[Discussion] Boss Hunt Zombie Ranking

So if we are still gonna keep the flag flying for these changes after the softdrop of pvz3 i decided to go ahead and do these before @TheSprinter85  takes all my thunder by making much better guides.

Gonna do zombie first because I find them easier to rank from best to worst and already had this one worked on.

Now lets start with the top. The zombie that dwarfs all zombies in boss hunt

1. 

Anything you want in a boss hunt teammember? SB has it all: Range? Check. Damage? Check. Mobility? Check. High health? Check.

All of his abilities are good as they cover both damage, getting across the map, and getting out of a sticky situation thanks to their fairly short recharge times and when you factor in variants like toxic boosting almost all the capabilities by 3 times its no wonder he's king of pve in gw2.

Even his arguable worst variant for the mode in cozmic brainz still has many things going on in his favor just by being a superbrainz. If a max rank toxic brainz joined he was there to win.

2. 

All star goes neck and neck at times with superbrainz as his ranged capabilities are far greater and more consistent.

His abilities serve a wide function as well: damage, mobility, and self defense.

None of the alts are terrible either. However the reason he is lower than SB is all of variants not being as good as the other. None are terrible but some are just not great in pve as others are.

His cooldowns are also more severe in both abilities and weapons leaving him defenseless unlike SB who could punch or jump his way out of a bad situation when he's out of other options.

3. 

Let's be honest Scientist's 100% a glass cannon whose gonna get torn apart by the enemy without great ranged options outside of his arguable best variant in the game but healing is something you will absolutelty need in this mode and scientist is the only undead providing it on the go. His increased base movement speed isnt bad either.

For all new scientists please for the love of Zomboss use heal beams and heal bombs. We are constantly on the move so stations force us to defend one spot and those sticky bombs aint gonna do crap and being able to heal yourselves without relying on stations is masisve.

Both warps are good. I personally prefer energy warp just so nothing can attack me as I travel to a downed teammate but you do you guys.

4/5. I consider these two interchangeable based on team and preference.

The furry king of support has arrived.

In direct combat HG3K is just ok but his abilities greatly boost a team as he can increase damage of both teammates and friendly bots can be great in any situation, increase everyones speed including himself, and if push comes to shove he can activate his laser to deal good damage to the boss.

He arguably coul d be higher than most scientists since his combat range is usually better but healing is overall more useful.

Engineer is a fairly underrated class for hunts in my opinion. I understand that all star and SB are better so they get used more but engineer is not a bad choice for teams that need a dps dealer while only running one tank.

Engineer has the same health as dead beard, hg3k, and soldier but he does a lot of other things better.

Crowd control: most engineer variants have access to a primary with splash damage that allows him to deal crowds better and the stun grenades/mines can easily turn the tide on enemies especially champions.

Mobility: Both jackhammers allow him to run across the maps for both objects and to save teammates. The fact the can also easily dodge or attack while doing this makes it one of the best movement options for a character in the mode.

Dps: Big bolt blaster enough said.

The only downside i can see engineer having is that some variants such as painter or ac perry arent great at dealing with dozen of enemies jumping them at once and his abilties can mainly help him rather than the team.

6. 

Soldier is always a decent choice with solid variants. However i feel he goes right down here since while not bad every other character above him is better suited to the tasks at hand.

Lets face facts in that his automatic weapon variants are generally better for this mode. I personally always liked supremo do to the spray and pray mentality.

Zpg is just better due to direct damage on the boss or a champion, stink clouds are a preference of abusing AI or direct damage, and rocket leap is overall better in gw2.

Rocket jump/leap do give some mobility but the others above him just do it better.

You can never go wrong with a soldier but you can definetly be doing better.

7/8. and

Oh boy this was hard to decide but i think deadbeard slightly edges ahead for a few reasons.

Imp's mech almost turned this in his favor but I still have to give it deadbeard since the mech while a very powerful ability has one the hardest hitting cooldowns for the mode and on higher difficulties the AI can tear imp's meager 75 health to shreds.

Imp is much faster than deadbeards molasses pace but deadbeard overall holds his ground in a fight better.

Both of their abilities kit arent all that great for the constant on the move focus of boss hunts but deadbeards still hit far harder while saving him and affecting crowds such as cannon rodeo or barrel blasts damage resistance than imps and impkata can even work against imp at times.

Parrots are hard to fly due to the AI aimbot but if you can get them off airstrikes are useful.

Imps varants are better rounded than deadbeards but they still all share the fatal flaw of imps weak capabilties.

If he could constantly spam mech imp could overtake deadbeard and many others here on that aspect alone but he can't and that is what ultimately dooms him to be the worst class by a fair margin.

He's got no health, his abilties arent very strong at helping himself or others most of the time, his best ability has the cool down of a century, and outside of a variant or mech his range capabilties arent great.

I'm not saying you can't use imp well or have a player come along and turn this list upside down as a well placed mech call can sometimes save a game but usually a lot of imps weaknesses in ops can directly translate here as well, especially on higher difficulties.

I'd break all of these guys into seperate roles.

Tanks-Allstar, Superbrainz, and arguably z mech. High health and decent damage allows them to perform objectives at a decent pace or fight the boss very effectively.

Dps- Classes with fast/high damage primaries/abilities but overall dont have much health such as soldier, deadbeard, and imp. Good at damaging the boss but not at being in their face.

Support- classes that are better at routing the enemy or directly aiding teammates such as hg3k, scientist, engineer (although engineer is arguably a hybrid of dps and support or all star being a tank/dps hybrid).

This doesnt cover every variant but rather the general base classes.

To me the best team configuration is similar to ops on that most teams should utilize 2 tanks mostly a combo of all star and SB to cover the others weaknesses. Than depending what the team needs you can either get 2 supports and have them pair up with a respective tank or run Atleast one support like scientist and one dps per tank.

If you intend to deal as much damage as possible while maintaing a safe distance from than perhaps consider stacking dps classes and hover goat as a support for boosts.

If you feel particularly risky you can choose to stack dps or tanks with no supports if you feel you have enough spawnable heals or can safely escape for regen.