Strategy:Explosive Types

General

Explosive weapons - rocket launchers and missile launchers being the most common - are arguably better as a weapon for a generalist than as a weapon to base your entire strategy around.

Damage and knockback are not concerns for explosive weapons. Reloading after every shot is a hassle, but a shotgun-toting character will have Shottyman which also allows rocket launchers to be reloaded on the move.

The main weaknesses of explosive weapons are the way they can't be used in close range, for obvious reasons, and their terrible accuracy.

The first problem can be dealt with in two ways - using the rocket launcher's alternate fire (default hotkey: shift+F) will perform a rocket jump. This does less self-damage than you might expect and sends you flying away from whatever poor demon you pointed the rocket launcher at. You can also get Fireangel, which makes you immune to splash damage (including your own rocket jumps, so you won't actually be able to do them any more)

The accuracy problem means that you should either try to have the rocket's firing path travel through several enemies - one of them has to mess up the dodge, right? - or just aim at a nearby wall to do less damage but make it a sure thing.

Explosive-based characters

A character that wants to use explosive weapons as much as possible is going to want a missile launcher. It can be gotten from the City of Skulls or the Abyssal Plains. You can also randomly find one if you're the king of luck.

The missile launcher completely solves the accuracy problem - it has 98% accuracy even at very long range. It still deals splash damage to you, but you can always just run away from close-up enemies before using it. Even in running mode, the missile launcher is still extremely accurate.

While the missile launcher is a perfectly fine weapon no matter what traits you have, shottyman takes it to the next level by allowing reloading on the move. The missile launcher already holds 4 rockets per 'clip' but sometimes you need more, I understand completely.

Explosive Technician - Fireangel

Fireangel makes fighting in the open just a little bit less risky. Your immunity to splash damage allows you to get out of situations that are otherwise impossible to dodge through - Arch-Viles and revenants will no longer deal miss damage to you and mancubi will only destroy items and walls with their haphazardly placed explosions, not you.

Of particular interest to an explosives expert is the fact that you no longer take damage from your own attacks, although this does mean that rocket jumping will no longer work.