Bombers are a lot more useful than people think. No matter the element. Fire, Shock(I hate being caught in it... love dishin' it), Freeze, Poison, or just about any bomb that has a good blast radius, (Generally 5* bombs) it helps. Especially in LD, when you wanna guard a control point. Just 1 bomber can hold off a whole team. So anyone saying bombers are useless, are big dummy faces. :P

I love having them on my team, but I can't stand them when I'm against them. I try my best to kill any one I brush past, in LD. Key word, "try".

Pffft. Use a Voltaic Tempest & Start Dropping Nitros. The Shock Reduces the Knockback of Enemies, so you can just Spam VT & Nitros Until they're Dead, all without Disrupting your Teammates.

Anyone who says Bombers are Useless are Clearly too Stupid.

The people who claim bombers are useless are probably the same group that thinks vog set is good armor.

People that say Gunners/Bombers are useless have never partied with a good one. I have Bomber, Gunner, and Sword setups. All 3 are very useful and just as effective if you know what you are doing. The "know what you are doing" is the key phrase. Unlike Swords (here's a sword, go bash that thing's face in) they both have a much larger learning curve.

Gunning has lower DPS and can trigger dodge/shielding, but also gives you more survivability. So Gunning is knowing about where to shoot and when (and when not) to shoot. A good gunner does not spam their Polaris all over the place or cause the make their teammate's targets dodge/shield at terrible moments. This is not counting Alchemer ricochet as those are extremely hard to judge.

Bombing on the other hand has a habit of dropping you in the middle of the enemies, all while being rather defenseless due to charging your Bomb. So Bombing is about knowing how to dodge without using a shield and knowing what to drop. Dropping the wrong mist bomb on status Lichens just makes everything harder. Spamming Nitro is the same as spamming Polaris. It might be effective solo, but in a party you're likely to get kicked for making your teammates get hit a lot or just making everything harder.

Personally it is so very sweet to go into Dark City as a Bomber and flatten all the enemies with DBB. Max damage and max CTR, oh yes please. :D

On the Bomber note... it would be really, really, REALLY nice if we actually had some SHADOW AND ELEMENTAL DAMAGE BOMBS!!!!! HINT HINT!

~Gwen

Voltaic tempest does the elemental part extremely well in my opinion...

And Graviton Vortex is usable for shadow damage. (Learned this from DarkBrady. Thanks man. Made me fee good about crafting that bomb line.)

All weapon classes are FINE.

If I could find the guy who said bombers/gunners/anything not swordie, I'd metaphorically shove a -1up mushroom down his throat.

Bombers and gunners are GREAT for backup, and even as main attackers. As backup, I've had areas where I can't get some puppies because I can't get through the wall of bullets, and some gunner I brought with me from T2 (I was in T3) breezes through wile peppering it with bullets.
^Pro.

Bombers are great for support, their bombs either blasting away targets (Lol spam blast bombs in a corner), grouping them up (The only bomb I use: Graviton), or dealing status effects, which are GREAT ANYWHERE (Considering they brought the right one XD).

Anyone who discriminates heavily against a class other than their own I find to be exceedingly narrow minded and would not tolerate, which they probably wouldn't, since I play Hybrid most of the time.

Having your own opinion is fine. Don't use the other weapons because you don't like them: fine. In that case, you should respect other people's decision to use their respective class of weapon, instead of going 'Omg u stupid or wat? Guns suck they like mosquito bites on monsterz and bombs don't do s*** Go get sword they heaps better and actually do stuff.'

Shiver.

Just shiverlock your point by spamming it everywhere on your point, and 'quick little skolvers' have nothing on you.

I find stagger storm most useful. :D the first thing i do when the gates open is lay a stagger storm bomb because most of the strikers will rush the points first thing... so I plant the bomb and ruin their not so sneaky plans... BWAHAHAHAHA...

and since you have ctr on bombs as guardian and recon, i think the best thing is to either get damage bonus trinkets or heart trinkets. I have found heart trinkets serve me very well.

as for gear, I am going to work on mercurial demo because of the shock resis and the movement speed increase. I think it would give me an extra edge in lockdown.

Other than that, when I'm actually trying in lockdown and not being a complete but by insisting on using my big angry bomb.... I VERY rarely use shiver in lockdown. If i see the other team is worth using it on... i will change loadouts and do that, but other than that I mainly bring three bombs and a sword. My actual playing pvp loadout right now is volcanic demosuit, madbomber helm, five star rigadoon, stagger storm, voltaic tempest, radient sun shards.
I will use freeze every once and a while.

I do go all bomber, but I do find there are occasions that it's better to have a sword and more useful. I VERY rarely use my sword but i've made a point in trying to have a fast sword.

As for bombers being useless? Well, bombers can be more of a problem if they don't know what they're doing. Like someone that randomly freezes stuff with the shivermist and you have to play dodge the retrode vomit and slashing zombies. it's not fun. lol. It's about knowing what to do and when to do it. What places are just better to have a sword? I think pretty much anything that will spawn gremlin bombers, you better have a sword. Stagger storm and a shadow sword. Anything else makes them place more bombs and go crazy.

That's just a few things. IF you're looking to be a bomber don't be discouraged, read tutorials watch videos. There are some really good videos out there. One that stands out is one of Sick fighting the jelly king with pure bombs. lol. He's pretty awesome.

Anyways just my thoughts.

also... using big angry bomb in lockdown makes people REALLY mad. lol...

whoever i killed with it last night should be ashamed! lol... :p

i want to get a mercurial demo suit as well :p but im not bound to find a party that wants me in a shadow lair . and also, shouldnt you get mad bomber suit and volcanic demo helm? the volcanic helm has Med ctr while the body has low, the mad bomber suit has med as well so you get a V.high ctr base, while still having no fire penalty

Well, I can successfully bomb in shadow lairs and I laugh at anyone who tells me I can't. Anytime someone has told me it's too hard to bomb in a shadow lair I have successfully proved them wrong EVERY time.

I did my armor that way because it was just the available recipes at the time. I refuse to buy overpriced recipes in the auction house. lol. So, I just did it that way and haven't got around to crafting the rest of the bomber gear. I've found if I just dodge things my gear doesn't matter all that much. haha... goes back to one principal... don't get hit.

I don't know how good of a bomber you are, but you have to be quick and react quick. Just go with people who have done it before and can give you instructions. Like, what spawns where and where to stay and what not... take their advice and listen. It's about charging and dodging. Stuff is flying everywhere the majority of the time so you have to stay aware of everything around you. But yes, it's totally possible to be a successful bomber in the shadow lairs. have a REALLY good shield and a wide variety of bombs.

The only time i've used shiver in a shadow lair is in the UIMF because it's more convenient to freeze them from a distance and then those with guns can gun them down. I tend to go through more health because of that, but it's better if I die then EVERYONE because they rushed into a place and spawned it all.

The only time i've used nitronome is in the unknown passage. I never use nitro in a team run any other time. The nitro allows me to blast them away from me and if my team mates are smart enough they'll stay within the radius of the bomb and shoot/charge swords to keep them back.

Just go with a good team that has done it before and can help you through it, have good gear and different things to chose from.

XD lmao you made my day. yes im a soft helmet, but im gonna get the bristle-top suit, and maybe the buckethead set (if i can get into a dark scary place and live) but for now im a hot soft helmet with some very cold beer. what do you reccomend i go for first? buckethead or bristle-top?

and whats the russian satellite?

@tengu
while that my be true, if you look around you'll notice that a lot of them are trading in their shock protection for Pierce Max UVs. I find VT pretty effective at what it does in Ld :P

I've used it to keep a point for an entire game, granted no one on the other team was a "famous" name or anything

I VT in lockdown (and mop them up with an Acheron of all swords :-D) and it is fairly effective. I had one game where everyone would carefully walk around the shock, and proceed to the next control point. It was rather humorous. But I've had other games where people switch out to shock protect and then surprise me by just walking right in. Luckily I play recon so I go stealth, kill them, and then go back to my merry ways until I see them again.

@ Angrybomber

"I recall once I teamed up with a very skillful but awfully picky swordman in a vana run and he was a huge anti-shiver guy. He didn't allow anyone to use Shiver in fsc (even on vana because he thought all those who shiver on vana were pathetic) and his personal preference made me look stupid and useless in the team (cos I only took bombs. no Blitz or anything). But I didn't argue because I knew the bombers should be rational enough to listen carefully and try as hard as you can to give your teammates the best support, and sometime that means to stay out of their ways."

I wouldn't be able to play with someone like that. there's no real harm in shivering vana, evem if the strat being used to kill him doesn't necessarily call for it, it just makes the fight smoother as a whole. It also annoys me when players are just super entitled and feel like they can press their will on you for no good reason, like that swordie that didn't like shiver. It's YOUR arsenal, not his.

@Angrybomber (again)

"I also know quite a lot new bombers who like to spam Nitro all over the screen when they are in teams...that is possibly the worst thing a bomber can do to his team..."

Spamming Nitros is bad. Very bad. But it seems that almost everyone in SK can't tell the difference between spamming nitros, and tactical nitros. I get it ALL THE TIME. Nitros can be used in a party if you're skillful. The people I play regularly with have NEVER HAD ISSUES WITH THE NITROS. I'm beginning to think that the majority of players who bash on nitros, do it because of preconceived notions of terrible bombers. That, and they aren't good at adapting to situations that they aren't normally put in. I don't complain when I get enemies flung at me by swordies, because it's never a problem. It's not like I'm not aware of my surroundings and can't see that an enemy is coming towards me.

:::tangent:::

I have no clue on how to effectively do Vanaduke without a shivermist. I've seen a video or two, but I haven't run with anyone willing to go for it. The all-sword idea really appeals to me, but I can never talk anyone into doing it. The closest i've gotten is when I went as a gunner/swordsman and charged in with a DVS or BTB when everyone else was doing the circle maneuver. Other people will throw exactly one water, hitting or no, before going into kite mode, so I end up dying slightly faster. When the shiverblitz is either not in effect, or is going horribly awry in phase 5, I have been just ramboing Vanaduke after I get revved and put a 1500-2000 damage on him before I die again. It's horribly bad on the other teammates, but there's a point where just trying to put out fires when not shivering just doesn't get anywhere. You can't dodge those guards and fires forever, dude. They cheat.

back on track, you may want to bring a briar bomb or a shard bomb with you then. There's no knockback with those, but they can really do some damage. Especially if you get merc-bomber or mad-bomber.

@flufflyfoxie

i agree that a lot of Nitro haters only do it because they automatically think oh its bad. I've been able to push back an entire room of slags and more in rooms of FSC, not only softening them up, but it really gives the team more room to breathe~

then i Shiv em in place and its a piece o cake XD

and today i was sad, my party kicked this girl, cause she placed a Voltaic for a party button and the other guy was mean, so i joined her :3

@Nordlead

When I get a chance, I like taking VT down and using it in exchange for SMB in the run. I Ash of Agni worked down there. Does it work in SFSC? It's a disgustingly powerful bomb.

I don't know about SFSC, since I've never been there. heck, I haven't been to any shadow lairs but hopefully that will chance very soon. All I need now is a heated ash tail cap so I can build full snarbolax armor rather than having to travel through twice.

@wodanct

The problem with just doing a regular combo is that monsters can still attack out of the vortex so walking up to it and doing a combo is dangerous. I'll generally just do a brandish charge into a vortex.