Alrighty.
@Rosskii Some of those you wrote are right, but rest of it isn’t. I’ll show you why.
First, there are mainly two balancing problem for conc.
- It detonates way too fast(even for Thunder himself!) without any sort of cooking time = which is true that it is unable to counter most of the time when conc detonates right in front of your face while fighting.
This is my personal opinion, but as I’ve also played against numerous other Thunders, you CAN actually react to conc detonation if you hear conc’s own beeping sound. There is this… certain timing when Thunder throw his conc, so 70% of time you can actually avoid the flash unless mid-air exploded conc randomly blinds your eye.
It can be solved if SD adds cooking to it, or roll-back the old detonation time (1.2sec) so it would be easier to react.
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Cool down is way too fast, compared to massive CC effect.
To be honest, this is the main part. He definitely needs 20 sec of CD nerf BUT with his MG buff.
You are right about the part Thunder is very useful in 5 vs 5 low population match up, because Thunder is extremely powerful at 1 vs 1 situation with conc. Also, Thunder’s team with shoot concussed enemy right away unlike pub.
But the reason why he deserves flash effect is because 1 vs 1 is the ONLY part that he is useful at 6 vs 6 ~ 8 vs 8 pub because of giant hitbox and lacking firepower besides Ranked game’s group conc + other team mates following strategy.
It’s true Thunder can easily beat any enemies that are FULLY conced(Flash + Slow), but you have to know Thunder can’t always shoot his enemies freely.
Team mates that aren’t concussed will soon notice Thunder coming in, and bother him shooting you right away. Also, you can always go back to corner (to lure enemy Thunder to your team’s fire net.) or safe zone such as healing station with bunch of team mates, even if you are fully blinded without checking Mini map. Just be sure what direction are you heading.
This is the biggest problem of Thunder when you use him for offensive purpose, because Thunder isn’t able to check if this conced enemy is fully concussed or ONLY SLOWED.(Unless SD separates XP in to half for two.)
I’ve seen so many Asian region pro DB players react to unavoidable conc(Turning right back) and then get only slowed, preparing to shoot back or Fragger : cooking grenade to kill incoming Thunder, Stoker : holding molotov, and even if the same Thunder is blinded, he can counter conc you so easily.
There are so many ways to counter Thunder while you are only slowed. This is also why Thunder performs the best when played defensive + Slowing isn’t enough for him, when he has to kill someone clearly unlike cooking grenade.
Or just simply jumping repeatedly will avoid you from Thunder’s constant headshot so that you can expand enemy Thunder’s TTK, buying time for team mates to cover you up since conc doesn’t limit the jumping itself but jumping height.
I know how you feel when it feels like there is no way to counter back Thunder and you just stand still to die, but it really is true that there IS a way to counter back even when you are 99% slowed. Eventhough if you are fully blinded, just shooting in front of the door way(Where Thunder will come out) or straight middle of your screen actually does help you a lot.
Again back to the topic, reason why conc is OP isn’t its got massive CC + Flash, but insanely short cooldown. Screen Whitening has nerfed quite hard since last Summer Squash update.
I strongly disagree with the part you mentioned MK.46 is better than K-121, because it has both inferior dmg per bullet/DPS, which means Thunder is even weaker than K-121 Fragger WITHOUT a grenade.
11dmg and 17 dmg = 6 dmg difference is HUGE, and K-121 shoots fast enough to pass over MK.46’s 132 DPS. (K-121 has 135 DPS, same as Dreiss.)
I remember the time when I played Thunder at last year Closed Beta when MK.46 used to have 12 dmg with MUCH, MUCH better spread, and yes. It was even better than when K-121 used to have 18dmg. (http://dirtybomb.nexon.net/news/2177/nader-update)
After it’s got 11dmg with higher spread than TIMIK at 2015 November Thunder release, MK.46 is no longer a strongk MG it used to be, but huge fat SMG with high recoil rifle’s spread. (Timik with 14dmg/29m range has 0.00884 spread per bullet, MK.46 with 11dmg/26m range has 0.00898 spread per bullet.)
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Yes. The conc is not OP but can be annoying. It seems that most people that play Thunder are generally quite skilled at the game (I said MOST) and due to their skill using an ability which technically has no counter other than staying at range. When he is on defense (as you said) he does not have this flaw, since the enemies have to come to him. This makes him very very good in the right hands.
I play Thunder 90% of my games and I play him every time I play DB . This has been true since when he first came out in 2015, and I just clocked 100 hours with him. I think I am also in an appropriate stance to say that the CD nerf is all he needs as a way of weakening him, since he cannot always act on his conc, and it might just end up with you concussing 90% of the enemy team, but because of deployables and that one teammate left, you cannot do anything.
So yes, you do get flashed a lot, but you have to ask yourself, how many of the times I was flashed did I actually die? And when I did die, was I in a particularly great position where I could have easily been killed without the conc.
If every player who faced Thunder asked these questions, then I think people would think a lot less of him as a viable merc.
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