Preamble
Okee, I know the community is tired of hearing about this, and I realize that this won’t see many eyes, or third ones for that matter, but I still would like to push for a more balanced roster with merits and detriments to each character! I also enjoy playing thunder, because of the energy that expands when rushing an objective, left mouse button held down, enemies cowering in fear, however, he is out of line. With great options in Burst/sustained DPS, great health, and the only CC in the game, it almost feels like facing a half of a team when going against the not so Russian heavy gunner.
Current Situation
Now, currently Thunder’s Concussion/Flash has a 17 second cool down, has a maximum flash of 2.0 and a max concussion of 3.0 giving him an “ability active percentage” (AAP) of 17.5%, not including fuse time. His current Body DPS, which is fair to assume given concussed targets with low move speed, is currently 132.9 with the MK-46 or 135 with stark, which allows under full safety of flash a minimum of 265.8 Damage, or, effectively, 2 full health Skyhammers and an aura station, further allowing him to switch priority to the aura during concussion only phase and allowing him a mop up if she is using Blishlock, possibly being taken down by a shotgun blast later. This, all being, by himself!
Suggested changes
To keep splash damages 2%/second rule in place To balance him I would suggest Reducing his AAP down to 12.5%, and to do this, by increasing his 17 second cool down to 17.5, and to reduce the 2.0 flash to 1.5, and the 3.0 concussion to 2.5, averaging it at 2 seconds, to keep the ability strong enough to contest those tight spaces. I would also suggest lowering the snare effect from 50% to either 33% or 20% to enable retreat unless if in a corner, as running away to earn more money would be a thing that mercs should do. these changes would still allow for higher accuracy on the thunders part, but would prevent the multi-kills that one achieves on Trainyard first objective, Underground, any of the Execution maps, or any contested small viewing window that can’t gain good peripheral vision. Also, It would be a possible change to add back jumping/wall jumping to allow for better maneuverability in terms of escaping and retreating.
Hopes
Just a small hope that he would get the EMP back to allow his Objective pushing play style to be encouraged rather than just “oh hey look an enemy, flash”. It would be great to encourage the MK46 users to resume their anti sniper dreams by giving him more cards with “Focus”, and possibly bringing the fire rate from 725 RPM with 11 damage per bullet for 132.9 DPS down to 677 RPM with 11 damage per bullet giving him a DPS of 124, more in line with the SMGs and Automatic rifles that he competes with, rather than Burst fire levels of burst damage, with the extra sustained damage of an LMG, it would also allow him to enact more suppressive fire against snipers to just over 7.5 seconds, allowing his team to push up without fear of .50 BMG round.
Noobles
If you are reading this, I understand that there was quite a bit of salt regarding the topic in the game we played. however, I am reaching out in hopes that you would accept a sincere apology on my behalf, and a willing to work on this together. I have looked back to may and have not found any post regarding the name “Noobles”, and only a few joke messages on a steam discussion with that account. I truly aim to help this community thrive, and I need everyone’s help to do so, even the salty old veterans that I seem to tick off more often than I would like to