I’ll give my take on these now that I’ve had time to review them a bit.
Overall the Rose hit box nerf seems like a good idea. She’s most annoying when at her long range with homing projectiles and hopping around. Making her even slightly easier to hit will at least somewhat redress this.
Giving the regular Rose less ammo balances her with the Party version but doesn’t the Druid Rose still have a 30 round magazine? She’s already the Rose I see the most thanks to homing toxic damage so if she also has a larger clip than the normal Rose this seems odd. Nec’Rose getting a slight damage buff, I’m not sure on that one. Seems unneeded but we’ll see after some plays with her.
The buff to Arcane Lotus is nice, especially considering how bad it was when first added to the game. The nerfs to her other abilities seem ok but seeing the ‘gravity’ change has me curious. Does the change to zero mean they no longer drop off over range and instead travel in a straight line until they impact or reach their limit?
For Super Brainz I fully expected a nerf to the beam much like the Citron nerfs. This I feel is a good thing overall but some of the rest I’m not sure until I test them. The Heroic Kick damage nerf means that quest is going to be annoying with that massive damage loss (approx. reduced to 33% of its old value), the 2 charges is kind of cool though as it gives a gap closer or less vulnerable to Chompers. The loss of the knockback is good and bad; bad in that I liked using it to confuse opponents but good in that you won’t knock them away from your own melee attacks. Also it won’t break Pea Gatlings and Solar Sun Flowers anymore which is at least slightly bad for the super brainz here. The nerf to turbo twister I can’t really say yet. I honestly don’t use it much but liked it for the armor and movement bonus more than anything. This may be too much of a damage loss but I’ll again have to see how it plays out.
Cozmic Brainz is in an odd place. I am glad to see his punch getting a speed buff as charging it up was a pain but he was the one super hero I used the beam with the most (although his is more of a projectile weapon) since his punch was so awkward to use.
As I stated earlier I am really surprised we didn’t see a nerf to the Toxic meter for Toxic Brainz. It’s easier to get it full in boss hunts, the backyard, and ops than MP matches but its super good so I fully expected a nerf to this gage.
I see Breakfast Brainz has been nerfed with the beam like the others but his melee attack has a damage buff which is good. He’s come a long way from his introduction when he had 175 health and was seriously lacking overall.
I liked the Citron/Engineer patch better overall but again I think you’re moving things in the right direction. We’ll have to see how these all pan out over the next few weeks of live playing to fully judge how they’ve affected things and where the classes and variants all fit in the big picture.
As usual, I will provide a link to the analysis that redditors Krook1235 and Masked_koopa always make for new balance patches:
My first thought, from the perspective of my own game play - RIP Cosmic Brainz. I'm glad I played you last night! For the rest, I'll wait til the patch is live and I've had some time to play.
@pandareno1999 wrote:As usual, I will provide a link to the analysis that redditors Krook1235 and Masked_koopa always make for new balance patches:
My first thought, from the perspective of my own game play - RIP Cosmic Brainz. I'm glad I played you last night! For the rest, I'll wait til the patch is live and I've had some time to play.
I have to agree with these folks overall as usual. The Rose hit box size change I like overall BUT if it's an odd size, like larger than the model then I agree with them. Nec'Rose really didn't need a damage buff in my eyes, Cozmic Brainz and Electric Brainz may need some buffs back, much like Toxic Citron. The slight buff to Cozmic's punch don't really make him work well enough for his beam loss.
I found Rose to be fine before and after the patch though the magazine nerf was needed. The Goatify changes are interesting, the radius decrease makes it harder to hit an individual yet its so small of a change it doesn't change using it on groups since I always found zombies needed to be touching for it to hit them all. I didn't think the goat itself needed to be more agile a it was like an imp with a higher single jump with less distance.(Also always thought dealing 25 damage was a lot for a "disabled foe".) Haven't fought too many Roses but I'm not noticing a hitbox change. I don't have much of a conclusion for the changes because I haven't played her enough since the change.
As for Super Brainz, while I find it funny he now can deal 1 damage with his beam and the overheat time decrease to be fine, the overheat penalty is overkill, it feels like a good 5 seconds before you can fire again. I thought at first they were going for a Hockey Star burst weapon the overheat penalty makes it seem more like a finisher as the beam overheats quickly and takes forever to cooldown. I've never liked Turbo Twister for offense so having it focused as an escape or another approach benefits using his fists. With the changes to Heroic Kick he almost always has one on standby which may seem overpowered as time progresses but the removal of knockback on the kick kinda makes him vulnerable to turret modes and nerfs his role as rooftop patrol. Overall I find Super Brainz much more capable of leaping from target to target with his abilities more focused on mobility yet his beam seems more of a kill nabber.
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Brainz feels completely useless now. I haven't had a chance to try out the rose but Brainz is now nothing more than an up-close melee character and even then still not great.
