analysis – Page 15 – The Daily SPUF

Why the Heavy Failed

March 19, 2014 Xcam901 0 Comments analysis, balance, heavy, theory

The Heavy arguably represents the most argued aspect of TF2, perhaps only next to the mutilated pile of animal bones that may have once been the random critical horse. From Xxx360tommy420 to ESEA invite players, Heavy has been called overpowered, boring, painful to fight against, painful to play, and many more terms that may not pass the pink hearts filter. So why is heavy so, for the lack of better terms, broken? At the stock level, Heavy appears to be a kind of anti-scout. Sustained rather than burst damage, cripplingly slow speed rather than mobility, track rather than twitch, the… [Continue Reading]

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Analysis of the Persian Persuader’s Health Regen

March 15, 2014 aabicus 1 Comment analysis, demoman, Filler, loadout, melee, weapon

If I’m not using the Ullapool Caber or Pain Train, I’m using the Persian Persuader. Health regen is a great thing to have on the Demoman, and the Sticky Jumper synergies surprisingly well with the Persian because it doubles the health return you get from ammo. (I’ve mentioned this before). But I never really understood why. Finally, I got around to doing some testing to figure it out, and I learned that the Persian derives its health return from the amount of primary and secondary ammo on the wearer. (For these purposes, the Booties are considered a stock grenade launcher… [Continue Reading]

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In Between – Hybrid Weapons?

March 14, 2014 Medic 0 Comments analysis, theory, weapon

The other day, I was browsing the Team Fortress wiki when I stumbled across the Short Stop. To me, the Short Stop has always been one of those ‘in between’ weapons. It’s a scatter gun and it’s a pistol. It’s a good idea and I used to use it quite a lot in the Milkman set, but the poor hybrid gun is rather sickly, due to all the changes it has endured. Then it occurred to me, what if we had in between weapons for other classes?

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Stranges: Dota 2 and Us

March 11, 2014 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, comparison, Dota 2, stranges

A lot of games show you your killing stats by default. Originally Team Fortress 2 wasn’t one of them. Then Valve decided they’d like to try making some money and in the Uber Update placed a single key between you and the stat-tracking weapon of your dreams. Like it or not, this was amazingly successful. They followed up on this by adding stranges (and most of the other item qualities) into Dota 2 when that totally-not-a-sequel-to-anything-owned-by-Blizzard became a thing. However, while I don’t play Dota 2 myself (I tried it once but I didn’t inhale) I’ve heard from my friends that… [Continue Reading]

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Of Pistols, and the Engineer, I Sing

March 3, 2014 Tarrynot 2 Comments analysis, comparison, engineer, weapon

The Wrangler has long been plagued by regular accusations of being overpowered. The Short Circuit was massively buffed during the Smissmas 2013 update, to immediate or nigh-immediate bans from all Highlander leagues; subsequent nerfs have failed to placate them (or angry Soldiers and Demos). So where does that leave the Engineer’s third secondary option — the humble Pistol? Many insist that in the face of such strong unlocks, there is no reason for Engineers to use the Pistol — to use considerably less colorful language than a typical comment along those lines. In fact, the Daily SPUF’s own aabicus ran… [Continue Reading]

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Fixing A Hole

February 14, 2014 delirious biznasty 0 Comments advice, analysis, criticism, glitches, maps

It’s no secret that some of the senior staff here at SPUF really like Special Delivery and the only map that supports it, Doomsday. However, one common thing that many people I talk to about Doomsday tell me is that the entire map is a horrendously mapped, broken pile of garbage. And they’re absolutely right. As aabicus put it when I spoke with him several nights ago, “It’s like Valve forgets about the Sticky Jumper when they make maps.” The opposite seems to be true as well, in that the folks at Valve forget about maps when they made the Sticky Jumper. Doomsday… [Continue Reading]

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TF2 Artsyle: The Good, The Hat and The Ugly

February 1, 2014 Irbynx 1 Comment analysis, cosmetics, criticism, hat

TF2 has it’s own cartoony and contrasting artsyle, and everyone knows that. In the last years the art direction of TF2 has changed a lot, with the simplicity of early hats being replaced with all the different items, hats, boots and things like that. The robots arrived and then the world behind our beloved/hated pyromaniac’s eyes was revealed… The people agree that TF2 has become basically a clustertruck of hats nowadays. Is it good or bad?

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Medic weapons that would never work.

January 24, 2014 Medic 1 Comment analysis, balance, medic, theory, weapon

For as long as I’ve been a Medic, I’ve always been amused by the lack of weapons that we’ve received. Normally, this would be a reason to be angry, but it makes us creative. It makes us think up our own weapons. Unfortunately, this leads to a lot of crazy ideas, many of which would never work, some because they are just too complicated, others are just too stupid. But the majority just have a few flaws.

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SOLDIER BLOG POST CONFIRMED!

January 20, 2014 A Pointed Stick 2 Comments analysis, comparison, criticism, soldier, weapon

Oh Soldier, never have I imagined a class with such a simple concept (A jack of all trades with an unconventional core weapon choice of the Rocket Launcher versus the typical Assault Rifle) have such a lacklustre support from the community and the developers themselves. Now wait one minute there Stick, have you seen the Soldier’s weapon count? Heck, did you read the comics? He’s practically the poster boy for the TF2 team! Well on face value, you sure do have a point. The Soldier has a lot of weapons and he has one very prominent presence in the comics.… [Continue Reading]

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Some Weapons with Surprising Synergy

January 5, 2014 aabicus 2 Comments advice, analysis, demoman, loadout, medic, pyro, soldier

Ever since Valve released the Axtinguisher, weapon combos have become a huge part of Team Fortress 2. From the Sandman/Cleaver to the Jarate/Bushwacka, Valve has released a number of weapons obviously designed to go together, and for that reason they do so very well. But sometimes there are weapons whose synergies are not so obvious, who were clearly built for widely different roles, and yet somehow they can combine to create a lethal combo to the keen player who can see untapped potential. Here are a few I’ve discovered throughout the years. 1. Beggars Bazooka / Righteous Bison The Beggar’s… [Continue Reading]