Airstrike/Classic changes

We all know that Airstrike and Classic are interesting concepts but suffer from decreased viability. Airstrike does literally everything the rocket launcher does, except less efficently and punishes the team for having potatoes that die to that launcher. Classic discourages headshotting and makes sniper generally less effective compared to Sniper Rifle.

The Classic
Level 1 Sniper Rifle
Charge and fire shots independent of zoom
No headshots when not fully charged
-33% headshot damage when not fully charged
-10% damage on body shot

TFC sniper rifle did 2 times headshot damage all the time. And in TF2? It just deals 3 times damage only when fully charged. Not only it discourages actually trying to headshot lighter classes when you are fully charged, it also makes the sniper very defensive and non-dynamic – and people usually don’t appreciate that. 33% damage decrease would bring the headshot damage to 100 – just like in good ol’ TFC and right below the ambassador. Quick headshots won’t drop even a light class and they deal just the same amount of damage as 2 bodyshots do. Still encourages the headshots, but not in a way too powerful way.

The Airstrike
Level 1 Rocket Launcher
Increases attack speed while blast jumping
Clip size increased on kill
Halved ammo consumption while blast jumping
-25% damage penalty
-25% clip size
-15% explosion radius

Snowballing isn’t cool. It doesn’t work in higher skill levels and fruistrates people on the lower skill levels; and dying also fruistrates the one who dies, while not really rewarding the one who killed him much. By removing the Clip Size bonus, I remove the snowballing. But that is a nerf! For already a weak weapon!

The change, however, also removes the clip size penalty for a weapon that needs three shots to kill a scout already. In addition to that, when you rocket jump, you have effectively 6 shot (8, if you manage to reload mid-air) in clip. No need to cowardly hide in your base when you get each kill anymore; this weapon now is stable in the death from above department. And with that in mind, the weapon also implies doubled reload speed as well; as long as you rocket jump, of course.

 

The Sticky Launcher is a Tricky One to balance for some.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *