So I think a lot of people will agree with me when I say the thunder hammer is a bit underwhelming. I think the main issue is that it’s powered hit gets stopped by anything that gets in the way. Powering up your huge thunder hammer to kill an enemy elite and then having your attack accidentally hit a random dreg (that dies but also blocks the thunder hammer) is not fun gameplay.
I think best solution for this is to make it so the powered up mode will cleave through weaker mobs and the big blast damage only go off when it hits an enemy of a large enough weight class/type. This will get rid of/mitigate one of the most frustrating things with the weapon.
I am not sure if they are in yet or not, but All they did was increase its damage against flak and carapace armor. Which is good, but didn’t really salve the problem of the powered up hits being frustrating.
To be honest I think the armor-piercing buff they gave is not enough, it still has the lowest damage percentage against flak and carapace armor compared to evis and power maul, lower than combat axe as well. Among all the weapons a zealot would actually use, thunder hammer’s armor-piercing is only better than dagger’s light attack, which is really bizarre.
That doesn’t sound like it would improve gameplay. Also I think it kind of makes sense for human soldiers to try and conserve their power cells. Unlike a someone in power armor we don’t have a nuclear reactor strapped to our back.
I agree completely. It’s my favorite weapon cause it looks so cool! But it’s so disappointing that, like you said, the heavy hits always get that one drag that gets in the way in the last second. They really should redesign how the special heavy attack works.
Well, maybe in a year or two guyz.
No, you have one in the hammer. Or however it’s powered. It’s self contained.
So I’m fudging it a little when I say ‘always on’ when I should say ‘it goes off every time.’
This large warhammer incorporates an energy field emitter within its head that activates only when the hammer strikes its target. This allows the weapon to store a tremendous amount of energy and release it only at the moment of impact, producing a terrific blast of energy and concussive force like the crack of thunder, from which the name of the weapon originates.
Also
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Thunder_hammer
Where other power weapons emit a constant energy field, the thunder hammer is designed to energize the power field only upon impact, enabling it to conserve energy until it is actually needed, and allowing the weapon to deliver a particularly devastating blow[2]. Upon impact, the thunder hammer’s blue energy field explodes with a thunderous crack, more often than not smashing through armour, and leaving a smoking hole that crackles with blue sparks[2]. The power unleashed on impact is such that a warrior not in Terminator armour will likely be knocked over. The weapon’s main drawback in combat is its slowness in delivering a strike compared to most other close combat weapons.
I am pretty well versed in the lore no need to quote it at me, I was simply giving a possible explanation. I understand trying to match lore, but in this case that would actually hurt the game. We don’t want the none powered weapons to be trash in comparison, that will remove variety and if we make a power weapon equivalent of everything to bring back the variety now power weapons aren’t special at all. I think the devs did pretty good striking the middle ground between matching lore and trying to balance the game.
Really the characters in this game shouldn’t have access to thunder hammers at all, it would be more accurate for it to be a power hammer rather than a thunder hammer since from a lore standpoint actual thunder hammers are to rare and valuable to give out to even high ranking imperial guard let alone random inquisition suicide squad members.
Hm, one middle ground for an always on weapon that stores energy is to give it a limited capacitor. It starts off at 100% charge and each hit drains it some amount, lower the effects until it’s mostly just an unpowered weapon until the charge builds up again. How long it takes to charge is debatable.
In my opinion the Thunderhammer should be completely reworked. They don’t have to break the balance to make it work like the lore states.
First up, they need to switch the impact effect of the Crusher with the Thunder Hammer as they are the wrong way around. A Power Maul’s field generator acts in the same way as a power-swords does.
The Thunder Hammer is one of the only power weapons that stores a charge in capacitors built into the head to be released on impact. That release of energy causes a huge blast that blows people (even Space Marines in Terminator armor) off their feet
The thunder hammer should always be on. It should slowly (say over 5 seconds) build up a charge to 100%. At 100% if you hit a target you get a huge concussive blast that works just like the Crushers does. If you hit something at less than 100% charge it does less damage and less concussive blast. A hit uses ALL of the charge
The special attack should allow you to spin the Hammer 180 degrees and hit with the other end that is not powered, allowing you to use the weapon while it charges
Balance is usually a losing game. It’s two paper ships in a toilet bowl trying to reach the bottom of the swirl at the same time.
People will say, dead serious, that an assault rifle needs to be super weak so a rock tied to a stick remains “viable.”
But, just to please those people, how about we set up two classes of melee weapons. W40K melee weapons, which work like they do in the lore and have full dodge, and ‘plain’ weapons, like the knife, which come with some other massive advantage, like increasing ranged damage by 25%, or toughness by 50%, or being able to go from knife/shovel to ranged instantly with no waiting… Or two or three of these massive advantages at the same time.
Hm the only thing I would change about the hammer are the animation times of the special attack.
If it would be as fluent to use as the crusher I think the hammer would be fine.
I just cant stand the wind down animation when you hit a target, it just takes to long before you can do anything else.
A recharge is an interesting idea, that could work pretty well. I agree that the thunder hammer should have had the blast effect seeing as that’s its whole stick, but I have already seen that suggestion in several places. I am aware that they probably won’t be convinced to change around 3 weapons, or at least not until they finish with the plethora of other needed features, and wanted to give a suggestion that is more easily accomplished.
I probably would have gone with a shock maul instead of a power maul and gave it a stunning zap effect of some kind like the lightning staff.