Yeah im a pure bomber currently on 4* level, i have the mighty defenders, whcich is utter crap and provides barely any shielding whatsoever
I am most ceretanly going to switch shields and am wondering what would you guys recommend to go with pure bomber
Also im wondering what should i pair with the Mad Bomber helm, Bombastic or Volcanic Demo suit
I might do owlite, but i need a shield thatl protect me from various melee damage, i was acctualy looking into the plate/tortoise line
Alright, also forgot to mention Mercurial Demo suit, so which one should i get paired with a mad bomber which has UV - Shock med
You have several choices, mainly :
- going for one-size fit all shield, and thus taking a normal shield. The VPS is the best since it has a fire resistance that other normal shields don't have. The difference in normal resistance and health with other shields is simply not relevant.
- going for 3 (or more) shields, with at least one for each damage type : those will resist better than VPS when pitched against the right mobs, but you'll have to do 3, which costs more.
You already have a piercing one, I would advise against doing another one for now, it should be good enough. Leave it at 4*, since piercing is the least threatening damage type anyway.
As for elemental, Owlite is simply the best, as Atrumvindex said, since it has resistance against the 2 most threatening status (fire and shock).
For shadow, either Crest of Almire, which is similar to Owlite, but requires you to be able to farm FSC already, or Skelly, which have less useful status but don't require to do FSC. Crest is arguably better because of the status resistance, but you can also take both and switch according the level status. That's what I do, because I HATE devilites.Taking a 2nd shadow shield is a low priority though.
Thanks, il stick to your advice, il get owlite and then farm FSC then get the Crest of almire and maybe evn get a plate shield just cause.
Actually, Bombastic isn't quite so terrible as people make it out to be since it got its buff (Freeze resist and +2 damage per piece); it's not the best thing in the world, but certainly useful if you've got CTR UVs on your bombs already. However, it's pretty much useless if you're using only status bombs at the moment.
If you're a support bomber who often plays in parties, I would recommend Volcanic for the time being, since CTR is most important for you. If you often find yourself playing solo, I would advise you to take Mad Bomber (although you will need to get extremely well acquainted with status capsules). Bombastic and Volcanic can be mixed in with Mad Bomber if you're having status troubles at first.
Mighty Defender is okay for a bomber's pierce shield since you're using pure bombs. It's not great, and doesn't have status resist like Ironmight, but it'll do the job for now. You're going to want CoA and Grey Owlite first, since you lack elemental and shadow protection on your shield.
I acctualy plan on mixing bombastic and mad bomber cause i play solo as much as i play in parties and the statuses arent a probelm since i have all my items UVd, for example my mad bomber helm has shock medium and im planning to UV it further for either fire or poison, as for the suit il go volcanic demo, since i dont need a too high damage bonus but i want a high CTR bonus, since i combine both blast bombs and shard bombs with status bombs.
I am tho realy interested in how the plate shields and the stone tortoise do becouse i need a good shield that would soak up quite a bit of melee damage when i retreat from my freezing atomizer (later shivermist).
Well bombastic works nicely as the damage set for bombers, assuming that all your bombs have at least med:CTR to compensate; keeps you from being frozen and has better elemental defence and no status-negatives.
Plate shields work ok-ish, but Omega Shell does not. I think it's been known to tank a Vana mace (or Trojan maybe? A heavy hit, regardless) but that was about all it could manage. No special defences let it break easy from everything on T3 and lack of status resistances make it even less useful in themed maps.
The Ironmight is a great normal defensive shield (it can actually take a few mace hits), but if there's a lot of shadow or elemental damage then you may want to look elsewhere.
Ironmight Plate Shield (for piercing), Volcanic Plate Shield (for FSC and fire) and Grey Owlite Shield (for Elemental and shock). Optional: Crest of Almire (for Shadow).
I would put emphasis on piercing and elemental first, because turrets tend to target bombers (when they charge bombs). But to get these two shields, you may need to farm FSC for a while. So get that Volcanic Plate Shield first. And after farming FSC for a while, you would get Crest of Almire easily.
I would put emphasis on piercing
Why piercing?
The piercing aspect is far less useful than the fact that the shield is near-invincible at lower tiers, and a serious contender in T3.
Look at the bomber's helm and armor: none of them has piercing resistance. And needless to say, some turrets do piercing damage. So your shield should be your first line of defense against piercing.
(And obviously, if the enemies you are fighting don't do piercing damage, there is no point to bring a piercing shield.)
If i were a bomber, i wouldnt shield that much. ASI on bombs makes you start the charging at a faster rate, so my choise of shield would be Swiftstrike buckler.
Eltia, are polyps more common than, or more dangerous than, howlitzers? I don't understand why your argument doesn't apply to shadow protection as well as piercing protection. Why aren't you recommending a shadow shield? Especially since the shadow-dealing monsters tend to be among the hardest, and the piercing-dealing monsters among the easiest.
If a bomber wants to shield, I'd recommend elemental defence above all else, as most of what's likely to hit bombers will be turrets and other such shooty things. S'why bomber armour is elemental...ofc, as Theiri said, bombers really needn't shield that much anyway, as things go~
@Eltia: I used to think the same way as you (but then I took a Howlitzer to the face)
Actually, that's a lie. I always find shadow and elemental damage monsters more annoying than piercing ones; beasts are so easy it's untrue, and most slimes move fairly slowly and predictably. Also, no bomber armour has shadow defense either, for that matter. Besides, homing Howlitzer heads are far more vexing than polyp spikes.
(but then I took a Howlitzer to the knee)
Fixed.
I second the swift strike, its my primary shield...I am a pure bomber with a full Mad Bomber set, over the course of playing with bombs you learn how to dodge really well. That and carrying a blast bomb works great for shielding in sticky situations. I carried a BAB for a while and I love its insane knockback, purely a situational bomb but if used right it can by you enough time to pill or anti or setup a status bomb. As a support bomber in parties your job is to get in there and get those status and keep em there. The majority of your time is spent charging. If you cant charge and dodge then you have a long way to go as a bomber. I used my shield mainy for the bumping technique.
Would also like to point out that BTS is a viable bomber shield. The defence isn't great but, as agreed, bombers have little use for defence anyways, it does give a unique +2 to swords that other shields don't offer. This means that you can bring a sideblade along as your 4th weapon slot, which can be used from anything from pushing back, to quick finishers, dealing with 1v1 baddies to even just breaking pots and boxes. This just gives it that dmg:med so it counts for that touch more.
To build on that, if you happen to be using full mad bomber, then you only need one trinky slot for damage to get max:max, which means you could fill the 2nd slot with a slash mod and get dmg:vh for your sideblade, which makes it very useful for when you do need to use it. I always went with the brandihses becasue they hit fast and could status the enemies (I used Glacius and Shiver to perpetuate the freeze) and with the brandish buff they became long range sniping tools as well.
Point is, that BTS can really count for a lot, if we're giving up defences, here.
Most people use it due to FSC.
Never, ever get Bombastic. DMG is nothing compared to CTR. And you get some defence that you would normally use.