Why the Tomislav is good

Whenever I see people using the Tomislav I ask myself, “why are they using it?” I’m not asking this in a demeaning way, but honestly just want to know which of its “many” upsides they are utilizing. I ask myself this even more in MvM but we’ll cover that later.

Some people actually use the silent killer attribute, I guess. Honestly in all my time being the pocket medic to a heavy that uses almost exclusively the Tomislav, we’ve only ever used the Silent attribute once or twice. He might use it while playing by himself but I doubt it. I could see its use in Highlander as a flanking heavy, but even then it would only work once or twice if the team has any kind of call out capabilities. All in all, the silent killer attribute has almost no use in actual gameplay. Let’s just leave this as a small buff for all purposes.

The improved accuracy is what keeps many people, including my better Heavy main friend, using it after its unfortunate nerfs. This accuracy can, I’ll admit, be useful in some situations, such as killing a sentry from a decent distance, shooting down bombing soldiers and any other precise predicaments. The Tomislav does not however make you a parallel to Snipers. Although you may make them flinch ever more so, any half decent sniper will still be able to headshot you before you manage to kill them at anything past medium range. All things considered, this buff is decent but for anyone without good tracking ability, killing scout and jumpers will prove much more tedious. This is the second best buff to this puppy of a minigun.

Finally we get to the +20% faster spin-up time. What used to be the bread and butter of the first Tomislav design. Although 20% is barely anything compared to the old 75%, The purpose is still there and still very usable. This everyone, is the one buff that makes the Tomislav a valid minigun for any Heavy main. Some might say you can react to threats faster, maybe a Scout or any other ambush. These claims may be true but there is one purpose that the Tomislav fulfills that nothing else ever will. The one counter to heavies that many people neglect to use against them is… another Heavy. In 6’s especially, if there is a Heavy on the opposing team and your team lacks a Sniper or (why in 6’s?) a Spy the best counter is another Heavy. In Heavy on Heavy fights, the winner will almost always be whoever spins-up first.

Remember that old 0.2 seconds faster spin-up? If two Heavies see each other at the exact same time and both react instantly, The deciding factor will be which minigun each is using. A Natascha or Brass beast Vs. stock? Stock will always win, even if there are Medics involved. (not including ubercharges) This puts the stock Heavy far above other Heavies using alternate miniguns. The Tomislav is the only minigun that challenges this. Forget the firing speed penalty, A minigun already does arguably the most DPS in the game. This spin-up time buff is the only thing that makes the Tomislav truly useful. The other buffs do things on their own but sacrificing 20% of your DPS for ambush ability and accuracy? Against a sentry or any other bulky, high damage target without that spin-up increase you’d have no advantage over a stock minigun.

There you go guys, The upside of the Tomislav. 0.2 seconds may not seem like much but just remember that there are even slighter things far more game changing.

Almost forgot to talk about the Tomislav in MvM. To be completely honest, it is garbage. The silent killer is next to useless as the bots will come after you silent or not, The spin up time is equally useless as you will almost never be surprised by a bot(I hope) and the firing speed penalty is even bigger in a game mode almost completely based around DPS. The only thing actually making the Tomislav viable in MvM is its accuracy, which allows you to be ever so farther away from giants and still do considerable damage. But in a gamemode where you can get resistances, have an ubercharge or any variety of banner buffs as sparingly as you want, a little less damage isn’t going to be game changing.

Final last comment: One very unknown buff to the Tomislav that many people don’t know about or ignore is its rare bug that causes the firing animation to stop working. Very small change but can be amazing against players lacking game sounds as no firing sound or sight will make them almost oblivious to Tomislav Heavies.

First post guys, please criticize me as harshly as you can. I would really love to be able to make posts that are even better crafted than this one.