The State of Citron

Spin dash is just sprint tackle if it had counterplay. It's definitely much easier to duke as it has a little spin animation + sound effect to warn people it's coming. I don't think its really underpowered. if anything its citrons only good feature. it's his main source of damage output. his juice cannon cannot get kills (against competent players) without landing spin dash. If his juice cannon does get a damage or fire rate buff, I do see spin dash's damage being nerfed a bit. For this current patch that we are in tho, it's all he's got. (It actually did less damage while also taking longer to activate in garden warfare 2. Bfn spin dash is a direct improvement from gw2 spin dash).

I have already seen far too many people play citron completely wrong. too many people stand still and shield and use naval laser during fights. they're all Christmas noobs but the game has done nothing to teach them how citron works. so they shield, then die, without contributing much to the team, then eventually switch to an easier, more unga bunga character like sunflower or snapdragon (who are straightforward and simple to get the hang of). Most cases, I don't think its the player's fault. it's kinda the citron's fault for being so "wonky". 

something needs to be done about the peel shield and naval laser. the naval laser is barely useful ever. primary fire is more reliable than it. it's on a fairly long cooldown and punishes the citron for using it (makes him much MUCH easier to hit as he cant shield or jump. He also cant even aim the thing. can only hipfire it for some unknown reason). The peel shield reduces his movement speed alot. protects a decently average area in front of his face a bit, but only for a short while when under fire. and gives him ammo for soaking damage. The peel shields existence has made it so Citron cannot aim. he can only hipfire. Implying he would be most effective at close range. Which is true, but literally every single other character in this game (except maybe super brainz, who sucks at all ranges atm), is effective at close and long-range. Even Imp, who was once a close range trigger happy midget john wick, has now become the sniper from team fortress 2. Every single character (except super brainz cuz bad hit detection) is a dps machine. Citron cannot fight anyone long range. he has to get up close. everyone else tho (except scientist and sb) have the freedom of high dps across the map. Even in close range Citron barely gets by with his damage. Heavily relying on spin dash, empeach and his sprint to win fights. 

They seriously need to consider making naval laser synergise with the rest of his entire character. having a noodle beam that hits barely any damage in a micro-sized hitbox does not work with his close-range juice cannon, peel shield, empeach and spin dash. Even with juiced the projectile size of naval laser is pitiful. it needed to be bigger. They need to rework/ replace naval laser badly. 

Peel shield needs to be bigger and maybe give a movement speed buff (super brainz gets a move speed buff for pushing forward with the shield, maybe citron could get movement speed buff while strafing left and right or moving backwards with the shield). he goes from the super agile bouncing ball, to a sluggish wall slowly pacing around soaking damage.

For playing him, all I can recommend is-
that you use his ball form as much as you can (more than peel shield). treat sprint like an ability. jump constantly. jump directly over peoples heads to throw off their aim. Citrons sprint is amazingly good.
spam spin dash and empeach off cooldown aswell. even if you yourself arent in a fight, if you see a fight in the distance, chuck an empeach over to help the plant(s) in that area.
NEVER USE NAVAL LASER EVER. Pretend its not there honestly. dont ever think about using it. it only reveals where you are and makes you extremely vulnerable to all attacks. the damage it does along with its terrible projectile size make it not worth using at all.