[Still Relevant] Thoughts on Thunder and How He Could Be Balanced

(solace_) #1

Hey Everyone!

Update:

After todays update, all I can say is wow. He is basically exactly the same. They changed literally so little it does basically nothing to help him. All I can really tell from playing is that the handling on the Mk46 is a little better. And please keep in mind, the things suggested in the video, I am not suggesting that all of them should be implemented, they are just suggestions. Maybe some of them would be good for thunder and others not. They are suggestions, nothing more.

Watch the video for the best explanation. So much easier to say it than explain in text.

Previous Start of the Thread:

How’s it going? I know there have been a number of threads on this, but, the clearest way to express ones thoughts is usually to start a new thread, so that is what I have done. here is the link for the discussion I made, the TLDR is below.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=9I4lX-ZhgQI

Video Notes: (just notes, everything is explained better in the video with examples)

Thunder is an interesting character but is lacking in most if not all areas of what makes a merc a merc.

His Health- Should be raised by 10-20 points to make him more tank

His Speed- Should be increased by 5-15 points to compensate for his hitbox

His Hitbox- can stay the same or be decreased depending on increases to health and/or adding of armor ability

HIs abilities- Concussive grenade can be changed in a number of ways
-Remove flash effect
-Separate concussive effect and EMP effects into two different grenades
-Give him some kind of armor ability that absorbs a percentage of all damage thunder receives until the armor receives a certain amount of damage

His Weapons-MK46 is an inferior weapon in many respects. Give it a few all round, general buffs to bring it up to speed but not to make it more like the K-121.

So that is essentially what the video covers, although I go over everything in greater detail. I hope you enjoyed the video if you watched it.

Any thoughts on other ways thunder could be improved?

Thanks.

(PleasantWheat) #2

I agree with everything bar the separate emp grenade and an ability to give him armour.

Would love to see some of these changes implemented ESPECIALLY regarding the mk46

(solace_) #3

[quote=“PleasantWheat;148051”]I agree with everything bar the separate emp grenade and an ability to give him armour.

Would love to see some of these changes implemented ESPECIALLY regarding the mk46[/quote]

nice, yeah it really would be great to see some change.

(scavazzi4) #4

In my opinion the only buff Thunder requires is more consistent nades, they are too easy to avoid and even if you get the best of results you won’t have a decent advantage.
The only good thing about conc nades is the massive slow, but it happens too rarely even if you manage to blow them right in the face of your enemy.

(Swifty) #5

Ehm in my opinion everything about him is okay, however theres something about his health, he doesnt seem tank it’s as if his damage resistance is low and so is his damage on his LMG, I dont see point of a character that is designed to kill groups of people who can just about take 1 because his health is ripped down so fast and his damage on LMG which is supposed to be main gun of thunder, the first thing I think of when I think of thunder is big LMG, I dont think of an ak/timmiok or whatever guns he has.

(solace_) #6

[quote=“scavazzi4;148090”]In my opinion the only buff Thunder requires is more consistent nades, they are too easy to avoid and even if you get the best of results you won’t have a decent advantage.
The only good thing about conc nades is the massive slow, but it happens too rarely even if you manage to blow them right in the face of your enemy.[/quote]

and that is kinda why I made suggestions for other abilities in case it is not possible for his grenades to really make thunder into good, solid merc. Which I don’t think is the case, I think that even after they can possibly fix his nades, he will still be far inferior to other mercs such as fragger. It is just in the nature of the singular concussion grenade that he has. It cannot do enough to make him a sufficiently good character.

So that is why I suggested a whole bunch of stuff. But like I said, suggestions, not manditory. I just thought the whole armour thing would be cool to make him more into a defense buster character rather than one that is meant to deal out loads of damage.

(solace_) #7

well yeah. haha. That was kinda the point of the video. I explained about the hitbox and how if they leave it alone they could possibly give him some kind of body armour that can absorb a certain amount of damage.

Thats the reason he dies so quickly. He doesn’t have that much more health compared to Fragger or skyhammer, his hitbox is vastly bigger, and he is a much slower character on top of that.

These suggestions were to make it so that he doesn’t die quite so quickly and doesn’t need quite so much maintenance from his team. Although he needs some, not quite as much as before.

(solace_) #8

Something to keep in mind is that most of the buffs I have suggested are fairly small. (to his health, speed, weapon) The biggest buff is the armour ability, other things such as his hitbox which is huge, would stay the same.

So I would say that it would be fairly balanced due to not giving huge buffs just a second ability. Just a thought.