Soldier/Demo Update

[The Mighty Gerbil]

I think though you are really understating the negatives. You are going to get a lot of demos killed with the way you portrayed the TSR.

Oh noes I'll be court martialed for gross neglect .

Also, Gerbil, I was not aware that you can detonate TSR stickies with no line-of-sight. I will experiment with TSR some more now that you told me that.

To be frank I don't think the TSR is for you Omega it's just not your style as you are an aggressive demo . To be effective with it I think you have to trap one or two spots before you start spamming with it. You just can't run in and attack quite as good as with the regular though you can still be an effective attacker with it. Also while the TSR does detonate through walls I've found targeting my stickies at long range to be a bit harder than I would like (Valve add the ability to see them through walls! Medics can see heal targets through walls why not Demos see stickies?) :/ . Still you can detonate stickies from all the way across Fastlane so I don't think it has a range limit.

Side note: I was on pipeline yesterday on top of the enemy spawn being quite annoying IMHO with the TSR. I could trap the upper spawn door and spam anyone who came out of the lower one at the same time .

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

Feeling nerfed as a Spy... again

Ok I got the remaining weapons...

Eyelander and Targe: I'm feeling the spy nerf (by having similar play styles) . Honestly I'm finding it easier to be a covert demo than a spy at times. The advantages the spy has are...

1. Temporary invisibility.
2. Being able to do more than one instant kill in a row.
3. Range while using the Ambassador.
4. Disguises which are questionable nowadays .

Comparatively Sword Demos have...

1. More HP.
2. Better defense.
2. More speed.
3. More attack power (with grenades).
4. Are quieter as the gush beheading noise seems to attract less attention than backstab screams.

Yes the Eyelander hits like a wet noodle un-targed but I'm used to that as a Spy. If you can get behind a pack of enemies I've laid them all out in nice rows and failing that you can run away faster than most classes with only a head or two. Get behind, kill, run away when noticed firing grenades, come back a few seconds later when Targe recharged, lather rinse, repeat. I think it needs a nerf but I am unsure in what department. I'm not sure about nerfing the explosive resistance anymore, nor the Targe charge time, it needs something else becuase it's not op in all situations.

Omega is also correct in that if you play it defensively and use the grenade launcher you will live a long time.

I can't really figure out the damage spread on these weapons either. I know I took a Targe mini crit from Bassman as a Heavy and lived (heard the sparkles) but I've also one shotted a heavy with it. With the Targe I've also taken a single non-crit grenade at full 150 hp and died while on the flip side hit a Demo with 2 grenades and stickies and had him live??? I'm also wondering what the TSR's damage spread is as it seems like individual stickies do less damage compared to the regular ones. I need to test some of this sometime.

 

[BassMan449]

I had several full crit Targe charges on Gerbil as a heavy and can assure you it wont kill a heavy from full health. I will definitely second the randomness on the targe's damage reduction. There are times I've taken a direct hit from a crit rocket and not died and other times I will lose 100+ hp to one normal rocket. It seems to me like it may be slightly buggy, but I really don't know.

 

[Keero]

I died every time as a full health Heavy to a crit charge -> sword. It's why I go Pyro or Scout so I can avoid it.

 

[vibrokatana]

I died every time as a full health Heavy to a crit charge -> sword. It's why I go Pyro or Scout so I can avoid it.

The recent update made playing heavy a practice in getting pulped. The scout is now immensely overpowered provided you don't run into a direct hit, pick axed or run into a heavy that hasn't been killed yet.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

The recent update made playing heavy a practice in getting pulped.

Pretty much.

The scout is now immensely overpowered provided you don't run into a direct hit, pick axed or run into a heavy that hasn't been killed yet.

I don't understand how are Scouts more powerful now? What did they change for Scout lately except the Sandman?

I've noticed a few questionable changes Valve has made lately though...

Updated the Gunboats to absorb damage from any self-inflicted rocket blast that doesn't hurt another player

The only time this could possibly be useful is when I accidentally shoot myself. Like if I am trying to peek around a corner and shoot to early. Thing is there are times I WANT to hurt myself to build uber or to use the Equalizer so this is coming off as a bad idea to me :/ . Of all the new weapons Gunboats don't need nerfing because you have to give up the very useful shotgun for them.

Updated the Scottish Resistance to detonate bombs near the player's feet (in addition to what it normally detonates). This enables sticky jumping with this weapon

I was of the mind that not being able to sticky jump was one of the downsides to using this weapon. The fact is I liked being able to stand on my own stickies. PLUS you could sticky jump with it before hand you just had to do it backwards. Now the only thing making the TSR weaker than the regular one is a slightly longer priming time???

In other matters I think the new Combat text, which displays damage amounts you do to enemies may not be working all the time. Seems like I do hit targets and see blood but no numbers on occasion.

I've been playing the new Swordsman class and when you can attack enemies from behind, spy style, it's brutal. Played on ctf_2fort_dusty today and I had 6 dominations with a score of 71 kills to 6 deaths (and 2 of those were because of temporary disconnects). That's not to say it's that good in all circumstances because not all maps allow you to get behind people. The trick is once you get behind, soften the target with one grenade (two depending on class) and then close with the Targe. Even if you miss the charge you usually get the second swing and the head. Once you get 5 heads you become this mad bomber who hit and runs everyone from behind and doesn't even bother to use the sword. Then you can keep the charge in reserve for trouble or fast getaways, not that you aren't already really fast anyway. With 5 heads and the charge I even ran down a Scout with a room or two lead running away with our intel .

Also I've been playing a decent amount of sniper with the groovy new headshot death animations. Whon ought to be liking them .