Fragger Vs. Thunder (to frag or to flash, that is the question)

(MikaSobaka) #1

So i have earned up 50k credits, i am a new player, though not new to shooters in the slightest. I enjoy playing both skyhammer and aura aggressively and defensively. though i feel my roster lacks the frontline i want, i can enjoy rhino, but his health i feel is too little when compared to his lack of mobility for my playstyle, and i don’t like the short range of his minigun.

So a few months ago i tried fragger on free week and loved him, the lmg felt great, very strong, his health was excellent for the little mobility he lost to get it. And of course the magical frags which seemed so broken it was like smitting someone down with the wrath of hell itself every time you would land one down someones shirt.

However, i took a break from the game and now im back and getting more invested, but with the addition of Thunder im wondering where to go from here. I know that i want one of them two specificaly, lots of ammo to support my team like rhino, but without his sluggishness and lack of range. However i cannot choose.

I know that Thunder is considered low tier, but i have read things from throughout the past few months and i dont have an understanding of when his various nerfs/buffs or changes have happened and where he is at right now. Same with Fragger, he has changed since i played him months ago, and i need to know where he is at now, so that i can make an informed decision between the two.

Im not choosing them for their abilities primarily, i am interested in their balance of hp, mobility, and firepower. The ability is simply icing to me as its less situational then skyhammer’s airstrike, which is a plus.

Do i go for the joyful bomb tossing neckbeard, or the adidas wearing, cheeki breeki rusky?

(Tanker_Ray) #2

Thunder can’t even go ‘versus’ Fragger.

Fragger’s every stat is better,stable than Thunder.

Also much easier to use&effective too.

If you really want this Russian heavily armed introvert, then wait for this month Fine Tuning. That’s the only hope he has right now.

(gg2ez) #3

Thunder doesn’t stand a chance against Fragger.

(Mrarauzz) #4

If you are new and want a merc that will perform choose fragger. If I had to personally name the best assault mercs and the order of most valuable it would be 1. Fragger. 2. Nader. 3. Rhino. 4. Seriously any other merc :stuck_out_tongue: jk thunder

(MikaSobaka) #5

Well in the end i actually ended up getting Thunder, despite his bad reputation. He is certainly mediocre in the competitive sense but so far i have found him to be very entertaining.

I’m interested to see what will happen to him in the this months apparent “fine tuning”, from what i can tell he seems to be held down mostly by his underperforming light machine gun, he is fine with the timik. Would also like to see a reduction in his flash radius with a slight increase to either the range of the concuss or its effectiveness, more mouse slow.
Seems the the concs really don’t hinder them much as people are generally pointing their guns in the right direction and unless blinded to the fullest strength they can track you fine no matter your weaving and strafing.

I do see all the opportunities where i could have gotten an easy frag with…fragger. But every time i do i think to myself meh, seems like the satisfaction would wear off. But the times i have gotten to enter a room from behind after concing it, that felt glorious,nobody knew what was happening and they shot eachother more then me, makes great shields.

Now what i’m wanting to know is how fragger and thunder have changed in the past few months. I hear fragger was given 30 more nade damage up from 150 to 180 (which sounds ridiculous) though i am assuming there is a drawback (hopefully).

I know that Thunder was deprived of the ability to cook his concs, but i don’t find this to be much of an issue, people get flashed fine with the shorter fuse time, works perfectly at his ideal range of mid-range (mk 46 is fine at mid range, so accurate down sights, literally killing vasilli before he can fire a second shot).

On a side note, i was drawn to thunder, probably just my love of being the underdog, with some mixed in counter strike revenge (people hate the saw, i love it, i will show them all). Not to mention, if a stat tune is happening this month, and the whole community is in agreement that he is seriously below the curve, seems like a sure fire thing that he will be buffed, so if i can get decent with his shortcomings now, post-buff thunder should be a party, and i will have saved myself 50k on getting two incredibly similar characters.

(Mrarauzz) #6

Why gamble on a not sure thing? You could have given that same argument to phantom when they nerfed him but look at him still… I like that underdog mentality as well but you are picking an “assault” character. Thunder has no lethality, I still believe his ability EMP effect should be increased and Thunder to be changed as an engineer. There is a reason a majority of the community agree that fragger is the best merc in the game.

(MikaSobaka) #7

No point trying to convince me otherwise now, the choice was made, what i would like to hear now is how the two characters have changed in the past few months. And i don’t really agree with swapping his class, seems unnecessary, all he needs is a gun that can do the job he was given, as is the mk46 is just not up to clearing out a nest.

(gg2ez) #8

Let’s ask people for their advice and not take it at all!

(Mrarauzz) #9

Trying to convince any new players reading this. His gun wouldn’t change the fact his concussion is not lethal.

(MikaSobaka) #10

No, i mean that before a single post was made i had already bought a character and thus the comments no longuer have impact and i don’t want people to waste their valuable time on a “lost cause”.

Besides, i did not make a detailed post about how i wanted people to say the name of the better character, i keep trying to start a conversation about their mechanical history in the game but everyone keeps ignoring that. ;~;

And fair enough K-smooth, though i certainly agree with you, he is not lethal, period. But he strikes me as a defensive merc, when played defensively he is fantastic, especially over range as aiming down sights lets you destroy people with headshots. The concs in their current form are hard to use offensively, but used defensively to pop flash people as they charge at you, yo can guarantee they are all looking right at it and get 6 free seconds to kill 2-3 attacking mercs. As for offesnive blinds, nearly useless since its almost impossible to predict wether you succesfully flashed a room and who you flashed better, or who got hit with the conc effect.

Do you by chance know when the “fine tune” will be happening as multiple people have said there is one this month.

(ImSploosh) #11

Thunder was OP as hell when he was first released in November or early December, I forget.

His Concussion Grenade had unlimited range, blinded through walls, and was just way too much. It also lasted longer I think. You could easily take out an entire team single-handedly if they were in close proximity to each other. Thankfully they nerfed it, but in doing so, they’ve made a much weaker merc. A second ability or something might save him though.

Personally, I hate using Rhino, Fragger, or Thunder because they’re just boring. Thunder’s less boring than Rhino or Fragger though. Their movement speeds and abilities just aren’t for me. I like to stick with Redeye and Arty! :smiley:

(MikaSobaka) #12

For some reason i just love thunder, hes special to me, both because i love his jacket (im so vane ^w^) and his playstyle is great for me. I am a very defensive player, even more so i am a protective player, of my team specificaly, i feel as though thunder has the tools and balance of health, firepower and speed to allow me to efend my team, and support them over medium range enegagements.

Hoping he will get some love though, he is terribly mediocre in a straight up fight with his lmg. And i don’t want to “just use the timik”, thats lame, its like playing someone who is not big badass thunder.

(ConsensualMan77) #13

Well i’m planning to get thunder soon. I’m still saving up for him, I think i got 12k credits in my account right now. I feel the same way bro. I love his jacket. It reminds me of Juggernauts from Call of Duty. I wish thunder could uhh you know get a second ability like using his helmet’s visor to not blind himself while using flashbangs. I mean what’s the use of that helmet of his and it’s visor aside from protecting his head.

(bgyoshi) #14

I was one of the lucky few that got to play Thunder in the glorious first days of release, and… well, considering that I don’t even try to look away from or evade Flashbangs at all due to their complete ineffectiveness, I wouldn’t recommend Thunder to anyone.

(TheGreatHoundini) #15

Thunder is fun for those of us who are taking “leave” from fatigue with tactical shooters. Thunder is most effective if you play him a bit like you’re in a tactical shooter and looking for angles, short-term camping spots, and … yes… rooms to throw in a “flashbang” before your team “enter and clear”.

(TheGreatHoundini) #16

He is also quite deadly when you use wall-hugging and ADS around corners, and you just happen to have a bead on someone. In that situation Thunder would basically face tank this other guy more than half the time.

Definitely though, that’s sort of “how not to play this game”… but that’s probably why a lot of people think he’s not that good.