I took Sun Shards out for a test drive after seeing its damage type had been altered and found the result rather disappointing as well. In the absence of a readily-accessible elemental damage bomb of any other sort, it would be nice to keep elemental damage on the Sun Shard line and allow Rock Salt Bombs to serve as the piercing shard bomb (with some long overdue and oft-discussed modifications to make it worthwhile, of course).

However, while I can't speak for their performance in Lockdown, I did create an Antigua upgrade (Blackhawk) to test in the Clockworks. If I can expect the same out of Silversix, the guns now feel like what they should've been all along: mobile weapons capable of dealing constant "background" damage, even to monsters outside their specialties. Although the charge attack is still too cumbersome for practical use, I look forward to seeing these improved six-shooters in action. (And, since Antigua itself still deals piercing damage, a pure piercing-damage version of the guns would likely be a welcome addition~ c: )

Blackhawk now does full shadow, indeed, with a low damage bonus vs. Gremlin innate characteristic. I haven't found Silversix yet, but I would assume it is similarly constructed with elemental damage and a low Undead bonus.

What a useless change. With Rock Salt, what is the point in this?

LEAVE THE EFFING RSS ALONE, NOBODY WANTS A RESKINNED SALT BOMB

In case the other thread goes poof, I'll copy my response here:

Subject: -1 (any change is welcome)
It needed to change to something pure. I'm disappointed that it went Piercing instead of Elemental, but it needed to change. I have all the bombs and right now RSS, with its split damage, rarely makes an appearance. I think I only have it in my pure-bomb Graveyard loadout. With these changes it'll make its way into more loadouts.

Elemental would have been a better choice between the two, but piercing at least slightly improves its usefulness against Devilites/Wolvers and greatly against Gremlins. I'd only use it for Devilites and Wolvers if I am solo or with other bombers, due to the dodging. I still stand by my previous thoughts on the changes.

Hopefully something elemental is in the works for bombers. Blast cubes are normal/elemental. And from a technical standpoint all our suits protect from elemental because bombs explode.

The problem with the change is that we now have a bomb that does slightly more damage to it intended monster type and has become worthless against others. With the Dark Briar Barrage we have a more than adequate beast and fiend killer. As it stands right now, there is no 5* bomb that deals straight-elemental damage outside of the Haze bombs, which even after a buff have very little range. And believe me, this bomb is already more than enough to deal with Fiends on any level.

I guess, if anything, I think the Salt Bomb needs to be redone. IF you take into consideration Mad Bombers, like myself, there will be no benefit to using this bomb, as it would be just as useful to use the Salt Bomb that does the same damage type with Shock in addition. I understood the point of this weapon change was to rebalance the weapons, but it still hasn't addressed why a pure-piercing bomb would be considered for slimes.

The Radiant Sun Shard change could be shrugged off if the Salt Bombs were made elemental in their place.

Having played since the beta, and long since stalled out in FSC, giving myself new challenges is really the only thing that keeps me going. I've been running FSC as pure bomber for a little bit instead of the "standard" loadout of DA/blitz needle/etc. and I'm actually having fun again.

That intro part is to come to this: I use RSS in FSC as my main weapon. The elemental damage works great against slag walkers when placed correctly. Add on a UV vs undead with some damage bonuses from armor or trinkets, and you have a weapon that is an effective dual undead/fiend killer.

The original idea of the RSS may have been to be the fiend killer, but I think you need to look past that. Making it pure pierce will kill what is actually a useful weapon to pure bombers. As others have pointed out, we already *have* a pure pierce bomb in the Dark Briar Barrage. Since fiends and beasts quite enjoy dodging attacks, the DBB is wildly effective here with its area-of-effect attack instead of projectiles that are easily dodged. Going back to FSC for a minute, trying to hit the wolvers with just RSS is a pain, given how jumpy they are; DBB is much simpler. So, unless you're planning on changing the DBB in some way, your goal of having a fiend killer bomb has already been achieved. Mucking with the RSS will just make it useless and redundant.

My suggestion would be to either leave the RSS as it is (so that it's moderately useful) or make it pure elemental. Bombers have been bemoaning the lack of direct-damage bombs (like Nitro and DBB) that do elemental or shadow damage for quite some time. Right now for elemental we have only the RSS (not optimal for elemental damage) or trying to get enemies close to the center of a status bomb (not really the point). Graviton being the only shadow-damage bomb is another topic for another day.

Bombers already feel marginalized due to the lack or choices in armor/shields that benefit them. Do not further alienate them by consigning a currently sometimes-useful bomb to the trash-heap of useless weapons. Instead, as others have said, try fixing the ISB. A normal/piercing bomb with a bonus to slimes? This bomb is never even remotely optimal.

What?! I don't really use my RSS because I'm a sucky, sucky bomber, but this is pretty terrible. Now how are bombers supposed to kill turrets? This just make it really hard for pure bombers to solo, or even to deal a good deal of damage in strata where piercing isn't effective and they don't want to annoy teammates with Nitro. Sure, we have ele status bombs, but the damage they do is unfortunately negligible.

Goofio
AP is pure elemental now (dmg bonus vs. undead: medium)

I'll throw in my bits here:

Apart from a really tenuous and easily-fixed flavor mismatch, there's no reason or argument for Sun Shards or RSS to go pure Piercing-- Literally none. There is already a pure-Piercing damage bomb, and it's much more effective for all such purposes. There is -no- bomb made for dealing Elemental damage, or even Shadow damage, straight-up. So I'd agree with the rest of the thread on this point: SS and RSS should be pure elemental, the Rock Salt line should be pure Normal (because Piercing makes it worthless for the "intended purpose" of being anti-Jelly), and they should both extend to 5-star.

And on that note, having a Shadow damage bomb that was actually purely about the damage, in some unique way (or even just a DBB or Nitro style burst), would also be extremely nice.

If we're already on the subject of bombs, even though it's tangentially related, -pure- bombers need Shadow and Piercing defense options. And not something in the "terrible money-wasting trap" style of Bombastic, either.

I happened upon a D15 Wolver Danger Room (so mostly T3 wolvers) with the following loadout:
3* Sun Shards Level 4 so CTR Medium just from my armors
3* Fused Demo Helm (CTR Low)
3* Fused Demo Suit (CTR Low)
3* Swiftstrike
4* Blazebrand

I cleared the room solo quickly without major issues. The piercing damage was great on the wolvers, the T3 wolvers didn't tunnel continuously when using shards. Out of the 10+ wolvers only one would teleport. Also the knockdown kept most locked in place. The recent change which causes them not to change direction when attacking made it silly easy to lead them for max damage. Because of this the alphas were usually dead before the little wolvers.

Also tried some T2 Fiends at D14 and D15, this time with an RSS, still total CTR Medium. The Greivers are still difficult to attack, there's no change there. The additional damage doesn't make any difference, didn't really think it would though. Against Devilites... they still dodge. You can usually one-hit them if they don't dodge since two shards can easily connect. Kind of difficult if you don't have cover or if there are multiple devilites staring you down. Within the time it takes to set down a bomb and shield, a devilite can lift and throw an object. Because you need to drop the bomb near them to get more than one shard to connect, it is pretty easy to take a chair to the head, ending your knightly career. The throwing also tends to be triggered when you stop moving while placing a bomb, which complicates things. Because of their attack patterns, it is actually easier to kill an overtimer than the peons. These are non-issues when using Nitro/DBB because of the range you can keep between yourself and the fiends.

I tried RSS in a Strata 4 Danger Room with T3 Gremlins, unlike the Wolver DR I really couldn't get this one to work. Despite leading them I'd frequently only hit my target with one shard. I could get 4-8 to connect when then did the lunge/spin but then I'd typically get hit too before I could shield or run out of range. I was continuously hearing the clink against their shields and gremlins halfway across the room were dodging (imagine team play... eww.) I'd like to try it in actual T3 if/when I get clearance. But a Strata 4 DR was frustrating and deadly vs Gremlins.

Ok, so they get it, not many people want the change (including me as i use mine for constructs); but atm I'm more curious what damage type the Ionized salt bomb is... I still don't have access to t2 cus I'm noob at missions - so I still haven't seen even the Rock Salt Bomb recipe. Am I correct in assuming it is normal? I just want to know if it could be viable for JK in the future besides the slow CT.

@Nicoya
I'm not sure where this idea of making a bomb like the RSS as a fiend killer came about
I guess it was an idea from the past, when nobody suspect the arrival of DBB. It might had been good idea once, but doesn't sound good any longer. I've never used RSS because I'm yet at the beginning of building my demo loudout, but I've used new Sun Shurds on test server in Wolver Den and although it seems to work fine against wolvers I can't really imagine it's usefulness against fiends.
I understand that "shard bomb" was created as piercing bomb (bomb that doesn't deal damage because of its explosion blast but rather its spiky shards) just like "thrusting sword" was created as piercing sword. But since introduction of DBB this idea is no longer valid.

@Ironskullkid
Moonshards. We Needz dem. Nao.

Black Sun Shards?

Make another bomb that achieves your desired results and leave rss the way it is?

>:O! Looking forward to it, Nick! =D