Just thought that with the coming HoH, a main thread to compare and contrast each bomber would be helpful for everyone. I planned to just give a Taurus review, but might as well….
Since I’m new to the idea of bomber squad, any inputs here will be appreciated. I don’t plan this to be like a guide where people are just following the OP, but more as a discussion post where bomber squad experts as well as others interested in the strategy can share and comment on each bomber.
To clarify, bombers here mean units with the ability to put AoE bomb debuffs, so fire and dark kobold bombers are out, and wind and dark oracle likewise. Not that they aren’t powerful, but Seara and Giana put single bombs and do not fulfill the same purpose as the others.
So, we have 5 candidates to compare to:
Wrt. the attack stat, I feel like anything below ~30 atk difference is minor and outweighed by the utility it could have brought. I’m boggled as to why people say the reason Malaka > Taurus is because “he has higher base atk”. Yes, it’s higher and yes, Malaka > Taurus generally, but that 22 atk difference isn’t the main reason.
If you somehow manage to get +300% atk from runes (slot 2/4/6 maxed only gives +189% fyi), that’s only 88 attack difference, or about ~400 difference in bomb damage after atk buff. In the large scale of things, I’d rather compare their other skillsets rather than mulling over the lost 400 out of 20k+ bomb damage.
So, with this taken into consideration, there are 3 tiers of bomb damage. Tier1 is Liebli, Tier2 is all kobold bombers, and Tier3 is Jojo. Now, we move on to the skillsets.
Bomb mechanics
Skill 1
Realistically, bombers don’t have very high damage from their 1st skill unlike other dps, because they don’t crit as much. Most of the damage from dps is from crit damage, and bombers with slot 2/4/6 attack runes just can’t compete.
With that said, Jojo’s and Liebli’s heal block is pretty attractive and reliable since bombers also tend to have more Acc than the typical Lushen, so these will often stick. It could save you from bringing Aria/Arnold when fighting against healers.
On the other hand, kobold bombers’ are like Kro’s or wind ifrit’s scaling. The damage difference is noticeable with 2+ debuffs, but it’s nothing to write home about. I prefer the utility from heal block to the added damage.
Skill 2
Both has 4 turn cd when maxed. Even though kobold bombers have 5% damage advantage, I feel like the damage tier remains unchanged (Liebli > kobold bombers > Jojo). Also, note that com2us is intentional to have the bombers represented by all 5 elements: fire/dark are on jokers, while wind/water/light are on kobold bombers. So guys, blame Jojo as to why your fire kobold bombers can’t bomb at all xD
These elements wouldn’t matter to bomb damage or landing% though. A bigger concern is rather whether your bomber is going to be safe from element typing. Bringing Taurus into mono fire comp isn’t the brightest idea, for example, but Taurus for Camilla (careful with crits from others; best to time your bomb while focusing on others) would be good I imagine. As for bomb damage, the often quoted numbers are 16k for Jojo and 20k for kobold bombers.
Another major difference is their secondary effects. Jokers don’t need that much Acc to bomb as 35% is enough for maximum efficiency, while kobold bombers need up to 85%. However, do note that with Fatal/Focus, you only need 15%/65%, and if you understand the Acc-Res formula well, you’ll realize that 85% is overkill for the vast majority of cases. If you can get ~30-40% Acc from subs (excluding Focus set), you’re good to go with kobold bombers. In a way, jokers are like the poor man’s bombers because of the rune requirement (except Liebli). Putting slot 6 Acc on kobold bombers is a big no-no; work on Acc subs instead (C’mon, Fatal runes aren’t that high in demand. You must have a wide selection to choose from). Meanwhile, kobold bombers’ 50% ATB boost is simply the game telling you to chain 2nd into 3rd skill quickly.
Skill 3:
1. Jojo: AoE DoT for 3 turns, 4 turn cd
2. Taurus: AoE 1 turn skill pushback, 75% chance, 5 turn cd
3. Malaka: AoE Atk/Def debuff, 95% chance, 4 turn cd
4. Dover: AoE 50% ATB pushback and stun, 70% chance, 5 turn cd
5. Liebli: Counterattack whenever hit (~30-70% damage of 1st skill) and -1 cd on your skills (passive)
This is the biggest difference between them all. All of them are pretty unique.
1. Jojo: Pretty meh. Good in some situations (ToA Hard, for example), but 1 DoT is just so much inferior when compared to others. Worst of the bunch by far.
2. Taurus: Some call it mini-Zaiross. I wouldn’t be so bold to call it that, because it’s only 75% proc chance (cannot be increased through skill-ups) and it’s only 1 turn knockback. Think of it as a 1 turn AoE provoke, or more technically 1 turn “silence” debuff that cannot be cleared by cleanse. Still a good skill for having a breather though. It will also reset unused skill (eg: unused Fanatic will need 1 turn to be available to use), and 1 turn could change everything in this game. Imagine putting this on double rezzers. Either they’re stunned (next update), or they get their rezz cd pushed back, or God forbid, getting stunned and then they still can’t use their skills next turn because stuns do not progress cd. Either way, it gives you time to dps them down.
3. Malaka: Recently changed from speed debuff to def debuff. Means less time for the enemy to react, but def debuff also doesn’t interact with bomb damage as much. Pretty awesome to boost your other dps though. With 4 turn cd, I like to compare this with Aria’s AoE (both 2 debuff AoE) in devastation. Pretty amazing stuff. P.S: Incidentally, both Malaka’s and Aria’s debuffs are fully separate now with the recent changes. Imagine atk, def, glancing and speed debuffs in an AoE at the same time on ToA.
4. Dover: I’m not 100% sure, but I think it’s 100% proc rate for 50% ATB pushback and 70% proc rate for 1 turn stun (not 70/70 proc rate). If someone can clarify this for me? Anyway, this is like Luer’s half of AoE (the other half is Malaka’s), and theoretically it’s 1.5 turn stun AoE potential, which is insane. Buy you a lot of time, and a big disruption to enemy plan. Dover is like a Tyron that bombs.
5. Liebli: The counterattack damage isn’t the big thing; it’s the -1 cd every time he’s attacked. With the right comp, that’s bomb spam every 1-2 turns for massive fireworks, and don’t forget that he has the highest base attackand can land heal block on every counterattack. Highest damage potential.
Leader skill:
Jojo’s and Liebli’s (especially Liebli’s) are barely usable now that people prefer speed, attack or HP lead in dungeons (Baretta, Lushen and Sigmarus, respectively, of which 2 are fusable). Kobold bombers’ are also quite niche, but it’s better than nothing, with the possibility of allowing you to put that bomber on lead and forgo accuracy. Regardless, accuracy lead is limited in use, because those you need accuracy for will usually have sufficient acc from your runes, and you’ll end up boosting useless acc monsters like Chasun and Chloe instead.
Which to choose?
This is the part I’m most subjective about, and more inputs would be appreciated. I feel that:
Liebli > Malaka > Dover > Taurus > Jojo
In terms of overall usability, utility and skillset. Liebli is the purest incarnation of bomber damage, and Malaka’s AoE is better than Dover’s I feel (2 turns of dealing half damage and taking double damage is just plain unfair). Taurus suffers from the mono fire meta, but his skillset and damage is still better than Jojo’s.
Moving on, when people mentioned “bomber squad”, they often mean 2 bombers, not just 1. Even a 22k bomb cannot one-shot many comps, and so you need 2 (3 with 2 bombers + 1 atk buffer). Therefore, we need to pick two out of those. Also, it is better to bring 2 different bombers rather than 2x Malaka, wrt GW and ToA Hard rules.
Therefore, the absolute best is ideally Liebli + Malaka. However, since both Liebli and Dover are so hard to get, the best two bomber combo for most players would be Malaka + Taurus. This means that for the typical player, Taurus from the HoH is worth raising. Yes, Malaka is better than Taurus. So? You need 2 to work, and the contest isn’t Taurus vs Malaka, but Taurus vs Jojo, and Jojo has both lower bomb damage and piss poor 3rd skill. Myself, I’m raising a Taurus atm, and will be waiting for Malaka to form my bomber squad (no hurry there since I need Aquila as well).
Usability:
Analogy (just for fun):
What’s your take on the bomber squad strategy? Anything I erred on? Do you think that having Taurus as one of your bomber squad is the right decision? Let us know below!