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Re: Spawnable discussion: Lightning reed and Mr. Electro

Time to charge up with these summonables!

Introduction

The Lightning Reed and Mr. Electro are summonable variants that deal electrical damage, which means the damage that they deal can spread and hit other nearby enemies as well, making them effective against enemy groups. They operate in similar ways to their counterparts, however they have some slight differences to each other. The Lightning Reed has an extra mode of attack, which is a close range attack that has the electrical damage (except in Battle for Neighborville where I have never seen this), while Mr. Electro lacks this extra attack but has more health than the Lightning Reed.

My Thoughts

These summonables can prove to be useful especially when groups of enemies are close together, and also to an extent when only a single enemy is around. When there are multiple enemies around, the total damage that these summonables are capable of dealing can prove to be really significant and can add up, which should discourage enemies from grouping up when one of these summonables are around. They do their job well currently, however changes I would suggest include having a maximum of being able to hit 4 enemies at a time (although I do not know the current limit) with a damage reduction on enemies that they hit with their arc (not the direct hit), as well as giving Mr. Electro the extra close range attack, but reducing its health to the same as the Lightning Reed.

I would give these summonables a Medium difficulty to defeat. This is because it mainly depends on the situation, they can be really easy to defeat if you are away from allies and you will reduce its potential damage output if it attacks you while you are away from allies. However, they can become quite difficult to defeat if plenty of allies are around, and these summonables will then become quite a major threat, as they have the potential of being able to deal heavy damage to your team. When trying to take out these summonable variants, try to distance yourself from all allies and quickly shoot it down before it can deal any significant damage to you or your team.

The Lightning Reed and Mr. Electro are present in Battle for Neighborville, which is very rad. They have a cooldown of around 5 minutes each, but I would suggest that this cooldown be reduced to 4 minutes instead. This is only because their usefulness depends on the situation, there will be times when a single enemy turns a corner and finds one of these summonables, then manages to quickly take it out. They can be really useful but there will be times where they will be very ineffective, so having a slight cooldown reduction seems appropriate. 

In A Future Shooter

I do firmly believe that these summonable variants should be present in a future shooter, they can be really useful but there will be times where they cannot achieve much damage. They should not be that hard to obtain and it should be feasible for players to amass in large amounts if they desire. They could cost around 2,500 Coins each for this reason, due to their situational usefulness. I would also recommend an unlock cost before these can be used by the player, it could be a cost of around 10,000 Coins per faction, but you would obtain a starter bundle of 5 as well, which provides a discount on unlock and allows you to use these summonables freely thereafter.

Overall

Because they can have the potential to be really useful in certain situations, but there will also be times where they may be close to useless, I would suggest them being quite cheap to get and relatively easy to get in large numbers if players desire. Requiring an unlock cost before they can be used in future would restrict use of these summonables at the start, but after they can be freely used. The way they perform right now is helpful, although I would suggest having a maximum number of being able to damage up to 4 enemies at once, but reduce the damage enemies take when not directly hit (when the damage arcs onto them) and to give Mr. Electro the close-range attack like Lightning Reed, but reduce its health to match the Lightning Reed as well.

3 Replies

  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    Legend
    4 years ago
    @TheSprinter85 In bfn lightning redd appears to be missing his extra attack but it seems they kept the health difference which is just stupid.

    I feel like mr electro shouldn't be a direct copy of lighting reed to keep the spawnables more interesting.
  • TheSprinter85's avatar
    TheSprinter85
    Hero
    4 years ago
    @stukapooka Fair enough. I do not mind having some of the summonables work differently to their counterparts, but sometimes I feel it would make a bit more sense for them to be more similar to their counterparts.
  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    Legend
    4 years ago

    @TheSprinter85Don't get me wrong there are some I agree that should be equal in every way.

    Boxer bot has a very unnecessary 3rd punch that doesn't do anything such as a faster fire rate or how explody bot for some reason has more damage than doom shroom but is the same everywhere else.

    Some especially in gw2 were designed for different pots. Freezy bot is actually the counterpart of ice pea from gw1 and not ice shroom.

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