Bomb
Venom Veiler
This is the definition of a support bomb, of which most of my loadouts are based around. I don't like being hurt by things so like to get them hindered from a...safe distance! I love the Shiver like a mentor as it was the first bomb I used, and what drew me into bombing, but from a personal use and practical application love, it'd have to be the poison. Makes me feel safer, makes them die easier and turns healers against them, all fiendish like. LD is great for trolling at heartpads and no one takes it seriously so just allows themselves to be poisoned.

Sword
Glacius/Suda
Hard choice, actually. My Glacius I love as a support weapon and my first sword, even long before the Brandish update. Dat freeze just suited my Shiver spamming perfectly and has served me well, since.
Suda is my go-to face-slamming sword, as it has a nice long reach and a nice, large KB that keeps distance between my face and things that would stab it. It's also my LD baby, and the first sword I had any success with.

Gun
Status Drivers
I don't think I could pick a favourite one of the three. I love all three statuses for various different reasons, and can find a slot in my loadouts for any of them. I don't care much for the other alchemers, as I don't think ~20 damage is worth losing a status effect that invariably does more. I only have Umbra for the shadow damage, but the status ones are my boys. Alch-switching, charges, ricochet, status spread, love it all~

Overall
Shiver
As in, if I had to pick one weapon to go in every loadout of mine? Probably Shiver, then. Shy of Frost levels and Skolvers in LD, this bad boy can just be used anywhere, everywhere for any reason, solo or group (whereas VVs use is restricted solo, while enhanced with larger and larger parties). Tactical placement, panic button, a tool to aid fleeing, or by slow, safe killing with hazebangs. I've killed a slag while shivvering Vana before by just doing that; the thaw was what finished him off; was beautiful!
But nosrsly, not many weapons can easily fit in any and all loadouts; this be one of them, and is why I like it~

favourite bomb:

electron vortex -by far the most fun-to-use bomb. it is just better than shiver for locking foes without creating walls of death, and less chance of knockback than graviton. worst thing is i can never get anyone to charge at my vortex, but i like chaining too. they look too desperate when chaining :'(.

nitrollome -the graphics :3. i like it becuse it carries you when you are in a bad situation. low health? nitro. quicksilvers vs. voltaic? nitro. oiler vs. ash? nitro. trolling? NITRO. it can be used everywhere. if nitronome was a human, then it would be my best bud.

favourite sword:

barbarous thorn blade/final flourish -it was really fun to use grand flourish, i wish i still had it. i have the recipe anyways, but i am no longer a swordie and my bombing gear is not full 5* yet. no constructs or jellies? then you can use a flourish instead of a calibur.

leviathan blade -one-shots turrets, for the rest look at nitrollome.

favourite gun:

volcanic pepperbox -a great support weapon.

overall favourite:

electron vortex.

Making bombs first earns you a brownie point. You know what? Have two. Each of those can get you a brownie. Or whatever you want of equal value at your local bakery. Tell them that weird guy who carries a crate around sent you.

Most of this is going to be biased to my first experiences with each weapon type. Just a heads up. Or down. Whichever direction you want. There are also going to be a lot of words.

This first one is kind of a tie, but not really: Graviton, Voltaic, and Barrage in that order.

After I grew out of only using swords, which will be described for swords later on, Graviton and Barrage lines were my first two bombs. As I built them I was also building what is currently my Mad Bomber set which I still use >90% of the time to this day. Back then I was too cheap to bother trying to get UVs, I think Punch was out for about a month at the point I got all four of those things to 5*, but before then I tried to keep them all even. CE was pretty cheap back then so it was easy to get through the ranks because there was a lot less people pumping out crowns driving the price all the way back to Isora. If I post how much it was, though I did last time I posted about how I started, people are going to use that as an excuse to suggest forcing CE prices to be lower and be obnoxious. Anyway, I pretty much dropped using swords for a while as soon as my HDemo and 4* Graviton and Barrage were set up, and my next target was getting MadB. Around when MadB was done and Graviton was about to get bumped up to 5* we got the Roarmulus update with the prized Voltaic line. I never bothered with statuses until I started using it. Shock is amazing for bombers. It deals damage over time, completely interrupts the afflicted enemies, and opens up a slight window to sneak in the middle of a crowd of dancing whatevers and plop a Graviton in there. Yes, I used Graviton as a shadow damage weapon for offense. Laugh if you want. It still works and I still do it to this day. If they reduced or removed the knockback on Graviton I would get a better UV than the +2 beast I got when Graviton used to start as a Blast branch and I crafted the little blue booger with the UV after not nearly enough attempts at crafting a UV. I was hoping for some charge at first, then remembered with full heat and MadB charge bonuses would be useless after that. Not really harming anything by having it, not particularly beneficial, but it beats having nothing. Bombers were strangely rare back in those days. It was all about gunning and sword stroki- I mean swinging.

Back to Voltaic line again, I used it with Graviton a lot. I also used Barrage with Graviton. I used Graviton a lot in general. I jumped into Arcade parties a lot and over 90% of the time everyone was bewildered that a bomber existed. The rest of the time no one wanted to talk. There were one or two times another bomber was in the party, but they always used Shivermist or Nitronome. I think there was one with Agni. I was probably running with the wrong crowds. Bombing especially shined in arenas where a Voltaic followed up by a Graviton devastated that final wave in the third room. What was that? Ten Mechas at once? Nurp. Got me some lightning in a bottle and gravity in an...eyeball. Makes sense. I mostly used Barrage when I wanted to get through a little skirmish quickly instead of messing around with the other two bombs or against shadow resistant enemies, in which case explosive pine cones. I still remember luring Greavers into it and orbiting them around while tossing Barrages over my shoulder. Good times. I still do that in these times. People give me the strangest expressions and sounds. One time a guy belched on his mic. I should get a mic to belch constantly. See how many times I get kicked.

That should be enough about bombs for now. For swords I have no doubt in my mind: Gran Faust.

It was the second sword I used following Vanquisher line. I took this thing everywhere as soon as I got it. This was before I started getting into bombing. Funny thing, before getting into bombing the only armor set I used was Plate. It only made it to 4* before bombing stole all my attention from it. A few months after switching over to bombing I upgraded the helmet and torso to Volcanic, but the shield only became 5* earlier today. I made it into Ironmight. Glowy crown symbol. Anyway, swords; this was a while before Brandishes got their charge buffed, not that I ever used one until a few months later. Right now the charge attack releases a series of explosions suiting the star rank, but back then that was just the maximum amount. Remember, I only started getting into using them after they were buffed when I got a +2 charge UV on a lucky craft on a Combuster I was working on, but it was still 3* before the buff. It was really unreliable. Everyone was carrying DAvengers and Leviathans around dealing all kinds of fancy damage, but being as spiteful as I am I did the opposites: Vanquisher and GFaust. Not because I hate everyone, I would do something far different if that were the case. My first sword line was Vanquisher but when I started GFaust it was stuck at 4* for a while and only became 5* a while after I settled into bombing, but GFaust was my fir- no, third 5* item. My first two were my MadB set. I swung that purple oversized lightsaber everywhere while everyone else spammed DAvenger charge attacks. They had the old charge pattern where the left and right projectiles started at the left and right of your knight instead of just coning out kind of in front of you, but it was still great damage. Not that I knew. By the time I made my DAvenger the change had long happened already. I basically used GFaust like a Troika but with faster swings. If I could hold it with both hands I would have, even with that big sled attached to my left arm, to cut the heads off everything and send them down to hell; then jump down after them to cut them up some more. It was a messed up phase.

This third one has no competition ever: Valiance.

Originally I made it just to annoy people passively, unlike Pulsars vomiting everywhere, only to find the modest knockback and interruption incredibly useful as a bomber. Again, hit 5* before the buff, now the whole alchemy line has the knockback and interruption. Now newbies get to enjoy it and hopefully become future bombers. Not all of them, just some. An army of bombers would be too hilarious and improbable. Back when I got this utility bayonet everyone prided themselves on calling it useless. I think someone else who was writing guides at the time, none of which I read because this was before I started derping around on the forums, discussed the usefulness of Valiance but evidently a lot of people dismissed it. There are still people who call it useless today simply because it has pure normal damage and so does Iron Slug, and since people call Iron Slug horrible that must mean Valiance is just as bad, right? Silly. Very silly. Valiance is the kind of gun you take when you kind of want to bring a sword to help you in close range but also want to have the advantage of distant attacks, but not necessarily as a primarily used weapon. Something you can switch to every once in a while and derp out some boolits. It lacks the pre-shot delay Antiguas and Autoguns have, meaning it can punch Devilites and Wolvers without any attack speed bonuses, though not necessarily with the solid damage a Callahan would deal. It also helps against Greavers when they want to hug you a little too much when all you want to do is throw a Barrage in their faces.

Do I really have to pick just one favorite? I would have to say Graviton, but the first runner up would be Voltaic followed by Valiance. I take my old Graviton almost everywhere. Candlestick Keep, Grimalkins? Nurp. Got me some Graviton. I could use Electron instead and use it for damage but getting Krogmo tokens is not on my "do this or suffer a lonely and painful demise" list. How about a parade of gremlins trying to honk those tubas? Nurp. Graviton. Right up the bu-

One brownie point to Snarfalarkus for Swagger Storm. I would get one myself if an interesting Krogmo minigame came out other than Bomberman and a cheap imitation of TF2.

This post looks bigger than it did when writing it. Night night.

Bomb:
Hard one, I'm torn between Voltaic Tempest and Dark Briar Barrage.
I started my bombing career with a Shiver like 90% of the people I believe, at first it was nice, after a while I started despising it because the no-knockback hurts me more than letting my enemies walk around, which is why moving to Voltaic felt like being in heaven, but a kind of heaven where enemies take massive damage over time, whenever I solo FSC or arenas and I find myself before a huge spawn I just drop VTs in rapid succession and enjoy watching as enemies get covered by a veil of twentynine and thirty and get crippled in the meantime.

As for DBB, I have a fetish for snarby, really, I have a life-sized cardboard replica of Snarby in my room and I kiss it every night... With tongue.
Jokes aside, it was my first damage bomb (yes, I don't have a Nitro yet) and I've yet to meet something funnier than catching a big spawn of wolvers or gremlins and making them helplessly roll to death.

Sword:
I think my choice here would be DA.
I only have three swords (and a hammer) up to 5* with a Vanquisher on its way (why vanquisher? Well, let's face it, it looks way cooler than a lameviathan) so I don't really have much choice here, my first love was Barbarous thorn blade, because, y'know, Snarby boner and whatnot, but after I got it I was largely disappointed in the charge attack, I still love it but less than I used to.
My story with DA was different tho, at the time I first saw one all I had was a Calibur, a Snarble barb and a Sealed sword, and I was farming jellyboy like a crazy horse to upgrade my SS to Faust so I could farm Jellyboy like a crazier horse (pretty unoriginal, I know), then a guy came along with his Divine Avenger and I instafell for its charge attack ditching completely the idea of getting a Faust, at first it was painful, because avenger's charge isn't all that great and I largely regretted not getting a Faust with its crazy dmg on jellies and the ability to curse JK, but as time went by and I started farming RT and FSC I knew it was the right choice all along.

Gun:
Blitz needle.
It's the only gun I have.

Overall:
VT/DBB I f**king love blasting stuff.

Bomb: Voltaic Tempest
As a gunner, I like having my enemies as far away from me as my range will allow. Voltaic Tempest allows me to do this with an INCREDIBLY annoying status effect: shock. I would have gone with Shivermist Buster for this, but ice can be easily broken off with a couple of attacks.

Sword: Leviathan Blade
A straightforward, normal damage sword with a great charge attack for keeping away faster, more persistent enemies like Wolvers.

Gun: Argent Peacemaker/Sentenza
Fast bullets, large clip size, high DPS, fast reload. What is there not to love about this gun!?

Overall: AP/Sentenza
As a natural gunner, I prefer guns over everything else; being able to constantly deal damage with mobility. With an Elite Quickdraw, a Justifier/Nameless item, and a Medium ASI on the guns, Maximum ASI will make these guns overwhelming in PvE, and sometimes PvP.

BOMB: Dark retribution.
Because it's simply the only 5-star bomb I have.

SWORD: Glacius.
Freezes stuff, looks boss, er... freezes stuff. Not to mention, I slaughter the undead with the bonus it has.
(undead H)

GUN: Argent Peacemaker.
Offers high mobility, a large clip size and the charge is like a blitz needle. Just not as strong, but the lack of movement and the 5 bullet volley, yeah.

OVERALL: Glacius.

Because I never get a UV higher than Medium. I got it off the AH as a brandish for 30k.

Bomb: Nitrome. Just spammity spam spam in corner and watch those poor mechaknights fall apart as they try to get closer.

Sword: Gran Faust. I always liked heavy swords and the light side wasn't so attracting for me...

Gun: Do I have one? Oh yeah, I do... Dunno tho, long time since I used one.

Overall: Nitrome... I want to throw it at enemy!

Favourite bomb: Voltaic Tempest
Sadly I'm inept bomber (although I'm trying to improve whenever possible) so I usually use bombs only as status dealers rather then damage dealers - and I just find Shock the most useful status. Especially with Kats.

Favourite sword : N/A
The only swords I have is Dread Venom Striker and Warmaster Rocket Hammer. I sometimes use DVS when entering levels with lots of shrubs to speed up harvesting them and actually I may kill a few monster on the way too, but then again, the levels with shrubs are inhabited by monsters that one can easily defeat with Proto Sword, so it's not a big deal. I've never learned to use WRH so I really can't say it's my favourite. I'm fully satisfied with DVS, but I wouldn't call it favourite because I don't have much experience with other swords.

Favourite gun: Valiance and Umbra Driver
If I really had to chose only one I'd go with Valiance. Luiguru already said it all. I love my Valiance from day one, a long time before the buff, and I advocated for it many times. Valiance is good and safe choice in case of more demanding monsters (it does rock against Greavers), whereas Umbra Driver is damage dealer to large groups of weaklings like jellies, wolvers and such. Especially if you charged it. Why Umbra amongst the alchemers? Well, Nova Driver is great as well, but personally I've just found out I like to use alchemer against elemental resistant monsters more often then against shadow resistant ones.

Overall Favourite: Valiance
I'm not good with bombs enough (yet) to feel fully comfortable with one, and I don't use swords much at all, so the only choice for "best of all" is my favourite gun category choice.

Why would you post a 5* weapons thread in New Recruits?

The Bomb:
N/A

The Sword:
Dread Venom Striker
It's speed is very satisfying, if you know how to control it (which I do). And the poison status weakens enemies so i can kill them faster. (My version of it has a Damage Bonus: Undead Low to it)

The Gun:
Supernova
Honestly, the main reason why i went with this instead of a Polaris is because I think that Polaris is too mainstream. I mean, the majority of players I see have it. So i went with Supernova just to be a little different.

The Overall:
Supernova
The knockback this gun causes because of it's explosions have saved me so many times. Keeps those enemies at bay.

Bomb:
Dark Retribution is the only one I have, but I'd love to get DBB for it's phantom snarby

Sword:
Tie Between 5* hammer and BTB
Hammer for it's puppy smashing and slag bashing goodness, and BTB for it's awesome speed and looks

Gun:
Trollaris, for it's amazing crowd control and shock - great for keeping hordes of angry slags away from you in fsc and hammering puppies from afar

Overall:
Hammer - the uniqueness of the combo and the crowd control capabilities of the charge make it my go-to weapon levels that aren't gremlin or beast themed

Favorite Bomb: Shivermist Buster
Why: Well it dominates PvP and FSC so yeah. :P

Favorite Sword: Glacius
Why: Well lets see... Charging up and hitting something then they get freeze and repeat the process? Sounds epic to me.

Favorite Gun: Valiance
Why: Awesome in PvP. Deals massive damage if you are a recon and you death mark the enemy.

Overall: Hm... Glacius of course! :D
Why: Well I kinda already explained that. ._.

Favorite Sword:
Warmaster Rocket Hammer

Why?

Since I got it I never go anywhere without it! It so powerful and has saved my life multiple times, also my war cry when using the hammer is: IT'S HAMMER TIME!

Favorite Bomb:
Nirtrome

Why?

I just LOVE spamming nitromes everywhere, they are powerful fast and fun.

Favorite gun:
Valiance

Why?

I'm not much of a gunner but this gun is easy to get and balanced on everything, I use it as a last resort.

Overall Favorite:
Warmaster Rocket Hammer

Why?

IT'S HAMMER TIME!

Favourite bomb.
Voltaic Tempest:

It's like a nice combination of Ash Of Agni & Shivermist Buster. Does damage and affects enemies ability to move. While the damage fromt he shock spasms doesn't do a lot, it's often enough to take away the last of an enemies health after a sword combo. I actually prefer the VT's spasms to Shiver's freeze, I find it safer as enemies can still attack easily with Shiver.

Favourite sword.
Dread Venom Striker:

My favourite all round sword as poison is always handy. Takes some getting used to but when used right it can do massive damage, especially with the charge! I love using only DVS for whole arcade runs, when I'm heating other lesser star weapons - a good challenge. Combine the charge with a vortex bomb and you're on to a winner.

Favourite gun.
Nova Driver:

Some prefer using the status Drivers over the Nova's damage increase, but I prefer having an overall damage increase for all situations than worrying about stratums where the status would be useless. The charge on this thing does so much damage, I've been able to take out 3 enemies with one charge shot sometimes in FSC!

Overall Favourite.
Gran Faust:

I just feel so powerful with this sword. It looks great, and I love the sound effect of cursing something. Kicks ass in Lockdown, and it does so much damage in general it can pretty much be used for every enemy apart from Fiends/Undead.

Combuster is best pony.

Favourite bomb:

Never really used Bombs, but probably Ash of Agni.
"I dont want to set the World on Fire.." So this room will do.

Favourite sword:

Combuster, since it's the end result of the Brandish I bought.
The Brandish being the 1st sword I got after Proto.
That and its really good at dispatching Undead.

Favourite gun:

Sentenza, At the moment I only have a BlackHawk but even so,
Thanks to its Gremlin Bonus Ive survived many a Deconstruction Level, and a few sticky Situations besides.
Plus I love the Antigua Style & design.

Overall Favourite:

Combuster.
It has sentimental value over the others.

So to start off...

Bombs: Easily my favorite is RSS Radiant Sun Shards, obviously this isn't a five star weapon but it does (now) have a five star, so you yourself can upgrade it. I have had my Sun Shards since I started this game a really long time ago, and it was my first bomb because I didn't realize it stopped at four stars, but when I did realize this it didn't bother me too much because it was one of the most used weapons by me at the time (the whole reason I had a mad bomber suit). Then something sad happened it was nerfed, and in retaliation it has mostly sat in my inventory as a reminder of the old RSS, my mad bomber suit was sold to a friend and bombing to me has been kind of sad since. I've learned to be okay with using the new shard bombs and I even use it in tier 2 lockdown all the time, not really to do damage but to scare people that aren't wolver clones or people who know that it doesn't hurt to come get me to go away. But overall shard bombs are pretty fun and most bombers have one to mess around with to test things.

Guns: Easy this one is, Biohazard, I absolutely adore this gun, I may not use it often but when I start I can't stop~! I love the slow bullets sometimes, along with the insane charge attack it has, one it barely takes any time to charge even without any UV's and it's so fun to spam the charge on the biggest monster kite it in with the rest of the monsters and set it off~! I just find it so rewarding and it feels like a great achievement to watch that just go boom~!

Swords: hmm, this one took me a while to think about as I have two big ones that I love soooo much, which are my Snarby Barb, and my Triglav. One is slow one is fast one is heavy one is light, and to me they go together like cheese and sprinkles~! (obvious Rio reference) these swords are my favorite because the charge from my trig leaves things stuck for my Snarby to trash them. Not to mention its a fun pair to use together.

Favorite? Winmillion, why? Because I can and two you trash talked about it when it is a lovely weapon with only a couple flaws, it is by far my favorite weapon to use when I don't want to be serious whatsoever. Thank you for reading I hope it helps :).

My Favorite Bomb?
-Nitronome. Its so powerful it can kill even my teammates (it was really fun killing my teammates i have to admit).

My Favorite Gun?
-Valiance. I really liked this gun since it saved my life so many times.

My Favorite Sword?
-Calibur/Dread Venom Striker. This two actually made me thought really crazy just to figure out whats the best, but for me their both the same so they're my favorites.

The only T3 bomb I have is the DR. And shadow damage is cool.

I bought a Prismatech MKll on the AH for about 13500cr. When I discovered about vendoring I got enough money to make a prisma driver and a daring rigadoon. I'll get to the toothpick later. When I crafted the prisma, I got the worst UV. Gremlin VH. After using both models in FSC, I then got a Blitz. I feel more bonded to my nova then my blitz because blitz would be considered a support weapon without FSC.

My first sword was a flourish which I crafted into a Rigadoon. After I bought my Prismatech MKll, I began farming JK. I got enough money to buy a brandish and use the one Bosco gave me to craft a Fireburst and a Nightblade. After tons of farming and buying tons of rock salts and Dragon Scales later, I reached T3 with a Miracle hood, Rocky Mail, a Wise Owlite Shield, a Blazebrand, and a Silent Nightblade. After farming In Cold Blood and The Great Escape, I got a GFC (before Chaos buff), switched from Rocky Mail to Mercurial Mail, a Combuster, and a GOS. I didn't upgrade to Achreon and still haven't. I gained access to Vanaduke and used the set mentioned above. I haven't used my SNB after deciding on a T2 LD set and rediscovering my Prismatech MKll. Until I traded CE for OCH. I used it only on fifteen levels and then said goodbye to it after not using it after. My favorite sword is my Combuster, then my future Fearless Rigadoon, then the WRH which I am almost done heating.

Overall, I bring my Combuster to all my LD matches and runs.

Favourite Bomb: Dark Briar Barrage

- Makes the Beast level runs easier and it's the only bomb I love to spam

Favourite gun: Hail Driver

- Saved my party a few times by freezing the Tortos in place, plus the ricochets makes trick shots to trigger ghost blocks(Emerald Axis II fast exit)/switches that are otherwise unreachable by normal means

Favourite sword: Archeron

- Exceptional damage, plus the 4 monster families that aren't resistant to shadow tend to bunch up together in the same clockwork levels.

Overall favourite: Archeron

Necro. :U

Anyhoo...

Favo(u)rite Bomb: Graviton Vortex
Cuz I'm bland and don't experiment with bombs.

Favorite Sword: Glacius OR Warmaster Rocket Hammah
I got REALLY lucky with making a first time brandish, and got CTR VH and ASI Med, SOMEHOW, and started using that alot. It dealt great damage normally, especially with Swiftstrike, and the charge was so spam-worthy that it was... spam-worthy. Half the time it froze enemies (while the other half they get frozen, but a charge blast knocked em out of it), so that was great, since Ice stratas are kinda rare nowadays.
For WRH, that just straight out does great DPS with it's hits (plus dash hits), and although the charge is a dangerous, it can knock players away, or off of elevators, so the amount of tomfoolery is a +1.

Favouourite Gun: Argent Peacemaker / Blitz
I just loved the fast paced damage, and since I got an Undead UV on it, it was an awesome skellyman killah. The charge is dumb, but normal attacks, ho...? What sucked most is that, more often then not, a bullet disappears from this mortal realm in a fit of lag. But any gun is like that, so...
Also I like Blitz because I'm original. Am I cool yet mom?

Bomb: Electron Vortex!

Extremely fun! Creates a vortex! Deals shock! (Which imo is an extremely usefull status).
You can just gather the enemies together and deal immense AOE with like brandish-line swords.

Sword: Warmaster Rocket Hammer!

Deals immense elemental (constructs and undead are very common) damage and has incredible knock back. The second hit of the combo can hit many times against stationary or cornered enemies, though you can shield cancel to make it into a standard 3 hit. Lastly, there's always the power to push an afk player who's been dead the entire mission through a treasure room and straight to the elevator.

High damage+high knockback+very versatile+trolling potential= A really good "sword".

Gun: Blitz Needle

I actually don't have many guns, so Blitz is an obvious choice. Besides that, however, its damage output is insane. Its innate CTR combined with sprite CTR low and chaos armor is an easy Max CTR. It is also (obviously) good at killing trojans and Vana, but you can kill many other non construct/slime enemies easily.

Overall: Still Rocket Hammer

Ever since getting this weapon, there have been few missions where i haven't had this equipped. I have no other weapon that is capable of all the things WRH can do. (It's also good for knocking zombies out of totem range)

Bomb: Shivermist because freeze is probs the best haze bomb status.
Gun: Grim Repeater because I just think shadow blitz is better than pierce blitz.
Sword: Idk combuster or whatever.

Overall: Shivermist because I <3 bombs.

Bomb
Silvermist Buster - Immobilizes enemies by freezing them
Gun
Argent Peacemaker - sweet aganist undead
Sword
Divine Avenger - Again Sweet aganist undead
Overall - Divine Avenger