Captain Dreadbeard feels so weak compared to previous games and Cactus in current iteration, which is clearly plant counterpart. The Cpt has 12 ammo in mag, when Cactus has 32 ammo, so you can make a maximum of 3 fully charged shots before you have to reload when cactus can do almost triple the amount, you could argue that cactus's secondary fire is automatic and Cpt has a close range shotgun, so he doesn't need that much ammo, but that's not the primary use for these characters, they are not designed to be acorns or scientists, they are designed to be long range fighters who pick targets from afar. The barrel also doesn't protect you from Chomper Burrowing you,comparing to GW2 which is an additional minus. The Cpt Dreadbeard upgrades are weak compared to Cactus, Cactus has many significantly good talents like Calibrated, which is massive for Cactus, Cpt doesn't get to have faster zoom damage charge upgrade whatsoever, so if you know your character, you need those max charged shots for most optimal damage output. If you are near engineer turret, you feel like a god with that fast charging of shots, so that Cpt doesn't get to have that upgrade is a massive difference. Popcorn is another often picked upgrade for Cactus, which is useful when enemies are grouped. In comparison, Cpt's upgrades feel very lackluster.Freebie? Cactus also has ammo generation through Looting. Heavy Metal? Please, this is laughable, it costs 4, when same talent for Cactus, Alacrity costs 3 upgrade points. So far I don't see a reason why I would pick Cpt if I could pick Cactus, if everyone was on same team.
