A random discussion about alternate abilities and how they affect healers.
Alternate abilities and why I think they should return and why i believe they help certain classes
1. More gameplay variety
Alternate abilities allowed multiple ways to use similar abilities in different fashion such as rocket jump being great for vertically but leap allowed you to escape or close the gap easier.
Iron maiden allowed cactus to block killing blows from zpgs or stall browncoats much longer than the barriers at the cost of losing the potential to shoot over them at attackers and put many down.
Superbrainz could choose between specific ultra blasts that all excell and fall short in their own way.
Corn sacrifices crowd control for more damage in one area with his bigger better butter.
Artichoke and future parrot allowed drones to be better in direct combat in exchange for weaker air strikes.
Long bomb makes all stars have to play smarter to use it to its full potential and would reward them with a less notable explosive to lob at plants from safety but was utterly worthless up close.
Zpg was used to annihilate one opponent, usually rooted while multi shot sacrificed the damage for the capability to carpet bomb an area and deal damage to multiple targets.
Sonic mines allowed engineer to favor a more defensive playstyle but he could not easily defend against plants while on the move like he could with grenades.
Chomper sacrificed the goops ability to slow targets for massive damage from chomp cannon instead.
Combining different variants with alternating abilities allows gameplay in garden warfare to feel different every match as you never truly know what your opponent or allies have brought into the match and arent seeing the same handful of abilities every match.
2. Healers need advantages and drawbacks in their abilities.
Alternate abilities forced healers, especially scientist to choose between healing and offensive capabilities.
The heal beam allowed scientist to fight back and focus healing to one target but now he must stick with them to provide healing and cannot save himself while heal station allowed him to stay mobile and heal multiple targets at once but the station can be destroyed and the heal targets have to stay in a set area, putting them at risk.
Armored heal station heals slower but can take a much larger beating from enemies.
Compare this to bfn where he can heal multiple targets and stay on the move so there is no danger to his heal targets or him from staying in one area. The only downside is that he can't shoot.
Sticky explode ball could be used as traps and offensive weapons that could be destroyed while heal grenades supported the team better but had a timer before they went off so they were not an instant save me panic button for scientist amd his allies unlike in bfn where it activates instantly.
Energy warp sacrificed offensive mobility for the power to be invulnerable for a short time in hopes of reaching safety (don't be that guy in walnut hills though). Normal warps were also not instantaneously activated and could only go forward.
Heal flowers allowed sunflowers to support mutliple teamates and aid themselves while still at risk of moving too far away or having the heal flower eliminated, once again something they don't have to worry about in bfn as they themsleves drop sun while they can run away.
Rainbow flowers were also not as good as stock flowers in terms of burst healing but generated sun at a faster rate.
Dark flowers sacrificed healing altogether but are much tankier than their healing counterparts and are much more reliable in a direct firefight, however they cannot save you or your teammates.
Solar flare beam also sacrificed ammo, startup time, and more visibility for more damage which could be deadly to the sunflower using it or greatly beneficial.
Compare this to their bfn counterparts who do not have to worry about the setback of choosing between offensive and healing capabilities or worry about the time span between abilities and their activation such as the delay in warps that put scientist in danger/ heal bomb taking time to go off after being thrown instead of immediately being thrown at the ground or tracking allies for quick healing like it does in bfn.
These differences allowed greater freedom in the older healers as they could adjust for how they wanted to play the game rather than be forced into one specific play style which may not be favorable to every player. I even know multiple sunflower players who quit do to the lackluster base sunflower in bfn.
3. Some need to be better of course
The rainbow Heal beam and regular heal beam should be adjusted differently, maybe faster healing with less health being given or vice versa?
Hyper should just make a peashooter run fast while jump allows them to do just that. Make pea jump a ability usable from the start.
Give peel shield a cracking look to represent its health much like how the mood shield represents itself in colors.
More for the new classes.
Alternate abilities much like variants added more variety and strategy to the game as players now had to adapt to the strengths and weaknesses the various abilities would bring to their kit and I believe they should return in a new game as bfn forced one playstyle onto players and this does not reward variety or strategy.
