Hi all,
Intro
I’ll apologise in advance for the wall of text, please skip as you see fit. Also any lapses in etiquette/nubbage points, this is my first post in these forums (finally changing my name worked, still trying to work out how to change avatar).
I’m a entirely pub player, I don’t have time for the rigours of the competative scene, so feel free to cut apart this at will. 
Flashbangs being flaky/too situational
TL;DR >> Immunity to flashes with a visor active ability
To follow on with what was being discussed with regards to Thunder, I feel a lot of his gripes stem from the fact that if he hits a group with his flash bang, getting into position to really make use of it is extremely difficult.
- The flash is a massive signal for GO!. Opponents not blinded/partially flashed will know you are gonna make a move forward to use your flash, and be ready for you by the time you get there. (At least I am)
- Blinded opponents will scatter, and with your slow fat behind unable to close in quick, chances are you will miss your oppurtunity. Even if you can, any naders/fraggers/proxys/fletchers etc will blindly throw their ordinance at where they last saw you and if not kill you outright, make you easy pickings for anyone else in the group.
Both of these problems could be fixed by being immune to your own flashes, as this would mean Thunder could throw his flash and already be moving into position and ready to fire as the flash goes off, instead of having to wait for it. It would also make those cases where a reactive/desperation flash will see enemies not get flashed, but Thunder does, no longer a disadvantage for him. However this does create a problem for Thunder vs. Thunder, and may of course make him too strong.
My proposal is to give him a second active, a dark visor he can drop over his face to protect him from flashes while active. (I have more thoughts on this feature, but will focus on this flash idea of it for now, and continue discussion of this active seperately). This would mean Thunders can throw in their flash and flick down their visor as it goes off allowing them to have free reign to mow down affected targets at will, or at the very least turn a 3 on 1 confrontation into a 1 on 1.
Of course the need to add to the model is a bit of an ask on the devs, as well as having an active that pretty much relies on the other, but does this sound like a reasonable (or even necessary) improvement to Thunders kit? If so please read on
The Visor Active
TL;DR
- Visor reduces lighting/vision range while used normally
- Flashbangs in view of the Visor will allow the player to see normally (with some cool optical effects as it wears off)
- Visor provides 10% (or whatever explosive resistance while active… please read part 2!)
Thunder is an idiot… and we love him for it. However his bloodshot eyes alone and simply being “used to it” can’t really justify a full blown immunity. Canonically perhaps he finally learned that just maybe, in the throngs of war, perhaps a visor might just be a good idea (Maybe during the condemnation of genuine russian Sparks)
Of course this visor being just a visor would kind suck monkey wang, I mean why not have it on at all times? Why have a cooldown?
Part 1
Make the visor darken the screen and reduce the players draw distance/make it harder to see, unless a flash bang has recently gone off in view of the player (some nice photo senstive like affects on the visor could be beastly here). If nothing else requiring the eye saving visor to fade back to normal before it can allow the player to improve player sight during a flash again could make it more interesting.
Of course a simple toggle may be enough, but…
Part 2
I was also generally thinking about his place in the hierarchy of assaults. Far as I see it assaults are the front liners, taking the big hits and punching a hole into enemy lines to create room for their allies. As such their little front line war tends to be pretty much between themselves (skill of some of the crazies of which I’m sure some of you are members of not withstanding ^^).
Far as my experience goes they roll in a cycle:
Nader > Rhino > Thunder > Fragger > Nader.
Bold statement I realise, and this is of course skill dependant, but throughout my experience of each merc, I’ve noted that this is the order that assault encounters tends to go for me with each respective merc. Outside of this path, confrontations seems to be entirely decided upon by skill (Rhino vs. Fragger for instance typically comes down to who has the better placement/aim/support, Thunder vs. Nader is the same deal)
The one link in the chain that doesn’t quite work is Thunder > Fragger. My high health pool countering his grenades, and disruption of his aim reliant weaponry/movement makes me feel like I can go toe to toe against Fragger with Thunder better than I can with Rhino, and certainly better than Nader, but I still don’t feel I have an advantage perce’ like I do for the other respective merc encounters.
The above visor active may already be enough to give Thunder a leg up on Fragger, but if he still sits under par (and I have a feeling he might) this active (covering the last exposed part of this face) could reduce explosive damage to Thunder by 10% (or even 20%), further reducing enemy ability to just bomb/airstrike the entrance as his flash comes in.
This would greatly benefit his ability to hammer blow his way into enemy encampments, and be the breacher (it seems) he is supposed to be.
If you made it to the end, well done!
If nothing else, I hope it was interesting to read
Cheers,
FatalJ