Can we talk Thunderbolt (Mod) a bit?

[BiancaRoughfin]

Swazdo-Lah Fellow Tennos! <3

 

Long has it been since the Thunderbolt mod was added to the game to make Bows stronger, at that time, lvl 150 enemies had the same resistance as current mobs lvl 30~40 and the variaty of mods and weapon changes that came since 2013 have greatly improved damage output of most weapons wile some new mods that came out added more build flexibility and variety to the game.

Problem is, some mods have remain in the dust ever since, bows with explosive projectiles like Lenz, Bramma and Zhuge Prime have their own explosion effects that far outweigh those of the Thunderbold mod, at the same time this mod is completely useless when paired with these bows as the projectile will either trigger the explosion effect of the Thunderbolt mod of which the projectile vanishes afterwards without any secondary effect or triggers their normal explosion effects from the weapon.

Keep in mind, these explosive bows deal both their initial impact damage plus the explosion afterwards, meaning that hitting an enemy directly deals substantially more damage to the primary target.

For those who don't know, the Thunderbolt mod adds a 30% chance to cause the projectile to Explode on impact, its chance is low, damage is capped at 250 on max level and the blast is of 10 meters which can be increased with the  Firestorm/Primed mod which would sacrifice damage mods to give the already weak blast damage an increased area of effect. It also suffers from the drawbacks that other explosive weapons have as it used to deal Self Damage and currently deals Self Stagger.

I was hoping DE could give this mod some Love to make it relevant and even maybe give players the option between using an innate explosive Bow or another built with the Thunderbolt mod.

Increase the Explosion chance to 100% and allow the explosion to scale with Damage mods and be affected by the Bows Crit/Status chance.

Here are some damage calculations i got from the Thunderbolt explosions being affected by different Serration, Heavy Caliber, 60% and 90% Elemental Damage mod builds:

Spoiler

Base Damage: 250
Serration or Heavy Caliber: 662.5
Serration & Heavy Caliber: 1075
60% Elemental Mod: 400
Dual 60% Elemental Mod Build: 550
90% Elemental Mod: 475
Dual 90% Elemental Mod: 700
Serration + 60% Elemental: 1060
Serration + Dual 60% Elemental Mod: 2365
Serration + 90% Elemental: 1508.7
Serration + Dual 90% Elemental: 1855
Serration & Heavy Caliber + 60% Elemental: 1720
Serration & Heavy Caliber + Dual 60% Elemental: 2365
Serration & Heavy Caliber + 90% Elemental: 2042,5
Serration & Heavy Caliber + Dual 90% Elemental: 3010

As shown above, even being affected by mods the damages are nowhere near those inflicted by weapons like Lenz and Bramma, even with Critical damage of 4.4x (2x + 2.4x Vital Sense) the blast produced with the damage calculations above wouldn't perform as the Lenz or Bramma.

Reminding that Thunderbolt doesn't work on Lenz, Bramma or Zhuge Prime, what are fellow Tennos opinions on this?

[Famecans]

would be nice, a single mod to deal damage combined

[Deminisis]

With how meta AOE weapons are, especially the bramma despite the nerf, this is a very good idea. Maybe 100% on headshots with 50% on body to encourage some aiming.

[NinjaZeku]

This and Concealed Explosives was "in the works" ~5 years ago to be changed to scale with Mods and stuff,
but just like the always Sprint option, it simply never made it into the game because ... yeah no clue.

[taiiat]

i think it's warranted to just make it a more interesting Mod Type in the first place. it's a unique type Mod but what it does is about as interesting as a Shadow Debt Mod.

more Damage is still either going to make it a prime pick for AoE spamming the Solar Map, or still not useful. so to avoid either of those, give it more Mechanics.

[Voltage]

This would be cool, and we should get Cannonade while we're at it :)

[Tiltskillet]

13 hours ago, Voltage said:

This would be cool, and we should get Cannonade while we're at it :)

I'd forgotten this (sort of) exists.    DE probably did too.   (It was before my time, but every once in a while people mention it here.)

Since they're working on mod solutions for some ranged weapon weaknesses, it would make a lot of sense for them to be looking at Cannonade, Thunderbolt, Concealed Explosives, Combustion Beam, etcetera again.   

[Joezone619]

mods like these need to be made exlius mods, they simply aren't valueble enough to be worth taking off a main mod. If melee exlius is ever a thing, i'd suggest mods like guardian derision and life strike be made exlius too.

[Lutesque]

On 2021-06-10 at 6:29 AM, Deminisis said:

With how meta AOE weapons are, especially the bramma despite the nerf, this is a very good idea. 

I'm of the Exact Opposite Oppinion.... I think it's a Terrible idea to start conforming the other weapons to fit the current AoE Meta....

Note that I'm not saying you're wrong.... I'm simply saying I don't like how Right you are 😥 !!! 

On 2021-06-10 at 9:00 AM, NinjaZeku said:

This and Concealed Explosives was "in the works" ~5 years ago to be changed to scale with Mods and stuff,
but just like the always Sprint option, it simply never made it into the game because ... yeah no clue.

I always Sprint be switching Sprint back to Hold in game and then using Steam Input to give the left Stick on my Controller an Outer Ring Binding.... Now I can Sprint, Walk and Run all with the left Stick stick..... And yes.... It's Finicky as hell if I actually try to just walk or Run....luckily that's not a common Occurrence 😝 !!!

 

[Doomsknightmare]

+1. DE need to take a look at those outdated mods like Thunderbolt and Energy Channel