Thoughts on the War Update.
The Team Fortress 2 War Update has been out for a while now and, though the Demomen have lost an item, the continuing battle between RED and BLU rages on. The update gave us a total of seven weapons, two maps, a crafting system and a few tweaks and changes, most notably the Scout’s Sandman which now stuns only at maximum range.
Here’s what I think of some of the major additions in the update.
The Soldier:
The Soldier’s new primary weapon is the Direct Hit which sacrifices rocket splash damage for speed and extra damage on direct hits. It’s not a weapon I’ll be using a lot (splash damage is too useful for taking sentries around corners) but I think it could be devastating in the right hands. The Direct Hit feels like a real alternative to the Rocket Launcher instead of a replacement and, as people spend more time with them, I suspect there will be a fairly even divide between both.
The new secondary weapon is the Buff Banner which grants nearby players the ability to deal mini-crits once you fill up your Rage meter by inflicting damage. Get a group of 5-6 teammates including a Soldier with the Buff Banner and a couple medics with Ubercharge and watch the sparks fly. You sacrifice your Shotgun, which is extremely useful in finishing off enemies after you’ve dealt enough damage with your primary or against airblasting Pyros, but it’s a weapon that is extremely useful in offensive scenarios and one that’ll be a regular fixture in my loadout.
The third unlock is the Equalizer, a melee weapon that increases damage and speed the less health the Soldier has. The Equalizer is, to me, a suicide weapon and I’m not saying that just because of the kill taunt. For starters, you can’t be healed by medics once you brandish the Equalizer and that, coupled with the fact that it’s a melee weapon and that it works best when you’re low on health, means that you will die soon after you pull it out, whether you get a few kills or not. That being said, the Shovel needs to be buffed a little because the Equalizer is, despite it’s kamikaze nature, still the better melee weapon.
The last unlock for the Soldier, the one the Demoman lost, are the Gunboats which are secondary-slot weapons that reduce rocket jump damage. Basically, you sacrifice either your Shotgun or the Buff Banner for reduced damage on something that you’ll do about 3-6+ times depending on how long you live. Considering the various health pick-ups found throughout each map, not to mention Medics, this is an item that isn’t as useful as it sounds.
In short, the Soldier’s new weapons are some of the best found in any of the class updates released so far.
The Demoman:
I haven’t unlocked any of the Demoman’s new weapons yet so my opinions on them are based on Valve’s descriptions and my experience with people online that use them.
The Chargin’ Targe replaces the Sticky Bomb Launcher. It’s a shield used in conjunction with your melee weapons that reduces blast and fire damage and adds an alternate attack that makes your Demoman charge forward at “faster than Scout” speeds. The Targe has no random criticals but you can get a mini-crit if you strike at a medium length charge and a full crit if you do it at a full length charge.
The melee slot unlock is the Eyelander, a sword that decapitates upon each killing blow. You respawn with a little less health but with each head you cleave your maximum health and speed goes up. The Eyelander deals no criticals unless you use it with the Targe’s charging ability.
I want to make a parenthesis here because it’s these two weapons that are most upsetting about the War Update. People say that, used together, they are over-powered (which might be true) but that’s something that can be patched later on and they’ll be less successful the more players realize how to counter them so it’s a non-issue to me. My real problem with the Eyelander/Targe combo is that they effectively turn the Demoman into a melee class. The Demoman is the explosives expert or, as I like to call it, the “blowing shit up class” and that’s what I found so endearing about him. These new weapons change his play style so much that he might as well be the 10th class. I would have liked to see weapons more in line with what the Demoman has been so good at all this time.
The last unlock is the Scottish Resistance which is a more defense-oriented Sticky Bomb Launcher. At the cost of a longer priming rate which makes it useless for combat (bye, bye air detonations), the Scottish Resistance allows you to detonate specific sets of stickies. This allows you to simultaneously guard different entrances to an intel room or control point which should be extremely useful for the defensive Demoman though I think the HUD could be improved by highlighting stickies through walls. It’s a weapon that seems a bit too tactical for my tastes, to be honest.
So basically, the Demoman got a new Sticky Launcher that’ll help in defense, two weapons that turn him into an offensive melee class and no Grenade Launcher alternative. I think I’ll be sticking to his original loadout here.
The Maps:
The War Update also brought two maps with it: CTF_Doublecross and CP_Gorge.
Gorge is a Control Points map that is meant to be played in short bursts with team switching from offense to defense quite regularly. It only has two control points and is not divided into sections like Dustbowl or Egypt. It’s a good CP map thought the first point, as is usually the case, falls pretty quickly every time and there’s a choke point right before the second point that is just heaven for Demo/Soldier spammers. That second point is not an easy capture despite it being on lower ground (more so if you don’t have teleporter-competent Engineers) but this is a map that doesn’t favor offense over defense from what I’ve seen; it can really go either way. Like I said, it’s a solid CP map but one that I feel will be forgotten eventually.
Double Cross, however, is just an amazing map. It has become, in my eyes, the definite Capture the Flag map. 2Fort ends in a tie most of the time, Turbine is fun but very vanilla and I haven’t really spent enough time in the other CTF maps to comment on them but Doublecross just gets everything right. There’s a great number of entrances to the intel room (my favorite is the rocket/sticky jumping one) and, really, every class has a shot at excelling in this map. Structurally, it’s similar to 2Fort with two different fortresses joined by two different overlapping pathways but it’s simply bigger and better. This has led to the term “glorified 2Fort” and this couldn’t be more true. This map has quickly become one of my favorites and it’ll be on my rotation for sure.
The Verdict:
The Demoman’s new stuff have been kind of a letdown because it deviates a lot from what I believe the class should be about but the Soldier’s new weapons are ace. We got a solid CP map and an excellent CTF map. And the update is free. Even if I hated all of the content, it’s still free, meaty content for a 2+ year old game.
The verdict?
I fucking love Valve.
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