#452 nitro doesnt suck at all, but if ur caught off guard, ur dead, the trick is to spam the bombs before any1 gets close. shock guns make me mad tho, after all they use a weapon in order to suspend our weapons and thus limit the fun. fuse time on nitro is ridiculously short already. i usually guard capture points as bomber in southern areas(some1 guarding should have an overview) and it works well untill i get shocked alot, thats where i switch to striker and try to kill shock gunners >:l. of course bombs dont work well against very skilled players, but when i play thers usually many people, who dont kill the hell out of me. i cant speak for DBB, because i dont have it, but im assuming its even better than nitronome if used properly.

can someone plz thoroughly explain corner shielding to me?

Stand in the corner of an arena, use a Nitronome repeatedly. Anything approaching should be blasted away from you. Doesn't always work out well though given the mix of mob speeds and attack patterns. You should be soloing when doing this, or the rest of your team should be dead, or they should all be standing near you cowering before your awesome blasts.

I never find the need to do corner shielding, just kiting and blasting like normal is sufficient.

Was thinking if getting a stagger storm for PVP. Either that or a Voltaic tempest. I'm not a bomber very often, only have a shivermist atm and skolvers are driving me insane. Which one would you guys recommend? Coins/crowns are not a problem.

I'm working on getting an SS, so I can't give an actual opinion but I'm kind of sure I won't care about it all that much. I can definitely say that there is a very high chance of encountering very little resistance to it though.
The only 5* with stun are Volcanic Plate, Ironmight, Royal Jelly, and Ancient Plate. I don't see those that often (I have seen a few), but you probably don't have to worry about seeing a counter to SS.

But VT isn't that bad. After all, if you're problem is skolver, then its pretty good on them and other units really. If you run into a guardian, if they have to drop their shield for even a second, that shock will get them, then even if they raise it, they're going to automatically drop it at least twice over the next few seconds, a good way to make one run away or kill one :3. If you have 3 weapon slots, then just run both your shivermist and VT. That way you can surprise them if you get a diviner and skolver running at you at the same time.

But once again, I haven't used SS so don't take my word for anything.

Allowing poison to damage is nice. It is a shame that feature was removed for so long. So now, for me at least, Venom Veiler is no longer in last place for PvE :) My vapor favorites, in order, are:
Ash of Agni, Shivermist, Voltaic Tempest, Venom Veiler, Stagger Storm

If I'm alternating two hazes it is almost always going to be Ash/VT. But if it is a fire arena, for example, I'll do Shiver/VV. If it is a shock arena then I'll use Ash/VV.

I rarely bring Stagger Storm into PvE now. It isn't a bad bomb, I just have other bombs I prefer. If I had 5-6 weapon slots then I'd bring it more often.

I use Microsoft Expression Screen Capture because I got it free (MSDN subscriber) and it is really easy to use, but the framerate still drops slightly when recording. Guess I should try fraps when I get around to it to see if it is any better on the computer...

Hmm, Stagger storm is OK for PVP after all. But it is always my last option, however, when you start seeing divine with max freeze...well...

anyway for me at least all my bombs there are for distractions/annoyances, not to kill (though it does happen).

Shivermist is the standard starter if possible, preferred if I see a lot of vog/divine players, and ok against half ash-tail,skolver, etc type of people, since they can still get locked. I still never communicate that if I manage to grab two players without danger, people shouldn't kill them but since its semi rare, I never warn anyone about it, and when it happens I don't have time to tell them lol. I do wish even if they were to kill them, that they do it with a charge attack. Shooting a shiverlocked frozen player is an absolute waste and can get you and the bomber killed. A singular slash is sorta ok, but it probably wont kill them and may result in a slugfest that the aggressor won't win (they usually do though).

Voltaic comes up a lot when I'm thinking full skolver is on the loose far too much. Also useful on guardians. Why? Because they want to kill you since you're super annoying with your bomb that doesn't hurt them but keeps pushing them backwards slowly. So if you get close enough, they're going to probably take a swing. When they take that swing, they'll probably get shocked. Then a teammate (preferably) or you can get hits in on the shock ticks, (which makes them drop their shields), you can at least pull off two before it wears off. If they're not dead, they'll at least be sent running for the hills for a bit. And of course if you die doing this, it definitely leaves them something to remember you by :3

Stagger Storm is ok. I'm still experienced (since I didn't use my haze burst too much). Like I said earlier, if you see too much skolver/divine players running with UVs of the opposite type, you might want to go with this. Or if you find it hard to differentiate if its a perfectly mixed team (say 3 divine and 3 skolvers, you won't know which to use first). Stun is useful in the fact that they probably won't be able to dash right in and kill you as a striker even if the mist is up, if they do get one hit in, they shouldn't get a second, and every recon/guardian can take at least one hit. Meanwhile, while they're stunned, they're not going anywhere. Take out your sword and go to town on them, don't get too stupid though, a slow swing is still a swing and you have maybe 4-5 seconds to work with this. Dance around them. Or if you don't want to kill them, then keep stunning them, with their slow speed you could actually hit them with SS explosion radius multiple times. Awesome if you have a really tough normally immune (to the other two) opponent.

P.S. This is from a casual playing recon. I'm not a pro, often times I even have the lowest damage, but when I see "dang that bomber". That means I did a good job that time haha. Standard loadout for this is sword/bomb1/bomb2 but I do have a gun sometimes.

The bomb I just got is.... Heavy Deconstructor!!!!! :D

Also, does the Heavy Deconstructor have higher knockback than Master Blast bombs?

That is a great video! Reminds me a lot of when I brought a BaB into a T2 Arena to see how it fares... just walk around and blow everything up. Do you think there is any benefit to using it instead of Nitro? Maybe the attack pattern is easier due to the knockback?

that looks...unimpressive...

@Culture

Well, I dunno if the attack pattern is "easier", it's just different. Rather than just staying around the same spot and chaining blasts you have to keep moving in a pattern to where enemies walk into the radius, sort of like a hybrid between haze bomb and blast bomb style, but with a much longer fuse and smaller radius.

It's also rather useless on enemies that don't actively follow the player, and you cannot really control which way the enemies will be knocked because of the long fuse. Well, you can almost always hit Lumbers in the direction you want, but that's just because they're so slow. :P

IMO the one thing it has over Nitro is that the blast doesn't hurt vision as much. :V

@Fallout

I don't plan on upgrading it any time soon, especially with all the new accessory stuff to get. :P Right now I'm just keeping it around in case OOO decides to buff it.

I'm sure I gave you a pricecheck on your first thread, guessing you must have missed it. The problem with defensive UVs on bombing gear is the fact that any decent bomber is never going to get hit enough for them to actually matter, you can safely kite out of the range of most mob's attacks without it lowering your dps and this consequently means that resisting the occasional damage you're taking is inconsiquential. What's infinitely more important is the status effect that those occasional hits can inflict, if you get set on fire without resistance it can instanteously put you into a position where another hit can kill you if it doesn't kill you flat out as well interupt the charges are bombs with longer charge times, shock can really mess up kiting patterns and set you up to get hit, poison lowers your dps massively and freeze is, well freeze. With that mind status resist UVs are almost always more important to a bomber than defensive ones are, and even if you do want a defensive one Shadow and Pierce are the most useful since Devilites, Greavers and Wolvers are the only enemies that can consistently deal enough damage to a bomber to the point where a defensive UV may save your life, outside of turret waves in arenas (Which can just as easily be shadow or pierce as they are elemental).

Anyhow since it is a Max all the same, and not a 'bad' one so much as simply not as useful as others it's probably worth anywhere between 3kce and 7kce depending on what sort of bidders you get and how many aspiring (And rich) bombers are looking for it at a given point in time. I'd be willing to offer 5kce, although thanks to the accessory update I'd need to wait for my auctions to end to actually get the ce (Damn you purely cosmetic and ludicrously expensive items!) so if you're haning on to it for a bit keep me updated on any other offers you get.

Speaking of which for future reference since I'm sure this question must've come up in the thread once or twice before I'd say the general importance and value of UVs on bombing gear goes;

Fire > Shock > Shadow > Pierce > Elemental > Normal > Freeze > Stun > Curse

Poison isn't on the list simply because everyone views it differently, some consider more irritating than fire and shock due to the damage reduction on bombs, others don't mind since it doesn't outright kill you, I'd put it between shadow and pierce myself. Freeze if unfortunately near worthless outside of Lockdown since it doesn't really do anything like the other UVs. Reduced duration doesn't matter when you're locked in place regardless, you'll still get hit 90% of the time. Bearing in mind these are subject to change with the upcoming updates to boss stratums, curse is certainly going to become more important.

So, reading this thread, I've heard that UVs on bombs actually reduce damage radii. Is this still true? How much is actually reduced, and how significant is it when compared to UV benefits? I have a master blast bomb with a medium damage bonus against slimes: Does the radius decrease make it unworthy outside of slime levels and Jelly King runs?

HUZZAH!

wait no, don't get a deconstructor anyway. Just get nitronome instead (or master blast if you have to stop at 4*). Actually here, just take Eek's and Fallout's word for it.
http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/22144

IF you're going crystal, just us RSS. Apparently there's some issues with the Ionized salt bomb being slower than the other bombs, and the damage bonus vs slimes probably isn't all that great when you consider the fact slimes resist piercing. RSS is also pretty cool against fiends, its difficult to use (for me at least) but you can just spam it and run away if you have distance on fiends, you can snipe them with it.

I never used graviton so I can't help with it. Electron...I'm not sure how to rate it. It is definitely a fun bomb to use, but for pure damage I cannot say. I think the other day in FSC I was dealing 260 with mad bomber suit only to the normal zombies. Nitronome would affect a bigger area and a bit faster though, but for that reason I'm not sure which would pull out more DPS as Nitro would push all enemies away (sometimes lowering DPS) and vortex would pull some enemies in + apply shock. Also the slower walking speed is going to drop your DPS.

Voltaic is not going to outdamage either, but its good in a party in FSC at least. And with the mass amount of zombies, there's lots of shock damage to be had. But you could probably do better in other places taking along an Ash of Agni as if you run into gremlins/beasts, your bomb is just a joke there.

If you're unsure, just get nitronome. Then work towards the other bombs.

i am going to get at least 1 bomb maybe 2 i was wondering whats the best average bomb or set of 2 bombs that are the best i am a begininer bomber so i want to have medium damage and maybe a timed damage like fire or poison

I'm doing bomber FSC runs. I usually go with a good sword like my Fearless Rigadoon, Graviton Vortex, Master Blast Bomb, and Plasma Capacitor.

You can read all about bombing here, very useful guide:
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Bombing_Guide

CTR = Charge Time Reduction, very important for bombers because it allows for faster bomb deployment
FSC = Firestorm Citadel, the current T3 Boss Strata
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/List_of_commonly_used_abbreviations

All the vaporizers only do a small radius elemental blast when they initially go off. As opposed to a Blast Bomb which damages all mobs in the bomb's radius. Freezing will damage creatures when it thaws, but that takes several seconds and requires no one to hit them before they thaw naturally. For those reasons, the freezing vaporizer is prized just for crowd control not damage.

You rarely see swordmasters carrying a Nitronome (or any blast bomb) because they don't directly complement their existing weapons. A swordmaster wants to get up close to perform melee attacks but a Nitronome is going to knock mobs away. There are few scenarios where it would make sense for a swordmaster to take the time to charge up a Nitro.

There are bombs that are quite common in a swordmaster's arsenal though. Swords are rather poor at crowd control, but Shivermist is the best in the game for that. Also, someone who is a Levi fan might carry a Shivermist because it'll allow them to consistently hit three times on the charge attack. Someone who carries Brandishes would find the Vortexes very useful for gathering up mobs prior to releasing a charge attack.

they're all situational...toxic isn't really recommended though because for it to be useful, that means you have to be getting hit a lot and the damage increase is not all that great either.. Haze seems mostly useful for PVP but in PVE its only mildly useful.

Fiery is good for any non fire stratums so you can deal damage without actually fighting enemies directly.
Freezing is good for stopping the enemies in any stratum except freeze, good for comboing with swords.

Take your pick. There's also the Shock one, but I have a feeling you aren't able to use that right now so we'll ignore it.

Electron Vortex line: Recipes can be purcahsed with Krogmo Koins. As for it's stats, it's essentially a Gravitron Vortex, but it's ability to shock deems it the Gravitron's superior. It combos well with other heavy hitting weapons (e.g. sword charge attacks: The vortex clusters the enemy's so you can hit them all).

Static Capacitor: The initial recipe can be purchased from Brinks for 15 Bark Modules (tokens recieved by defeating the Roarmulus Twins). 3 star and up recipes can be purchased from Brinks.

Note: I don't actually own either of these.
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I'm continuing to debate bomb choices, and I'm strongly considering Electron Vortex+Voltaic Tempest for two of my slots. I dislike freeze because it only damages if the enemy thaws out (people ALWAYS hit them beforehand), while using this combo to spread massive fields of shock sounds incredibly useful.

The bombs that I'm debating between for a 4 slot loadout

Nitronome
DBB
Voltaic Tempest
Electron Vortex
Radiant Sun Shards

I like using my current Grintovec, though (AMAZING at striking/killing enemy's while scoffing at their easily canceled efforts to hit me), so for a 3 slot loadout...serious selection problems start.

Right now, though, all I've got is Spiral Demo, Master Blast Bomb, Spine Cone, and a Freezing Vaporizer Recipe. Focusing on getting Mad Bomber first.

which bomb is better and why the radiant sun shards or ionized salt bomb