Frankly I really don’t know anymore. His main weapon feels pretty good to me(apart from being incredibly inaccurate on sustained fire) and concussion seems decent enough. In casual matches, where it doesn’t fully blind teammates, it’s actually quite the asset.
I would personally love to see a 70% slow for 1 second added to it’s effect or something(only on a full hit). But he certainly doesn’t feel all that UP anymore
I think he is nowhere near where he should be. He is far too dependant on teammates to keep him alive and going. He is a good character but way underpowered. he really needs some attention.
I find basically the only time I can really excel and benefit the team with thunder is when there is at least an (good) aura and one firesupport merc that actually hand out ammo.
Ive seen alot more Thunder since the patch. So I would assume he in a good spot atm. Havent played too much of him tbh Will have to pick him up again later
He’s pretty great IMO. The buff to the MK46 really did help the gun out a lot (mostly the reload buff). And his card that includes Spares means he’s not always on the hunt for ammo in pubs like Fragger is. Now, will we start seeing him replacing Fragger in 5v5 teams yet? Probably not. But he is definitely a more solid choice now and could be used in some “big body” strats where you have two front liners with a lot of HP, bullets and damage potential.
that one time when that lvl 5 under Skybro stares at you for a solid 5 seconds when you need ammo
and as you see the majestic animation of his arms reaching in and grabbing an ammo pack and throwing one out
and then a Proxy runs in and used only one shotgun shell, -_-
The Mk46 could use more damage or less recoil/spread as it was in earlier beta/alpha.
I personally wish they’d actually swap the LMGs back to their original Mercs, especially since everything depicts them still holding their original weapons, but I doubt that’ll happen anytime soon unless Splash Damage releases a new loadout card series.
Conc Grenades to be actually effective
My only real question is how they’ll make the Conc Grenades actually work and and a better way for Thunder and his teammates to know who’s been Concussed. (How about multiple lightning bolt similar to the one on Thunder’s helmet swirling their bodies, like crosses when healed slowly fading as the player is regaining control?)
If mouse sensitivity loss or no video/audio input while blind and concussed (Besides being inconsistent, Health bars are visible if you shoot enemies and there still are audible hit indicators, which is weird since Redeye’s smoke wont let you see enemy health through it.) is too much for some elitists and the idea of making Conc Nades to cause a huge jump in spread and locking out the use of iron sights is too much of a stretch for otheres.
Finally, Thunder originally had 170 health in Alpha, he still has the movement speed to match 170 health but his health has been lowered to 160.
Then again, Phantom after his mega-nerf hasn’t had his speed increased to match his now lowered health and Vasilli hasn’t had his speed decreased to match his now hightened health.
@succinctDeer In other words, Ammo Dependant Rhino or a Fragger that can actually damage enemies with his ability?
Well, I’m glad SD is trying to buff him, but I hope they know that this won’t nearly be enough.
The buff to his mk46 was massive, I still think some slight tweaks to accuracy would help quite a bit. But it’s in a good spot right now.
Now as for the concussion grenades, they were really nerfed to shit in that December hotfix. They’ve only gotten slightly better. The real issue is the concussion/stun effect.
The stun over distance is really messed up after the hotfix. I think it was the “Severity of stun now correctly scales over distance.” and “The movement stun now gradually recovers over time.” that really did it. However I’m not sure that’s the reason the stun is so dogshit now. I haven’t felt the stun after that, ever. I might have gotten flashed a few times.
They need to fix the movement stun where it actually slows people down. I also feel like another layer of stun would be needed to make it work. I wouldn’t mind bringing the mouse dpi back, maybe reduce the severity of it.
Maybe an addition would be where you can’t jump. It’s stupid when people spam bunny hop to escape. And make it where you can’t see your hud or the health bars of enemies, as those can actually be used to navigate yourself around.
I wouldn’t mind if his health was increased to 170.
PS And make it where he can actually cook those fucking grenades.
Thunder being able to cook his grenades is pointless as they explode sooner and would affect him aswell.
It also makes fighting Against/As Thunder different than As/Against Fragger.
Many people have mixed feelings on the conc grenades limiting mouse movement, I have an idea of instead of limiting mouse movement, why not just make the enemy player’s spread go out the window and locking away their use of ironsights, maybe having the blinding effect remove so it doesn’t affect Thunder aswell after tossing a grenade.
Besides how I said earlier, some buffs to the Mk46 and Thunder’s health. He could, if they keep the blinding effect from his grenades, be less affected by them than his enemies since he looks like he’s been used to them already, look at those eyes of his.
You just cook the nades properly so it doesn’t blind you. With fragger you don’t cook it so long that it blows up in your face. I don’t really know, concussion grenades are just so bad right now it wouldn’t be any better with cooking 
I honestly don’t see anything wrong with the mouse sen. Are the people who are against it saying you should be able to shoot freely while stunned? Makes no sense to me. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether you put in mouse sen or spread increase because I think any impediment effect would make people rage, not just mouse sen.
I’m not saying your idea is bad, but I don’t think it will change much. It also has the same purpose as the mouse sen which is reducing accuracy of stunned opponents, which the concussion grenade really needs.
Making thunder more resilient to his concussions would be nice, maybe he just gets blurry vision and short blind if he looks directly at it. I think the mk46 doesn’t need a big buff, the last patch really did it. I think it just needs some accuracy improvement. I think thunder’s health is an even smaller concern. More like the hitbox, it’s way too easy to see him coming.
The concussion grenades have a very quick fuse time so it’s not too big of a deal that they aren’t cookable. Personally, I would want them because I could cook, come around a corner and throw into the air of a room and they would explode. That would be a nice buff, add to the skill ceiling and allow the conc nade to be more effective without changing any mechanics.
What I’ve found is that if make sure the conc nade explodes in the air, preferably around head height, you’re more likely to full flash people due to line of sight being less of an issue in most cases.
Them reducing his hitbox is a good touch but 2% isn’t much. I do wonder if that 2% put him pretty close to Fragger size though as then the 2% reduction would make more sense. I think he should have his speed slightly increased.
The MK46, IMO, is pretty amazing now. Much like the K121 you have to ADS it a lot more than most guns to have solid hitting power but that’s easy for anybody who learned the K121. The reduction in reload time is exactly what it needed + his card with spares/drilled is AMAZING.
I have a few pub videos that [url=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeilBxwKmR0”]show off the MK46 against some decent competition. I think the people who argue that it’s weak are simply hipfiring it at the wrong ranges.
[quote=“Amerika;154193”]The concussion grenades have a very quick fuse time so it’s not too big of a deal that they aren’t cookable. Personally, I would want them because I could cook, come around a corner and throw into the air of a room and they would explode. That would be a nice buff, add to the skill ceiling and allow the conc nade to be more effective without changing any mechanics.
What I’ve found is that if make sure the conc nade explodes in the air, preferably around head height, you’re more likely to full flash people due to line of sight being less of an issue in most cases.
Them reducing his hitbox is a good touch but 2% isn’t much. I do wonder if that 2% put him pretty close to Fragger size though as then the 2% reduction would make more sense. I think he should have his speed slightly increased.
The MK46, IMO, is pretty amazing now. Much like the K121 you have to ADS it a lot more than most guns to have solid hitting power but that’s easy for anybody who learned the K121. The reduction in reload time is exactly what it needed + his card with spares/drilled is AMAZING.
I have a few pub videos that [url=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeilBxwKmR0”]show off the MK46 against some decent competition. I think the people who argue that it’s weak are simply hipfiring it at the wrong ranges.[/quote]
I always said his main weapon wasn’t weak, it was one of the very few actually likeable things about Thunder. I definitely don’t think he should get a speedbuff though - I kind of like the fact he’s a heavy, big slow machinegun wielding guy. He needs his 10 hp back and another change to concussion grenades. I don’t agree with cooking the grenades either, not for I can’t see it being useful but because it takes away momentum.
I saw another guy saying the concussion grenade should permascramble deployables which I entirely agree with(so they need to be recollected and deployed again). I also think a very massive slow for a very short period would be good - as Thunder is all about completely overwhelming enemies in a rush. Like I said 70/80% slow for 1 second on a direct hit.
wouldn’t that actually be a nerf, due to a conc that is directly under you can stun you for a max of 99 percent over 5 seconds?
granted, this isn’t accounting for the recovery over time bullshit, but this seems like a really big step in the wrong direction.
wouldn’t that actually be a nerf, due to a conc that is directly under you can stun you for a max of 99 percent over 5 seconds?
granted, this isn’t accounting for the recovery over time bullshit, but this seems like a really big step in the wrong direction.[/quote]
What are you even trying to say? You could make thunder immune to the effect if anything
hes fine where he is. i want to see more mercs need heavy team support for their full potential
[quote=“gloomyRequirement;154210”][quote=“Amerika;154193”]The concussion grenades have a very quick fuse time so it’s not too big of a deal that they aren’t cookable. Personally, I would want them because I could cook, come around a corner and throw into the air of a room and they would explode. That would be a nice buff, add to the skill ceiling and allow the conc nade to be more effective without changing any mechanics.
What I’ve found is that if make sure the conc nade explodes in the air, preferably around head height, you’re more likely to full flash people due to line of sight being less of an issue in most cases.
Them reducing his hitbox is a good touch but 2% isn’t much. I do wonder if that 2% put him pretty close to Fragger size though as then the 2% reduction would make more sense. I think he should have his speed slightly increased.
The MK46, IMO, is pretty amazing now. Much like the K121 you have to ADS it a lot more than most guns to have solid hitting power but that’s easy for anybody who learned the K121. The reduction in reload time is exactly what it needed + his card with spares/drilled is AMAZING.
I have a few pub videos that [url=“https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeilBxwKmR0”]show off the MK46 against some decent competition. I think the people who argue that it’s weak are simply hipfiring it at the wrong ranges.[/quote]
I always said his main weapon wasn’t weak, it was one of the very few actually likeable things about Thunder. I definitely don’t think he should get a speedbuff though - I kind of like the fact he’s a heavy, big slow machinegun wielding guy. He needs his 10 hp back and another change to concussion grenades. I don’t agree with cooking the grenades either, not for I can’t see it being useful but because it takes away momentum.
I saw another guy saying the concussion grenade should permascramble deployables which I entirely agree with(so they need to be recollected and deployed again). I also think a very massive slow for a very short period would be good - as Thunder is all about completely overwhelming enemies in a rush. Like I said 70/80% slow for 1 second on a direct hit.[/quote]
Well, many people which includes myself, would disagree with you. I thought the MK46 was OK but it wasn’t on-par with the K121 due to it having range issues and needing to expose yourself longer to kill at ranges where the K121 has no issue. Also, reloading it was a nightmare even with Drilled. I don’t think any weapon in DB is bad but the Mk46 didn’t compare to the K121. But with the small accuracy buff does make it wander less and the drastic reduction in reload fixes most of the issues I had. I’d say the LMG’s are a lot more equal now. Also, the MK46 fires faster and has less issues taking down people who are good strafers with the faster classes where the K121 can sometimes have issues.
I don’t get your comment at all on allowing his grenades to be cooked taking away momentum. They would work exactly the same as they do now except you would get to cook them. The only real change would be losing the ability to walk with them ready to throw but there is rarely an occasion for that and it doesn’t outweigh the ability to cook them and have them explode without needing to wait and it allows you better angles to make the conc more valuable without changing mechanics. Originally you could cook them but they also had the bug where they would full flash both the other team and your team from any range. So I think they need to add it back in.
I think cooking would allow for more skillful use and not require a better slow to be added in. Permanently scrambling deployables wouldn’t be an awful buff though since frag grenades simply destroy them. So I wouldn’t be against that a buff avenue.
on cooking i think he means that you would have to delay for 3 seconds to cook it or have a 3s delay to detonate after throwing compared to whatever it is now, slowing you down instead of just tapping q
on cooking i think he means that you would have to delay for 3 seconds to cook it or have a 3s delay to detonate after throwing compared to whatever it is now, slowing you down instead of just tapping q[/quote]
I’m confused. The timer hasn’t changed since release when you could cook his FB. All they did was take away cooking IIRC. So the amount of time to explode hasn’t changed. If they added back in cooking the grenade it would still function the same as it does now if you threw it immediately…but you get the option to cook it too.
He’s still real bad. His LMG while not awful by any stretch of the imagination is not good enough to merit being his only way to kill people. Especially considering the instant it starts to bloom it becomes a hilariously ineffective weapon. His speed/size do -not- match his health pool. I reckon 10-15 more would suit him fine.
Don’t even get me started on his Conc grenades. They’re largely useless due to anyone being able to ping you with one bullet and rendering the blind (you know, the whole point of the ability) useless.
At the end of the day, though, unless his LMG gets buffed beyond belief anyone who can use shotguns/anyone who can aim for the head reliably will shit on his day relentlessly due to his dome being the size of Africa and Australia combined.
I fear that even after he receives health buffs he won’t be a solid pick. Honestly looking at him objectively, why would I play him over any other of the assaults? What does he bring? Hell, why would I play him over any of the fire supports?
He is my most played and favorite merc. But, I have no objective reason to pick him in a competitive setting. None. What-so-ever.
@cocoaPudding I’m going to go out on a limb here and say you don’t switch from hipfire to ADS ever. Which is a prerequisite if you want to use the K121 or the MK46 with any kind of efficiency after the 10-15 rounds.