Re: Sunflowers Vs Scientists
In the fashion of PVZ 1, plants are defensive while zombies are usually offensive class types (exceptions being the all-star and engineer whose skills are more defensive or support based).
Sunflower is the default all-around healer when it comes to both skills and how the character is designed; a much longer reaching heal line, a pot that heals the user and its targets [though all the sunshines can be grabbed by a single player for more concentrated healing], and a beam that provides slight DR and deals decent damage per tick (not shot). Her alternate abilities reflect on her different playstyles for being more aggressive (dark flower), protecting the tank (rainbow flower), and stronger concentrated fire (10-12 damage instead of 7-8).
Scientists are the foremost close range fighters outside of superbrainz and chompers; they are rather easy to pick up early game and prod aggressive bouts . They have a metal station that heals the user and its targets (yet provides no concentrated healing), a grenade that can be used to damage targets or create a zone of protection, and a warp that closes the gap or allows for escape. His alternate abilities are similar in intention, but also help to cope with the weaknesses of the scientist. The heal line allows the scientist to move with his target rather than the tank or a fellow aggressor moving to the heal station in order to stay alive, the energy warp helps to cope with chompers' burrow, spike weed, potato mines, and chili bombs, and the heal grenade allows the scientist to provide concentrated healing to targets as well as himself.
Outside of the above mentioned, I find that sunflowers have incredible survivability, and while they cannot close the gap, they can outlive the scientists long enough to finish them off. I rarely have problems with stray scientists trying to punish me in game unless they sneaked up behind me beforehand. In addition, the heal line for the scientist replaces the station, which helps to encourage the scientist to move with his intended target, but also removes the scientist 's personal healing besides the heal grenade, which then removes extra damage that can be dealt to targets. The scientist is great early game, but in later portions of maps where there are less lanes for surprise attacks, the scientist is forced to engage enemy combatants head-on and is going to receive more concentrated fire (while he can close the gap, jumping away from his allies removes any healing or a chance of revival for them). Despite these flaws and certain variant specific issues, the scientist is a fine offensive substitution in comparison to the sunflower.
