Balance Adjustments

DEFENSE

PYRO

Backburner

Airblast is a fun dimension of the Pyro class and should be encouraged. It can still be made into a weaker offensive tool, but you shouldn’t be punished for using it.

• Added: Airblasted projectiles do not gain mini-crits
• Removed: +150% airblast cost

Degreaser

The same airblast downside appears here, though weakened. The Degreaser is already slightly too strong as-is though, so some of the damage penalty should be universalized (as it once was) to compensate.

• Added: -20% damage penalty
• Reduced afterburn damage penalty from -75% to -50%
• Removed: +25% airblast cost

Phlogistinator

❗️ The Mmmph meter replacing airblast creates the single most linear playstyle in the game. The entire Moonman pack leans into this, and all three weapons need changes. If the Third Degree now targets high health enemies (see Third Degree section), the Phlogistinator would do well to target low health enemies. This can be used to combo with the new Third Degree, or help teammates by finishing off their targets.

• Rework:
  • Build ‘Mmmph’ by dealing damage. On full ‘Mmmph’: Taunt to gain crits for several seconds. Invulnerable while ‘Mmmph’ taunting.
  • Damage scales as the target becomes injured
    • Functionality of pre-Great Escape Equalizer, but with target health
  • Alt-Fire: -10 ammo per attack and -5 ammo per projectile destroyed
    • Functionality of pre-Blue Moon Short Circuit Alt-Fire

Dragon’s Fury

When Jungle Inferno first released with Pyros running wild, the Dragon’s Fury was strong. With everyone on fire, 300% damage to burning players is hard to pass up. Jungle Inferno is 5 years old now, the average Pyro-per-game number has dropped back to 0.2, and the Fury’s nerfs have become overly cumbersome. Particularly, its requirement to center the hitbox makes the 300% damage near-impossible to consistently attain. Perhaps its most unwieldy stat isn’t a stat at all: its description. Why does it explain what airblast is? The world may never know.

• Removed: Bonus damage against a burning target requires the fireball’s center to make contact with the target’s hitbox
• Removed “Alt-Fire: Release a blast of air that pushes enemies and projectiles, and extinguishes teammates that are on fire. This powerful, single-shot flamethrower rewards consecutive hits with faster reloads and bonus damage.” from description (functionality unchanged)

Manmelter

❗️ Pyro’s airblast mechanic has always completely overridden the usefulness of the Manmelter’s vacuum. While intended to synergize with the Phlogistinator, in practice it just leaves players wishing they had the real deal. Let’s give the Manmelter some actual vacuum functionality, and some flare functionality while we’re at it.

• Added: Vacuumed projectiles return health to the Pyro
  • Vacuum can be held indefinitely, but must be recharged once successfully used (functionality unchanged)
• Added: 100% mini-crits vs burning players
• See All Laser Weapons for more info

Scorch Shot

Inspired by Karma Charger
❗️ The current Scorch Shot exists solely as a means to annoy other players via spam. At the very least, this should be done in a more visually predictable and avoidable way.

• Added: Projectile leaves a lingering fire area of effect
  • Taunt fire leaves lingering trail of fire behind
  • Standing in flames increases afterburn duration at the same pace as Flame Thrower flames
• Added: -60% slower firing speed
• Flare now only knocks back burning players on hit
• Removed: Flare explodes when it hits the ground

Thermal Thruster

The Thruster is so, so close to being a Pyro staple, but unlisted attributes only serve to confuse players. Having the deploy speed and knockback that anyone would expect this weapon to have is pivotal in its adoption.

• Decreased deploy and holster speed penalty by 50%
• Removed: +50% knockback from damage on wearer

All Axes

❗️ One of Pyro’s most beloved support abilities currently is the sapper removal of the Homewrecker and, to a lesser extent, the Neon Annihilator. The Pybro playstyle should be available at all times, though the Homewrecker should remain the Pybro’s best option. While on the topic of melee, the Pyro’s is arguably the least used in the game – if you’re in melee range, you light people on fire. The Axe becoming an opening tool allows the Pyro to branch out into combo options even with stock weaponry.

• Increased base damage from 65 to 85
• Added: Damage removes sappers
  • Removed “Damage removes sappers” attribute listing from Homewrecker, Neon Annihilator

Axtinguisher

❗️ If the base Axe damage increases, we shouldn’t entirely stop the Axtinguisher from reaping some benefits, but it also shouldn’t get full access to the new rate – let’s meet halfway.

• Increased damage penalty from -33% to -40%

Powerjack / Hot Hand

The Hot Hand is a joke weapon at its core. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but giving it a proper purpose should still be a goal. The Powerjack is fine right now, though a little overcomplicated, with some stats not really fitting its intended purpose. Moving the Powerjack’s health on kill to the Hot Hand turns it into a humiliating finisher tool that actually benefits its user.

• Moved +25 health restored on kill from the Powerjack to the Hot Hand

Sharpened Volcano Fragment

❗️ The Sharpened Volcano Fragment doesn’t do anything. Why ignite with a melee when your primary also ignites? You’ve already heard all this before. Let’s make it the Axtinguisher’s foil, the sting and puff.

• Added: Flames from this weapon return afterburn damage as health
• Added: This weapon deploys 50% slower
• Mini-crits non-burning targets and ignites them (was On Hit: target is engulfed in flames)

Third Degree

❗️ Having no downside yet still being largely unused, the Third Degree desperately needs something new. Keeping relation to fighting enemies with Medics, health-based damage could give Pyro a useful fight opener.

• Added: Deals damage equivalent to 1/3 of enemy’s current health
• Added: On Hit: Transfer enemy overheal to yourself
• All players connected via healing source are hit (was via Medigun beams)

HEAVY

Natascha

❗️ The Natascha truly needs its core mechanic remade from scratch. At an extremely base level, its design suggests unique bullets that inflict a penalty on those that hit them, but this can be difficult to do without frustrating opponents. Vampirism is an underutilized effect that could seek to make both sides of the interaction feel the fight is fair.

• Added: On Hit: +1 health restored to yourself and nearby teammates
• Removed: On Hit: 100% chance to slow target

Brass Beast

The Brass Beast’s main upside is largely irrelevant due to its qualifiers. The Beast also makes Heavy by far the slowest object in the game, slower than even a scoped Sniper or Mangler-charging Soldier. Making the movement downside less extreme feels necessary.

• Damage resistance while spun up now applies at any amount of health
• Decreased movement speed penalty from -60% to -45%

Huo-Long Heater

❗️ A cool gimmick in concept, the player burning is fairly pointless in practice due to the weapon’s base damage penalty and the limited range of its fire ring. In most interactions, the Heater is essentially a stock Minigun with less ammo and damage. Rewarding good aim and close range play by further incorporating a flame mechanic would make it worth the ammo consumption cost.

• Added: Damage ramps up based on how long an enemy is attacked
  • Damage begins at 90% (thus retaining the existing 10% base damage penalty) and increases up to 150% in approximately 0.9 seconds. If the target takes no damage for 0.5 seconds, the ramp-up resets. The ramp-up is separate for each enemy being attacked. Buildings are unaffected by the ramp-up.

Family Business

The Family Business is functionally identical to the Shotgun; firing more shots faster for less damage per shot just balances out to the same DPS. It needs a new gimmick, and medium-range damage to fill the gap of the minigun could be that.

• Rework:
  • +50% clip size
  • 20% more accurate
  • -15% damage penalty

All Lunchbox Items

❗️ Heavy’s secondary weapons have become increasingly difficult to balance when all crammed into one slot. Breaking off his lunchbox allows the shotguns to maintain a use case. Many lunchbox effects, though, have unintended uses in pregame usage, so these need to be prevented. On a related note, a bug introduced in Gun Mettle causes lunchbox items to drop an ammo box with healing properties on death. This is the only instance of this in the game, so let’s fix it up.

• Lunchbox items now occupy a fourth item slot
  • Both items can be held out simultaneously
• All players receive a Normal Sandvich
• Heavy Achievement Milestone 1 awards a Dalokohs Bar
  • Existing Achievement Sandviches are replaced
• If holding a lunchbox item on death, it drops as if thrown
• Consumption has no effect in spawn room

Dalokohs Bar

Having to wait just as long for 200 less health is excessive, even if it can overheal. This change also applies for the wait to distribute nothing but a small health kit to teammates. Both of these options should be fleshed out.

• Added: +65% consumption speed
• Now gives overheal when consumed by a teammate

Buffalo Steak

❗️ The current Steak is a massive commitment. Giving the user the health needed to go into battle, the range to back out when necessary, and the option to properly support your team are huge boons to its viability.

• Melee attacks mini-crit, and the player cannot use primary weapons (was “Attacks mini-crit, and the player may only use melee weapons”)
• Now gives minicrits when consumed by a teammate
• Removed: 20% damage vulnerability under effects

All Fists

❗️ The Heavy has different animations for primary and alt-fire that suggest different functionality. Options like this would be extremely useful to a class that doesn’t have much to gain from using melee without a Buffalo Steak. Inspiration can be taken from the now-defunct Eviction Notice to bring about a sense of dynamism to the most linear class.

• Primary Fire:
  • +40% faster firing speed
  • -40% damage penalty
• Alt-Fire: Functionality unchanged
• Apoco-Fists now share the stats of the Killing Gloves of Boxing

Warrior’s Spirit

Inspired by SquimJim
The Spirit’s 30% damage vulnerability directly prevents synergy with its item set. Making the Spirit a serious decision but rewarding the risk is a better balancing mechanism.

• Added: Honorbound: Once drawn, holstering deals 50 damage to yourself unless it kills
• Removed: 30% damage vulnerability on wearer when active

Eviction Notice

The new Eviction Notice is entirely without purpose; it’s just a worse GRU. Bringing back its old version gives it its own niche while still letting the GRU keep its space.

• Rework:
  • +15% faster move speed while active
  • On Hit: Gain a speed boost
  • 20% damage vulnerability while active

ENGINEER

Pomson 6000

❗️ The Pomson is somehow unused despite having the single most oppressive stat in the game via its Über/cloak drain. All this weapon needs to be is a consistent mid-range tool; the bells and whistles are what hold it back.

• Added “-34% clip size” to description (functionality unchanged)
• Increased projectile speed from 1200HU/s to 1800HU/s
  • Now approximately the speed of an uncharged Huntsman arrow
• Removed: -22% fire rate
• Removed: Übercharge and Cloak drain on primary fire
• See All Laser Weapons for more info

Wrangler

Most issues people have with the Wrangler are really with its shield. The Wrangler’s firing rate boost currently scales with the sentry’s level, and applying this same logic to its shield could dramatically improve the balance of the weapon in all situations. In combination with the changes to sentry jumping (see Self-Damage section), the Wrangler changes from a frustrating weapon to fight against to one of the most creative options on an already creativity-oriented class.

• Shield damage and repair reduction now scales based on level
  • Mini-Sentry shield absorbs 50% of incoming damage
  • Level 1 Sentry shield absorbs 40% of incoming damage
  • Level 2 or 3 Sentry shield absorbs 33% of incoming damage

Short Circuit

No one has ever equipped the Short Circuit for its primary fire. Its secondary fire, meanwhile, is far too spammable, particularly with an ammo supply.

• Added: No metal from dispensers while active
• Added “Cannot be crit boosted” to description (functionality unchanged)
• Increased primary fire damage from 10 on players, 1 on buildings to 15 on both
• Slowed Alt-Fire attack interval from 0.5s to 1s
• See All Laser Weapons for more info

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