Scout

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Valve's decision to give Scout a better version of the shotgun rather than the useless weapons he used to bolster was an incredibly good decision that made him so much more fun and viable outside of the niche objective-focused design he already had. But... I'm of the opinion that it's too good - particularly in the ammo department. With such a high clip size, reserve ammo pool, rapid reload speed (especially compared to other primary weapons) and Scout's speed and playstyle causing him to run into ammo packs constantly, it's rare to ever see a Scout who is having issues with his Scattergun ammo when running stock. This may be a hot take to start off the Scout page of all things, but sometimes you need to put your best foot forward first.

Reasons For Changes

The description is nice, and though I did lower the reserve ammo capacity by a sizable amount, it should almost never come into play considering Scout is the fastest class in the game and therby the fastest at grabbing ammo packs and already specializes in close-quarters combat to quickly grab ammo packs from his victims. The bigger change here is the lowering of the clip size, which will make it harder for Scout to deal with groups of enemies and take out large health foes in one encounter without needing backup from his secondary. This should help introduce some of the reloading weakness back into Scout that his fellow power classes of Soldier and Demo share while not altering his excellence in 1v1 encounters.

I should note as well that I'm not doing this because I hate Scout specifically. In fact, I spent a good part of a year with Scout as my "main" and quite enjoyed my time (though ultimately, like every other class, I never ended up sticking with one main even after forcing myself to play as each of them primarily unless the game otherwise necessitated another). Rather: this is the first step of many in toning down the strongest classes to give other classes the opportunity to stand a fighting chance. Soldier, Demoman, and especially Medic and Sniper all stand clearly above the other classes, and Scout does to an extent as well. I even spent a week or so playing Scout pretending that the Scattergun only had 4 clip size and he's still absolutely playable. So, yes, I do think that this is a reasonable direction to start with.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Currently, the Baby Face’s Blaster is a great tool for a Scout who wishes to be even better at dodging and maneuvering around enemies. However, the rate at which it builds and loses its Boost is extremely slim - 100 damage to build which you can achieve in a single shot at point blank and 25 damage to lose it all which is pretty much a given from every damage source, making Boost extremely volatile.

Reasons For Changes

By massively increasing the margins required to both gain and lose Boost, the boost meter being an extremely temporary increase in speed is now a thing of the past. If you're able to keep up dealing damage while utilizing your speed to avoid most incoming damage, you'll be able to maintain your speed! As for maximum Boost being tied to your current health, this acts similarly to taking damage to lose Boost, but allows for more error when you're starting out and makes a Medic buddy actually have value, though not to an absurd amount due to Medic's nerfs (see his page for more details). Finally, letting the user not take fall damage will allow you to safely fall long distances without needing to double jump like other Scout weapons would let you do; it's a surprisingly useful benefit for the weapon.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Rewarding Scouts that flank and get behind the enemy with mini-crits on their primary, but reduced effectiveness otherwise is something that seems great on paper. However, in practice via the Back Scatter, it ends up behind the stock Scattergun (even when you utilize the mini-crits) due to the accuracy penalty. Even though it’s a mere 20% difference, it makes mid-range meatshots a dream of the past and greatly reduces the power of the mini-crit shots unless you make them point blank. I think exchanging the downsides and slightly improving back shots will go a long way here.

Reasons For Changes

Flipping the accuracy penalty to an accuracy bonus and lowering damage done from the front makes it so that the mini-crit shots can be worth utilizing from a further distance while still being a small bit worse for standard combat. In addition, the problem of people turning around after the first mini-crit shot and being able to completely avoid further mini-crits is mitigated by temporarily marking them for death after being shot from behind (mind, it only comes to being +8% damage with the front damage penalty to keep it in check). It also offers a slight support role by marking enemies your teammates are currently attacking. This will make it feel more like a side-grade to stock rather than a worse gun that forces you to play better to get the same results.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Force-A-Nature is a weapon that did too much for its own good. The fast firing speed and knockback on shooter are amazing abilities that allow you to be more mobile and get those two-shot kills very quickly... in theory. Unfortunately, it also causes enemies to be knocked back. This means by the time you're going to fire the second shot to finish the kill, the enemy has already flew backwards out of your effective range unless you got them pinned up against a wall. I'd rather see this weapon be simpler so that its roles don't get in the way of each other like it does now.

Reasons For Changes

A far simpler weapon that isn't muddled with the mostly disadvantageous enemy knockback. Now can be used like the current Soda Popper for those quick two-shot kills and provides some added mobility out of combat, but will struggle against higher health targets more and can cause you to propel yourself away from the enemy while jumping when you might not want to.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

I played with the Shortstop quite a lot during the time Scout was my "main", though my experience didn't much line up with what it was intended to be: a mid-range Scattergun. Rather, a particular unfortunate default setting affects the Shortstop arguably more than any other weapon in the game - random bullet spread. When longer range attacks are only dealing 12, 24, or rarely 36 damage... yeah, it ain't worth the effort. On top of that the odd shove gimmick leaves much to desire and only really serves to push people off cliffs. To add insult to injury, the reload speed feels really darn slow and leaves you significantly more vulnerable than the standard reloading Scatterguns. Thankfully, I've addressed random spread in the General page, so let's see about those other shortcomings.

Reasons For Changes

I decided to buff the shove instead of removing it, as you might see. Though I don't disagree with removing it, the shove does have potential to pair with the main weapon's use of being used at mid-range, especially if the person you're shoving doesn't fight well at that range. Making it stronger, more versatile, and have longer reach would make it more handy than it currently is now. As for the main weapon, having fixed spread and a faster reload are super significant in boosting its performance, and are more than enough to make the weapon good at what it's supposed to do.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Not only does the current Soda Popper put the Force-A-Nature to absolute shame with better stats and a HYPE meter on top of that, but it even competes with stock to the extent that their sustained DPS is almost the same. Now that's definitely pushing what makes a Scout primary balanced.

Reasons For Changes

The Soda Popper being more centered more around HYPE was the key to making it not just another Force-A-Nature. I did this by making the benefit remove your need to reload briefly, which is far more enticing than just a bunch of extra jumps. I then lowered the power of the base weapon quite a bit to make it weaker than stock and the FaN at base, though still definitely in the competition with it being able to charge the HYPE ability for stronger plays.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Bonk... is a generally inoffensive weapon that, in my experience, doesn't get used too often. Though handy for distracting the enemy team for a few seconds and tank fire, this strategy often doesn't end up contributing too much to the fight since you can't do any fighting yourself. You can also use it to attempt to brute force your way through the enemy lines and flank, but this really doesn't work too often as the enemy team can send one or more members to chase you, and simply resume their normal activities. (It's also worth mentioning here that the slowdown would further weaken this strategy, but repeatedly using the strafe keys will greatly reduce the slowdown effect so it really doesn't do much). Yet, despite those two use cases being not that strong, what it DOES do exceedingly well is being a get out of jail free card. It takes just a little more than a second to consume (certainly a low enough amount of time to duck in a nearby corner and get the effects rolling before the enemy catches up) and bam! You're now completely invincible! Who cares you're at super low health? You can now freely ignore all damage taken and either heal up or get to safety before the enemy can possibly have a say against it. This use case is extremely annoying to fight against and there is almost nothing you can do about it - especially since the drink meter charges with time (nearly half of which is already charged from using the thing).

As a result, my goal with the balance changes is to make sure that the former two use cases can be made more effective while also allowing the enemy to have some say when a Scout uses their Bonk to get out of a bad situation. Here's what I've got to achieve that.

Reasons For Changes

If you happened to read the Thoughts On Current Weapon section, you should be pretty caught up to what the goal of these changes are. This version of Bonk lets the Scout contribute more to fights (albeit with limited firepower since you can only use your melee weapon) while using it to distract the enemy team and tank incoming damage and succeed more often when attempting to flank for the same reason. However, it now requires damage to charge, making it no longer a free bonus to use out of spawn and lowers repeated use, and no longer provides full invulnerability so that it's still possible to kill a Scout at low health using it to escape a bad situation. On top of this, I have also made it possible to drink Bonk without a full charge meter at the cost of reduced resistances from the full charge to make it more versatile and let the Scout use it in more situations that may call for it. This should help balance out Bonk's use cases to be more spread out, make it more fightable, and make it more fun and involved for the user.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Crit-A-Cola is infamous by now for its longstanding title of "Weakest Overpowered Weapon". Though in theory, free mini-crits are absolutely insane for Scout, the Mark-For-Death can end up making the effects hard to abuse. I believe that it needs to be a little less extreme.

Reasons For Changes

I believe that a good degree of the chargeable items in the game like the Crit-A-Cola should be charged by dealing damage or through other ways rather than purely waiting. As in regards to its effect, I changed it to the more simple 25% reduction in reload time and attack cooldown but 25% more damage taken during effects. This still allows it to be strong and have the same dynamic of being more powerful but dying more easily while you are buffed. This should hopefully make the Crit-A-Cola less extreme and more fun.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

As my go-to Scout secondary, it's pretty clear to me how ridiculous the 5.1 second recharge is, and how pointless the 1.5 second faster recharge at long distance hits is. As a replacement to the pistol that can deal big damage over 5 seconds and recharge in that time, it needs a slower recharge and changes in a few other areas.

Reasons For Changes

12 seconds (or 8 if you hit) should be suitable for waiting for this weapon to recharge. That way, in most combat situations, you should only be able to use the cleaver once during the fight, but still be able to recharge it in a fast enough manner where the next fight will have the cleaver recharged. Having a longer recharge also makes throwing it at some random enemy for no reason but to deal damage have more risk. I have also reduced the effectiveness of long-distance hits, as it really shouldn’t be a Scout secondary’s place to deal 90 damage from someone far away. This should hopefully keep it in-tone with other options by not being constantly available.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

A strong debuff splash of [REDACTED] that almost guarantees that anyone who gets coated in its ellusive substance can no longer win a fight. It also extinguishes fires and only takes a mere 20 seconds to recharge. For being a trade from using a pistol, this definitely is among the highest when it comes to being the least effort required for high rewards. High enough to decimate an entire team fight if done right, even. I think it's in its best interest to be similarly toned back like the sodas were, but to a larger extent considering its sheer power.

Reasons For Changes

This will hopefully make it so that the Mad Milk isn’t as spammable or so long lasting, while allowing it to have major playmaking potential when used in a skilled player's hands.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

When deciding to use a pistol, the choice between this and the stock pistol is obvious. It’s always going to be the Pocket Pistol. The clip size penalty and firing speed bonus pretty much cancel each other out due to the quick reload speed of pistols, and it also provides a minor amount of healing. The only thing stock does better is killing enemies that end up taking exactly 10-12 bullets to kill, and even there the Pocket Pistol isn't far behind and still is providing free health. Although many rebalances I've seen just slap on a damage penalty and call it a day, that just creates a really boring unlock. Rather, I have a better idea in mind.

Reasons For Changes

The Pocket Pistol being a “Quick, heal me and get a few bullets in that guy!” is a great concept for a pistol. The problem was that it didn't really emphasize on this idea and slacked off when it came to the penalties. Thus, I have upped the extremity of the existing stats to make them more prevalent and added a large reload speed penalty to make the clip size penalty matter. This should make it a good side grade to the stock pistol, neither of which invalidate the other.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

I'll be honest: I don’t ever use the Winger. It’s fine at what it does, though. It provides the utility use of a higher jump height while trading off a large part of the pistol's power. However, I think it's safe to say that the execution could be better.

 Reasons For Changes

Might as well make that jump height more accessible, plus it’s much easier to just have an extra bullet to work with compared to the +15% extra damage.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Scout's stock melee is... oddly a downgrade from every other class's. Sure, it may swing faster, but its damage is significantly lower, making it not only have worse damage over time, but it's rather lacking when it comes to the one thing Scout might want from his stock melee - the ability to finish someone off. All of Scout's primary unlocks have clip size penalties (and I just made 4 clip the standard), and a few of them have longer reload times as a result of reloading all at once! ...But doing 35 damage once or maybe twice in the time it could have taken to reload your primary and just shoot the guy is not often what you need. I think it should act more like the other melee weapons.

Reasons For Changes

These stats do lower the overall DPS by a small amount. However, by having a higher flat damage, it's more valuable as a finisher, and having that instead of swing speed often works better in melee fights. After all, a fast swing speed forces you to stay close to the enemy to maximize DPS compared to retreating after each hit to allow your swing to hit but not the enemy's - a skill that Scout and his superior mobility is already good at. Additionally, because it does better initial damage, it actually takes several swings for the current bat to catch up so it's a buff in most circumstances, and most notably so in the one area it needs most.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Atomizer (before being nerfed in Jungle Inferno) was the utility Scout melee. Understandably, it wasn't balanced at all to have what was effectively an entirely hidden extra jump in combat at the cost of 10 health per use and a tiny melee damage penalty and attack speed penalties which did not matter, but Valve's solution to it didn't end up feeling satisfying in the least. When a utility weapon takes as long to "activate" as the Atomizer does, it becomes really hard to find time in combat to use it effectively, save for clearing specific map obstacles that require the triple jump. Also, as shrug-off-able as the old combat downsides were, at least they existed. The current Atomizer still manges to be a sidegrade at worst to the stock bat of doing a tiny bit more damage as long as you remain airborne when you hit the enemy. I believe the best way to deal with this weapon is to go back to its roots and address readability while also providing a real downside.

Reasons For Changes

When Valve changed the Atomizer's stats, it was for the purpose of readability. However, it made using the triple jump mid-fight more or less a complete joke. Spending nearly a full second to deploy the weapon before you could even perform it meant that you couldn't possibly react with a triple jump to avoid damage, in addition to spending an additional half second switching back to your previous weapon, resulting in it being exclusively used for map navigation... and yet also managed to be a better melee weapon with the mini-crits allowing it to overcome its damage penalty. This version aims to return to the old version while fixing its flaws of unreadability via adding purple smoke to all jumps and having the real downside of damaging the Scout before the triple jump actually happens.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

To be perfectly fair, the Boston Basher is... kinda a straight upgrade. Not the biggest one, mind, but as long as you don't swing mindlessly and instead individually click for each swing, it's unlikely that you'll ever hit yourself, while you get free bleed on your melee and the ability to damage yourself on purpose to aid a Medic's charge rate or as pseudo triple jump. Being as stock is important in my books, the Boston Basher has to be addressed some.

Reasons For Changes

These changes (or moreso the lack of keeping with the medium of stock bat changes) mean that the Boston Basher has a higher DPS than the stock bat and can cause bleeding. However, you'll need to keep up with the faster swing speed and still watch out for misses hitting yourself, allowing it to not always be better than stock. Speaking of misses, they now also cost you a shot in your primary to use, making using it during downtime to help build your Medic's Übercharge have a cost and associated risk - having an unloaded primary weapon is the last thing you want to have when you get into combat!

Thoughts On Current Weapon

My personal go-to melee weapon for Scout. It allows him to heal off of his kills while also making him a one-hit for close-range rockets and direct grenades. A fair trade-off in my opinion, though there are a few ways to improve its design.

Reasons For Changes

Although originally a joke stat for some Smissmiss-themed cosmetics, jingle all the way ironically enough is an intuitive and fitting way to solve the Candy Cane's problem of having completely passive stats but no way of telling whether a Scout has it or not, and it gives proper room for a buff - specifically, making the kits dropped give more health and can no longer be picked up by enemies. This allows the Candy Cane to be stronger to use and more fair to the enemy.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Fan O’War sounds like a fun idea on paper - Scout is great at close range, so why not allow him to mark a player for an extended period of time with a melee weapon to let them take more damage? Unfortunately, in practice, it's just riskier to do that routine compared to firing your primary instead for pretty much the same reward - just with the enemy having less health from, y'know, taking a point blank shot. It's worth noting as well that though it takes a short time to holster your weapon, it's still not mathematically worth it to spend the time using the Fan O'War just to kill a target easier on your own in part because it's ironically slower than just firing your primary (0.2 seconds from intially swinging until the attack actually goes through + 0.5 sec holster > 0.625 sec firing time). I think with the Scatterguns having a lower ammo capacity does open up more chances for a Scout to want to save on ammo by substituting one with a melee swing, but the Fan O'War certainly needs more than that to thrive.

Reasons For Changes

These changes allow the Scout to take out his next weapon to follow up on the Mark-For-Death faster, along with the damage being a consistent -50%. However, I also made it so that the agonizing 15 second debuff timer can be removed by killing the Scout who did the marking. This will make it a little more useful for the Scout using it on his own merit to save on Scattergun ammo by making it slightly faster than the firing speed of most Scatterguns, but also make the Mark-For-Death effect fairer to the target.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Thankfully this weapon no longer stuns! However, the slow effect feels unhelpful to the Scout using the Sandman and still is unfun to the poor sap who got hit, even if it's significantly more fair than the stun or unarmed states beforehand. I think it's best that it takes a less... sadistic approach to weapon design and become handy again without mainly stemming from the enemy's pain.

Reasons For Changes

As I thought about other potential debuffs to apply instead of a slow effect, I realized something. Debuffs aren’t fun! I then took a new avenue of thinking - how about buffs on hit instead? Then it hit me. Ouch. ...Ahem, I thought: what about a speed bonus for hitting the baseball? This would achieve a similar purpose to the slowdown but would feel more rewarding to the user while also being not-so annoying to get hit by. I also changed the penalty to be less extreme version of the original downside of no double jump. This still is a penalty that the enemy can take advantage of, but it also is more managable to the Scout player than -15 max health is.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Here's some fun trivia! Both the Sun-On-A-Stick and Sharpened Volcano Fragement weren't originally going to have unique stats, and rather just be reskins. The SoaS specifically was going to be a Boston Basher reskin. However, for whatever reason Valve decided against this and whipped up the most basic two-stat weapon a fire mace could have and put it in the game. After years of being one of the most pointless additions stat-wise to the game, it got some attention with a fire resistance while active! ...Which became clear after about 3 days that it barely helps compared to Scout's other utility weapons. I think it's fairly clear this weapon needs some refocusing and actually let its crits be, y'know, actually possible to get without outside assistance.

Reasons For Changes

Seeing as Scout is the one who utilizes ball-launching melees, the Sun-On-A-Stick can very well inherit this ability and be able to finally ignite enemies to use the 100% critical hits vs burning players upside without needing help from a friendly Pyro or other fire-related sources. However, it now also extinguishes enemies, so the crit is a one-time use, and it also deals less damage at base. Additionally, the Alt-Fire comes at the cost of igniting yourself for a short while. Overall, it can deal more damage than stock for the first hit, but you'll be igniting yourself in the process and need to hit the mini-sun, too.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Wrap Assassin, though it does completely butcher its melee damage, has a strong Alt-Fire ability. In fact, this Alt-Fire ability puts the stock bat to complete shame - especially considering that Scout's bat rarely comes out to begin with. In fact, to remind of the Thoughts On Current Weapon about the stock bat, Scout's most useful aspect to find from his melee is to finish off an enemy when he runs out of ammo. The Wrap Assassin, despite it's penalty, manages to not only do it better, but then also mitigate that purpose by allowing you to use the ornament to start a fight and get its full damage in over the course of the fight. Considering that I'm trying to put stock back into the competition, and that the Sun-On-A-Stick now also has a ball launch with additional damage over time, the Wrap Assassin has to not infringe on the stock bat nearly as much as it does now while also being unique enough compared to the Sun-On-A-Stick.

Reasons For Changes

If the problem lies in the Alt-Fire ability being too free, then the solution is to make you earn it! Now you have to kill Wrap Assassinate someone in order to get your festive ornaments. The damage from the ornament has been increased as well to be consistent, though I also added a hefty deploy speed penalty to really hammer in the idea that it's for starting a fight and not as your last resort.