balance – Page 12 – The Daily SPUF

Some Tips for TF2 If You’ve Never Played An FPS Before…

December 7, 2013 Medic 0 Comments balance, class, guide

The first First Person Shooter (FPS) I played was Left 4 Dead. But because my computer then was a steaming pile of crap, it took me literally 45 minutes with a frame rate of under 10 frames per second (also FPS) to inch my way across the first level of No Mercy. Amazingly, I did it first time, but I made it to the safe room with a miserable 10 health. It took a very long time for me to get a good computer and properly understand what it was like to move around in a First Person Shooter. My… [Continue Reading]

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Why all Melee Unlocks should be Balanced like the Demoman’s

November 28, 2013 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, balance, demoman, loadout, melee, theory, weapon

SPUF enjoys arguing about TF2’s balance. A lot. One of the most common issues to sprout up involves TF2 melee weapons. It’s no secret the vast majority of stock melees are underpowered, except those with utility like knife and wrench. If their only job is to deal damage, then they’re gonna suck because every class has a plethora of primary or secondary weapons that deal more damage at longer ranges more effectively. So when most competetive TF2 players agree that the bottle is the best Demoman melee weapon, this may seem unusual. How can it really be the best choice… [Continue Reading]

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The Wrench in Balancing Plans

November 26, 2013 A Pointed Stick 0 Comments analysis, balance, engineer, theory, weapon

Whoo doggie, the Engineer. If people are not playing rock paper scissors over who between him and the Heavy has the lowest skill floor, they’re having arguments over his weapons so bad that they make [insert appropriate argumentative body here] look like a teen romance! How can one guy cause such a fuss that has SPUF so evenly divided that it could be the motivation for a community made WAR update? Well, if I was to answer it in a reasonably sized sentence (which as an academic, should be impossible) I’d say it’s because the Engineer is, in many ways,… [Continue Reading]

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My favorite TF2 unused content

November 23, 2013 aabicus 1 Comment balance, history, medic, MvM, spy, weapon

As the devs of a seven year-old game, the Team Fortress 2 team has had a long time to come up with ideas for our beloved shooter. Obviously not all of them can make the final cut, but a good amount of them have been added in unfinished and relatively inaccessible states. Luckily the community has its ways of discovering this unused content, and here are some I feel a slight pang when I think of because they probably will never see the light of day. 1. “That Dispenser is a Spy!” Valve is routinely adding new addconds to TF2.… [Continue Reading]

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No one told me about Sniping!

November 4, 2013 Medic 1 Comment analysis, balance, criticism, request, sniper, theory

Back when I first started playing Team Fortress 2, like a lot of people, Sniper always sounded like a good place to start. It all sounds so simple. Stand far away from everyone else, zoom in with your pretty scope and shoot people from a safe distance. Wonderful, right? Wrong. Oh so very, very wrong.

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Three Reasons we have a Dearth of Heavy articles

October 8, 2013 aabicus 0 Comments analysis, balance, criticism, heavy, loadout, theory

First order of business, an apology to all you Heavy mains out there. You are woefully underrepresented in the ratios of articles on this blog. While Demoman and Medic are soaring high in the double digits, and almost everyone else can boast about at least a few articles dedicated to them, Heavies have only one. And it’s about shotgun heavy. Well, this isn’t 100% our fault, I like to think. Here are the best excuses I can come up with.

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Regarding the Homewrecker

October 4, 2013 Binary 1 Comment analysis, balance, defense, guide, pyro, strategy, theory, weapon

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, lend me your hats! I am about to share with you the best Pyro melee weapon in existence! Is it the Axetinguisher? The Powerjack? Perhaps the Back Scratcher? Nope. It is none other than the Homewrecker. “WHAT!” You may exclaim, “The Homewrecker is the most broken Pyro unlock in history. It’s a pain to Spies, and completely worthless otherwise.” Yep. And that’s why it’s a perfect side grade.

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Minuscule asymmetries in official maps that make a difference

September 27, 2013March 23, 2017 aabicus 4 Comments analysis, balance, comparison, guide, heavy, maps, pyro, soldier, strategy

Last time I wrote, I mentioned that the ramps on cp_orange_x3 were unevenly spaced apart from the spawn rooms, allowing BLU team to jump back into spawn from the railing but not RED team. Well, I’ve since learned about a number of other extremely small differences between sides of supposedly symmetrical maps that favor one team over the other. Let’s go over some.

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Why you really, really should not be a Battle Medic.

September 26, 2013 Medic 0 Comments analysis, balance, class, comparison, criticism, medic, theory, weapon

For everyone who plays Team Fortress 2 and is at least not a potato, it’s clear as day why Battle Medics are never a good idea. Although Medics have that little speed boost and regenerating health, their weaponry simply isn’t built for fighting. This, on top of a lack of heavy-class health and no true, reliable advanced mobility, is a recipe for disaster. Plus, it annoys your team mates, who are probably on fire right now. But just how bad is a Medic’s weaponry when it comes to fighting? Let’s start with the basics. We’ll concentrate on primary weapons, because… [Continue Reading]

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The Sticky Jumper has been nerfed

September 17, 2013 aabicus 2 Comments announcement, balance, demoman, mourning, update

Valve had a small update on September 16th, where some unimportant stuff happened. When I first scrolled through the sparse update notes, seeing ‘bug fixes’ on item descriptions of cosmetic items, I was already thinking, whatever, it’s another one of those updates, nothing to see here. Then I read: “Updated The Sticky Jumper to only allow 2 active stickybombs at a time” Now, needless to say I’m not the only one saddened by this balance move. This innocuous training weapon has sent SPUF into a whirlwind of protest, defense, and general bewilderment. As one user put it, “Why is half… [Continue Reading]