Derpl Zork wrote:
While this all sounds good it doesn't change the fact that Lonestar is still clearly the single best Awesomenaut in the game, take that as you will but most people would agree. There are teams more effective without him, but only a few if you're honest about it.
Indeed. There's plenty of points to mention as to why Lonestar is just *too* good.
His health is mid range.
His jumping abilities are the best in game. Double jump alone lets him get out of many messes most other 'Nauts are stuck in. Get boots, he can reach places that require jump panels to get to. Easily.
His speed is above average. With boots he's significantly faster than most 'Nauts, with the only exception of Leon/Coco when they get boots. He also earns Triple Jump with the speed upgrade, so he's far more maneuverable than *any* 'Naut.
Most of his builds only require level 30 to *completely* max out. Other 'Nauts have builds that will be mostly done around this point, but there's plenty of cases where they'll require up to 35 to max.
Hyper Bull has one of the most spammable and powerful snares in the game. Rebooter + Dual Slime means ever 5 seconds you can land a 60% snare for SIX seconds.
Tri-Namite with Contact allows Lonestar to completely replace a Yuri using Carpet Bombing... and is more flexible since laying mines for Lonestar can be done at range and varying angles whereas Yuri can only drop them directly below his person. And as another comparison to Yuri, the Monkey can't easily run from an enemy after he detonates a mine in their face; Lonestar can easily do so AND still fire bulllets their way.
Lonestar's bullets have a higher attack rate than Froggy/Leon, both of whom require almost full investment in speed upgrades to match Lonestar's base attack rate. Only two characters are faster... but arguably the speed in their cases means little. Yuri's laser may be faster, but it's damage is intentionally far weaker damage-wise as it pierces multiple targets, and requires him to be a sitting duck. Coco may have a faster rate, but by default she has to be in-your-face to do *anything* with it.
It's even more an issue if you analyze the cost of some abilities and compare them to similar items other 'Nauts have.
Take Tri-Namite/Bouncy or Tri-Namite/Contact. 710 for a 75 damage burst that can reach a good distance and bowl turrets, or 755 for being able to create mine fields, both able to hurl into folks' faces.
Clunk's 100 Damage Explosion can be put at a 7S cooldown for 755 Solar, and requires him to take a good chunk of self-induced damage.
Derpl's 80 Damage Nuke requires a completely stationary Derpl for around 3 seconds, and can only be used every 10 seconds, for a cost of 955 Solar!
Coco's Ball Lightning takes 840 Solar to reach 70 damage. 975 for a 5S cooldown.
Those are the biggest and most noteworthy burst combos... Which one has the shortest cooldown? Which one has the lowest risk associated with it? Which one has the lowest cost to boot? Tri-Namite with Contact/Bouncy, that's which. I'd say the comparisons are reason enough to at least greatly increase the cost of his Dynamite tree upgrades, or make Bouncy/Contact multi-ranked to affect their uber-usefulness.
There's all these quantifiable reasons for why Lonestar's just soooo damn good... and there's more that I haven't mentioned I'm sure. That's not even discussing in detail what he can do when he combines these abilities. That's not even discussing his Blaster alone or in tandem.
TLDR... You won't find nearly enough reasons to help with the "Lonestar is NOT OP" case than quantifiable facts that claim the contrary.