I have used the Thunder Hammer extensively in Damnation and Damnation Hi intensity. I’d post a video of it, but there’s none on the mission board for me to play.
I’ve heard other player’s complaints about the weapon and I would like to provide an alternative opinion. The recoil lock time is not the problem with the Thunder Hammer, I can play around this and still use charged shots all game long. The low cleave damage is not the problem with the Thunder Hammer. The low armor damage is already planned to be patched. The problem with the Thunder Hammer is an unintentional mechanic that I lovingly refer to as “GET DOWN MR. PRESIDENT”. You see, unlike every other weapon in the game except basic axes I suppose, when you swing a charged thunder hammer at a Crusher’s head, that nice sleek Heavy swing for maximum damage, if there is one single poxwalker hanging out near his knees…well…all of that glorious damage and stagger is going into that poxwalker. Bless that poxwalker for saving the life of that Crusher. Sure the Crusher is two times taller than the Pox Walker. Sure he wasn’t even visible on my screen when I started that swing. But by god he ate that damage and saved the day. What a hero. Oh and now I’m getting CRUNCHED because the Crusher isn’t staggered and isn’t hurt in any way and that swing I was planning to intercept with my swing just swung.
I find this remarkable considering that the Eviscerator already has a mechanic where it can cleave until it hits a target that needs shredding, possibly sequentially. I understand that for balance reasons it can’t work like the Crusher and have a bunch of cleave and AOE. But having random chaff eat my charged blows is what makes the Thunder Hammer so hard to use.
User Story:
As a player using the Thunder Hammer
When using charged attacks
I want to be able to swing through at least some chaff enemies
So that I can hit priority targets with the large single target damage
Acceptance Criteria: Criteria 1:
GIVEN a single charged attack with a Thunder Hammer
WHEN the blow contacts between 1 and 3 non-special or non-elite enemies
THEN cleave through those enemies and deliver normal cleave damage and cleave impact
AND THEN deliver the special charged damage to any 4th enemy hit
Criteria 2:
GIVEN a single charged attack with a Thunder Hammer
WHEN the blow contacts any special or elite enemy
THEN deliver the special charged damage to that enemy
I picked an arbitrary number here greater than 1 and smaller than a horde worth of enemies. This retains the intended function of the weapon as principally single target.
I keep beating this drum on these forums. In VT2 in like 2018 they updated melee hitboxes with sweeps but no cleave profile to prioritize the target in your crosshair, for weapons like crowbill that had wide sweep no cleave heavies. Thunder hammer needs that or a buff to the light attacks.
Alternative solution that does not alter current charged weapons game mechanics:
Charging the hammer gives you an overhead (instead of sweeping) heavy attack for that one attack. If the charge dissipates before being spent, swing pattern goes back to normal. A decent solution for power head bonks that have little chance to hit undesired targets.
Also a slight buff to the weapon while at it, since hitting head for even more damage will be easier.
This is unique in terms of altering regular swing patterns, but special attacks already can have their own patterns, so I imagine that coding framework already exists for this to some extent.
The thunder hammer needs buffs and idgaf it makes it unbalanced. The last thing i want in a repetitive game like Darktide where im going to play the same maps and all the weapons for a thousand times, its “muh balance” turning weapons into one trick ponies that have 0 enjoyment and require sweat, blessings and cheese like animation canceling to work properly.
In a question of fun vs balance, this is a PVE game, make it fun.
i agree it needs help i jsut think this proposed solution is a bit too close to how the eviscerater works. im not sure if the game can do it but i think a semi inteligent targeting system would be the way to go ie it hits the elite your aiming at not the first thing in its path. i think brain burst has a limeted version of this built in.
also the self stun… it needs either toning down or give an ae flinch to the discharge. not a full knockdown like the crusher but a minor flinch ae just so its not suicide using it.
in a pve game the fun comes from the balance. if you had a wepont hat couldnt kill anything your not having fun, if you have a weapon that trivialises everything, your not having fun.
im not saying all weapons have to be dead equal, but i do think they all need to be at least viable and not so strong that takign anythign else just feels like your ham stringing yourself needlessly.
and in an ideal world there wouldnt be a meta at all.
Metaslavery is a you problem. If the only thing you can play is the meta stuff, then its a personal issue, there will ALWAYS be meta weapons and strats, every week there is a new “immortal Zealot + Knife build” type of content, now if you need the Devs to hunt those down everytime until everything is either so mediocre or unfun to the point that you NEED blessings, RNG rolls, min/maxxing every single % etc to make it work, then no thx that is a horrible way to make a game where you are supposed to play the same 15-20 maps and 80 weapons that this game will eventually have over its lifetime.
The thunder hammer needs multiple different buffs and if that makes it OP Zealot weapon, well thats A-OK, its a Thunder Hammer its supposed to be meta, not some knife that has been min/maxxed with the perfect blessings traits and rolls, all due to RNG luck. Now if that somehow forces you to only play the Thunder Hammer on the Zealot forever because as you said “playing anything else feels like you’re gimping yourself” i guess you can suffer since that your personal choice. I play all weapons, and i dont need the devs to come and cut the legs out of a weapon so i can finally try something else.
I did think of that, and on the one hand I like the idea. On the other hand it would make smashing mutie heads in that much harder. It would also mean any other patterns of Thunder Hammer (with different swing dynamics) might very well suffer from the same problem.
jsut think this proposed solution is a bit too close to how the eviscerater works.
It doesn’t really work like the eviscerator however, since it still only deals powered damage to one target. It is, in my proposed solution, dealing normal heavy sweep damage and cleave damage with no changes. Its only the 4th and/or elite target that takes powered damage. The Eviscerator buffs all damage in the heavy swing and applies shredd to one or more targets hit in a single swing
I agree with the OP, having used this thing in the Higher Difficulties this is something it really just needs.
It just needs to be able to cleave 2-3 small targets on the Activation power attack. Not much, just enough to do what he’s saying. Obviously you don’t want this to take over the positoin of the Power Maul, but just cleaving a couple of small targets to get to a solid body mass will tweek the weapon to handle better, and that’s most often the criticism of it.
The reason Eviscerator is chosen over this is primarily because of that even though it does less damage on Elites than the Thunder Hammer does.
EDIT: also… because it was mentioned. Eviscerator does not stop after it does its Rending on a target in a horde, it will continue through and continue to cleave damage and stagger other targets even after hitting the solid mass.