Lockdown Bombing 101

Bombing in lockdown is fun, strategic, and a great way in increase your vocabulary. It’s also quite difficult to do well. Kind of like writing introduction paragraphs, except I’m good at bombing. So let’s just get to it.

Class Choice

Guardian: The standard bombing class. High base health helps to negate incoming damage and the shield, when used properly, can greatly decrease the effectiveness of incoming gunners and completely avoid other bombers.

While it is tempting, do NOT rely on your shield. 2-3 sword swings can break it, and overuse leave gaps in your bomb coverage which opposing strikers can exploit. Instead, save it for spot shielding hard-to-avoid attacks (such as dense Polaris spam or alchemer charges) or forcing lone gunners to close into melee range where you can attack with your backup weapon.

Recon: On the surface this class, with its higher base health and CTR bonus, seems perfect for bombing. Unlike the guardian, however, the recon's class abilities are not particularly useful with bombs (cloaking and death marks aren't the most useful thing when you're staying in one place). Still useful, however, for trying to sneak in a back cap.

Striker: The opposite of recon; while the CTR penalty makes this appear to be a bad idea, the proper gear can negate it. This opens up the possibility of using the striker boost to dodge incoming trouble and, if you're feeling adventurous, chase down fleeing opponents. Effectively utilizing this requires specialized (and often expensive) gear, however, so it's not then easiest subclass to try.

Game Play:

Dodging: Aside from the actual bombing, this is the most important part of the class. Barring a few special cases, most resistance you face will be from (non-instantaneous) guns.

Because bullets don't travel instantly, there is usually a small window for you to dodge. The length of this varies; for the Callahan, you have a short amount of time after the firing animation, while the Polaris can leave close to a second to dodge out of the way. Learn the firing patterns for the various guns and, when facing off against a gunner, always be sure to pay attention to where they are shooting.

Beyond this, avoid standing still or moving in predictable patterns. In addition to the inherently delayed nature of guns, high latency means many gunners are forced to lead their shots; erratic movements can make this extremely difficult.


Rushing: All too often, bombers will become complacent, assuming they are safe from direct attacks inside their bomb radius. The truth is quite different.

By themselves, mist bombs do pitiful damage; even a combination of shock and fire, without any other damage sources, is very unlikely to kill its victim. This means an opposing striker or guardian can quite easily rush you and catch you unaware or force you to switch to the defensive. Even with nearby teammates, this is still a real risk; while your allies will likely finish off your attacker, he's still quite likely to kill or injure you if you're unprepared.

There are two methods for combating these rush attacks. The first is to always stick with teammates. While this doesn't excuse you to relax your guard, it does mitigate the severity of the rush; once you dodge or block the initial attack, your teammates should be able to take down the (now status-inflicted) attacker and allow you to get back to work. Just remember not to get too close!

The second method (which, outside of organized guild matches is a near necessity) is to carry a defensive weapon of your own. Popular choices are the blast bomb, which can also knock your target back off the point, the flourish, which can quickly attack in between shock ticks or stun attacks, and the various heavy swords, which mesh well with the various debuffs. Skillful multi-taskers can ever try bringing a valiance or Polaris to scare off hecklers between bombs.

Note that, while it is extremely tempting to try to pull off a hybrid build (a mistake I'll admit to regularly making), the game mode is much more designed around specialized builds. In a serious setting, it's best to save your backup weapon for emergencies.

Ambushed en route: Similar to being rushed on point, although there's a good chance you don't have a bomb ready.

The biggest mistake people do here is try to charge up a bomb and default to a standard bomber routine. While this is possible with help or a VH+ CTR (use your discretion), it more often than not leaves you open for free hits. Striker and recon bombers are better off retreating to safer ground. Guardian bombers, on the other hand, don't have such luxury and oftentimes will be forced to engage with their back up or try to squeeze off a bomb charge if an opening presents itself.

As always, sticking with a teammate greatly decreases the dangers of an ambush.

Polaris: While the standard advice from Dodging still holds, the Polaris, with its easily spammable projectiles is a special case. A single polaris user is easily avoidable; most fire in easily predictable patterns and, even when dealing with a more intelligent pattern, the slow bullet speed means you can easily weave between the shots. If necessary, don't be afraid to momentarily step off the point or use your class ability to avoid a shot.

The difficult part is when you are forced to face several Polaris. In these cases, what you do is largely situational; if you are close to capturing a point or the shooters are firing in a predictable or avoidable pattern, try your best to dodge or block the shots for as long as possible. If the shooting becomes too much, fall back and, if possible, leave a bomb to deter pursuers.

Above all, be patient; dealing with multiple gunners is one of the most difficult parts of bombing and takes practice to master.

Resistances: You know the type. Triple UV Skolvers walking all over you, mercurials ignoring your VT, gunners who wonder why you keep trying to poison them. Bombing's one short fall is that, aside from the more situational damage and vortex bombs, anyone with the right gear and/or enough cash can walk right through your carefully placed clouds.

The upshot, to this, thankfully, is that it is nearly impossible to have immunity to all status types. Barring a select few people, your opponent is almost guaranteed to be susceptible to either shock, freeze, or stun and, aside from gunners and bombers, is at least weak to fire, poison, or vortex bombs.

The key is to maintain several loadouts; while the standard shock/stun and shock/poison combos cover most scenarios, it is becoming more and more common to see someone who, if not on their main gear, has a backup set to deal with these statuses. Be alert; if you notice a resistance set (both mercurial sets for shock, deadshot for poison, etc.) or seemingly bombproof player on the other team, consider switching to a different bomb combo to accommodate the resistances.

TL;DR
1. Your best bet is to play Guardian; Recon and Striker are viable but tricky to use.
2. Learn how to dodge. It's the (second) most important part of bombing.
3. Always carry a damage bomb or back-up sword/gun for emergencies.
4. Leave your back-up weapon for emergencies.
5. Always maintain a high level of awareness; never let yourself get caught off guard.

Additional tips, loadout suggestions to come later. Feel free to ask questions or leave your own suggestions.

Thanks for taking your time to write it all out, it adds a lot more for me to consider.
The Rushing part definitely added to my awareness.

Yayyyyy I stickied it! And everyone who plays bomber in LD should at least glance at it. Yes I'm looking at you Ish!!

I read the title does that count?

Valene wrote:Yayyyyy I stickied it! And everyone who plays bomber in LD should at least glance at it. Yes I'm looking at you Ish!!

We might need to reduce the text to a simpler form of information - reading text is an ancient, primitive practice.

Call me when you have an audible copy. Reading hurts the brain (or at least it hurts mine)

Wow this is a really insightful guide -- glad you posted it!

Ty for this insight. I'll try my best to apply.
Any tips are are always welcome.

Cheers and happy bombing

trololo. love how you mentioned 'enough money will buy you out of most statuses' or somethin like that...
so true.. LD these days is about how much money you have it seems (not always e.e).
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Even tho im not a bomber, very nice job on the post! i notice all the things you say in-game (and i will say those cloud bombers piss me off e.e.... never use the poison one.. i could walk right thru that XD)

id reccomend the page for non-bombers as well, gives insight on how to kill em XD now all we need is a page on killin gunners >:/

~Mushy

Mushy the thing is you don't need a page to learn how to kill gunners or bombers for that matter. You have to figure it out from experience. May the force be with you. May the odds be forever in your favor. (haha hunger games reference)

u.u
ahhhhh shatap!
haha looney toons refrence >.<