Open input on Thorn

Battleborn Battleborn Competitive Multiplayer Discussion
#36

Thorn is a great sniper and a great shot if you play like a real archer. I’ve played alot of Resident evil 5 so I’m quite used to using a bow in a shooter type of way. The most imporant thing is remembering to slow down, and place your shots. You are a archer not a gunslinger so play like one, target people who are being immobile or slow, shoot for their chests increasing your chances of hitting, try to stay stealthy as to not be notcied that you are aiming.

I’ve out sniped marquis and been outsniped as marquis by and as thorn. The damage is extremely potent on a charge shot that using uncharged is pointless, the blight perk just makes it all the more worth it as it does insane damage and you can even increase the damage by like 72 per second for 4 seconds with a helix. That amount of damage alone is insane especially when going full passive build making all skills trigger it and you easily become nigh unstoppable.

#37

I would say she’s pretty balanced. As of tonight she does have my record for highest damage game.

250k may seem excessive but this was a perfect storm of a premade enemy team of all support characters, I also had 2 teamates who were melee that were struggling so much of the damage for the entire team was from me and Alani. The game went the full length of time as well.

I play Thorn as a caster using the hex on volley with the extra hex % damage to power up her ult and blight to epic heights. I then have as much Skill Damage and Cooldown Reduction as I can get in her gear. Works well for me since her basic attacks are unreliable.

#38

Also the bow has very low dps when you do land shots. She relies pretty much entirely on those abilities. I just think the slow in the helix is a little excessive.

#39

While on paper her DPS might be slow almost everytime I play her I lead the team in total damage done…

Burst Damage can be better than DPS but also all 3 of Thorns skills have high damage where a lot of the characters with higher DPS on their basic attacks have low DPS skills that are utility instead.

When you factor in skills and basic attacks then the Damage/DPS story is much different.

Thorn has some of the best DPS in the game when you put everything together

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#40

Gotta agree with you. I deal an average of 180k damage if the game ends in 30 mins. You can just kill someone by hitting all three of your skills.

Her normal attacks are pretty good too actually if you can hit a charged arrow and shoot the next few by predicting the player’s movement. That’s how I play Thorn (level 1-2) especially in Overgrowth, in-fact I’ve gotten lots of first blood from my normal attacks alone.

#41

She does too much damage honestly. Her bow accuracy doesnt matter nearly as much as her aoe placement, Sometimes I have godly accuracy and others its meh but I always have good aoe placement so I never have a bad game with her…
If for some reason Ive been killed early game which rarely happens I fall back to a sniping position then with my ridiculously movement speed and jumping I place an aoe out on the minion wave then run back to sniping and picking up thralls like clock work till Im 1-2 levels aead of everyone and proceed with snowballing everyone to death from that point on the end.
She needs an aoe nerf…

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#42

I strongly disagree. There are 25 characters and many of them excel in something, while others are more “well rounded.” Thorn excelling in AoE, especially against stating targets late game, does not justify nerfing her specialty. Once she unloads, she can be easily pushed away because her arrows are both slow and hard to land on moving targets. Oh, and she has no shield. Shields are like free rapidly charging additional health bar, just FYI.

#43

I think AOE as a whole needs to be looked into. Should something so easy do so much damage? The more precise you have to be the more damage you should do IMO. However, I don’t play many MOBAs.

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#44

In this game the minions are somewhat tanky compared to others and her aoe starts insta clearing not far into the game. Her arrows are not her main source of damage but it rewards players who are good at aiming them with moderate damage. Outside of just an easy clear she is one of thebest at escaping. She doesnt need skills making it consistent but also being a downside as she has no innediate escape, She would be weaker is she had a shield as shed lose her health regen and in this particular case a character than can avoid being caught and wave clear for xp she benefits more from just having full on health regen.
Not to mention her 600+ dmg super

#45

how aoe is in this game is fine. Oscar mike is the 2nd best aoe clear and his doesnt always full clear because his isnt built in slow

#46

Her damage is high she can be built tanky with natural sustain…Good wave clear…Has a slow…Good escape…Primarily ranged…How many characters have that.

#47

Only thing I don’t really disagree with is the tanky with natural sustain part.

Get caught in any serious damage attacks and Thorn will go down quickly. Her sustain isn’t that great either. Her sustain can really only keep up with nicks and scratches, same as an overshield. If she goes under half you need to be gone same as any other character, and her regen isn’t fast enough to just hide behind a rock until she’s healthy. Sometimes I’ll risk super quick hit and runs at half, but I usually get punished for it if I do.

The only thing her health regen is good for beyond small damage is at half health you can do some shard collecting and hit your teams Thrall camp and come back to the fight right away, but if you’re already at your camp it’s not like the supply station would add that much time to being away from the fight.

If something has to be done to her damage I’d recommend a small nerf to her ultimate.

People are complaining about her blight field taking out minions too quickly early, but that’s all she’s really good for in the early game. Except as an anti-tank. Her arrows can put out some serious crits to big easy targets.

#48

Her Ultimate is fine, I’ve had many direct hits with it on enemy players (including squishy Battleborn). who shrugged it off as if it was nothing…

The only time it is effective is against low health/no shield targets…which is the whole point.

#49

If there is anything that has to be nerfed on her it should be the damage on her blight field. It does about the same amount as OM’s napalm, but it has a slow tacked on to it.

#50

It should do more damage than Napalm because OM has a more reliable attack, and it does more damage on impact. I do, however, think that the slow on the blight field is the only thing that really needs adjustment. It takes her from being just a solid ranged AoE character to a being a good assassin as well.

#51

Not gonna say Thorn is 100% an anti-tank, but I have taken down lots of tanks with high hp or shield like:

Montana (Too easy to crit on him),
Isic (though it’s really risky cause his crits damn hurts, but I have shield penetration gear equipped),
Kelvin (especially when I kite him out of his Ice Fist),
Attikus (another easy target)
Kleese (has a whopping big a** that says “hit me baby one more time”)

Tank that I really have problems with are:

Boldur (i’m still trying to find ways how to counter him as Thorn as he has a 2000 hp shield and annoying stun)
El dragon (when he charges at me during pre- vaulting hunter helix, I usually barely escape him or he kills me)
Galilea ( I HATE THIS MATCH UP THE MOST)

#52

Very high. It’s the sequence that needs to be perfected, and works against most unsuspecting targets. I play very aggressive and most players don’t see it coming.

I like to think of Thorn in two ways. Start the game as the assassin and carry on with that in mind. However, later in the game she can be used as a very effective pusher. Hit your target to take off shield, run at them, stick blight behind them and punch them into it. This can really freak people out, and I often take on tanks like this IF I land some good shots first.

And obviously her Ultimate is a very Assassin like tool. Anyone with with low health - BYE BYE :smile:

But the reason I so love playing her is those CRITS…they is BIG!! Take down thrall in moments if you land em. And hitting someone at the other end of the lane with a big KO is orgasmic :blush:

#53

As a Thorn main, I’d say the only nerf she needs is her ult; currently it’s an easy to hit instant 700 aoe damage, enough to kill some characters at half hp, and if you’re playing Thorn right, nature’s curse will deal an extra 25-25% of that, so you can easily do close to 1k damage with her ult.

In my opinion, a long narrow projectile that requires actual aim, would be better suited to her. Something like Bindleblast, but faster moving and without the penetration.

#54

Both napalm and the slow are helix choices, you’re currently trying to compare the instant aoe damage of OM’s grenade with Thorn’s damage over time blight field.

#55

But let’s all not forget Thorn does not and should not rely on the normal attacks because it’s easily dodged and hitting smaller targets are tougher. Unlike Marquis, his normal attacks are faster and easier to hit which makes him a legitimate sniper. Which is why without much mobility he still can snipe from far.

However for Thorn, in order to deal more damage, she needs to charge her arrow which allows the enemy to be able to kite her arrow. So, by nerfing her skills and she’ll be pretty much useless unless they buff her arrow dps like her tag says “Sniper”

If I was gearbox, I would put Thorn as:

Assasin - Burst em down.
or
Pusher - Good damn ol’ waves clear.