Seeking Bomber Advice

[Docent]

Any best tips for using bombers now? Best ones to buy for an indie pirate? Do they stand any chance against fighters or have these changes deliberately made that impossible?

If you wanna' go Indie Pirate, you won't be picking fights with snubs anyway, so for that particular role the bomber does the job just as well as ever.
Which one to pick? Whichever floats your boat!
Seriously, go for anything that you find aesthetically pleasing (and does not nerf your powercore by too much). The worst bomber in the game will still rain down doom on any transport that chooses to fight you or flee from you - if you know what you're doing of course.

I personally fly a pirate Havoc (full EMP+SNAC+Nuke), even though it's kinda worse than a Roc but I like the texturing so that's my boat. When a bounter snub or local authorities show up on my scope, I make myself scarce.

If you'd want to fight caps with bombers, that's a horse of an entirely different colour.