Just wondering if any of the great bombers around here had any recommendations for an all bomb Fsc setup. Been bombing for awhile. (All 4 Demo suits and most of the 5* bombs, still working on the shards) and I can't find a setup I like.
All Bombing setup for Fsc
Shiver+VT+VV
Flourish for emergencies and trojans (used to be RSS)
EV, VT, DBB, and either Nitro or BAB. EV + BAB is good at making things disappear, though you might switch to EV + DBB in situations where you don't want the knockback (and in smaller areas too). VT + BAB or DBB in larger areas where you need crowd control. I'd go full volc. bomber for the CTR + fire resist, though you could, of course, do mad bomber if you feel like living dangerously--lagging into fire is my biggest killer in FSC, so I would stick with volc. bomber myself. I tend to run with my volc. plate shield shield as well for wheels and vana hits. Also, bomb-only vana can be a pain, so you might think about switching out the VT for shiver--the primary shiv blast still does around 300 dmg, which isn't bad, but it will take a bit longer to clear the levels leading up to the boss. Give it a try, see what you think.
Vana is vortexable? I had a vague recollection of trying it once and not seeing any effect. Could be wrong of course, I wasn't paying much attention.
He's totally vortexable, but his center needs to be within range of the vortex, so you won't be able to move him very far, relatively speaking. He would probably just dash right over the vortex, too.
Edit: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/69015?page=1#comment-606586
Maximum charge time reduction is wasteful if your weapons are already heat level 10. At heat level 10, all weapons gain medium charge time reduction.
This means that all you need to do is wear mad bomber / volcanic demo and you've got maximum CTR.
"For armour, your options are full volcanic and two damage trinkets for CTR MAX and Damage Very High"
I always count the CTR Medium inherent from level 10 weapons.
Are you doing this solo? In group with other bombers? In a group with non-bombers? Does your loadout need help for all of FSC or just Vana? I can do FSC itself nearly effortlessly but I have yet to purebomb Vana without wiping. None of the attempts have been the most serious ones, I suppose.
For armour, your options are full volcanic and two damage trinkets for CTR MAX and Damage Very High, or Mad/Volcanic and two damage trinkets for CTR MAX and Damage MAX but less fire resistance. The damage difference between Very High and MAX is about 15-30 damage depending on the bomb and the stratum.
For weapons:
-If you're doing this in a group, one of you could probably bring Shivermist Buster while the other damagebombs (for Vana). This increases in effect if there are four of you.
-Consider dropping a Venom Veiler once in a while during Vanaduke, as it'll increase damage potential. Especially effective on the mask if you're waiting for your teammate to put out the fire on it.
-Consider bringing Electron Vortex. The DPS is a bit over Nitronome's against undead and it's a very safe weapon once you've got it planted. This goes double if you're on a group and your other teammates either have weapons besides bombs or they have shard bombs. Vanaduke can be vortexed, but it's not very helpful.
-Blast bombs are nice and general purpose. BAB is great for getting some breathing room if you're in a large arena, Nitro lets you stay on the move and Irontech has the most DPS. If you're with someone else, having different blast bombs for the stacking options is nice. Going solo, Nitro should be powerful enough and provide you the most safety.
-DBB is the most powerful blast bomb against Vana himself. It's not like you'll be doing any knockback to him anyway. Some people swear to DBB over Trojans, but Aquajag once adviced me to stick with Nitro as it'll keep the bomber safer by pushing away surrounding undeads, and I've stuck by that.
-I am not sure a no-wipes, bombs-only Vanaduke has even been done after the removal of Old Radiant Sun Shards. I certainly can't find any videos of beating Vana bombs-only without them.
-My specialty is shard bombs. If you do not want shard bomb advice, you may stop reading at this point.
-Crystal Bomb will make mincemeat out of undead, especially going with a teammate who also has Sun Shards or Crystal Bomb.
-Some people have expressed problems shardbombing Trojans, but using Sun Shards there are two methods you can use to take them out at least as quick as DBB would be able to:
If you're solo, plant two bombs on one side of the Trojan at a slight distance, then run to the Trojan's other side. If you manage it just right, you can guide his back so that the back takes damage from two shards at once for a total of nearly 400 damage per bomb if you don't have any damage bonuses. While you're guiding the Trojan's back, you place two bombs on that side of the Trojan too and repeat. Provided you can keep the Trojan from dashing (the shards are able to interrupt him if you doublehit, so this is feasible), he'll go down as fast as if you had a flourish.
If there are two of you, just stay on either side of the Trojan and do the same thing but without running back and forth.
-For the mask, the optimal bomb is normal damage shard bombs. Shard bombs gain more from damage bonuses than other bombs do, percentage-wise, and even with just damage bonus: low, normal damage shard bombs (hitting with core + 2 shards) will do more damage than a Big Angry Bomb per bomb. Core + 2 shards is trivial to do on stationary targets that can't be knocked back such as the mask.
Keep in mind I haven't tested this very extensively in practice, as I haven't fully heated my Deadly Shard Bombs yet, and I'm definitely uncertain how viable it would be solo.
-In the later phases, the easiest way to hit Vana with shardbombs is to drop them somewhere away from him and have him dash into them. It's easier to damage Vana with DBB or blast bombs, though.