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stukapooka's avatar
5 years ago

Spawnable discussion: Lightning reed and Mr. Electro

Lightning reed and Mr Electro

Lightning reed

Gw2 description:

Zap! Zap! Zappity Zap!

Bfn description:

Shoots high voltage plant-based lightning that arcs to nearby zombies.

Medium range pot with 70 health and a long range lightning beam attack and a close range aoe lightning blast attack that takes longer to recharge. Both attacks deal electric damage that can spread to multiple enemies.

It's the only Potted Plant in the original Garden Warfare or Garden Warfare 2 to have more than one attack. It appears to be missing the blast in bfn.

Mr. Electro

Gw2 description: Workplace safety was never really Mr. Electro's thing. Mr. Electro just wants to dance.

Bfn description:

Shoots high voltage lightning bursts that arc to nearby targets.

Possesses 90 health and fires the electric strike that deals 20 electrical damage that can arc. However unlike his counterpart he has no close range aoe blast to protect himself.

Has Mrs. Frankenstorm variation that is functionally the same. Description:

IT'S ALIVE! IT'S ALIVE!

Both have a 5min. cooldown in bfn.

These guys are very useful allies in gw2 ops. Lighting reeds fair health, electrical arcs ,and long/close range options make them good allies able to dispatch groups of browncoats yet there recharge at close range requires them to be supported by otger pots. Mr. Electro's higher health allows him to take a high amount of damage and dish it out with electricity, however he lacks the means to defend himself in close quarters.

In Bfn they're solid allies still but the cooldown and positioning alongside lighting reed seemingly losing his blast in bfn (correct me if I'm wrong its hard to see when these guys take fprever to summon yet die in seconds) and mr electro is slightly more effective due to his higher health because of it. In Bfn turf there limited area and availability alongside bucketheads being common reduces their effectiveness into mediocrity.

Final thoughts?

UNLIMITED POWER!!!

6 Replies

  • Two of my favorite defense spawns. 

    Lightning Reed is a rare one that never appeared in the original GW. 

    Both of these are great for helping to defend your garden/graveyard in OPs as they can take out so many low level AI with their chained electricity. Useful in TT and Gnome Bomb as well, but not as good against players, although still effective. 

    Like all pots/bots in BfN, they just don't last very long and aren't placed as well, so it's difficult to judge their effectiveness there. 

  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    Legend
    5 years ago

    @Iron_Guard8I would say they aren't very effective in bfn. The cooldown alongside the terrible positioning doesnt allow you to put down many and with the most common spawnable in turf there being buckethead and tv head it's hard to judge their effectiveness as those 2 will relatively steamroll them in bfn.

    I think these two were also only in the game because slide had electric powers so they had the assests as ice shroom was stated to return with lettuce intorducing true frost again (snapdragon would be useless due to the afterburn limits)

  • Time to charge up with these summonables!

    Introduction

    The Lightning Reed and Mr. Electro are summonable variants that deal electrical damage, which means the damage that they deal can spread and hit other nearby enemies as well, making them effective against enemy groups. They operate in similar ways to their counterparts, however they have some slight differences to each other. The Lightning Reed has an extra mode of attack, which is a close range attack that has the electrical damage (except in Battle for Neighborville where I have never seen this), while Mr. Electro lacks this extra attack but has more health than the Lightning Reed.

    My Thoughts

    These summonables can prove to be useful especially when groups of enemies are close together, and also to an extent when only a single enemy is around. When there are multiple enemies around, the total damage that these summonables are capable of dealing can prove to be really significant and can add up, which should discourage enemies from grouping up when one of these summonables are around. They do their job well currently, however changes I would suggest include having a maximum of being able to hit 4 enemies at a time (although I do not know the current limit) with a damage reduction on enemies that they hit with their arc (not the direct hit), as well as giving Mr. Electro the extra close range attack, but reducing its health to the same as the Lightning Reed.

    I would give these summonables a Medium difficulty to defeat. This is because it mainly depends on the situation, they can be really easy to defeat if you are away from allies and you will reduce its potential damage output if it attacks you while you are away from allies. However, they can become quite difficult to defeat if plenty of allies are around, and these summonables will then become quite a major threat, as they have the potential of being able to deal heavy damage to your team. When trying to take out these summonable variants, try to distance yourself from all allies and quickly shoot it down before it can deal any significant damage to you or your team.

    The Lightning Reed and Mr. Electro are present in Battle for Neighborville, which is very rad. They have a cooldown of around 5 minutes each, but I would suggest that this cooldown be reduced to 4 minutes instead. This is only because their usefulness depends on the situation, there will be times when a single enemy turns a corner and finds one of these summonables, then manages to quickly take it out. They can be really useful but there will be times where they will be very ineffective, so having a slight cooldown reduction seems appropriate. 

    In A Future Shooter

    I do firmly believe that these summonable variants should be present in a future shooter, they can be really useful but there will be times where they cannot achieve much damage. They should not be that hard to obtain and it should be feasible for players to amass in large amounts if they desire. They could cost around 2,500 Coins each for this reason, due to their situational usefulness. I would also recommend an unlock cost before these can be used by the player, it could be a cost of around 10,000 Coins per faction, but you would obtain a starter bundle of 5 as well, which provides a discount on unlock and allows you to use these summonables freely thereafter.

    Overall

    Because they can have the potential to be really useful in certain situations, but there will also be times where they may be close to useless, I would suggest them being quite cheap to get and relatively easy to get in large numbers if players desire. Requiring an unlock cost before they can be used in future would restrict use of these summonables at the start, but after they can be freely used. The way they perform right now is helpful, although I would suggest having a maximum number of being able to damage up to 4 enemies at once, but reduce the damage enemies take when not directly hit (when the damage arcs onto them) and to give Mr. Electro the close-range attack like Lightning Reed, but reduce its health to match the Lightning Reed as well.

  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    Legend
    4 years ago
    @TheSprinter85 In bfn lightning redd appears to be missing his extra attack but it seems they kept the health difference which is just stupid.

    I feel like mr electro shouldn't be a direct copy of lighting reed to keep the spawnables more interesting.
  • TheSprinter85's avatar
    TheSprinter85
    Hero
    4 years ago
    @stukapooka Fair enough. I do not mind having some of the summonables work differently to their counterparts, but sometimes I feel it would make a bit more sense for them to be more similar to their counterparts.
  • stukapooka's avatar
    stukapooka
    Legend
    4 years ago

    @TheSprinter85Don't get me wrong there are some I agree that should be equal in every way.

    Boxer bot has a very unnecessary 3rd punch that doesn't do anything such as a faster fire rate or how explody bot for some reason has more damage than doom shroom but is the same everywhere else.

    Some especially in gw2 were designed for different pots. Freezy bot is actually the counterpart of ice pea from gw1 and not ice shroom.

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