FAT ENGINEER
I’ll assume everyone has already seen theTeam Fortress 2animated shortthat Valve put out yesterday and have been very excited to jump back intoTF2.Today, theLove & Warupdate has been more detailed, with new weapons and GIGANTIC balance changes.
Let’s chat about them, shall we?
New Items
The Back Scatter
Seems to me like this could be a very risky weapon to use,unlessyou’re excellent at sneaking up from behind. The more I think about it, the more Ilovethis weapon. It rewards great play directly, while punishing bad play. Flanking is always important, and I always favor an up close and personal playstyle.
The Tide Turner
This is something I’ll really have to get my hands on before fully judging, but it sounds like it has gigantic snowball potential! Combined with the Parachute, this could lead to some tricky Demoman flying around the skies…
The B.A.S.E. Jumper
Umm…what?! This is crazy. I cannot WAIT to see this thing in action. This will make for some easy sniping targets for sure, but combined with The Air Strike for the Soldier, I think things are about to get much more hectic. I’m not really sure I see the use for a Demoman, but I suppose it could lead to some more varied trap locations, or at least make certain traps easier to place. Oh, unless you can shield charge in the skies…that could lead to some ridiculous air-assaults!
The Classic
This seems like the opposite of the Back Scatter, as it seems to cater topoorSnipers who don’t have map awareness. I can’t really see myself using this…ever.
The Air Strike
Soldier has turned into an air-bomber. Combined with the Parachute, this thing sounds ridiculous. Accuracy is required because of the drawbacks, making it far from overpowered, and it rewards excellent shots by increasing the clip size on kill. Sounds like a great side-grade for the Soldier on paper, though I can rarely every justify giving up clip size on the Soldier in general.
Patch Notes
Good change here, removing the requirement to fire in order to activate focus.
Oh jeez, a HUGE nerf to Pyros that use the Axtinguisher (see: all of them). Knowing this, facing a Pyro who’s airblasting you will be a good enough counter to potentially kill them first. It will be interesting to see the preferred loadout for Pyros now, since the Degreaser + Axtinguisher combo was the de facto Pyro loadout. I’m all for this if it brings more diversity tot he Pyro’s loadout. If it ends up solidifying a different loadout even more, I’ll be a bit more upset.
Solid change, it seems. I’m more of a Tribalman’s Shiv man myself.
Apparently the damage rev-up begins when the Heavy begins spinning up, not only firing, thankfully. A decently-sized nerf to the Heavy Weapons Guy, and a pretty big buff to the faster classes out there!
OH JEEZ. My most time spent playing a class goes to the Demoman, and the removal of air-stickies makes me sad. But it also makes me happy that if I choose a different loadout, like the Meleeman, I won’t be sadknowingI’m removing one of the best weapons in the entire game from my loadout. This is a huge nerf to the most-complained about weapon, and it will be interesting to see how Demo players, like myself, evolve.
WHAT YEAR IS IT?! Holy cow they fixed it.
Interesting change. One that makes a lot of sense and one that I didn’t even know what happening. I guess that shows how much I play Engineer…
Another one I had no idea about. This….makes sense.
What do you think about these changes? Did they go too far? Should we form a Demoman Support Group? Is everyone overreacting? Is this a push towards a more competitive metagame? Did it ruin the metagame? Is this too many questions? Yes.
