Did Ark - Thunder just died?

[Koala]

I’m not sure about this but is Ark - Thunder became useless with the introduction of Ark - Divine Retribution?

Before the new arks, it used to be better than Storm since it is superior in damage with the same activation chance. And storm is a bit of situational since it is for AoE.

But now, Divine Retribution seems to be the go to Ark for everything. Easier activation that makes better damage.
Storm is still situational ark for builds that lack AoE like dark wiz. And with the future WBR boss Tini Brothers, ill expect it rise a bit in popularity
And Thunder…seems dead.

Im also a Thunder user and now im thinking to switching…but getting it to level 6 again is expensive.

What are your thoughts?

[Lostac]

You can transfer ARK levels to your free standard ARKs: STR, INT, and SPR.
If you skipped quests and do not have them, you can purchase a dummy ARK to transfer and hold your ARK level.

Now, after transferring ARK levels, you may dismantle your current ARK, it will refund you with 2 Archstones, you will only have to spend on a Thierrynium and transferring fee, which is about 1m per level x2 because you will transfer twice.

So Thierrynium aside, it’s not really that expensive and worth once you know that switching ARKs will give you better performance.

[Fanaticism]

you know back when its just storm vs thunder, storm was not so appealing as well until they buff it.
because they realized that they made as always makes non competitive options
for example blue/red vs yellow/green gem for weapon, ataka vs new set effect, add dmg resistance bloater everywhere etc etc

now talking about latest hot divine punishment comparison with thunder, divine punishment activation is just freaking broken that they seem to not even care to check it if it works as intended or they just let it be cause ktos community love it or stay silent about it
the dmg output of divine punishment definitely can go way higher than thunder, and where the activation could be the downside compare to thunder, it has better activation and the silly explanation that it cant trigger during its active time is bs
though thunder seems still quite nice option for bossing when you are heavily dots style type or lightning element boosted class

[Blubbolo]

it died months ago yes

[Koala]

Thats sad… Now they only leave 2 options for damage arks… Either punishment for crazy damage or storm to fill the lack of aoe. Its either they nerf punishment or buff thunder to make it an option again

[Fanaticism]

thats interesting idea but given how ktos love it and just chill about it, about how dp make thunder existence less viable, that option is unlikely.
the principle is if ktos dont care, 99% imc wont
my proposal would be make all the rest of elements ark, not just lightning, cause thats what i found silly when its first introduced, with no follow up of every other element arks.
and also they shouldve noticed enchant lightning is nerfed, which means no lightning booster for all, even taoist got its lightning boost stuff nerfed
so they shouldve make all elements ark, with more creative animation obviously not this overused lightning effect, and let every elemental user boost it.