"Additionally, though I cannot say that I was using this, we seem to have lost the ability to shield into charge as gunners and swordsman can"

We haven't lost the ability to shield-charge. We've lost the need for it. The bomb-lifting animation not only doesn't hinder movement anymore, but it also doesn't hinder charging. That is to say, a bomb-charge will start the moment you hit the button rather than when the bomb is lifted.

The change is all but trivial. Combined with the ability to shield-bash things like greavers and jump through bullet hell, bombing has no weaknesses anymore.

Go for it! That's how 'ole Zeddy started out his bomber days.

You'll eventually want to just get every haze bomb, but shivermist and VT are good starters. I would also say get Ash of Agni; it's a nice, reliable damage dealer that doesn't require a lick of bomb damage bonus.

You will also want a vortex. Everyone loves a bomber with a vortex.

It's mentioned like four posts ago, but lifting a bomb no longer interrupts movement. In addition, it looks like the 10% movement penalty for general bomb charging is gone.

That sounds pretty good. You've got gun for all those pesky turrets and a bomb for every situation. Graviton and your Alchemer should work well together if you can land a charge into the vortex. This should keep the mobs from spreading, letting you get even more charges in on them.

Blast bomb is kind of general, but if you combine it with lightning capacitor, that should keep mobs from spreading when you use it, letting you rack up damage easier. Lightning capacitor and graviton charge is also good friends. Remember that clustered mobs spread shock damage very effectively!

Fiery atomizer is also very good for things like arenas, it was my first bomb and I'm very fond of it. Go for it!

Althought I'm loathe to say it, Polaris is a good gun for gun-purposes. It can interrupt turrets, push back enemies and generally just fills all your gun-as-a-sidearm need. If you'd like your gun to also be good against gremlins and beasts, Valiance is pretty alright no matter what you use it for.

What are your thoughts on it?

I was on the wiki Bombing Guide, because I'm planning to make my alt a bomber and was wondering what I wanted to get. So, I'd like to ask you guys, I know I'm getting a Voltaic Tempest (LINK: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Voltaic_Tempest ), as well as a Deadly Dark Matter Bomb (LINK: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Deadly_Dark_Matter_Bomb ), but I still need to find a normal damage bomb, and a piercing bomb. So I was wondering, what do you guys think I should get?

P.S. I know most of you don't like Voltaic Tempest as much, and I don't know what people think of Dark Matter Bombs, but those are the ones I KNOW I want, and the ones I know I'm getting. Just try and tell me a good normal damage and piercing damage bomb.

Thanks!

~Ted

@Tedme
Voltaic Tempest is fantastic and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. It pairs up well with either Vortex bomb since shock spasms spread through groups.

For a normal damage bomb, Nitronome is the best one. I like Irontech a lot, but it's not particularly safe to use, so even though it has the potential for most damage, it will not help you when you need it the most. Deadly Shard Bomb is kind of sad, I find. It works alright paired up with Venom Veiler, but appropriate shard bombs are just so much better. An alternative is Ash of Agni. It's party-friendly, easy to use, and will wreck most arenas. Pair it up with a Venom Veiler to prevent healing.

Dark Briar Barrage is a splendid piercing bomb. The coverage is huge, the damage is not bad at all, and it has all the knockdown of Nitronome without most of the knockback. The bomb is immensly safe and powerful. That being said, I see you're going for Dark Matter as your shadow bomb. If you're comfortable using shard bombs, Deadly Splinter is a lot of fun to use. Shard bombs have this tendency to make every fight you're in a puzzle. Go Deadly Splinter for damage, Sun Shards for safety, or DBB for easymode.

@Nykza
The shard bombs are considered damage bombs, and for good reason. Against a low amount of targets (I'd say anywhere up to half a dozen to a full dozen depending on the exact type of enemy you're facing), an appropriate shard bomb can outdamage most other bombs apart from Dark Retribution per bomb placed. Not necessarily over time if you focus on per enemy simply due to shards taking such a long time to detonate, but the trick is to know that a battle is won as soon as you place down the last bomb that will kill your enemy and then move on to other fights.

Ash of Agni is a damage bomb. It really doesn't do much else than damage.

You're right that shards are complicated to use, but they can be powerful. With a good chunk of damage bonus, enemies fought while you're solo can be killed in two bombs, or even just one if you're at a high enough depth. This is tricky to perform, and Nitro/DBB will still win against a large enough amount of enemies. (3 bombs)

The difference between Dark Matter Bomb and Salt bomb is superficially small, but from experience and calculations, DMB will indeed kill things a little bit faster if you're skilled with the bomb. However, Ionzed/Shocking Salt Bomb is a lot easier to use for beginners as the shock will cancel out knockback.

A salute to the Sappers of SK from a lowly hybrid ;)

I've goofed around with a Vortex bomb and a Vile Venom Striker and found that using a vortex to 1) lock a group of baddies in place and 2) keep their attacks from hitting as they are being moved around inside the vortex works very well with a Striker's charge attack (locks you into place until all 10 swings finish).

Might make Strikers a more popular line, at least in groups.

I'm a pure bomb like you guys but I found out lately that bombs sucks at clearing blocks and mineral rocks.

So what sword would you guys recommend for me(act as off hand sword).
I'm thinking of winmillion since it act as a hybrid sword/gun so it might be easier for switching clearing and kiting enemy like gun puppy.
Combuster?

My loadout is rather simple than you think,
SS
MBB
Ev
Still remain unused.

sun shards used to be the single block/mineral destroyer, atm id suggest autogun or cutter for single blocks, spur is bad

winmillions projectile does very little dmg, not to mention that even its swing does tiny dmg
the charge attack is terrible too, its slow and u cant shield if u want the projectile to fire, which does very bad dmg as well

auto guns give u fire/poison options or dmg output(blitz would be excellent with chaos set)
cutter series is simply awesome for real time combat. in no way effective. but awesome

switch clearing? kiting gun puppy? valiance is an excellent choice, if u want to have a single good gun
but u gotta decide what ur aiming for, u wana take down single mineral/block quickly or have an extra weapon?
i recommended cutter/autogun specifically for taking down minerals/blocks, which would save u perhaps 1second, maybe up to 3 if ur lucky idk, not to mention that bombs actually excel at taking down multiple blocks/minerals quickly

think it through, make up your mind and figure out which weap u want right now, and which ones can wait, in the long run ull probably want to collect more anyways

Should I prioritize CTR or damage bonus first?

I'm considering making a full set of Mercurial Demo to combine with Swift Steps II on my pet, mostly for the pure novelty of the set. However, the mercurial set only gives Medium damage bonus to bombs. I'm wondering if I should use my trinkets to max out CTR or damage.

(Of course, there's always the option of getting good CTR UVs on all my bombs, but I don't think I could obtain a full arsenal of VH CTR bombs any time soon.)

Get a black kat cowl. That'd lessen the problem :v

Get a black kat cowl. That'd lessen the problem :v

While I'd love a BKC, I think obtaining one is a feat easier said than done.

Edit: Welp, double post. I can't find a way to delete posts, so...

I would at least get CTR up to very high with one trinket. The other trinket depends on whether you prefer to spam your bombs (in which case CTR would give the most DPS) or time them. (In which case damage would.)

Black Kat Cowl is a lot cheaper than a set of CTR Very High bombs.

"Use bombs wisely!" -Peppy Hare

plzdntkillmeplzdntkillmeplzdntkillmeplzdntkillmeplzdntkillme

So I gave pure bombing a try a few days ago, had much fun with my newly crafted Master Blast Bomb. Alas, its nearing the end of its reign, and I'm in a dilema of whether to pass the torch on to the BAB or the good old Nitrome

Gave it a few hours worth of research, and a few more hours of thinking (I'm so bad at deciding .-.). After watching several Shard Squad videos feauring those two bombs over and over again, I've noticed while the BAB does massive knockback that may disrupt party members more, the fact that it flinches most enemies made me think again.

Is BAB's flinching capabilities, massive knockback and higher damage compared to the nitro really worth the increased charge time and movement speed decrease?

Opinions will be greatly appreciated, thanks :D

Right, thanks :D

Poison has no impact whatsoever on fire damage. However, it will prevent healing so it's great for kiting twelve mecha knights being backed up by two gremlin menders. Poison also reduces enemy damage by a lot, so it's a very safe, reliable combo.

There are applications, but they're narrow and a lot of people would argue they're not worth it over the blast bomb line's raw damage, radius and knockback.

When placed right, two shards from a single shard bomb will inflict more damage and interruption than a single blast from a blast bomb will. This lets you, say, flip over gremlins in deep danger rooms where DBB would no longer be able to. Hard to pull off, though.

Shards have a long fuse time, which lets you keep a long distance between yourself and your enemies.

Disregarding DBB, shard bombs stack better than blast bombs, as blast bombs have so much knockback that most the other bombs in a nitro-stack would be wasted.

There is also the status infliction of sun shards and salt bomb.

But again, blast bombs have a massive coverage and are much easier and much more reliable than shards. Shards are, in general, pretty underpowered and I'd mostly recommend them for self-challenge.

For the few dedicated bombers who are out there, stay strong, make yourself herd and don't sell yourself short. We are few but we are strong. I gotta say bombing is the best way to go ^_^ and even though it's harder I love soloing as a bomber, it presents a very interesting challenge

What are the terms "alt placing bombs" and "mid-stepping" referring to here?

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/96136?page=2 post 105

@Zeddy: Poison is my favorite status condition, I wish that there were more bombs that inflicted it than just Venom Veiler and that new Obsidian thing. is the new Obsidian bomb usable?

@Krakbob: My opinion is that pure gunning is. Unless you have a great connection, you can barely hit any fiend.

Also, yay bombers! Almost 1000 posts! I remember when this had not but 2 pages!

Obsidian Crusher is a fantastic bomb for 2/3 of the game. Enemies not resisting shadow damage tend to clump together (gremlins, beasts, slimes and constructs), and the poison lets you not worry about gremlin menders and silkwings. If you are with fellow bombers, combine with things like shock, stun, defensive armour and Drakon's Flame Barrier to tank hits and finish off huge arena waves in record time.

Fehzor was probably talking about Maeko-bombing when she said "alt-bombing". It's the act of having some action mapped to alt+attack and then planting your bomb by tapping the alt-button rather than letting go of your attack button. Combine with Swiftstrike bucklet, it makes your bombing more fluid.

It works with any charge attack, not just bombs. However, since other charge attacks have much longer animations, the benefit is not as much there.

^
a.) Using mercurial + the sprite perk is a pretty good way to counter the speed down from things like vortexes actually. But having CTR is more valuable than MSI Very High in most cases. That said, MSI Very High with CTR will let you move mountains.

b.) There are two reasons to use mad bomber over chaos, and neither of them are very good.
-The developers will, at some point, fix the mad bomber set and we'll all rejoice
-It IS better for pure bombing curse levels. As if thats an issue.

c.) Seeing as to that most new players end up dying all over the place, I would have to recomend not going with full chaos. Especially as a bomber. Instead, I would go something like:

Volcanic Demo Helm and later Mercurial Demo Helm or just Divine Veil
Chaos Cloak or just Volcanic Demo

This will give you a net positive status resistance against shock and fire, which are likely to give you the most trouble with chaos. The difference is between getting one shotted under many circumstances with full chaos, and taking about 2-4 hits to kill with chaos + something else.

You might want to just avoid chaos altogether, as waiting till 5* to get your first CTR perks (and you'll want those) is going to be painful. Full volcanic demo is a pretty nice option.

For your bombs, I would recommend:
+Ash of Agni
+Voltaic Tempest (Bring a blast bomb to roarmulus prior to getting it, and go with a party for the twins)
Then:
+Dark Briar Barrage
And after that:
+Shivermist Buster
+Obsidian crusher

The idea is that for T2, you'll want to be able to kill the jelly king with relative ease. Bringing ash of agni and voltaic tempest for that will be a huge boon for you when grinding. Dark briar barrage will be needed to fight grievers whenever you encounter those, and obsidian crusher will complete the loadout against gremlins etc. Dark briar barrage takes some practice, but once mastered will be a huge asset... as you can see in Zeddy's videos.

The only reason crusher comes last is because it starts at 5* + requires you to farm the apocrea mission, which you probably aren't ready to do at the moment. Shivermist Buster is also a useful bomb that you'll certainly want to pick up; it will greatly improve your odds at FSC.

I cannot in good faith recommend nitronome to you because half of everyone will hate you for using it. Bringing ash of agni/voltaic tempest on the other hand will make people love you, as those work much better with teams.

If you do go with this, then full volcanic demo should probably be your best bet for armor, as haze bombs don't require any kind of buffing outside of CTR.