Overall I like these changes. Getting sniped by a guy with a shield, 200 health, and the ability to hide their entire bulk behind a rock while only their side mounted weapon can be seen was just a bad situation. This change puts Cactus back as the premier plant sniper overall as it should be. You can of course snipe with other plants, especially Agent Pea and most Sunflowers, but Cactus was always designed around the sniper concept.
I haven’t played Iron Citron since the changes yet but I will tonight during quests to see how he was changed. My initial impression is that he needs a slight reversion of the nerf as his range drop off for damage was pretty hefty already.
Toxic Citron got nerfed a bit too hard I fear. Already more a support character than a direct damage variant, I feel they need a slight reversion of their nerf to balance them out a bit better.
The basic Citron was solid at close range and can poke at medium-long range, making them feel more balanced. Pretty happy with where he’s at.
Party Citron as Reddit points out may need a slight alteration to make it not almost always superior to the basic Citron but wasn’t bad.
Electro Citron feels fine to me. I was able to do 30 damage to one of the turrets on the gate in Zomburbia while not being in its range with a full charge. The arc damage was reduced but electric attacks have always been in an odd place. I remember when electro-brainz did more damage with the arc damage than the target took on a direct hit!
Frozen Citron always feels fine now. Still can freeze zombies fairly well, and dangerous up close but long range damage is much less powerful as befits the role they want.
The Engineer changes were all good. I didn’t test the Turbo vs. normal jackhammer directly but it was definitely longer ranged than it was. It was just not a viable choice before. I tried it out in GW1, found it lacking, and never used it again until now. I’ll probably ask my friend to do a direct comparison tonight just to have a definitive result and report it here.
The basic engineer getting that damage buff is fine as far as I can tell. He’s always been effective but his numbers apparently were a little too low so bringing up to the median standard of performance is a good thing for balance overall.
Plumber has always been my favorite engineer so seeing him buffed is a good thing considering how he fires fairly slow and relies heavily on splash damage. He’s always been better vs. large groups than single targets and continues to do so. His near misses will be more effective now as well.
Sanitation Expert getting help is good as well. Always liked him (but then I like pretty much every character to some degree) but he was a sluggish shooter. His buffs are welcome.
Painter buffs I’m unsure of as of yet. Need to play him a bit more to check but I don’t see him played all that much so probably a good idea. Faster projectiles and tighter reticles reinforces him being the ‘sniper variant’ of the Engineer class.
Overall a thumbs up from me. Makes me hopeful for the next game being better balanced at launch which is certainly a good thing.
