I love the thunder hammer in this game. It’s such a fun, iconic 40k weapon. I’ve been using it more than any other weapon since release. I’ve been using it mostly with inexorable judgement lately, since I just don’t enjoy the martyrdom playstyle.
But I hate that shroud field is basically required to give the weapon a competitive role at higher difficulties. I don’t think it’s considered a stealth weapon in 40k lore. The fantasy of the weapon is just not being delivered currently.
The weapon should feel powerful but unwieldy, and powered strikes should feel devastating, even without shroud field or martyrdom. Why is it that I can’t one-shot an auric crusher with a fully charged, powered, full thrust stacks, +25% carapace perk, overhead headshot, with most of my other buffs up, without shroud field or martyrdom or a critical hit? The weapon sacrifices so much in every other department already, it should be able to do this at least.
And I’m not talking about the ability to one or two-shot a boss - in my opinion, nobody should be able to do that. I’m talking about other enemies that the weapon just feels limp against.
Why do I have to play a stealth build with a giant, loud war hammer? Why are the combat blade, dueling sword, and relic blade so much better at everything except (conditionally) boss damage?
I’m just tired of the thunder hammer being left in the dust. With all the power creep in this game, are the devs really so afraid that the thunder hammer will become overpowered if it gets buffed? It won’t. Give the weapon some love ffs. Let it fulfill its fantasy without needing a whole build just to let it do what other weapons and classes can already do with less investment and risk. I can accept that it’s a niche weapon, but it’s not a stealth weapon.
I know I’ve posted about this before, just venting…
For what it’s worth I agree with you. Stealth bonk is funny for the absurdity of it but it really shouldn’t be a necessity. TH needs to be a one-stop armor removal weapon BEFORE the various talents and blessings kick in.
i still think they should just copy the vt2 hammer concept. heavies for clearing crowds pretty efficiently and cc even elites while whittling them down, lights for strong singletarget damage with armor pen.
for some reason they are afraid of giving this weapon damage outside of the special attack. they think that will make it op. but in reality not making the weapon usable outside of the special attack just makes it a gimmick weapon people don’t want to use outside of the meme oneshots.
if they made the base moveset good, people would be inclined to build normally on it and use the special when place and time allows, and forgo the boss oneshots, which would balance itself out (and be more fun to play with). if you think about it it’s crazy that this weapon has slaughterer and headtaker and it’s not being played that way because the base gameplay with it is just so underwhelming.
Agreed. What’s the point of taking it if it isn’t even good for the one thing it’s supposed to be good for? If I need to stack 10 buffs and use shroud field just for it to be able to one-shot a crusher, then why wouldn’t I just take another weapon that can do that AND be better at everything else?
I know, and this just makes me sad. I want to use it as a normal melee weapon, like all the other weapons in the game are meant to be used. This couldn’t have been their intention…
Exactly. I don’t care about one-shotting bosses, that shouldn’t even be a thing imo. This weapon should be more than just a meme.
It certainly seems that way. Which is absurd, given how OP other weapons/abilities have been allowed to become. At this point I don’t think there’s any way that the TH will ever be considered “top-tier”, no matter what buffs they give it, so I’m not sure why they’d be worried about that at this point.
The point is that it isn’t even that great at chunky damage without the crutches of Martyrdom/stealth, at least comparatively to better weapons. Its downsides are not compensated for. Not sure what “absolute one shot” means, but I don’t want to one-shot bosses. I think it should be able to one-shot a crusher without martyrdom or stealth, if you have some other buffs and appropriate perks/blessings. Not a lot to ask.
Thunder Hammer is good with charge. Its one of the best weapons for targeting specific elites and specials, for example taking out a purple rager in a mixed horde or sniping a charging Mutant. Its just a very boring weapon where you spam empowered charged heavies the entire game and the weapon is pretty unplayable without Thrust.
It’s balanced the way it is because of its absurdly high Unyielding damage. And it is hard to balance without just copying what they did to Power Maul or Crusher.
2676 hours of gameplay and I have never used shroudfield with thammer (I don’t think I’ve ever used anything other than knife on shroudfield) sneaking with a THUNDER hammer just feels to stupid for me
nothing will ever beat the additional 80% rending on hand cannon shroudfield though the infinite recharge possibility was close. but thunderhammer has always been badly designed for the terrible ADMs until you press the button, which is laggy, and then the hit is laggy. there’s just so much working against you.
another dodge and the overhead strike was a nice start but some more juice is needed. especially for ironhelm, like what the hell even is this weapon.
I don’t think I’ve equipped Ironhelm once ever since they added the cleaving powered attacks and overhead to the Crucis. Right now it seems to have no purpose. Maybe they can make it a little tiny one-handed thunder hammer with camouflage paintjob and a silencer and that can be the stealth version.
They should have made it like power sword strikes when its powered up ie cleaving all hitmass the calculation affords instead of discharging on specialist/elite tags. And made that smiter H3 a proper heretic buster like Saltzpyre’s holy greathammer was (man that move dumpstered heretics).
I would be so happy with that, wouldn’t even need sunder blessing though that would also be hilarious to whack several crushers at once with a powered sweep.
Thammer should never one shot crushers without heavy investment. That’s what folding shovels and the like are for.
Crucis is more than fine right now.
Ironhelm on the other side really is on dire need of some QOL changes.
One I have seen in this forum recently was: The power up should not reset where you are in the heavy/light chain. So you make those two horizontal heavy sweeps power up and are right in heavy three.
Another one is to completely remove the heavy three strikedown, which in itself would be quite the QOL change. (Like removing the light three from crucis ). I would add to that to change the “Shock and Awe” blessing so it allows ironhelm to cleave past the first ogrin/carapace enemy.
If the thunder hammer can’t one-shot a crusher with moderate investment, then it isn’t really good for much at all unless you’re using it for a meme boss one-shot build.
I guess this comes down to how you define “heavy investment”. I agree that it shouldn’t one-shot crushers with no investment, but it should with moderate investment. I think a fully charged powered overhead + headshot + full thrust + 25% carapace perk + some head taker stacks and/or a few other buffs from the talent tree should be enough. Using shroud field/FotF and martyrdom shouldn’t be an absolute requirement on top of all that other investment.
Remember that I’m only talking about crushers here, not bosses. Just think about how easy it is for other weapons and classes to rapidly dispatch crushers without such investment. I don’t understand why thunder hammer in particular needs to be so carefully regulated. It would make sense if everything else was so carefully balanced, but that is simply not the case.
Are you talking auric or havoc? Because I believe it already does your one shot with moderate commitment in auric. If I am wrong please excuse me, in my mind crucis thammer is too strong to play below havoc 25, so I have have little experience there.
I’ll tell you why I think thammer should not one shot even if other weapons are much more effective. Thammer is an extremely safe way to fight carapace enemies. Not only can you prepare your big single target damage in a safe distance, you can also easily stop the commitment. And after you commited the big burst you even knock the enemy on its ass giving you time to fight another enemy.
I’m talking about auric, not havok. In my experience there it does not usually one-shot crushers without use of FotF/shroud and martyrdom unless every buff possible is procced and maxed at the same time (not that easy with zealot), or if you crit, or if they are already damaged by your team.
I see your point, but I would argue that thunder hammer is not a very safe weapon despite that. It has poor mobility and dodges, doesn’t attack particularly fast, and isn’t that great against most enemies with its regular move set. I think that makes it inherently less safe than the faster weapons. Also, I find that the powered attack does not reliably knock down crushers if it doesn’t kill them. It would be nice if it did.
knock everything around with increased impact due to a global impact bug and it was actually fun as hell to use for regular play rather than just meme delete builds.
FS stays showing accidental glimpses of brilliance.
Ironhelm died the day Crucis got it’s special overhead strikedown as Ironhelm was made to address how difficult it was to land Crucis special+heavy on your intended target.
). I would add to that to change the “Shock and Awe” blessing so it allows ironhelm to cleave past the first ogrin/carapace enemy.