Good (instert the time of the day here),
I recently came across the idea of combining shock with stun, as I have obtained an ASI VH Storm Driver. Naturally, spamming bombs with CTR reduction seemed like the best choice (especially considering what a recon with CTR max bombs and ASI max Storm could do). I have been told that there are only 2 bombs that can distribute Stun, the Sun shard line and Haze bomb line.However, I never really used bombs, besides ocassionaly using Shivermist. The main purpose therefore would be to spread stun over enemies, especially lockdown strikers. Does anybody have any experience with either one? Which one has shorter fuse and charge time? Which one is better to use? Is it even worth it to lose the CTR med and upgrade the bombs to 5star, given the incredibly irrational phenomena we know as the "Radiant drought"?
Super stun showdown! Stagger storm vs. Scintillating sun shards
Okay, from you that sounds convicing enough... my point was that it is way less predictable and more spammable... probably. But as I said, I never used either. What about comparison of the fuse times, radius of the bombs and the stun chance of the SSS? And is it worth it to craft 5star bombs?
I can't say the times, but I can say that at max CTR, you can have 3 shard bombs active and 2 haze bombs active at once..
I'm not very good at footwork, but if you're standing on/defending a point, you can step certain ways to bait a melee striker to run into a shard that he's not expecting to explode. If you're a recon with multiple weapon types, you can use the shard bombs to distract while you cloak and slap them with another weapon. I got 10k damage my very first time using bait and switch tactics with Shocking Salt Bomb lol (though arguably, shock is more debilitating than stun...). Obviously, the damage came from my other weapon, but it was mostly thanks to the bomb staying out so long and being so flashy that I could cloak around it.
As far as Stagger Storm, it's more of a wall/deterrant. Good bombers trying to capture points will place the haze bombs off the points in order to discourage gunners from getting in range to actually hit you while capping. People are more likely to run through Stagger Storm while underestimating stun than they are to go through Voltaic Tempest.
----
I actually just now read your post; If you use a Chaos piece and recon, you'll have max CTR regardless of what level your bombs are (Recon gives a whopping 4 levels of CTR to bombs, and 2 to everything else), so no worries there.
One of my 'solo' loadouts is in fact a gomber loadout: Stagger/Storm Driver/Valiance/Umbra(or Nova).
The shock/stun combination is great at punishing people greedy enough to run into the bomb, and the valiance has enough range to shoot outside the bomb if you have to deal with a gunner. With max CTR, you can drop a bomb, shoot 2-3 times, then drop another bomb, maintaining the haze while still being able to shoot outwards.
Sun Shards, being damage bombs, charge in damage-bomb time. At max CTR, I believe that's one second. Haze bombs, being haze bombs, charge in haze-bomb time. I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's longer. Somewhere between 1.5-2 seconds.
The fuse time for sun shards is faster than the haze bomb.. for the core explosion. The actual shards of the sun shards are going to explode somewhere halfway by the time the haze bomb's duration would end. For details, I have a video demonstrating shard bombs. During this duration, the sun shard would effectively explode twice (you can't multihit in Lockdown; the core is one explosion and the ring of eight shards is a second explosion) for moderate chance (~30%) per explosion.
The haze bomb will go off a little after the sun shards and linger for... I forget. Let me look up the video where I show off all hazebombs. Looks like five seconds. Hazebombs 'tick' once per second meaning that each bomb has a Good (~50%) chance of infliction five times. Get a couple of bombs stacked and your opponent, assuming they are not immune, will surely get inflicted should they cross the boundary of your bombs.
They mostly don't. As a hazebomber, expect most people to just spam their various guns at you from outside until you're unable to keep your bombs up.
The reason I prefer stagger over Sun Shards is because no knight has negative stun resistance. Without that, stun is not going to last for very long on your opponent. Even if you somehow manage to hit a LD enemy with shards (If your opponent is at all skilled, you will not. You might catch a few knights by surprise because people are not used to seeing shards in Lockdown, but it'll take at most a couple of minutes for them to learn the timing and walk through the shards effortlessly. Even if they don't, shards give less area of safety than haze bombs and therefore less area in which you can dodge Polaris shots.), and even if you're lucky enough for the stun to hit, what're you going to do about it? By the time you switch to a different weapon to take advantage of it, your opponent's stun will have worn off.
If you really want to use shard bombs in Lockdown, and I wish you the best of luck with it, I would recommend Shocking Salt. Shock > Stun, even if Chaos/Black Kat had a weakness against both.
Thanks much for the detailed info! Actually, i was looking for secondary element to use after shock, but the detailed guide helped me a lot. I might even try decloak charging plague needle, perhaps for poison.
Stun Gun or Proto Bomb?
"Stun Gun or Proto Bomb?"
Proto Bomb with Chaos/Mad Bomber.
BAB works better.
it is a very amusing choice IMO, I enjoy mixing the 2 together in LD (when I actually decide to play it)
As for the 2 bombs I prefer Stagger since it straight up stuns while SSS has a smaller chance of stunning the opponent. So if your going mainly for status than go with Stagger Storm. however SSS can be used strategically though it may take time for you to find a way use it in a way that can be useful to you against strikers.
Lockdown strikers?
The shards aren't even an option.
For clockworks I feel the opposite.