Class Discussion: Scientist

Time for another big one; the Scientist.

I play my Scientists as a healer first and foremost but we’ve all seen that super aggressive scientist that warps behind the lines and wreaks havoc. The good ones can be insanely nasty, the bad ones are about as bad as suicide Chompers. I prefer Sunflowers for healing overall and play them more than scientists, but scientist is still a fun class; whether you go heavy healing or full on assault.

Without variants, BfN kept the main goo blaster/shotgun idea which is fine. My favorite variant is the Marine Biologist (yes, even with Computer Scientist being a thing in GW2), which isn’t all that different from the basic Scientist, and they avoid broken variants like the Astronaut (who will need a serious nerf if GW3 brings variant forward). Steam Blaster is another story although it’s less oppressive than it was before they nerfed it, but when the zombie team is losing you’ll see the Steam Blasters (and Brainium Bashers) come out in force. Steam Blaster is a neat idea and the effect looks cool, but it’s one of those things that needs to be adjusted if its going to be kept for a future game. The lack of damage drop off is an issue but due to the weapon’s spread in BfN, it’s not as bad as it could have been at long range, so it’s still a character that excels at short range engagements more often than not.

We have 4 different warps overall; the GW/GW2 version of warp, energy warp, cheesy warp, and BfN’s warp. Regular GW/GW2 warp is pretty basic, very useful has 2 charges and that short animation time, it’s a decent baseline for such an ability and can be powerful when used well, but anyone who has ever played the class has been vanquished mid-activation, even with how short it is. Energy warp has essentially moved to Electric Slide in BfN (a subject to discuss in detail when I get to that character), it’s an alternate ability that I used to use a lot, is heavily abused in Wall-Nut Hills (that last point needs some kind of adjustment to deal with this when this map is brought forward for a new game), it’s great for clearing out potato mines and spikeweeds as well. Cheesy warp has that damage effect when you warp through something and is limited to GW1 as Dr. Chester was one of the variants that didn’t move forward to GW2 (along with Chester Chomper, Berry Shooter, and Citrus Cactus). I’ve said it before but it bears repeating, I don’t hate BfN and will continue playing it as well as the GW games (893 hours in it now), but the BfN Scientist warp is one of BfN’s biggest issues. 3 warps with no animation is extremely powerful, and especially when used by an aggressive player with the heal thingy, and/or steam blaster. This should have never gone live as it is.

For the main healing ability, we have the regular station, the armored station (and the bling version), the Cheetah station, the heal beam, and the healing hose. The regular healing station is the baseline from GW1 and common in GW2. It’s small, heals decently, and can be destroyed. It fits the Scientist’s more assault style game play compared to the Sunflower’s more supportive style well, as you can place it down after getting into battle and heal yourself with it, and this is very common in GW and GW2. The armored station has more health and can be used as a kind of footstool to get up on things, but even with the buffs in GW2 to its timer, the Reddit folks that parse the info still have the armored heal station coming up short compared to the basic one, and the bling version is just shinier. The Cheetah station is again only in GW1, but it heals faster than the base one, although it doesn’t last as long, it’s a strong alternate ability and fits very well into the assault style Scientist player’s kit as they don’t need to hang around it as long. GW2 then added the heal beam which I use most often in that game, and it makes the scientist play more like a sunflower than the stations as you have to be in range of targets you want to heal instead of leaving the station in a spot and the zombies have to go to it. Healing Hose is a problem for a few reasons, although the biggest one is that healing and overhealing are too good in BfN, especially with certain classes being healed, and unlike every other healing ability in the games, you can’t attack while using it, which for the more aggressive style healer is just an odd decision. It’s not awful to use, and I’ve gotten heal master in BfN using it heavily in matches, but I’ve always liked in GW and GW2 that you could heal and attack simultaneously and this ability takes that away. It’d be fine as an alternate ability for the same slot as some people will want to focus on healing and don’t want to multitask as much. Some of its upgrades are really useful too, I have one build where I heal myself as I use it on teammates and another where zooming with it makes it more efficient. As I said, I don’t hate it, but it’s a very limiting ability that makes the Scientist play more like healers in other games that can’t fight while also healing.

Finally, we have the other ability slot; the sticky explodey ball, the mega heal ball, and the heal thingy. In both GW games the sticky explodey ball is the default and it’s heavily used, especially by assault style Scientists. It’s effective, can hurt a lot, and while it can be destroyed it can be rough to actually hit it, I’m not sure if that’s by design or a hitbox issue. I generally only use it in GW2 to get quests that require it done. The mega heal ball is my own favorite in GW and GW2, as it has a nice burst heal after it goes off. It can be a little buggy and toss things miles away, which is amusing to be sure, but when your team is paying attention and can survive long enough for it to detonate, it’s a very nice heal to have. Timing and placement are very important with this ability, and I’ve been vanquished more than once waiting for it to detonate, but I love it. On a funny note; early on in GW when it was still fairly new you’d see Scientists toss it at you as a plant and watch your teammates scramble when they didn’t know what it was! The Sticky healy thingy in BfN is a throwable healing device that activates instantly and rapidly heals for a decent chunk. I’m not a huge fan of how this one works as it releases a lot of health very quickly. The wiki doesn’t have that much info on it, I think it can be shot (correct me if wrong), but one of my main issues with BfN is that healing is too good and this thing is made worse by assault scientists using their instant warps to get in, wreak havoc, and then leave to heal with this thing and repeat. If they kept the idea, but made it heal less per tick, but heal for more ticks, for a more sustained, less bursty heal, I’d like it more and it would be more balanced as I like the idea of sticking this thing to allies, foes, the wall, etc., it’s just too good as it is right now. If they adjusted it to not be such a big burst so quickly, it’d be a nice alternate ability.

I like the character’s look in any of the games and love the huge thick glasses of the BfN version. My biggest complaint about the BfN version is that since it lacks variants, I don’t get to actually use my Dolphin Blaster, even with that upgrade equipped. All versions look fine to me, so would be fine with any version for the next shooter.

As usual, I’d prefer to return to the GW/GW2 style of things; the BfN Scientist is too powerful as is, even without Steam Blaster (which I don’t see in multiplayer matches all that much anymore); the 3 instant warps combined with the healy thingy make them extremely powerful at being a short range assault character, but then the healing hose ability is counter to that idea as it makes them more of a pure healer than any of the older healing abilities. If they fixed how OP the warps are in BfN and also used the healing hose and sticky healy thingy as alternate abilities, while also reining healing in a bit from BfN levels as I outlined earlier, they could work as alternate abilities (the healing abilities, not the warp, they’d have to use GW/GW2 warp or adjust the BfN version to be less powerful). Whether they go with GW3, BfN2, or some kind of hybrid for the next game, they can’t leave Scientist as it is in BfN right now.