So most of you have hopefully tried out bombs by now, and then most likely switched back to your main weapon. I wanted to type something up to maybe see what the community thinks we can do to make bombs a more viable weapon instead of "situational" or "weaker" weapon type that won't be used as much. However, with further personal testing, Crystal bombs are very much viable as a main weapon as long as you are using charge time gear (as explained further down).

It seems like bombs have gotten the short-end of the stick in this preview for wanting to use bombs from the beginning with no special gear, but likely most people don't know about the bomb abuse in the last preview, so I'll try to explain how they worked in both instances for comparison:

Last preview build:
-Set three(*) "non-charged" bombs at a time instantly. These smaller bombs had a smaller radius and not as much damage.
-Charge up a bomb for a bigger radius and damage explosion.
-No charge+/damage+ gear existed in last preview.*
*-(I might have remembered these wrong, please correct me if so.)

This preview build:
-You MUST charge up a bomb to set it
-Bomb damage+ and charge time+ gear is available to give a damage bonus/cut down on charge time
-Bombs have a set radius and damage since there is only the ability to lay charged bombs.

What the last preview bombs lead to was bomb-spamming, especially with gravity bombs which sucked the monsters into the bomb area instead of knocking them back. This was definitely not going to work out, so I can see why they changed it in this preview build; however it's comparable to the other two weapon types as long as you are using appropriate gear and your bomb is level 10.

Luckily, I have amassed most, if not all of the bomb speed/damage gear, as well as bombs currently available, which I will explain the effect of:

"Armor"-
Spiral Demo/Heavy Demo Helms:
Reduces charge times for bombs (Demo: High; Heavy: Ultra)

Spiral Demo/Heavy Demo Armors:
+HP & Reduces charge times for bombs (Demo: High; Heavy: Ultra)

Boom Modules (Trinkets):
Bomb damage upgrade (Low)

Bomb Focus Modules (Trinkets):
Bomb Charge time reduction (Ultra)

Bombs-
For bombs, explosion radius is classified as Small, Medium and Large.
Effect clouds are as large as the explosion radius.

Proto Bomb:
Small Explosion Radius, No added/status effect.

Firecracker:
Medium Explosion Radius, added fire status effect.

Blast Bomb:
Large Explosion Radius, No added/status effect.

Crystal Bomb:
Unique explosion: Sends damaging crystals in 9 directions that explode; Massive damage if explosion directly on-top of an enemy.
Example

Haze Bomb:
Large Explosion Radius, added stun effect if monster stays in the effect cloud.

Freezing/Fiery/Toxic Vaporizers:
Small Explosion Radius, added freeze/fire/toxic effects (respectively) if monster stays in the effect cloud.

Currently, with "maxed" out charge times, whether through the weapons themselves or armor/trinket combinations, it seems the charge time is about 1.3~ seconds (you are able to drop the bomb almost immediately.) I am able to lay down a bomb as soon as the last one has detonated, if not sooner.

Now I want to defend on why I believe the dev's have kept bombs like this; Spamming crystal bombs is pretty even with using Brandish/Khorovod or Alchemer series guns. With my Lv10 Crystal bomb, heavy demo helm/armor and bomb focus modules, I am able to set down bombs as soon as/before the last one explodes. In depth 9, I am easily clearing groups of 4~5 monsters with one bomb.

Crystal Bomb Damage Testing:

The mechanics behind crystal bomb is that when charged and detonated, it releases 9 crystals that do equal damage to a monster. If the monster is close enough and large enough, most or all 9 of these shards will hit.

Here are a few examples of testing damage in Silver Phantom depth 20 (Jade Tangle) using Heavy Demo Armor/Helm, Scarlet shield, Bomb Focus trinkets and a LV10 Crystal bomb:

Testing is on Red Constructs
One shard of damage to a Construct
Seven shards of damage to a Construct, It seemed to die before the other two could affect it.

With 68 damage from one shard, it compares to that of a normal hit from a gun, but the real fun is when more than one shard connects. In the 7 shard screenshot (it indeed looks like 6, but if you examine it more closely you can see another 68 behind the others) it does a whopping 476 damage in one bomb. If it had more HP, it could possibly do a maximum of 612 damage in one bomb. To me, this doesn't seem underpowered at all.

That aside, it is definitely not easy (or fun?) to start the game without a bomb or having to collect amazing gear for them to be as good as a sword or gun is early on.

I would suggest bringing non-charged bombs back or, more realistically, reducing initial charge times drastically with lower starting damage/damage growth; this produces easier to use bombs with the same ending damage. This change would also need Demo helms/armor to have bonus damage instead of charge times as well, to compensate. Also, I would also suggest reconsidering the "effect cloud" mechanic of status bombs to trigger as the bomb goes off, not to try and keep them in the cloud for the duration to get the effect; or to compensate for the mechanic to give a large radius explosion instead of small scale.

That's Chocobo's 2 cents on bombs though, if anyone thinks of better ideas feel free to contribute.

P.S.: Feel free to add any of this information to the wiki, people seem to want me to do it but I am way too lazy.