Weapons that are deemed underpowered
In this game there are several weapons which people view as garbage, now most of them are actually complete shit but a few of them are just being utilized the wrong way. Listing time!
The Overdose: “OH MY GOD!”you say, “That 10% movement speed is amazing for decent medics and the penalty doesn’t mean anything.” say the good Medics. whereas newer players soon realize that it has to be active and don’t see a point so scrap it immediately. The real use of the Overdose has nothing to do with 10% and so much more to do with 3%. Let’s talk about the different speeds in Team Fortress 2. A Scout is the fastest class, at 133% speed, a Medic comes in at second at 107% and after him are the four normal speed classes, the Engineer, Spy, Sniper, and Pyro. They are all at base speed 100%. If you get that 30% uber and go 3% faster a medic will be moving at 110%. And… a backpedaling class goes 10% slower. Ah, you say. Now you see, the use of the Overdose is the ability to backpedal away from normal speed classes while shooting and them not catching up. This is especially good against Pyros but works on any other normal speed class.
Next up is the Mantreads. Now yes this weapon is literally trash compared to the Shotgun or Gunboats or any of the banners or even the bitious rison. The use of the Mantreads is not the fall damage thing however. I always hear people saying how “it’s so hard to kill people with this, just learn to market garden.” or some crap like that. The other aspect of this weapon is that almost no knockback is taken. This is about the same concept as switching to a direct hit to take out one sentry or using a razorback for one spy. I myself bring the mantreads out when there is a good direct hit Soldier, comboing liberty launcher+reserve shooter, or there is a sentry in an annoying spot that will push back a stock uber. The Mantreads stop the weakness of the stock uber, being knocked back either by airblast, explosives, bullets or sentries. This is really the only use of this weapon which is still underpowered but has a use. My idea for this weapon would be to allow medics healing you the Quick-Fix, mirror jump ability.
The last weapon for this article will be the Red Tape Recorder. I myself almost always main this sapper since it has a playstyle that works with me. One of my better spy friends mains the stock sapper for his own playstyle and that’s fine. This weapon has a certain playstyle that people fail to use it with and blame the weapon for being bad. The way to use this sapper is to force the Engineer to either confront you, the Spy or risk being backstabbed or being headshot/shot while removing it, as the Engineer can’t leave the sentry alone as long without a penalty. This is even better now after Tough Break, what with the disabled sentries for 0.5 seconds and the Jag being worse against sappers. If you just play as you normally would, stabbing and sapping, the RTR still works fine. The only place the Red Tape Recorder fails is when there are several engineers and killing them all would be impossible. Other than that the Red Tape Recorder thrives against offensive Engies that won’t be able to stay with their nests.
Check back soon for more not-actually-garbage weapons!