Greetings! In leu of the recent update to the Bombastic Demo set in the last patch I would like to propose an amendment to the Bombastic gear or perhaps a new set of armor entirely.
I like the idea behind the Bombastic set, the path it's trying to take. Different bonuses, different resistances. Variety is good. But there are two factors to the Bombastic set that still renders it a poor option to me as a dedicated bomber: no CTR and the fact that like every other bomber set the Bombastic has elemental defense. The only time anyone needs defense against elemental and ice is on a once-in-a-while gate run where you get ice-constructs. It's not worth the CR, CE and Heat. Now piercing or shadow defense on the other hand, gunners and swordsmen both get that, why not bombers? It's gotten really old having to sacrifice being properly armored against everything but constructs and gremlins when choosing to be a bomber.
What I propose is a set akin to the Skolver for swordsmen. A set with piercing defense instead of elemental and ice resistance like what was given to the Bombastic. Maybe even throw in a weakness to fire that matches the Mad Bomber. Then rather than medium damage with no CTR, do low damage and low CTR on each piece. Now you have a set that falls in between the Mad Bomber and Volcanic in terms of bonuses vs resistances. A full set would have the same level of ice resistance as Bombastic, medium damage and CTR, and the same fire weakness level as Mad Bomber. If you mix this with say, Volcanic, you get High CTR, low damage bonus, some ice resistance and low fire resistance. Top that off with the mix of piercing and elemental defense and you've got yourself a pretty nice blend of everything!
This would give bombers some actual choice in what sort of armor they want to wear, just like people have their preferences between Vog and Skolver, or Nameless and Justifier. And it would actually be useful in the Ice Queen shadow lair rather than just the occasional gate runs!
Plus it would look cool to have blue/white frosty bomber gear, possibly themed after the ice jellies~
What do you other bombers think?
I agree that there should be more variety in the bomber's line of armours, especially when it comes to defence. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to not have the standard bomber bonuses in a non-elemental damage level.
+1 for consistency between the Swordsmen, Bomber and Gunner sets.