Intro:

I rarely ever see bombers in LD but when I do they're usually haze spammers. So in this guide I'll teach you how to not be a loser and bomb like a real bomber. This guide doesn't focus on teamwork or getting points. If you wanna really bomb, then read this guide.

My story:

I used to be a bomber because I got bored one day and was like why don't I just sell all my gear to a vendor and craft all 5* bomber sets and bombs? And that's what actually happened. It took me about 2 months to get all 5* bomber sets including the kat hiss set and all 5* bombs including the celestial vortex. All without a single UV on them.

I got bored after I got all of them and decided to sell all of it and be a typical hybrid striker but I recently got some bombs with CTR so I got back into LD bombing with a black kat set.

I always have 1-2 bars so playing LD in general has always been a challenge for my mental health rather than fast reactions or skill.

I broke 10k several times with my max damage with only bombs being 15,007 as recon and 13,677 as guardian.

My regular loadout used to be. Merc Demo set with 2 damage trinkets Dark Briar Barrage, Nitronome, Electron Vortex and Celestial Vortex with recon shield.

Class:

Recon gives CTR VH for bombs so that was my go to class and the class with most bombing potential.

Guardian gives CTR low I mainly used this to hold points rather than farm damage.

Striker gives CTI VH I used this when I felt bored, it's the worst class you can bomb with.

Basics:

LD bombing has 3 main basics, if you master them then you can do a lot of things with a lot of different bombs.

The basics are in the following order of priority...

1. Timing: If you miss the timing of one bomb, that's it. You're done for. If you got hit by a bullet, don't let go of your charge and charge it till the end. You either live long enough to kill them or die like a hero. You also need to know the exact moment you finish charging to let go of the bomb, those few milliseconds can actually surprisingly save your life in some situations.

2. Prediction: Unlike being a mindless gunner or swordie you have to predict where enemies will come from, how will they react to your bombs and can you hit them more than once.

3. Fast reactions: You really wanna use your dash as long as it's available. If you're out of dash your bombs act as a shield.

Gear:

With recon pretty much anything would do. My main loadout used to be mercurial demo set with 2 damage trinkets or if I wanted to trade speed for a little more health I went for bombastic demo with one health trinket and one damage trinket. However if you have black kat set and 2 health trinkets then I'd go for that.

With guardian any set with CTR is great. My main guardian loadout included mad bomber set with a damage trinket and a health trinket.

For striker I don't even advise you to go for it, even if you have CTR VH UV's on all your bombs and with your bombing set CTR VH which is max in total, it still won't be worth it. You put way too much effort and money for how little it does.

Of course since I had all bomber sets I switched between them depending on the weapons the other team uses to match their statuses and ironically I put haze bombs with the same status the set was strong against to punish whoever was spamming that status.

Stats:

You always want to have max CTR, this is the first priority, after that is resistance to hazes if there are any haze spammers on the opposite team, after that is damage then MSI and lastly is health.

Bombs:

Dark Briar Barrage: Main damage dealer.

Nitronome: Use inside points to repel enemies away.

Rest of the blast bomb line: Not for serious play, only trolling

Dark Retribution: Use against other bombers.

All vortex bombs: Set up traps.

All haze bombs: To be cancer and hated amongst the LD community.

All shard bombs: To be useless to your team.

Advanced techniques:

Body block: Once you lay down a bomb you have to make sure it hits the enemy, you don't just hope they walk into it. Body block them so they won't be able to escape from its range. This can be challenging if you have bad ping like me. Move against them or dash to block them.

Surprise barrage: When using the recon cloak you can charge a Nitronome/DBB right out of the cloak and with max CTR you will only appear for about 0.5 sec and deploy the bomb and cause panic among your enemies. You can empty a whole point full of enemies with this technique, just go right in the middle and plant a bomb and they won't be able to do anything except panic and run. Just like that.

Chaining: When using Nitronome you can chain enemies into another bomb by predicting the knockback of your bomb. This can either be extremely rewarding or a total mess, either way it's hilarious to see enemies just get knocked into a bomb after another or panic and just escape in fear to their base.

Countering other bombers: Being a bomber yourself you have to learn to avoid other bombers. Usually other bombers will use hazes or shards to counter you. Hazes can be completely useless with the right defenses. Shards can either be extremely hard to dodge out of or a piece of cake depending on whether you mastered their patterns or not. Usually after some time playing with them you'll find yourself just getting right into their range and bombing the person using it without taking any damage. The best way to counter bombers though is by using Dark Retribution. Since it has a lot of active damage and stays for a while it's the best counter to not only bombers but people who charge a lot in general.

Dodging: I want that dash button broken. Whenever your dash recharges, dash. Dash to get closer to your enemies and chase them across the map. Dash away from enemies who are chasing you. Dash to dodge gunfire from people who have less than 12 IQ that they can only use Polaris.

Cornering: The main way to deal damage as a bomber is by cornering your enemies with a Nitronome/DBB. You have to predict where they will head to and block the path that they can escape from with your wide range bombs. Don't try to let the bomb hit them directly, but rather wait for them to try to dash out of it only to get hit with another.

Setting up traps: Vortexes are some of the best bombs in this game. You can set them up on a point and wait till someone gets trapped and lay down some Dark Briar Barrages on them. Or you can pull some enemies who keep gunning from behind the walls of their base out of their base and lay down some Dark Briar Barrages on them.

Countering swordmasters: Some people are actually so skilled with swords that they can go into your bombs and hit you between charges, messing up your chain and killing you in the process. The least you can do is starting to place bombs in a different pattern every time so they won't be able to predict where you and your bombs will be next.

Countering gunners: Dash and get closer to them, lay some bombs, retreat and repeat till one of you dies.

Bonus tips: Keep spinning, the faster you spin while bombing the more pro you seem. Tbag every single haze spammer you kill, this will make you a more respected person in the LD community.

Final word:

Bombing in the current LD meta can be bad to your mental health, that's why I quit bombing for some time. But as long as you have 4 bars you can do anything you want.