User:MastahDizzy/Mastah's "Project Fortress" Rebalance
 | Last Update: 28th September 2023 |
This chart is designed with the open intent of suggesting balance changes that fits the vision of an unmodified game of Team Fortress 2, and which can benefit both the casual and competitive community.
Weapon statistics will remain fundamentally simple to prevent confusion and respect the original intent that the developers may have had regarding the title, and as such, most weapons that are significantly underpowered will be appropriately buffed in this chart to be able to contend with the competitively viable options that are made available within the same slot.
Weapons that may have polarising perceptions of their viability depending on player experience, specific matchups and format will potentially be tweaked to remain equally viable and less frustrating to deal with in the case that they would happen to be.
Now, while this chart is made by myself, based on the personal experiences that I may have on the game, it should be noted that my ideas shouldn't be taken for gospel, and that if you got any feedback, I'll be free to receive it and potentially incorporate within this chart, though I cannot guarantee that your suggestion will be always taken into account! Bleh!
Contents
Core Modifications
| Universal Gameplay Changes | Editor's Note |
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Elements of sudden randomness have always been prone to raise frustration from players, while breeding a gameplay experience that feels unhealthy because of the loss of control that players would have when attempting to make skilled plays of any kind. Disabling random critical hits would avoid unfair deaths and checkmate situations that couldn't have been reacted to, which would in turn be more fun overall than unpredictable kills that only seem to satisfy selfish players who would be quick to rag on the mechanic when they become the recipient of it (as in, enjoying random crits indicating either a lack of appreciation for game design, a lack of sympathy or respect for the opponent, if not both). Removing random bullet spread significantly improve the consistency of weapons with togglable spread (Shotguns, Scatterguns), and thus reduce the frustration that would come using firearms of this type. However, it should be noted that weapons with permanent spread (Miniguns) or multi-tap spread (Pistols, SMGs, Revolvers) are unaffected by this change. Finally, the removal of fall damage deviation would simply make the range of each weapon that could be used for aerial movement consistent, and therefore reward players for judging their effective reach accurately, and this would prevent unfair loss of health in out of long jump situations, though this mechanic has historically been less cumbersome than the aforementioned two before. Overall, this would make the game more fair and balanced, all while respecting the intent of the game as a fun, yet chaotic title that is already able to accomplish a sense of surprise through its wide range of maps, weapons and gamemodes that is already available to the playerbase. |
Changed: Random critical hits are now disabled by default.| Universal Gamemode Changes | Editor's Note |
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Capturing the objective already implies one team is having the upper hand over their opponent, so getting guaranteed critical hits for simply playing the game is a sure fire way for the developers to enable steamroll situations when Capture the Flag is played in a casual setting, where it's the most popular. Removing that mechanic from the gamemode would give better odds for the losing team of actually getting to fight back in the case that they have to deal with repeated assaults of their own intelligence. |
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Modifying the intel so that it stays on the ground for a lesser amount of time, on top of allowing the defending team a potential reclaim will essentially give more freedom from both teams to play around the complete layout of each map, instead of flocking to one point where the objective currently stands and the most optimal strategy is to simply "Rush B" and pray for your own survival, or at the very least touch the objective until it unavoidably gets captured. Since getting the objective out of the enemy's intel room would feel much less punishing and potentially unwinnable as a result of that rebalance, it would also allow players to fight the enemy team by reacting rather than simply anticipating a potential assault like it would be the case in current CTF, where teams simply flock to their own side to avoid unfair captures. |
Multi-Class
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Reserve Shooter |
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While the Reserve Shooter is technically good for combos, notably strong against Soldiers and Demos due to its perks, and can also preserve the range of a regular Shotgun unlike the Panic Attack, its lowered clip size means that its usage seems redundant when compared to the burst close range capabilities of the Panic Attack, and the consistent range of the Stock when placed within the context of most formats (with 6s being the notable exception, as the Reserve Shooter is actually ban-worthy here due to team composition). By making this weapon able to switch faster, get better accuracy, while being able to refill the user's primary on a successful pick, the Reserve Shooter not only gains a niche as a quick mix-up and refill option, but also keeps a lower clip size to balance it out against other Shotguns, on top of becoming better balanced in the context of 6s since its most defining trait in the format is now entirely removed to make place for a more universal mechanic. Overall, the Reserve Shooter is turned from a shotgun that is somewhat underwhelming in most formats, but too strong in 6s, to a firearm that is a decent sidegrade with a dual ammo/combo utility in both casual and competitive settings. On a final note, the Heavy is now able to equip the Reserve Shooter as a consequence of its new stat being able to synergise with his primary as well. |
 Family Business |
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Its larger clip size and faster firing rate means that this shotgun really is a slight upgrade to Stock thanks to a faster kill power against light classes, better consistency and strong spammability, which also results in higher damage potential overall. Introducing a mild debuff in its reload speed helps this shotgun retain most of its unique perks from its initial 8-shot clip, while making the reload more noticeable, thus making this weapon better at engaging combat, but also longer to get it back to its full clip, thus making this weapon a strong sidegrade as a result of this small modification. Also, by giving the option for the other classes that can equip shotguns to also use the Family Business, we're not only bringing what is basically an easy-to-implement unlock for a third of the game's roster, but we also get the opportunity to have unique decals on the weapon's cross based on the class that equipped it, which can make for nice easter eggs to implement, on top of giving more variety gameplay-wise. |
 B.A.S.E. Jumper |
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When it was initially added into the game, the B.A.S.E. Jumper was a very potent movement option that allowed both Soldiers and Demos to dodge any projectile in the game with extreme unpredictability, while doubling down as an easy "no-fall damage free card" that made this secondary fundamentally too strong, especially for the Soldier where using it meant having a guaranteed advantage against other Soldiers that weren't using it. Once it was nerfed, not only did the B.A.S.E. Jumper lost its perks, but it also got nothing in return to make up for the loss, so it suddenly became a seriously underpowered tool for both classes to use. Here, the parachute has been reworked to be dependant of a passive system of stacks that technically makes both classes able to perform the powerful things that the B.A.S.E. Jumper was originally being capable of, but since the stacks functions as a limited resource that has to be intelligently used to get the most out of it, this secondary now rewards you for sparingly using its perks, which makes it fundamentally less obnoxious to play against since the first version of this tool incentivised abusive strafing and spamming the jump button to get the most value out of it. Since the parachute cannot be deployed without stacks, abusive usage of it will punish the user in the longer run, and since the parachute now prevents the wielder from actually changing their trajectory when it is deployed, it also creates an incentive to plan your trajectories carefully to minimise the amount of stacks you may use from a single interaction. The two buffs that are added are there to not only somewhat improve the user's durability (bonus points for the Demo, who lacks any form of passive regeneration in the actual game), but also, most importantly, to gently reduce a flaw that stickybomb launchers have, since the Demoman is especially known for having a slow reloading rate as one of his main weaknesses. |
Added: On Kill: Instantly reload a quarter of your primary clip size
Changed: Clip size decreased from 34% to 50%
Based on stacks that passively get filled over time, deploy it up to five times to slow your descent by pressing the 'JUMP' key in the air!Scout
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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Pistols, while being fine by design, suffer from a surprisingly low ammo capacity, as it allows for only four clips to be used, in the case that no form of ammo refill has been taken by the user. By slightly raising the roof from five clips instead of four, we incentivise Scouts players to use their secondary more often for mix-up, though the core strengths and weaknesses of it remains unchanged. |
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Bats were intentionally gimped in terms of damage output to make up for the speed that the Scout has, but on the other side, the general theming of the character means that it is actually somewhat odd that bats virtually carry no core utility without relying on unlocks to be practical. Through the introduction of a universal Alt-Fire system for the bats, we actually turn the Scout's melee into a tool that, while weak from up close, can still be used to mix the opponent up at mid-range, and thus serve as a better template for other bats to be balanced around. It would also give some utility for bats that would have otherwise remained undertuned and unused, due in part to the fact that they were balanced around what was fundamentally a weak weapon from the inception of the game. Shoutouts for Miracule Weep for mentioning this concept. It honestly makes way too much sense. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Shortstop |
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The Shortstop is a fine weapon by itself, with its better range and quick firing speed giving it a niche as a mid-range Scout primary. However, the shove is usually too hard, flimsy, unrewarding and committal to use, and the reload speed is definitely too slow for a weapon of its type, so, by giving combo potential to the shove and reducing the reload speed, we allow the weapon to be more flexible in its use and less punishing for whiffing shots with. |
 Baby Face's Blaster |
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The speed meter is too unreliable of a mechanic to be properly used, since any ounce of aerial movement and damage taken can easily gut your meter, which results in highly inconsistent speed that can mess with both your footsies and aim, for the variations in movement can throw a wrench at your tracking. An improved speed stat however is quite a powerful perk for a Scout to have, so, by treading the line between stronger grounded speed, lower durability and more predictable air movement without overtuning any trait, we can potentially make the Baby Face's Blaster a proper sidegrade that's much easier to wrap your head around when compared to Stock. Since the lack of air jumping with your primary paired with worse durability against pellets from shotguns and other forms of bullet damage are reliably offset by superior footsies on the ground, it should be fair game for anyone. As a final note, the removal of fall damage is added solely for the purpose of not forcing the player to switch weapons in order to prevent it, primarily as a direct result of becoming unable to air jump when the primary is active. |
 Back Scatter |
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The reduced clip size never really made much sense from both a gameplay and graphical perspective, since the Back Scatter's lower accuracy already gives it a unique niche as a weapon that is easier to land shots from upclose, with burst potential if said shots connects from the target's back half of their hurtbox, at the cost of obviously having less range due to the bullet spread being less precise, and thus somewhat less capable of landing pellets as reliably once we fall out of close quarters. With these simpler stats, we effectively make a decent sidegrade to Stock, that is easy to understand, and becomes balanced by virtue of being slightly specialised, but still decently capable at performing the tasks that the regular Scattergun may do. |
 Winger |
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The Winger is actually very useful as a movement option, and the small damage boost can be helpful, but the clip size is usually argued to be made too small when compared to the other pistols available in Scout's arsenal. Seven bullets is still an understandable decrease, but at the very least, it keeps the damage rate reasonable while preserving the mutual trade-off of a pistol that's better at moving, but worse at peppering. |
 Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol |
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When compared to the stock Pistol, the Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol is basically a marginally improved weapon in terms of damage output, that also doubles as one that gives health back on hit, which basically makes you wonder why the Stock option even exists when a more practical one is out there to be played with. Here, the Pocket Pistol has been redesigned to hinge more into its utility, while becoming the weakest handgun of the bunch for dealing raw damage. It is technically better at spamming, landing shots, and thus getting yourself healed, but the significantly lowered damage and clip size makes this weapon a proper stamina-centred sidegrade to the regular Pistol. |
 Mad Milk |
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Basically the Jarate for the Scout, and arguably one of, if not the strongest secondary for Scout, the Mad Milk is usually considered to be very powerful due to the insane reward it gives while being so easy to use, as simply throwing it can basically allow your team to be healed by quite literally playing the game as intended, all while punishing the opponents for simply existing within the radius of this throwable. By reducing the heal-on-hit potential of this secondary by two thirds of its original value, we already make it much less ridiculous in its ability to basically turn a whole fight around by pressing M1, and by exchanging a massive splash radius for faster travel speed, we also incentivise the Scout to have some aim for once, thus making it consistent for 1v1 interactions if skillfully applied, but less potent when thrown against clusters of enemies or when used by a player who lacks accuracy in their throws. In term, the Mad Milk still remains a decently powerful support-oriented secondary, but now, it requires the user to use it in a more deliberate fashion in order to have its reward properly ripped out from it. |
 Bat |
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As a result of the universal buff for Scout's melee, the Bat now becomes an actually useful melee since its projectile can be used for combat, while having no listed drawbacks, thus warranting the use of this weapon in practical situations. |
 Sandman |
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The original Sandman was overpowered due to having a projectile that was way too much rewarding for the ease of use it granted, while the current version is too underwhelming due to having being balanced around the Bat rather than around more viable melees in the Scout's kit. Here, with the new stats, the intent was to turn the Sandman into a melee that, while not as applicable combat wise due to having a slower recharge rate and weaker damage output, benefited from turning the Scout into a class that traded off the efficiency of a quick mid-range option that can be easily refilled for what was effectively a slightly improved combo game, which somewhat makes the Sandman a sidegrade to what is effectively an improved Stock in that context. |
 Candy Cane |
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The Candy Cane was originally designed to be a melee that passively helps the Scout and his teammates out by dropping medpacks that could heal his team, but the problem was that not only the Scout was gaining only little use from the heal itself, but he would also get obliterated by any rocket, pipe, or sticky that would have came his way, which arguably made this melee the worst in his kit due to how much harder the explosive matchups turned out to be. Here, the Candy Cane now becomes a weapon that forgoes the combat capabilities of the Bat, the pocket potential of the class itself, and even become somewhat of a commitment to use due to the slower movement on deploy, but to make up for these notable flaws, the Scout now has the option to drop medpacks on command every ten second to help his team, while his medpacks (from both his kills and the map) now grants him much better reward, all while removing the debuff that virtually made the Candy Cane awful in the first place. Basically, it gives a support/stamina niche for this melee, which allows it to compete with the other melees that may exist in the Scout's kit, since they usually revolve more around either movement, damage potential or consistency. |
 Boston Basher |
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The Boston Basher basically gains the same buff as the Stock Bat, which is fine, given that the weapon already has good utility as an hit and run option that can also be used to fill Über. |
 Sun-on-a-Stick |
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The Sun-on-a-Stick is hindered by the fact that it lacks any synergy in the Scout's kit, thus making its damage buff only possible through a coordinated attack with your allied Pyroes, which is not only incredibly impractical, but also not that notably rewarding, given the difficulty to use said melee for a fiery combo. By giving the possibility for the Scout to use a fireball, we not only make the positives of the melee actually applicable, but also competitively viable when compared to the other unlocks that can be used within the same slot. Also, it would be very funny to throw little suns at your enemy with a class that can move around like a mosquito. |
 Fan O'War |
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The Fan O'War struggles to gain viability outside of Mann VS Machine because of the redundancy that its effect may carry when it comes to landing combos when a Scout player can simply land meatshots on his target to gain a better return on investment without wasting a melee slot with this weapon. By giving notably improved deploy and holster speed, we give this weapon the potential to be very quickly deployed, and then followed up into a meatshot, for as long as the user gets within melee range, which is already kind of a notable commitment if the initial hit whiffs due to poor spacing or timing. The universal ball change can also slightly synergise with the pre-existing stats, since the ball can now crit without requiring a headshot if the opponent is Marked-For-Death, though the ball doesn't slow, much like the Sandman does. |
 Atomizer |
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Given that this melee is already fundamentally strong, it would only be logical that the projectile capabilities of the Atomizer would be gimped by giving the slowest recharge rate of all balls, on top of lacking the slow effect of the Stock Bat. However, since the weapon can technically mini-crit when airborne (or underwater, as a result of the Source code being absolute spaghetti), I felt like the damage penalty contradicted this other stat, so now, the Atomizer deals pretty normal damage for a bat. This will allow it to preserve a unique niche as a movement tool that can somehow be used like a Budget Neon Annihilator, at the cost of having arguably the weakest projectile of the bunch, due to how long it takes to recharge. |
Soldier
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Black Box |
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While the "Heal on Hit" attribute is a pretty strong perk in itself thanks to the potential in durability and stamina that it unlocks for the user, it is however somewhat offset by an understandable, but fundamentally strong debuff since a lower clip size means the Black Box just loses a lot of its flexibility, due to the loss of one potential rocket that could have been used to either gain movement or engage an opponent, on top of requiring the Soldier to reload way more often than usual. Through the addition of a mild buff in the reload speed, it gives the Black Box a unique strength in being a rocket launcher that, while not being as potent for spamming or moving around, gains from a more lenient reload animation, on top of its original strength. |
 Liberty Launcher |
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The Liberty Launcher is already pretty interesting, since its combined buffs makes this seemingly weaker weapon able to carry an effect akin to the Gunboats, able to fire faster projectiles with no splash reduction (thus making this primary the most accurate in practice for the Soldier), on top of having a better clip size, which allows for more flexibility when it comes to approaching, retreating and handling fights. By slightly reducing the damage penalty and increasing the projectile speed, the Liberty Launcher becomes somewhat better at being a rocket launcher that fills a dual accuracy/mobility niche. |
 Beggar's Bazooka |
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Without the random projectile deviation being there to kill the consistency of this rocket launcher, we now have a primary that not only excels at barraging opponents and potentially increasing the movement of the user (especially when used in conjunction with the Gunboats), but now, it also becomes able to dish out said damage without having to rely on luck to sometimes hit its shots, which should make it more in line with the core philosophy of TF2's balacing, which practically rewards the player for making calculated actions in regards to their movement and accuracy. Also, since the ability to overload the chamber can be used to greatly enhance the user's ability to rollout and reposition, it can only be fitting that this attribute is not exactly much of a debuff at all, and as such, deserving of being noted as a white attribute, instead of the usual red that is seen in typical nerfs. |
 Air Strike |
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A relatively okay primary that should specialise in having a strong airborne game, especially when bombing, the Air Strike can be potentially stronger in a few situations, but otherwise weaker overall as it is designed to be a specialised aerial rocket launcher. As such, to keep the specialty of the Air Strike and make it better at it, an added buff of removing fall damage when deployed has been added to not only make this weapon safer to use when performing rollouts, but most importantly, it also gives this weapon the potential to bomb without having to take fall damage, which should make it much more consistent for taking out high-priority (or otherwise weak) targets while still enabling a retreat for the user after a key picking has been successfully performed, which should overall make it a solid option to use for those who incorporate those kinds of strategies heftily in their gameplan. In shorter form, the Air Strike practically becomes "Bomberman: The Weapon". |
 Righteous Bison |
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Converts what is effectively the worst combat-oriented secondary for Soldier into a mini-rocket launcher that can be used to help for rollouts, and who can be used to potentially cover the weaknesses of the Black Box thanks to its unique perks. Its fire damage typing can be useful against the Vaccinator (though pretty niche), and its secondary fire pretty much allows the Righteous Bison to be stronger at mid to long range, as opposed to shotguns who are stronger at close to mid-range. Really, there ain't a lot to say about the Bison, besides that it's now a decent secondary weapon that distinguishes itself by being a backup launcher. |
 Equalizer |
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When it comes to melee combat, the Equalizer is a poor option for Soldier since the class naturally has the second slowest speed on the ground, and its base damage output is abysmally low. Once said melee finally reaches a level of damage that warrants equipping it, the user's health is basically made so low that it will become near impossible to capitalise on it, and if you pair with the fact that the Equalizer has no utility whatsoever outside of helping with filling Übers, which even then, the Escape Plan, a significantly better melee for the same class, can also do as well, it is usually no secret that the Equalizer is usually considered to be not only the worst melee for the Soldier, but also, arguably, easily among the worst weapons in the game because of how fundamentally unusable it is. Its modified damage buff has been designed to make it so that the Equalizer not only deals tolerable damage when the buff isn't triggered yet (which is the least it can do, since the Soldier is so slow on the ground), but also gains some practical use, since 91 damage allows you to virtually two-tap seven of the nine classes in the game, on top of giving it good synergy with the Concheror and the Buff Banner, since the former will offset the poor grounded speed of the Soldier all while giving more value from its lifesteal property (thanks to the damage to "heal-on-hit" scaling), while the Buff Banner will allow the Soldier to potentially one-tap any of the light classes in the game, thanks to the 127 health of damage it would now deal. And in the case you wouldn't use the Equalizer to fight (which is highly likely, since melee is fundamentally a niche combat option for Soldier), you also get more value from medpacks, which reduces the risk that may come from rocket jumping as a result of it, which, indirectly, also gives this melee good synergy with the Liberty Launcher and Gunboats. Overall, it would turn what is effectively a mistake of a melee into one that is actually worth using, thanks to its survival perks and notably buffed combat, which wouldn't have been unlike the design philosophy of the originally broken Equalizer/Escape Plan hybrid from back in the day, though its execution stat-wise would be way more balanced. |
Pyro
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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Most melees that are considered competitively viable for the Pyro only do so by having either superior utility, combo capabilities or a mixture of both. By adding a mechanic that was originally specific to the Axtinguisher, we not only makes the Fire Axe a better base template for the Pyro's melees to be balanced around, but we also allow other melees to gain utility by giving unique forms synergy through their own stats. This would, in turn, make all of the Pyro's melees somewhat more viable, which is especially important, given the large amount of melees they seem to have anyway. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Backburner |
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The airblast cost is way too high for a flamethrower that is pretty much like Stock, but with the added benefit of critical flames that requires a strict angle to hit, and can be kind of defeated by simply jumping out of range or by turning towards the user. By making the airblast cost go from 50 to 30 ammo, it practically keeps the simple stats that this weapon has without breaking its core balance of trading off ammo economy for potentially very high damage. |
 Phlogistinator |
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Usually considered the weakest flamethrower (or at least the most situational) in a competitive setting, while being considered very frustrating for casual players to deal with, the Phlogistinator is honestly not a weapon that inherently requires a bit of a redesign to keep its core gimmick intact while making its application less polarising in-game. The lack of airblast being too harsh of a weakness for a class that notably relies on this tool to perform well, the Phlog is now given a higher airblast cost instead to put it closer to the core capabilities that other primaries in the Pyro's kit has, and the introduction of a slower weapon switch is done to reduce the strength of primary-dependant combos, which means the Thermal Thruster could actually become the stronger secondary to use with this futuristic flamethrower. Since meter can only be built by dealing primary damage, the user now needs to be braver in order to reap the rewards of the Phlogistinator, which will reduce frustration overall as a result of the player being more encouraged to confront his opponents without a buff in order to succeed with this weapon, and since flares will now stop your meter dead in its tracks, the Scorch Shot cannot be abused anymore to cheaply fill your bar at minimal risk, which overall should make the experience for both the user and the opponent that much more engaging. In other terms, the Phlogistinator is technically way stronger, but also much less annoying to deal with if you don't know the matchup since the user has to actually understand their kit to make the best out of this meter-dependent primary. |
 Dragon's Fury |
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While the Dragon's Fury has better range, damage potential and even covers more difficult matchups for the class (such as Heavies and Engineers) to make up for its reduced afterburn and relatively increased skill floor, its original penalty to airblast made it not that desirable of a primary to use since fundamentally gimping the Pyro's ability to airblast means that matchups like Soldier and Demo becomes way too tough to manage in spite of its aforementioned strengths. By replacing a horribly slow airblast cooldown of 1.6 seconds into what is the equivalent of the original Backburner's debuff, we make a flamethrower that is now able to aptly reward the user for having consistent aim, consecutive shots and strong ammo economy. The simplified flavour text is merely just to keep the changes of the weapon clear while preventing it from being quite literally "too much texto" when compared to basically all the other weapons in the entire game. |
 Detonator |
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Despite being a pretty well-balanced firearm in its current state, complaints has been voiced of the Detonator being an option that sometimes feel too punishing to jump with when compared to other burst movement options across the game, while being considered weirdly oppressive at pressuring from mid-range, especially in competitive settings, where its status has always hinged between being ban-worthy or debatably allowed, depending of the format. As a result of this arguably reasonable feedback, the Detonator got halved ammunition to reduce its ability to be spammed or used on a whim, especially if the player uses their ammo inefficiently, or has a lesser knowledge of ammo placement within a map. To make up for this somewhat notable nerf, the Detonator has been stripped of its damage penalty, and its self-inflicted damage is also reduced as well, so now, the Detonator is essentially even better for movement, and technically more capable of dealing pressure from any range, but can only do so for a much shorter amount of time, which would, in turn, make this firearm way more strategical to use. |
 Manmelter |
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The current Manmelter is incredibly niche as a secondary when compared to other flare guns because it essentially relies on the fact that the enemy team has a Pyro that burns one of your teammates, and you somehow happens to extinguish that teammate in time specifically with that weapon to even get any use from it, and even when done so, it still is outclassed simply by the fact that its critical hits will come with a much lesser amount of consistency than a regular Flare Gun would. You then add the fact that this secondary has non-existent combo perks from burning opponents, and it shouldn't be too hard to assume that the Manmelter basically isn't a weapon that's really all that much worth equipping over literally any other flare that the Pyro has at their disposal anyway. Here, this secondary has been buffed by gaining improved base damage to counterbalance its inability to deal critical hits of any kind (thus preserving a lower damage potential when compared to the Flare), and additionally, its extinguish buff that felt redundant when initially compared to the airblast that Flamethrowers have now traded its poorly balanced ability to farm crits to instead extinguish any teammate that carries any form of debuff in the game. This effectively transforms the Manmelter into a more consistent secondary with a dual niche as a support/zoner weapon, that excels at dealing consistent damage from a broader array of ranges, all while being a solid ace up your sleeve when it comes to minimising the effect of negative statuses overall, but all these perks reasonably comes at the cost of lessened damage potential once mastered, which should give it enough of a purpose to be used without becoming meta-centralising in any way. |
 Scorch Shot |
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As a secondary tool, the Scorch Shot is designed to be a reliable splash tool that can easily build afterburn, hinder enemy mobility and combo into itself. The problem with the current iteration of this weapon though is that while it trades its perks off by technically being a worse combo tool than the Flare Gun, it only does so marginally thanks to its powerful buffs, while being significantly better at doing literally anything else, so adding a stronger damage penalty will help preserve the perks that this weapon has while also making it notably worse at dealing damage than the Flare Gun itself, and thus turn it into a sidegrade that is better at being a jack-of-all-trades to make up for its loss of burst damage from any range. Also, given how easy it is to just connect a projectile from the Scorch Shot thanks to its innate splash properties, it can only be reasonable to remove the weapon's ability to destroy stickies since it is so potent at doing such a thing, for visibly no trade-off of any kind. |
 Thermal Thruster |
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The Thermal Thruster is useful, but its unique modifications when it comes to its deploying and holstering animations makes this secondary needlessly clunky to use for a secondary that quite literally prevents the Pyro from using combo tools like their shotguns and flares. By making it less committal to just use, we not only make the Thermal Thruster less frustrating to play, but we also give a better incentive to use it as both an approach and escape option to make up for the more limited range that the Pyro effectively has. |
 Gas Passer |
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The Gas Passer can easily be considered the worst weapon in the Pyro's entire kit, and can be argued to be one of the worst weapons in the game period, thanks to a myriad of flaws that had plagued this throwable since its inception. To make it viable, it was therefore modified to gain a slew of buffs that allows it to have proper applications that other secondary unlocks may not be able to fulfil, while preserving balance in mind. The explosion (and the built-in afterburn that comes with it) has been made to give a little oomph to the Gas Passer when thrown, and since this projectile is famously known for being notoriously hard to fill, the cooldown that comes both from damage and its passive effect were reduced to acceptable levels, as to allow it to rival with the other flaming projectiles in the Pyro's kit. The two listed debuffs that were originally listed for the weapon were also notably overkill and absolutely gutted its applicability, so removing these can only make sense to make this tool more useful in the longer run. Since the "Gas" effect also technically didn't wet players that were soaked by it for some reason, reintroducing said property also allows the Gas Passer to have great synergy with the Neon Annihilator, and by proxy, make said melee more viable than ever. All these modifications can, hopefully, turn what is arguably a terrible weapon into one that is actually viable to use, and fun to play and experiment with, on top of remaining unique gameplay-wise. |
 Fire Axe |
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The universal buff to the Pyro's melees effectively turns what is a serviceable, but painfully mediocre weapon for the class to pick into a well-rounded option that can be used for combos without having any notable weaknesses to deal with whatsoever. |
 Axtinguisher |
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Since the Axtinguisher is already a pretty good combo tool that has been designed to excel at punishing burning targets in a fell swoop, on top of being a potent hit and run option, it has been buffed by having a lesser damage penalty to accommodate for the universal buff in place. This should prevent this melee from being indirectly nerfed by virtue of having its mechanic that was originally exclusive to it becoming a universal perk of all the melees that this class have. |
 Homewrecker |
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The Homewrecker is normally a melee that is way too niche in its use to warrant being used over more competent melees like the Powerjack or the Back Scratcher when it comes to practicality. By adding the ability to see your metal count and that of your fellow Engineers, on top of being able to help them by gaining the ability to upgrade and repair buildings, the Homewrecker remains a technically situational weapon that now excels at giving support to your Engineer, without overlapping their role as such. The added damage resistance when deployed also gives the weapon another, more universal utility as a light counterpart of the Fists of Steel, which can justify the use of this melee, even in cases when Engineers may not be around (either because they may set things up, or because nobody picked the class). Shoutouts for Miracule Weep for suggesting the idea of turning this weapon into a wrench-like melee. Without him, I would have otherwise been in a bind when it came to its hypothetical balancing. |
 Powerjack |
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The Powerjack is usually considered to be the best melee that the Pyro has at their disposal thanks to its massive gain in speed only being really counterbalanced by an active damage vulnerability that is made easy to bypass simply by jumping to preserve the speed carried from that weapon while having it holstered. By giving it both a regular damage penalty on top of a critical reduction, we keep it virtually as strong as it should be, but now, it becomes a weapon that sacrifices its combo potential for the sake of being a very applicable movement option. |
 Back Scratcher |
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Given that this weapon is a fundamentally pretty good melee to equip for Roamer Pyros, while managing to feel pretty balanced overall, it goes without saying that outside of its universal buff, the Back Scratcher really doesn't need to have another stat change of any kind. |
 Sharpened Volcano Fragment |
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Turns what is arguably a redundant melee with only niche utility in Medieval Mode (where it's outclassed by the Back Scratcher and arguably even the official Powerjack) into a combat-centric melee that combos into itself and gains better range as a trade-off for its weaker mobility and more committal deploy speed. Basically, it's better at killing if you can hit it, but getting that hit to begin with will be somewhat harder to do than the usual melee, which balances things out since it rewards the user for having faster inputs and better fundamentals. |
 Third Degree |
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The stats completely revamps what was a marginal upgrade to a mediocre weapon into an option that rewards the user for using their melee as a combo starter rather than a combo extender or finisher. This enables the Pyro to make a reverse combo from their melee to the flare gun for destructive damage, though it comes at the cost of sacrificed damage output against classes that will be burning, on top of lowering the Pyro's potential for swinging their melee on reaction. Coincidentally, it also allows the Pyro to gain counterpicking potential against any players that has immunity to afterburn, which includes other Pyros, as well as Snipers that uses the Darwin's Danger Shield. The former case is however balanced by the fact that the Third Degree gains better efficiency with the Flare Gun, which is usually weaker for ditto matches thanks to the superiority of shotguns in close quarters, while the latter is made up by the fact that the Sniper naturally has better range than the Pyro anyway, and still is unable to be pressured by lone flares when using that option. |
 Neon Annihilator |
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As a result of the Gas Passer being buffed already, the Neon Annihilator now becomes a Bushwacka-like option that excels at punishing wet targets while doubling down as a diet Homewrecker of sorts. Because of this already improved synergy with the Pyro's arsenal, this melee has only been granted two buffs, one of which is the universal mini-crit on burning targets, while the second is the removal of its damage penalty if the opponent is wet, which further reinforces the threat of being punished by this weapon when coated by a liquid of any type. |
 Hot Hand |
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Since the Hot Hand is intentionally designed to be a joke weapon, the damage penalty, while being reduced, is still preserved to avoid confusion for newcomers that would have otherwise being tricked into thinking the weapon would be strong by virtue of lacking any visible negative stat (as in, red text). The increased speed boost enables this melee to be at the very least used as a potential chase and retreat option. This would in turn a straight up bad option to choose into what is effectively a practical joke: shitty when used on its own, but made surprisingly stronger when used in conjunction with the rest of the Pyro's kit once you get that initial hit. |
Demoman
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
|---|---|---|---|
 Ali Baba's Wee Booties |
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Sacrificing your grenade launcher for boots that will enhance your gameplay further when the user is fully committed to a melee-centred playstyle is already quite a tall ask to perform, but the fact that Pyros can completely shut down Demoknights just by pressing M2 for virtually no risk means that a fundamentally specialised subclass is also very easy to counterpick, so in that sense, making the player able to ignore airblasts is a pretty sensible balance decision to incorporate in order to help the Demoknight feel more effective to use. Besides, the Pyro still have plenty of tools at their disposition to play around the strengths of the Demoknight, such as peppering with their shotgun, micro-spacing with their primary, zoning with their flares, on top of having access to two movement options in the shape of the Thermal Thruster and the Detonator, which can be both used to retreat in the case that things go sour. The reduced knockback is also added to bring the Demoknight around the same level of knockback tolerance as a Heavy, which will be notably helpful since classes with splash damage will have to put in more effort to juggle Demoknights, while Sentries become less problematic since they do not shut the player down as hard as they already did (though it still remains one of the most notable weaknesses of the Demoknight). Finally, the flavour text is applied to prevent the weapon from feeling like a stat dump when it really is just a tool that forgoes your pipes for a unique playstyle, which also has the added perk of giving a much easier time for newcomers to understand the unique kind of gameplay that the Booties can allow for the Demo. |
 Scottish Resistance |
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Even though the Scottish Resistance is very good when it comes to laying down multiple traps and controlling the stage once it is setup, this secondary has however suffered from being fundamentally less applicable than its cousins, and since TF2 offers many ways to disable traps on a whim, this weapon, while far from being bad, is still way more predictable and punishable than the regular Stickybomb Launcher is. This problem indirectly comes from the intent that Valve had of making the Demo's secondary a weapon that felt closer to a complimentary tool to its primary, rather than a second "primary" of sorts that can be used interchangeably for most interactions, and so, to preserve that design philosophy while making the SR more viable, I opted to give this weapon an "imperviousness" attribute that should make it a weapon that can still be countered with careful positioning and good game sense, though most projectile options that should have easily denied it are now out of the table to offset for the commitment that this secondary forces upon its user. The reduced arm time is also there to preserve that same sense of commitment, all while making it more manageable when being setup in conjunction with the user's pipes to defend the objective. For short, it turns a defensive secondary that is a bit too easy to counter, into one that's actually really capable of controlling objectives as a trade-off for its lack of true offensive potential. |
 Ullapool Caber |
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The idea for the Ullapool Caber was that its first hit would be powerful, while the following hits would be notably weaker, which was fundamentally flawed as it effectively made the Caber the least useful of the melees in Demo's arsenal due to the underwhelming impact that the initial hit has without any form of status buff or combo, especially after the weapon got nerfed later in the game's history. Here, the Caber now becomes a melee with a higher skill ceiling, that rewards the user for choosing their fights wisely, taking as little damage as possible, all while spacing their initial hit properly, which now indirectly deals more damage to the target since the explosion is now targeted instead of existing within the user. This should make it an excellent finisher that strives from getting solid positioning over anyone that dares getting within close range of a class that traditionally struggles from up-close, though the risks that comes from the explosion itself, as well as the reduced damage output once the weapon finally explodes makes it a fine addition for the Demo's arsenal since its weaknesses, while notable, are still balanced by more noticeable buffs that rewards the user when used with a combination of skill and guts. |
Heavy
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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The minigun is already a notably clunky weapon to use, and deliberately spinning it down to even regain the possibility to switch weapons means that if one of your teammates needs healing from your lunchbox, or you're in the need of a proper retreat option, you will have a significantly harder time doing so than any other class in the game, even though the lack of core movement option for the Heavy should already be more than enough to balance it out. Removing this rather inconvenient flaw will not only help the Heavy feel more rewarding to play when you switch weapons since said switches are now convenient to perform, but additionally, it also improves the viability for lunchboxes for your team, your melee as well, and most importantly, it actually makes shotguns more of a threat since they can now be used for potential combos and mix-up which would have been made impossible to do before. This, in turn, will condition lunchbox users to support their team more often, but it will also give more notable viability to shotguns for this class, since they're fundamentally good weapons that just happens to be made less usable here, especially because of this arbitrary flaw that Heavy has. |
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It was always odd to know that the Heavy Weapons Guy, a class that is implied to be a specialist of heavy weaponry, was actually unable to have four equippable slots in the game unlike the Engineer and the Spy, two notably less bulky classes, especially when your consider that most Heavy players actually prioritise lunchboxes because of the utility that they can bring, which also causes the indirect problem of making the Heavy much more predictable to combat than his intended design, as shotguns were meant to give the class a non-committal tool to combat at full speed with, which, as one would have guessed, was indirectly made defeated by the original inability for revved up miniguns to be switched off. By giving a fourth slot for the Heavy that is lunchbox-only, we not only bring back shotguns on the menu while preserving the utility that potential medpacks may have for both the user and his team, but we also teach newcomers to not only use lunchboxes and shotguns alike, and as an added bonus, since the Sandvich now becomes a stock option rather than an unlockable, it also evens the playing field out between those that freshly installed the game compared to those that had spent the time to actually unlock other weapons. And, like, come on, the Sandvich is such an iconic thing for the Heavy to have that it would be weird to still have a game where this balanced meal isn't a part of the russian's kit. |
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Despite being the class with the highest amount of health in the game, the Heavy is known for being notoriously bad at melee due to his lack of speed, range and damage, on top of having only few viable melee unlocks in his arsenal, all of which only do so by gaining some form of utility that more combat oriented options simply lack. Now, while this issue is indirectly fixed thanks to the rework that the Steak has in this chart, it should be noted however that the Heavy is meant to make up for his lack of speed by having better durability and power than most classes in the game, and so, by adding a mechanic of this style, we allow Heavy players to be heftily rewarded when they land proper melee combos upon their opponents. This would not only give more of a purpose to the Stock Fists and Holiday Punch, who are both made much more viable simply by virtue of benefitting from this mechanic, but it would also a better template to balance the other melees that the Heavy has at his disposal, especially by giving a clearer distinction between "utility" and "combat" melees, and reducing the gap in viability between both styles. Basically, this would make combat melees for Heavy more appealing to use, without eliminating what made the previously viable melees fun and useful in the first place. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
|---|---|---|---|
 Brass Beast |
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The Brass Beast already fills a useful niche because its buffed damage output and damage resistances means that the Heavy technically gains more value from spinning it than any other minigun in the game, though the slower deployment and mobility makes optimal use of this firearm much harder to attain than any other primary as a result of it. By making the nerf more manageable, we keep the niche of the Brass Beast as a "hard to use, yet powerful" weapon, while not overly tuning it since its original perks are already pretty good, especially when used in the hands of a competent Heavy main since the weapon already strive from having good knowledge of both maps and advanced techs for the class (tap-firing, ledge picking and the likes), on top of being naturally strong in defence situations, where the Brass can punish anything that comes within its effective range. A bonus "heal-on-kill" buff is also added to give the Brass a unique edge in the case that the user have to suddenly deal with a larger player count, and the replacement of a pure damage bonus with a faster firing rate means that the Brass Beast is now technically easier to track (to make up for its nerfs), but also requires a better understanding of map layouts and ammo management, which reinforces the idea that the Brass is fundamentally designed to be more difficult to master than any other primary for the Heavy. |
 Huo-Long Heater |
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The Heater's ring is already kind of a flawed perk since it easily reveals the Heavy's position through walls, makes his movement more visually telling, on top of having a limited hitbox that somehow obstructs his sightline when used from upper positions (thus giving the weapon the hidden flaw of having a blindspot for no good reason). Added that its ammo consumption debuff is a notably harsh flaw to compensate, and that its normal damage is made lowered for no particular reason (Tomislav has better deployment and range, Natascha has resistances and slowing bullets), and most knowledgable Heavies would tend to argue that the Heater is actually the worst minigun in the game because, while it is technically usable, it is not only a subpar pick to have in virtually all scenarios, but it also basically fills no good niche of its own to warrant its use in virtually any scenario, unlike the Brass who can be a counterpicking powerhouse (especially in maps with good coverage), and the Natascha who can shred through some matchups like Scouts, Pyros and Medics who struggle more against this weapon, thanks to its combination of unique perks. Giving more height to the ring means Spies will now have to truly commit to land a backstab on Heater users since they can't jump above it anymore, though elevated platforms, splash surfing, using the Dead Ringer, Spy-Cicle or simply shooting at the Heavy can still be used to avoid the ring, and also, since the damage penalty would be removed, a basic Heater would now be able to deal damage that would rival the likes of Sasha without relying on the ring, which, arguably, is still pretty hard to connect. Admittedly, I'd say removing the early rev penalty from the Heater is a pretty strong perk because this means that at close range, the Heater now becomes the best minigun in the game for early rev-jumping scenarios, but its actually a fair boost to have when the consumed ammo penalty originally made a "lose/lose" situation where rev-jumping with this weapon meant giving up on your damage potential, the only perk that the Heater technically had, just to save up on ammo (which even then, was still worse than just using the Stock), while rev-walking with the Heater to bypass the early rev penalty meant you'd waste a lot of ammo even if you didn't shoot any bullets, all while the enemy could see you from a mile away, so, given how harsh, yet unique that debuff is, I think a strong perk to make up for it is arguably fair game. Since the ring of fire also created a blindspot under the user, it would only be logical to make it so that the particles don't actually obstruct your sightline, since it just feels frustrating to deal with when you are already the slowest class in the game using what is also probably the biggest ammo vacuum in the game. Basically, through these re-balances, the Heater is turned from a mediocre minigun that fills no niche, into a jump-revving menace that requires stronger map knowledge and proper restraint on the usage of your own minigun to gain the most value out of. |
 Dalokohs Bar |
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While it is mistakenly considered a mediocre side-grade to the Sandvich, the Dalokohs Bar is actually very good when used in conjunction with the GRU thanks to a unique, yet somewhat poorly documented tech known as "Dalokohs Flashing", which allows the user to effectively duplicate the effective healing of the lunchbox by approximately 250% of its original value when consumed with the minimal amount of max health that the Heavy can have (100HP). While capped by an internal overheal limit of 350HP (as to prevent the now patched "Infinite Health" exploit), this technique allows that secondary to not only become the best lunchbox in the russian's arsenal for self-healing by a long shot, but additionally, since the overheal stat that's technically built within the lunchbox technically scales with the user's current max health (although the cap is still there), it also allows the Heavy to gain a de-facto health regen on consumption, on top of an even higher effective health pool than the stats may suggest simply by using this technique. As such, to preserve the uniqueness of the Dalokohs playstyle while keeping it better balanced with the other available lunchboxes in the Heavy's arsenal, the Bar now has much faster consumption rate to make it the least commital of the regular lunchboxes to consume, all while gaining stronger synergy from a technique that effectively makes this secondary a very solid contender to the default Sandvich when used by a knowledgeable player. To make up for all these aforementioned strengths, it also takes longer to reload to make its perk less abusable, and give more of a purpose for the Banana by also becoming the worst lunchbox in the game for healing your teammates. These small modifications should keep that lunchbox a durability powerhouse with excellent self-sustaining capabilities when paired with the GRU, though it will come at the cost of having the weakest potential as a medpack, or when its paired with another melee that is unable to tap into the hidden perks that this lunchbox has. For short, it's niche when used by itself, but when it's paired with the notably popular Gloves of Running Urgently and used to its fullest potential, it's a very solid option to pick, and even a potential upgrade to the regular Sandvich, in part thanks to the universal buffs that the Heavy will have received from weapon switches and having separate slots between secondaries and lunchboxes. |
 Buffalo Steak Sandvich |
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The original Steak was arguably the worst secondary for the Heavy in the context of most gamemodes, and as such, it was only made viable in two specific formats, being Medieval Mode (where it's outclassed by Demoknights and projectiles) and 6s (where it's banned due to its rollout advantage). Here, the Steak was rebalanced to become a tool that enables both Fat Scouts and Boxers alike, and similarly its perks were reworked to make it less polarising when it came to its rollout capabilities, while becoming virtually stronger in all metrics. Gaining health from melee hits synergises well with the mini-crit boost and improved speed that the Heavy carries when eating that lunchbox, and the faster consumption that now heals the user makes the Steak more applicable while also rewarding the user for sticking to a more limiting playstyle that doesn't involve the use of the minigun in any shape or form. Being able to manually cancel the Steak at the cost of half of your own current health (as opposed to your max health like the Half-Zatoichi would do) virtually eliminates the part of that lunchbox that made it problematic for 6s, and it also gives some additional layer of skill in choosing when and where to cancel it out, in the case that the user needs to switch to their primary. The ability to now use shotguns and lunchboxes alongside your melee will now allow Fat Scouts to gain more credibility as well, thanks to the other perks that the Steak may have already possessed, all while rewarding the user for getting an early refill on their Steak, since picking up a medpack while already being full on health means the user can now consume another steak, and that even if the buff is still active, and thus reset the timer while regaining health once as a reward for having good map knowledge. Finally, the removal of the damage vulnerability comes into sense, as a Heavy that already commits to not using a minigun loses a lot from their effective range, close-range damage potential and consistency, and so adding a hidden debuff like that only serves to further reduce the viability of a lunchbox that was originally not that good to begin with. All these improvements would basically convert what is a shitty unlock that happens to be decent in Medieval Mode (and kinda broken for 6s) into a playstyle enabler that is able to rival with other lunchboxes thanks to its unique strengths and weakness. In short, it's actually fair and balanced, while remaining very unique as an unlockable. |
 Second Banana |
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The original Banana is technically decent at what it does, but is both outclassed by the Sandvich and Dalokohs Bar in different fields, since the former is better at getting occasional self-healing on top of being better suited for supporting your team, while the Dalokohs has the best self-healing in the game (through Dalokohs Flashing) on top of its improved durability, and this despite the lesser heal it has on paper. Since the Sandvich is a more risk-free lunchbox that compliments both self-sustainability and support, while the Dalokohs bar is a better "solitary" lunchbox by design (and as such, overlap the original intent of the Banana as the king of that department), the Banana has instead being redesigned to do the opposite of the Dalokohs Bar by becoming the best "support" lunchbox of your team as a trade-off for its weaker self-sustainability. This would give a much wider range of options for the Heavy to choose from regarding his lunchboxes, since the Dalokohs and Banana would now become powerful options in their own clearly distinct ways, while the Sandvich becomes a very solid middle ground between both, and the Steak strives by being a playstyle enabler that the other lunchboxes cannot fulfil. |
 Fists |
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While still niche within the original playstyle that the Heavy has, the Stock Fists is now able to two-shot eight of the nine classes simply by successfully landing a one-two combo, which will make this melee way more appealing to use in conjunction with the Steak, where it'll have excellent synergy. |
 Killing Gloves of Boxing |
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A proper side-grade to the stock Fists that were already buffed, the KGB now sacrifices its combo potential, damage output and margin for error for the potential of getting guaranteed crits both from kills and assists, which makes it excellent with the now buffed Steak during snowballing or chain situations, though it is definitely worse when used for both duelling, or within a context where the perks cannot be realistically be used. It's basically your quintessential high-risk, high-reward melee, that is decent at punching one man, but way better when tearing through an army. |
 Gloves of Running Urgently |
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The GRU is already an excellent utility melee for the Heavy, and usually the weapon of choice with the Fists of Steel to be equipped within that slot, so it goes without saying that its innate perks and flaws should be preserved as a result of its powerful stats, and the interesting skills that this melee encourages the user to develop to be used optimally. However, since the intent of the GRU has always been to be an option that improves mobility at the cost of durability and strength, this melee has been given a reduced ability to gain critical punches when compared to the Stock, and its gimped critical damage means that this melee now directly deals less damage from both the Steak's buff and its combo critical hits. |
 Warrior's Spirit |
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Originally a bad melee because of its seemingly unusable perks due to how slow the Heavy normally is without the buffed Steak, on top of having to deal with another debuff that virtually trades-off your stronger melee capabilities by making your all of your opponent's attacks stronger on YOU (which is "Perfect Game Design 101", lemme tell you), it's obviously no wonder than outside of Medieval Mode (where it can actually contend with the KGB, and only loses against it when random crits are enabled), the Warrior's Spirit had gotten a bad reputation as the weakest melee in the Heavy's arsenal. Here, it both benefits from the universal buff to the Heavy's melees while getting a more manageable set of perks and weaknesses. The removal of the damage vulnerability when active only makes sense, given the archetype that this melee is supposed to fill, and the addition of nerfed health packs and lunchboxes now means that the Warrior's Spirit is explicitly designed to get greater synergy with the Steak, where it'll shine the most. This'll allow the melee to fill a niche as bruiser-type option that can absolutely delete opponents if it can get in range, on top of giving greater reward from both kills and assists, but at the cost of somewhat less effective external healing, which will make this weapon more specialised, but very good for those that wants to use the Steak, especially since the removal of random critical hits by default now makes this weapon a proper combat side-grade to the KGB and the Fists. |
 Fists of Steel |
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An already pretty balanced option that gains great utility from holding objectives and even escaping, the Fists of Steel practically doesn't need any form of rebalance since its strong perks are offset by stats that, while most of them can be circled around simply by having deeper knowledge of the game's mechanics already, are still more than enough to make it fair when compared to the GRU and the now buffed melees that are available for the Heavy. Outside of the universal buff that this weapon received, it's basically the same tool when it comes to its practical usage, though the gimped deployment speed is added as a consequence of the Heavy being able to switch off his minigun, even when deployed. |
 Eviction Notice |
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The maximum health drain made sense for the GRU because its speed buff was very noticeable, and it virtually lacked any other form of noticeable debuff that justified equipping any other melee beforehand that wasn't the old Eviction Notice or the Fists of Steel, but comparatively speaking, the fact that the current EN not only has lesser damage output, a weaker speed buff, and a slower maximum health drain that actually gimped its ability to roll out, since this melee would now roll slower and with less health than the GRU... Really, it's needless to say that the modern iteration is by all means simply a worse version of the GRU in all aspects for no good reason whatsoever. Here, the Eviction Notice is reverted back into a proper lightweight counterpart to what the Gloves of Running Urgently provided (and even slightly improved upon its original design through a lesser damage penalty), while the universal Heavy melee buff is now introduced as well. Coincidentally, that last buff is made to be both stronger and weaker than other melees in the Heavy's kit, since it is technically way easier to land consecutive hits with the Eviction Notice, though it comes at the cost of much lesser gains as well. |
 Holiday Punch |
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The original version of the Holiday Punch was a very niche option that only gained utility from either tapping into random critical hits (which are now disabled by default in this list) or for disabling Ubers, but outside of that, it was basically a colourful variant of the stock Fists that was logically bad from a strategical standpoint, due to the innate slowness that the Heavy has to begin. Now, the fact that it gains from the universal critical buff makes the Holiday Punch way more applicable as an option, especially thanks to the introduction of both a buffed Steak and the ability for Heavy to switch off his primary with much more ease, but curiously, the ability for the weapon to directly counter itself is now removed. The reason as to why this extremely specific removal has been introduced is simply because the Holiday Punch's critical hit can be countered by simply being airborne (which jumping allows you to do in an instant), which obviously makes duels between two users of that weapon especially obnoxious. If both players don't know the trick, they will most likely buffer their following hit until one magically dies due to server-side priority. Basically, that last stat deadass sucks from a game design perspective, and the intern that thought this idea was actually good, and even got paid for it can honestly get bent. |
Engineer
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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Rewards the Engineer for upgrading his buildings by improving their stamina and sustainability even further, especially given that a Level 3 building actually gives less of an improvement relative to a Level 2 building when compared to how that same Level 2 build improves upon the first level. It also streamlines the damage value of each buildings, as their respective health pools are properly streamlined into an increase of 45HP per level-up, which would be more intuitive to players of all skills. |
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Build values for Sentries and Mini-Sentries are now streamlined to make it easier for the user to defend a key position while preserving a commitment of some kind, while Dispensers and Teleporters now take at minimum nine less seconds than before to be built, which is mostly there to serve as a quality of life feature for the Engineer in the battlefield. In a reasoning similar to the health buffs of LV2 and LV3 buildings, it also helps streamlines the construction rate of each building, as they all, by default have a multiplicator of 4 as their construction value, thus improving the intuitiveness of the Engineer's building system to the player. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Pomson 6000 |
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Easily the worst Engineer primary in the game, and potentially one of the worst primaries period, the Pomson trades off spreaded pellets for what is pretty much a lacklustre projectile that have low speed and a relatively small hitbox, on top of having weaker reloading, lesser damage output, and no special mechanic beyond annoying Spies and potentially gimping Übers to justify shoddy stats, so, the weapon has somewhat been reworked to be not only be more transparent stat-wise, but also more generally applicable as a firearm. For starters, the weapon has been repurposed to deal fire-type damage and afterburn, since its original description implied that the weapon is quite literally able to immolate targets, which is not reflected in-game, thus resulting in a primary that had lesser damage from a direct hit without having the attributes to justify that debuff to begin with in the first place, and additionally, the projectile speed has also been tremendously increased to make this primary better at dealing damage from mid-range while retaining some level of efficiency at closer distances, thus ensuring that the weapon would be more efficient for poking a target and dealing damage overtime via burning. The reloading has been buffed to a consistent value of -20% relative to the Stock Shotgun to make the Pomson less of a commitment to fire with as a proper compensation for its lower clip size, and its damage penalty towards buildings is completely removed to make it capable of dealing with mini-sentries, and even nests from its ideal range as well. To make up for all these new strengths, the weapon is now unable to reduce Ubers and Cloaks, as the afterburn would already be helpful enough against Medics and Spies, and its originally reduced ramp-up is now completely wiped, which means the base damage of this primary is the best it can do out of a direct hit. Finally, most of the stats that went undocumented on the original spread are now made to be visible (or at the very least hinted) to reduce confusion, and in turn make the user more conscious of the strengths and weaknesses that comes with using this "hand-held irradiating utensil" in the battlefield. Overall, these modifications completely turns over what was pretty much a shitty unlock with one busted attribute against Ubercharges, into what is now a powerful mid-range spychecker that balances its unique strengths with lesser burst and sustained damage, for a fair weapon that rewards the user for having good reads and matchup knowledge. |
 Wrangler |
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The Wrangler is arguably the best secondary for the Engineer, as its commitment to use is massively offset by a powerful armour that applies on the sentry both out of deploy, and even for a few seconds when the sentry is disabled in any capacity, which means destroying it is pretty tall ask for the enemy team, as they need to coordinate, communicate and just play pretty damn well to deal with what is practically speaking just an Engineer that decided to press "2" on their keyboard. By reducing the power of the shield itself, all while instantly removing it when the sentry gets disabled through unwrangling, disabling attacks or sappers, we reduce the potential level of oppressiveness that the Wrangler would have, especially when used by multiple Engineers on the same team, all while somewhat preserving the utility of the Wrangler as a potent sentry-improving tool when used accordingly. Given that the sentry is now way easier to destroy in spite of requiring the user to basically forgo their pistol, technically not use their primary or melee to actively use this tool, and somewhat expose themselves in the battlefield, there ought to at least be a few offsets to not make the Wrangler redundant in use when compared to the stock Pistol and the Short-Cirtcuit. Because of this, the user can now sentry jump without taking damage (thus making a "Market Pardner" surprisingly viable!), and the disabling time that a sentry goes through when unwrangled is made much lower, thus allowing for a potentially more mobile gameplay if the player wishes to do so, though playing more stationarily can still function very well with that secondary. Basically, the Wrangler goes from a being THE secondary for any Engineer that wants to play optimally to a solidly viable defence/movement option that can be used to both reasonably improve the sentry overall applicability and the user's own mobility as a reward for dedicating yourself to the sentry itself. |
 Short Circuit |
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A decently capable secondary that would be considered kinda balanced in most scenarios, the Short Circuit however has one clear problem in the fact that its primary fire is practically useless, while its secondary fire is made to be too oppressive when used in conjunction with a payload, as its ability to deliver metal with no limit can make a projectile that's balanced by a higher cost for firing essentially void of that weakness for as long as the Engineer gets to push the objective. As a result of it, the range of the primary fire is now significantly increased to at least preserve the idea of a short-range non-committal option that is now usable, while the weapon's inability to gain metal from dispensers (which counts the payload as well) while active will at least force the Engineer to switch weapons in order to refill their metal count when close to a near-infinite source of ammo for their secondary. |
Medic
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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This rebalance is mostly added to encourage players to keep using their Medigun without being void of ammunition to spare when threatened by the enemy team. This also partially evens out the playing field between the Crusader's Crossbow and the other primaries by not proactively punishing Syringe Gun users for simply defending themselves with firearms of this type. |
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Enables Syringe Guns to be actually resourceful for close-range retaliation, though their lesser range and lack of ability to heal still gives them a specific niche that sets them apart from the Crossbow without overlapping in utility. Base damage is as such buffed from 10 to 15, ramp-up from 12 to 18, and finally, fall-off is increased from 5 to 8. |
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The Übersaw is fundamentally a powerful melee that, while meta-centralising for the Medic, is also not inherently unfair to use due to the commitment that the user has to go through by trying to melee an opponent with what is effectively the number one target in the game. By giving the possibility for all melees in Medic's arsenal the possibility to gain Über on hit, we allow the Medic to gain use from his other melees, while preserving the utility that the Übersaw has as the most rewarding melee to use for gaining meter, as it still requires four hits to gain a full Übercharge, as opposed to the five hits that other melees would require to gain a full meter. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Syringe Gun |
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Benefits from the universal buffs given to Syringe Guns by turning a mediocre defensive option that's somewhat committal to use and with no added utility whatsoever, into a decently capable defensive option that can be used on reaction without having to worry about a lack of passive reload while the user is in dire straits. |
 Blutsauger |
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Gains the same advantages as the Stock, but to make up for its combination of oppressive close-range damage and ability to heal the user for simply hitting your shots, the weapon now has lesser self-healing potential and slower reaction times, which makes it a fair commitment for the added perk of surviving and potentially winning fights that would have probably being lost by using another primary. |
 Overdose |
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On top of the universal buffs it receives, the Overdose is now able to give a passive speed boost to the user, which makes it significantly more applicable as it enables any Medic to now heal and engage in melee combat with much stronger mobility, thus ensuring that the defensive potential of the Medic gets proportionally improved alongside their ability to build Übercharge. As it gives a lot of potential for Medic to roll to key points faster, on top of playing with the range of their own primary with much more potency than the Syringe Gun and the Blutsauger (on top of the aforementioned perks that are mentioned above), the Overdose however gets a much sharper damage penalty to prevent it from becoming essentially the universally strongest Syringe Gun for Medic to use. |
 Bonesaw |
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Turns a melee that was decent for combat thanks to the user's speed, but also severely outclassed in terms of utility, into a balanced combat/utility option that, like most stock melees, benefits from lacking strong weaknesses, though it is counterbalanced by solely benefitting from its own universal mechanic and nothing more. |
 Ubersaw |
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Keeps the innate strength that the Ubersaw has as an Über builder, and additionally, it even benefits from better value from medpacks. To balance these very solid perks, the firing rate has been made to become slightly slower, light classes now die in 3 hits, while both the Demo and Pyro have one health to spare upon taking three hits that would have originally killed them. This would further increase the risk value from this melee, though it wouldn't be devalued thanks to its arguably solid strengths, on top of the innate perks that the Medic has for melee combat, such as speed, durability, health regen, and even the access to an escape option in Übercharges, which are considered the single strongest mechanic in the game. Additionally, less damage would mean more potential for getting melee hits, which indirectly improves this melee's potential for gaining Über, in spite of its lesser fighting potential. |
 Vita-Saw |
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Organs as a mechanic was originally made redundant by the fact that the Übersaw's ability to gain meter on hit virtually overshadowed this melee in almost all metrics, but on the other hand, being potentially able to retain Über while benefiting from a universal meter gain on hit for Medic would turn what was a usually pointless stat into one that would be somewhat overpowered and annoying to deal with in competitive play due to how hard it would make it for the enemy team to count the Medic's Übercharge from knowledge alone. By turning organs from their original state into a limited resource that can be used to improve the user's mobility for a short span of time, we effectively allow the Vita-Saw to become a melee that excels at improving the Medic's movement and enabling a hit and run playstyle for a class that would otherwise be somewhat lacking in this department. Basically, this version of the Übersaw could be considered a sidegrade to the current one, with the difference being that it synergises better with the balancing of the other available melees for the Medic, that got buffed accordingly. |
 Amputator |
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Turns the Amputator's taunt into a meter-dependent effect that is way more practical to use for healing your team in a perimetre, all while feeling much less commital to apply, as the effect is instantaneous and doesn't force the Medic into a taunting stance. The universal change given to bonesaws as a whole, on top of the added bonus of passive regeneration can give this melee a strong niche as a hybrid survival/support oriented option that can contend with the Übersaw thanks to the unique playstyle it enables. |
 Solemn Vow |
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Converts what was a de-facto marginal upgrade to the original Bonesaw (a mediocre melee that was technically buffed by Medic's better melee capabilities) into a tool that sharply improves your ability to defend yourself and switch weapons, though at the cost of a less lenient margin for error for whiffing hits, and more importantly: a nerfed ability to build Über on hit. This reduced capability to get Über is in fact lowered enough that the Solemn Vow now requires eight hits to build 96% Über, instead of the six hits that all the others melees (with the exception of the Übersaw) would need to swing to get a similar advantage, which is definitely a pretty notable debuff, despite the small difference that -4% of Über on hit may appear to be on paper. For a Medic that want to gain improved capabilities while minimising melee combat as much as possible, it can be a great option to choose since it virtually buffs the class in anything but Über building, but it obviously reduces the biggest reward that comes with most melees in his arsenal. If you need to kill those that are attacking you fast, and you need your switches fast as well, it should be a very solid melee to pick despite its introduced flaws. |
Sniper
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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Sniper normally doesn't need to manage his ammunition all that much, and added that his gameplan tend to be mostly centred around having strong positioning and good aim, anyone that plays the class is pretty much not incentivised to change positions in order to simply refill their ammo, which can result in moments of gameplay that can become notably slow for both the user and the opponent. By reducing the maximum reserve that sniper rifles have from the get-go, we encourage Sniper players to move around more often, and therefore, learn more about the value of positioning with the class, since it is a vital point in making him viable. |
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Mostly a change that would be useful for new players, it helps indicate to the user that a backpack pretty much sacrifices the kind of utility that a SMG would have for more passive attributes, thus justifying the appearance of an overwhelming amount of positive stats. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
|---|---|---|---|
 Hitman's Heatmaker |
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The Focus mechanic is honestly quite underappreciated, and the bodyshot penalty can reliably be played around by either straight up dealing headshots, or by taking advantage of the "Crikey!" mechanic used by the Cleaner's Carbine, but unfortunately, it suffers from being rather inconsistent to fill as headshots does not always equals to kills, and assists are usually very unrewarding, which means that this weapon, while in theory able to fill meter fast, is in all honesty not so consistent at doing so. By converting the Focus meter into one that's reliant on damage rather than picks (both direct and indirect), we reward the player for dealing consistent burst damage, and equally incentivise the use of both quickscopes and charged shots, since patience is now being heftily rewarded by the weapon when compared to the original design that almost punished the player for taking their time while meter wasn't active, but to the inverse slightly punished the faster option when Focus was active. The reduced Focus duration is therefore added to reward the player for actually scoring headshots while using the meter, as the meter would essentially still lose value if the player was simply charging bodies instead of going for headshots of varying strengths. Basically, this small rebalance would create an incentive to play this weapon consistently without relying on health pool variance to get the meter out, and now, since Focus can be filled with consistency, it actively makes it easier to take advantage of, thus truly warranting its bodyshot penalty after all. |
 Classic |
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Improves what is arguably the weakest sniper rifle in the game into a mobility primary that gives the perks of avoiding tunnel vision while being able to move quite faster while charging than the average weapon of its category as a proper compensation for its lack of critical headshots without a full charge, which were also changed from the original stats into the ability to only land mini-crit headshots for as long as that limit wasn't reached, instead of simply having no headshot capability whatsoever. Basically, the Classic becomes a movement-based bodyshot machine that hugely benefits from giving the Sniper a defensive tool that genuinely does well from any range, both from up-close and afar, though its lack of critical headshots without a full charge will make it less potent as a pure burst damage option. |
 Jarate |
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Easily the strongest secondary in the Sniper's kit (and even arguably his best weapon) due to how rewarding it is in spite of its extreme ease to use, especially against clusters of targets who, while capturing an objective, becomes very vulnerable to a game loss simply by having the long-range class press M1 with a bottle of piss, it goes without saying that the Jarate could reasonably deserve a nerf, but!... It still has to remain satisfying to use as it is a core part of the class identity, and many would probably object to this secondary being nerfed due to how popular it is. So, the core strengths that the Jarate has will remain virtually intact, and its much faster travel speed should logically make it better at sniping an individual target (which is like, the whole premise of the Sniper, y'know), but the significantly reduced splash radius around the projectile should also, by proxy, make it much harder to exploit for the user, as individual players can now avoid it more reliably when compared to the original design that was, to be brutally honest, very braindead to use, all while making team clusters less vulnerable against it, as they'd just need to spread out further to minimise the impact that this secondary would have in game (especially when you take into account that it takes merely 20 seconds to passively recharge the damn thing). Really, it keeps the identity of the throwable intact by making it an amazing single target debuff option when used in the hands of a Jarate Master, but now, it actually takes some skill to use, and teams don't get to virtually lose a game simply by being unfortunate enough to deal with what is, quite literally, a bottle of piss. |
 Razorback |
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Both considered a strong pick in Highlander as Spies cannot directly backstab you anymore, but very underwhelming in the context of other rulesets (which includes Casual and 6s) due to either a lack of, or an overwhelming amount of Spies to cover their mutual weaknesses, the Razorback is usually too niche of a secondary to really warrant equipping it over more handy secondaries like the Jarate, SMGs or even other backpacks with more recurring utilities. Here, the Razorback has now been given extra max ammo capability in the case that you would happen to really hate managing ammo nonetheless, and the increased melee damage resistance, while seemingly niche too, can actually give you more of a fighting chance against Demoknights, Spies and even Medics, who usually rely on their melee options more often to kill an opponent, and because all of these attributes are maintained upon a shield break, Spies now have to truly resort to their revolver to stand a chance against you, as you would severely outdamage a Spy if engaging with them in a good old swordfight (though you would have to still be weary of a backstab once the Spy isn't knife locked anymore). The faster recharge time is mostly a quality of life feature that makes the original gimmick of the Razorback more applicable without having to resort to the spawn resupply in order for the user to feel "safe", and so, the Razorback overall turns from an arguably conditional Spy-specific counterpick into an anti-melee counter with increased ammunition, for a more sedentary playstyle, though it can also boast from a having a good synergy with the Shahanshah as its perk directly offsets one of the main flaws of that melee as well! |
 Darwin's Danger Shield |
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The current variant of the Darwin's Danger Shield is very good for directly countering Pyros, but lack the kind of generalist utility that the Submachine Guns and especially the Jarate has, which makes it fundamentally a weapon that the player would want to select solely to counterpick a single class, and nothing more than that. So, to hinge into the crocodilian theming of this backpack, the DDS now grants a passive ability to mini-crit wet opponents, which not only gives this weapon good synergy with liquid-based items such as the Jarate, Mad Milk (and even the re-balanced Gas Passer), as well the Bushwacka, which now gain guaranteed full crits when used for the kind of strategies that are normally employed by Pyrosharks, and even any primaries, whose bodyshotting capabilities can be especially used in cunjunction with a weapon like the Sydney Sleeper, who arguably benefits more from this attribute thanks to its ability to apply Jarate on its targets. It also gains a small buff from medpacks, as crocodiles are usually thought to be sturdy creatures, which wouldn't seem too farfetched from both an intuitive and practical perspective. Obviously, because the utility of that backpack is now made more applicable, the DDS now has a reduced resistance to fire as to still maintain the idea of Pyro winning the close-range game against Sniper, while struggling at longer distances. |
 Tribalman's Shiv |
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The original weapon may be good at spychecking, and can find its uses in primary/melee combos against light classes without overheal, but its raw damage and the inconsistency of the bleeding effect means that in practice, this melee is usually considered to be weaker than the Stock option. To make up for it, I therefore opted to reduce the damage penalty to an acceptable level while increasing its bleeding duration to ultimately make this weapon the "hit and run" melee for Sniper, with diminishing returns when repeateadly swinged on the same target, but much better reward from a single hit, as its base damage of 49 stacked with a bleeding potential of 80 means this melee is now potentially able to dish a whopping 129 damage out of a single swing, which would be more than enough to get rid of a Scout that got overzealous in their approach, or a Spy that remained uncloaked. And in the case that the light class in question would survive that initial hit, you could go for a quick no-scope to get a kill confirm. |
 Shahanshah |
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Originally a poor man's Equalizer that really struggles to get anything done due to the diminishing returns one would have out of using it in its intended way, it now has a comeback mechanic that genuinely favours the user at a health of 99 or below (which is much more manageable), thus allowing the user to deal high damage with decent consistency as a way to make up for its modified damage penalty that's much harsher to offset this solid perk. It also gains the ability to climb in a fashion similar to all melees in VSH, which grants the user what could be pretty much considered the only real movement tech that the Sniper would have in the game.
Obviously a very strong perk to have when used in the right hands, it's incorporation also serves as a reference to the Christian Brutal Sniper, as he's technically the character that started this trope of the Shahanshah being modded to let the user climb, and by extension, the whole mechanic that was then added as a universal feature of Saxton Hale. To counterbalance all these strengths, the Shahanshah has a max ammo penalty on primaries that is made notable enough to now seriously encourage the user to be more mobile overall in their playstyle, and as such, become a true nomad in the battlefield. |
Spy
| Class Changes | Editor's Note |
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Backstabbing an enemy shouldn't indirectly punish the player by alerting the rest of the team that a Spy is around for simply playing the game, and the same goes for taking fall damage, as a Spy should be able to move across the map without alerting the enemy team simply for committing towards a shorter path. Therefore, making the Spy unable to take fall damage all while his backstabs silence the target should in turn make him a sneakier class that now has the luxury to take the greatest of falls without risking losing health and alerting opponents because of it. |
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Gives a mix-up option for Spy, as the player can keep their mobility potential as high as it should be without having to cancel their disguise, which should be especially useful when disguised as a class with slower grounded speed (such as Soldier, Demo or Heavy), or when using a tool that affects movement, or the properties of the disguise itself (like the Big Earner for the former, and the YER for the latter). Overall, it makes the player less predictable by making all disguises more equally viable and by giving a quick button for the Spy to modify their speed on command. |
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As the Spy gets outrunned by the Scout and is technically unable to catch-up with the Medic to land a backstab, his seemingly higher-than-average mobility is, surprisingly enough, not all that good for his playstyle, especially when considering the fact that classes with standard mobility still don't have much of a disadvantage in regards to movement when compared to the sneaky Frenchman. By giving him a higher base mobility, we not only make his knife more consistent since melee weapons rely a lot on the user's mobility to be effective in the first place, but we also make Spy more capable of catching up with his targets (and especially the Medic, which is considered an important matchup for the Spy) and then retreat once he lands a stab, which in turn should make him more oppressive and evasive all at once, though his low health pool and limited damage potential would still make him a class that fares better when behind someone than when played in a more frontal way. |
| Weapon | Changes | New Statistics | Editor's Note |
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 Your Eternal Reward |
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Already a pretty solid knife that is however made artifically more difficult to play with due to the high cost that this melee gives when using the disguise kit, said penalty is now reduced by half to make the YER more applicable while keeping its core strengths and weaknesses. |
