First* Gear to Work Towards

I have a detailed sword guide specifically for players in your situation. It tells you basic concepts, before comparing swords, advising on armor, etc. It addresses all of your questions except maybe this:

Also being a sword master, what gun and bomb should I work towards first?

You seem to be more of a hybrid player than a pure sworder, but okay. My advice is Dark Briar Barrage. It is the safest way to kill fiends (who are difficult) and the fastest way to kill beasts (who are easy). The other standard advice would be Blitz Needle (for Vanaduke, which you'll farm a lot later) or Iron Slug. See also the Mixing Weapon Types section of my sword guide.

So for example you could pretty easily end up with the following items, which would give you a lot of power. Their only "drawback" is that they're very popular, so you're not discovering hidden gems, forging your own special path, etc.

Helmets:
Perfect Mask of Seerus (because you have Operation Crimson Hammer)
3-star Black Kat Helmet (easy to get during any Kataclysmic Konfrontation event)

Suits:
Chaos Cloak

Shields:
Barbarous Thorn Shield
Swiftstrike Buckler

Weapons:
Warmaster Rocket Hammer (because you have OCH)
Dark Retribution (because you have OCH)
Dark Briar Barrage
Acheron
Iron Slug

To save you some trouble...

Chaos Set

Swiftstrike Buckler

Combuster - Kills everything.
Blitz - Snipes monsters with high HP besides jellies.

I generally recommend this so you can speed through the game to get more weapons you desire. This game is dreadfully evil if you choose to invest on the wrong equipment the first time around... I'd get these first before getting anything else...

Yes, Combuster and Blitz Needle are great. But the original poster already has Warmaster Rocket Hammer, which decreases the value of having Combuster.

Well I bought the recipe for my cloak. What level should I be b4 I attempt tier 3 of the expansion to get my hammer and such? Probably going to end up spending some cash on this just to make it a little easier to afford what I want when I get to end game. ugh

Operation: Crimson Hammer is one of the more difficult missions of the game, I guess. The final fight is pretty challenging. Certainly you should have 4-star gear at least.

The only thing I don't like about hammer is it's null effect on gremlins.

It also has very little effect on beasts. That's all because it's pure elemental damage. But it works wonders against other monsters, and it has a delightfully steep learning curve (compared to most of the rest of the game).