is the sun shard bomb any good? Are any of the crystal bombs good? Does anyone think it's a cool bomb aesthically? Because I never see anyone use them...
thoughts on crystal bombs?
Fri, 06/24/2011 - 18:07
Fri, 06/24/2011 - 18:12
#2
FTW
I personally use the Radiant Sun Shards bomb, and I LOVE it. Great damage on fiends and undead, it's something that will destroy pretty much anything. The blast radius is the thing that bugs me a lot, but if the monster is in the blast radius, 8 hits of good damage. The shards, are great for gremlins, since they knock them down 50% of the time, which allows your teammates to actually deal some damage on them. Awesome bomb.
Fri, 06/24/2011 - 18:25
#3
Actually...
I love that series of bombs. I pretty much always tote one of them. Personally I prefer the Rock Salt branch to Sun Shards, as that retains the full Piercing attack and, as Ionized Salt Bomb, gains the Shock ailment. It's already incredibly-effective against Fiends; they tend to blunder straight into the bombs, set properly. Sun Shards and Radiant Sun Shards just make it even deadlier to Fiends at the cost of usefulness against Beasts, and the Shock ailment. Neither branch of the Crystal Bomb line has a five-star form, mind you.
They are tricky to use well, as unlike guns you can't just aim them in any direction, but as far as range is concerned the shards of any of the Crystal Bomb line tend to travel further than gun shots. You are, however, stuck with the eight compass-point directions. The trick to using any of these bombs is that any given enemy or group of enemies can be hit by multiple shards, each dealing the same damage as the initial small explosion. Bait the Snarbolax on top of an Ionized Salt Bomb when its vulnerable and you can end the fight in one or two hits. So theoretically you can deal up to nine times damage with them; maybe this is the reason for the lack of the five-star form.
Really, they're best used against larger enemies, or large groups of enemies where you're likely to hit with at least three shards. They're much less effective when there's only one enemy of a type that loves to dodge, like Gremlins or Wolvers, but if you keep using the bombs you do get a sense for when those enemies won't dodge out of the way.
So they're situational and depend on practice. Same as pretty much any weapon.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 00:28
#4
Crystal bombs are great, but
Crystal bombs are great, but they are unreliable. If an opponent steps on the bomb when the bomb goes off they will get hit 8 times. This is enough to instagib slimes with the 2* crystal bomb (even though slimes are resistant to piercing.) They are great for mining minerals. Place the bomb correctly and it will take 1 bomb to destroy the mineral, not 3. They have excellent range, and the lower * crystal bombs charge fast so you can spam shards everywhere.
The downside is that an enemy can be standing right next to the bomb and not get hit. I can't recall the amount of times that has happened to me. Still, I think the crystal bomb makes a nice addition to any bomber's toolkit.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 00:38
#5
Lol, thread made me think of Vlad,
then Vlad posted.
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 19:11
#6
does the intital explosion
does the intital explosion really do as much damage as the shards? If so, besides getting an enemy to get hit 9 times with the initial explosion, would you really stress that one try to get an enemy to get hit right in the middle of the bomb? Because what I like about the bomb is that it has a long range and you don't have to place it so close to enemies, although it helps as the shards start to spread out anyways
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 19:49
#7
wait I just answered my own
wait I just answered my own question...definite yes. But is is true that the ionized salt bomb takes twice the time to charge?
Sat, 06/25/2011 - 20:12
#8
It's more that it can
It's more that it can potentially deal more damage than a single hit of other weapons, due to multiple shards striking a target. I usually get two to three shards on a Wolver, for example.
The Ionized Salt Bomb does take a markedly-longer time to charge than other four-star weapons, memory states. I can't vouch for Radiant Sun Shards, but my new Shivermist on level 1 charges faster than the Ionized Salt Bomb did. Or it certainly seemed that way.
I guess that's the drawback of the thing. It does inflict Shock with a pretty high frequency, though.
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 07:33
#9
ya I went and tried it and I
ya I went and tried it and I do enjoy the mutiple hits haha
the wiki doesnt say that radiant sun shards takes twice the time, so I'm guessing that since the ionized salt bomb has the shock effect(moderate chance) then the time it takes to charge balances it out, because then no one would get the sun shards lol. Is the charge time a big drawback? Is it a real long charge time? Cause if it is I might get annoyed with that lol
also if the sun shards has both elemental and piercing damage, would it cancel eachother out on a wolver and deal a regular amount of damage? Being that the beasts resist elemental and are weak to piercing :o
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 10:19
#10
It's annoying when you first
It's annoying when you first use it, but you get used to it and then you gain enough heat for the charge time reductions on the bomb itself to start kicking in. I'm not sure it'd be easily-usable at all, initially, without some kind of bomber kit for equipment, though.
Yeah, Sun Shards are better on some things than others due to the mix of Elemental and Piercing. 's probably quite deadly to the Undead, as well as Fiends.
I can't remember what it displays AS on Beasts - I think it shows overall as resisted, but still deals a nice amount of damage.
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 10:25
#11
Beasts and Constructs take
Beasts and Constructs take reduced damage from Sun Shards, same as from Silversix. They take roughly 75% standard damage from these weapons.
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 10:58
#12
How do the Sun Shards compare
How do the Sun Shards compare to Dark Briar Barrage? I've found that DBB decimates wolvers and gremlins, my only complaint is the difficulty of getting a CTR UV and the long fuse time.
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 11:34
#13
^^^that's a good question
how
^^^that's a good question
how about I ask this, which is better overall, radiant sun shards or ionized salt bomb? and why?
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 11:57
#14
Fun Fact: the 2* crystal
Fun Fact: the 2* crystal bomb actually does HALF Piercing, HALF Normal damage, even though it is improperly listed in game as full piercing. This means it will only actually do a LITTLE less damage to piercing-resistant enemies.
Overall, it is an excellent bomb. The only thing I would really list as a downside is that since it is projectile-based, it will make certain monsters dodge around or activate shields whereas a regular bomb would not.
The thing charges and detonates so quickly (up until those 4* variants at any rate) that you will often find yourself using it as a gun. A gun that just happens to shoot in 8 directions at once. And personally, I find its consistent shot-directions easier to aim than a regular gun, if only because I'm using a controller and have no way of telling the precise direction I'm aiming at without reverting back to mouse-use. :P
Oh, about the 4* variants taking longer to charge: I guess they just assumed that if you're investing that much energy into upgrading it, that you've probably also got both the helm and armor of the Demo series equipped by then? In fact, I wonder how the bonuses of a complete Mad Bomber outfit using the 4* crystal bombs compares to using the previous ones without any bomber gear? Hmm.
Sun, 06/26/2011 - 12:20
#15
I've only heard of the
I've only heard of the inonized salt bomb taking longer to charge, not the radiant sun shards
is the sun shard bomb any good? Are any of the crystal bombs good?
Nope.