How Good are Bombs for Solo Play?
Sáb, 02/21/2015 - 14:17
I'm wonder how well would 2 bombs work for full solo play?
Sáb, 02/21/2015 - 14:31
#2
You're gonna need damaging bombs for that, of course. That makes your selection somewhat small. You can use:
- Nitronome/Irontech Destroyer (if you're on a budget, consider Irontech Bomb, the 4* variant. It's quite decent at level 10)
- Dark Briar Barrage
- Dark Retribution
- Electron Vortex+Voltaic Tempest
- Deadly Crystal Bomb
- Ash of Agni
And that's about it. Bombs are, in my opinion, largely a support weapon type in SK. Quite a bit like tanks in other games, really. You can expect lots of enemies attacking you because of the aggro generated by the bombs and you'll have to manage that, but that's what bombs are good at.
Relying on area damage is both for better and worse as a solo player. Killing specific enemies, such as Menders and Silkwings can be a pain since there's no way for you to target those specifically but on the other hand, bombs are often the best at taking care of large groups of enemies. For example, a Dark Briar Barrage is by all means the most effective way of clearing a wolver den.
All in all I'd say it's more effective than pure swords and about as effective as pure guns (maybe less), but the best way of playing solo is to have a large arsenal so that you can adapt well to any situation. Spiral Knights is in my opinion not a game that fits playing solo well, so it's often quite hard. Especially if you have a narrow weapon selection. Teammates and complement each other, but as a solo player you have to be several players in one at times.
Sáb, 02/21/2015 - 15:36
#3
mostly agree
I often play solo pure bomber. Bombing solo is often easier than bombing in a party, because there's no one to mess up how you're kiting and aggroing the monsters.
Dark Briar Barrage and Dark Retribution are the easiest combo, in terms of doing massive damage to crowds of monsters. Nitronome is also fun, but managing its knockback is difficult. I don't know the other blast bombs well. The more damaging haze bombs (Ash of Agni, Voltaic Tempest) can also inflict lots of damage on crowds. And of course you should try vortices and shard bombs, although I never use them when solo.
Sáb, 02/21/2015 - 18:41
#4
If you choose to use bombs or swords, you'll be at a disadvantage compared to if you just abused guns or branched out to swords/bombs with handguns as your "main".
But everything is doable without guns. Just more challenging due to.. well, a lot of things actually-
The posters above give pretty good descriptions of what your options would be.
Sáb, 02/21/2015 - 18:51
#5
As someone who oftenly plays
As someone who oftenly plays as a pure bomber i find Dark Briar Barrage and Dark Retribution the best damaging bombs. I don't use Nitronome very often because of the knockback, when i want knockbak i get my Big Angry Bomb. Ash of Agni also does a nice job when it comes to zombies and slimes but is not so good against gremlins and fiends.
When fighting beasts i usually use a vortex bomb to group them, and then i start a DBB spam around the vortex, which kills beasts with easy.
When fighting fiends i use Voltaic Tempest and/or Stagger Storm to keep them under control so i can approach them "safely" and start a DBB spam.
When fighting slimes Dark Retribution will do the job easily. A vortex bomb and/or an Ash of Agni also pairs well with it.
When fighting gremlins i use Dark Briar Barrage for Thwackers and Dark Retribution for Gremlin Demos. Thwackers aren't that vulnerable to DR because they have shields, so a DBB chain can do the job with easy. A Venom Veiler is also good for them because poisoned gremlins will take damage when a mender tries to heal them.
As for constructs i just use Dark Retribution and Nitronome/Big Angry Bomb because there are currently no elemental blast bombs, and the shard bombs are not really worth trying, not when you have DR. Venom Veiler also helps when gremlins menders are around, like in a construct arena.
For undead i always use DBB and Ash of Agni. A vortex bomb also helps with zombies, but it is worthless against spookats because they can escape the vortex with their dash. Ash of Agni also does low damage to kats so it is better to use another haze bomb like Voltaic Tempest or Stagger Storm.
Sáb, 02/21/2015 - 22:05
#6
I play solo as a pure bomber
I play solo as a pure bomber all the time. Funny thing is that bombing while solo is actually easier than being a pure bomber in parties sometimes.
As someone said, Dark Briar Barrage + Dark Retribution is your key to success. Both are a little hard to get though (DBB is only obtainable through Basil and DR is obtained from the Expansion missions).
Failing that, Nitronome, Irontech and Big Angry Bomb are normal damage blast bombs. All three have their perks (Nitro being fastest, Irontech having highest DPS and BAB having it's absurd knockback) and their downsides (Nitro's sheer speed can make things very chaotic unless you know what you're doing, Irontech's inconsistent Stun chance can mess up your rhythm, and BAB takes forever to charge).
Shard bombs, despite the Invincitinks, are also still plenty usable. Their DPS sucks hard, but they're relatively safer to use compared to the blast bombs. 2 of them, Scintillating Shard Bomb and Shocking Salt Bomb, have very high damage bonuses against families, specialized damage, and high chance to inflict a status.
But yeah, if you're going to be a solo bomber, DBB + DR is your best bet.
Lun, 02/23/2015 - 22:11
#7
Personally, if solo I buy a
Personally, if solo I buy a third weapon slot and take along a utility gun, generally a pulsar. Too many places with lots of gun puppies and such, or kats that are hard to bomb.
Should work reasonably well if you have Dark Retribution and Dark Briar Barrage. You could use Nitronome too if you don't mind the flashing. Or you could play it safe and use Shivermist as one of your bombs.