Lamp oil, rope, bombs: you want 'em? It's yours my friend, as long as you have enough ru--

Bombs aren't used as much as guns or swords for mainly one reason: they don't have a basic attack.
This slows down the use of bombs. No shield bashes or sprite abilities can be a substitute for basic attacks. It's a fundamental mechanic, and i think bombs need it.

But how can we implement them?
The reason that bombs don't have a basic attack (according to the bombing guide: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Bombing_Guide ) is because they were spammed too much in early previews, with the charge attack being rarely used, so Three Rings downgraded them. This caused bombs to be underused. But maybe there are ways of fixing this basic attack.

Bombs could have a set count limit, like in handguns and blast network.
When the player reaches the count limit they'd do the animation for failing the charge. The charge attack would count as the max number, so you wouldn't be able to drop any bombs until the charge attack detonates. This count limit could also be used for gremlin demos so they don't drop too many bombs at once. The maximum number of basic attack bombs would be smaller and do less damage than the charge attack. This count limit could be like, 1-3 bombs.

Also, shard bombs.
The simple way to buff shard bombs while keeping them balanced would be bring the projectiles back, but limit their range to the range of the current smaller shards. Then the basic attack would just be one small shard.