shivermist and calibur combo is very effective if u dont wanna completely go pure bomb

I have nitro and ashes, i still need to get my shivermist up (currently have 3* freeze with low ctr).

Shivermist is great for all the obvious reasons, and from my experience is probably better than ashes (assuming your team are competent). You will want either shivermist or ashes for arena's danger rooms. Because the nitro knockback does not interrupt mob attack timings. This is particularly dangerous vs constructs. Shiver will freeze them, ashes will not knock them around.

2 words of advice:
If you go shiver, shell out 100 CE up front to buy a haze bomb UV CTR low to upgrade to the shiver. (This plus shiver lvl 10 CTR bonus, and bomber armor CTR bonus's give you what u need to lay them down super fast).

If you go ashes, shell out a some crowns/ce to get a UV construct medium or so. The ashes timing with works almost perfectly with construct walk speed that you can get a lot of direct hit burst damage when kiting, in addition to the fire tics. Plus the constructs are week to elemental damage. Eeks told me about this and sold me a med construct haze. Even though i had med def 4* fire bomb when i switched, i'm glad i did.

Nitro is great, but you definitely need another one to compliment it if you are gonna be a bomber.
P.S. It's a blast :)

As usual Eeks is spot-on for bomb recommendations.

Recently I've been running Ash + Venom so that I can do passive damage and debuff. Completely obliterates third stage Arenas. This combo works ok on T3 Gremlins too, but you need to trick them into turning around in the haze due to their shield. For example, have someone shoot a gun which causes them to scatter and get fired/poisoned. For fire strata and FSC I switch to Shivermist + Venom if in a party. In any case, Ash + Nitro = Awesome and thus a great place to start exploring dual bombing.

Wanted to point out an armor combination that works well for bombers - if you get a Medium CTR Haze bomb then you only have to wear either Mad Bomber Helm or Volcanic Demo Helm to get Max CTR since you'll then have Med UV + Med Lv 10 + Med from Helm. That'll free up your armor to be something that complements your swordfighting.

However, if you do go with a full Mad Bomber set, then any CTR UV on your bomb would go over the limit - in which case a Medium UV vs Construct or whatnot would be a better choice. That way you have Max CTR and Max Damage vs Construct (Very High vs everything else).

With Volcanic Demo Set, the CTR bonus adds up to High so you'd need a Low CTR + Medium Level 10 to reach Max... or alternatively settle for CTR Ultra and just use a damage bonus UV instead.

"5. You perform additional rude gesture at frozen grievers for added effect. I prefer the showing of the buttocks. (Do robots have buttocks?)"

Bender would like these Greavers to kiss his shiny metal... donkey?

Since i don't think anyone listed out the disadvantages of shivermist busters, i shall list them out right now, based on my opinions and experiences on T3.

For your information, i am a Heavy Knight type with DA/GF combo.

Freeze apparently works only for crowd control. The only monsters it is legally useful with is, is wolvers, slimes, devilities, phantom. Below is written with readers having the mechanics of freeze in mind, especially that it breaks when u hit the affected monster with anything, as well as the fact that shivermist buster does not freeze every millisecond.

Chromalisks series are way too weak to bother with freezing or any other status effect. Just kill it fast and quick to prevent flooding with their spit.

Puppies series are pretty much stationary. Sure, freeze prevents them from turning, but in the case of arenas, it doesn't help for the bullet/rocket hell.

Lumbers are too slow to bother with freeze. Cut them down already.

Mecha knights are more dangerous when they're frozen, simply because they charge all the time. Due to their T3 abilities they are now able to disperse 4-directional bullets along with their 360 charge attacks.

Retrodes will also simply charge their lazers even if there's no one in sight. Though it may prove useful for medium swords to wail on them since they dont turn and claw u.

Scuttlebots are just like chromalisk. Just end their lives.

Greavers in T3 also shoot 4-directional bullets when they attack. Ignore whatever tactics people have taught u before, and know this; greavers cancel their attacks so long u hit them during their attack animation.

Trojans are meant to be bullied. U don't need freeze.

Silkwings are also meant to be bullied, though u should kill them fast.

Thwackers apparently dont get affected by the mist if their back is facing the epicentre. Plus they move quickly, and their T3 charge attack is less than 1 second.

Menders can break their freeze by healing themselves. Not sure on this but killing menders > freezing anything else.

Flamethrowers are likely to unfreeze everything else with their fire.

Demos can throw mines around themselves.

Kats may prove easy to kill when frozen, but they don't while they are moving. Meaning that u either stand inside the mist and endure bullet hell from their tri-shoot attacks, or spread out and kill them.

Undeads are also meant to be bullied. Freeze apparently doesn't help much unless the freeze works every millisecond, because their claw attacks is 180 degrees and they can turn.

I'm beginning to dabble in bombing as well, I've got a fused demo suit and a super blast Bomb ATM, I'm planning on using ash of agni eventually too, I might carry a sword for backup when I'm bombing as well.

-EL

Bombs aren't only good at 5*. I ran to the core with a Master Blast Bomb and Freezing Atomizer (plus a Winmillion for killing the last 1-2 enemies quickly).

Bombs get a huge upgrade between 4* and 5* (more dramatic than any other weapon type), but the 4* and even 3* versions of the blast and haze lines are very good still.

Alright, so I don't see many of the pure bombers giving the Sun Shards a lot of love. The Radiant Sun Shards is a great bomb, even if it does work in a significantly different manner.

I can also preface this with the fact that I am not a pure bomber, as I don't have bomb armor.

The radiant sun shards can take some practice to aim. But it deals a ton of damage! I have a big angry bomb, which does the most damage, and it can't compete with the sun shards vs many enemies. There are several things to consider:

1) Radiant sun shards charge amazingly fast. I've heard that with volcanic demo, it charges about in the time it takes to reload a gun. For me, slightly longer, but amazingly fast. And it deals more damage than other 4* bombs to boot.

2) Radiant sun shards can hit multiple times. This is the real beauty of it. If you're careful, you can lure enemies, especially alpha wolvers and timbers (larger enemies) onto the bomb. Sometimes, you can get 8 hits, but expect 3 or 4. Yes, that's 3-4 TIMES the damage that other bombs are dealing, and it easily competes with 5* weapons.

3) Radiant sun shards have a very long range. They simply shoot further than any other bomb. Sure, at those ranges, it takes some practice to hit. But when you get used to it as a skill-based weapon, it feels a lot like a gun in some aspects, and you can use it like one.

4) No party conflict. The knockback is pretty minimal, and is easier to control, so you won't conflict with swords like nitronome and irontech do.

Alas, with these amazing attributes come some flaws. It does have weaknesses vs some enemies, although it is very strong vs others (read: Undead and Devils). While it'll be great vs some, it gets sorely outcompeted vs slimes, which are a popular thing to run in tier 2.

Anyway, its not the be-all end-all of bombs, but the Radiant Sun Shards are a unique and fantastic weapon that is very versatile.

a 4* elemental sword does more than 200 initial damage, with no charge required, no wait on blast, with same frost, to t3 retrodes, and a 4* alchemer gun does around 150 at max heat, not counting the bounces, with same status effects.

atomizer blast effect lasts for around 5 seconds, thaws in another 5+ seconds depending on monster type if it wasnt attacked.
charge takes ~3 seconds, blast occurs another second later if you lay it down immediately after charge, for 200 initial damage.

in all cases a sword / gun of same damage type and star level would out dps the bomb significantly on any enemy types. also 4* lacks aoe to make it effective on huge groups compared to shivermist.

sure if you find running around freezing 20 times in 2-3 minutes to kill a 5 enemies fun, by all means keep on doing it, im just trying to enlighten you that there are in fact much faster ways, aka at 5* with one charge of shivermist, you can cover way more aoe than the 2-3 charges of atomizer, and before the bomb effect disappear, you actually have time to do two sword charges.

even in full party situations, a person with shivermist can lay one bomb and then deal damage with swords, whereas someone with 4* would be completely useless comparatively and have to run around non stop to freeze with not even half the coverage. the situation will be worse in unorganized teams where people taking argo lure mobs away from bomb radius

>>>>"Not as good" isn't the same as "useless."

Please read my posts carefully, i've never mentioned or implied that it's useless. quoting myself "and if u're a free to play player i wouldnt suggest starting from multiple bombs from the beginning, due to the fact that most of the bombs are only good at 5* and are mainly used for support / status."
i've clearly only stated that it's "not as good"

All I'm suggesting is if you do not have the capital to make it into a 5* asap, you're better off with placing priority over you sword which is your main weapon.

If you bought $400 worth of ce on different creditcards / via different accounts through various computers, burn it in whtever way that pleases you.
If you have a limited amount of capital, focus on more important things first, thats my logic, if you dont get it or agree with it then i have nothing to say.

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/9364 <--- this is my call. i agree to your direction.

If you ever want to solo with bombs, you'll need to start working up the blast bomb line. The knockback is hugely useful in crowded rooms.

Even in a team, blast bombs can be very useful. For every time you knock an attacking enemy into a teammate with that blast, you'll save that same teammate a half dozen times by blasting an attacking enemy away from them, which I have found to be a fair tradeoff. The people I play with regularly have learned that when the stuff hits the fan in a crowded danger room or arena, run to the blast bomb before it blows up. Then, boom!, you have 3-4 steps between you and all of your enemies so you have time to pick a route to run and you get a couple more seconds for your shield to heal. A teammate once mistook the bomb I was placing, though, and ran to the freezing atomizer, thinking it was a master blast bomb. She was then stuck in an arena with 12 frozen mechanights blocking any escape. She quickly found herself dead as they flailed their swords in her direction. Oops!

With teammates who aren't used to working with blast bombs, the bomb can do more harm than good, but that is usually the fault of those teammates more than the bomber. Master Blast Bomb is my primary weapon and no one I run with complains when I use it.