Balance Adjustments

OFFENSE

SCOUT

Shortstop

This Scout weapon with a clip should reload in the same amount of time as every other Scout weapon with a clip. Its push force downside, meanwhile, is more obnoxious than impactful.

Reduced reload time from 1.52 to 1.1s
Removed: Increase in push force taken from damage and airblast

Soda Popper

One of the two big upsides of this weapon is that you can often kill a full health enemy with your two shots. You should be punished if you fail to land these shots, so having a faster reload time is counterintuitive. The other big upside, its Hype effect, lasts far too long for how easily it can be obtained.

Reduced Hype effect time from 10s to 8s
Hype meter now requires 400 damage to fill (was 350)
Removed: 25% faster reload time

Baby Face’s Blaster

The big upside of this weapon isn’t helpful if it becomes a downside as soon as you take a chipshot to the ankle or use your main skill as a Scout. A speed-based weapon should give you the freedom to play more actively, not lock you in fear.

Reduced boost cost on damage taken from 4%/HP to 1%/HP
Reduced boost cost on air jump from 75% to 50%
Removed: 10% slower move speed on wearer

Back Scatter

Sacrificing two shots for minicrits from behind is a dubious trade even without the accuracy nerf; with it, the weapon is a joke. This gun deserves an apology.

Removed: 20% less accurate

Crit-a-Cola

❗️ A full clip of scattergun minicrits on command is too powerful for the Scout. Being able to earn them, though, could be a strong ability without being as overbearing as the current cola.

Rework:
- Drink to enter Sugar Rush for 8 seconds. Gain 2 minicrits for each kill and 1 for each assist while in Sugar Rush (minicrits are acquired after Sugar Rush ends).

Flying Guillotine

The combo potential of the Flying Guillotine has all but vanished with the removal of its key crit mechanic. Nerfing the frequency and ease of the combo seems a more practical solution than removing it entirely, and expanding it to other bats beyond the Sandman broadens its synergy.

Added: 100% mini-crits vs debuffed players
- Includes fire, bleeding, milk, gas, stun, and slowdown
Increased recharge time from 5 to 12 seconds
Reduced projectile speed from 3000 HU/s to 2000 HU/s
- Now approximately the speed of a Flare

All Bats

The bat does so little damage – the lowest DPS of any stock weapon – that it’s rare to see anyone bother to try using it other than jokingly. Even a slight bump would match it with most other melee weapons thanks to its speed.

Base damage increased from 35 to 40

Sandman

❗️ The current ball is far too fast, both in its usability and its travel. Any serious change to this is drastic enough, though, to replace the now-extreme health downside with some old penalties. If you’re taking away your opponents’ mobility, you should lose your own.

Rework:
- Alt-Fire: Launches a ball that slows opponents and stuns buildings
  - Deals 40 damage
  - Recharges in 20 seconds
  - Travels at 2400 HU/s
- -20% lower jump height

Sun-on-a-Stick

25% fire resistance is fairly irrelevant in real games; being able to transfer fire away is a more meaningful upside, and acting as a new offensive support tool rounds it out.

Added: On Hit: Target is coated in gas, extinguish self

Fan O’ War

The Fan O’ War’s Mark-for-Death could actually create an interesting dynamic alongside a better design. The weapon could lock its victim into an interaction with the Scout, rewarding both the Scout and their target for winning the duel.

Rework:
- On Hit: One target at a time is Marked-for-Death, causing all damage taken to be mini-crits for 15 seconds or until the user’s death
- +25 health restored on kills against Marked-for-Death enemies
- -50% damage penalty

Atomizer

The Atomizer’s damage penalty completely contradicts one of its upsides. Replacing it with a swing speed penalty makes it usable for something other than triple jumping, keeping the new “while airborne” direction intact while giving it real purpose.

Added: -20% slower swing speed
Removed: -15% damage vs players

SOLDIER

Cow Mangler 5000

The Cow Mangler is an easy choice in competitive play as none of its downsides are relevant. Now that it’s been turned into a laser weapon, it has its niche in competitive, so removing one of its current downsides would maintain casual balance.

Removed: Minicrits whenever it would normally crit
See All Laser Weapons for more info

Air Strike

Being penalized for using a weapon as intended is counterintuitive. The Air Strike’s intended use case, though, can tend to be overwhelming to larger teams. Lowering its oppressive force at its extremes is necessary.

Decreased attack speed boost while blast jumping from +65% to +40%
Increased explosion radius penalty from -10% to -20%
Removed: -20% explosion radius penalty when blast jumping

Reserve Shooter

❗️ Shredding through bombing enemies limits your opponents’ options. Quick cleanup is a valid purpose, but this is simply too much. There’s also no feasible way to make this weapon balanced for both the Soldier and the Pyro – it always ends up either overpowered or a worse Panic Attack.

No longer equippable by the Pyro
Minicrits targets launched airborne by you or your teammates (was targets launched by explosions, grapple hooks or rocket packs)

Mantreads

As it stands now, the only noteworthy upside the Mantreads have over the Gunboats is their knockback reduction. When a Soldier bombs in for an attack, they generally have a target in mind. Positioning is therefore extremely important, and taking away the enemy’s ability to change your direction in the air is a big help. Being able to push nearby enemies into your most effective range would further allow Soldier to control space and pick fights.

Added: Push enemies back when you land

Righteous Bison

Inspired by The Salt God
❗️ Be honest: do you know how you would balance this weapon? No? Well we ran it through a random number generator, and this is what we got:

Increased base damage from 20 to 40
Reverted previous decrease in hitbox size
Projectile moves 50% faster when not damaging an enemy
Removed damage ramp-up and falloff
Damage decreases by 10 for each tick of damage, fizzling on its fourth hit

Pickaxes

The current Escape Plan casual strategy is to use your speed to surprise your opponent and get a free kill. This isn’t really fair, isn’t the intended use case, and encroaches on Equalizer territory. Conversely, a weapon that encourages melee rushes shouldn’t be worse than stock at melee rushes in any situation. Now, your choice as a roaming Soldier in a life-or-death situation will be to get away and live (Escape Plan), or take the risk for the desperation kill (Equalizer). Fight, or flight.

Moved -50% damage penalty from Equalizer to Escape Plan

Disciplinary Action

The Disciplinary Action’s broken range mechanic is easily cleaned up by rebranding it as a sword. This change makes its range increase more clear to new players while also balancing it with a slower deploy speed.

This weapon has a large melee range and deploys slower (was unlisted +70% melee range)

DEMOMAN

Ali Baba’s Wee Booties

Arbitrarily limiting the booties even further than they already are feels like a direct attack on hybrid knight, and a reversal is only right.

+10% faster move speed on wearer is now universal

All Shields

Making the Booties’ bonus charge control the new default for all shields allows for more unique loadout possibilities.

Increased turning control while charging by +200%
- Removed from Ali Baba’s Wee Booties

Ullapool Caber

Upping damage to both players by removing the Caber’s unlisted attributes helps to reverse its trend of becoming increasingly lower risk and lower reward over the years.

Removed: -15% damage penalty
Removed: -30% damage to self

Persian Persuader

Perhaps the most explicit item set weapon in the game, the Persian Persuader is entirely useless for a Demoman without his shield. Directly nerfing a weapon’s versatility is confusing.

Removed: -80% max primary ammo on wearer
Removed: -80% max secondary ammo on wearer

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