Team Fortress 2 betatesting going on...

[Purplecat]

[Sekh765]

[Austin]

[Stormcaller3801]

Well theoretically if it's only afterburn damage, that's more or less acceptable- a Pyro could still get enough damage on the Spy initially to deal some nasty hits, and the afterburn (while not damaging) means he can run after the Spy and keep the barbecue going. Or swap to shotgun, if that's available. You're hampered but not nearly as much as if it's all fire damage. At which point that's just utterly unfair to Pyros, as you're not even doing as much damage to the Spy as you are to someone who's underwater.

In fact if initial damage remains the same, this might mean the Backburner would have some additional use- the Spy would have more reason to try and run away from the Pyro, yielding more crits. Meaning the suit would be moot very fast. It'd also make the Backburner useful outside ambushing the other team.

I'm curious what this other suit is though. I mean, what else do they have in mind?

[Austin]

[Jinx]

[Jinx]

[Stormcaller3801]

I'm hoping those Medic weapon changes are the ones that were rejected. Unless they have an ulterior motive: getting more Medics to heal their teammates. I can guarantee you if I'm looking at trading 100 health for an Uber with the Ubersaw, I'd rather just get a Soldier or Demoman to blow himself up and heal him. Takes longer but I don't have to worry about sitting on 50 health and a full Uber in the middle of the fight. The only thing that screams SHOOT ME! louder is a Spy who decloaks or disguises himself in front of the enemy. And even that one's debatable.

GRU Beta 3 seems viable as a means to get across the battlefield faster with your Medic- but at the same time potentially overpowered for that same reason. You lose 6 health per second, meaning you're continuously below the overheal total. Meaning a Medic will gain the 'no seriously I'm healing him' Ubercharge speed, i.e., 2.5% per second, rather than 1.25% per second. So the Heavy/Medic team can get into the fight faster and with more Ubercharge. The offset would be that the GRU would also reduce the time to the front lines, meaning you'd have less time to build up that Uber. But you'd still end up with a situation of people keeping the GRU on solely to build up Ubercharges faster. Making Medic/Heavy teams even more common. Comparatively GRU Beta 2's would raise the question of whether that reduced health from healers impacts Ubercharge time. If it takes longer to get a Heavy to full, Medics will get more time at the normal Ubercharge rate. You'd just want to swap to another weapon to fight... which you'd do anyways. And GRU Beta 1, you might be able to switch back and forth between weapons, reducing your maximum health, then enlarging it again, effectively letting your Medic heal you for 100, then reducing it, then healing for 100 again, etc.

So in other words, the proposed changes here all seem to have the side-effect of encouraging Medics to spend more time healing Heavies. I can think of people who'd rage at this, but I think that goes without saying. Regardless of what, if any, changes are proposed.

[Sekh765]

I agree on that storm. I think they are trying to push medics into healing heavies more, instead of focusing on their team. Or at least making it so that heavies have more of a reason to spam medic to get heals. I hope none of the changes go through on the ubersaw/blutsauger, as both of those weapons are wonderfully balanced, and they just raise the power on the syringe gun/bonesaw to bring them more in line. Reducing damage on Blut would make me cry, its so hard to kill things as a medic already.

[Jinx]