Well, I'm not really a new player here, but seeing as I almost completed my sword-set I felt like going torward the bombing path and I need suggestion on which bombs I should grab and which bomber set is the most versatile (I don't really intend to make a ton of sets so I wanna know which one works good in every situation.
So far I got a Shiver and I'm planning to make a Dark Briar Barrage bomb, anything else I should get?
I knew what song was behind that link the moment I saw your username, I'm keeping my eyes on you pal.
thanks for all the links and infos, considering that I won't get inside the Sanctuary any time soon and that I don't have much money to spam UVs I believe Mad Demo would be a good choice, although I think I'll go hybrid with my Vog Cub when going for Vana runs since fire's a beeyatch.
What about the bombs? DBB and Shiv aside there are any other bombs I should take into consideration?
Well, you cant easily kil constructs or jellies with shiver and DBB.... If you're getting mad bomber, make it count, get more than 1 damaging bomb.
Can you guess what this is before opening it?
Personally, MDemo is more of a frivolity than necessity; as long as you have at least one helmet and torso, MadB and/or VDemo, you should be fine for a while. I recommend getting both full sets to have a set for better defense and another for raw offense (VDemo has no negatives, MadB has lower normal defense and many status weaknesses but has damage; Bombastic gives +2 damage per part but no charge, making it the least used SDemo line).
To be honest, you will probably get all the bombs eventually. Shivermist and Barrage are just the two most commonly used bombs out where it matters.
Vaporizers can be used for damage (the initial detonation has a one space blast radius; plant it right next to something and see for yourself) but most of the time you will be using them for the status. Again, get at least one for defense (Shivermist in your case; Venom is great in parties, Stagger is great since stun seems to be fixed, Voltaic is versatile for both offense and support) to use with VDemo and at least one for offense (Agni, Voltaic) with MadB. Sometimes you want to be a team player, other times you have to take the lead.
Barrage and Blast lines are the common offense bombs, with the biggest area coverage to damage dealing (Agni is still useful in comparison, but not everything is vulnerable to fire). Usually bombers get at least Barrage and one of the Blast lines (Nitronome, Big Angry, Irontech, HDecon; in that order of commodity) to have that pure normal damage bomb just in case. You never know when you might need it.
If you absolutely have to get a shard bomb and happen to not have or not be using Voltaic at the moment, get Shocking Salt. If you want an alternative to Barrage and Stagger get Scintillating Sun. Otherwise try to avoid using these bombs for damage. They work more for utility than offense (Shocking Salt has a high rate of shock and pure shadow damage to cover two niches at once).
The Seerus bombs are completely optional and not very commonly used, but if you want to have spinning purple bubbles fly around with pure shadow damage feel free to get this; if you bought the expansion.
Suction bombs are my personal favorite in every way except one: the random knockback when the explosion is done. Get one or both, Graviton and/or Electron, depending on what you need/want. Graviton is pure shadow with no status, but Electron has the same base damage in element and can inflict shock (it was removed from the listed effects, the rate is supposedly good chance of moderate; highest probably to inflict with the second highest possible duration). If you have SSalt both of these probably seem pretty useless, but remember what these bombs do best: use gravity to pull enemies into its epicenter and hold them for a few seconds. You may not be able to run nearly as fast while charging as other bombs, but while a crowd of potentially a dozen enemies are trapped in place you can prepare some other bombs to kill them. Because murder is a fun pastime for bombers.
Go read those guides for details.
sadly, u might be required to carry a gun with u at times, i would sugest the antigua line for hitting blocks and switches, or if u have a time machine handy, forget guns and grab the old school rss (i miss u soooo much)
nitro is a must for all bombers
Ehhhhhh, that really depends on playstyle, level, situation etc. Sometimes nitro is just not useful at all. Personal preference comes down to it a lot for bombers. Whereas swordies have "good swords and bad swords", bombers have a genuine variety to choose from. Personally I'd say that certain hazes are far more vital than all the dps bombs, especially without RSS.
Electron vortex+Ash of Agni+Venom Veilor+Leviathan blade
That is how it is done.
YESSSS
Ahem. Anyway, some bombs:
Nitronome and Dark Briar Barrage are your bread and butter, damage-wise. The former is rather less party-friendly due to its screenflash, but you probably already know this. Dark Retribution is also worth a thought, but I'm not sure whether you want to invest in the expansion; it's generally 3k CE if traded in-game, not to mention you need Steam if you're not purchasing it directly. Its damage also got nerfed since its release, although it's still excellent against jellies and stationary turrets. Ash of Agni is also good at dealing damage, except to gremlins (which are fire-resistant and take less damage) and fire-immune monsters. In addition, Voltaic Tempest is excellent at taking out large clusters of mobs, particularly in FSC where there are so many zombies it's untrue. The shock effect deals large amounts of elemental damage from the shock ticks, which works excellently if your enemies are clustered together so their spasms hit each other.
Venom and Shivermist are primarily support bombs designed for use in a team, softening up foes and locking them in place for a lot of pain. Stagger Storm is less favoured, but used to be able to shut down Almirian Crusaders and Mecha Knights completely (I don't know whether this has changed), and was pretty much the only stun weapon you could use safely, since it could keep your enemies statused. The vortices are both great team bombs, and will set up enemies nicely for a Brandish or Antigua-series charge. The Electron is considered slightly better than Graviton, because its shock status can hold the enemies in place after the bomb explodes, preventing them from being flung outwards.
I am going to reserve personal comment on the new shard bombs, since I haven't managed to get round to using them much. As for the offshoots of the Nitronome line, I would stay away from those for the time being, since none are especially appealing at the moment.
Sorry everyone, late reply, I've been busy farming gear and shat like that and kinda forgot about this thread tbh.
Either way a bit of updates about my current situation and what I plan to make after reading your comments and guides and all that stuff:
Teh Bombz
DBB: Get.
Shiver: Get.
AoA: Still need to start one.
Nitro: Masterblast lvl 10, waiting for Mist refill.
DR: Will buy the expansion if it goes on sale on Steam or trade it for CE when I get enough.
Electron Vortex: got an Electron charge with CTR low, not sure if I should keep it and use it if/when I feel like going hybrid or sell it and get one without UV since I'll have Max CTR with my final build anw.
Currently unsure wether I should get a Voltaic Tempest too considering how much this stuff is already costing me.
Teh Armorz
Mad Bomber Suit: Get.
Mad Bomber Helm: Fused lvl 5, need recipe and currently on hold.
Not sure if I should get anything else probably a Volcanic set would do wonders in farming Vana compared to a Mad one and considering that end-game is pretty much that I should probably go for it too, but still gonna try the Kamikaze bomber setup first.
Teh treenketz
CTR Med Trinket: Still far from it (not PvPing yet).
DMG Med Trinket: Still far from it (not PvPing yet).
If my calculations are correct, (which they never are because I suck at it), I should get CTR max on every bomb and DMG ultra this way, need confirmation from someone with more knowledge on the whole low, med, high system.
Teh shield
Shield: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzKKjJuujSs
Currently got a BTS which will become obsolete for a full bomber so suggestions are appreciated.
Also, about the Venom, Vortex, AoA, Levi setup: I like where this is going but right now I'm more focused on trying a full bomber setup, I'll get back to you after I realize my idea will utterly fail.
So, as I see it :
BOMBS
You are going to be ok, that's a great deal of diversity, though :
- I don't like Nitronome. Well, that's a personal preference, but you don't NEED it, I agree with Darkbrady on that. I didn't even bothered crafting one. Especially once you get DBB and DR + a few others. If you are short on money, don't go after both DR and Nitronome at the same time
- you have damage, mist and vortex covered. That's great
- keep the vortex bomb. You may not use it often, but there are situation where it's god-like. For example, in a run with brandish users, or in FSC run. And it's fun and offer a change of pace. But that would be a low upgrade priority
- VT or not VT ? In my opinion, VT should be used with AoA (unless status-resistant floor). All the time. It's a great damage combination, as both stack and have a very good damage over time. Don't be mistaken by the shock : VT is a damage bomb, as long as you understand it's only going to work against crowds. It does more damage than AoA once you reach 3/4 mobs lumped together (to be precise, each mob's shock should affect at least 2/3 other mobs). In my opinion, you should work on both at the same time or neither at all.
ARMORS
There is really very little good choices for bomber armors. If you don't get hit often, don't bother doing another one. I personally like the Volcanic Demo Helm to have some fire resistance for FSC, but you can do without
TRINKETS
With the full Mad Bomber set and Bombs heated to 10, you already reach CTR : Max and DB : Very High on every bomb without UV. You don't need any CTR trinket, and only one DB trinket to reach Max. Check the wiki for more understanding of the system.
SHIELDS
There are 2 possibilities according your budget :
- the "one size fit all", meaning you take a normal shield and use it everywhere. My preference for that one is Volcanic Plate Shield : stun and fire resist, along with high defense and health.
- the "one shield for each situation", meaning you have to get a shield for each damage type and switch accordingly. It's more costly, but also more effective, since a specialized shield will always outclass a normal shield against its intended target.
You already have a BTS, which is good enough for piercing. You need an elemental and shadow one : for elemental, the Grey Owlite Shield is without any doubt the best, since it has the 2 most dangerous status resistance. For shadow, the popular option is the Crest of Almire, which is basicaly a Grey Owlite with shadow defense instead of elemental.
I also personaly carry a Dread Skelly Shield (which would rank very low on priority once you get the Crest), which is very useful for poison and ice floors. I got it before I was able to do FSC because I hated devilites so much and needed a shadow shield, but since then I got to like it for those annoying stratas and a few niche situations (SL snarby for example, where it can tank howlitzer skulls like no other).
Lastly, about venom + vortex + AoA + Levi : I don't see the point of that setup. While vortex + levi is a good combo and venom + Aoa is also a good combo, those 2 combos are at odd with each other : mist bombs don't really need to have mobs clumped together (except VT), and the Vortex + Levi combo don't tolerate any pause to do something else to be effective. It really seems to be a misguided set to me.
One thing to note is that if you're using mad bomber, then you only need one damage trinky to get max:max w/ your bombs (by +10ing them). This leaves you with a free trinky slot for hp, resistances, sidearm damage/asi or whatever. Just something to cross off your list until you start using different sets.
As for shields, you pretty much get the choice to just use floor appropriate defensive shields to keep you safe. You also have the option of using BTS/Swifty to improve any sidearm you may have. This means that you could carry three bombs (1 dps/2 hazes?) and have a weapon slot free for, say, a sword. With BTS and a damage trinky, as well as your max:max bombs, you'd have VH:sword damage and be able to very effectively use [whatever sword] as a side arm, should anything come up that needs addressing faster than a bomb, or even just breaking blocks etc. Sidearms are never a bad thing for bombers, and it doesnae hurt if they can dish out some real damage, too.
Thanks, expecially about the trinket part, I believe I'll go for a Crest of Almire since Shadow is probably what's gonna dish me the most damage out there.
One more thing I'd like to ask, is there any REAL DPS elemental bomb? I'm not sure if the fire/shock effect on AoA/VT gets counted as elemental damage and thus deals more dmg on undead & constructs or not and I don't think there's anything else that deal substantial Elemental dmg, a pure Ele DPS bomb would do wonders in FSC/RT.
There is a real dps elemental bomb : the Deadly Crystal Bomb. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem great to me (I only came back on the game recently and tested the piercing one, which is bad). Perhaps someone else can give some more info about it.
As for AoA/VT :
- Both bombs have a tiny elemental blast radius. While it's not going to make a lot of damage, don't neglect it!
- Fire deals fire damage, which has its own damage table (see wiki for more infos). In any case, the penalty for using it against a resistant mob (not immune, resistant), is not nearly as much as for other damage types, so as long as you don't bring it in a fire strata, AoA is going to be fine. It won't work in FSC though.
- Shock deals elemental damage. So VT can be considered a pure elemental bomb.
All in all, RT doesn't have enough mobs for bombs to be very effective, especially VT. In FSC, AoA doesn't work so you are probably better off not using VT either, or if you do pack another bomb, Venom Veiler for example. DBB works great there : it's a good bomb against Zombies (although it won't knock them down in FSC).
But don't be mistaken, there are places where AoA+VT excell : RJP is the prime example. Arenas that are not fire/shock resistant is another, especially construct ones.
@Dead: Here's a super secret secret - you can go back to previous rank missions such as HoH after you've unlocked new ones, using the little scroll arrows. It's not that obvious, but you mentioned you were having difficulty finding recipes. (Please don't spread this information around, by the way.)
@Fradow: Alright, got it, thanks.
@Aureate: Euhm, thanks but I already know that, I have difficulties in finding recipes for Electron Vortex (AKA I never PvP), the fact that I don't have other recipes is simply because I'm focusing in something else and I don't have enough money to buy recipe for them yet. xD
A common sword user turning to demolition?
Exquisite.
See this, this, relevant bombing equipment here, and listen to this while reading.
If you use bomb charge trinkets and/or charge UVs on your bombs (ideally +4 charge from trinkets and UVs) you can use Mercurial Demo without worrying about it, but otherwise you would decide between Volcanic and Mad Bomber. VDemo is usually preferred for the +2 charge (per part) and fire resistance while MadB has +2 bomb charge and +2 bomb damage per part but has less normal defense and several status weaknesses. Whether you get VDemo is up to you, you can get into bombing while upgrading an SDemo set then make it MadB at 5*. Or, again, if you can afford a combination of charge UVs and/or bomb charge trinkets, go for Mercurial Demo for that extra move speed; not that it makes a huge difference, but it helps a little. MDemo also gives a little bomb damage and has shock resistance. Read those linked threads.
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