I’ve been saving up some credits for a while and decided Thunder looked like fun, so I grabbed him and his MA42 Revised Gunner loadout. Here are my initial impressions after several matches tonight:
Weapon
I’ve been using the MK46 exclusively so far as it is what primarily attracted me to Thunder, and I’m loving the gun. It is a bullet hose with surprisingly good accuracy. It doesn’t seem to have quite the close range killing power of many weapon nor can it wipe entire teams in one clip, but it stands solidly as its own unique weapon.
Ability
The concussion grenade has showed real potential to be a game changer, but it definitely needs polished. The biggest problem I have with it is how frequently it completely blinds Thunder even when it lands far away - if it isn’t around a corner it seems like it always gets you. It just seems weird to me that Thunder has no resistance to his own blind. I’m perfectly fine with close range self-blinds for balance reasons but the effect needs to fall off more rapidly for Thunder. I also dislike how bright this ability is when an ally uses it. It’s great that they can see that the concussion grenade has went off, but it shouldn’t almost blind them.
Experience
Combat experience has always been much less rewarding than support and objective experience, which is fine. It’s probably healthy for the game to make less popular but equally important roles more rewarding. But even for an assault merc Thunder seems to get short handed on experience. I think Thunder needs to get more experience when allies follow up his concussion grenade with kills on concussed enemies or destruction of disabled deployables.
Balance
Thunder doesn’t appear to be overpowered, at least for pub play. Without coordination to eliminate concussed enemies rapidly Fragger should be overall superior to Thunder (the rest of the mercs as well, but that’s another discussion). I’m optimistic that Thunder isn’t underpowered either, or at least he won’t be with minor tweaks to his concussion grenade to be more team and self friendly. A lot of health and a big gun is a great start; an invaluable tool for creating openings to attack should always have a place.