Difference between revisions of "Bombing Guide"

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====Venom Veiler====
 
====Venom Veiler====
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Perhaps the most interesting of all status effects, poison acts as a debuff to your enemies; reducing their attack power and their defensive abilities, make this perhaps the epitome of a true support bomb, providing little to no direct damage whilst instead increasing the damage of your teammates. At that's the way it looks on paper, however whilst there's no denying the usefulness of these properties, simply using veiler on it's own to provide support will often fail to result in a comparable damage output than if you had just been using a damaging weapon yourself, even with three teammates! As a result of this the most effective way to use veiler is not to use it repeatedly like most bombs, but rather to inflict poison and then switch to an offensive weapon to take advantage of the situation, the poison lasts long enough that you can deal more than enough damage between bomb placements without needing to keep the mist up all the time.
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Perhaps the most interesting of all status effects, poison acts as a debuff to your enemies; reducing their attack power considerably, as well as a minor debuff to their defenses. The Venom Veiler is perhaps the epitome of a true support bomb, providing little to no direct damage whilst instead increasing the survivability and damage of your teammates. At that's the way it looks on paper, however whilst there's no denying the usefulness of these properties, simply using veiler on it's own to provide support will often fail to result in a comparable damage output than if you had just been using a damaging weapon yourself, even with three teammates! As a result of this the most effective way to use veiler is not to use it repeatedly like most bombs, but rather to inflict poison and then switch to an offensive weapon to take advantage of the situation, the poison lasts long enough that you can deal more than enough damage between bomb placements without needing to keep the mist up all the time.
  
 
Now although this may sound only mildly decent thus far, there is one situation in which poison becomes exceptionally powerful; while there are healers are in the room. The reason for this is that poisoned mobs actually take damage when they're healed, rather than regain health. So in Tier 3 for example, if a room of poisoned mobs walk onto the circle of healing cast by gremlin menders, a great amount of damage will be inflicted upon the damaged mobs - so the room can be completed in less time than with a lot of other bombs. The kiting ability of this bomb also means you are less likely to get hit so you are pretty safe in a room full of menders, in fact stacking the fire and poison effects of Ash of Agni & Venom Veiler can easily carry you through the final waves of even the most challenging [[Arena|Arenas]], at least those that aren't fire or poison themed themselves. With all this in mind, Venom Veiler can actually be a great bomb in the right situations, especially in shadow lairs, which have a lot of healers about.
 
Now although this may sound only mildly decent thus far, there is one situation in which poison becomes exceptionally powerful; while there are healers are in the room. The reason for this is that poisoned mobs actually take damage when they're healed, rather than regain health. So in Tier 3 for example, if a room of poisoned mobs walk onto the circle of healing cast by gremlin menders, a great amount of damage will be inflicted upon the damaged mobs - so the room can be completed in less time than with a lot of other bombs. The kiting ability of this bomb also means you are less likely to get hit so you are pretty safe in a room full of menders, in fact stacking the fire and poison effects of Ash of Agni & Venom Veiler can easily carry you through the final waves of even the most challenging [[Arena|Arenas]], at least those that aren't fire or poison themed themselves. With all this in mind, Venom Veiler can actually be a great bomb in the right situations, especially in shadow lairs, which have a lot of healers about.

Revision as of 16:01, 13 May 2015

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Bombing Guide
Bombing Guide logo.png

Introduction

A bomber is a person specializing in a play-style involving the primary use of a bomb. A bomber's responsibilities vary between crowd control, spreading status effects, or dealing damage over a large area. This may seem to be a tedious line of work to some, but bombs are very powerful tools and can significantly ease the difficultly of content for a party. There are two key points to being a successful bomber:

  • Knowing which bombs are best for each situation, either to maximize damage or survivability.
  • Placing bombs strategically, as to have to the greatest positive effect.

Bombs

Blast Bombs

A go-to mainstay of almost any bomber's arsenal, the Blast Bombs are a line of explosive weaponry that deal pure Normal damage and have a large amount of knockback on them, making these bombs exceptionally useful for tactics like "shielding" and "boxing". The Blast Bombs are some of the most generally all-around useful bombs available, they're extremely effective in any stratum in the game and they're also easy to attain as players provided with a free Blast Bomb along with all the recipes to upgrade it through to the Nitronome just by progressing through the Ranked Missions. Despite their all purpose utility bombers do have to be careful when using this group of bombs, due to their knockback and very bright visual effect upon detonating, they can be extremely disruptive in uncoordinated parties. For this reason bombers planning to use Blast Bomb-line weapons should always be sure to inform their party beforehand and try to plan out strategies before major battles.

Nitronome

The nitronome dealing damage to a large area and pushing slags away from its blast.

The Nitronome is arguably the best damage bomb available to bombers. It is a large-radius bomb that deals damage to everything inside of its blast radius as well as pushing everything outward from the center of the bomb. Of the Blast Bomb alchemy line bombs, it has the shortest fuse, fastest walk speed, and a short charge time. Want to deal damage to a large area? The Nitronome is the obvious choice.

The Nitronome has less knockback and less damage than the alternate blast bomb alchemy lines but it makes up for it with the fastest bomb-charging walk speed and a faster fuse than the other two. These attributes combine to create a weapon that leaves the bomber feeling nimble and agile, allowing them to avoid attacks while charging bombs and using the Nitronome's moderate amount of knockback as a "shield."


Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • The explosion (and accompanying screen shake) obscures the view of surroundings for you and your teammates.
  • Poorly placed bombs can push enemies into teammates.
  • Over-kiting enemies past bombs will push enemies towards you.

Big Angry Bomb

The next best blast bomb after the Nitronome is the Big Angry Bomb, and is a unique option for those who want everything wiped from the screen. Offering an incredible amount of knockback and the highest damage per explosion of any bomb in the game, the BAB is a tool for players whom want to feel powerful, to control an area and sure as hell make sure nothing can get to you. A common misconception many people have is that the Nitronome is always the superior weapon, in actuality the mechanics of the two are different enough that they actually fill different niches; whilst chaining the BAB is significantly slower and less aggressive than Nitro-chaining, the greater knockback and stun effect it offers make it a much more effective "shielding weapon" when against certain kinds of enemies, making it a great choice in the Unknown Passage. Additionally the BAB is also a viable alternative in Lockdown despite what you might assume; many Strikers will find themselves taken off-guard by the slower-fuse and the potential stun on its explosion can leave anyone you hit easy pickings for your own Strikers.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Huge knockback alongside the long fuse means you need to be more pro-active in leading enemies into correct positioning than with the Nitronome
  • Slow walking speed when charging leaves you vulnerable

Irontech Destroyer

The Irontech Destroyer deals a bit more damage than Nitronome and does more knockback while having a fair chance of minor stun. The fuse time is as long as that of Big Angry Bomb and the walk speed reduction is also the same, making the bomb riskier to use than Nitronome. As the charge time is somewhere between that of Nitronome and BAB, DPS is not necessarily higher. Instead, Irontech sits somewhere right between its cousins: Hitting stronger than Nitro but being more spammable than BAB.

Some bombers find that the knockback and rapid exploding of Irontech negates the threat posed by the slowed walk speed and fuse time once you can get a chain going.

For the bomber on the cheap, the 4* Irontech Bomb is still stronger than Nitronome per blast (and, frankly, 5* Destroyer is barely any stronger) while still having the full radius of 5* bombs. As a bonus, the fuse time is faster than Destroyer's, too.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Slow walk speed will make dodging harder.
  • Long fuse time makes it trickier to get the second bomb going than with Nitronome.

Heavy Deconstructor

One of the least known bombs is the Heavy Deconstructor. This bomb gives the appearance of a gremlin-demo style 'ticker' bomb, as well as showing what appears to be the Darkfang symbol in the blast effect. The Heavy Decon is one of the least used because, in all honesty, Master Blast Bomb is better. The two are the same in fuse, radius and charge time... so what's the problem? The construct damage bonus isn't really that noticeable and the Master Blast bomb's extra damage overall is a nicer option. The worst aspect is that the Heavy Deconstructor stops at 4* so the Nitronome greatly outclasses it. In end game bomber mode, its probably just a better option to look for a UV Construct bonus than going to the effort of making a Heavy Decon.

During the preview, the Heavy Decon was even more disappointing with an incredibly small radius (that of today's regular Blast/Super Blast Bomb). However, back then it seemed to have an actual use due to the reduced radius after getting a UV on bombs. (Obviously this feature has been removed.) This made the Heavy Decon an actual option inside the bombing community, eliminating gun puppies in a matter of 3 hits in a party of 4. Now though, there is no real use in favoring a Heavy Deconstructor over the Master Blast and for now it is only a novelty; perhaps it will be balanced in the future.

Dark Briar Barrage

A Dark Briar Barrage explosion knocks down a soft-bodied Darkfang Thwacker.

The Dark Briar Barrage (DBB) is a piercing damage bomb with characteristics similar to the Nitronome. Despite this the Dark Briar Barrage is not technically a "Blast Bomb" as it is neither part of the same alchemy tree, nor does it have the characteristic knockback of the other Blast Bombs, instead being capable of knocking down soft-bodied enemies such as gremlins and wolvers.

The absence of knockback makes the DBB a great choice for bombers less adept at nitronome placement. The non-disruptive nature of the bomb means that teammates will not have to make adjustments to their gameplay and also means that several DBBs can be comboed together effectively without interfering with each other. The DBB is an excellent choice against fiends, beasts, undead, and gremlins. However because it deals piercing damage, it is ineffective against slimes and construct.

When attacking enemies neutral to piercing (undead and gremlins) the DBB has the same damage output as a Nitronome.

Because the DBB has no knockback, it offers less protection and must be used differently than a typical blast bomb. Bombers can take advantage of the DBB's non-disruptive behavior by running away from enemies while placing down DBBs and essentially kiting them into the blast zone. Another strategy is to take advantage of the lack of knockback by overlapping multiple bombs' blast areas on an enemy's position (like a Venn diagram[1]) while dodging attacks normally. This will allow bombers to easily hit a target multiple times without having to predict where enemies will be pushed.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • The lack of knockback needs you to be far more careful than with other Blast Bombs.
  • The knockdown effect will cease to work on various enemies in larger parties.
  • The DBB line recipes can only be acquired via Basil

'Vaporizer' Bombs

Bombers use vaporizer bombs to defend a point in Lockdown.

Amongst all weapons in the game that are capable of inflicting status conditions upon the inhabitants of the Clockworks, one group reigns supreme and that is the "Vaporizer Bombs" line. Vaporizer Bombs are characterized by a small initial explosions that inflict an okay amount of elemental damage, but then spreads a large cloud of "haze" that deals a particular status effect on everything within it that's vulnerable, making these weapons exceptionally effective at applying status effects to large groups of enemies. Naturally this also makes them effective tools in Lockdown where they can act as an exceptional tool for area denial.

The weakness to these bombs however is that it's impossible to target single foes, which means there are certain unique considerations one must make depending on the status in question, as will be outlined below.


Ash of Agni

The final upgrade of the Fiery Vaporizer line, the Ash of Agni, creates a fiery mist that inflicts a fire status on mobs that were foolish enough to not run away. Still, the fire line may be considered a support bomb. These bombs help by softening up monsters or by simply killing them slowly over time.

This bomb can be combined with a blast bomb by setting the monsters on fire and then blasting them away. Also, kiting is very easy with the bomb by simply running in a large circle setting monsters on fire. This strategy can out DPS menders, trivializing arenas or danger rooms, especially if used in conjunction with Venom Veiler. It takes some time, but the damage to yourself will be minimal if done right. Since the bomb only causes damage it should not disrupt other party members.

All in all, this bomb is one of the better ones and can be recommended.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

Shivermist Buster

A Shivermist Buster makes Lord Vanaduke battle a breeze.

Looking for crowd control? You have found everything you need! The Shivermist Buster, will freeze mobs in place. Frozen mobs cannot turn or move, but are still able to attack. Freeze most of the mobs, finish the leftovers. Alternatively, you can freeze single mobs and leave the rest. Every mob in the game is easier to deal with when stuck in place so this bomb is useful almost everywhere.

The downside to a pure crowd control bomb is that the damage output is quite low. A mob that is frozen takes no damage from the status effect until it wears off, referred to as "thawing." Breaking the freeze early with another attack (from either a friend or foe) or refreezing results in no damage at all. Continuous freezing can be used to keep a mob alive to allow players to prepare themselves between waves in Arenas for example.

However, there is a significant downside that should be considered. If a knight is completely surrounded by mobs then freezing the enemies results in an effective death trap; the trapped knight is unable to escape their predicament by shield bumping or dashing and will likely be killed as a result. Always be weary of the situation when using shivermist.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Enemies can still attack from the front; approach enemies from behind to melee
  • Can refreeze melted Ice Cubes
  • Can create an impenetrable wall of enemies which Knights cannot shield bump through

Venom Veiler

Perhaps the most interesting of all status effects, poison acts as a debuff to your enemies; reducing their attack power considerably, as well as a minor debuff to their defenses. The Venom Veiler is perhaps the epitome of a true support bomb, providing little to no direct damage whilst instead increasing the survivability and damage of your teammates. At that's the way it looks on paper, however whilst there's no denying the usefulness of these properties, simply using veiler on it's own to provide support will often fail to result in a comparable damage output than if you had just been using a damaging weapon yourself, even with three teammates! As a result of this the most effective way to use veiler is not to use it repeatedly like most bombs, but rather to inflict poison and then switch to an offensive weapon to take advantage of the situation, the poison lasts long enough that you can deal more than enough damage between bomb placements without needing to keep the mist up all the time.

Now although this may sound only mildly decent thus far, there is one situation in which poison becomes exceptionally powerful; while there are healers are in the room. The reason for this is that poisoned mobs actually take damage when they're healed, rather than regain health. So in Tier 3 for example, if a room of poisoned mobs walk onto the circle of healing cast by gremlin menders, a great amount of damage will be inflicted upon the damaged mobs - so the room can be completed in less time than with a lot of other bombs. The kiting ability of this bomb also means you are less likely to get hit so you are pretty safe in a room full of menders, in fact stacking the fire and poison effects of Ash of Agni & Venom Veiler can easily carry you through the final waves of even the most challenging Arenas, at least those that aren't fire or poison themed themselves. With all this in mind, Venom Veiler can actually be a great bomb in the right situations, especially in shadow lairs, which have a lot of healers about.

Voltaic Tempest

Voltaic Tempest mist spreading shock status to nearby Slags.

The Voltaic Tempest is an AoE shock bomb which delivers damage while interrupting the movements and attacks of your enemies. Now whilst this may be somewhat helpful against a single enemy, it's true potential shines against groups of tightly clustered foes, any enemy that spasms from Shock will also damage nearby monsters, and trigger more spasms of any other shocked enemies. This makes Voltaic Tempest extremely powerful when used in conjunction with a vortex line-bomb, or just generally against areas with large groups of foes such as Compounds. Ash of Agni and Voltaic Tempest are a popular combination for damaging enemies that aren't immune or resistant to Fire or Shock. Keep in mind that Shock deals elemental damage, and thus is not nearly as effective against Gremlins or Beasts.

What really distinguishes tempest from most other bombs however is its incredible utility in LockDown. In Tier 2, spamming Lightning Capacitors (the 3* version in this line of alchemy) is an effective way to defend capture points. This is because the majority of players tend to wear the Wolver or Cobalt line of armor (both of which provides no elemental or shock protection). The mist keeps Recons off of the capture point as well exposing those caught in the initial blast (and keeping them from re-shielding/disappearing). Strikers, on the other hand, might be able to fly over the capture point without getting shocked, though many times fly right into the mist and are unable to fly off as easily. However Guardians can shield themselves from your shock, and the repeated 'hits' of the bomb will basically make Guardians invincible whilst in the mist, although this will usually only result in a stalemate since they're unable to drop their shield to engage you for long.

Although be weary, in Tier 3 LockDown, more players will have shock protection, or elemental resistance, mostly due to UVs, but the Voltaic Tempest is still a very viable defensive tool as most players will still not be protected against its effects, especially due to the popularity of the Chaos set & Black Kat Cowls.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Can supercharge quicksilvers
  • Enemies can break ghost blocks, activate switches, and blow up explosive crates with shock spasms
  • Enemies have reduced knock back while shocked
  • The Voltaic Tempest line recipes can only be acquired via Basil

Stagger Storm

The Stagger Storm is a status bomb that stuns enemies that enter its mist. While stunning enemies, slowing down their attacks and movement, can be a useful crowd control tool, the stun duration does not last long after the mist dissipates. Bombers wishing to use Stagger Storm should attempt to keep the status rings deployed at all times to avoid having enemies go in and out of stun since adjusting to constant speed changes can be difficult for teammates.

Despite the risks presented by using Stagger Storm alone, it works extremely well in conjunction with certain other status bombs, namely Volatic Tempest where a dual stun/shock stack will completely prevent most enemies from being able to maneuver or attack.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Spike attacks and thrown projectiles are unaffected by stun and will continue through the air at regular speeds.
  • Quicksilvers, Oilers and Toxoils are immune to minor Stun.
  • The Stagger Storm line recipes can only be acquired via Sullivan

Shard Bombs

A group of bombers chaining together multiple shard bombs.

The Shard Bomb-line consists of six lines of cluster-like bombs which create an initial explosion on detonation that then fire a series of non-damaging shards in multiple directions. These shards will then stick into the ground and explode shortly thereafter causing a series a of explosions that form a kind of ‘ring’ around the initial placement point of the bomb. The initial shard does less damage than the ring of shards. These bombs are quite difficult to use effectively, due to their unusual mechanics and somewhat unpredictable nature, however they can deal high damage with correct placement.

If you want this bomb to hit more than a blast bomb then you need to get enemies to get hit by multiple shards. For example, if you get a slime between two shards then you hit the slime twice (three times if it gets hit by the primary explosion), but if you place a blast bomb you have a maximum chance of hitting the slime once. Unfortunately, there is a hit limit in place where no one shard bomb can inflict damage to the same enemy with more than 3 shards at once. If you don't use the bomb right then you're better off with a different kind of dps bomb.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Shard Bombs knock back enemies multiple times, making it hard to predict the end positions.
  • Placing near a wall will result in some shards disappearing
  • Sometimes hit limit will bug out, letting enemies take no damage or interruption from the shard bombs at all.
  • The Roarmulus Twins are currently completely immune to these weapons

Vortex Bombs

Five Slags trapped inside the vortex from a Graviton bomb.

Starting their alchemy lines at three stars, the Vortex line are a few exceptionally powerful bombs that are in nearly every bomber's arsenal and for very good reason. Upon explosion the vortexes with pull all the nearby enemies toward them, enable a bomber to control the positioning of monsters in the immediate area and gather them into a particularly point to then be dealt with using another weapon for a lethal combo.

If a large amount of monsters are pulled into the hole, then the knockback from the explosion will not occur. These bombs combo exceptionally well with powerful charge attacks, particularly the Brandish and Autogun line weapons. The fact that these bombs enable you to gather up enemies for your teammates to then unleashed powerful attacks upon make them arguably the absolute best bombs for use in a team, with proper team work they are extremely lethal.


The three vortex lines are mostly identical, the Electron and Obsidian do the same amount of damage but deal Elemental and Shadow damage along with Shock and Poison status respectively, meanwhile the Graviton has a higher damage output than either but no chance of status infliction. Because of their ability to spread status, the Electron and Obsidian are both considered to be superior to the Graviton; the meager amount of additional damage the Graviton inflicts simply isn't worth the trade off. Additionally the Electron Vortex will be less likely to fling enemies at the conclusion of the vortex due to the Shock, and by being able to pull enemies into close proximity of each other and shocking them this also maximizes the potential damage output of shock. Additionally, if you manage to shock a group of enemies, they can be daisy-chained into another Electron with ease.

That being said whist the Graviton Vortex may seem like the worst of these lines by far, there is still legitimate reason to own one; the difficulty involved in acquiring an Obsidian Crusher means that for most bombers the Graviton Vortex will be a far easier acquisition for use against shadow weak enemies.

Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

  • Standing on top of the bomb when the fuse goes off can often trap you in the center of vortexed enemies
  • Enemies can still attack while inside the vortex
  • Enemies that are alive when the vortex expires are flung randomly away from the bomb
  • While charging you move at a significantly slower speed, leaving you open to fast moving enemies and projectiles.
  • Kats are unaffected by the suction during their dash
  • The Electron line recipes can only be acquired via Sullivan
  • The Graviton line recipes can only be acquired via Basil
  • The Obsidian Crusher can only be crafted during the Shroud of the Apocrea event

Dark Retribution

Dark Retribution vs some Ice Jellies.

The Dark Retribution (DR) is a shadow damage bomb with a unique damage pattern. After a small initial explosion, four orbs will begin rotating inside the blast area (2 clockwise, 2 counterclockwise). These orbs are the primary source of damage that the DR deals.

DR has the highest damage-per-second of any bomb in the game, especially if used against immobile, or large enemies where multiple orbs will hit the target(s) repeatedly in quick succession. Against enemies such as the Royal Jelly or a Battlepod a few well placed bombs will lead to an extremely quick kill. The DR is undoubtedly one of the best bombs to use against slimes and constructs due to the abundance of monsters in their families that have movement patterns that make them very vulnerable to DR.



Hazard Icon.png Potential Hazards:

Armor

Bomber Sets
Set Description Set Bonus Recommended UVs
Chaos

C.png

Chaos has negative resistances to poison, shock, freeze, fire and curse, equivalent to a medium unique variant as well as less normal and elemental defense than standard armour sets. The sacrifices you make to wear a full chaos set are rewarded handsomely, however, as both pieces will combine for very high charge time reduction as well as very high damage bonuses, both of which universally apply to all weapon types. This means that, not only does the Chaos set easily enable you to max out your bombing potential, but it also allows you to proficiently wield side-arms as well.

The Chaos set is well suited for bombers looking to deal damage. This set isn't recommended for players looking to solely specialize in status bombs as they will be incurring a significant penalty to defense while not fully taking advantage of the damage bonus.

If you plan on wearing Chaos, you should get very well acquainted with remedy pills.

Set Pieces: Chaos Cloak, Chaos Cowl

  • Charge Time Reduction: Very High
  • Damage Bonus: Very High

Armor

  • Medium+ Status Resist

Bomb

  • Medium+ Damage bonus
Volcanic Demo

Vd.png

Of the armors available to bombers, the Volcanic Demo set is the safest choice. It has high normal defense as well as a natural fire resistance. With level 10 bombs, the set will allow bombers to obtain max charge time reduction.

The set is well suited for bombers wishing to specialize in crowd control and status spreading, where a damage bonus isn't paramount. The Volcanic Demo Set is more than enough to allow bombers to take advantage of the haze-style bombs and serve as more of a support role in parties.

With the inclusion of trinkets, the Volcanic Demo set can gain Max CTR and Very High Damage like the Bombastic Demo Set, essentially making them interchangeable for fire and freeze stratums respectively.

Set Pieces: Volcanic Demo Suit, Volcanic Demo Helm

  • Bomb Charge Time Reduction: Very High

Armor

  • Medium Fire Resist
  • Maximum Poison Resist (Compound 42)
  • Maximum Curse Resist (Darkfire Citadel)

Bomb

  • Very High Damage Bonus
Bombastic Demo

Bd.png

The inverse of the Volcanic Demo set, the Bombastic provides bombers with a damage bonus instead of charge time reduction, and freeze resistance instead of fire. This armour choice is more for bombers whom prefer offensive-styled bombs over status bombs such as the blast or shard lines, however because charge time reduction ultimately provides higher dps, even for offensive bombers this set isn't preferred over Volcanic Demo, or Chaos within the Clockworks. However in Lockdown this set is an extremely viable choice for Recon bombers whom wish to use damage-dealing bombs.

With the inclusion of trinkets, the Bombastic Demo set can gain Max CTR and Very High Damage like the Volcanic Demo Set, essentially making them interchangeable for freeze and fire stratums respectively.

Set Pieces: Bombastic Demo Suit, Bombastic Demo Helm

  • Bomb Damage Bonus: Very High

Armor

  • Maximum Shock Resist (Lockdown)
  • Maximum Stun Resist (Lockdown)

Bomb

  • Very High CTR
Mad Bomber

Mb.png

The Mad Bomber set is for all intents and purposes, entirely inferior to the Chaos set. They both provide the same bonuses, however Mad is restricted to bombs only, where as Chaos is just as effective for bombing whilst also allowing you the freedom to easily use swords and handguns. The only advantage Mad has, is the lack of curse weakness, that is more or a less a completely non-factor considering its rarity in the clockworks.

Set Pieces: Mad Bomber Suit, Mad Bomber Mask

  • Bomb Charge Time Reduction: Very High
  • Bomb Damage Bonus: Very High

Armor

  • Medium+ Status Resist

Bomb

  • Medium Damage Bonus
Mercurial Demo

Md.png

Mercurial Demo is unique amongst the bombing armour sets since not only does it provide a medium damage bonus to bombs, but it also has a medium movement speed increase, an ability shared only with a small number of armour in the game. Whilst the use of movement speed is of a lot of debate amongst players, particuarly those using swords and guns, it proves to be exceptionally useful if you spend the majority of time using charge attacks; ergo all the time when bombing. However the exact manner in which MSI works is somewhat complex, as such it will be detailed in much greater depth below in the guide. The basic information you need to know is that in conjunction with the Swift Steps sprite perk, Mercurial Demo enables an almost entirely different playstyle due to the massive increased manevourability whilst bombing, and it even provides exceptionally useful Shock resist, valued both in the clockworks and in lockdown.


Set Pieces: Mercurial Demo Helm, Mercurial Demo Suit

  • Bomb Damage Bonus: Medium
  • Increased Movement Speed: Medium

Armor

  • Maximum Fire Resist (Firestorm Citadel)
  • Maximum Freeze Resist (Lockdown)
  • Maximum Stun Resist (Lockdown)

Bomb

  • Very High CTR
Black Kat Cowl

Bk.png

The Black Kat Cowl is a unique piece of gear that is as powerful as it is rare, offering both a universal high damage bonus, and low movement speed increase. If you're lucky enough to be in possession of one, it is an excellent replacement for Mercurial Demo Helm, since in conjunction with the suit you would still get MSI medium, but you'd get a very high damage bonus instead of only reaching medium. Whilst this piece of gear is arguably balanced due to having a myriad of negative status resist, it is unarguably one of the best all-round helms in the entire game for any player, and an excellent choice for bombers looking to use MSI builds.


Set Pieces: Black Kat Cowl

  • Damage Bonus: High
  • Increased Movement Speed: Low

Armor

  • Medium+ Status Resists

Bomb

  • Very High CTR
Kat Hiss Cowl

Kh.png

The Kat Hiss Cowl fulfills a niche purpose in 'rounding off' uneven bonuses. A practical example of this can be thought of with the Lockdown Guardian class. It comes with low CTR for bombs, which can be rounded off to medium using Kat Hiss. The class is then a mere Bomb Focus trinket away from maxing out on charge time, letting its wielder use its other trinket slot and armour for other purposes, like maxing off bomb damage or increasing their health. This gear also has viability for bombers only wanting lower levels of CTR, in order to help achieve specific timing when bombing against certain enemies.

Set Pieces: Kat Hiss Cowl

  • Bomb Damage Bonus: Low
  • Bomb Charge Time Reduction: Low

Armor

  • Medium+ Shock Resist

Bomb

  • Low or High CTR
  • Low or High Damage

Battle Sprites

Battle Sprites
Sprite Description Recommended Ultimates Recommended Perks
Drakon

Battle Sprite-Drakon T3 preview.png

A lot of people view Drakon as the weakest Battle Sprite. This isn't technically true. It certainly packs a lot more firepower than Seraphinx, which has none outside of its laser, and although Maskeraith's skills can result in more damage in the end, Drakon is unique in how independent its attacks are.

Firebolt can be compared to Iron Slug. While you may initially think that sounds like a bad thing, remember that this is an Iron Slug that can be fired at 100% mobility, can switch between elemental and shadow damage, and can set enemies on fire. It's also the only sprite ability that can be used to reach far-away switches.

Unlike the barrier pickups, Flame Barrier has no limit to the amount of times they can damage enemies and as such the total damage will rack up fast. In addition to this, when fully upgraded, Flame Barrier will increase your armour's defence by 70% for the full 10-second duration of the skill. The package is of special interest to bombers, as the spinning orbs will allow them to take out priority targets in a flash while they're charging up bombs to deal with the general crowd. You can also use it while standing inside of a vortex to tank hits while killing the vortexed mobs. Works particularly well when you enemies are poisoned and you're wearing appropriate armour.

Firestorm kind of sucks to be honest. If you already have a fiery vaporizer, there is no reason to use it. It's okay if you use bait a number of mobs through it on chokepoints or in vortexes. Beware that mecha knight shields, mini jellies and walls will cancel out the rings before they spawn.


Unlike Seraphinx and Maskeraith, there is not a clear choice for which ultimate to pick with Drakon's abilities. Instead, I will explain the benefits of both.

  • Firebolt

Meteoric Firebolt triples your blast radius. It gives leeway for hitting switches and can damage more enemies.

Concussive Firebolt imbues a good chance of strong stun. It's useful for approaching ranged mobs.

  • Flame Barrier

Backfire Barrier gives you a large speed boost for a short time. You can charge a bomb during this boost.

Scorching Barrier greatly increases the barrier's damage output, letting you kill things faster.

  • Firestorm

Eplosive Firestorm adds raw damage to the skill, making it usable. Overall damage more or less doubles.

Frenzied Firestorm provides minor offensive buffs to the whole party. Pick if you weren't going to use Firestorm for its damage anyway.


Regular Bombing

  • Mighty Boom II

MSI Bombing

  • Swift Steps II

Tanking

  • Healthy Boost VI
Seraphnyx

Battle Sprite-Seraphynx T3 preview.png

The Seraphynx is a cat-like battle sprite that has abilities built around providing support to the party rather than being a direct offensive tool itself. Or at least it's "supposed" to, but as any bomber whom chooses the path of the kitten quickly learns, Seraphnyx actually works best when played aggressively. First of all to understand Seraphnyx you must understand its three skills, Ray of Light is the offensive skill that deals repeated hits through a small laser to any enemy in its path, Heart Attack 'marks' nearby enemies so they'll drop health when killed and Angelic Aura surrounds the user in a protective bubble that shields you from damage while it lasts. At first glance Seraphnyx absolutely seems to be living up to it's support title, however you'll find that Ray of Light is actually a deceptively powerful tool; it easily racks up damage on stationary or slow moving targets, and works extremely well in conjunction with Vortex-line bombs, enabling you to bolster your damage output easily.

Comparatively Heart Attack is naturally the weakest of these three abilities, outside of Shadow Lairs and Danger Missions it's mostly a skill that will only benefit inexperienced players, acting as a buffer for anyone not quite up to par with their dodging skills. Angelic Aura is situational, but unlike Heart Attack it's actually quite useful for the most part; the ability to protect yourself from damage while charging bombs can be an incredible ability in certain situations (Fiend arenas are a great example) and although it's situational, you should never forget you have the ability.

As for your harness choice, an Elite Crystal Harness is the best option for Seraphnyx. Ray of Light is an extremely effective weapon against enemies that are either slow or stationary, and it especially works well at dispatching turret-like foes such as Gun Puppies that Bombers typically struggle with, and aptly handles the Construct family as a whole as well as working well against most Undead creatures.


  • Disintegration Ray

There isn't much explanation to be had for this choice; a generic defense drop on any enemy struck by Ray of Light is a tremendous ability that makes Seraphnyx incredibly at dealing damage itself, and amplifying the damage output of you and your teammates. Comparatively Dazzling Light Ray provides a tiny damage bonus against two families of enemy, and is actually out damaged by Disintegration Ray even against those two families!

  • Iron Heart Attack

Again, a simple decision. Heart Attack is your weakest ability anyway, but in situations where you legitimately need to get health, defense orbs can be a huge benefit, especially since they can easily stack up to provide whole minutes worth of protection. The alternative, Violent Heart Attack, is supposed to make your Heart Attack into a legitimate weapon and perhaps would be a worthwhile option, except it's currently bugged and provided little to no real damage output and fails to even break environmental objects.

  • Seraphic Aura

Of all Seraphnyx' Ultimates, your choice of aura should be the most difficult decision to make; in fact at first glance you may even lean toward Valkyrian Aura since it sounds incredibly useful. Unfortunately Valkyrian Aura has a misleading description; it will only increase your Charge Time to Maximum and no higher, regardless of prior bonuses. This may make it an excellent ability for players not running any CTR bonuses at all, however a bomber lives and dies by their charge speed and no end-game bomber will ever be running a set that lacks maximum CTR, making Valkyrian Aura completely worthless for bombers.


Regular Bombing

  • Mighty Boom II

MSI Bombing

  • Swift Steps II
Maskeraith

Battle Sprite-Maskeraith T3 preview.png

The most popular sprite, and for good reason. All of Maskeraith's abilities are highly lethal when used correctly.

Caustic Quills is not only useful for spreading poison, but provides formidable damage on their own. A bomber should spread the quills across multiple enemies and hit them all rapidly to pop the quils. Shard bombs, DR and damaging hazes are all optimal for this role. Quills do not break freeze.

Shadow Cloak turns you invisible. Whatever you do after you turn invisible is up to your imagination. Don't worry, the skill will do actual things when you get the ultimate.

Hexing Haze is a damage haze that moves with you. Do we even need to say anything else? It's more useful the more enemies you're fighting, just like bombs. There's a mechanic in place where hexing more enemies gives you more haze time, but you can almost max it by just hexing the same enemy 3 times in a row, so it basically doesn't exist.


  • Vengeful Quills

Virulent Quills gives you stronger poison and provides a slight chance of the quills dropping a very short, very small haze, but the truth is nobody cares. A poisoned enemy will be unable to heal no matter how weak the poison is. Vengeful Quills will double your damage as well as the spreading of poison.

  • Deadly Cloak

Vengeful Cloak drops a very small bomb that inflicts no damage, but a weak stun. Deadly provides an enormous damage boost. You might think at first that the damage bonus can't be used by bombs, but all you have to do is drop the bomb before cloaking. Uncloak before detonation to increase damage boost further.

  • Chaotic Haze

Haunted Haze is bugged and inflicts single-digit damage. This is not likely to get fixed anytime soon. Meanwhile, Chaotic Haze has a slight chance to curse an enemy and that's something.


Regular Bombing

  • Mighty Boom II

MSI Bombing

  • Swift Steps II

Trinkets

Trinkets can be used to increase the innate abilities of your bombs without, or in addition to, bomber specific armor. They provide a more accessible means to reaching maximum CTR or damage without having to target specific unique variants.

The Bomb Focus Module is a trinket more suited for status and hybrid bombers. The four-star variant will allow users of full Volcanic Demo Armor to reach maximum charge time reduction on all heat level 10 bombs. Hybrid bombers wearing either a Volcanic Demo Helm or one piece of Mad Bomber can reach maximum CTR with the five-star focus module.

The Elite Boom Module gives bombers a medium bonus to bomb damage. This trinket is best suited for bombers wearing full or partial (with medium bomb damage UVs) mad bomber armor wishing to maximize their damage potential. Coupling this trinket with both full mad bomber or a Volcanic Demo Helm + Mad Bomber Suit mix allows users to achieve maximum charge time reduction and maximum damage with bombs against all targets without the need of any unique variants.

In the instance that you're primarily using your bombs to support a team, via status or crowd control, or you've simply managed to attain Max CTR and Max Damage without the need of your trinket slots, Penta-Hearts are a useful supplementary trinket that will increase you health, enabling you to better tank hits.

Tactics

General Tactics

There are several important things to consider while playing the role of the bomber. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, is to avoid the common mistake of simply running about randomly while dropping bombs erratically. This will cause the positioning of monsters to become very difficult to predict, and the explosions may randomly push monsters into places where they may be able to attack a vulnerable ally. Instead, focus on what would be the most efficient strategy to ensure that monsters are persistently lured into your bombs (and preferably blown away from your allies). An easy tactic is to place a bomb, begin charging a second bomb, run into the crowd of enemies in front of you to lure them into the blast radius of your bomb, and then after the explosion, place the second bomb in the same place as the first, repeating for as long as necessary.

Second, a bomber must be aware of their party as well as their enemies. Remember that the Blast Bombs are great for soloing, but in a party, your group will begin to tire of not being able to see enemies due to the large blue cloud produced after the detonation, which is very dangerous. (This is known as the blue screen of death.) Though you may well be safe standing at the epicenter of your bomb, your fellow knights will likely be blinded, unable to see the foes that are around them. The only real way to effectively blast bomb in a party is to follow members closely if they have a gun, or to simply herd enemies into a corner for your swordsmen. To a lesser extent, be aware of the interactions of your bombs with certain monsters. Using the Ash of Agni on Oilers is a poor idea due to their healing when set ablaze, as well as using the Ionized Salt Bomb on Quicksilvers as they become extremely fast when affected with shock.

Third, memorize the spawn patterns that appear after a party button has been pressed. Though the spawns are somewhat random, they are collected from a pool of possible locations, and a bomber can capitalize on this by placing a Haze Bomb-series bomb on one of those locations before the monsters spawn, which will apply the respective status effect on the monsters that appear there. Even if no monsters spawn in that location, other monsters may be lured into the resulting cloud of mist, ensuring that the bomb is not wasted.

Lastly, a bomber must know how to deal with monsters that attack at range. though a knight with a sword or handgun will be able to combat them as normal usually, sometimes "pure" bombers will not have either of those things (instead having an equipment set of four bombs), or the duties of a bomber may take precedence over defeating those monsters personally.

Specific Enemy Strategies

Boss Stratums

Danger Missions

Shadow Lairs

F.A.Q.

There are a few questions that have been answered repeatedly, yet players still get confused. So here are some answers to the questions that haven't specifically been talked about in this guide.

Appendix

Bomb Alchemy Paths

This is a list of the alchemy paths of all the bombs currently in game. Click the bomb you want to view the materials needed to craft it.

Bomb Charge Time

Bomb charge time is the minimum time required to hold down the action key to successfully prepare a bomb. The minimum charge time occurs prior to the charge-complete animation (glowing). All bombs gain a natural CTR bonus while leveling up via heat. At level 5, bombs will gain a low charge time reduction and at level 10 they will have a medium charge time reduction bonus.

-Bomb Charge Time in Milliseconds

-Bomb Charge Time - % reduced from base charge time from CTR bonus


None Low Medium High V. High Ultra Max
Haze Bomb 3180 2960 2700 2447 2230 1975 1755
Blast Bomb 2200 2040 1866 1701 1545 1400 1225


None Low Medium High V. High Ultra Max
Haze Bomb 0% 6.92% 15.09% 23.05% 29.87% 37.89% 44.81%
Blast Bomb 0% 7.27% 15.18% 22.68% 29.77% 36.36% 44.32%

Bombs that share Haze Bomb charge times: Graviton Bomb, Electron Vortex, Voltaic Tempest, Big Angry Bomb

Bombs that share Blast Bomb charge times: Dark Briar Barrage, Irontech Destroyer, Heavy Deconstructor, Shard Bombs

Historical Videos

The following videos contain footage of a variety of bombs from older versions of the game, as a record of how things used to be

Helpful links


Tutorials & Guides
Starting Out | New Player Briefing | User interface | Useful Links
Icon-bomb.png Bombing Guide | Icon-handgun.png Gunslinger Guide | Icon-sword.png Swordmaster Guide
Icon-shield.png Shieldbearer Guide
Defense increased.png Hybrid Guide
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