Difference between revisions of "User:Waterbeat"

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(The Monsters)
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Use your DVS as a lead attack, follow up with a Gran Faust swing to finish them off or to knock them back/disrupt them. I use this attack style mostly against Gremlins and Slimes because some of them (Thwackers and Lichen) can be dangerous when staying close for too long. This sword also offers a nice defense with its wide swing and knockback, for those situations where you get cornered.  
 
Use your DVS as a lead attack, follow up with a Gran Faust swing to finish them off or to knock them back/disrupt them. I use this attack style mostly against Gremlins and Slimes because some of them (Thwackers and Lichen) can be dangerous when staying close for too long. This sword also offers a nice defense with its wide swing and knockback, for those situations where you get cornered.  
[[File:Unique_variant_icon.png|8px|left|bottom]]Recommended UVs: ASI.
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[[File:Unique_variant_icon.png|8px|left|text-bottom]]Recommended UVs: ASI.
  
  

Revision as of 18:52, 31 May 2015

Icon-opinion.png The topic of this article or section is subject to personal opinion, and does not represent any one absolute truth.
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This is my guide on how to use the Dread Venom Striker effectively. First I go over each part of your loadout: which armor, side weapons, shields, pets and optional trinkets. After that, I try to describe some effective ways to deal with each type of monster. Later I might add a Video section, since that would demonstrate more practical situations, but I haven't found a way to record yet (tried OBS and I got blue screen of death twice upon pressing the start record hotkey...). Sometimes I have little Hide/Unhide boxes that explain some things a bit more in depth. I only put those for subjects that are relevant to this guide, but in the future I might add them for more general sections (for example explaining more in depth how shield defense and status resistance compare or perhaps some hints on how to get decent UV'd gear).

Dread Venom Striker

Equipment-Dread Venom Striker icon.png

The Dread Venom Striker (DVS) has fast swings that deal normal damage, allowing it to be effective against every monster type. I do not recommend using the charge attack since its doesn't offer a lot of utility. The damage increase on the charge attacks hits is not enough to compensate for the drawbacks: for the duration of the charge attack you are unable to dodge or block attacks and you cannot adjust your aim.

Dread Venom Striker benefits a lot from damage bonuses and the effects of poison. This is great, because it can inflict poison! When using DVS, you are forced to match your gear to it. Like Echo, you will need armor that provides damage bonus for swords (or a universal damage bonus). DVS is unique in this way: many weapons do just fine without damage bonus. DVS on the other hand really needs all the damage bonus it can get to show its true potential.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: First priority on a DVS is to get ASI UVs. The weapon is already fast, but more ASI will help you kill faster and also interrupt monsters faster. This could possibly mean the difference between knocking a foe over or losing some time (and DPS) by being forced to shield, or worse: taking a hit. ASI takes priority because damage bonus is only against a specific monster family, while armor can provide damage bonus against all monster families. Damage bonus UVs are still very much welcomed because you aim to get max damage bonus. In case you struggle to reach +6 (max) damage bonus through armor, some damage bonus against monster family UVs can be useful. CTR UVs are only moderately useful, as I do not recommend using the charge often and the charge is already quite fast without CTR.

Building a good loadout

In this section I will try to discuss all the aspects of building a loadout around the Dread Venom Striker.

Armor

When using Dread Venom Striker, there are a few things you should consider when picking your armor. First of all, you want to get as much damage bonus for swords as you can get, preferably maximum, but ultra is acceptable. Next is status resist: some status will drastically lower your damage output as well as make you die faster. Then you can weigh in damage type, because it lets you preserve your Health more easily, which allows you to play more aggressively. Lowest priority is additional ASI, which is always nice to have, but does not outweigh the advantage that damage bonus, status resistance and defence provide.


Snarbolax set: This armor set provides 2x damage bonus medium, for a total of damage bonus very high. It also gives you Poison and Freeze resistances, both useful.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: UV's on wolver armor are usually fairly cheap when buying them from other players. Especially Poison resistance because most players dont consider Poison a major threat.

Poison, Shock, Fire, Freeze, Shadow, Normal are all great UVs to get on your snarbolax set.

Black Kat set: The main selling point for this armor is its unique universal damage bonus of high on each piece, the full set can give you maximum damage bonus for all weapons. It also has a MSI low on each piece which is useful for dodging. The set has penalties to all status except Stun and Freeze though, getting poisoned at -4 resistance will be frustrating. Same goes for shock and fire. It does have good Freeze resistance.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: Shock, Fire, Poison, Shadow, Normal.

Skolver set: Same as the Snarbolax set but with Piercing defence instead of Shadow. Also loses all of Snarbolax' poison resistance, but gets some extra freeze resistance.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: Shock, Poison, Fire, Piercing, Normal.

Chaos set: The status penalties usually make it a bad choice for a DVS loadout. Nevertheless, it could have its place in a level that doesn't have a lot of status, to help speed up your Vortex charge time.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: Shock, Fire, Poison, Elemental, Normal.


You can equip combinations of these sets depending on the situation and what your personal loadout lacks. For example running with a BKC and a Snarbolax Coat will still get you ultra damage bonus, which is enough. There are other armor sets that give medium damage bonus against certain monster families (chroma lines, valkyrie set, radiant silvermail), but most area's have more than 1 monster family, so these armors will usually not do the job.

Shield

When using the Dread Venom Striker, you will often find yourself very close to your enemies. Because its attacks are so fast, you can often attack until right before their attack will hit you, at which point you will quickly raise your shield and block. After you block their attack, you can immediately start attacking them again. You do not have to waste time dodging and kiting enemies. Playing like this requires a strong shield. Pick a shield that defends against the theme status of the level and at least 1 of the main damage types.

For example: In Heart of Ice, you may use Dread Skelly shield because it defends against freeze+shadow+normal. You should not use Crest of Almire since it lacks freeze resistance.

If you are new, I recommend getting Grey Owlite Shield and Dread Skelly Shield first. Those 2 will give you a nice coverage to tackle a lot of missions. Later on also look into (no particular order): Gorgomega, Savage Tortoise, Omegaward, Heater Shield, Dragon Scale Shield, Crest of Almire.

Barbarous Thorn Shield is a possibility for piercing levels, but I do not recommend using it everywhere. Getting your shield broken and statuses like shock or poison inflicted on you will slow down your killing. Get your damage bonus elsewhere.

Weapons

This section is about the other weapons you can use with DVS.

Electron Vortex

A vortex bomb has great synergy with many weapons, DVS is definitely one of them. I recommend always equipping one, unless there is an experienced Vortex user on your party and even then, bring it just in case. I prefer the Electron Vortex because it can do Shock, which helps keeping the monsters in place after it explodes. The alternatives being Graviton Vortex and Obsidian Crusher don't have this advantage. Obsidian Crusher has a useful Poison status, but DVS can already inflict that and if you have a Maskeraith, that's a third possible source of Poison. Don't be afraid to chain a few vortexes: this sucks in more monsters that you can proceed to cut up with added damage from pet attacks.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: CTR Medium from UV and the medium from level 10 combine to Very High, which is enough to comfortably charge your vortex in any situation.


Gran Faust

Use your DVS as a lead attack, follow up with a Gran Faust swing to finish them off or to knock them back/disrupt them. I use this attack style mostly against Gremlins and Slimes because some of them (Thwackers and Lichen) can be dangerous when staying close for too long. This sword also offers a nice defense with its wide swing and knockback, for those situations where you get cornered.

Unique variant icon.png
Recommended UVs: ASI.


Handguns

You can use a variety of handguns to help you reach switches. Another idea is to use a Tortofist to create a wall of spikes you can push enemies against with DVS, providing damage from spikes and stopping DVS knockback that sometimes causes your Ghost hits to miss if you aren't careful. I dont recommend actually using the Tortofist yourself, but there's definitely some synergy when a party member is using it.

Battle Sprite

Maskeraith

Maskeraith is my favourite pet to use with Dread Venom Striker. Its skills are great ways to increase your damage output and often it gives you that little extra you need to finish off a monster without having to block or dodge its attack.

Key skills: Vengeful Quills, Deadly Shadow Cloak

Quills: I recommend the Vengeful upgrade. There's not a huge difference compared to Virulent Quills, but I prefer Vengeful. Overall this is a great skill to increase your damage. The quills do a lot of damage when hit and they also help spread poison around faster. Combined with a fast recharge this makes the skill perfect for smaller groups or single enemies that are otherwise hard to take down, like a Giant Lichen Colony. Make sure to have the appropriate damage type equipped as your sprite's harness.

Shadow Cloak: Deadly Shadow Cloak greatly outperforms Vengeful Shadow Cloak. Do not get the latter under any circumstance. This skill works great with any weapon, but as we know, Dread Venom Striker benefits even more from damage bonuses than other weapons. Initially Deadly Shadow Cloak turns you invisible, after 15 seconds it ends and gives you a huge damage buff for 2 seconds; this may seem short, but its sufficient to decimate a large group of monsters that got caught in your vortex. The cloak ends prematurely if you start attacking or charging, so you can decide when to activate the buff. A super-combination is when you activate the 2 seconds of damage buff from Deadly Shadow Cloak, followed by picking up a damage buff pickup. Both buffs will stack and make your damage go through the roof.


Drakon

While I do prefer the Maskeraith, Knights who have other Sprites as their companion needn't worry! Drakon has some useful skills that allow for interesting combinations.

Key skills: Scorching Barrier, Firestorm

Flame Barrier: Pick Scorching Barrier. The extra orb and the size increase both help to increase the amount of hits you can get in with the barrier. The Scorching Barrier's damage is often very helpful to take down stronger monsters before they can launch their attacks. For example Almirian Crusaders will take so much damage from your DVS and the barrier when using an elemental harness, that you can usually kill them before they can pose any real threat.

Firestorm: Both ultimates are viable in my opinion. Frenzied Firestorm is nice with the party wide Damage Boost while Explosive Firestorm has a lot of extra damage through explosionticks that can deal ~50 damage per tick. I love Explosive Firestorm with elemental harness for taking care of large groups of Zombies, but against other monsters Frenzied Firestorm might be more useful.


Seraphynx

Seraphynx has 3 useful abilities. This pet works well when you solo with DVS, because monsters have less HP and you can do without the extra damage Maskeraith or Drakon provide. It obviously also works well in a party, where heart attack can heal your teammates and angelic aura can protect them while attacking.

Ray of Light: Pick Disintegration Ray: Lowering defense synergizes well with Dread Venom Striker. Use it on a group of enemies that you caught in your vortex to hit multiple targets, then proceed to hit all of them with strong DVS hits.

Heart Attack: I recommend Iron Heart Attack, because unlike Violent Heart Attack, it doesn't have the animation that can blur your vision a little bit. Use this on vortexed enemies to help out your teammates.

Angelic Aura: Pick Valkyrian Aura. When under a lot of pressure, this aura lets you safely charge up your Vortex bomb at maximum CTR to change the tide of battle. The aura is also useful during offense: it will take a few hits for you so you can focus completely on killing your enemies. For instance, this works well when killing a group of vortexed fiends: with the aura, you don't need to worry about the chairs being thrown at you.

Trinkets and Perk

Heart Pendants should be the first trinkets you consider. Keep in mind you don't really need trinkets to play with DVS, but the extra HP these give can allow for more aggressive play. You can risk more and sometimes it creates some spectacular combinations. Grand Solstice Ring and Gift of Autumn are possible alternatives to Penta-Heart Pendants.

An Elite Slash Module can help you reach maximum damage bonus when using the Snarbolax set for example, this is probably the only situation where I would drop a health trinket. I wouldn't take a Slash Module over a Health trinket if my loadout had damage bonus ultra. In that situation I'd prefer +6 hp over the extra low damage bonus.

Status trinkets and Defence trinkets aren't worth the slot. Status trinkets (+2) are also weaker than the Status Perk (+3) your pet can equip. I usually use the HP perk on my pet as well, but the status perks can be useful to reach immunity. You can also equip a Damage bonus perk if your loadout demands it. MSI is useful but not necessary with DVS, since you rarely kite (except when charging vortex, but you can do it just fine without MSI). On the contrary, most of the time, its you who are chasing the monsters, not the other way around!

The Monsters

In this section, I describe almost all the monsters in Spiral Knights (Didn't include Healers, Bombies and Bosses) and how to take care of them with your DVS loadout. The tactics for killing each monster are often very similar, but I still wrote them for every monster so that if you have a problem with a specific monster, you can read some tips here. However, when you go on a mission, only very rarely will you encounter just 1 type of monster at the same time. Be creative when you encounter different monsters at the same time.

Video Section

Will try to record some video's myself in a few weeks. Can't promise anything because recent tries with OBS resulted in nothing more than 2 Blue screens before giving up.

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