Spy

Thoughts On Current Design

Let's be honest with ourselves. There have been a lot of design decisions made by Valve throughout TF2's actively updated lifecycle where Spy was purposely given the short end of the stick and given obtuse amount of ways to counter him through revealing him through cloak and disguises via debuffs, sometimes even becoming the sole purpose for the weapon's existence (i.e. Southern Hospitality, Tribalman's Shiv, and more). It may have made sense back then to make those design decisions, but even Valve started realizing the effects it was having on Spy and introduced halved debuff timers while cloaked to help tone some of that back. I'm here to finish the job this time.

Reasons For Changes

Besides allowing Spy to use enemy dispensers without a disguise, and have even greater move speed (finally allowing him to catch up to Medics and just generally do his job better), the debuff immunity is simple in purpose. No more are the days where you can slap a debuff like bleed or afterburn on Spy and now he's helpless to his main ability to stay hidden from the enemy and becomes a guaranteed kill. It greatly aides Spy's matchup against Pyro in particular, making it far less one-sided. The one thing I did keep though was the liquid debuffs, as the main reason for them being a problem for Spy is the fact they're free to use and free to recharge (and are kinda overpowered in their own right), but being that this is a rebalance of the game and not just Spy, it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to nerf those weapons as I did and then proceed to still make them completely ineffective against Spy. That said, I do plan to keep the halved debuff duration while cloaked so that Spy still has an effective countermeasure to being revealed by those tools should a Scout, Sniper, or even Pyro with the Gas Passer decide to want to use their charged up secondary on that Spy specifically.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The stock revolver I feel could use more nowadays. It has already been baked-in with the ability to fake the reload animation of your current disguise, but it's hard to actually use this to your advantage with auto-reload on (which is the default nowadays) and the fact that the revolver reloads its whole clip at once, making individually reloading weapons like the Rocket Launcher only able to fake a single reload. It also is fairly accurate like the SMG, but it does still punish missing pretty harshly for a class that has little else to fight with. Let's allow it to have more in its favor.

Reasons For Changes

Besides removing the limitations on reloading while cloaked and making mimicking reloading on disguises far easier and applicable to more weapon types, the changes to the way bullet spread works are an improved version of the Ambassador's, allowing you easier access to more accurate shots by spacing your shots out rather than needing to wait the full 1.25 second cooldown, and making said cooldown only 1 second. This will make self-defense with the revolver or picking out targets who are tricky to backstab and require more than one revolver shot to take out much more practical.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Boy, do I have a lot to say about this gun! Get ready, because there's no "too long, didn't read" for this.

The Ambassador is a victim of the way critical damage works in TF2. It started with merely mini-critting on headshot, which is still a nifty +35% damage boost without fall-off, making it more efficient at picking off a single target in trade for worse self-defense. However, for the effort that it requires to make such an accurate shot without a scope like Sniper, Valve had to step it up and natural progression was to make it a full critical hit. A full-on +200% damage, with the only restraint being that full crits don't have damage ramp-up. This sealed the Ambassador's fate and made it basically a straight upgrade to stock in basically every situation that you can ask for, given that you can land the headshot, even with the nerf to make fall-off apply to critical damage.

I have two potential rebalances for this weapon. The first one... is going to be a complete rework from scratch. I am fully aware that a total rework is effectively deleting the original weapon off of the planet and merely keeping its existence in spirit alone, but I feel that the Ambassador cannot be rebalanced in a way that keeps it, stock, and the other damaging revolvers (Enforcer & Diamondback) in reasonable play for all skill levels, and I have rebalances for the other unlockables to keep the spirit of the Ambassador intact without the harm that the Ambassador brings to the stock revolver.

THAT SAID, I am fully aware as well that some folks simply do not care for that attitude. They want their precious headshot-focused damaging primary, because that's simply what they find fun about Spy. For those people, I will also provide my best effort for a theoretically rebalanced Ambassador that maintains its same role. Personally, I'm not as happy with it as the first idea, and the result is still likely going to end up the same as I outlined in the first paragraph, and as a consequence - either the Diamondback or Enforcer will see major changes to their designs in the Ambassador's place... but alas. I've been asked, and I shall provide. Here goes!

IDEA #1: Full Rework (What I Actually Want)

Reasons For Changes (IDEA #1)

This is a lot to take in, since it relies HEAVILY on my knife changes. I'll wait for you to read those before coming back to digest what this revolver all does.

Ready now? Excellent. This revolver is essentially 5 weapons in one, as its stats correlate to your choice of knife! ...Well, okay, maybe more like 4 weapons in one since the Kunai pairing isn't really viable (but the Kunai on its own is too good of an idea to pass up, and 4/5 is good enough for me). This provides a ton of variety to the game, and by my calculations, should be balanced for each non-Kunai melee pick, and also doesn't step on the toes of any other revolver choice in the process! What a steal!

IDEA #2: Proper Rebalance (Not What I Want, But Here Nonetheless)

Reasons For Changes (IDEA #2)

For some quick math, headshots scale from 118 damage at point blank range to 95 damage at medium range, down to 54 damage at max fall-off. This is an overall improvement from the current Ambassador's fall-off, but it now comes with the disadvantages of less damage at close range without a headshot, 3 shots, and a slower reload speed to make self-defense harder. It probably won't fix all of Spy's revolvers in the long run, but it's the best I've got given the limitations of what the current design is boxed into.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Diamondback is a disgusting excuse for a weapon. Similar in function to the Frontier Justice, you gain guaranteed crits on your primary for doing pretty much the exact same thing that you normally do, but at reduced effectiveness of that weapon without the crits. However, the difference between the two is quite evident:

Frontier Justice

1. Requires the sacrifice of your sentry to use crits

2. Requires being somewhat close to your target to make the crits do lethal damage

3. Has a meaningful downside of only half clip size

4. Crits are only obtained by smarter players who place their sentry in unexpected/effective areas

5. Weapon glows with crits when deployed

Diamondback

1. Requires no sacrifice and can use crits immediately after the kill

2. Crits always deal their max of 102 damage, regardless of distance

3. Has the meager -15% damage penalty as the only real downside

4. Crits can be obtained by any Spy who can play the class

5. Disguises completely hide the weapon and its crits

Even with all these problems, the Diamondback doesn’t end there! It also gets crits for buildings destroyed with your sapper attached to it, so if you backstab an Engineer and sap his nest, you get five guaranteed 102 damage shots to use at any time. Clearly, this crit storing mechanic needs to go.

Reasons For Changes

This new design helps make the Diamondback’s crits tolerable by making them only mini-crits and usable for just after the backstab. It encourages a more aggressive playstyle where you get a backstab and then fire a few mini-crit revolver shots at the remaining players.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Enforcer really doesn’t do anything that makes it worth equipping it. Sure, it can technically two-shot a light class, but so many other revolvers can too, and the slower firing speed kinda hurts this strategy. The damage piercing gimmick also leaves much to be desired when there's not much for it to pierce, and it doesn't even pierce the damage resistance revolvers specifically have towards sapped buildings! I'm going to make this damage-boosted revolver be more clear that it's there to deal more damage than stock.

Reasons For Changes

This new design goes a little back in time when the damage bonus was constant, at the cost of 0.5 seconds of longer cloak blink. That version was mostly balanced but was plagued with the unfortunate aspect of being a direct upgrade when running the Dead Ringer. This version doesn't have that issue and will officially bring a nice revolver to deal extra damage with, and will make the set item of the Big Earner more valuable to gain cloak on knife kills and vice versa to have better self-defense since you have only 100 health with that knife. I also included the inability to regenerate cloak while it's not fully loaded as to make sure that you can't regenerate cloak mid-fight and need to make sure to reload it before going back into hiding (made easier since you can now reload while cloaked).

Thoughts On Current Weapon

I hate trying to pronounce this revolver’s name as much as the next guy, but in terms of balancing, this revolver is easily used more often than stock is due to the simple fact that it gives Spy far, FAR more consistency with cloak at the trade of only a little bit of his revolver damage which doesn't come into play as often. Being that I plan to make the Invis Watches more consistent at base, this revolver no longer needs to serve that direct purpose.

Reasons For Changes

These changes make the L'Etranger more about being able to grab cloak from enemies at range, having more access to accurate shots and gaining even more cloak than before at the same cost of revolver damage. A better suited revolver post-Invis Watch buffs! I also gave it a headshot mechanic in place of the Ambassador to keep that skill around somewhere, while not punishing the enemy with additional damage taken for something they couldn't avoid. This runs as a win in my books!

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Spy's sapper is a great example of how to address potential balancing problems with specific class matchups via integrating solutions into the losing class's base kit. Without the sapper, Spy would be massively countered by Engineer, as Spy has effectively no way to deal with a sentry gun without it, and Spy oftentimes cannot survive fire from a sentry gun while going for a kill if it's already pointed at his general direction. This would compound to any area a sentry covers being Spy-proof, which snowballs into Spy getting less and less area to occupy and change his gameplan with to being an even less effective class than he is today. That all said, the sapper is actually a really, really good slot to do more experimental changes, being that it effectively cannot be used up by placing it on enemy buildings and therefore is always available, so let's do some of that!

Reasons For Changes

This new ability gives Spy even better reconnaissance, allowing him to see players and buildings through walls, which helps with his consistency when traveling across dangerous territory and gives Spies who communicate with their team the ability to call out positions super effectively. It also shows health values on enemies that you can see, allowing you to quickly see who might be a good target to take out with your revolver instead.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Red Tape Recorder is a cool looking weapon, but man, is it a complete failure, but it was almost inevitable. The stock sapper serves its purpose incredibly well, and alternatives to it are nigh-impossible to make balanced, fun to use, fair to fight, and unique all at the same time. Considering the Red Tape Recorder has almost never been valuable to Spy and is consistently more annoying to deal with than the standard sapper, I'll be doing something entirely new that takes advantage of the new stock mechanic!

Reasons For Changes

This new design allows you to sap Engineer buildings the same as stock while replacing the new ability. This one allows you to view the spectator cameras while being able to remain invisible while doing so. Though this is map-dependant for sure, a smart Spy can gain similar information while benefiting from the ability to act like the Cloak And Dagger with the other two watches, or having something to do while using the real Cloak And Dagger.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Spy's stock knife just... doesn't cut it anymore. Well, okay, yes it does cut - that's not the point - but unlocks (namely the Kunai) have shown that the full 125 HP Spy is rarely a necessity and a Spy running stock to have that just cannot function as well as one that can get On Kill benefits to mask an initial lowered max health penalty or even extend his killing spree by means of the Big Earner. It's also apparent that Spy dies really darn easily after getting a kill without the blanket of overwhelming safety that the Kunai provides. Though I'm not a fan of an unlock dominating a slot and certainly not a fan of a Spy instantly regaining all of his health plus an obscene amount of overheal just for backstabbing a Soldier, the Kunai has shown promise in that giving Spy survivability benefits post-stab DO contribute to a more active threat that can strike once, take some hurt while getting away, and strike again when the time is right. I believe it's time to start extending this courtesy over to more knives than just the one every Spy and Scout's mother out there uses.

Reasons For Changes

Although 50 health is nowhere close to the highs that the Kunai achieves (or even the minimum of 75 health), the fact of the matter is that you do start with 125 health with most knives, and being able to heal 50 health on top of that gives you the ability to take at least what the more proper combat classes found in Pyro and Demoman can before you die, which is extremely valuable on a class that notoriously struggles to get more than one surprise kill before reaching their untimely demise. It'll also make changing the Kunai easier, knowing that it is no longer a necessary unlock for Spy to have for this common purpose. ...Oh, and the 50 damage change? It'll make melee fights with Engineer and Sniper, very common situations, take only 3 knife hits to finish rather than 5, a vast improvement that'll help decrease the obvious disadvantage Spy has in these engagements.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Though I normally despise the idea of only having a small health penalty as the only downside to a weapon, the Big Earner is actually pretty decent at making it balanced, granting the user a high speed boost for scoring a kill with it and even more cloak than normal on top of that. It's worth mentioning as well that Spy does have damage mitigation in the form of cloak and the new stock change to gain 50 health on a successful backstab kill, so he's not entirely ineffective against classes that are able to one-shot someone with 100 health. This is one of the rare times I'm keeping an unlockable weapon unchanged. However, there is one other weapon I'd like to include in the discussion.

Reasons For Changes

As said in the change list, when the Sharp Dresser exists for the stock Knife, I do not see why the Black Rose can't be a reskin of something else.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Kunai has essentially become Spy's stock knife. With how easy it is to kill a Spy regardless of their starting health, losing some max health before getting your first backstab isn't a big deal, especially when you're instantly rewarded with a bunch of health that makes that health penalty null as soon as your knife enters someone's back, which makes it child's play to escape or go for a chainstab even if you're caught. It also heavily overlaps its downside with the Big Earner and completely overshadows it as a result. Being that I buffed stock to lessen the need of this knife to carry Spy, and in the interest of trying not to work with a snowball-like design that basically deletes its own downside after just one successful kill on a class that excels at getting at least one kill, I'll be reworking it into something new.

Reasons For Changes

These new changes make for a knife that specializes in stealthy, single target elimination. Just like the new description states, your goal with this knife is to backstab an enemy who won't immediately scream out bloody murder, and be able to make your getaway before that eventually does happen. It does come packaged with downsides that make it a great deal harder to take out more than one target, but if the situation does still pop up, you can avoid triggering the upside by not being disguised and only deal with the slow attack speed penalty. Still less efficient than your other options, but it's not entirely hopeless if you need to do it, making for a balanced and fun package. "Fun" emphasized with the anime-style backstab death animation + player gib!

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Spy-Cicle is not something I was entirely against for a long time, even though it's blatantly a class-counter and nothing else. Unlike a majority of weapons designed to only target one class, it was in a matchup that genuinely was poorly balanced from the get-go. Pretty much any Spy player can tell you how painful the Spy v Pyro matchup is, and the Spy-Cicle addresses it almost perfectly. The Spy is able to actually get away for once in a fair manner, but the Pyro gets to hear the distinct melting sound and has removed the Spy's ability to go for his instant kill backstab for a few seconds at least. It also came with the victims turning into ice downside that made sure it wasn't just stock but better against Pyros that is super unique and works only because it's on Spy.

All of that said, I have now come to understand that though this design was nice, problems like that in which the Spy-Cicle addresses are best done at the stock/base class level rather than forcing players to equip a specific weapon to deal with a problem. Being that I've done just that by making Spy fireproof like Pyro is, the Spy-Cicle has no need to serve that purpose anymore, and I'll take the opportunity to rework this weapon into something more universally applicable.

Reasons For Changes

This new version is a fairly simple weapon that allows a more active Spy to be able to use their sapper ability more frequently (as long as they get a backstab, otherwise it's slower) while keeping the dynamic of being able to silence victim's screams but leaving the unmistakable calling card of one human-shaped ice statue at the scene. I'm not 100% sure this is fully balanced compared to stock, but I do believe that it's pretty close.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The YER has always been an unfortunate weapon. For its initial release until Jungle Inferno, it was impossible to get a disguise without backstabbing someone first, which is way harder than it might seem. Then Jungle Inferno at least gave it the ability to do just that, but... now it has +33% cloak drain rate, massively reducing Spy's ability to go where he needs to. Being that this is Spy's main stealth knife, best used in group chainstabs, and that my reworked Kunai is now Spy's single-target stealth knife, I believe I know just what to do.

Reasons For Changes

This version of the YER gets the best of both worlds - the ability to have no cloak drain penalty and the ability to disguise when needed. The new downsides makes the group stab plays that the YER is known for not get affected by it, along with the plays to stab an Engi in range of his sentry but also too far away to sap it after stabbing them. They'll punish singular plays still as intended, being that's what the new Kunai is for, but this makes for a great package for the Spy who's well-tuned with disguises and ready to take that manipulation to the next level.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Invis Watch is the core of Spy and how he's ever able to function, and yet was the one ability they didn't showcase in Meet The Spy... oh well. It serves its purpose pretty well, but I think any Spy would be glad if it were just a little more reliable, especially without the L'Etranger to hard carry.

Reasons For Changes

Descriptions are highly valuable to new players, and the buffs will make it a little easier for Spy to do his job. 2 extra seconds to position himself before he's forced to decloak is great on its own, but not accidently having disguise smoke follow you around when cloaking and being able to recharge your watch naturally faster will allow you to not have to stand around as long recharging (especially handly in ammo-scarce maps).

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Though the Cloak And Dagger encourages a play style of doing literally nothing, its purpose is clear - it's Spy's best watch for guaranteeing the perfect position and timing, but takes longer for the Spy to travel longer distances and requires him to engage in a minigame of figuring out spots where he can stand still and not get bumped into while he waits to recharge. However, even though this purpose is extremely solid and can do the job especially well in maps that don't have many ammo packs to utilize, the sheer time it takes to get from A to B is pretty extreme with the current version. I believe it's a good plan to keep the same core concept in place while making this dynamic not so lop-sided.

Reasons For Changes

I think this settles for a really nice alternative to stock. You only have 8 seconds of cloak instead of 12 seconds and regain less from packs (which you can pick up while invisible now!), but you can also stand still and recharge in a record breaking time of 8 seconds from the current agonizing 15 seconds. This is a large buff but well-deserved.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

I'm not afraid to say it. The Dead Ringer has run its course and it's time for it to leave. Though faking your death fits Spy incredibly well and is genuinely a great concept on paper, in practice for more than a decade, the Dead Ringer has proven to be nothing short of a complete disaster of an unlock that poisoned the game to the point where it doesn't even need to be used to harm the game! The truth is that the counterplay of the Dead Ringer is to ALWAYS assume that a Spy you killed wasn't actually dead (as long as you didn't personally witness them manually cloak) and to continue attacking the area around with that assumption. This simple act results in two things: 1.) This wastes time when the Dead Ringer isn't in play, yet is a must even if it's annoying, and 2.) The Dead Ringer's entire gimmick is nullified when it is used that it's forced to have incredibly high resistances and speed when activated so that the Spy using it doesn't just die to this simple tactic. It's a frustrating unlock to fight, intrinsically underpowered at base and requires extreme counterbalancing to be viable, is extremely braindead and thereby boring to use, and discourages stealthy and skilled play since it lacks manual cloak and is triggered by letting yourself get hit. With all of that said, my goal when reworking it is to make sure that though it may lose its signature ability out of necessity, it shouldn't lose its use cases in the process - so let's try a watch that can get you in and out of tough situations.

Reasons For Changes

With the simple removal of feign death, you can now be 100% sure that the Spy you killed is dead, greatly improving the game! ...Ahem, as for the new version itself, it's still good as an escape tool as before with the damage resistance (though obviously not as ostensibly so) and can get you into the position you want faster with the speed boost while cloaked. This comes at the disadvantage of having a good deal less cloak to work with, as a third of the cloak you had before use is immediately drained and you can't extend its lifespan by picking up ammo until you uncloak, which would naturally mean reactivating the third remaining cloak drain when you go to use it again. This will roughly serve the same purposes the current Dead Ringer does while being markedly healthier for the game.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Disguises, even if they are far from foolproof, DO work better than no disguise at all, and are the second important part to make sure Engineer doesn't counter Spy with a single sentry gun. That's common sense though, so instead let's fix a few weird parts of the disguise kit that make very little sense.

Reasons For Changes

These changes are there to make weapon effects towards disguised Spies not able to reveal a Spy just because you were able to do knockback or your On Hit effect triggered, while also making weapons with On Hit effects still able to trigger at least once if you kill the Spy with the weapon. It's not much, but as per usual, Spy being more consistent is overall a good thing.