Alternate Ability Ideas

We could have a huge thread on alternate abilities, and I’m thinking of posting one for each class as discussing each ability in one thread would be enormous. Instead I want to propose some new ones for GW3, as I expect the next game to return to more of the GW/GW2 formula (while hopefully not discarding all of BfN’s ideas as it has some good ones), which means alternate abilities will be back. This also assumes they’ve fixed some things like Multi-shuck being inferior to regular shuck shot, the Imp’s gravity grenade has been nerfed to be less powerful than in GW2 but not as bad as it is in BfN, Engineer’s bolt blaster isn’t so good at protecting the engineer, and so on.

GW2 did fix a lot of the ones that weren’t up to par, at least partially, like Armored Heal Station and Dark Flower, with mixed success, so we’d need some more work on these to get them better balanced, but the concepts of how swapping out even just one ability for a slightly different version can really change things up and make your opponent wary of assuming what you can do. I especially love stuff like Chomp Cannon that really changes things up to a huge degree!

Without further ado, here are some of my ideas for alternate abilities, and I hope folks feel free to add theirs! Note that these would likely need some testing to get the balance right, but the core ideas are things I enjoy or thought would be nice to have available as options. Some of these could be altered a bit for new classes instead of alternate abilities as well.

Spring Barrel. Replacing the pirate’s normal barrel blast, this one has less armor and less damaging explosion but also flings the Deadbeard up and forward in the direction they’re facing, kind of a like a less powerful version of the soldier’s rocket leap, with some damage, but not as much verticality and not thrown as far or as fast horizontally. This is designed to be more of a getaway ability rather than a multi-vanquish one as the damage would be much less and the fling means you get out of there quickly. Cooldown would be the same as the default barrel blast.

Beacon Bomb. Replaces the Imp’s Gravity Grenade. Throw it somewhere and it hangs around for a time, not sure if it can be shot or not (that’s up to balancing), while it’s active, you can press the button again to teleport to it, with either no range limit, or a generous one, keeping the same facing. Long cooldown, possibly longer than gravity grenade’s. It will be about as obvious as the Scientist’s sticky explodey things are.

Fist Twist. Replaces Super Brainz’s turbo twister. After a brief spin up to give the plants an indicator that something is going on (something Imp Punt/Long Bomb needs as well), you punch in all directions around you, and with slightly longer range than your fists actually are, attacking each plant in this area once for moderate damage. Cooldown would be similar to turbo twister.

Heavy Hammer. Replaces the Engineer’s jackhammer. When activated, this jackhammer moves slower than the regular jackhammer, although still faster than normal foot speed but gives the engineer riding it an armor bonus (25% less damage maybe?). Similar cooldown and fuel allowance as normal jackhammer.

Zombie Stink Bug. Replaces the foot soldier’s stink grenade. This is a nasty little critter that is thrown like the regular stink bomb but moves towards the nearest plant on its own. It doesn’t last as long as the regular bomb to balance it out, same damage as the normal one. Cooldown is slightly longer.

Micro-Heal Stations. These replace the Scientist’s heal station/beam. You get at least 2 of these, perhaps 3, on a cooldown similar to the Engineer’s stun mines. These are tiny stations with low health that also don’t heal as much as the regular station, but you can place them in several spots, including against walls and ceilings thanks to suction cups.

Personal Imp Fan. Replaces the All-Star’s Imp Punt. When activated an explosive Imp fan jumps up on your shoulders. When you activate it again or when you’re vanquished, the Imp immediately runs towards the nearest plant it can see and detonates for a high amount of damage. It can’t go all that far, so not as obnoxious as the swarm drones in BfN. Cooldown is about as long as the normal Imp Punt but won’t start until after you’ve used it or you’ve been vanquished.

Grapeshot Grenade. Replaces Citron’s EMPeach. Launch this grenade in a similar fashion to the EMPeach, but instead of stunning and some damage, it fires several small grapes that bounce around and damage all zombies and their stuff, that they hit, until they run out of momentum (3 bounces or go too far). Each grape doesn’t do that much damage individually, but getting hit by several can hurt. I’m thinking about 5 damage per grape that hits you, but this can easily be adjusted as needed. The grenade wouldn’t instantly explode, instead it would ‘cook up’ before going off, but only briefly.

Hot Popped. Replaces Kernel Corn’s Husk Hop. You activate the ability and it fires small clusters of hot kernels ahead of you that push you straight backwards, with no, or very little verticality. These hang in the air briefly before popping, causing some damage to zombies near them. Husk Hop itself needs to be tuned a bit as its too good, and still very strong in BfN, so I wanted any alternate ability here to reflect that as this is not as good as husk hop now and fills a similar, but different role. Similar cooldown to Huck Hop.

Time Shield. Replaces Rose’s time snare. This has a longer cooldown than the base ability, but is targeted and fired much the same. Once it impacts on anything, it creates a small shining dome/sphere of temporal energy that lasts for a few (5?) seconds. Zombies and their attacks can’t pass through the walls of the field, so zombies inside are briefly trapped although they can certainly deal with plants inside with them that don’t get out! As for its size, I’m thinking along the lines of Nightcap’s Casting Shadows from BfN.

Solar Aura. Replaces the Sunflower’s heal beam. This ability passively heals all plants near you (NOT yourself), much like Grover in Paladins. It doesn’t require you activating to do so although the heal is smaller and shorter ranged than the beam. You can activate it to engage its active healing which increases the effect of your passive heal aura and also increases its range for x (5?) seconds. The cooldown isn’t too long, I’m thinking 20-30 seconds tops so you can’t stack it and you can’t have 2 or 3 Sunflowers spam it constantly.

Decoy Burrow. Replaces Chomper’s normal burrow. When using this version of burrow, that is the same speed as normal burrow but doesn’t have as much burrow power, two fake burrow trails are also created that move as you do, but in different directions, creating confusion as to which is yours. They end when your burrow does. For example, on how it works, if you move forward for several seconds, the 2 decoys would too, but not in the same direction, one may go to the left of your burrow beginning spot while the other goes slightly right, but for the same distance. When you change direction so do they, but not in the same direction as you do. The idea is to spice up burrow a bit with this option.

Over Pea. Replaces Peashooter’s Hyper. When used it immediately reloads your main weapon fully, allows you to shoot 20% faster for 5(?) seconds, and makes whatever version of bean bomb your using recharges faster by 10 seconds. Cooldown is much like Hyper.

Proximity Potato Mine. Replaces the cacti’s potato mine. This mine has a similar cooldown and damage rating to the normal potato mine, but you can only have 2 ready to go and place 3 at once (as opposed to 3 and 4 for the standard mines). When a zombie gets close enough, the potato flies at them and then detonates, instead of needing the zombie to step on it. The damage could be adjusted as needed, but the main reason you hardly ever see potato nugget mines is how low their damage is.

BFN Alternate Abilities. For new characters only and not for the swarm characters.

Multi-Beam. Replaces the Space Cadet’s Big Bang Beam. Instead of 1 big beam after charging up, it fires 3 smaller beams in a fan shape. Similar cooldown to the standard beam.

Bounce to the Beat Bumper. Replaces Electric Slide’s Funky Bouncer with this device. It is placed much like GW/GW2’s Scientist sticky explodey ball and may have more than 1 charge. When a plant gets close to it, it bounces them away. It causes no damage and has several charges (5?) before it runs out and can be destroyed.

Get outta’ere. Replaces the 80s Action Hero’s Dynamite Dodge. Places a small charge at your feet that causes little to no damage to plants, but pushes them away in a kind of reverse Dynamite Dodge. Similar cooldown to the basic ability.

Ewe Thirsty? Replaces the Wizard’s Z-Lixir. Throws a different style of potion bottle so it’s visibly obvious. Any goatified zombies in this AoE are restored to their normal forms immediately and any plants caught in it are turned into sheep for a few (5?) seconds. Sheep are harmless but their fleece gives them a slight reduction in damage (10% armor or so). Sheeped plants that are hit by a Rose’s Goatify will immediately transform back to normal.

Poison Sap. Replaces the Acorn’s Sap Trap (Oak’s Super Sap Trap remains unchanged). This Sap is not detonated but instead causes a toxic effect (like toxic characters in GW/GW2) to all zombies that get near it.  Cooldown and charges similar to the basic sap trap.

Explosive Fire Ball. Replaces Snapdragon’s Blue Blazes.  This fire ball is larger and faster than the default ability and it lacks seeking. Instead it explodes for heavy damage (less than blue blazes does now as that ability does too much as it is currently), and has a large AoE. Trades homing for brute force.

Throwing Shade. Replaces Nightcap’s Casting Shadows. These are smaller versions of casting shadows, but have similar effects, only about half the size, but with 2 or 3 charges. Each charge recharges faster than the single charge of Casting Shadows.