Balance Changes – TF2 Blog Post 20-06-2017

Oh my fucking Bahrag, there’s a Team Fortress 2 update and it’s a balance update rather than yet another fucking crate and key update. Oh my god what’s happening? Is this reality? Is this Valve putting the space left over from SPUF’s destruction to good use?

Of course not. It’s a bunch of insane, crazy changes. But at least Valve are saying WHY these changes are being made. A lot of the changes seem to be nerfs, particularly the Scout items.

Seriously, these changes are all fucking insane. Yes, the Dangershield is getting nerfed, but holy fuck now it has afterburn immunity because some Pyros fire flares at them? Why does Sniper deserve that? Why does the new Panic Attack have WIDER spread the more you fire it? It’s the opposite of a Hyperion weapon. Why does the Razorback still not solve the problem of rendering Spies useless, especially with the Ambassador nerf? Why is the damn Heavy 1-second penalty still bloody exist? It does nothing to help Heavies, even more so with the other nerfs Heavy received. Why are we bringing back the health draining on Heavies when we got rid of that because it meant Medics healed Heavies too much, and why is that now on the Eviction Notice as well? Apparently that’s not what this does, apparently Heavy’s maximum health is lowered by the second and then goes back to normal when he swaps weapons. Why was the Crit-a-Cola essentially buffed when Scouts would be Marked for Death after use anyway? Why can’t Valve make up their minds with the Dead Ringer and whether it likes ammo packs or not?

There’s only really three positive changes. The Crusader’s Crossbow got nerfed, but since it still gains Uber and does long distance heals, everyone’s still going to use it so why bother? The Rescue Ranger now uses metal to repair buildings, which should have been the case in the first place. You could call the Your Eternal Reward buff positive, since now you don’t need to get a magical backstab just to disguise, but these are all really, really weird.

But WHAT THE FUCK is up with the Vita-Saw? They’ve made it worse! Now, rather than getting up to 20% Uber back on death, if you melee someone once and die, you get 15% Uber! And it stacks up to SIXTY PERCENT. That’s ONLY 4 melee hits! RESPAWNING WITH SIXTY PERCENT UBER IS STUPID. SIXTY PERCENT. THAT IS MOST OF AN UBERCHARGE! And let’s not forget that Medics meleeing things is what Medics do when they’re going to die. This rewards Medics for charging in and getting those melee hits, rather than playing strategically and falling back on their team mates, or retreating when in danger! This isn’t like the Ubersaw, where you still have to try and get 100% to save yourself. This STILL REWARDS YOU FOR BEING RECKLESS AND DYING.

Most of these changes are stupid. Valve have given reasons behind why they’ve made these changes, but then they go completely against that. You want to stop Medics from being rewarded for dying, then you reward them for dying. You want to fix the problem of Snipers being countered by Snipers and then have them counter Pyros and continue to give them a hard counter to Spies.

None of this makes any sense.

Oh and no mention of the Righteous Bison. Come on, guys.