Class Discussion: Super Brainz
Next up, another character that changed a lot in BfN; Super Brainz. This character isn’t a personal favorite but like all PvZ characters (barring the swarm characters), I still enjoy him. My personal favorite variants are Breakfast Brainz and Electro-Brainz. Like the Citron post, this one will be structured a bit differently as they are so different between GW2 and BfN.
In GW2, the character has gone through many changes. Electro-Brainz’s old bugged OP attack got fixed, Breakfast Brainz got buffed, the ranged weapons got nerfed, and much more. I don’t have the data right in front of me, but I’d be surprised if any other character in GW2 changed as much as SB did during the game’s active cycle. With 200 health (Breakfast had 175 for a time), the various fist weapons, and 2 heroic kicks, the character is great at mixing it up at close range, but can zoom in to have a useful, if limited, ranged weapon as well. The ranged weapon burns out fast and takes awhile to come back, but that was to fix the time when every Super Brainz sat at long range and just spammed this weapon, and with 200 health, they don’t need it. I’d probably not have it burn out quite as fast as it currently does, but it needed to be nerfed from how good it was. The GW2 version has a floaty jump that I miss in BfN, and paired with Heroic Kick can really send you far over obstacles.
The first ability we’ll look at for the GW2 version is Super Ultra Ball, and the Super Guided Ultra Ball and Super Multi Ball alternates. All 3 of these are effective and despite the slow speed of the guided version, I’ve gotten many hilarious player vanquishes with it and it’s great against bosses, especially with Toxic Brainz in Toxic Overload. Most players I’ve encountered use the default version of the multi-ball version, largely because of how slow the guided weapon is, but I tend to use it the most. They may need to balance these a bit for a new game, likely speeding the guided version up, but I can’t see these being changed too much.
Turbo Twister has gone through many changes and its current iteration in GW2 is not all that hot. When we get quests to vanquish with it, I rely on the flag of power as its damage is very poor right now. It can be quite fun to jump into a bunch of plants and turn it on, but it’s not all that effective at actually taking them out; as they boosted its armor, reduced its duration, and reduced its damage. This is an ability that was too good early on, but right now it’s kind of pointless to be honest, used mostly as a desperate escape button more than anything else. I’d like to see it returned to more of an offensive ability rather than something that’s rarely used or used only for a desperate escape. I’d nerf its armor, reduce the slowing effect on plants, but up its damage.
Heroic Kick had a period where kicking the 2 planting plants (Gatling Pea and Sunbeam), stopped working, but that didn’t last long thankfully. The double charge of the kick that was added provides huge mobility, similar to the scientist warp really, and it can send plants flying. Despite how useful and far you can go with this ability, it never is as annoying as Brainium Basher is in BfN. If it needs nerfing, and it might as it’s instant, goes far, causes significant damage, and can knock planted plants out of their modes, there’s many ways they could do that (add an animation, single charge, longer cooldown, etc.), but it’s never been that difficult to deal with, so it doesn’t need a huge hit if they do so for the next shooter.
BfN’s Super Brainz lacks that floaty jump, has a great sprint animation (it reminds me of kids pretending they can fly), and overall fared decently in BfN, with some exceptions. His main attack is a powerful melee combo of punches or can be charged into punishing fists over range. One of my issues with BfN is the lack of damage drop off, and Super Brainz’s along with Nightcap’s ranged attack both do full damage to a point and then hit an invisible wall which is not a great solution to player complaints about their ranged attacks. If BfN had damage drop off over range, they could do like GW2 and just have the damage drop off sharply for such attacks so when you play them, you don’t have this invisible barrier where your damage goes from full to 0. You also can activate a shield that gives no XP, unlike All-Star or Citron. I get that it’s not the character’s focus, but even a small amount of XP would make sense here. SB also lost 25 health (175 vs. 200), but I don’t see this as a problem as he’s an offensive character and with certain builds can be really durable even with the lower health.
BfN’s Super Ultra Ball is fine, I have no real complaints here, and one of my builds has that ‘Extra Special’ upgrade where you put your shield up when firing it which is the kind of upgrade I like as it adds an interesting way to build your character while not being OP or highly annoying. Turbo Twister is better than GW2’s version, but still not great although can be really effective with certain upgrades and when used with Hyper Jump Thump as an immediate follow up. Hyper Jump Thump is actually pretty fun to use and I don’t really have a problem with it in place of Heroic Kick, and with just one charge, you can’t get in and then get out, you have to deal with the situation after you land.
The BfN model is a good one and some of his outfits, especially the legendary hats, are great. Solid animations and decent abilities. He plays differently and I miss the floaty jump, but I don’t have any real issues with the BfN or GW2 versions, barring one thing…
Brainium Basher. I’m going to admit it up front that I HATE this thing. So many times when playing a PvP match and the zombies are losing, all of sudden a couple or several of them switch to this thing to try to pull a win out as it’s oppressive and obnoxious. It’s such a pain to deal with that I make it my number one goal as a plant to focus on them as much as possible while still trying to play the actual objectives. They can be dealt with, but the combo of high damage and extreme mobility make this thing a nightmare. The idea behind it is fine, the PopCap devs have some great concepts, I mean that’s why I spend all this time and energy on these games, if they didn’t, I’d have left already, but the execution of this thing has a deleterious effect on the game, far in excess of the Scientist’s Steam Blaster, even pre-nerf. Having 3+ of these at once is worse than dealing with 4+ mechs in GW2, and that’s saying something. The worst part is that mobility as they swoop in, take out wounded and low health plants, and then escape so easily. If they plan on keeping this, it really needs to be retooled.
So, for a new game, I’d like the floaty jump back for sure as it fits the super hero idea. Give us the various Ultra Balls as options, get turbo twister in a good place without making it OP, and I’d be down with Heroic Kick and Hyper Jump Thump being options for that last ability slot. 175 health is fine for this character. Not sure if the shield should be kept or not, it’s not a huge shield, but certainly helps. But most of all, either get rid of Brainium Basher or fix it so it doesn’t ruin matches and is the weapon of choice for Giddy Park spawn campers.
