truth.
	If you disagree, discuss your concerns on the the talk page before editing.

Basic Core Mechanics

Basic core mechanics consists of learning to move, attack, shield, weapon charge, use and interact with items. Things that a new player will grasp within the first few hours of their gameplay.

The other basic core mechanic is the damage type in relation to monster family. Attacking a monster with its vulnerable damage type receives a small bonus, while attacking a monster with its resistant damage type incurs a large penalty. (At depth 28, the vulnerability bonus on 5* swords is about 75 points of damage, while the resistance penalty is at most 84%.

Note that normal type damage is deliberately left out in the 'neutral to' column. Any guides regarding to the table below will tend to not focus on normal type damage.

Monster Family	Vulnerable To	Neutral To	Resistant To
Slimes	Shadow	Elemental	Piercing
Gremlins	Shadow	Piercing	Elemental
Beasts	Piercing	Shadow	Elemental
Fiends	Piercing	Elemental	Shadow
Undead	Elemental	Piercing	Shadow
Constructs	Elemental	Shadow	Piercing

Advanced Core Mechanics

There are many other mechanics that are core to the game, but are not taught by the default game tutorial. Usually players learn these via friends, video walkthroughs, forum posts or just by plain experience.

Here is a semi-detailed list of the advanced core mechanics of Spiral Knights.

• Shield Cancelling

If you do not perform the final attack of either the sword or the gun, you can shield immediately after an attack to 'cancel' the ending animation of the attack. This will quickly place you back in the idle position and therefore allowing you to attack again.

• Shield Charging

To perform this, hold up your shield, then press and hold your 'action' button. Wait for ~1 second, then release your shield. If you performed this correctly, you can avoid the default weapon charge mechanic, skip the first attack and start charging.

• Action Charging

Very similar to shield charging, but instead of using your shield, you are required to perform an action first. These actions are: consuming a pill, throwing a vial, throwing water, ember, pots, or bomb shell, placing down a key, statue, grim totem or cursed sprite. Perform one of those actions listed with your 'action' button, then hold it like you were charging a weapon. Your knight will immediately skip the first attack similar to shield charging. Action charging is significantly faster than shield charging.

• Vial Cancelling

Once your weapon is charged, you may choose to literally cancel your charge by activating a vial. This forces your knight to hold the vial with two hands, thus removing your weapon charge. You may then choose to recharge your weapon via action charging. (side note: you cannot cancel a weapon charge with a pill or mech, hence why it is called vial cancelling)

• 2 Shot, No Reload (guns only)

This mechanic will only work on guns which have 3 or more 'bullets' per clip. Basically, shoot once normally and then shoot and hold the 'action' button for a charge. However do not let it charge fully. During the charge, release and immediately press and hold the 'action' button and your knight will shoot twice followed by a charge animation. Repeating again will create a shooting pattern which you can shoot indefinitely without reloading if done correctly.

These last 3 core mechanics are actually quite difficult to explain in words, if you want to know, drop me a message and I'll demonstrate it.

• 3 Swipe Exploit (heavy swords only)

You can actually attack 3 times in quick succession with a heavy sword (and this is no lie), despite the fact that everyone knows that heavy swords are a 2 attack combo sword.

• Heavy Sword Extended Range Glitch (heavy swords only, obviously)

Once again, it is actually possible to extend the reach/range of a heavy sword and cover more area than normal/non-heavy swords. I use this core mechanic vigilantly everytime I hold my GF/DA.

• Quick Switching Weapons (usually with alchemer guns)

AKA. 'Q,E switching' with my keyboard setup. Using this core mechanic allows you attack, reset the reload mechanic and attack again. Works wonders with alchemers, but is adaptable to all weapons, even bombs if you so choose.

Endgame Default Loadout

Equipment	Optimal UV	Acquired UV
Skolver Cap	Increased Stun Resistance: High	Increased Stun Resistance: High
Vog Cub Coat	Increased Shock Resistance: High	Increased Shock Resistance: High
Barbarous Thorn Shield	Not Required	N/A
Voltedge	Charge Time Reduction: High	Charge Time Reduction: High
Gran Faust	Attack Speed Increased: High	Attack Speed Increased: High
Polaris	Troll High UV for Trollaris	Charge Time Reduction: High
Warmaster Rocket Hammer	Attack Speed Increased: High	Attack Speed Increased: Low
Penta-Heart Pendant
Penta-Heart Pendant

Endgame Thoughts

High, but not too high

Uvs, especially in the perspective of a 1 bar 24/7 connection player, have to be high or better to see any visual/gameplay difference. Hence, low and medium uvs, in my experience, do not give enough benefit to warrant investment of time, crowns and ce. Very high (for weapons) and maximum (for armor) uvs are way beyond the price range of any F2P players which only leaves high uvs. Luckily, high uvs are just within the high-end price range for F2P players and thus are, in a practical manner, achievable with some long-term committed grinding.

This is why all of the optimal uvs for my weapons and armor require high uvs.

Resistance over Defence (PvE)

Most often, endgame players tend to prioritise defence uvs (normal, elemental, piercing, shadow) over status resistance uvs. Which is a valid choice, as the benefits of defence uvs increase with the star level of their armor. However, one issue that many players do not take into consideration is that monster strength scales upwards when in a 4 man team compared to soloing. Additionally, with the difficulty patch (in which difficulty can now be chosen in 3 settings; normal, advanced and elite), monster strength is furthermore scaled upward (assuming that you are in a T3 team of 4 on elite difficulty) and this actually has a negative impact on the benefits of defence uvs, because monsters now hit harder while you still have to same amount of extra defence. While on the other hand, status resistance uvs do not scale positively or negatively through the difficulty patch as monsters still have the same chance of proccing a status aliment, no matter what difficulty and/or team size.

And besides, high or maximum defence uvs are absurdly expensive and are almost always snatched out of your reach/outbid/bought out by P2P millionaires.

Shield Uvs

Shield uvs are very similar to armor uvs, and as I have stated above, monster strength scales upward in terms of difficulty and team size. Therefore shield uvs suffer from the same negative impact as armor but also experience shield damage caused by status aliments (such as zombie's breath and greaver's haze). Shields with high or maximum increased defence uvs only block an additional 2-3 hits (not factoring status aliment attacks, in which it would reduce the number of additional blocks to 1-2 hits) on elite with a full T3 party. Not really cost effective when I'm paying 200kcr+ for the uv.

Having shields with uvs makes little difference defensively compared to vanilla shields.

F2P can achieve

Like me, as a 99.99% F2P player (that 0.01% being the part where I bought the Operation Crimson Hammer Expansion), you can most definitely be better than the average endgame F2P player (and maybe some P2P players) and achieve envious uvs on your equipment.

All that is required is commitment, planning, patience and intuition.

Endgame Arsenal of a F2P Knight

Battle Sprite

Maskeraith

"Invis-Watch" Lvl 100

Main Perk: Healthy Boost VI

Swords

Divine Avenger Charge Time Reduction: High

Fang of Vog

Gran Faust Attack Speed Increased: High

Final Flourish Attack Speed Increased: High

Lionheart Honor Blade

Voltedge Charge Time Reduction: High

Warmaster Rocket Hammer Attack Speed Increased: Low

Handguns

Argent Peacemaker Damage Bonus Versus Construct: High

Biohazard

Blitz Needle Damage Bonus Versus Undead: High

Callahan

Polaris Charge Time Reduction: High

Storm Driver Attack Speed Increased: High

Valiance

Bombs

Ash of Agni

Dark Briar Barrage Charge Time Reduction: Low

Dark Retribution

Electron Vortex Damage Bonus Versus Undead: High

Radiant Sun Shards Damage Bonus Versus Constructs: Medium Damage Bonus Versus Undead: Medium

Shivermist Buster Damage Bonus Versus Construct: High

Stagger Storm Charge Time Reduction: Low

Venom Veiler

Voltaic Tempest

Helmets

Mad Bomber Mask Increased Curse Resistance: Medium

Mercurial Helm Crown of Winter, Cool Vertical Vents, Heavy Mustache

Perfect Mask of Seerus Increased Normal Defense: Low

Shadowsun Stetson Increased Curse Resistance: Low

Skolver Cap Increase Stun Resistance: High

Snarbolax Cap

Vog Cub Cap Increased Fire Resistance: Med

Armors

Mad Bomber Suit

Mercurial Mail

Shadowsun Slicker

Snarbolax Coat

Vog Cub Coat Increase Shock Resistance: High

Shields

Barbarous Thorn Shield

Crest of Almire

Grey Owlite Shield

Swiftstrike Buckler

Wyvern Scale Shield

Trinkets

Elite Quick Strike Module

Elite Slash Module

Elite Sword Focus Module

Penta-Heart Pendant

Penta-Heart Pendant

Weapon Comparisons

I have seen, all over the forums, comparisons of multiple weapons, either comparing weapons on the same or seperate alchemy path. All of their opinions are valid and respected. However, as an analyser, I feel that it is my duty to provide my own analytic comparison on frequently discussed weapon topics.

Analytic Weapon Comparisons

Leviathan Blade and reskins vs Cold Iron Vanquisher The Leviathan Blade and the Cold Iron Vanquisher both successfully achieve sufficient DPS as well as a reliable charge utility attack. Differences between the two swords are that the Leviathan Blade has a strong knockback on its charge attack, while the Cold Iron Vanquisher retains a vanilla bonus damage vs undead: high advantage over Leviathan Blade. However, the vanilla bonus damage against undead is compensated by weaker damage against anything other than undead and a weaker knockback upon its charge attack. Yes, it is true that the Cold Iron Vanquisher is more easier to hit monsters 3 times with its charge attack, and thereby doing immense damage if the target is from the undead monster family, but its damage output is easily overshadowed by the 5* elemental brandish swords. Verdict: Leviathan Blade just barely wins this fight.

Sudaruska vs Triglav Both of these swords come from the same alchemy path, which means that they both deal normal damage, both have the same normal attack and charge attack pattern. The only difference is that one embraces stun, while the other embraces freeze. However, this sole difference is what persuades me to favour one sword over the other. As both are heavy swords, their utility in normal attacks and charged attacks is to knockback monsters and create crowd control. As Triglav has a chance to freeze monsters on its second normal attack as well as its charged attack, this significantly dampens the utility of Triglav as a heavy sword and reduces its crowd control ability. Additionally, there are more weapons that can inflict freeze on monsters than there are weapons inflicting stun, so Triglav as a choice weapon to freeze can be easily substituted. Verdict: Sudaruska is favoured as the better heavy sword of the two.

Dread Venom Striker vs Wild Hunting Blade Once again, another weapon comparison in which both weapons come from the same alchemy path. Both swords have the same damage type, attack and charge attack pattern, but slightly differ themselves with poison proccing and bonus high damage against beast. Wild Hunting Blade has slightly better DPS against beast while Dread Venom Striker compensates the damage difference with a low poison proc chance. Verdict: Dread Venom Striker and Wild Hunting Blade are pretty much the same in terms of damage and utility. Choose whichever one you fancy. (Honestly, I would choose neither)

Barbarous Thorn Blade vs Final Flourish The battle of the rapiers, both cross swords to determine which blade is the better one. Looking at the stats of both swords, we can see that both have the same DPS as well as the same normal attack pattern. The only difference is the utility of the charged attack. Barbarous Thorn Blade's charge attack is a cone-shaped AoE while Final Flourish's charge attack is a single-target, point-blank assault. The charge attacks for both swords are effective in any situation that require piercing damage. Verdict: Barbarous Thorn Blade and Final Flourish are the same but offer slightly different utility in terms of charged attacks. Both are fine weapons.

5* Brandishes vs 5* Caliburs At its 2* equivalent, both brandish and calibur have the same damage output, the only difference being its charged attack. Once crafted into its 3* version and beyond, brandish's potential DPS start to climb exponentially upwards, leaving behind calibur DPS at its wake. Furthermore, brandish is able to diversify itself into elemental and shadow, while caliburs are stuck with normal. At the end, when both brandishes and caliburs are 5*, no amount of buffs on those 5* caliburs can even come close to the high DPS of 5* brandishes. Verdict: 5* Brandishes are just too good to pass up.

Combuster vs Divine Avenger Both weapons have the charge attack utility to achieve significant knockback on monsters. However, Combuster has a few major advantages over Divine Avenger, in which Combuster does not suffer from the glitchy mechanics of the Divine Avenger charge attack (eg. charge attack despawning when the wielder's back is touching an unbreakable object). In addition, Combuster is classed as a normal/non-heavy sword, so it receives automatic benefits such as faster attack speed and unaffected movement speed while charging. Verdict: Combuster; better DPS, better attack speed, better reliable knockback, better movement speed while charging. #roflstomp

Divine Avenger vs Gran Faust Another comparison between 2 swords from the same alchemy path. Since both are heavy swords, they share the same damage output, normal attack and charge attack patterns. The only difference is that Gran Faust has a chance to curse on its second normal attack and can inflict curse to monsters and its wielder through its charge attack. Divine Avenger's charge attack, on the other hand, is purely knockback. Also, because Gran Faust is the only 5* weapon that can inflict curse, it instantly becomes unique, inimitable and cannot be substituted. Verdict: Gran Faust, the only 5* weapon that can inflict curse. That alone will always be chosen over its elemental brother.

A "Spark of Thought" (SoT)

I've always been fascinated by the sheer amount of topics that one could discuss about, just on PvE alone. Although, unfortunately, the majority of these topics are subconsciously dismissed by most players and thus a substantial wealth of game-concept knowledge and meta-changing thinking becomes unaccounted for in the Spiral Knights community. So, by the purpose of this section, I shall share knowledge by shining a light on these subconsciously dismissed topics and explore them with a bit of detail.

Also note that, even though I have forgotten to time stamp each topic, rest assured that they are all in chronological order.

A Trip Down Memory Lane