Spiral Knights - Bomber Gear Setup

Bomber Gear Setup

15 replies [Last post]

Tue, 06/19/2012 - 20:43

Spectrumized

I'm currently working on gearing a bomber set since I like it as an alternative to gunning. This will be primarily for PvE, and it should be noted that less than 10% of my time is in FSC. Most of it is finding danger rooms in clockworks which contain all types of mobs and statuses. At all times I will have two trinket slots and four weapon slots. Assume infinite resources money-wise and a style of gameplay that revolves around stacking mist bombs for heavy DoT, then finishing off whatever is left when the herd is diminished with a sword.

I feel more than funded enough to get CTR VH UVs on all of my bombs, and paired with heat I will have CTR Max on everything. I'm looking for a single set that will allow me to preform the best against all mob types, as the type of mobs in danger rooms are hidden until I get to them.'

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Question 1) Armor - Mercurial or Bombtastic?
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Because I have no need for CTR, Volcanic Demo would be a waste. Mad Bomber's negative status resistances hurt me a lot, I don't need CTR, and the Bombtastic Demo suit gives me the same damage bonus. This leaves me with Mercurial Mail and Bombtastic Demo.

Both give me the same health and base damage defenses. Mercurial Demo gives me shock resistance and Bombtastic gives me freeze. Even though I rarely play Lockdown, both shock and freeze bombs are used heavily and the bonuses provided by these armor sets is enough to grant immunity. Mercurial gives me a net total of a medium damage bonus and a medium speed bonus where Bombtastic gives me a very high damage bonus. With my two trinket slots, I could save one trinket slot by going for Bombtastic.

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Question 2) Trinket - Health, Sword ASI, Sword DMG, or N/A?
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If I should go with Bombtastic, what trinket should I use my slot on? I might carry a gun for switches, but most of my damage will be in bomb or sword form. Health would be good to take an extra blow before dying, but would a sword trinket be better for when charging a bomb wouldn't be more efficent health and time-wise than going in with a sword?

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Question 3) Armor UVs - Status Resistance or Damage Resistance?
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For my armor, I can get enough crowns to get triple maxes on my helmet, armor, and shield. I doubt I would do UFSC often, getting a UV specifically for an extremely rare scenario room is pathetic, and not many monsters stun, so I wouldn't need curse or stun resistance. That leaves me with:

Normal
Piercing
Elemental
Shadow
Fire
Freeze
Shock
Poison

Because I will get either max shock or max freeze from my armor set, I will only need three status resistances. I get normal and elemental defenses from my armor, and I don't think I can shield much while spamming bombs. However, many enemies deal normal damage, so would it be good to go with a normal UV to increase base defenses? Overall, is the bonus from damage-type resistances more or less effective than the status resistances in terms of all-around survivability.

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Question 4) Bombs - Which vaporizers compliment each other well for heavy DoT?
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I am mainly interesting in stacking as many statuses I can from vaporizers onto the enemies rather than dealing damage with blast-type bombs. Currently, I have picked out Ash of Agni and Voltaic Tempest for two of my vaporizers for their statuses. I also want to bring a sword just in case. If these are bad choices, please let me know.

-Sword (Leviathan Blade/Brandish Line)
-Ash of Agni
-Voltaic Tempest
-???

For my last weapon, I'm stuck. The only other vaporizers (Shivermist, Venom, Stagger) seem ineffective, and the other statuses would cancel Shivermist's freeze out. Nitronome could be good on enemies that are resistant to elemental damage, but the knockback is big. Is the damage on it worth bringing it along? I feel like bringing a gun might be good for switches and explosive blocks might be good too.

:] Thanks in advance. I'm really looking for people that have a lot of experience in bombing outside of FSC!

Tue, 06/19/2012 - 21:21

Demonicsothe

I would say shock is more

I would say shock is more detrimental to a bomber, interrupting and immobilizing. Freeze is not as bad to bombers, unless you are being chain freezed.

Health, if you are bombing more than you use swords. But if you were hybriding swords and bombs, with a focus on sword damage, you won't need damage armour for bombs and instead use the ctr uv's you have.

You want status uv's, since damage uv's are not as helpful. Less fire, less freeze, less shock. Any of those are fine, although I would prioritize in the order of shock, fire, and freeze.

Poison is a good bomb to carry around for danger rooms. Consider taking a vortex too, to combo swords or other bombs.

Edit: I was playing LD when writing this, let me be clearer. If you are simply going for haze bomb to debuff/dot mobs, you won't need bomb damage. Aoa fire and vt shock damage does not benefit bomb damage bonus. The initial explosion will increase in damage, but the dot will not.

You specified your gameplay is either dot/status until a few enemies are left, and then finishing off with a sword, or apply status, then whack away with a sword. If you carry a sword in order to finish a floor faster, I have to ask why a dot centered playstyle. It is slow. Regardless, if you wish to dot enemies, a venom veiler will help you deal more damage. If you ever want to deal damage with a bomb, look into dark briar barrage and radiant sun shard. Rss is a 4* bomb, and thus cheap for the extreme damage it deals to fiends and undeads.

But to complement your current weapons, a vortex gathers the enemies together for shock to deal more damage and for you to levi charge/brandish charge into a well made crowd. Electron is the best option, although graviton is fine if you don't want to farm the tokens to buy electron. A venom veiler debuffs attack, very helpful in danger rooms. It also renders menders and silkwings useless. It also debuffs defence, allowing all your dot and sword to deal more damage.

Tue, 06/19/2012 - 22:11

Spectrumized

@Demonicsothe

"I would say shock is more detrimental to a bomber, interrupting and immobilizing. Freeze is not as bad to bombers, unless you are being chain freezed."

True, I guess I'll get someone to carry me through SLs. xC

"Health, if you are bombing more than you use swords. But if you were hybriding swords and bombs, with a focus on sword damage, you won't need damage armour for bombs and instead use the ctr uv's you have."

Over 90% of my damage is from bombs. Swords are mainly for killing off a rocket puppy early on or finishing off one or two enemies that missed my other bombs, but if shock is preferred over freeze then I would need both trinkets to compensate for Mercurial Mail's lack of a larger damage bonus.

"You want status uv's, since damage uv's are not as helpful. Less fire, less freeze, less shock. Any of those are fine, although I would prioritize in the order of shock, fire, and freeze."

Alright. If shock, fire, and freeze are the only three status resistances that would be benefical, and I get one of them from armor, what would I aim for for the third UV slot?

"Poison is a good bomb to carry around for danger rooms. Consider taking a vortex too, to combo swords or other bombs...A venom veiler debuffs attack, very helpful in danger rooms. It also renders menders and silkwings useless. It also debuffs defence, allowing all your dot and sword to deal more damage."

I'll try out upgrading it and seeing how big of a difference it makes to my DoT.

"If you are simply going for haze bomb to debuff/dot mobs, you won't need bomb damage. Aoa fire and vt shock damage does not benefit bomb damage bonus. The initial explosion will increase in damage, but the dot will not."

Unfortunately, I know this. Too bad there isn't a gear set that increases status damage from weapons and vials. O_O TO THE SUGGESTION FORUMS!
With the amount of bombing I do, I don't see much worth in taking a sword gear set though.

"You specified your gameplay is either dot/status until a few enemies are left, and then finishing off with a sword, or apply status, then whack away with a sword. If you carry a sword in order to finish a floor faster, I have to ask why a dot centered playstyle. It is slow."

Swords are much harder to handle when dealing with a large group of mobs that one faces in danger missions. I often use a sword in the non-wave parts of the depths because it is faster. As to why I don't purely use a sword to finish everything faster, it is just opinion that I like doing DoT-styled damage more even if it is less effective.

" Regardless, if you wish to dot enemies, a venom veiler will help you deal more damage. If you ever want to deal damage with a bomb, look into dark briar barrage and radiant sun shard. Rss is a 4* bomb, and thus cheap for the extreme damage it deals to fiends and undeads."

I'll try them out.

"But to complement your current weapons, a vortex gathers the enemies together for shock to deal more damage and for you to levi charge/brandish charge into a well made crowd. Electron is the best option, although graviton is fine if you don't want to farm the tokens to buy electron."

While the superb crowd control of the gravitron-styled bombs is nice, is it worth a weapon slot?

Thanks for the answers! :D

Tue, 06/19/2012 - 23:10

Akvar

I have to agree with Demonics

VV sounds like it would be the best compliment to what you are using and in keeping with your play style. Shock by far is the worst status for bombers so mercurial would be best. I would suggest not even worrying about bomb dmg bonus if you are sticking with mist bombs because as Demonics said it will only affect the blast radius which is rather small on mist bombs. If I were you I would just max out the ctr with trinkets or do a UV/trinket combo leaving one slot for a penta. As far as UV's on the armor I would say go for fire/shadow/pierce or freeze/shadow/pierce. I personally would go for the freeze/shadow/pierce because to me being immobile as a bomber leaves you with a broken shield and some pain, fire may do the most dmg as a stat but at least you are still mobile.

Tue, 06/19/2012 - 23:33

Spectrumized

@Akvar

Yeah, two trinket slots for around 15 extra blast damage doesn't seem as effective as going with other trinkets.

So if I have a sword and a VV, would you suggest getting two more mist bombs for the additional DoT or carrying a gun to deal with switches and explosives?

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 00:16

Akvar

I don't use swords too much

I don't use swords too much anymore so if it were me I would probably bring a Valiance or something and the three mist bombs(VV,VT,AoA). This way you would still have one effective mist bomb if you run into a shock or fire resist area. VV really doesn't do much on it's own but if chained with the other two would be very effective and having a gun rather than a sword would still enable you to finish off the stragglers as well as hit switches. Also the VV really shines when there are 2 or more healers buffing the crowd, you could just spam that and take out the whole mob.

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 08:01

Demonicsothe

You have no lack of damage,

You have no lack of damage, since fire ticks are normal and shock ticks are elemental. So take any gun you want. Valiance should be the cheapest to obtain, with the availability of recipes and such.

For the third uv, I would suggest another status such as poison or some other one I missed. Unless you get a max on a damage type uv, it won't help much.

If you have a sword and vv, you'll want the two dot mists to actually use your playstyle. All the floors can be completed with no guns, since respawning pots are there to allow you to hit far away switches. You can also go Akvar's gun and three bombs.

If you can achieve ctr max without trinkets, and its recommended you do since you said you have the means for uv's, use pentas. There are no other trinkets that will help you unless you want to use sword/gun damage.

A graviton is not, an electron is. The graviton will gather, then fling them all away unless you can shock tick them fast enough. The electron will keep a majority of them together. With a loadout of electron, aoa, vt, vv, your vt will benefit the most from it. The only way to get shock to have higher dps, and it can, than aoa, you need to be able to group them together. I've also been told that shock has a chance of passing along enemies. I've never seen that myself, but it would be an added benefit of putting enemies close together.

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 12:24

Akvar

Demonics is right I suggested

Demonics is right I suggested the UV for the armor assuming you were getting VH or higher UV's, poison also is a good one to protect against. I suggested the Valiance because it has knockback on the regular shots and does a set amount of dmg to all monster types. A couple of quick shots is enough to get you out of most of the dangerous situations you could find yourself in.

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 13:44

Bopp

see Bombing Guide on wiki

If you haven't already done so, read the Bombing Guide on the wiki. It's pretty good, and answers some of your questions.

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 19:02

Spectrumized

So Mercurial Mail w/ Max

So Mercurial Mail w/ Max fire, freeze, and poison, penta-trinkets, a valiance, and AoA, VT, and VV with CTR VH? Alright, time to get heating. ^_^

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 19:08

#10

Demonicsothe

For fire immune floors, I

For fire immune floors, I would sub out the aoa for an electron vortex, or a graviton. To use the graviton effectively, you need to lay down a vt and then vortex in the mist itself to have access to the constant shock application. This allows your graviton to basically act like an electron and hold enemies in a clump without throwing them out.

Wed, 06/20/2012 - 19:38

#11

Juances

The Valiance shall have damage bonus vs gremlins, fiends and beasts. (or really get rid of hearth pendants)

Reason: check AoA adn VT damage numbers from the fire and shock

http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Ash_of_Agni
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Voltaic_Tempest

-Wolvers ----->high shock resistance. Ash tails will smile at your bombs

-Fiends ---->high fire resistance. Combine that with a shock stratum

-Chromalisks and Gremlins --> resistance to both shock and fire. You'll face a long boring fight if there isnt a mender to poison.

Thu, 06/21/2012 - 00:34

#12

Zolb

My loadout is the following:

Here's what I wear (and I love it)
Merc Demo Helm (UV High: Piercing & Fire)
Merc Demo Armor(UV Shock Low + Normal Maximum + Piercing High)
Dragon Scale Shield (UV Shadow High)

Elite Boom Module x 2
Dark Briar Barrage (UV CTR Med) / Graviton Vortex (UV CTR Med)
Radiant Sun Shards(UV CTR VHigh)
Shivermist Buster (UV CTR Med) / Venom Veiler (No notable UV..yet)
Dark Retribution (Uv CTR Medium)

I have a CTR Med Module if I need CTR Max (In FSC).
I'm aiming to get my bombs up to all CTR VH.
DR and RSS pay the bills and I spam them nonstop based on stratum.

Edit:
RSS for Constructs, Fiends & Undead & anything ranged.
DR for most everything except fiends and Undead.
DBB for Beasts / Gremlin healers (Venom Veiler's better at halting healing)
Shivermist (honestly, this really only gets used for FSC)

Thu, 06/21/2012 - 15:52

#13

Aquajag

I suggest a change in thought

I suggest a change in thought here. Try going pure bomb. I've solo'd a variety of places, also played with others, and pure bomb works very well. Boost your damage! That's key, since you've got CTR covered. I've found that an elite trinket boosts my damage by around 25-50 points I think. So, two of those, and you are dealing with a major bump. It changes killing slags in FSC with two RSS to one RSS. Big help (yes I know you don't run FSC, but the example is to show the damage bump).

So, here's my advice:
Weapon 1: AoA
Weapon 2: VT
If for some reason you think the theme will eliminate those, then pack VV instead. It's handy with menders.
Weapon 3: VV if you really like status, or RSS. Handy for range, for running, for turrets, and even fiends. Perfect for zombies.
Weapon 4: Nitro. I say nitro and not DBB because like you said, you don't know what you will see. A room full of construct and slimes will make your DBB a joke, but nitro is always nitro. And if you are solo, I find the knockback is wonderful. I find it easier to kill trojans with nitro than with DBB because it keeps everything else off my back while I do so. It takes some practice, but with a little, you won't blast things onto yourself.

Vortex is good. I find that if I'm running normal clockworks, there isn't one set of bombs to take. You've got to adjust a bit to what the theme is, and who is with you. If someone is with you, pack vortex, swords and autoguns love it. If you're alone, vortex is a bit less useful. If you know you're on a mainly beast level, take DBB instead of nitro. If there will be tons of menders, bring Venom. If it's a fire or shock theme, bring something instead of those bombs. There's at least 8 bombs I love, so figuring out which four to use is really not the best idea I think.

Been a long time since I thought I needed a sword.... The exception is a room full of turrets.

Fri, 06/22/2012 - 01:16

#14

Zolb

Room of turrets, you say ?

Get a patient party and have your timing down !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3iSsOnRhMk

Fri, 06/22/2012 - 07:28

#15

Doctorspacebar

SUNSHAAAAAAAAARDS

Don't discount Damage bombs when going for a straight-out damaging attack. And people really give Shiver a bad reputation, it has many uses besides Vanaduke.

Nitro is good for both blowing apart mobs and dealing damage; parties hate it, though.

In a Beast stratum, DBB is king. Wolvers are a joke, and DBB will rip them to shreds. But be prepared; bring something for the Lumbers and Polyps that sometimes appear in Wolver Dens! DBB also works well on Gremlins; you can efficiently stun-lock a Gremlin by spamming DBB.

RSS has two basic tactics. One is setting the Shards so that as many will expode near the enemy as possible; keep in mind, if an enemy is against the wall, you can hug both the wall and enemy when placing Shards and many will hit. The same goes for another enemy. The other tactic, for ranged mobs like Gun Puppies and Devilites, is setting it from afar and sniping with the shards. Keep in mind that Devilites dodge, so you may want to offset your aim on them. Keeping on spamming them when Greavers come by is a pure Bomber's best bet against those **** moths.

DR, if you can do the expansion, is incredible. It was more powerful than Chuck Norris before it was nerfed, and even now it is still very useful. When you kite mobs through a DR, it will get in quite a few hits; if you place two DRs such that they form a Venn Diagram, it'll get many hits. Tears apart Jellies, Polyps, and Gun Puppies. As for Gremlins, this will still be effective for kiting, but you have to get the right distance in T3 because Thwackers have back shields. However, keep in mind you can't buy a CTR VH DR; you need to get it from Punch. That could be a challenge.

Everyone on the forums seems to think Shiver sucks. I can tell you right now, it's very useful for Trojans. If you lay a Shiver and circle around the Trojan until its back faces the mist, it'll be frozen. Then you can walk right up to it and stab/Blitz/RSS the living daylights out of it. Also, laying one in a Devilite room will usually end with them dodging into it, and getting frozen right in place for a well-aimed (insert Fiend killer here). It works well with people using Charge Attacks, as they get more time to charge, and with Gunslingers, as they don't care how far away the enemy is. Swordies that don't use Charge Attacks and Bombers, for the most part, will find it less helpful.

Ah, the Electron Vortex. One of the best party bombs, ever. Someone with a Brandish, Suda, DA, GF, Blitz, even the hated Polaris, will do a lot of damage to those clumped-together enemies. If it explodes, some enemies might get flung, but normally the Shock keeps them in place. And that VT? It'll love that Vortex.

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Bomber Gear Setup