Most bombers go for a defensive shield, ie. GOS/Plate lines/Omega Shell/even Dragon Scale (not recommended)/other.
I heard [Zeddy, I think] uses the Swiftstrike Buckler with bombs, as that lowers the time spent placing the bomb itself, so you're not as vulnerable. This also means that 1) you can't pass the HoH 2) you can't shield as many attacks, which is mainly a problem with turrets post-RSS nerf.
Kudos for going pure bomber, not enough people in SK do that.
It probably also makes you put the damn thing away faster if you decide to cancel a charge, allowing you to shield or run away faster. That thing can still take a hit in tier 3. Just not a lot of them or a really strong one. Also remember that shielding in a crowd of enemies after planting a bomb pushes them away from you and consequently, the bomb so it should be used as a last resort. Swiftstrike's knockback is weaker than 5 star shields so that's a factor too, for good or ill.
Swifty helps in the dps department. Not much defense. Blastbombs are your best bet for a shield. When in doubt, blow everything up!! Nitronome works best here. The ctr, fuse time, and knockback make it the perfect bomb to spam in those tricky situations. Of course ITD and BAB are better in the knockback department, for those times when you just need some space.
Happy bombing!!
I must to agree on Blakknite's opinion,but when you're on any hard mission (Danger Missions,Vana Run and many others) you may need to defend your self more.I think the best of them are the Plates ones.There's no special need of other status protection if using Electron or Graviton bombs.Never tried Plate Shields though.
But i have strong feelings on this one.
1) currently it is my opinion that if you are gonna pure bomb u need at least 3 weapon slots. I love pure bombing, and i prefer to do it with 4 bombs. Versatility is really the killer to effective bombingl. My favorite is an arena with all the haze bombs minus the stagger storm, since stagger didn't work when i still played. Oh yeah, always carry a ctr nitronome. It is the true finisher of the bomb family. It keeps everything off you (but is the solo bomb players strength). You have to solo bomb play to perfect your craft.
2) I feel as being a super experienced bomber the the crest of almire is currently the way to go with your shield. It is an absolute tank. It's only downside is no elemental for vana, but vana shouldn't be hitting you anyways. The only time that should matter is vs the mask phases if you have a poorly working computer which i do suffer from at times. So if you have vana issues with all that ceiling falling killing you performance, then you have to equip a grey owlite the floor before so you have a ton of elemental resist. It really helps to get some shadow resist UV on it first. Somehow even max shadow is almost free, so it's possible.
3) This is my most important point. If swords and some guns are gonna be OP, then we need a bomber shield. We have several OP sword/gun shields when the sword/guns already outpace bombs (i cry they nerfed my DR, it was so great to even rip through undead with it). I realize it was OP, but then so is every brandish minus the poor archeron which is just a Royal jelly assasin--which i still like it. Back to my idea for needing a bomber shield. This shield should not bounce enemies away and even give us 2 options. Leave the enemy in place, or pull them toward us from a small distance away. I don't understand why they haven't done this yet. It would give the bomb user more utility which already seems to be what we don't have that makes us underpowered. I feel like this shield should also have the ability to lock enemies to cancel knockback when needed (that way all those elite swordies won't hate us-ok a 3rd point right after i announced two points, told you i was passionate about this). And this shield should only be able to used if you only have bombs on you. So it can't be abused by just throwing it in with swords and guns. I'd prolly play the game again if they did this. Heck bombs would still be less effective than swords/guns. But if you could suck in a mob to you're graviton instead of dropping a graviton then knocking all enemies out of it's range to protect yourself so you aren't dying like an idiot to help your brandish brethen...well then you'd have a shield that at least worked with your bomb instead of against it. Instead all shields were made for caliburs and brandishes and your cryotechs and nothing for a support bomber. Why should our shields make us less effective when every other shield on the game supports it's "class" even in pvp. And the pure bomber just experiences nerf after nerf when we are already the weakest "class". I mean if you even take a gun or a sword with your bomb loadout then you just have to use the gun/sword unless u just want to kill stuff slower than you can. Which was the point behind the bomb shield can only be used if you only have bombs.
sorry for wall of text. I space my stuff out very strategically with paragraphs and always forget dupral forums kill it into a wall of text. fixing now
get a max ctr with mad bomber gears. spam nitro like a madman and you wont even have to use your shield. at all. i never care about shield actually. using aegis just because thats the only shield i have
I agree that Crest of Almire makes a great choice. Grey Owlite is a good second choice. But the real key, as has been pointed out, is to not shield. When I gave up on Bombing after a year (thanks for murdering RSS), I had to learn how to use a shield. Because the best way to use a shield as a bomber, is to not. You want things on your bomb, not being pushed past it.
^
My best guy is only 4* but this is realy handy. I'm a pure sword guy, and my other 2 characters are made up of a gunner and a bomber(damn snarby is REALLY tough when using just bombs).
Anyway there really is no best shield but a swiftie with a CTR UV or the Crest of Almire would be good. If you do get swiftie with a CTR then spamming the nitro would make a great shield unless there are projectiles around.
You can't get offensive UVs on defensive gear. Likewise, you can't get defensive UVs on offensive gear. You can read more about the subject here: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Unique_variant
match with level. coa for vana, bts/ironmight for pierce, grey feath forele. or just use a scarlet shield for the extra hp.
I got a good list of Shields from another topic, parts are opinionated but should generally just give you a good feel defensively:
Volcanic Plate Shield - Normal Damage:
Ancient Plate Shield here makes a decent substitute, however, Volcanic Plate Shield is the better option hands down. It's also the best Defensive Shield for Firestorm Citadel hands-down.
Ironmight Plate Shield - Piercing Damage:
You may say "Wouldn't Royal Jelly be a better option?". Currently on Elite, Beasts generally do a set amount of damage to a 5* Shield. No matter which Shield you pick, Royal Jelly Shield and Ironmight Plate Shield will survive in the exact same amount of hits. Unless Royal Jelly Shield has Piercing Low on it or Ironmight had Piercing High, then it'll survive by one more. Where-as the Slime-Family still inflicts split Normal/Piercing damage even on Elite. Making Ironmight more vital than Royal Jelly.
Grey Owlite Shield - Elemental Damage:
Can't really say on this one, Owlite is probably more favorable than Heater Shield. Heater Shield is easier to get since you have the Defender-line Recipes handed to you via Missions meaning you just have to get the Heater Shield recipe to craft it. Owlite might be more viable though due to the double-status immunity along with +3 Elemental Resistance than Heater Shield. I don't generally know how split-damage is handled.
Dread Skelly Shield - Shadow Damage:
Once again, same problem as above. Dread Skelly Shield isn't exactly all that powerful compared to Crest of Almire, but Crest of Almire shares its status with Grey Owlite Shield. Crest of Almire is also easier to get end-game since you can just buy Blackened Crest from the Token Vendor. Hard to say on this one. However, it's the best Shield for Shroud of the Apocrea whenever it returns.
Dragon Scale Shield - Compound 42:
Dragon Scale Shield has weird stats. It doesn't shine as good as Ironmight Plate Shield or Grey Owlite Shield but can still be used outside of Compound 42. In fact, depending on how much damage Constructs and Gremlins do on the Shield, it might be able to replace both Ironmight Plate Shield and Grey Owlite Shield. Helping you save money.
but whatever. I use Omega shell for everything and it works great.
I suggest if you only want to make one shield and focus your currency on getting other gear then make an Omega. You don't even need to heat it really, or you can stick with Stone Tortoise. I know it's nice to have a 5* shield for every occasion but sometimes it's nice not to have to make decisions.
IMO as a pure bomber myself, I/we don't(/can't) sheild much, so it's either swifty, plate or omega.
Unless your a defensive/supportive bomber with only mist bomb and a gun, get what glacies said.
Now, if newbs used the search tool and run into this thread and stop multi-posting the same question every 2 weeks >.>
Swiftstrike is not as good as it used to be for bombers. Before there used to be a pickup animation for bombs, and ASI helped a lot. However now there is only the put down animation, and the effective ASI period has been halved.
Ancient Plate Shield is great in my opinion, but I'd recommend the Stone Tortoise shield as you can heat up your Stone Tortoise shield to level 10 quite readily in comparison to every other shield suggestion here and it still has an absurd amount of shield health. High Normal defensive shields are average against everything and great vs. Trojans and somewhat useful against Lumbers. A bomber shouldn't be getting hit very often in my opinion, so I keep a shield for the heavy hitters.
Load out includes a type of blast-bomb and a vapor bomb. Mad Demo set planned, but nowhere near yet.