Each knight begins the game with a sword and gun. This default establishes a social norm, under which players think that this is the "right" or "common" way to play. Overcoming such a norm is not easy, psychologically speaking. Threads like this might help.

Zeddy, I understand your point about the psychology of damage numbers, but you omitted some important details. The brandish charge often says a couple of 700s, followed by scads of 200s. Unlike DBB, a brandish charge offers knock back or other crowd control. The direction of the knock back is easier to control than with Nitronome. Let's not contradict all of those other threads where we opine that brandishes are overpowered, right?

I think what you are saying here is that there are a few people who play with only bombs in their weapon slots. Most of the people I've met have at least a bomb in their arsenal. Most of these bombs belong to the hazebomb series but no one's saying these are the bombs which require minimum skill so anyone can use them through spamming, at least not me.

The only way a bomb can deal damage is to, well, explode after it gains sufficient charge. Balanced charge times make for less spamming. Swordies worry most of the time about proximity and timing, gunners calculate speed and trajectory, bombers have charge timing and aoe to fret about.

Now, the majority of the offense bombs I know share one flaw that most guns or swords lack and that is specialized damage. The vanilla blast bomb is a hazard because it can disrupt teamplay with poor placement due to knockback flinging enemies everywhere.

And no, I will not mention the shard bombs as they were an attempt to create bombs with specialized damage. They might work well against sluggish and big monsters, but how about those darting around puking bullets? Maybe its a matter of taste.

It was a nice move to insert that bombing tutorial into the rescue camp missions. It should pique beginner interest towards the most unappreciated weapon type in the game, until they realize swords and guns make for better performance..

Does the op mean anything by mentioning a certain guild and including a link to their recruitment page?

I'd never try to give Shard Squad, the bunch of awesome bombers who might be the best coop PvE guild in the game, any attention at all!

My personal experience with bombs is as Momofuku described. The starting bombs are underwhelming, Initially, I completely wrote off bombs. It wasn't until fighting in the Royal Jelly Palace that a fellow knight laid down an Ash and I saw the benefit. That is when I switched to bombing.

I'm happy to report that most random groups in elite T3 arcade will have some other knights with bombs - be it Ash, Shivermist or DBB. There is even an occasional Nitro or Vortex, something extremely rare back in the day. It just isn't an early viable option.

Well, there are quite a few factors and there are always exceptions, but I'd say the main thing is how players start out and how the game's structure will steer the player into certain directions.

At the start of the game, there really ain't much incentive for a new player to go bombing. The first bombs they receive don't do too much damage, the charge time is quite slow and a new player might not appreciate the benefits of knock back. When you're starting out, the sword not only provides more DPS, but it is more "traditional". As the player progresses, they might find themselves wanting to avoid damage or to take out turrets better, so they'd switch to or add a gun. As they progress through the game, they'll start hearing about the Sovereign Slime and eventually FSC. Sadly, aside from the advice of Shivermist vs Vana, I find people don't really talk about how haze bombs will utterly murder the slimes in Sovereign Slime. Players are nudged toward shadow guns and swords.

Bombs are great, but I think players don't really get exposed to them very much, simply on account that there aren't as many bombers as other types. Nor does the game promote the use of bombs for newbies.

I for one, was really impressed the first time I got a bomber in my party. But it took me a long time to switch to bombing. For several reasons. For instance, I was still working on my guns at the time, and I just couldn't afford to add or switch to bombing, especially back in those days when elevators cost energy.

My recommendation would be to overpower the Proto Bomb, and maybe the early status bombs like the Firecracker etc. Give them really short charge times. Give newbies some incentive to bombing early on. Those of us who've been around long enough to amass a small nest egg can afford to switch, especially since we can farm levels for orbs and crystals. But a newbies can't get into those high pay out levels. Once they've decided on a path, it could take months to get that first 5* set. Changing horses midstream is tough.

Tl;dr, the game doesn't encourage the use of bombs early on. Switching is not a viable option for most. So, overpower the CTR in early bombs to give newbs a taste of what bombing can do for them.

Reasons why bombs aren't frequently used.
-Bombs ,like guns have pure specielized damage (except nitro and shard) That means they will either be very effective or very ineffective against a mob of enemies. And all knights should hate mobs.
-Attacking with bomb (offensively ) means you will be leaving yourself vulurnable against ranged attacks (gun puppies and howlitzers ) while charging a bomb a knight cannot shield, so basically until you finished charging a bomb, you are likely to be hit and die.
-Bomb performance enhancing gears (all demo suits infact) have only elemental defence, while wolcer coat and gunslinger gears have variants that defend against all 3 types of special damages. The odds are stacked against the bombs once again.
-Bombs are weak against individuals (common sense really ) and it is distracting to both gunners and swordies. Sometimes, during the heat of battle, the cloud of the shivermist can CLOAK enemy gun puppy's bullets and they only decloak when they hit me, it is rediculous... ( bad latency...)
-In LD, bombs can act as good defensive tool, but too many people in the game prefer seeing a massive damage dealt next to their names rather than winning ( skolver clones and tooth picks ) And in a general consensus, more kills = more score, so the utility of bombs in LD is also reduced.
-Bombs aren't meant to be used frequently, they are in fact the last line resort for many non-hellbent bombers. And due to the two weapon limit ( unlocking slots sounds like a waste of CE to me ), many players (who can't afford it) prefer a two weapon loadout (a sword and gun) like in many mordern FPS, you get to carry 2 weapons, (main gun and a pistol in combat arms) Grenade, in many gamers' mind, is nothing more than an 'auxilliary' weapon.
-Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but srsly, what would you prefer? Your knight Avatar holding a long, badas sword OR would you prefer him/her holding a bomb ( a large shard/ iron ball)? The thing is, OOO should come up with some cool redesign for the bombs(they seriously lack in detail comapred to guns and swords), so that they can attract more players.

Speaking as someone who was a pure gunner till only a few weeks ago, I can't quite agree with all your assessments. The thing is, bombers are rare. As a gunner, I encountered them very few times, but when they ARE on the team, they're invaluable. While things can look really hectic when you've got a bomber on board, I seldom found myself thinking the cons outweighed the pros. The main exception for me is when you've got a Nitro spammer. Personally, I find swordies to be far worse for me as a gunner, as a swordie is a natural knockback machine, which means that they're gonna make the gunner miss a lot.

Of course, bombers ain't perfect. Small numbers of enemies can take an annoyingly long time to wipe out compared to swordies/gunners. As you've mentioned, bomb spamming can make the screen confusing. Yes, I think the pros outweigh the cons, but I can't deny the cons are there. And enemies like gunpups do make things difficult for a bomber, moreso than for a swordie.

Basically, there are pros and cons to everything. But my main point of contention is the idea that bombs shouldn't be used frequently. That's like saying the sword shouldn't be used frequently, because in a FPS, the knife is the weapon of last resort. In fact, if you had unlimited grenades in a standard FPS, you'd wanna spam it.

The thing with bombs is that like any weapon, the key is knowing when and how to use 'em. Guns are easy because most don't interfere with other players. The biggest exception being Polaris of course. Swords interfere with gunners (and sometimes bombers) a hella lot. While bombs is more 50/50. If the bomber is a status spammer, interference is minimal while a damage dealer is liable to obscure the screen and do unintentional knockback.

In every case, it's a matter of the players being considerate to each other and learning to hone their skills. A Polaris user can be invaluable if he pins enemies to a corner, keeping enemies at bay and they're amazing for taking out turrets. A sword user can be the star player if he uses his superior DPS to take out all the biggest threats, ie the menders and greavers. And bombers can make your life waaaaay easier by utterly annihilating swathes of enemies.

Tl;dr, Bombs are not "worse" or "better" than swords or guns. It's how you use each weapon, be it as a solo or part of a team. The main thing is that SK doesn't really encourage bomb use. They aren't great at lower levels (well, maybe the haze bombs are okay) and they're expensive to get into.