A dozen or so new threads about Thorn and how OP it is and it needs a nerf pops up everyday. However, most arguments about nerfing Thorn is emotional rather than logical. Most people get frustrated by the poison and slow recovery of Thorn rather than anything else. Many times people are not even killed by the Thorn user, they are killed by the next opponent who comes along when they are poisoned.
Argument #1. Thorn kills me too fast and nothing can stand up to it. When I actually look up most people who make this statement, they are usually using an AR. Considering that AR have the longest TTK in crucible, Thorn will dominate it vast majority of the time. I have seen people with the TLW, Hawkmoon, Red Death, The messenger, Bad Juju, and Mida crush Thorn users. So it is not be all and end all weapon.
Argument #2. Thorn requires no skills. If Thorn requires no skills than every individual who uses a thorn must have a insanely high K/D ratio. If you actually take a look, you will see that most Thorn users just like most crucible players in general have a K/D of less than 1.
Argument #3. I would win at Trials if everyone didn't carry a Thorn. I seen groups who carry thorn themselves, complain that Thorn is ruining trials because they are not as effective with it as good players. If you have the same gun as the other group and you lose, it is you and not the gun.
Argument #4. I refuse to use a Thorn because it is for scrubs. Most people who make this statement, have tried using it and got owned so they get frustrated by the fact they cannot dominate like some other Thorn users. Now if you do well with it and put it aside for a weapon that puts at a disadvantage, then I say you are not thinking strategically.
Argument #5. Thorn is so OP no one uses anything but Thorn in Trials. If all players have deviated toward the same weapon, in actuality, the game has eliminated the weapon factor and reduced winning to player's skill set. If all players are using Thorn, the most skilled player will win every time.
Having said all this, I am not saying that the Crucible is completely balanced and perfect. Can crucible be improved? Absolutely. However, Thorn is not what breaking crucible. The balance people are looking for will not be attained by simply nerfing Thorn. I can tell you that TLW is by far the most deadly hand cannon in crucible. If it is wielded by an expert user, it will crush everything. That gun just does not stand out because it is harder weapon to use but far more deadly. If Thorn is nerfed, that will be the immediate next gun that people will complain about. When TLW is nerfed, another gun will take its place.
Edit: Wow tons of responses with some really good points. I want to clarify that I'm not for or against nerfing Thorn. If it gets nerfed (which I think it will soon) then it gets nerfed. What I was trying to point out was the bigger picture that Thorn is not nearly as big as problem as most people have made it out to be. Everyone is so caught up with this Thorn issue (for or against) that there is not enough focus on how broken the overall experience of crucible actually is. Some items that come to me that precedes Thorn are:
-atrocious and constant lag in crucible and garbage netcode
- terrible match making (experience, location, and connection)
-unbalance overall weapons system
-unbalanced classes and abilities
- lack of proper effective range on most weapons (range stats are not true indicative of actual range in game play)
-separation of PVE and PVP gun stats (Thorn was initially buffed because it was useless in PVE)
The reason I picked Thorn to make this point is because at the moment, this is the most talked about weapon. Few months ago would have been Suros, and before than would have been Vex. Crucible is broken because the fundamentals behind the game are broken.
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9 RepliesLook I don't mind thorn, but when it's 80% of the reason why I die. That says something, lately I see less because people realize it's for scrubs
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I used to use a thorn, lately ive switched to tlw and i find it so much better and easier to use
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1 ReplyMy issue with Thorn, and also TLW to some extent, is the range. I have no problem with exotic hand canons being the best at short to mid range, but they should be relatively useless at long range. Yet, it seems they are better than some scout rifles at long range.
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This. Only for every whiny pvp topic. Which is every pvp topic.
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Lol I love the messenger. Wrecked so many Thorns this past weekend.
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I actually just read an article about this and I think the the author made very valid points. It wasn't against Thorn, but rather the lack of armor to effectively neutralize it and any other weapon in the game. Basically armor perks are boring and have very little to no bearing against weapons. This is a fail on Bungies part as if they put in perks that could deal with other weapon perks then people could buy armor sets to put on to render the enemies weapons less effective. This would be the better approach to balance rather than just nerfing a weapon outright IMHO. Good post!
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1 ReplyPeople moan about thorn but I seen tlw lately it's bloody lethal
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4 RepliesI especially like 5 for the trials of osiris complaining...if we all use the same guy then weapons aren't a factor
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Messenger
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18 RepliesEdited by Sohllshayde: 6/24/2015 5:52:16 PMIt's a Revelator class handcannon; highest fire rate for handcannons (TLW is only faster due to Fanfire perk) but poor impact. LUCKY FOR THORN WE HAVE: Aggressive Ballistics increases impact to 84 and increase stability, Fatebringer class handcannon does 86 but a slower fire rate. (People would cry nerf if Fatebringer had the highest fire rate and near max stability.) But wait! It gets better! Bullets can penetrate targets, I've been shot through walls. Even higher stability with Perfect Balance for those easy headshots. Final Round increases the damage outright by 30%, handy with Aggressive Ballistics. Still not OP enough? IT GETS EVEN BETTER KIDS! DOT delays health regen and reveals enemy location. Still not OP enough? Hmmmm... What am I missing? Oh wait! The DOT makes this weapon a 2 shot kill. Only a warlock with max armour and The Ram can just about survive this. Oh BTW, only TLW has a lower TTK, but only if you get 2 hipfire headshots, unlikely to happen. And TLW can only come close to its reliable TTK. "But doesn't Ill Will/Timur's Lash class handcannons do 2 shot kills?" Can do, not reliably though, any class that doesn't have lowest armour rating will survive it. And it has a painfully slow fire rate. "Hawkmoon?" Same as Ill Will, but 3rd highest fire rate instead of 4th. And the damage increase is 42% chance to occur. Lucky for Thorn though as the DOT occurs 100% with each bullet. The only saviour is Red Death and The Ram. Provided you get a 2 burst headshot lightning fast. So if you think Thorn isn't a crutch weapon then I suggest that you should definitely invest in some eyesight. Or maybe even common sense? And people using auto rifles now? They're called noobs, because they don't know any better so far. "If everyone uses Thorn then we're all balanced!" Reaaaaaaaaally? This is a positive? Shouldn't there atleast be variety? I would love to use different tactics and guns, but due to the balancing issues we're all pidgeon-holed into using the same exotic primaries and legendary secondaries!
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I saw someone say this somewhere and thought it was really good. It said something like when all guns are judged by how they compare to thorn, it shows that something needs to be changed with thorn.
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Best Thorn post i've read. Kudos
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Thorn just has excellent support capability. Maybe the best for PvP. Add to the fact hand cannons are pretty good and you see an influx of users.
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Remember when people complained that they couldn't get thorn and it was to hard to obtain. Then they cried about the magazine size and reload speed. Now, people are crying because they're dying to the gun. Thorn is really not that big of a deal.
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12 RepliesThorn can get a person's health bar to half way in one shot......AT SNIPER RANGE not emotional logic.
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Agree with points 1,2,3,4, and 5 Only argument I can make AGAINST thorn is unlike any other gun in game, it seems to have no weakness and is by far the most well rounded gun in game, if I were in charge of making adjustments only thing I'd do it is take down the range a bit, no HC should be able to straight up snipe lol
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....or I don't use thorn but when I do find it insanely easy to get kills... because its over powered. The weapon has a stupid TTK for the range and target acquisition in question. When speaking towards skilled players; Its annoying as hell to be counter sniped by a weapon with such an easy targeting system. I kill a lot of thorn users with my sniper, but I can only imagine how bad thorn must be for those who are not quicker to get headshots. thorn is currently meta it needs to be rebalanced
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I wanted to make a post like this for the longest time. THANK YOU!
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Thorn was used to rule Crucible before our light was reignited. Stop being scrubby people and get better. Change your tactics and play as a team. Thorn has its weaknesses. I've killed multiple Thorn users because of its three weaknesses. Especially this new crop of Thorn users
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2 RepliesWell said
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1 ReplyBump... I agree with OP
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1 ReplyEdited by Keljorion: 6/24/2015 7:48:52 AMHandcannons need a range falloff like shotguns (not as drastic, but TLW I use to take out people sniping at mid range (say 60-80ft)... that's outrageous for a minimum range handcannon, I'm not saying point blank but after 45 feet I should be doing 10s... thorn needs a serious nerf to range (then the additional range dropoff) so at 70ft it's doing 10s (1 dot)... hawkmoon is fine for the most part, buff the range so it's falloff isn't as affected but 130-140ft you'll want to switch to a real sniper I don't know the exact measurements Destiny uses but I know most games skew actual feet distance... Specifically in response to the post: Thorn has around (if not over) 50% of the kills in thorns of Osiris, followed by shotguns (because the majority of players cheese it with thorn and a shotgun)... TLW falls around 8% Thorn rivals snipers in range and frees up the special slot for a shotgun as you don't need a sniper for ranged combat. Its obvious it needs a nerf, even skilled people realize that
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Genius,completely agree.
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The argument that merging a gun will just bring another to the fore may be true unfortunately, but it doesn't have to be. Ideally all the weapons legendary or higher would compete on similar standing. Bungie has said time and time again they don't want exotics to be op, just feel that way. TLW and Thorn are among an elite group of exotics that can kill twice as fast as everything else. This is imbalance. As for auto rifles, they should have their place in both pvp and pve. Clearly Bungie went overboard on the nerf, and decided to buff other weapons a little too much as well. Range and accuracy shouldn't be so much that they compete with scouts, and pulse rifles, but damage wise up close they shouldn't be vastly inferior to even hand cannon body shots. But all this shouldn't result in everyone pulling out their Suros. Exotics should feel powerful, but be better because of their perks, an incremental advantage, not strictly better because of vastly superior ttk. It just makes the guns lame to use when everyone complains about them, with good cause.
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3 RepliesHere's am argument you were too convoluted to consider. Thorn did not need a buff. It surprised us all when it got one. It did not see such wide use when you had recoil to tame, longer reload times, and sharper dmg fall off. Most of these threads are asking for thorn to be debuffed back to that state, not asking for an outright nerf. It was all about skill, 2 shotting your opponent from across the map was a rewarding challenge, not the noob fest who hits first wins lets make competitive meta staler than Victorian bread hunk of shit that it is. Every player has the right to say it takes no skill to use in its current state because it really does not. Optimum set up gets you +74 aim assist? Phuck me! We may as well all be allowed to aim bot. and maybe, just maybe you should read your grimoire. I think bungie need to re read it themselves. According to it, since the fall of dredgen yur, anyone competing in the crucible with the thorn is disqualified and cast out from the ranks of the guardians. So, according to the games actual story, its lore, thorn should not be allowed in crucible. Trial it. See how many of its die hard users give up on crucible afterwards.
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My kd was still decent before I used thorn and tlw. I just spammed tdyk and still had around a 1.4 k/d at the time