Demoman got nerfed, but FAIRLY this time! – Smissmas 2014

After EotL, there wasn’t much hope in the TF2 community. But Valve brought a small amount of hope back with the 2014 Smissmas update. And what did it contain? Those promised Demoman changes from the Love and War update! You all remember that, right? The changes that broke him and made Engineers run rampant that they thankfully reversed? This time round, Valve actually thought about it AND listened to the community!

First off, here’s the patch notes. I warn you now, it’s a biggie!

• All Players who play TF2 during the event will receive a Gift: a Stuffed Stocking! Stockings contain goodies for good little Mercenaries.
• Added 29 Limited community-contributed winter items to the Nice crate
• Added new Limited Festive weapons to the Naughty crate
• Limited time items can only be found during a limited window of time. The Naughty and Nice crate items will no longer be available after February 16th, 2015
• Added Naughty and Nice winter keys to the Mann Co. Store.
• Naughty and Nice winter crates cannot be opened after February 16th, 2015.
• Premium Players will receive a Secret Saxton to give to another player
• Item grants from previous events (including the Spirit of Giving and the Winter Holiday noise maker) have been re-enabled for all players, including those who deleted their earlier grants

New Weapons

• Added The Iron Bomber
  • Demoman Grenade Launcher
  • Grenades do not bounce or roll
  • Damage radius reduced by 20%
  • Grenades that self-detonate deal 10% less damage
  • Added The Iron Bomber to the Mann Co. Store, craft list, and item drop list
• Added The Quickiebomb Launcher
  • Demoman Stickybomb Launcher
  • Stickybomb arm time reduced by 0.2 seconds
  • Stickybombs can destroy enemy stickybombs
  • Charge time decreased by 50%
  • Stickybombs fizzle after 2 seconds
  • -15% damage penalty
  • -25% clip size
  • Added The Quickiebomb Launcher to the Mann Co. Store, craft list, and item drop list
• Added The Panic Attack
  • Multiclass Shotgun
  • 34% Faster reload time
  • Hold fire to load up to 4 shells
  • Fire rate increases as health decreases
  • Weapon spread increases as health decreases
  • Added The Panic Attack to the Mann Co. Store, craft list, and item drop list

Demoman Changes

• Damage variance on grenades and stickybombs reduced from +/-10% damage to +/-2%.
• Grenades and Stickybombs now have the same base blast radius as rockets. Changed from 159Hu to 146Hu.

• Grenade Launcher
  • Direct hit grenades now deal full damage to target regardless of where it struck the enemy. Previously full damage would only occur when grenades exploded closer to the target’s feet.
• Stickybomb Launcher
  • Stickybombs that detonate in the air now have a radius ramp up, starting at 85% at base arm time (0.8s) going back to 100% over 2 seconds. Stickybombs that touch the world will have full radius.
  • Stickybombs now have a more visible trail while traveling through the air
  • Stickybombs arm particle is slightly more visible
• Loose Cannon
  • Double donk explosive damage now deal full radius damage to victims. Previously double donk explosive damage was reduced by radius distance from the explosion.
  • Removed a hidden penalty where Cannonballs that touched the world would deal 50% less damage in addition to regular grenade damage reduction on world touch.
• Loch-n-Load
  • Changes to base grenade damage variance now ensure the Loch-n-Load does not exceed 124 damage on a single hit
  • Removed +25% self-damage penalty
  • Added -25% radius penalty
  • Changed clipsize penality to -25% (3 grenades per clip) from -50% (2 grenades per clip)
  • Loch-n-load grenades no longer visually tumble when fired
• Bootlegger / Ali Baba’s Wee Booties
  • Added +25% Demoman Charge meter on charge kill
• Tide Turner
  • Added Penalty: Taking damage while shield charging reduces remaining charging time
  • Kills while charging now only add 75% meter on charge kills instead of 100%
• Scottish Resistance
  • It is now slightly easier to do sticky jumps with the Scottish Resistance. Increased range check for stickybomb jumping to sticky damage radius of 146 from 100.
• Scotsman’s Skullcutter
  • Movement speed penalty now only applies when weapon is active
• Claidheamh Mor
  • Added +25% Demoman Charge meter on charge kill

Added new game mode ‘Mannpower’ to the TF2 Beta

• To Play. Click on Play Multiplayer, enable Play Beta Maps checkbox, and then choose Mannpower Mode.
• Contains 8 permanent powerups players can find in the map
• Players can only hold 1 permanent powerup at a time
• Killing a player with a permanent powerup forces the powerup to drop
• Contains 1 temporary powerup that can be found in the map
• use the ‘dropitem’ command to drop the currently held permanent powerup
• Added new Default Stock Action Item Grappling Hook. Grappling hooks are usable in Mannpower mode and servers that enable it. Once equipped, press and hold the action key to use it. Use to move the player toward the hooked object.
• Mannpower Beta plays a modified version of Capture the Flag that requires your team’s flag to be at base in order to capture the enemy flag
• Touching your flag will instantly return it to base
• Currently supported on maps ctf_foundry and ctf_gorge
• Instant respawns enabled
• Random critical attacks disabled
• Players spawn with 6 seconds of invulnerability

General

• MvM : Added chance to find Australium weapon rewards to all Advanced and Expert Mann vs. Machine tours. Previously only available on the Two Cities tour.
• MvM : Added Killstreak kits for Quickiebomb Launcher, Iron Bomber and Panic Attack in to Two Cities MannUp loot tables
• Crafting items that are marked as temporarily untradable will now yield temporarily untradable items instead of permanent
• Fixed a client crash related to the material system
• Removed the Giftapult from the store and added a crafting recipe for it
• Updated the equip_region for The Beastly Bonnet
• Updated the localization files
• Removed the map restriction on players in karts respawning ghost teammates when they touch them

Let me just say, holy shit that’s a lot of stuff. A new game mode, yet more winter cosmetics, 7 festive weapons (Festive Shotgun, Revolver, Bonesaw, Targe, Backburner, SMG, Bonk) and the balance changes to one class that we asked for. On top of all that, they also mentioned SPUF!

Is this good enough to redeem Valve for EotL? No. They should have put some of this stuff in EotL, especially since some of the changes were community-suggested ones. Oh well. Go on, go play guys.