Since my ISP is being it's usual temperamental self and cutting my download rate to less than 3 Kb/s (I kid you not), I thought I'd write my first blog here. I'm an avid TF2 player, and I spend a lot of my time thinking about playing it as well. There are some things that I like to call my "opinions" that I'd like to share.

Now that that's over, I'll explain what this is all about. I'm not going to rain love upon the best parts of Team Fortress 2, nor yell out criticisms at it. Instead, I'll offer my thoughts on the balance of the game, and what I think might be done, or should be done, to improve it. I'll go through by the classes, because I have lots of pretty pictures to share with you all.

Scout



First off the bat, it's the scout, and a terrible pun. Boink!

His main problem is his lack of stamina. It is far too easy to kill the scout, and even though he can outrun the other classes, that doesn't stop them from taking him out with one shot of anything. His main use is in rushes where there are few of the other team, to capture points. The scout needs to have some sort of cover in order to succeed, and when playing, he just doesn't receive that. Perhaps Valve need to make him even faster, or make his gun better at longer range. It is supposed to be good at short range, but the fact is, you can't get close to another person without their superior ranged projectile hitting you in the face and killing you. Hopefully when Valve release his updated weapons then he will become worth using. I know there are some awesome scout players out there, but I have beeplaying for the entire lifespan of the game, and only ever seen a handful of them.

Soldier



Every one of you deserves a medal! For reading this far into my blog! (Deserving something doesn't necessarily mean you'll get it.)

The Soldier is more suited to the Well and Granary type maps, with open areas and large spaces to advance in. This is what the soldier needs; big playgrounds for rockets to run rampant. This means that on the tighter maps like Dustbowl and, to an extent, Badlands, the soldier loses his ability to control space. I feel that he's pretty balanced, but as I say, his best features are lost on some maps, which means he ends up being okay at best. To remedy this, his secondary weapon needs to be buffed, although not by much. A faster rate of fire would help a lot for him in tighter spaces, not necessarily more damage.

Pyro


[i]
[Insert muffled piece of text that plays on the joke that you can't hear what the Pyro says properly here- it's hilarious!][/i]

The Pyro is pretty well balanced, I'd say. Not a point- scoring class, but certainly one that can push back an entire team in fear of the flame. I think the range of the flame should be increased by a small amount, so that the pyro has more options while retreating. The shotgun is too slow, and it makes the pyro easy to kill. The strength of the pyro is to confuse and disorientate the other team, and he only ends up doing this by surprising them. On so many maps now, people check every corner for pyros and the like, because they've gotten used to them hiding there and killing them. This means that the pyro needs to get something to compensate for this, like a more ranged weapon to take people out that they know are heading their way. A variant of the pistol, with havier firepower, would fit quite well, I think.

Demoman



He can call you a "lactating wet nurse" and get away with it. You know he's a badass.

The demoman is my class of choice, so I'm biased into thinking he's perfectly balanced and needs no changes. Well, that's almost right. The nerf when they took half his ammo away was a good move for game balance, but man do I miss those extra bombs. He's still a force on any map, and those crits of his are lethal. It's possible that he might be too good, with two sets of explosives, but I think that his lack of a sidearm, like the shotgun or pistol, makes up for this and provides balance.

Heavy



Cry some more about what I'm about to say.

The heavy is overrated. He's slow and doesn't do enough damage to justify the slowness. He does have a lot of health, though, so that sort of makes up for it but sort of doesn't. First of all, he needs to be immune to headshots. Currently, the only way to avoid a headshot kill is to have a medic, since the headshot crit does 300 damage. I think the headshot crit should do 299 damage or something, so that the heavy is vulnerable, but not out of it completely. He is really strong in small areas, though, where he doesn't have to walk much and he can clear a room out really fast. It's just open areas that he really struggles, and for this reason I think he shouldn't have a shotgun but instead something with a bit more range. Overall though he's pretty balanced, despite some people thinking he is so almightly and brilliant.

Engineer



Yipikee-yi-yay-pi-ai-kai-oh! We're more than halfway!

Sentries. They aren't as good any more. They used to be the ultimate stopping power, holding down a control point until the other team managed to build up a proper ubercharged army. Now, though, people have learned. They've learned how to get rid of them so easily, they don't even need an uber any more. Because of this, the sentry needs to get better- not on firepower, they still kill super fast- but on lifespan. Nowadays, sentries last for around 3 kills. Back in the day, they would last an entire game, with 20-something kills. Maybe they could just make dispensers better, so the engineer protecting the sentry has more health and metal. I don't know what they'll do, but I'm pretty sure they'll do something.

Medic



He is the ubermensch!

The medic is getting his updates this week, probably by the time you read this, so I wont go too far into it- for his job on the team, he is fine. He's balanced, and does his job well. He's not suited for killing, but he's there to help others do that for him, so there are no problems with him. It's a shame he's boring to play as sometimes, but with the achievements he should get some playtime back.

Sniper



Standing around like a bloody idiot.

Since they added the 200 millisecond delay before your shot hits the target, I just can't get kills with the sniper any more. He used to be one of my best classes, but I just can't deal with the delay. I know people have learned, and are great with him now, but he was still nerfed too much. He might have been too powerful, but people are better at dodging him now, so why nerf him? Hopefully when he gets his new gun/s, he will be better for me again. Currently, he's a tough one to learn and a tougher one to relearn.

Spy



No silly caption here, look at the picture some more. The spy is crapping himself!

The spy is fine. The frontstabs that count as backstabs are annoying, but it's not a big enough problem to be a major issue. I think his major problem now is that everyone expects spies, all the time. you used to be able to sneak around undetected, even get ubered sometimes. Now, you're never allowed to go anywhere without being caught out. It's hardly a problem for the best spies out there, but there really is nothing anyone can do about people being more vigilant. Perhaps make his cloak acivate and eactivate faster so you can blend into a crowd better.

Well, that wraps up my little write-up of the ins and outs of the balance in Team Fortress 2. Thanks for reading. Feel free to pick me up on my crappy opinions, but don't yell at me telling me I'm stupid, because I'll ignore you, and you will cry and not be able to sleep because you never managed to provoke me.



Bonk.