I just wondering what people think of some of the lesser used variants of the characters, and if anyone actually likes some of them.I for one, actually like playing as the hockey star quite a lot. He's rarely used by any high level player(I'm rank 5355), and I'm sure the only reason most people play as him, is to level him up and be done with him. Yet, I find myself doing pretty well with him on PC, I get vanquish master quite often with him(sometimes even streak master), and I've been able to win most one on one confrontations with him, when me and my enemy have about full hp. The biggest problem people have with him is how fast he overheats, and they seem to get the idea he can't do that much damage. If you are able to tell exactly when his weapon is about to overheat, that problem is solved, and I for one believe that he has great DPS, you just need to be accurate. That said, he's a very accurate all-star variant, in fact, he might just have the fastest bullet speed of the majority of full auto characters. Except you really have no reason to shoot at long range as he only does 1-2 damage per tick at that range. All I can say is people need to give him a chance. With that damage and overheat upgrade he can be a monster at mid to close range if you play him right, and man does it feel good when you are number 1 on a winning team in TT playing as the hockey star. I just wish he had that toxic damage we probably all thought he had when we first got him, then he wouldn't be as underrated.

I've recently been playing a couple of the variants you mentioned, one basically new to me (hockey star) and one I haven't played for a while (necrose). I do find hockey star to be difficult with the overheat, but by the time I've put a couple hours into a particular all star, I usually get the hang of what they can do, and the upgrades won't hurt either. I haven't got him down well enough yet to try playing him in multiplayer. I played necrose a fair amount when she was new, and had mixed results. I started playing her again yesterday and found that, for me, her efficacy depended on the way the rest of the team was playing. I was playing with a max rank friend who does the meta electro citron thing. He'd follow me to get every teleporter up, then I would find a good vantage point for jinxing or we acted as a team from the same mid range perch. This worked extremely well. I got something like 14 vanguishes, which is a lot for me with this character. I got the last few levels to master her, so I'm not sure how much I'll break her out again for a while.

I really like the Swamp Thing. He's pretty underrated I feel, since his HP is so low for a Chomper variant.I also feel that a lot of people don't value the Nec'Rose like they should. When I see one, I follow her around. If she runs into enemies and dies, I leave her alone, if she hangs backs and Jinxes targets like every two seconds, i'm all over whoever she's hitting haha

The reason chomp thing is underrated not only because of his health, but his damage output is not nearly as good as the other spray type chompers, and he also can't handle more than one zombie at a time as good as they can. The only good thing I've noticed from master ranking him was that his spray lasts longer than the rest. But that's just me, it's interesting to see that someone does like him though, maybe you've found a way to play him well.Nec-rose is a pretty cool variant, the idea of lowering the defense of the zombies is unique. People just need to play her more like a support, and their teammates need to learn to capitalize on that jinxing, then boom, she's a very useful plant for her team.

Generally speaking most of the characters which are undervalued are given that status by Players because they tend to be more niche or represent a radical departure from what is expected from the others in the Character Class and characters like that require time and effort to figure out the best way to use them on the battlefield and which modes and tactics are best for them. A lot of the Players I see complaining about this character or that character being "underpowered" or "useless" seem to either not understand their role, not be able to play them properly, or are judging the character based on whether or not they can get the most vanquishes in the game with it because for many playing a character is only worth it if they can bask in some personal glory at the end of the session.

The Hockey Star got a buff to his overheating too. He overheated far too quickly before then, even with the upgrades. He is underrated though. I try to play all the characters even if I float towards certain ones more than others. His RoF makes him a joy to play much like the also underrated Sky Trooper who is also one of my favorites. The Alien Flower seems to be often overlooked but I find her ability to damage people I can't quite see due to terrain and shooting near them so the cloud damages them very handy. She was very good in the recent portal event too, since her clouds can linger for awhile and vanquish people just passing by.

Underrated character variants | EA Forums

18 Replies

Iron_Guard8
Legend
9 years ago
I think the issue some have with the Mechanic is that he lacks the splash damage of the other engineers, he's almost like the foot soldier in a way with his rapid fire gun. I love him for the A+ on the shooting gallery quest for the engineers.

I quite like the astronaut too although most of my play time with him has been form running the Spooky Squash Boss Hunt. His range is invaluable on that mode and I find shorter ranged scientists less useful on the harder difficulties of that boss hunt even if my favorite scientist has always been the marine biologist. I also like the astronaut for the A+ shooting gallery quest since he has good range and fast projectile speed.
SkrimmyBingdus
9 years ago
My favorite scientist has always been the physicist, both in GW 1 and 2. He can be decent long range and very powerful up close (like most scientists), and I love how well he can handle groups of plants being the electric variant. Yet, I'm probably one of the few that favor him since he has lower damage than most other scientists, although he does shoot slightly faster. The chemist is another one that can handle groups greatly, which may be a reason why the Physicist gets overlooked, but he has the range over the Chemist. Also, It may just be me, but I think he has a quicker reload time than most scientists as well.

I think most characters like the mechanic, camo cactus, and even general supremo get overlooked by many because they require good aim to be used effectively or they just use them incorrectly. When they are actually pretty good variants. The only variants that are not good that i've noticed, are the wrestling star, and chomp thing
pandareno1999
Hero+
9 years ago
I've recently been playing a couple of the variants you mentioned, one basically new to me (hockey star) and one I haven't played for a while (necrose). I do find hockey star to be difficult with the overheat, but by the time I've put a couple hours into a particular all star, I usually get the hang of what they can do, and the upgrades won't hurt either. I haven't got him down well enough yet to try playing him in multiplayer.

I played necrose a fair amount when she was new, and had mixed results. I started playing her again yesterday and found that, for me, her efficacy depended on the way the rest of the team was playing. I was playing with a max rank friend who does the meta electro citron thing. He'd follow me to get every teleporter up, then I would find a good vantage point for jinxing or we acted as a team from the same mid range perch. This worked extremely well. I got something like 14 vanguishes, which is a lot for me with this character. I got the last few levels to master her, so I'm not sure how much I'll break her out again for a while.
LintyDruid5
9 years ago
Another underrated variant for me is pops Corn. I love his range, he has great damage and ammo, yet no one else seems to like him. He was either my 3rd or 4th character mastered. I rarely see him in my matches.

I also rarely see a painter (In my top 5 fav characters) but I feel that he more underused than underrated.
pandareno1999
Hero+
9 years ago
Yes, pops corn is another that I'll be digging into sometime in the near future. The only corns I particularly enjoyed playing in the past are default and commando. But since I had a corn star quest on, I gave pops a quick spin and found him much better than I originally thought. I still can't find much love in myself for barbecue or mob cob, though. As overpowered as BBQ is said to be, I don't do much good with him.
AugustSage
9 years ago
Huge fan of the centurion. Never see anyone using him but he's been my anchor anytime I want to mess around.
Iron_Guard8
Legend
9 years ago
Centurion is another fun one for sure. I like his look and the fire damage is handy too. I used him a lot in GW1 when he was first introduced. I don't use him as much in GW2 but still enjoy playing him.
Anonymous
9 years ago
@realitysquared wrote:

Generally speaking most of the characters which are undervalued are given that status by Players because they tend to be more niche or represent a radical departure from what is expected from the others in the Character Class and characters like that require time and effort to figure out the best way to use them on the battlefield and which modes and tactics are best for them.

A lot of the Players I see complaining about this character or that character being "underpowered" or "useless" seem to either not understand their role, not be able to play them properly, or are judging the character based on whether or not they can get the most vanquishes in the game with it because for many playing a character is only worth it if they can bask in some personal glory at the end of the session.

under-powered simply refers to a character that can't do dmg or have the same survivablity as other when the gun has been swapped out

I've seen quite a few people never go back after they get their party citron and code scientist

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Underrated character variants

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