I'm not a pure or elite bomber.
But Sketchy, I think you could still play however you want. At least with me, I use the Freezing Atomizer. I've seen people complain about people with swords breaking the freeze status but I disagree with that for three reasons:
a) The freeze bombs have a fair interval where enemies get refrozen anyway, so you can take a whack if you want and move away.
b) The atomizer has a fair size radius (nothing compared to the shivermist though), but with your sword the most you can do unless you are just TRYING to freeze break all enemies is maybe knock one or two of them out of the freezing circle permanently. The rest will be waiting right there for you to come back and finish them off, maybe even with a charge attack ^-^
c) When I freeze, it's usually for the minor damage and the holding potential, not because I care about the damage they take from naturally thawing out.
I just use that one type of bomb but it should still apply to anyone who uses any of the vaporizers at the very least. But this is a very different setup from someone who uses actual damaging bombs so I can't speak for them.
Oh and for me, you really wouldn't want to rely on my bomb killing gun puppies outright. They are weak to the damage it deals but that's not more than whatever sword you have could be doing to them. The best I can do is freeze them in a certain direction so you can strafe around them safely and charge kill them.
...and I don't know if this fits into the thread, but how would a pure sword user begin to be a help to a bomber? I've been in parties with bombers where I was the odd one out, and really felt like I wasn't contributing much other than the odd-DPS to a monster outside the blast radius. I couldn't use my DA because its huge knockback would push the monsters outside of the blast, and I didn't want to be a nuisance. So this brings me to my current predicament:
I've been toying with the idea of being a pure-support sword wielder for most runs. What I mean by this is that I would get a very powerful shield (perhaps along the lines of an Omega Shell) and both a Speed- and Knockback-sword (Dread Venom + Divine Avenger currently) in order to support bombers. I'd primarily shield-screen or use knockback/shield pushes to bash enemies into the blast radius. For the trickier ones to deal with (Gun Puppies for sure) I'd try to draw attention/lure into the radius/outright kill. What do any bombers think of this? Would it be useful, or just a hindrance?