For me personally, nothing worked better than dbol. Even the stronger injectables paled in comparison to what 30-40 mg/day of dbol did for me. Within two weeks, I could always count on my compound lifts going up at least 5 lbs a week.
I've taken a lot of it over the years and, when I was much younger and reckless, often took it for months at a time, which I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone else do for obvious reasons.
Noticible side effects were mild and limited to hypoglycemia and muscle spasms - usually affecting hamstrings, triceps, obliques and occasionally traps, but easily mitigated by stretching the muscle. Many users report painful lower back pumps but that was rarely an issue for me. Neither was fluid retention or bloating.
I sympathize with the guys that want to use it by itself because I've done it myself many times - usually to break a plateau and I didn't want to do a full cycle - and it worked fine. HPTA recovery was always reletavily easy with dbol only cycles compared to injectables too.
Everyone responds differently to these drugs and my experience is unlikely to mimic yours, especially where side effects are concerned, but for me at least, dbol was always like magic beans and I loved the stuff. My 2 cents.