Class Discussion: Foot Soldier
Last of the original characters, as they are going to be the most controversial for various reasons, we look at Foot Soldier here, Peashooter will be last of the founding 8 characters.
Foot Soldiers are popular for various reasons, but one reason is because they are jack-of-all-trades, and master of all. I know a lot were unhappy with how the character got nerfed in BfN, but let’s be honest, the character has been too good since day one, especially certain variants. Not the most popular opinion I know, and he’s often my go to character in all 3 games for the character’s power and flexibility, but considering how often you see them in the GW games, and especially GW1, I’d say that they needed some adjustments. Even today you’ll see matches in GW1 where half or more of the zombie team are foot soldiers, and half or more of them are Super Commandos, especially with the upgrades. GW2 did some work to fix the most egregious example of this; the Super Commando, and adjusted some of the others, possibly overnerfing the camo ranger, but overall bringing the Foot Soldier closer in line to the other characters. You still see it a lot in GW2, but not to the same extreme and not so many super commandos. One can point out that GW2 adds 3 new zombie characters and many new variants, so many more choices, but some balance work also helped here. BfN Kept the kit the same overall but also brought their damage down, keeping in line with other general DPS changes in the game. Still a good character, but now you don’t see quite as many as you used to per team.
The basic weapon is a typical assault rifle style weapon you see in most shooters. Easy to use and high fire rate, it’s a perennial favorite for obvious reasons. As far as variants, Sky Trooper is still my all time favorite, I love how that gun sounds as it fires off its clip so rapidly. In BfN, my only real complaint here, beyond maybe giving its damage a slight uptick as I feel they might have overnerfed it, is that with the rapid-fire upgrade that many consider essential, it has an uneven fire rate. You’ll notice this when in the heavy helper’s aura too, regardless of character, something I forgot about in the Engineer post. It must be a common netcode problem in BfN and seems to be related to the hit registration issues that plague the game, especially the Super Brainz and Chomper in melee. This does exist in GW2 (not sure about GW, I don’t recall seeing it, so it’s rarer if it does happen), especially for burrowing chompers, but it’s worse in BfN. These various main weapons would need to be balanced for a new game and that netcode has to be fixed!
ZPG and Multi-Rocket work out pretty well against each other, unlike shuck shot and multi shuck (multi shuck may well be the worst alternate ability in any of the games). I actually love multi-rocket as it can be so good against tightly packed plants and can take out potato mines while also bombarding an area in smaller, but still dangerous rockets. ZPG has always been a solid ability and still is in BFN, and it’s great at taking out Gatling Peas and Sunbeam Sunflowers as they can’t dodge if they don’t see or hear you using it in time. Part of what makes it a great but also not oppressive ability, unlike Imp Punt, is that it takes time to fire and the soldier bends over to use it, with specific audio cues as well. This is honestly one of the best designed abilities in the three games.
Stink cloud and super stink cloud. I used to use the super version almost exclusively once I got it out of packs back in the GW1 days, but I swapped back to normal most of the time now. BfN really made this power so much more useful since zombies can actually see through the effect. Before BfN it was often a detriment as your own team can’t see what’s going on in/through the cloud and the damage isn’t particularly powerful. Being able to use this ability to obscure your teammates, even from butter beacon effects, but your team isn’t affected by it, is one of BfN’s best changes. Not a lot to say here, useful without feeling too good, and BfN has a couple interesting upgrades for it; like sticky and smelling salts. I’ve seen complaints about sticky but I haven’t had any serious issues when it’s being used against me.
Rocket Jump/Rocket Leap. I used to use jump exclusively for the height but leap is just so much better as having 2 charges is so much better than less forward movement but higher vertical movement. A few places can’t be reached with leap, but I find that jumping first and then using the ability mitigates that most of the time and having a 2nd charge really helps with Chompers and multiple obstacles. In BfN, it really needs work as even though they did fix it somewhat early on, it still has a janky camera and the motion is very jerky. Other than that, a solid ability.
As for the model, I feel this character does well in all 3 games. I like them in GW2 the most, but even between GW2 and BfN, they don’t change much. Some have complained about the reload animation as in GW and GW2 the basic character uses his head as part of the cycle, and doesn’t in BfN, but it’s never bothered me much. His sprint animation is rather amusing.
For a new game then, not a lot really needs to change. Figure out where the damage should be and adjust it accordingly. A lot of people were unhappy with the main weapon’s damage reduction, but I’d like to see what parses where and how to balance the variants and upgrades for a new game. I’ve not personally sat down and calculated this situation and I hate to try to balance by ‘feel’. Definitely keep the translucency of the stink cloud(s) for the zombies from BfN, a great change to be sure! Foot Soldier can stay a solid all-rounder without the class dominating like it often does in GW1.
