Thermal detonators do not kill??

Feelsonumb

greedos thermal detonator will only bring a char to 1 hp but it will not deliver a killing blow. is this the way this the way this ability was developed? its such an underwhelming ability as is, it would amaze me if thermal detonators are unable to deliver a killing blow.

Baal

Same with dots

Feelsonumb

is this intentional or known?

Keaven

Same with most assist attacks.

Feelsonumb

Have you ever missed the 2nd assist attack and the enemy survives? i havent seen that yet but yes its a waste of an attack since the enemy is dying anyway.

With Thermals and dots they just wont die, there isnt an instance where theyre going to die anyway. Like with the assist attack.

I know no one cares about thermal detonators but they should have some kind of usefulness. They need to be reworked or improved, or at the very least able to deliver a killing blow.

Is this the way they were designed? Are there plans to alter/improve?

Can a member of EA answer this for me?

SinnerWill

As far as I can tell, thermal detonators are likely in the game as a mechanic for 3 reasons:

1.) To be able to deal damage to units that counter-attack without forcing it (the counter) to proc.

2.) To serve the purpose of pre-planned "burst damage" by dealing damage on a delay so that you can time your normal damaging attacks to finish the target off before their healer can act to save them.

3.) To get around other "on hit" procs causing turn-meter gains while still dealing damage (such as Han's lv.3 taunt) or Savage Opress's unique ability for turn-meter.

Problems with most thermal detonators:
- Most of their users lack potency values to rival that of opponents' tenacity values (Nute Gunray, for example, stays at 0%, even at max gear, and likely possesses the most impressive version of them).
- They can be "cleansed" and removed by certain healers (not sure about all of them, but I've seen Greedo's and Mob Enforcer TD's get removed by Ewok Elders).
- How they work is still a bit confusing. As noted, they do not "kill" on detonation, which likens them to DoT's whose damage value is based upon the max HP of their target. Nute Gunray's "Grenade Toss" upgrades say "+x% max health".
- Ultimately, the fact that they don't "kill" may actually suggest something good, though, since I believe it suggests they either deal damage based upon the max HP of their target (an unknown base value prior to upgrades, which varies between the types of TD's - Greedo's AoE, for instance, deal less than the Mob Enforcer's single-targeted, but perhaps if you add them all up they'd be the same if all targets had the same HP value) or based upon max HP of the hero using them - in which case, they'd be EXTREMELY effective at high levels (particularly against high HP counter-attackers like Fives or tanks if based upon opponents' max HP - and extremely effective in general if based upon the using hero's HP).

We need more insight upon Thermal Detonators, honestly.
@EA_Jesse , perhaps you could enlighten us? Or task someone to further test? It would be appreciated.

Qeltar

Comment on this on Reddit from a dev: "Yeah, known bug. I think we've got it fixed internally and it should be rolling out Soon™".

Feelsonumb

SinnerWill

A 4th use for me is the fact it can do damage to a low hp char regardless of stuns/ability blocks/death of thrower, and it can still damage regardless of a new taunt away from a low hp healer/enemy.

I guess this is the purpose for AOE..

Will counter attackers proc when it detonates though?

Thermal Detonators are so cool im thinking of strats that can take advantage of them, but with the inability to kill stops me dead in my tracks:(

I will watch for damage based on HP but havent noticed a useable difference yet.

Thanks Qeltar cant wait! more strats

SinnerWill

Feelsonumb wrote: »

SinnerWill

A 4th use for me is the fact it can do damage to a low hp char regardless of stuns/ability blocks/death of thrower, and it can still damage regardless of a new taunt away from a low hp healer/enemy.

I guess this is the purpose for AOE..

Will counter attackers proc when it detonates though?

Thermal Detonators are so cool im thinking of strats that can take advantage of them, but with the inability to kill stops me dead in my tracks:(

I will watch for damage based on HP but havent noticed a useable difference yet.

Thanks Qeltar cant wait! more strats

Of the 3 playable "thermal detonator" units (Nute, Greedo, Mob Enforcer), only one is truly AoE (Greedo's).

No, they do not cause counter-attacks (or Savage's on-damage turn-meter), as they behave just like a DoT. They DO, however, contribute towards the "hit twice" method for removing advantage, just like DoT's.

Detonators would be great, but it's almost impossible to even test them on pretty much anything beyond lv. 40, as all the detonator users lack a good bit of potency (or have 0% potency, as is Nute's case) which is crucial to their application just to land them.

Seanb003

A non kill detonator greatly frustrates me. So GRENADES can kill, but if player gets injured by a DELAYED attack...no...on they continue. How is this logical and fair? Obviously the programmers have not come up with a solution for a DELAYED kill because there is no reason for it NOT to be a kill. My Greedo is my most powerful character. Now 6* lvl 61 gear lvl 8, but (as anyone who has worked on him knows) he is a ONE attack character. I always use his pistol attack, never detonators. As that attack is INSANE powerful - up to 10000 hp from one double critical shot...so sort of makes up for the crap detonators...