Spiral Knights - Deadly Crystal Bomb or Electron Vortex?

Deadly Crystal Bomb or Electron Vortex?

17 replies [Last post]

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 07:47

Burq

I recently decided to take up bombing after finding a black kat cowl (and getting a bit bored of gunning and slashing everything for 300+ hours) and getting a volcanic demo suit. Now, so far I have the following bombs:

-Nitrome
-Dark Briar Barrage (my favorite so far)
-Dark Retribution (already had)
-Electron charge
-Shivermist Buster (already had)
-Fiery Atomizer (found in a Vana run)

So far so good, but I noticed there were no elemental damage/blast bombs so a guildie recommended me making an Electron Vortex as a utility/damage bomb... the problem is that I despise LD and get the 250 tokens is just gonna be horrifying (unless I sink like 900 ce in krogmo coin boosters to make the grind a lot faster), but then another guildie told me about the Deadly Cristal Bomb, an elemental shard bomb... the problem with that is that it's a shard bomb (I used to had a sun shard starting out to take care of trojans but the update kinda ruined them for me so I sold it soon after).

So now I'm in a bit of a pickle: do I shallow my words and just try to get used to the shard bombs and get a DCB or should I force myself to grind LD and throw my sanity away to get an Electron Vortex? Which would be a better investment in the long run? Should I just go and say SCREW THAT and just run with a Polaris for elemental damage?

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 11:48

Bopp

don't need either, but Electron Vortex

You don't need an elemental fast-damage bomb. For fast damage use Nitronome on constructs or DBB on undead. For slower damage use Ash of Agni or Voltaic Tempest.

That said, every bomber should have either Graviton Vortex or Electron Vortex, and EV is slightly better. So consider getting EV although you hate PvP.

I've never used DCB, but I've used Scintillating Sun Shards, and I was not thrilled by the effectiveness or the fun.

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 15:23

Zeddy

Deadly Crystal Bomb isn't all that bad. You will need about a very high damage bonus to keep it effective, but when you've got that and learn the way of shardbombing, it's pretty powerful on crowds of undead and constructs.

However, if you're very against that, as well as doing Lockdown for the admittedly amazing Electron Vortex, you need not despair. Here are alternatives:
-Upgrade the Fiery Atomizer to Ash of Agni. You will never want for a different damage bomb on undead and constructs provided the stratum isn't fire-based. The initial blast of haze bombs is actually quite powerful, and it's elemental damage to boot. Sometimes I kill Trojans only using Venom Veiler.
-Since FSC is fire based, you could also/instead get a Voltaic Tempest. Shock damage is elemental and if you have them gathered, admittedly easier with Electron Vortex but you could use Graivton, shock damage racks up pretty quick.
-You could stick to DBB for undead and DR for constructs. They're both very powerful bombs for those purposes. Specialised damage is kind of overrated, honestly, and these two bombs would most certainly kill elemental targets much faster than Polaris.
-Just Nitronome everything. Nitro is amazing.

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 17:54

Bella-Donna

krogmo boosters

You can get 8 krogmo boosters and activate them all at once (one day should be fine) then you'll get about 9-10 coins per match if what i know about them is correct. meaning only 25 to 28 matches to get the recipe.

Tue, 02/19/2013 - 21:33

Etharaes

A lesson about bombing

Bombing is not like swording or gunning. Bombs plays VERY differently to them; most of their weapons fit different niches than shadow weapon, piercing weapon, elemental weapon. As such a bomber's arsenal will look quite different to a swordsman's or a gunner's.

As a little nit-pick, it's crYstal, not crIstal.

Thu, 02/21/2013 - 17:36

Batabii

I don't see how they're

I don't see how they're comparable at all, but I'd say EV is useful against 90% of all enemies, even ones like Voltails that resist the damage AND the status, simply by virtue of the pull.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 00:40

Feline-Grenadier

My two cents...

Shard weaponry is a bit trickier, since the area of the actual explosion can only hit so much. Unlike the conventional bombs, it has a "ring" area, which means that you're always moving. Also, the more damaging explosion happen later, by that time means that the faster enemies may be well out of reach.

So Electron Vortex kinda beats the crap out of the shards for its pull, although it has a short range.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 03:12

Willshock

LONG LIVE NITROME

ELECTRON VORTEX is a great weapon and pretty much easy to use. Its worth the LD.

The shard bomb is a hard weap to use due to the time it takes to explode.

Other wise get a voltaic tempest or stick to the nitrome, they are just amazing

and btw dont get the boosters, they are a complete waste.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 06:27

Zeddy

I got six boosters from the battle pack.

Through one day of Lockdown I had 600 krogmos and could get EV and Stagger Storm at the same time, never needing to look back at LD again.

Fri, 02/22/2013 - 10:48

Eclaium

Electron Vortex <3

Anyway, I can sell you Krogmo Coin Booster (1 Day) cheaper than Kozma <3 Send me in-game mail if you're interested

Mon, 02/25/2013 - 00:07

#10

Burq

Thanks guys!

After some thinking and reading the suggestions here, I decided to go for the Electron Vortex (with the help of a good bunch of krogmo coin boosters) and holy hell this thing has a bigger range then the blast circle says!

Thanks guys for the suggestions, specially Bopp and Zeddy! :D

@Etharaes: yeah, my bomber load-out is already feeling a lot more different then my gunner or sword set... and it's pretty darn fun :D

Mon, 02/25/2013 - 00:31

#11

Batabii

Just a note, I have DCB, and

Just a note, I have DCB, and I was apalled how weak it was, even at level 5. Dark Briar Barrage was doing more than DOUBLE damage to zombies, even accounting for the fact it has vs undead low. More testing needs to be done, but so far it seems ALL shard-type bombs are greatly underpowered.

Mon, 02/25/2013 - 00:43

#12

Zeddy

@Batabii

You should heat that bomb up. DBB should only be doing about 30% more damage than a single shard.

Mon, 02/25/2013 - 01:57

#13

Batabii

That still seems wrong, given

That still seems wrong, given the DCB has type advantage on its side...

Mon, 02/25/2013 - 02:59

#14

Zeddy

Not at all! DBB has identcal damage to Nitronome. Here are some other other things Nitronome outdamages:

-150% stronger than a single DR hit against gremlins.
-50% stronger than expanded Polaris on an undead.
-80% stronger than a charged Blitz Needle hitting a fiend/Vanaduke.
-80% stronger than Argent Peacemaker hitting an undead.
-Just as strong as Callahan hitting a beast.

The problem lies not in the damage, but rather in the mechanics being very awkward to multihit things with. You only need a double hit (two shards or shard+core) to outdamage DBB against undead with a Crystal Bomb.

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 02:41

#15

Batabii

That....doesn't seem very

That....doesn't seem very balanced, given nitronome can hit an infinite amount of enemies in a large radius (AoE)

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 05:39

#16

Zeddy

@Batabii

You point me to the nearest area in the clockworks with an infinite amout of enemies and I will concede your point.

Until then, I'll play the game where most enemies waves can entirely fit into the coverage area of a shard bomb.

Tue, 02/26/2013 - 21:01

#17

Batabii

Try going to any Graveyard.

Try going to any Graveyard. There may not be infinite enemies, but you can easily hit 10+ zombies with a single bomb. Whereas most of those other weapons have such a tiny attack radius.

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Deadly Crystal Bomb or Electron Vortex?