Thanks for ruining Chomper!

i agree put him back the way he was

I agree to, loved gw2 chomp, especially hotrod, had over 10k pvp kills, was made to flank and kill opposing flankers. Now idk what to do with him, sit back and just spit at other team? "Sigh"

Same.

@EA_Blueberry 

@EA_David 

Seems this is a popular opinion.  Maybe we can get this topic looked at?

That darkness thing I've noticed, even in PvE, that needs to be fixed as I don't notice it on any other character. I was wondering what that was at first.

Burrow should either be a little faster or last longer. The general targeting/lag input of burrow needs to be fixed too, it's always had that issue since GW1, but it's worse here. The hopping is a bit annoying, and it was pretty standard in GW 1 and 2, but it too feels worse here.

I'm mixed on not being able to chomp once surfaced. On one hand it was frustrating in GW 1 and 2 to try biting a zombie so you weren't stuck digesting, and accidentally swallowing them when they moved, which made you vulnerable when you were avoiding that suicide chomper meme. On the other, it means you don't get the one shot Chomps as often. on Reddit back in GW2 balance talks, someone suggested that you had to zoom in to chomp so you could still chomp from behind, but weren't going to unless it was intentional, I've always liked this idea.

My one issue with spikeweed is that it 'rolls' from the targeted spot. It should be more precise. It is nice to be able to shoot it , as it makes placement less predictable, but more accuracy would be nice.

The new goop is actually really solid though. It was never meant for damage really in GW 1 and 2, more to reduce the zombie's ability to evade. In BfN, it does a small amount of damage after a moderate initial tick, prevents zombies in it from using sprint or abilities, and it sticks to them for a long time after, which is really nice to prevent them from running off and regenerating as the damage keeps ticking.

I don't mind having the spit attack, it's nice to be able to shoot people that hide on roofs, but I don't want to focus on it. 

There are some improvements though, the pirate's barrel and the engineer's jackhammer (sprint) no longer protect them from being burrowed (if they're supposed to protect them, it isn't working at any rate), and you can burrow outhouse and screen door zombies, you don't have to break their armor first anymore.

Burrow is absolutely useless now.

I'm actually on the exact opposite of the spectrum here ever since GW1. (But not only for Chomper, all OHKO abilities in general which includes Chili Beans, Imp Punts from GW1 and all OHKO abilities in BFN that come without notice like Eggsplosions.)

Here's why:

• Chompers in GW1 forced many players to play above rooftops. And this forces the tradition once again with the existence of Chompers in BFN. There are many Captain Deadbeards (Eggsplosions everywhere now) or long range heroes in the Zombies team and less people wanting to be around the objective because Chompers can OHKO them without a fighting chance. They will be gooped, tortured and abused. Imagine having to contest around payloads having to worry about your back and the floor as well.
• It is difficult to contest or stand on objectives especially with the new map designs. For example, in Goop Gully, you have very limited places to step on in order to stay away from Burrows and they are not well informed to all players. Those high grounds could be corners which could obstruct your vision in a 3rd person shooter game. This leads us the next point.
• Standing on those specific high points, trying to avoid Chompers, makes you an easy target for all the plants to shoot at you. With all that limited space, you are denied to move freely and evade other abilities.

What I'm trying to say is, there are too many things to pay attention to in the game already. Having to worry about Chompers going behind you all the time is just straight up mind taxing. It would force most players to be Engineers or Long Range heroes which isn't a really good idea overall. It would break the balance and harmony of hero pick-rates. Chomper now exists in an area close to the "Middle Ground" of balancing, which means he isn't too weak or too powerful (maybe slightly a bit powerful due to the new Goop) and other heroes can evade him with the new audible loud burrow sound (thanks PopCap!). Chompers already force Zombie players to pick 2 heroes to counter him: Engineer (for his burrows) and Scientist (to cleanse your team from Goop's Toxicity). The game had matured enough since GW1 and the necessity to take down heroes like All-Stars (which is probably one of the main reasons why Chompers were designed that way.) is no more. There are too many heroes that can shoot and take down high HP zombies fast.

I understand that in every hero-based shooter game, there will always be players complaining about their "main hero" getting reworked or changed or nerfed. After all, your mind got used to playing that hero and it became a habit inside of you. Changing that hero feels like you're using a new vehicle you're not familiar with. The same exact thing happens in Overwatch as well of course (I have to bring Overwatch in most topics because it can work as an example to what balancing can be and what it does to the game overall). The developers have to be careful not to make something too powerful or break the balance which might lead to the birth of a certain metas that lead to winning easily. For example, if they decided to make Super Brainz or Engineer weaker, something else might break in the process and the zombies might lose balance. I'm not saying I'm against them tuning them down, I'm just saying that when they do tune them down, they will have to look at the bigger picture of things. Which is probably why the Chomper is tuned down to the version we have in BFN. 

The ONLY condition I would agree to them bringing back the old Chomper is when they force a hero-limit, which I don't think will happen anytime soon. With ONE chomper on the map, you know that if he died, you can push or contest without having to worry about him until he comes back again.

I am from the minority and my opinion would be considered unpopular here but, I salute PopCap for tuning Chomper the way he is. It must've required a lot to do that.

* This post doesn't take bugs into consideration. E.g. Assuming that Burrow works all the time. Yes, I played Chomper, and it doesn't work all the time for me either.

* I have nothing against anybody's opinion here. I just like looking at the bigger picture of things before posting. Hoping that others would understand that as well.

* Chomper's gender had been referred to as a male here. If you believe Chompers are a she.. Well, copy this post in a notepad, find "he" replace it with "she" and "him" to "her". Problem solved. And sorry for missing her Gender if she's a she to you. It was a difficult decision for me to make Chompers a he. People can get offended easily these days *wipes sweat*.

@GammaX6  I for one agree with you on this besides a few tweaks that they need. Burrow can be iffy to actually vanquish with, this may be part of the general performance and netcode issues but it's my biggest issue with chomper right now, that vision thing needs to be fixed, and spikeweed should be more accurate, but otherwise the new goop can shut down zombies in a fairly large section of the map, not being stuck eating a zombie when I wanted to just melee them is great, and being able to hit zombies far away that keep avoiding me on the ground is nice as an option.

I've posted elsewhere that it feels like they want Chomper to be more of a team player rather than the solo assassin. BfN in general seems to be moving towards team focused play over individualistic styles of play. Most of the issues I do have with the game play is the general responsiveness of controls rather than anything else. Once they get input lag and other such issues fixed, it'll be easier to judge everything else.

I complete agree Chompers need a longer burrow time and some way to chomp characters who are constantly jumping around.

I know I will be in the minority here but, I rather enjoy Chomper now. Sure he needs some tweaks, spike weed is useless in the heat of battle. It’s great when used properly as a team player, almost like have an extra potted plant. There are definitely issues with the borrow skill definitely needs to be more responsive. Is it really necessary to have the Jaws like animation for his attack while borrowed? Speeding up this process or eliminating it would greatly improve expectations of the move when in battle. My biggest issue with Chompy is how long it takes to swallow someone. I have used the upgrade and it still takes FOREVER. I have actually stopped using that move for kills altogether and more now for transportation. This brings me to the point of why I like that I don’t have to worry about eating someone while in close combat. I like to grind in the pits, chomper has always made that hard for me because of the whole eating/swallowing/mastication process and then accidentally grabbing someone and being left defense and dead. 

I definitely can see some the complaints as he is a completely different playset now. People are used to him being a sniper/1 hit kill type of character and he isn’t that anymore. Someone mentioned earlier that this game has a TEAM based approach to it. As more people realize this, and a change in how points in pvp are distributed, the game will definitely have a much better feel to it. 

I was initially of the same opinion, since Chomper was my favourite character in GW2, and my initial impression was that the character had been nerfed in BFN.

However I have come to appreciate that the changes are not all bad. The Grody Goop is actually quite cool because it can immobilise multiple zombies by slowing them down and stopping them from using abilities. It also does a good chunk of damage, softening your target up for a melee attack. I find its animation too subtle however. In GW1 & 2 it was very obvious when you had gooped a zombie.

I didn't participate in the wider community for GW1 or 2, but I gather that a lot of players were fed up with the Chomper being used for suicide missions: burrowing or back chomping when surrounded by zombies, then inevitably being killed whilst digesting. I don't think suicide chomping is inherently bad (it scatters the zombies while they hop around trying to avoid being chomped, and can create a gap in their defensive line), but I can see how it might diminish the enjoyment of other players, in addition to being a tactic that on the whole is not beneficial for the team.

It seems like the changes to the Chomper were an attempt to force players to adopt a less suicidal playing style, and be a team player rather than a kamikaze assassin.

Initially I missed the back chomp, but I'll tell you what I don't miss: trying to do a bite attack and accidentally back chomping your target, essentially committing suicide!

Although I don't use Chomper's ranged weapon (Slobber Shot) very often, it gives the Chomper a means of fighting back against zombies who jump to high ground to avoid being chomped. It also means that the Chomper can participate in boss battle that require a ranged attack, such as shooting the drill in Goopy Gully. In GW1 & 2 it was pretty much mandatory to switch to a ranged a character to participate fully in the end stage of certain maps.

Re: the screen darkening when you take damage. This may be because the character who attacked you has an upgrade that impairs the vision of plants they damage (I forget the name of the upgrade)?