Chomper: the controversial plant assassin

Much food for thought here, maybe not zombie feet, but food all the same.

Part of the issues with Chomper in all 3 games is the netcode. I noticed this a lot in GW2, since I play that one the most of the 3, but where a Chomper burrows a zombie teammate, and you go to shoot them and they blink some distance away so you never damaged them where they first appear. Getting better netcode for the next shooter would make everything else better. Other stuff should change too, the list is long despite my love for PvZ and the shooters especially, one can love something and still recognize its flaws.

Chomper did originally strike me as a stealthy assassin type character, much like the Spy in TF2 as you point out, but also like rogues in MMO. Due to this, they are often considered and played as a 'selfish' class. You do get goop assist credit, and spikeweeds of any stripe can help a team out, but while most/all characters in the games are quite self-sufficient in most cases, Chomper is really the only one that feels selfish instead of just self-reliant.

GW I feel has the best overall Chomper setup, although not perfect. Spikeweed in GW has that arming time so it can't be cheesed like it is in GW2, the best animation, and tends to be the easiest to hide based on terrain. Armor breaking gives coins, which was taken away from the character in GW2 (where it would have been XP), and I feel it should have kept that. Some balancing problems here between them, but as far as the raw setup, it's good here.

GW2 balances the character and variants out better, gives us vampiric spikeweed (although we loose the cheesy weeds), and the chomp cannon alternate ability. But burrowing seems to be more adversely affected by the netcode issue and instant arm spikeweed is too easily abused. Super Sticky Goop is bugged too, but not sure how badly.

BfN really changes our hungry friend. He can no longer rear chomp, can launch spikeweed a distance, can snipe, and goop is drastically changed to be a large and very deadly (after some changes) contagious AoE. I get what they were trying to do here; trying to make Chomper more of a team player, something they try a lot in BfN but don't really succeed at it barring some exceptions. But as you point out, it doesn't really work well. Spikeweed is difficult to land where you want it and is far too easily destroyed as well as being too visible, the vampiric upgrade doesn't change the look which is a big letdown, goop is way too good right now after being pretty weak, and while I do like making Chomper not so reliant on melee, being able to shoot with impunity is not the answer.

We discussed it before when i went through and posted similar topics covering the various classes, but I would redo Chomper's to be more like this (and of course fix the netcode!):

• Keep the class with high health and melee focused. No slobber shot.
• Return the spikeweed capture animation to GW's version.
• Give Spikeweed its old health back so it isn't so trivial to remove.
• Base damage should be more in line with GW/GW2 damage.
• Alternate ability versions will look different like before BfN.
• Back Chomping returns but requires use of the aim system or you just bite/shoot.
• Spikeweed has an arm time.
• Spikeweed can be launched but is easier to aim and more precise.
• Goop will return to GW/GW2 style, but super sticky is fixed. Chomp cannon will also return since slobber shot is gone.
• Make the character 'springy' so it can reach higher locations more easily, instead of BfN's slobber shot spam. Think like GW2's Super Brainz jump, maybe not so high, maybe you can hold the jump button down to spring up higher, but not too high.
• Give the character and variants upgrades where they can help their team for those that want to play the character but want to be less selfish. I'm thinking of stuff like; burrowing under a teammate gives them a small speed boost, gooped enemies take a small extra % of damage from teammates, a teammate vanquishing a zombie in any spikeweed will gain a small temporary boost of armor, and so on.

Chomper is not my favorite class, but they are fun, and I want those that love it to enjoy playing it, while also making it balanced, and fixing its issues. It's one of the harder classes to make work since it is such an oddball (we don't get another assassin type till Nightcap was added in BfN), but it could be better, and should be.