Thoughts on the new unlocks. With poll.

**Thorsen** · 12-19-09, 03:36 PM

So, its been a few days since the new update came out, and I've played with or against enough of the new unlocks to grow an opinion on them. I'd like to share my views, and hear all your views too.

The Shield.

Okay, my first impression of this thing is NERF. After playing with it more, I've come to understand it better, and I now see some good counters to it. However, I still see it as imbalanced. If we were running a 1v1 deathmatch server, the shield would be fine; after all you can counter it with the shotgun, any melee weapon, scatterguns, the minigun, airblast to some extent and sentry guns. Unfortunately (Or fortunately) we play in a teamplay environment, one that requires deeper thought than the world of deathmatches.

The issue I see with it is that it really breaks the generally excellent "flow" TF2 had going on in battles. Now throughout the match, everyone on your team will periodically have to madly switch to shotgun or melee and spam the crazy bastard chopping off heads. The entire forward momentum of your team is momentarily stalled to deal with one lone unhealed player. Is that good? Is it good that a new item provides a class with the ability to stall an entire team without using any teamwork themselves. This is truly a lone-wolfer's dream. Now instead of communicating, working with medics and your team to destroy key targets, Demomen will basically have the job of running into the enemy team and killing shit to pad their stats. Its a disappointing style of gameplay, that hopefully will be altered.

The Eyelander.

This item is actually pretty cool, on its own, without the shield, it isn't very imbalanced. Its only with the shield that it becomes a nightmare. The only thing to say about this is that the bottle really needs a small buff now. -25 hp just isn't that big of a deal in most cases, especially considering that with only two kills you basically negate the entire downside.

The Scottish Resistance.

This is one unlock I have not played with yet. I will save my comments for when I have it unlocked.

The Direct Hit.

This is, in my opinion, the single best thought out, best implemented and most balanced unlock Valve has yet released. The damage is great, the added speed is amazing for taking out key targets, yet at the same time, you'll often be destroyed by a classic RL soldier due to splash damage. Not to mention, anyone who thinks this RL is overpowered hasn't seen someone kritz it yet. Its about as effective with a Kritz as a hunstman sniper would be. You can usually get a few kills at close range, but its no where near as kritz effective as the classic.

The only thing I would fix with this rocket launcher is the mini crit. It desperately needs a minimum height. Critting people who just walked off a two foot ledge does not fulfill the intended purpose of rewarding airshots and juggling.

The Equalizer

Another great unlock. Very useful to escape bad situations, or make a desperate suicide dive into a medic. Very easy to counter since by the time it becomes effective the soldier will die to just about any nick or splash. I do think it calls for a shovel upgrade though, as there's really no downside to it.

The Bugle thing...I forgot the official name...

I just got this, but I have been buffed by it several times. This is the exact opposite of the shield/sword combo. This is an item that really meshes with the flow of TF2 combat, and the teamwork of TPP. What says teamwork more than giving up an effective sidearm in order to help your team? Not only does it no promote lonewolfing, it actually prevents it. At the same time it promotes pushing as a team, using communication and the ideal of sacrificing to help the greater cause. A really good unlock all around.

The Gunboats

Again, I have not played with these yet so I will withhold judgement for now.

I encourage everyone to vote and give your thoughts on the unlocks, lets just keep it civil.

**QuickLightning** · 12-19-09, 03:41 PM

He starts out with 150 health when he's using the shield/sword. If having to set him on fire and hit him with an axetinguisher once or shooting him 2-3 times with a shotgun ruins your momentum, then your team had problems to begin with.

All the unlocks are fine.

**Langrad** · 12-19-09, 04:00 PM

I think the shield just needs a cosmetic change. Iv only gotten to play on day of release but I found it hard to spot during the midst of battle. If it was really easy to tell they were running the shield it would be better.

**Cprice** · 12-19-09, 04:12 PM

the SR needs to be buffed, fix it so you can stickie jump easier, and fix the det detection. its too hard to choose which ones you want to det, I'd rather accidently det some than only det a few and die because of it.

The equalizer needs a drawback,slower swinging speed would prob be enough, doesn't need to give you less hp or something that drastic.

**Mr.Expendable** · 12-19-09, 04:18 PM

From what I've heard of the gunboats they aren't nearly as usefull as the other weapons, so they could maybe give a little resistance (similarly to the shield) or maybe farther distance when Rj'ing because ive always found the solly not going as far as the demo...but who knows.
As for the sheild, I dont quite get why it gives so much explosion resistance, I always hate it when I have them go right over a cluster of stickies just to find that my head gets chopped off and they've only lost half health, EVEN a buffed heavy dies from 5 stickies so why should a demo survive. This fact has made me really want the scottish resistance so I can put enough stickies to cover flanks properly from these over buffed madmen.

**Thorsen** · 12-19-09, 04:59 PM

Originally Posted by QuickLightning

He starts out with 150 health when he's using the shield/sword. If having to set him on fire and hit him with an axetinguisher once or shooting him 2-3 times with a shotgun ruins your momentum, then your team had problems to begin with.

All the unlocks are fine.

Yeah Quick, but name me one other class that is so upsetting of the flow of combat. Heavies are tough, and deal huge damage, but they're slow. Scouts are fast and deal huge damage, but they're weak, soldiers are medium all around, pyros are weak, deal high damage and medium speed. Eyelander/shield demomen are extremely fast, deal huge damage and can be tougher than a heavy. Yeah, you can set them on fire and axetinguish them, but that takes a hell of a lot more time than shooting them with rockets or blowing stickies on them.

The only other class that can cause such a ruckus is a dead ringer spy, which is another poorly implemented unlock that needs re doing.

Like I said, it isn't that the sword and shield are imbalanced in a 1v1 sort of situation, its their general playstyle and awkward implementation within the greater fabric of class and combat dynamics that is fucked.

**Birdinator** · 12-19-09, 05:07 PM

I think all the soldier ones are fine, from what little I've played with them and how much I've played against them.

As for demoman, well... its tough for me to say. Since demo is my main class I love the shield. It forces me to use my nades so I can aim better, and if I have overheal I can walk into people and kill a bunch and walk out still with 50% health. Then again, that seems preposterous from the other teams point of view; I think QuickLighting has had some good ideas, and indeed, weapons that aren't explosives work just as well, so I dunno. It seems really good to me and as a demoman player I would keep it, but I'm not sure how it holds up to keeping the game even.

The Eyelander I fucking detest, quite honestly. I haven't unlocked it yet so I haven't gotten to try it out for myself, but from what I've experienced its unreasonably good. I said on Well earlier that its like demomen are becoming the new W+M1. I was a scout, and about 10 times, I've been running and a demoman has used his charge and caught up to me. If it wasn't an instant kill there, it was me turning and try to jump away, the demoman mashing his M1 button and before I can get 2 shots off with the scattergun, my corpse is a bloody mess on the wall. Additionally, all the demoman has to do is run into a crowd of people and again, mash M1. The difference between that and a pyro is that the demoman can 1) move super fast and 2) its like accelerated backstabs, since its basically an instant kill. And if not, well, while you're busy mashing M1, someone's going to get their head chopped off. Now, like QuickLighting said, sure, its easy to shoot them with a shotgun or something... if you have one, but when its demoman versus demoman, your enemy can move faster than a scout, you have slow firing speed and they have reduced damage, and they can instakill you by walking straight at you... there's something wrong with that.