User blog:Milesprower2/My thoughts on GW2

So I've been playing GW2 for a few days now. I like it, it's fun, I thought I'd make a blog post about it.

Kernel Corn
I like him more than I thought I would. He's quite fun to play, the health buff he got doesn't actually make him OP, it's balanced out by his primary weapon being weaker than that of a Foot Soldier, and his abilities aren't too good like I thought they were (seriously I thought Husk Hop was waaay too good since it's an offensive Rocket Leap, but since you only get one use at a time, it's not that OP). He's a fun and quite well-balanced class.

Citron
This guy, I knew I would like. He's got similar firepower to an All-star, but with better accuracy and the option of more mobility. His weapon isn't quite as good as a Football Cannon damage wise, but he's still a "Plant Heavy" as his weapon is pretty strong, and the advantage it has over All-stars is the better accuracy.

As for his abilities, E.M.Peach is basically a damaging Sonic Grenade and Peel Shield is pretty useful, but goes down a little too fast under fire. His Ball Form is pretty useful for moving around the map, especially with Hyper Ball, though the Spin Dash is...really sucky.

The problem I have with him is he's not the best of the Z-Mech counters. He can get wiped out really fast even using his Peel Shield, and E.M.Peach only helps so much. A lone Citron stands no chance against a full-health Z-Mech, whereas some other plants CAN take it down.

Rose
Welp. She's literally a joke character, outside of fighting Imps and building Teleporters. Her weapon has no firepower behind it, her Goatify and Time Snare are only decent and Arcane Enigma isn't that great either. She's GW2's Berry Shooter, as she went from super-OP to super-s****y. Nice going there PopCap.

Her primary weapon needs buffing up a bit (the homing capability is barely noticeable and her damage output is next to nothing), and I'd say Arcane Enigma could do with dealing a little more damage.

Deadbeard
As I thought, I don't like him. Barrel Blast and Cannon Rodeo are fun, but he's stuck with a Drone (AKA my least favourite ability in the entire game) and a weapon that goes from rubbish Spike Shot to rubbish Beaker Blaster. But hey, I dislike GW's sniper characters in general, aside from Foot Soldiers, so maybe that's why.

Super Brainz
Fun in Backyard Battleground, but not particularly good against bosses or in multiplayer. Sure he has many ways to approach people with Turbo Twister, high jumps and his Heroic Kick, but by the time he's close enough to punch them, he's lost about half his health and loses even more in the time it takes to actually vanquish them. He has no stealthy options and getting close is really difficult when his abilities don't get him there quickly and safely enough. And his punches don't do enough damage, it takes two entire punch combos to take down most full-health plants. Heroic Beam is basically a weak beam attack, emphasis on weak, so only Super Ultra Ball is useful for ranged combat.

In short, I think he needs buffing to be good in multiplayer.

Imp
Oh heya zombie that I'm certain I'm gonna hate playing as...

YOU'RE SO FUN!

This is like Chomper in GW1 all over again. I thought I'd hate it but I LOVE IT! IMPS ROCK!

He's low on health sure, but he's still got enough health that, coupled with his mobility, he can survive quite a while, and although his weapons aren't very accurate, they can take down the plants decently fast. His Z-Mech is fun to use, though not particularly balanced. Depending on the scenario, it ends up being incredibly OP (most 1v1s or 1v2s, facing almost anything in singleplayer) or going down in under ten seconds (facing groups of players or multiple boss plants at once). There is no middle-ground where it's actually good but not OP.

Also Impkata is sucky. It's a last-ditch effort move if you're dying, and it's not particularly good at that either.

But he's still fun!

REALLY FUN!

Backyard Battleground
Really fun to mess around in, just playing around with various characters to get used to them, I've spent hours in it playing as all sorts of characters. And I haven't even bothered with many of the random side quests and things you can do in here either!

"Story" Mode
The story missions are mostly fun but offer very little replay value other than grinding for coins, and some of the missions aren't fun at all (like the Z-Mech's missions, I disliked those ones).

New Variants
Variants I have unlocked: Scuba Soldier, Stuffy Flower, Lil' Drake, Cozmic Brainz, Mob Cob, Ice Citron.

Scuba Soldier's weapon is like a worse version of Mega Cannon, and I thought it'd be a better version of Mega Cannon. Despite having two shots, they are REALLY slow-moving and deal barely any splash damage. The sonar effect isn't that useful either, and you can get a pseudo-radar from toxic/fire variants anyway, due to the numbers that pop up from lingering toxic/fire damage.

Stuffy Flower is fun to use and the healing is really useful, but I haven't used her in multiplayer where vanquishes are harder to get.

Lil' Drake is fun to use but his Mech is much weaker than the default. By that I mean it's actually kinda balanced. Though I think it could do with more health so it can get in closer with more ease.

Cozmic Brainz sucks. His punches aren't very strong unless charged, and even the fully-charged punch isn't actually an insta-kill, it only does ~70 damage and makes someone unrevivable if it vanquishes them.

Mob Cob I've barely played.

Ice Citron ain't great, his weapon overheats so fast that buy the time someone is frozen...you can't shoot anymore. By the time it cools down, the enemy is defrosted. So...not good. It's similar to the problem most other ice variants have too.

Maps
The new maps are really good-looking, but quite lacking in cover, something Tecku's talked about as well. They need more cover because even Hyper Ball Citron has trouble getting to the nearest hiding spot when low on health.

Rooting Abilities
THESE THINGS ARE OP NOW. REALLY.

Pea Gatling and Sunbeam used to offer a 20% damage reduction to the rooted plant. That's now about 50%. In other words, a full health Peashooter, when rooted, now effectively has about 250 health, and a Sunflower has 200 health when rooted. Same for the Engie's turret, though I don't know if Deadbeard has this damage reduction on Cannon Rodeo.

The thing is, as a full-health Z-Mech, I've LOST A 1V1 WITH A ROOTED PEASHOOTER. They have the same kind of damage output as the Mech except that the weakness is meant to be that they're a sitting duck. The problem is even as a sitting duck, barely anything can vanquish them aside from OHKO's like the ZPG.

The damage reduction should be taken down to about 25% or so, maybe 30%, but 50% is too high.

Mech Balancing
As I've said, Mechs are too good in some cases, and rubbish in others. The biggest problem with the Mechs, the thing that makes them OP, is not the health, but the damage output. Therefore, I propose reverting all Mechs to beta health, but nerfing the primary weapons of most mechs (except Drake, which as I said, has a balanced weapon) and some abilities (like Missile Madness). This way, they can last longer against groups, but can't take down plants near-instantaneously.

Citron Balancing
Citrons need to be better against Mechs to be a true counter to them. Currently rooting abilities are the only real counter, along with some of the other high-damage abilities. Citron has none of those. I think Citron should have the following changes made: With these changes, a Citron has a chance at 1v1'ing a Mech. Z-Mechs need to be careful fighting Citrons and especially groups of Citrons, but can still take them out. I'm hoping these changes would make Citrons and Z-Mechs almost evenly matched, with Citrons at a slight disadvantage.
 * Peel Shield health increased, but turn speed reduced while the shield is out. Totally not stolen from one of Tecku's blogs. Basically, this means if you're facing an enemy, they'll have trouble taking you down, but if they get behind you, you're at a serious disadvantage since you can't turn around quickly enough. Z-Mechs are unlikely to get behind you (except maybe the Pylon Mech) and so this is great for surviving longer in a fight with them.
 * EMPeach does 50 damage to Mechs, instead of 10. In other words, Mechs lose a significant chunk of their health from an EMPeach.
 * Primary weapon does slightly increased damage to Mechs.

Well, that's everything for now! I'll probably update this as I unlock more stuff and play around more!