Thread: TF2 Blog: Patent Pending: #1308 - "GUARD DOG"

It is, it's rather annoying, I usually try to sap then stab the engi and let the soldier or whoever kill me.

I think it could work with some tweaks

I just don't see the need for a 10th class. Pretty much every role is already filled by the existing nine classes, and adding a tenth could blow class balance out of whack - just look at what Death Knights did for World of Warcraft for the first four or five months of the most recent expansion.

I mean, it'd be fun to play as a dog with chainguns on its back (rawrrr mecha-hitler, go!), but I don't really see it fulfilling any roles that can't be done already.

Pyros are already superb spycheckers, and every class can spycheck as well.

Spies, especially with the CnD, can provide scouting equal to or better than the proposed tracking option.

Scouts already perform well as hit-and-run harassment.

The whole "bring someone ammo/medkit" would be a nice schtick, but I hardly think it's necessary. As it is, Heavies with the Sandvich can kinda fulfill this role in terms of giving someone a medkit.

Originally Posted by PizzaSHARK!

I just don't see the need for a 10th class. Pretty much every role is already filled by the existing nine classes, and adding a tenth could blow class balance out of whack - just look at what Death Knights did for World of Warcraft for the first four or five months of the most recent expansion.

I mean, it'd be fun to play as a dog with chainguns on its back (rawrrr mecha-hitler, go!), but I don't really see it fulfilling any roles that can't be done already.

Pyros are already superb spycheckers, and every class can spycheck as well.

Spies, especially with the CnD, can provide scouting equal to or better than the proposed tracking option.

Scouts already perform well as hit-and-run harassment.

The whole "bring someone ammo/medkit" would be a nice schtick, but I hardly think it's necessary. As it is, Heavies with the Sandvich can kinda fulfill this role in terms of giving someone a medkit.

I don't think it's role is supposed to be anything other than support. PURE support. No killing unless it has to, the page even admitted that it's guns would be weak. I see it as something you'd bring out to help build at the beginning of a round to help the engi build (without having to have someone run back to the spawn to change back from engi), or as merely an eye on the battlefield. Co-op potential with the guard dog could potentially be limitless if used right (on the typical pub you'll probably see this potential wasted). I think the keyword there is GUARD

I just don't see it throwing off the balance. the one thing I keep hearing people say about the guard dog is how it will throw off the balance, but not one person has given me a good answer as to /how/. For the record I don't play WoW, so I don't get your analogy to death knights

The short answer is that when Blizzard made the Death Knight, they took everything they learned from their existing classes and applied it to the Death Knight. As a natural result of this, Death Knights were blatantly overpowered for the first few months of the new expansion.

It could go either way with a new class in TF2 - either it could be ridiculously overpowered, or it could be more or less useless. Given that the game is extremely well-balanced (demomen in full servers not withstanding), a tenth class would almost certainly fall under the "way OP" or "way UP" category.