Class Discussion: Sunflower
Time for the Sunflower! I’m starting with the original characters, then the ones added in GW2, and then the new BfN characters.
I love Sunflower. She’s adorable, I like her voice (both the GW and the different BfN versions), she’s fun to play, extremely useful for her team, and can be quite the vanquisher too. Her biggest weaknesses are her low health (100 most of the time, 110 in GW2 after a patch, with Vampire Flower at 75; without the health upgrades in GW2 that is), and her large ‘head’ make her easy to crit. BfN not differentiating speeds between characters means she loses her inherent speed bonus she had in the GW games, but you can use upgrades to get bonuses here, although they nerfed one of those upgrades, I have one of my 3 builds there saved with the speed upgrades, which makes her kind of obnoxious to take out, especially when one considers BfN’s more powerful healing.
Reviving is something they’re great at in GW, even better at GW2 thanks to full health revives (I’d argue it’s too good in GW2 due to this; reviving teammates at full health can be a serious pain to deal with, especially with multiple Sunflowers (and Scientists zombie side)), but BfN changes this to let teammates help out which I actually like. Being able to work together like that and after they patched it, all getting XP is a great idea and Sunflowers still are great to have there to heal the revived teammate quickly. I’d be down with a hybrid GW1/BfN model for the next game, I’d rather not return to quick full health revives that GW2 went with.
Her main weapon varies over the variants of course, but the basic version attack is a nice, accurate, rapid fire attack. BfN’s version is similar to the default Sunflower in the GW games and also much like Stuffy Flower’s attack in sound effect, although the healing effect of vanquishing zombies with your primary weapon in GW2 is an upgrade for the sunbeam in BfN. There’s not a lot to say about this aspect of the character, it generally works well and is easy to use. The variants are largely decent as far as the weapon goes, although Mystic Flower is parsed as the best damage when charged, I’ve always been partial to Alien Flower and Vampire Flower.
Heal Beam and rainbow heal beam. Now Rainbow heal beam doesn’t actually change any numerical values which is a bit of a shame. If kept for a new game, maybe have it tick more often for smaller ticks as that would match the difference between the regular heal flower and the rainbow heal flower in GW2. BfN keeps it but of course adds overhealing and an upgrade that lets it branch to a 2nd ally. Again, I don’t feel there’s much I can add here beyond the odd mix in BfN of having powerful healing but not giving it enough XP. It’s weird being heal master and being low on the leaderboard, after GW/GW2 and focusing on healing/reviving with only a few vanquishes and still being at or near the top. I’d like to see healing return to GW/GW2 levels both in power and XP. I don’t hate overhealing but I’d be fine if it went away. Even after patching it to slowly decay, it’s been a problem for PvP.
Sunbeam/Solar Flare Beam haven’t changed all that much over the games, getting armor (or at least more armor) since GW1. I tend to use the solar flare beam over the base Sunbeam but like Gatling Pea, I don’t use these modes all that much (I didn’t get the ‘vanquish 10 players with the Gatling pea in one match’ achievement in GW till 2018!) Recharge lets you keep the beam going for a long time in BfN, which is great for bosses in PvE, but I really don’t like planting myself for long periods of time in PvP. It’s why when I play Cactus/Deadbeard in any of the games that I tend to shoot and move elsewhere. It makes you too easy of a target and if you’re doing well with it, people really want to take you out! BfN also makes it very shiny and obvious, something I’m mostly indifferent too. I can’t see all that much to change here for the next game.
Heal Flower/Dark Flower/Rainbow Heal Flower/Sunny Side Up. Here is where things get interesting and heavily contentious. I’m pretty sure that at least part of the reason they took the pots away in BfN and gave us the little heal drops is I’m sure anyone who wanted to put their flower down in GW/GW2 has encountered the issue where the game won’t let you put it down as something/someone is in the way! Sometimes it’s so bad it really ticks you off so that was a decent reason to change it. That being said, I still prefer the flowers as they can be shot, and they don’t give as much burst healing as the BfN ability. Dark Flower is a fun alternate ability but you don’t see it all that often, even after they tweaked it in GW2. I use the rainbow flower the most in GW2, although I believe the overall math is better for the regular heal flower. Fun trivia tip: for the GW2 quest to plant 15 pots, you can plant the consumable kind, or as any Sunflower place the regular or dark flower for credit, but the rainbow flower doesn’t count for that quest for some reason. I like the flowers over sunny side up for a new game, or they can make them alternates, but the healing of sunny side up needs to be looked at like all healing in BfN.
With healing and overhealing being so good in BfN, and Sunflower not being changed all that much, we still had a serious attrition problem with folks that love the character not playing anymore. Asabaida is the biggest one for me as we played quite a bit of BfN together and the way Sunflower works in BfN was something she really didn’t like. But yet, I don’t see her as being all that bad to play to be honest. I wish folks hadn’t left so they could go into more detail about why they really don’t like BfN’s Sunflower, as it's something that has to be taken into consideration for a new shooter. Healers are often the least played class in these games and you tend to see more Scientists than Sunflowers due to their ‘assault’ nature, although Sunflowers can do very well in that regard too, just not as obvious about it. I like healing but one of many reasons I left OW was being forced to play a healer so often as no one wants to do it there, it’s always been easier to get Scientists and Sunflowers in the PvZ shooters, so I’d like it to stay that way.
