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Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Thor Rags' buff - not too bad?
Magrailothos
Posts: 5,348 ★★★★★
Since most people are focusing on the new Guillotine, I thought I'd start a thread on updated Thor (Ragnarok). See if it got anywhere - has anyone tried him out yet?
Having played with him in ROL against WS, he's definitely got access to a lot more damage output.
Damage?
I only have a 4* 5/50, Sig 99. No synergies, no suicides. But playing against WS, he finishes him in around half the time. I wasn't counting hits, since Thor is designed as a high-combo-count champ. But pre-buff Thor took health off WS at about twice the speed he did before.
Playing with him, he clearly stacks his Armour Break and Shock debuffs more easily than he used to. And based on testing against WS, if he's in a situation where his opponent doesn't have an SP3 active, and giving the opponent Power isn't a problem; he's probably dealing about double the damage he used to.
It doesn't revolve entirely around his SP3, either. There's a decent damage burst built into his SP1, linked to holding a combo over 40. That's accessible whenever you want it; just as long as you hold a combo.
He still has the slightly inexplicable damage Cap on his SP3, although it rises to 30% when there's an Armour Break on the opponent.
Practicality?
Well, you aren't going to be able to throw his burst damage around too freely, since you'll have to bait out Specials. That's his major drawback - other champs who similarly have burst damage revolving around lots of Specials can usually get around that in some way: Prof X can Power Lock/Special Lock; Sasquatch can Power Drain on Specials (not that that's working right now for Sasquatch). Thor can't do that at all, although he can manage a fairly consistent Stun Lock for a sustainable period of time.
Utility?
Not a lot of it, to be honest. 90% Reduction in Shock duration will come in handy. And he's got an unreliable Autoblock on dash attacks that can save you from failed intercepts precisely 40% of the time.
He's got Armour Break on his SP2, and at random times during his Thunder God's Wrath phase post-SP3.
During Wrath, as I suggested above, he can stack a lot of debuffs, and fairly reliably (not completely though!) Stun-lock his opponent, between Shock-related stuns and spamming his SP1. The trouble is, he can't prevent an SP3 hitting him at some point, if he doesn't put his opponent down.
Thor Rags' big bit of utility is his Boon of the Gods Power Gain ability. And it's good (and very unusual for a Skill champion) - a full SP3 every 40 combo hits. In a match like WS, it's easy to use that to keep up his Wrath phase pretty much all the time, with extra SP1s thrown in for burst damage.
Overall?
He's definitely better now. He used to be dependent on being Awakened and high Sig and having a team of synergies with him. Now he doesn't really need the synergies, and you can access all his abilities (but less damage) without him being Awakened.
Is he a top-five skill Champion? No.
Is he a useable Skill Champion? Yes.
Is he a good R3 candidate, other than for Prestige? Probably not, but...
Can you have fun with him? Yes. Definitely.
Is he going to be a bit of a pain on Defense? Could be!
If you pull him early, he's got access to decent damage and you can certainly get stuff done with him. He won't necessarily do much to make it easier for you though; since he lacks almost all the usual Skill abilities like reliable AAR, Bleed, Evasion, Evade reduction, etc..
This is an okay buff, and if you kind of liked Thor, he's better now. If you didn't like him, I don't think there's anything much here to change your mind.
Try him out, and let people know what you think below.
Having played with him in ROL against WS, he's definitely got access to a lot more damage output.
Damage?
I only have a 4* 5/50, Sig 99. No synergies, no suicides. But playing against WS, he finishes him in around half the time. I wasn't counting hits, since Thor is designed as a high-combo-count champ. But pre-buff Thor took health off WS at about twice the speed he did before.
Playing with him, he clearly stacks his Armour Break and Shock debuffs more easily than he used to. And based on testing against WS, if he's in a situation where his opponent doesn't have an SP3 active, and giving the opponent Power isn't a problem; he's probably dealing about double the damage he used to.
It doesn't revolve entirely around his SP3, either. There's a decent damage burst built into his SP1, linked to holding a combo over 40. That's accessible whenever you want it; just as long as you hold a combo.
He still has the slightly inexplicable damage Cap on his SP3, although it rises to 30% when there's an Armour Break on the opponent.
Practicality?
Well, you aren't going to be able to throw his burst damage around too freely, since you'll have to bait out Specials. That's his major drawback - other champs who similarly have burst damage revolving around lots of Specials can usually get around that in some way: Prof X can Power Lock/Special Lock; Sasquatch can Power Drain on Specials (not that that's working right now for Sasquatch). Thor can't do that at all, although he can manage a fairly consistent Stun Lock for a sustainable period of time.
Utility?
Not a lot of it, to be honest. 90% Reduction in Shock duration will come in handy. And he's got an unreliable Autoblock on dash attacks that can save you from failed intercepts precisely 40% of the time.
He's got Armour Break on his SP2, and at random times during his Thunder God's Wrath phase post-SP3.
During Wrath, as I suggested above, he can stack a lot of debuffs, and fairly reliably (not completely though!) Stun-lock his opponent, between Shock-related stuns and spamming his SP1. The trouble is, he can't prevent an SP3 hitting him at some point, if he doesn't put his opponent down.
Thor Rags' big bit of utility is his Boon of the Gods Power Gain ability. And it's good (and very unusual for a Skill champion) - a full SP3 every 40 combo hits. In a match like WS, it's easy to use that to keep up his Wrath phase pretty much all the time, with extra SP1s thrown in for burst damage.
Overall?
He's definitely better now. He used to be dependent on being Awakened and high Sig and having a team of synergies with him. Now he doesn't really need the synergies, and you can access all his abilities (but less damage) without him being Awakened.
Is he a top-five skill Champion? No.
Is he a useable Skill Champion? Yes.
Is he a good R3 candidate, other than for Prestige? Probably not, but...
Can you have fun with him? Yes. Definitely.
Is he going to be a bit of a pain on Defense? Could be!
If you pull him early, he's got access to decent damage and you can certainly get stuff done with him. He won't necessarily do much to make it easier for you though; since he lacks almost all the usual Skill abilities like reliable AAR, Bleed, Evasion, Evade reduction, etc..
This is an okay buff, and if you kind of liked Thor, he's better now. If you didn't like him, I don't think there's anything much here to change your mind.
Try him out, and let people know what you think below.
23
Comments
Definitely a decent buff, i think if I awaken my 6* I’d be very happy to R2 him but just not too convinced for an R3 choice over other better skills.
I think the utility just felt a little held back, like they didn’t want to go overboard so they went well under board (if that’s not a phrase then it is now..)
Solid 7/10 for the buff. Happy, but not ecstatic.
And him not having at least -100% shock potency is almost a meme at this point. Thor, the God of Static Shocks.
My next skill rank 3 champ
I agree that having most of his damage tucked behind an SP3 is annoying @TrashyPanda but it's a bit less of an issue knowing he can easily throw twice as many SP3s as any other Skill champion. Once you get past that first SP3, they come a lot faster.
Also: whilst it's good that he's less synergy dependent, one relatively new synergy with a decent champion helps here: Silver Centurion gives him the ability to (100%) inflict Shock on Heavy attacks.
I've tested, and can confirm that this synergy also enables him to inflict Armour Break (45%), Stun (16%), and inflict burst damage.
Such a "middle of the road" buff (and if you add the Guillotine laughable one this month) it's not even funny any more.
Yes, he has access to more damage. So what? Everything he does, he does inconsistently, with only exception his power gain every 40 hits. That's it. He still excels at absolutely nothing and noone will choose to rank him up for actual content clearing.Another disappointment. I have a 5R3 sig 80 and I see no reason at all to choose him over 5-6 other Skill champs in the same rank, waiting in line.
If the Gully buff would have been received better and he didn't have to bear the burden of being "the best buff of the month", I think this would have been a definitive win for him. As it is, I think his only failure is to not live up to the expectations people had on the Guillotine buff when that fell through. Since he isn't really picking up the slack (and was never meant to be), there's an overall disappointment that I think would otherwise be unwarranted.
I don't base my comments on experiences on other people's opinions in any case, so that's an off comment. In any case, can you please indicate that ONE thing that he does exceptionally well after his buff? Even a (full) immunity, I will take even that. I'll be waiting...
Even DDHK can totally bypass Miss, right out of the box and he 100% bypass damage from physical contact, even at 200 sig. Thor Rags has NOTHING unique in his kit.
For me personally, I don't think he offers enough for R3; but that's because I'm a FTP in a Gold 2 Alliance, so I have to really agonize over R3 decisions as resources are scarce for me. For competitive players in high-tier Alliances, who have better access to rank-up materials, he may already be at R3 for Prestige, as @Hector_1475 says.
Like you, I think he's a lot better now, and some of those people should try playing with him; particularly in niche matches like EMP-modification and Energy Adoption: Shock. He's absolutely not the best at anything, really; but if your biggest and brightest stars are tied up in AW and AQ, Rags may usefully fill a hole in your questing team...
I am curious, where do you think the practical application of this is?
Best case scenario I figure is: Defender is almost at 3 bars of power, you do two MM to drop below 20%, Defender uses SP3 within 5 seconds so you tank, and then the fight continues as normal.
For other scenarios, you are trying to build Rage stacks, so you'll blow by 20% health but since you continue to try to attack to build more Rage stacks, you don't have time to get hit and benefit from Indestructible.