Actually, they never said it was too gunlike. They specifically said it was "not bomblike enough". Players just assumed they meant that it was the "gun" aspect, but considering the fact that we have several "mixed" weapons and they went on to release DR which is the farthest thing one can imagine from a bomb, it leads to the conclusion that the problem wasn't in the range aspect. The problem was in the fact that a bomb, that's designed for aoe and group kills, was being used primarily to spike ohko targets. Experienced bombers didn't use RSS to clear crowds as much as they just used it to spike targets dead in an instant. It was a lot faster, easier and safer.
Which is explicitly not bomb-like.

So I'm with mini-Juances here; you're doin' it backwards. Your suggestion would just go back to allowing bombers to onehit single targets, which isnae the direction any changes will ever be going in, and (as below) would actually blow them well into the waters of OPitude.

Also, something you might want to give a butchers at:
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/69015

We've come to the conclusion that if shards were any stronger than they currently are, they'd basically be unstoppable when used in groups. Most bombs are already pretty OP when used in groups, the shards are surprisngly efficient at clearing crowds when used in groups. If they had more damage or removed the hit limits (etc etc) then we'd be doing runs faster than with any of our other weapons/bombs. The current situation is actually a lot more balanced than any of us realised at first; it's just that this comes at the cost of making them nigh useless to use solo.

But hey, it's a team--game after all. Some weapons should be designed to be used as part of a team, especially considering we have so, so many weapons that just encourage solo play all the blitzing time.

I read the thread. As you said, even in the most ideal situation with teammates, it was still a slower run than normal.

Practice more. Honestly, we can do runs at average and faster-than-average speeds using shards as our primary dps. If you're comparing it to something like blitzexing that's used expressly for insane time speedruns, then ofc it'll come off slower; but so do most weapons, so that's hardly a fair comparison. If we look at average gameplay speeds, average player techniques/combos, then a team of sharders can easily keep up with them. It's not a "it's close enough, I guess, whatever". It is a "they are as good as everything else". Their biggest drawback is that they just can't be used effectively as a solo sharder.

As for reduced 2nd ring fuses, I'm in two minds. In some cases it would help a lot. In other cases, the second rings long fuse is actually perfect. (for example, laying mines out over spawns or covering a corridor then moving back; with faster ring times it'd be like dropping a nitro, but if you use the delay in fuse times as a chance to essentially plant some land mines, you get a whole new dynamic).