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Dark Briar Barrage, learn how to help your bomber help you

8 replies [Last post]
Tue, 06/03/2014 - 06:30
Holy-Nightmare's picture
Holy-Nightmare

The Dark Briar Barrage (DBB) is a piercing, blast bomb style weapon. It has a high knockdown/flinch chance and minimal knockback. Many soft bodied enemies (small fiends, small beasts, nearly every gremlin species) are subject to that flinch. At a high enough CTR this bomb can flinch lock enemies into place, any enemy within the blast range of the bomber is to be considered incapacitated, this makes the job of other knights much easier because they have to deal with less monsters.

The DBB becomes less effective as a team support weapon when: monsters are knocked out of the bomb range, when the more dangerous monsters are not targeted by the team (constructs, and jellies should be kept away from the bomber when he/she is flinchlock/chainbombing), when the bomber targets the wrong monsters or is too aggressive (targeting monsters that are being attacked by another party member).

As a sword user try to target monsters that are not in the blast radius as those are now helpless and you should focus on bigger threats.

Gunners should play according to the knockback of their gun. Weapons like the blitz needle can get easy charges on the monsters, while antiguas can spam regular shots beside the bomber to draw the agro of far away monsters thus pulling them into bomb range.

Guns with knockback should try to lead monsters into bomb range and then once the monster is in range go try to pull another into it.

Other bombers should use weapons that compliment the DBB, such as: more DBB, haze bombs that inflict DOT or poison (freeze and stun are ok but the others are better), Dark retribution.

Shard and vortex bombs are iffy while blast bombs should not be used close to the DBB (so as not to knock away the flinch lock targets)

If a team fails to support a DBB user they may resort to bombs that promote self preservation (nitronome) rather than team support.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 10:56
#1
Meep-The-Bank's picture
Meep-The-Bank
Meep

@Holy-Nightmare I'm currently training to master using the DBB due to it being quite effective bomb because of it's knock back and it's offensive features.
For new time users of a DBB, I'd suggest using simple tactics to use the DBB effectively.

1) Use the DBB for it's AoE (Area Of Effect). Some bombers like using this as an offensive bomb for targeting monsters one at a time however I'd suggest trying to take down enemies at the same time. This way, it won't be such a hassle. In team fights/groups of monsters, it can help cover a small area in one go and help defeat enemies in an instance.

2) Be wary of enemies. Although you may blind your enemies at the sight of the jumping Snarbolax, it provides 'minimal knock back' as Holy-Nightmare said, so I'd suggest trying to move to dodge range attacks as well as simple Melee attacks whilst bombing with a DBB.

3) Lure your victim in. If in a situation where you are trying to kill an enemy as soon as possible, lure them closer to the middle as they are subjected to all of the explosions if you stayed in the same area.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 10:55
#2
Bopp's picture
Bopp
two comments

I agree that the lack of knockback makes DBB an extremely powerful bomb --- but also easy to use and party-friendly. Everyone should own it. Here are two comments:

Instead of simply attacking other targets, sword users should try to help DBB. For example, put the monster between you and DBB, so that your sword attacks push it into DBB.

If the area is heavy on constructs and slimes, then what is the bomber using DBB for? He or she should switch to Dark Retribution (roughly equal in power, ease of use, and party-friendliness) or other bombs.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 11:46
#3
Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

When I'm playing as a gunner and I see someone bombing, I like to stand by the edge of their bomb and shoot mindlessly, forcing all of the wolvers to clump inside of their blast radius.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 13:06
#4
Holy-Nightmare's picture
Holy-Nightmare
@ Bopp

All bombers should be prepared to deal with all monsters (with or without party members). However, polyps and lumbers tend to show up in wolver dens making it hard for bombers (or flourish, blitz lovers) to play, also compounds (ravenous warrens) tend to house varies monster families, flinch locking a group of menders on a construct level can be quite helpful.

These are some of the scenarios in which it can be good to bring a DBB, however all bombers should try to keep a bomb of each damage type.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 13:40
#5
Kalistes
The problem is that there

The problem is that there aren't any elemental blast bombs. The hazey bombs do reasonable elemental damage but the radius of that damage is woeful. Shard bombs are...well, shard bombs. A status-less Blast Bomb (ala the Nova Driver) with knockdown would be a great addition.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 13:47
#6
Krakob's picture
Krakob

As a swordsperson, it's always your role to support the bomber so that the bomber can support you. Bombers fight crowds way better than swords so if you can, you focus on keeping enemies within the radius and try to not get any to follow you away from the bomber.

Tue, 06/03/2014 - 14:35
#7
Bopp's picture
Bopp
polyps and lumbers in wolver dens

Yes, wolver dens do sometimes contain polyps and lumbers. In fact, each of these has a specific "room" layout that gets thrown into the random mix, usually very early in the level. This room contains no wolvers, unless they leak in from the next room.

In this situation, I would switch to Dark Retribution, to take out the polyps/lumbers and wolvers all at once. Or a haze bomb, or Sudaruska, or whatever second weapon I'm carrying. Continuing to use DBB when the main threat is polyps is basically trolling the party.

Anyway, I'm not telling you anything you don't know, and we shouldn't make a big deal out of it. Cheers.

Wed, 06/11/2014 - 20:40
#8
Skold-The-Drac's picture
Skold-The-Drac
dbb and you

At the end of the day, bombers would likely be best off starting with vaporizers and dbb. Both maintain low kb if any and party friendliness is a major plus side. The issue is, these bombs aren't extremely great on the other features bombs have to offer.

For any bomb user, I would recommend they rely on vapos and dbb first, then work on vortexes and (if applicable) DR. At the point of comfort with these is when I'd recommend shard and blast bombs in their current state.

The reasoning behind this logic is party friendly bombs in PUGs can make a world of difference to instantly seeing the blast bomb line filling the screen every two seconds. You can maintain a group better. That and blast-y bombs have advanced techniques that require a little more know-how and party flexibility/manipulation to really feel you're getting what you paid for.

You also need to thoroughly understand party vs. Singular tactics. I approach a room of lumbers with blast bombs when I'm alone because i bear preference to knocking them together and then daisy-chaining blasts around them. With a party, you might want to daisy chain them together with a vortex for the party to serve the pain with their charged weapon of choice.

Another recommendation, is to refuse the service of Shivermist Buster to your randoms. I would prefer Stagger Storm to it due to them doing similar damage with less accident prone results, since people seem to think that just because something can't move it's legs means it can't attack either.

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