I've felt pessimistic about matchmaking, because there are so many weapons that break the game at that level, but if people are confident that valve will actually make changes, then that's a reason to be optimistic. I mean, when things like the sandman, wrangler, pomson, disciplinary action, jag, reserve shooter, flying guillotine, *phlog*, vita saw, darwin's danger shield, natascha, tomislav, crit-a-cola, quickie spammer, loch 'n' load, direct hit, vaccinator, etc etc etc, are all given the royal treatment of horrible metas, they'll have to change something, right?
Some of those weapons are just strong and not distinctly overpowered.
Overpowered:
- Pomson: Projectile, while slow has a huge hitbox, isn't reflectable, drains cloak AND uber on hit, hurting two classes who effectively can't use their primary mechanics because an engineer fired into a choke or melee. Only saving grace is it's no longer a flat 20% reduction on hit, but instead falls off with distance like the Black Box does now.
- Crit-a-cola: Brief drinking period in which you are vulnerable in exchange for a free 35% more damage AND negation of damage falloff. The only bad thing about it is that you can't use a pistol to pester someone with. The "downside" of more damage taken is negligible: if you're playing Scout well, you're just hit and run, and your method of mitigating damage is by being fast enough to avoid it entirely.
- Vita-saw is overpowered purely in that in order to maintain an even playing field with an enemy medic, they are forced to run Vita-Saw as well.
- Darwin's Danger Shield is overpowered purely in that in order to maintain an even playing field with an enemy sniper, they are forced to run DDS as well.
- Reserve Shooter is a very, very strong weapon. It's not broken anymore, thankfully, but being smacked with up to 135 damage just because you're within the (rather janky) airblast range is not fun. At least you don't get punished for using the very most basic mobility mechanic available to any class anymore, that being jumping.
- Loch n' Load isn't nearly as insane as it used to, and no rollers and reduced splash on hit hurts Demo while he's operating in a group, but it's still very strong PURELY for the increased projectile speed. An increase in projectile speed effectively means increased effective range for Demoman, which a defensive class shouldn't really be needing, especially one based upon area denial. The loose cannon lost its projectile speed bonus, why couldn't Loch, but instead retain its old damage bonus?
Borderline:
Anything that negates movement options. That being Natascha and Sandman. Slow down fast classes if you can land a hitscan bullet on them? Stun any class for a period of time at almost any range besides point blank, using a fairly quick moving projectile with a generous hitbox.
The rest of those mentioned weapons, at least in comp, are strong but situational. Vaccinator? Totally able to be dealt with if you're rolling in a combo with more than one method of damage, eg. pyro + scout, demo + scout, soldier + pyro. Phlog? Keep out of flamethrower range. It's not as crazy as it used to be, as it now requires 300 instead of 225 fire damage and doesn't heal on taunt anymore. Additionally, the lack of an airblast REALLY hurts pyro's competitive viability, which is already very low.
Flying guillotine? Well... assuming the scout lands it, and the affected enemy doesn't get to any health packs before the DOT completes, you've gotten the equivalent of a single meatshot, at any range. It's pretty good for preventing crit heals too, but the fact that it takes 6 seconds to reload hurts its long range pestering vs. the pistol.
Disciplinary action... While speeding up slow classes is extremely powerful, most soldiers will run escape plan to mid as it gets them there faster than a whipped medic or other teammate would. It could see use with whipping heavies into action, but heavy already has the GRU for that.
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Topic: Team Fortress 2: World's #1 War-Based Hat Simulator (Read 827168 times)