Alright, so I tried Thunder for a couple of games, and I should say : I like him a lot. The concussion grenade is kind of a fun tool, that promotes more teamplay than the usual Frag Grenade, but also has its own way to be countered (don’t look at it, folks. It’ll burn your eyes). I didn’t tried the MK46 yet though. I’m having a blast… Which is clearly not the thoughs of everyone.
While I don’t think Thunder is overpowered, I noticed that kind of a lot of people seems to think that he is (mainly on Reddit). Reason ? The INSANE range of the Concussion grenade can get. It’s kind of why I love it actually. You can use it like kind of a massive CC. However it does has its drawbacks :
- No real “stun” if the target is not close enough of the explosion.
- You can blind yourself.
- Looking away is enough to get rid of a good part of the debuff.
Taking those into account, I think it’ll only be a question of time until most of people adapt themselves. That merc kind of breaks some habits, and I think it’s good.
Thunder’s hitbox is huge, which is fine. Due to the nature of the conc grenade, I guess it’s sure that you clearly won’t match the killing potential of Fragger. You’re here to open the way and cover people, this is what your big nice body and 160 hp are for. Standing in front of people and avoiding them to take damage, while creating openings for his allies : that’s Thunder’s job. He’s definitely much more a teamplayer than he looks.
However, he do have issues to fix. It looks like a lot of things have been missed !
The first thing that really annoyed me when I tried to play him is that he DOES NOT have Fragger’s coutdown animation when he cooks his nades. It it problematic ? Yes ! Because conc grenades are actually cookable grenades, pretty much like Fragger’s frag grenades. It’s kind of annoying to not know where you’re at when you cook your nade IMO, and that part was clearly an oversight. He needs this.
Another issue : spawnkilling. I actually got that information from someone else : the conc grenade WORKS on spawnshielded targets ! You can downright conc/blind them, and chain them at the spawn. It does not feel legit at all if you want my honest opinion, and I really don’t think this was intended. Of course I didn’t tried to reproduce it, as it seemed downright not fair play.
Last issue I found so far : the “friendly fire”. I don’t think my attacks should blind my own teammates. It would be understandable in a competition match of course as Friendly Fire is on, but blinding my own allies feels kind of off… Some people are arguing that it’s made to avoid it to be overpowered, but I do not think the conc grenade was supposed to have an effect on allies from the start, and it’s actually not that hard to bypass it : looking away when Thunder throws it or getting on cover. I didn’t felt like I experienced a glitchy throw that passes through walls or gets you blinded from the other side of the map yet. All of my throws from afar were not that effective to blind people as far as I can tell.
That’s pretty much all.