Just to let you know that I have revised my opinion of the Holly Barrier a little and I no longer regard it as a total waste of a slot.
I have now started using it in Battlez, but not as a front-line barrier plant. Instead, I plant 2 or 3 near the center of the arena and make use of their berry/leaf firing and knock back capability as an emergency backup for my front-line Chard Guards for if one loses all its leaves and I don't yet have another one available as a replacement. I just target the square that has the Chard Guard stump and then dig up the stump in readiness for the berry/leaf to land on the vacated square. Once I have another Chard Guard ready I dig up the leaf and replace it with the new Chard Guard.
The fact that the knock back effect works on a 3 x 3 area also helps by clearing the Zombies from adjacent lanes and giving temporary respite to the beleaguered Chard Guards either side and helping them to last a little longer.
As my strategy this week is based around knocking back and blowing away the Zombies from column 9, or 8 if my column 9 Chard Guards get temporarily overrun, I would not place the Holly Barrier right at the front of my defences. I do, however, find it useful as long range artillery that can be targeted to a specific square as and when required.
According to the online Urban Dictionary, 'OP' means 'Over Powered'.
While the Chard Guard IS mighty powerful in that it throws Zombies backwards and into the air for the Blover to whisk them away, I wouldn't say it's overpowered. For it to be classified as overpowered it would have to be more durable. Maybe at level 10 it could be seen as 'OP' but at lower levels I'd just say it's a plant well worth including in most Battlez load-outs.
At levels 1 to 4 it has 3 leaf pushes before needing to be replaced. At levels 5 to 9 it has 6 leaf pushes. At level 10 it has 9 leaf pushes.
None of these make it more powerful, as such. It's just that it's durability is enhanced as it goes up through the levels and it doesn't need replacing as often.
I find this week's tournament rather boring. The person with the best level blover with or without imitator and use of it wins every time. In fact, I'm using the exact same setup as last week only swapping aloe for holly barrier. I average 3.5 million - 4 million each time. This week has no challenge or creativity. I wish we can have a week that will forfeit the use of blover for once, otherwise it seems EA has a love affair for it as its favorite plant. >_<
@Humplemann wrote:According to the online Urban Dictionary, 'OP' means 'Over Powered'.
While the Chard Guard IS mighty powerful in that it throws Zombies backwards and into the air for the Blover to whisk them away, I wouldn't say it's overpowered. For it to be classified as overpowered it would have to be more durable. Maybe at level 10 it could be seen as 'OP' but at lower levels I'd just say it's a plant well worth including in most Battlez load-outs.
At levels 1 to 4 it has 3 leaf pushes before needing to be replaced. At levels 5 to 9 it has 6 leaf pushes. At level 10 it has 9 leaf pushes.
None of these make it more powerful, as such. It's just that it's durability is enhanced as it goes up through the levels and it doesn't need replacing as often.
I agreed that level 10 Blover and level 10 Chard Guard combo is overpower, this is because Blover at level 10 is 0 sun cost and provide non-stop (constant) wind while the Chard Guard is long lasting and only cost 25 sun to replenish - which one can get this from the free falling suns. I have seen some player with these plants have just been using them to get high scores week after week.
Having level 10 Blover and Chard Guard isn't necessarily a guarantee of victory. (See image 2)
Image 1 shows my new high score. Okay, it's not THAT much higher than my previous best, but it's still an improvement. The only thing that made it leave a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth was my opponent. They had all level one plants and their score suggests they were a genuine all level one player (whether a recording or not) rather than a bot. While I'll take the win (Not that here's much choice anyway) but I'd much rather it was against an opponent like in Image 2.
Image 2. Beating an opponent with Level 10 plants and a very similar load-out to my lower level plants.
Apologies for the poor image quality. It's because they are photos of my screen. (I don't know how to transfer images from my tablet and I'm probably too old to learn now.)
In case you can't see well enough, in image one the opponent's plants were all level one.
In image two, the opponent's plants were - Lvl 1 Holly Barrier, Lvl 10 Blover, Lvl 10 Chard Guard, Lvl 8 Gold Bloom, Lvl 10 Moonflower, and Lvl 10 Dusk Lobber.
My plants are Lvl 8 Holly Barrier, Lvl 7 Moonflower, Lvl 7 Dusk Lobber, Lvl 6 Chard Guard (Imitated) and Lvl 7 Blover.
I think the crucial difference was me having the Chard Guard imitated so I could replace any lost plants much quicker.
2.1 mil for maxed out chard guard and blover is quite low for what I have seen so far.
Normally, if columns 8 & 9 were planted with level 10 chard guards and blover just providing continuous wind, with occasional chard guard replenishment either by dropping a fresh one on top or by using plant food, there is little can pass the defend line.
I have even seen one player got bored and started planting some Magnet-shroom on column 7 to strip the Bikini Buckethead zombies' buckets..., their scores were around 2.5 - 3.5 mil. I have seen one even peaked just over 4 mil but guess he/she might have been very lucky in the last 10-15 seconds.
Having said that you have done extraordinary well with your high level plants, I can only manage 2.5 mil with my mid level ones.
