Overview
A guide that goes indepth on skill, mutation, and item analysis to maximize Thorn’s playstyle.
Introduction
Strengths:
- High auto-attack (left click) damage
- All skills have AoE potential, Strong pusher
- Extremely fast with high jump
- Built-in health regen
- High range
- Skills can have CC, melee attack has knockback
Weaknesses:
- No shield
- Lower base HP
- Auto attack has high skill cap/hard to aim and crit
Playstyle
Sniper, Pusher, Assassin.
Sniper: Thorn’s presence on the battlefield means that enemies have to take care at all times. A few headshots, or a close range exchange with a Thorn could result in a quick death for the enemy. Keep an eye on who’s big and slow, who’s standing in one place, and who’s not paying attention. A couple well placed arrows from far away can turn a battle with your enemy even noticing you. Also, Thorn’s jump height allows her to get into unique places for some fun sniper perches.
Pusher: Thorn’s high mobility allows her to be anywhere on the battlefield in a short amount of time. Her huge AoE potential and wave clearing makes her prime for holding waves in Incursion and Meltdown. Late game, one Volley/Blight combo is enough to clear an entire wave, allowing her to farm, build, and assassinate as needed without worrying about those pesky minions. Keep an eye on your map, and you have the ability to keep minions from getting out of hand by yourself.
Assassin: 5 Volley arrows to the back, a blight field, and a big green bomb. What’ll it cost? Upwards of 2,000 damage if you land it all. Using Thorn’s jumps and quick feet, sneaking behind an enemy is easy, and unloading all your skills quickly can annihilate all but the tankiest of Battleborn. Stay aware though, no shield and lower health makes Thorn a squishy target as well, and putting yourself too deep could get ugly.
Base Abilities
Volley is the standard “spreadshot” mechanic. Five arrows shoot in a horizontal spread, dealing damage to the first enemy hit or bouncing off the ground. Like a typical shotgun, this damage can all be dealt to one target if used at close range.
Thorn takes approximately 3 seconds to charge up, then shoots an AoE bomb from her hand that deals damage based on how close the enemy is to the impact. This bomb hits the first object it comes in contact with; enemy, ally, or environment. The bomb arches downward as it flies.
Mutations/Helix/Level Ups
Quicklook:
Level 1: left – Swampfoot
Level 2: right -Fell Wind
Level 3: right – Burst Propulsion
Level 4: left – Kreshek’s Judgement
Level 5: left – Hextension
Level 6: right – Swift Volley
Level 7: right – Vaulting Hunter
Level 8: left – Enduring Blight
Level 9: left – Archer’s Boon
Level 10: right – Earthrender
Level 1:
Swampfoot: Enemies damaged by Blight are slowed for a short period of time.
Piercing Volley: Volley arrows can go through multiple targets.
Choice: Swampfoot
Thoughts:
Swampfoot is almost always the go to in PvP, and usually in PvE. The slow is fairly substantial, especially against minions, and can help you escape in close calls. The one major benefit to Piercing Volley is when a healer – usually Miko – or dps is hiding behind a big tank in team fights.
Level 2:
Cursed Earth: When Thorn is touching Blight’s field, all of her arrows become cursed.
Blightbrawler: When Thorn is touching Blight’s field, her melee attacks become cursed.
Fell Wind: Thorn receieves a short speed boost when touching Blight’s field.
+30% Movement Speed.
Choice: Fell Wind
Thoughts:
Fell Wind provides Thorn with another escape mechanic, and most of the time Blight can better be used under the enemy than directly under yourself. All three upgrades deny your ability to use Blight at range, and the only time Thorn wants to be in melee range of an enemy is when she’s running from them.
Cursed Earth makes all arrows cursed. From the wording of Nature’s Judgement, only charged arrows deal additional damaged to cursed targets. Putting Blight under yourself without intending for it to deal any damage is pretty bad.
Blightbrawler implies you are in Blight, and you are meleeing an enemy in Blight. This means applying the curse through a melee attack would make Blight do 25% more damage. Thorn never wants to be in melee range. Fell Wind helps this goal the most, while not forcing you to waste the damage component of Blight.
Level 3:
Draw Strength: Arrows penetrate multiple targets.
Burst Propulsion: In addition to dealing damage, Thorn’s melee attack now propels her backwards. Can be used once every 2 seconds.
Choice: PvP: Burst Propulsion – PvE: Preference
Thoughts:
Burst Propulsion allows for some new and interesting mechanics on Thorn. Knocking opponent back and yourself back creates more distance between assassins and you, allowing for easier escapes. In addition, this mechanic can be used mid-air to change Thorn’s flight path. Jumping and using Thorn’s melee pointed in an unexpected direction can confuse enemies and provide you with easier escape paths. Also, the melee can be pointed directly downward for effectively a double jump.
Draw Strength has unique scenarios for PvP but can be mildly useful for wave clearing.
Level 4:
Kreshek’s Judgement: Volley’s arrows curse targets hit.
Focused Volley: Volley is concentrated into 3 arrows (instead of 5) dealing +66% damage per arrow.
Nockout: Volley shoots an additional 2 arrows.
Choice: Kreshek’s Judgement
Thoughts:
Kreshek’s Judgement into a Wrath of the Wild is a huge damage combo, enough to practically one shot squishies. Also, Kreshek’s Judgement implies that the first Volley arrow to hit an enemy applies the curse, and the consecutive 4 volley arrows deal the +35% additional damage. This combined with Blight and Wrath is an extremely deadly combo.
Focused Volley is decent as Thorn never wants to be in melee range, and therefore, hitting 3 arrows high-damage arrows on a single target is easier and more likely than hitting with 5 or 7 wider spread arrows.
Nockout provides higher immediate damage than Kreshek’s Judgement, but not after Blight and Wrath of the Wild are considered.
Level 5:
Hextension: Increase bonus damage and duration on afflicted enemies.
+10% damage, +4 duration.
Fiendish Curse: Bonus damage to cursed targets prenetrates shields.
100% shield penetration of bonus damage.
Hexsanguination: Curse status deals additional bleed damage to afflicted enemies.
+12 damage per second (96 damage total).
Choice: Hextension
Thoughts:
Hextension is mathematically the largest damage increase. +4 second duration also allows a longer chance to hit consecutive charged arrows or skills.
Fiendish curse can be beneficial to snipe that last bit of health through an enemy’s shield, but is situational.
Hexsanguination is only worthwhile when you will not hit consective skills or charged arrows. Ideally, hitting cursed targets is a priority, therefore making Hexsanguination subpar.
Level 6:
Brutal Blight: Increase Blight’s area of effect damage.
+15% damage.
Swift Volley: Volley’s cooldown time is reduced.
-20% cooldown time.
Choice: Swift Volley
Thoughts:
Cooldown reduction is extremely strong for all Battleborn, Thorn included. Volley is a high-damage burst skill, and having it up at the right time can make or break a play.
Keeping an enemy inside of Blight for its entire duration is rare unless its minions. Brutal Blight’s damage increase only becomes substantial after it ticks enough times. If you are using Blight frequently to wave clear PvE or in Incursion or Meltdown, this mutation is definitely worth considering.
Level 7:
Eagle-Eye: Increases the accuracy of Thorn’s standard arrow attack by 50%.
Phasing Arrows: A portion of arrow damage penetrates enemy shields.
25% shield penetration.
Vaulting Hunter: Increase the height of Thorn’s jump.
Choice: PvP: Vaulting Hunter – PvE: Eagle-Eye
Thoughts:
Vaulting Hunter at least doubles Thorn’s jump height. This allows for easy escapes over walls and out of enemy reach in PvP. Combined with Burst Propulsion, Thorn can escape and get to unique areas extremely quickly.
Eagle-Eye is certainly effective for quick slinging/no scope. Charged arrows have extremely high accuracy already, but click-and-release arrows do not, making this talent extremely efficient. One missed arrow can lose Thorn a fight.
Phasing Arrow again provide shield penetration, useful but situational.
Level 8:
Enduring Blight: Increase Blight’s effective duration by 6 seconds (double).
Distant Blight: Blight can be summoned at twice the distance.
Choice: Enduring Blight
Thoughts:
Enduring Blight makes wave clearing and pushing no problem for Thorn. One Blight with this upgrade can practically clear a minion wave by itself.
Distant Blight can be useful for chasing down enemies, but the regular cast distance is sufficient in most scenarios.
Level 9:
Archer’s Boon: A portion of Volley’s damage dealt to enemies is return to Thorn as health.
+30% Life steal.
Kreshek’s Rage: Incrase Volley’s arrow damage.
+15% damage.
Choice: Archer’s Boon
Thoughts:
Other than passive health regen, Archer’s Boon is Thorn’s only sustain mechanic, making it essential.
Kreshek’s Rage is nice if you have a reliable healer, especially if you favor Nockout.
Level 10:
Wild Judgment: Wrath of the Wild’s energy bomb bounces throughout the world up to five times, dealing less damage but detonating with every bounce.
Earthrender: Wrath of the Wild leaves a Blight field behind after detonatation.
Choice: Earthrender
Thoughts:
I’ve tried Wild Judgment many times, and never really noticed the bounces. Leaving a Blight behind provides more damage at that area and a slow.
Itemization
Thorn does not have a shield or a reload, and is not affected by attack speed (need confirmation). Due to this, her itemization is pretty straightforward.
Good stats:
- Attack Damage
- Health Regen per Second
- Skill Damage
- Movement Speed
- Shield Penetration
- Cooldown Time Reduction
Okay stats:
- – CC Duration
- Critical Hit Damage
- Damage Reduction
- Maximum Health
- Buildable Cost
- Shards per Second
- Sprint Speed
- Recoil Reduction
Bad stats:
- Maximum Shield Strength
- Attack Speed
- Healing Received
Useless Stats:
- Reload speed
- Heal Power
- Shield Recharge Rate
- Shield Recharge Delay
Good secondary Procs:
- + for x seconds after taking health damage.
- + for x seconds after activating a skill.
- + after living for 180 seconds. (preference)
Good negative stats:
- -Shield recharge delay/rate
- -Attack Speed
- -Healing Received
- -Heal Power
NOTE: Thorn do not have a shield, and unless is given an item that GIVES her a shield she CANNOT benefit from procs involving “…when shield is depleted.” The shield must be depleted, and as Thorn does not have a shield it cannot be depleted.
Quick Tips
- Thorn’s melee attack knocks enemies away.
- Many stats are useless or non-applicable for Thorn, allowing her to use many items with negative effects.
- Sprinting and jumping allows you to shoot mid-air to and keep your sprint speed, allowing for easier kiting and keeping you hard to hit.
- Using Thorn’s melee with Burst Propulsion mid-air can make you very slippery, and get you to higher areas.
- Improved jump height can get you over walls that those melee characters chasing you can’t get over, meaning a free and easy escape.
- Always hit your target with a Volley before using Wrath of the Wild for the cursed damage bonus.
- Zooming in with right-click automatically makes all arrows do more damage and have higher accuracy.
- One Volley/Blight combo is enough to almost single-handedly kill a minion wave in Incursion and Meltdown.
- Thorn is an excellent choice for PvE both in groups and solo. Since all skills are AoE, she kills monsters in packs very well.