[Slydria]

I know this isn't the first mention of Bombs being lackluster but with the recent addition of Grenade Launcher (which presents the same issues), I figure it's a good opportunity to bring it up again.

The big issue with bombs is that they inflict so little damage that they are not worth creating nor using in battle. (The same goes for Grenade Launcher.)

Just to give you an idea of how weak they are:

Bomb (with R5 Explosive Art) vs Level 1 Jammer:
Jammer takes 28 Fire damage. (0/22 HP)

Grenade Launcher (with R5 Explosive Art) vs Level 1 Jammer:
Jammer takes 21 Fire damage. (1/22 HP)

They cannot hold a candle to any other AoE skill in the game.

Bombs need more damage, so I'm thinking that they should either gain additional damage from SKI:

E.g. SKI+8-16 Damage (+20 with R5 Explosive Art) for Bombs and 75% SKI+4-12 (+15 with R5 Explosive Art) for Grenade Launcher's Grenade.

Or a boost to their flat damage values:

E.g. 50-60 Damage (+20 with R5 Explosive Art) for Bombs and 38-45 Damage (+15 with R5 Explosive Art) for Grenade Launcher's Grenade.


In addition, I'd like to pitch a change to the Grenade Launcher skill since Dev mentioned the possibility of more bombs in future:

Gun skill. Fires a grenade which functions like a mini-bomb (or a replica of a Bomb item in your Item Belt, use + and - keys to switch the Bomb fired, costs 50% more FP for a replica but does not consume the Bomb), to target location within X Range (based on Rank).

Grenade: At the end of this Round, it explodes, dealing unresistable Fire damage to all enemies within 3 Range. This bomb has 75% of the effectiveness of a standard Bomb.

[Neus]

The Grenade Launcher change is unlikely.

As for bombs, keep in mind they deal unresistable damage, so stat scaling isn't wise unless you want AoE gun attacks that don't have the drawbacks of being guns. I do feel they are weaker than I'd like them to be, so I'll keep an eye on the thread/try to come up with something.

[Ranylyn]

Might I suggest buffing Explosive Art, Perhaps?

Considering the apparent trend of making Bombs more of an Engineer thing (Explosive Art, Grenade Launcher) it doesn't seem too unfair to make their bombs so much better. But if R5 Explosive Art is +20 damage, and the Jammers are still only taking 28 damage, we may need a far more serious buff to it.

This likely begs a question of balance: If the Engineer bonuses get buffed, how do we prevent them from becoming OP later? Well, I say if we use the Engineer class as a baseline for bomb balancing, we'll stop the Engineer bombs from becoming too OP while... well, any kind of "status" bomb (Gas flasks, perhaps, or flashbangs, etc) would still be useful to anyone, if released in the future.

As well, we could have a few traits dedicated to bombs. Give bombs Damage Caps and require those traits to raise the caps. I'm thinking "Demolitionist" for a Trait name, maybe "Explosives Handling," "Blaster Master," there's really quite a few options.

[Neus]

Maybe increasing their maximum damage range would be a decent way to buff them. Just let RNG decide.

[Ranylyn]

I'm not sure how I feel about a "gambler's weapon" but it's admittedly not too bad an option. You know, so long as the range is worth it.