After trying Callahan and Sentenza's damage in general, I really doubt AP is going to be better than RSS...

AP is more effective than RSS on Vana just because the rate of fire means you'll consistently get more hit on phase 5, whilst mantaing mobility. With RSS you're forced to bait Vana into charging which is something only those of us who try to solo Vana with bombs will ever really establish any skill at doing, and otherwise sniping with individual shards would be really time consuming.

And yeah AP is the peacemaker.

Nitronome is bright, laggy and has a very large and slightly long-lastnig animation, with KBs
DBB is darker and as far as I'm aware causes no lag. the animation is also very basic and ends quickly, and there's no KB.

Not any harder than gearing up for swords, which is also typically more expensive (wolver sets and such being more popular, thusly costier).

The only real issue at all is that unless you start with a Nitro/Shivermist, you're likely to find yourself quite generic in terms of damage and losing that specialisation that swordies can easily get; you do tend to need a lot of bombs to cover all grounds, but that's not a massive worry. Starting off with a Nitro will cover all grounds for you, and juts work your way up to other bombs. Leave most of the status bombs till later, and avoid all of the blast bombs other than the Nitro.

If you're a focussed team bomber, then haze and vortex bombs are the way to go. You'll always make everyone's life easier and (with practiced use of vortexes) never cause any problems.
Also note:
Throw in a DBB and you can basically do wolver dens for your team and let them relax (which is especially useful in the current Snarby gate).
RSS is a great damage weapon and won't hassle your team in any way, but unless your team knows you and your style very well, you'll find that most players will make it infuriatin' for you to use RSS.
Blast bombs defintely can be used well in teams, although takes a degree of practice and care to get the KBs done right.

How did you get your videos to run seamlessly? Paid fraps, or do you have some trick to put all the clips together nicely? Gunna have to spend a lot of waiting time at elevators to get every depth, but will look good to have a record. I love goin' through NB Lairs, especially the Concrete Jungle one; great fun :D

Also, is this for adding videos to the wiki? I'd like to start addin' mine to it, as/when I make them (still only have the two), but just can't log in, being a steam user. Anyone fancy adding the links for me? o: (forum node or direct youtube? I'm no sure if there's any preferance really o.o)

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/40480
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/40694

lol, I just do crap in WMM, too lazy to get all the decent stuff xD

Is paid fraps any better than the free crap? I swear when I start recording my FPS drops by at least half; makes it tricky to get a good video when you're working under heavy lag to do so :(

Must just be the free version then, because that really cuts down my FPS far too much to be overly productive.

WMM is bad sure, but it's also free and already there; gets the job done! :D

Idk what better free programs there are, and WMM does the job eonugh for me I guess....let's me throw together my clips and put in fancy wee captions!!! D:

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CAPTIONS!!! D:

Aye, have been kinda veerin' towards Dxtory if I ever decide to get paid recording, but atm I don't record enough to justify putting the money into it, so fraps' 30 sec clips will have to suffice for the time being, which I suppose at least suits the style of videos I've been doing.

Okay, i could use some advice for building a general, party support set. I've got 4 weapon slots and i want to use one sword (that will be either Glacius/Voltedge/Acheron/Barbaroush Thorn Blade) and three bombs. The gears i'm using are Volcanic Demo Helm and soon to be Mad Bomber Suit, i'm thinking about getting 2x Elite Boom Module or using 2x Elite Sword Focus Module. I've got no UVs, here are my bombs:

Radiant Sun Shards
Electron Vortex
Ash of Agni
Shivermist Buster
Venom Veiler
Voltaic Tempest

I'm thinking about RSS+EV+AoA, I'd find the VT+EV combo redundant

You want to design a specific party support loadout?
Well, with your chosen armour you'll be there as a dps/support, so make the most of that.

That said, RSS is a good option, usable in very many places and huge damage.
At least one haze; everyone loves hazes. AoA will be useful some places, VT others. Shivermist can be extremely useful, but it depends on the situation; you can probably afford to just cycle them in as required.
A vortex is up to you. I find they're always unbelievably useful to use, especially ifyou plan on bombing in a party; everyone loves a bomber that knows how to use vortexes, you'll make everyones life easier. Electron for ele-weak mobs or normal mobs if you want the shock, graviton for gremlins/slimes (unless the party is going to just spam attacks, in which case electron will suffice for the effect).

As you said, EV+VT doesn't work together harmoniously, but you can use them separately to keep a permanant shock factor, but that depends on where you are, what you're doin' etc. In general AoA+EV would work out nicely. Shiver is better than VT/AoA in some situations but you'll need to judge that yourself based on where and your party's style. Some places in FSC, for example, would be better off with Shiver than VT.

For a sword, I personally use Acheron/Glacius (switch as needed), beacsue I like carrying the freeze effect with me, but I tend to use that more than my Acheron by far.

As for trinkies, with volcanic mad bomber, then two e-booms will give you max/max on all +10 bombs straight off the bat, so that'd generally be reccomended , however if you're not goin' to use the dps bombs much, then bomb damage is largely irrelevant, and you can afford to stay at med, in which case sword trinkies might work out better if you'll be using them more for your dpsing.
Kinda depends how you plan on dealing your damage.

But basically, that's a good enough loadout. Utility weapon + Haze + Vortex + Dps is a good all round combo that works everywhere, just cycle in the appropriate types as needed. Altough keep in mind that some places, two hazes might work out better than a haze/vortex.

BAB sucks. It has huge damage, but also a huge KB, and a huge fuse, and you get slowed down while you charge, which is always a seriously tricky thing. I find that being slowed is generally only acceptable for vortexes since it actively keeps the mobs away, whereas KBs can send them towards you if you're not careful.
Regardless of your CTR/Damage, Nitro will pretty much always come out on top.

That said, you have to learn to use Nitro effectively or you'll wind up just annoying people any getting yourself killed anyway.

For soloing, you will probably prefer Shiver over AoA. The DoT is nice to have backing up your dps, but ultimately won't do much for you if you plan on just dps bombing them anyways; DoT is more for when you're using vortex tactics or haze compounding. Shiver will let you control the mobs so you can plant your blasts more strategically without worrying aobut them moving and screwin' it up.
As for DBB..., well that only really gets used on devils and wolvers anyways; anythin' else can be handled with Nitro; and haze's aren't neccesarry for that, especially with the nerfpatch; just spam the DBB and run in small circles staying inside or near your rad and the wolvers will just come to you, the DBB will keep them knocked down and they'll all die before even attempting to attack.

RSS is one of the best damage bombs. It's great for sniping puppies at awkward positions, or planting in their faces for increased damage. The damage will come up as gray, but the actual numbers will be around "normal" so not to worry. Correct placement of RSS can /vastly/ outdamage...pretty much anythin' else, tbh, however this comes at the cost of concentrated damage; you either hit a lot of mobs, or you hit one mob a lot.

As for Trojans, that's back to the DBB. Plant a bomb in front of them, then run a small circle behind them and plant another, then run again. He'll follow you forever, and every time he turns to follow you, your previous bomb will blow up in his back; they'll never even get an attack in.
Example, if you're unsure what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yNf3qmJP_tQ#t=107s

Also, you only mentioned three bombs. take vortexes as a serious consideration; they're marvellous to help out when things get crowded, imo they're the safest bombing methods out there.

@Trying Just a correction: the DBB doesn't go through a trojan's shield. You need to turn the trojan so that its back is towards the bomb or it won't take damage from the explosion.

Ash is too boring imo; you drop it and what? they just die a bit while they carry on?! D:

Nawww, I like Shiver. It's like some cruel tortureporn Saw-esque flick. You trap them in the spot then go like "I want to play a GAME!" then you run into their faces and plant big RSSs, then step back a quarter of an inch to dodge them.

Then watch as they all die and the shards fly and the ice shatters and the glorious shiny excitement!!

With Ash, you might as well not even have used it, they just totally walk on right through it "Oh, I'm on fire? W/e, get the guy!!!"

Nitro / DBB
Ash / VT
Vortex / RSS

On another note the Aurora Isles videos are now up.

Shiver hasn't declined in usefulness, it was always a situational bomb that simply got hyped up. Like how everyone used to use the Argent Peacemaker on Vanaduke until Blitz Needle caught on; AP didn't get worse, people just realized Blitz was better.

Shiver is less popular now due to VT being around, a lot of people prefer the shock over freeze, but that's pretty situational. Sometimes freeze is just outright better. FSC, for instance; there's some cramped rooms with a lot of hazards and zombies, and trojans chargin' in every which direction; shock wouldn't do you many favours though (at least in my experience), but freeze is easy-mode.

So the real overall question is... VV or VT. VV just for boss? Is it worth carrying it throughout fsc when you could have VT instead?

Valiance is a nice gun, if you liked the Proto Gun's look and feel then it is a good option. But when Polaris was introduced it became completely outclassed for taking down turrets. The Polaris has improved damage at long range and is strong against two of the three turrets, then neutral against the Polyps. Plus both the shock status and long range shots will interrupt turrets.

Nothing wrong with Valiance on its own, it is just that specifically for turrets there is a better option if you are just going by the numbers. I've personally abandoned it though in favor of Polaris or Hail Driver, which I use in shock strata. (Wish I got Nova instead, but it works.)

His hitbox extends beyond his feet. You can see how his body is wider beyond where his wee feet are? That's where his hitbox is. If you stand right next to the fireballs on phase5 so that they don't hit you, the shiver will hit him becasue it's still within his hitbox. Hard to actually get him if he's alreayd movin' mind you; wait till he stops or slams the mace, or just drop them everywhere until he lands in one, then take the time while he's frozen to start droppin' them.

Merc.Demo isn't typically recommended for the same reasons that Skolver/Vog Cub out-votes the Snarby armour; simply because it's SL crafting, which makes it less obtainable, and thusly less of an option, especially to most of the people who request advice.
Staggerstorm is also left out of reccomendations because although it's good for pvp, in the CWs, stun is very buggy and more likely to get you(r party) killed than be useful; Shiver or VT generally does the job of Staggerstorm better by interrupting/locking down enemies without the concern of being insta-hit.

Nitro's good if you can use it well, but from the sounds of it you're not inexperienced with the game, so as long as you can play Nitro well it'll fit in nicely in any situation, although that can be replaced easily with most other DPS bombs to suit (DBB, for example)
Shiver/VT will work nicely in the CWs no matter where you are, and shards/vortex are always nice. If you have that 4th slot spare, a utility sword wouldnae go amiss.

PvP build, you definitely want RSS; you'll find a hefty bulk of your damage will come from that, especially with the bomb gfx changes. BAB, I couldn't be sure why you chose that; people move around a lot more consciously than mobs do, so placing BAB will be a lot harder, and leave you far more open to interruptions than just using Nitro.
Staggerstorm will work well, keeps people slow for sure. VT and Shiver work equally well, too.

I always wanted a Snarb coat but shadow lairs are too expensive. No im not an inexperienced player but I am new to bombing. I was going to use stagger in pvp really because no one really uses anything with stun resistance. Im used to Tier 3 lockdown so everyone has skolver, vog, or snarb usually in combination so i figured shivermist less effective. More and more now I am finding people using snarbo or skolver armor with a high shock resistance UV.

BAB in PvP because Nitro never did a lot of damage when I went against it, and I thought BAB did more damage with knockback. I thought it would be better because in lockdown charge time is almost moot point on bombs.

@Atrumvindex you could at least tell us what exactly you're wearing

@Sincarnation
"BAB in PvP because Nitro never did a lot of damage when I went against it"
That's because everyone has normal defense. BAB isnt going to make a big difference in damage.

"in lockdown charge time is almost moot point on bombs"
so you're playing recon?
The Maximum charge time reduction helps a lot but that still doesnt change the BASE charge time. There's also the fact that you move a lot slower when charging it and the slow fuse time.