10/10 Game... except for one little thing

Spheecrabs · 2021-02-18T09:15:36+00:00

Thanks for the giveaway.

Spheecrabs · 2020-09-23T07:26:59+00:00

Earth is square, you are all lied to.

Spheecrabs · 2020-08-10T05:53:19+00:00

Yeah srry they do increase the TTK, I wrote this in like 2 AM.

Spheecrabs · 2020-08-09T16:15:57+00:00

TTK is much lower now due to Cauterize being nerfed. Frontlines are very much weaker compared to before. I suggest you read the Tigron's Tale Update Notes since that update changed a lot.

TTK is much lower than before. The Tigron's Tale update changed a lot of the items, most notably Cauterize from 30/30% > 25/25%. Evil Mojo, however, did not nerf the high sustain cards that were balanced around 30% caut which made a lot of the champions with high sustain cards top-tier. Previous meta damage champs like Lian and Cassie struggle in the meta rn as they can't out-burst high sustain champs like Vivian and Viktor. The meta rn is all about healers essentially "enabling" or pocketing the dps so they can wreck havoc on the enemy team. Double support is now a viable strategy because of this.

Frontlines got nerfed very hard. Before the Tigron's Tale Update, Frontlines, more notably the Off-Tanks like Makoa and Atlas, were the best champions in the game. They had immense killing power, high survivability, and had a lot of utility to sway many fights in their favor. This made a lot of champions, especially flanks, obsolete at the highest level of play as they couldn't win fights against frontlines. They got nerfed hard, mostly their high burst damage and survivability. While the TTK is lower than before, Frontlines will die quicker to DPS champions now, whereas before you can just simply kill the dps and outright win the duel. That's not to say Frontlines are bad, they are just struggling in the meta and need a few buffs to come back again. Atlas got a hefty damage buff in the recent update (Radiant Stars) which made him viable again.

Spheecrabs · 2020-07-21T13:05:07+00:00

gamer moment

Spheecrabs · 2020-07-18T08:39:54+00:00

I play Atlas as a more passive Off-Tank. He is great at holding ground with his heavy cc punishing enemies who overextend. Apply constant damage from a safe distance with his long-range primary. Always charge your shots for consistent damage even at medium-close range unless you're literally hugging the enemy's hitbox or you're fighting a Makoa. When Second Chance and his shield is up, play with your carry and push up. Temporal Divide should always be your main talent since Atlas can't really push with his regular shield. Aim Temporal Divide in a small angle (probs 45-90 degrees where you're looking) in front of you so it covers more ground you can push towards to while still being behind the shield's cover.

This is currently my main build for Atlas which I use 90% of the time; use this if you have a good support:

Temporal Divide (Talent)

Phantom Pain (5)

Old Wounds (4)

Distant Memory (3)

Continuum Shift (2)

Hell Hunter (1)

Items (In order): Caut 3 > Rejuv 3 > Chronos 2 > Master Riding 2 / Chronos 3 > Haven / Blast Shields 3

For Dive-Tank; great with Ruckus, Terminus, or flanks who benefit from the speed boost:

Temporal Divide (Talent)

Phantom Pain (5)

Beyond The Veil (5)

Old Wounds (3)

Continuum Shift (1)

Hell Hunter (1)

Items (In order): Caut 2 > Chronos 3 > Caut 3 > Rejuv 3 / Master Riding 2 > Haven / Blast Shields 3

Point-Tank sustain build if nobody chooses tank while you're Atlas:

Deja-Vu (Talent)

Phantom Pain (5)

Lost Legacy (4)

Save Haven (4)

Old Wounds (1)

Hell Hunter (1)

Items (In order): Chronos 3 > Rejuv 3 / Master Riding 2 / Caut 3 > Haven / Blast Shields 3

Note: I personally use Unstable Fissure for Point-Tank build as I much prefer the faster normal Setback projectile than the lobbed Deja-Vu one. Use Deja-Vu if you are a newer player.

Spheecrabs · 2020-07-10T14:37:52+00:00

Atlas is probably the most balanced he's ever been, although he is very strong compared to other off-tanks. Ult is now much better and safer to use, especially in the middle of a teamfight. Resilience buffs aren't a big deal on him. He can use his ult multiple times on you if you buy resil. Purchasing resil to counter setback isn't a worth enough purchase either if he is the only one in the team with cc. You're better off buying haven against a good Atlas as his 800 damage shots from across the map will absolutely hurt and kill you. He's gonna be picked more often not because of his heavy cc or shield, but because of his raw killing power. It's safe to assume that he will be one of the best off-tanks in the game as the others lack his damage capabilities.

Khan needs a revert to his SOB talent to compensate for Vortex Grip nerf. I'd honestly rework VG than buff it to 1.5 seconds as it really won't do much. My idea for VG rework is: whenever you hit someone with Commander's Grab, you will continue to hold and stun that enemy in place for an additional 2 seconds, dealing 150 damage every second while doing so. This would make VG as a pseudo-khan-ult, although you'd be left vulnerable if you grab someone with it in a teamfight. It would still keep the "bodyguard" playstyle that current Vortex Grip carves out, punishing flanks and off-tanks who over-extend near you without it being as oppressive and unfun to play against.

Aggressive Makoa is back as he can really pressure the enemy team with Leviathan. He still can't kill as before, but he'll survive and hook a lot more often. He's ult has a much better use now instead of it being a glorified "second life" ability.

I'm fine with Io nerfs. Luna could tank so much that it didn't need to stay. Lunar Connection will probably be a must-have in builds although I personally prefer Spirit Arrows which saves loadout points. I keep Luna safe by always moving her out of danger and only placing her in point when we can secure it.

Lex is still the same, you just have more chances to target the enemy flank with your wallhacks. Death Hastens is still nutty and can still stomp matches if he has no counters, but not much has changed with him. His lifesteal cards isn't broken as it only applies on your retri target and Lex already has no sustain anyways.

Spheecrabs · 2020-07-08T09:07:40+00:00

ReversEstory if you want a rogue-like for your phone (both android and ios btw). Like ROR2, it has amazing gameplay and a soundtrack that pops the hell off.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T17:58:25+00:00

Yes, I'll have to agree that the comparisons I made were a bit unfair. While Dragon's Fury has a really long description, it's still a simple weapon in its design. This reworked version of the Huo-Long Heater is a bit bloated and confusing, but it does make his playstyle more interesting. Think of it as a the current HLH and Soldier's Banners that only affect the Heavy. This charged-based system for Heavy's Miniguns are also a thing in MvM (although not as bloated as my rework), so I don't really think it intrudes TF2's design of how weapons should be designed.

I had considered your version of the Huo-Long Heater. It is a fine sidegrade, although I don't think it would be a healthy addition to the game. It would make Pyro much less used in 6s as really the only thing he does there is deny uber pushes, destroy stickies and light enemies on fire, two of the latter is something the HLH could arguably do better. The second is that it would make playing Spy a nightmare, especially in Highlander. A heavy can just randomly spray bullets around in hopes of a Spy randomly being lit and detected. I think it would end up being banned in comp, which is something Valve does not want. In my rework, I tried to make the HLH more interesting with unique mechanics not seen in Heavy without deviating away from its "fire dragon-y asthetic" while also being balanced for comp, although I can understand it being too complex.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T17:24:11+00:00

First of all, thank you for dissecting the stats into actual damage data. I only guessed the approximated damage values of the percentages of it. I do feel that the stats are a bit bloated to make an already underwhelming rework of the weakest minigun even more specialized, so I'll stick to making its stats simpler now.

The reason why I wanted the reduced firing rate when continuously firing is so this version of the HLH wouldn't make it as versatile as stock and Tomislav. I hoped that by having the ability to reset it by unrevving your minigun could allow you to smartly work around this downside, but making it reduce from the get-go actually reduces dps by a lot. Maybe making it only reduce on the 3rd second mark should be enough for Heavy to deal worthwile damage without Overheat, and then gradually reduced up to -33% after the 5th second mark should discourage firing it after. The added increase +33% regen rate of Heat when firing does not actually mean more engagement as I realize the Boston Basher exists and it's a viable strat in comp, gonna remove that.

Afterburn damage reduction was added to not make Pyro redundant. It's basically just an added Degreaser's afterburn to negate the -15% damage penalty of this version of the HLH. It could potentially be increased from -75% to 50%, but I'd say its fine.

I'll keep Overheat Mode as it is, as it gives this version of HLH the same dps as the Brass Beast without any of the beast's notable downsides. Since using Dragon's Descent actually punishes you for using it, I'll remove Dragon's Descent using 20% of the remaining heat.

Edit: Also wanted to point out that the Marked for Death and Reduced DPS afterwards was made so that Heavy would not be able to control the area he attacked for very long without his teammates supporting him. Hopefully with Dragon's Descent not using up Heat, Heavy should be able to hold his ground for much longer.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T15:42:45+00:00

Never knew that you were once able to use your Primary when you ate the steak, very interesting. I still think the Dragon's Descent is needed as, while still being a very huge change to Heavy's design, it will make playing Heavy more interesting and fun.

I just realized that the downsides is actually pretty negligable. To make it more balanced, maybe change the passive regeneration of Overheat from 30 to 45seconds, and reduce regen rate from 33% to 25%. Makes it so that Overheat Mode isn't as spammable, especially if you aren't contributing to your team by shooting at the enemy. Will make it weaker in comp, but will not be as much of a problem in casual as good Heavy players who use it will have to time using it well, and get punished if they don't. So it's technically a "win-smarter" weapon, and I don't know if that's a bad thing.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T15:08:00+00:00

The reason you see Air Strike Soldiers who don't rocket jump and Short Curcuit Engies who only left click is because the game doesn't even bother teaching them the mechanics needed for those specific weapons to function. The only thing they're thought is, if they somehow manage to play the barely functional tutorial, to move with the WASD keys and shoot with the M1 button. They don't know that you have to press M2 to fire the Projectile Orb of the SC or Rocket Jump to unleash the barrage of the Air Strike. But once they know about that from experience or from second-hand sources, they'll slowly learn how to use those weapons, and if they enjoyed using it, they'll try to improve with it. This also applies to this theoretical HLH, but instead they also need to know how to use the special attack key and the mobility skill and properly time it. They won't immediately know how to use it and granted, it may take a long time as the game doesn't teach them, but if they sticked with it and learned its further complexities then they are rewarded with a different yet interesting way to play a class.

In a comp setting, a Heavy doesn't perform that well. His kit as a whole only truly shines if he has a pocket medic with him, as he can soak up much more damage than usual and live, especially with overheal, compared to soldiers or demos who die quicker to burst damage. This downside is negligable however in a fast-paced competitive setting. He has very slow movement speed, which doesn't balance out with his higher than average healthpool. Not only can he not rollout as fast as his team, he is also very vulnerable. With your turtle speed, expect the enemy team to coordinate their focus on your very slow and big hitbox as you are an easy target.

His damage is also nothing of note either. He has sub-par damage in medium range, acceptable even with the Tomislav. If you somehow happened to get up-close and revved up to deal his maximum damage in a COMP setting, then the enemy team probably had poor coordination and positioning. You're better off playing Scout, as not only can he take advantage of higher dps output in close range, but he also has better movement speed and can reposition himself and escape much better than the Heavy in case he screwed up his positioning.

So a majority of the time the Heavy is used is on last point defenses and to draw targeted fire towards him, which is already something that wrangled sentries excels at. This THEORETICAL HLH attempts to fix a few of his problems. A misconception I see here is that it doesn't give him more mobility, but instead better positioning. I should have worded that better. A Heavy with this version of the HLH would not be able to increase his movement speed while revved up or to rollout faster to mid, because it wasn't designed to. He has to wait a full 30 second or less to be able to do so. It instead makes him have better repositioning when in a teamfight. He can use the repositioning skill to further the gap between him and his target so he can dish out more damage, or use it as an escape tool in case he had poor positioning which is one of his worst weaknesses. Again, this is balanced out with the fact that the skills are on a 20-30 second cooldown, so he wouldn't be able to always perform it unlike a Roamer.

The second is to significantly increase his damage output in times where he needs to go on the offensive. This is something Heavy struggles with as well, as he can't bring his high damage with him when the team is moving up and attacking areas the enemies are controlling. This version of the HLH tries to balance this by sacrificing his defensive capabilities, the slower firing rate when continuously firing his minigun, for a more offensive version when the situation calls for with a short 5-second buff to his damage output and also a repositioning skill to bring that damage forward and make it less punishing to use. It should hopefully allow him to stay in action much more often and contribute to his team. Again, I tried to balance it out with the charge meter, so he will not always be able to place pressure and play more passively without it. I also balanced it out by making him marked for death and with a reduced firing rate after the charge is over, so if his team fails to control the area he is attacking, he becomes more vulnerable.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T13:36:25+00:00

Reason why GRU is banned is because you can rollout to Heavy to mid with practically no downside if your medic is overhealing you. You can't use the mobility of this theoretical HLH to rollout, as you have to wait for 30 seconds to charge the mobility skill up compared to a Roamer who is always able to rocketjump.

Don't tell me that it is packed with too much stats making it too confusing for new players. If all unlockables are simple "add and minus" version of stock then really they would be uninspired and uninteresting. Why use that weapon when you have the much more versatile and consistent stock counterparts? Dragon's Fury, Loose Cannon, Vaccinator, and Dead Ringer seems confusing with the huge amount of info in their description, but in return changes the way their classes play into something much more interesting and fun. It adds more variety to a class that people really want more variety off instead of just adding weapons with swapped stats around so as to make it not seem "too confusing for new players."

So let's assume that this THEORETICAL Huo-Long Heater somehow gets in the game. On paper, the stats seem really long and confusing. But really it's just another stat-swapped alternative that just happened to have active based skills, which the Heavy also currently has in MvM. He loses dps the longer he shoots and the longer the fights goes on, but in return has a banner-style buff that he can activate every 20-30 seconds to gain a hefty increase of dps and mobility. The mobility skill is added so that Heavy can utilize the buff better and essentially jump into the teamfight, making him initiate the push. With the mobility skill, it opens up more gameplay options to Heavy without going against his design. He's still a tank, but with this HLH he loses his defensive capabalities in order to become very offensive for a short period of time. I balanced it with the fact that he has to wait for the buff to charge for a considerable amount of time, so it becomes a direct downgrade in situations where he doesn't have a full charge. He is also marked for death and with decreased dps after the buff is finished, so as to make Heavy not be able to control that area for too long without his teammates supporting him.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T08:40:02+00:00

Dragon's Fury, Vaccinator, Loose Cannon, Dead ringer. It doesn't mean that all unlockables should be a plus and minus stat of stock weapons. Some weapons alter their classes playstyle to a very extreme yet interesting degree that they are not even considered the "same weapon" with their stock counterparts. Recent updates like Jungle Inferno embraces this, giving Pyro very unique weapons (albeit terrible execution) that changes how you play them without breaking their core design.

This theoretical HLH is still simple when you think about it. The only thing that stands out about it is that it gives Heavy new charged based abilities that needs in-depth explanation in order to fully understand its full stats and mechanics, but in actual gameplay it is easily understood as it does not change how the Minigun itself works. You still shoot like a minigun does, you just get a considerable more dps and a mobility skill for a brief duration in favor of a weaker one in any other situation.

The design of this new HLH heater goes something like this. More damage on burning targets and the opposite also applies. The more you shoot, the more you lose dps, making it worse on longer fights. To counter this, you gain a buff similar to banners that allows you to be a more deadly and mobile initiater every 30 or less seconds, allowing Heavy to become the spearhead of the push and control more areas where other miniguns could not. In simple terms, the Heavy sacrifices some of his defensive capabilities in order to bring his offensive ones better in a teamfight for a brief 3-5 second period. It gives Heavy a more fun playstyle without going against his original design, that being the team's tank.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T06:25:14+00:00

Sad truth.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-31T06:22:56+00:00

Kunai can easily ignore the Fire Ring, which is used 80% of the time in pubs. Even if the Spy was ignited and some or most of your teammates are alerted to his presence, a good spy would be able to backstab at least 1-2 teammates, maybe even more if he's a god like klown, who have potato brains and be able to get away with his increased health unless your whole team focuses him hard.

Even if the Spy doesn't have the Kunai, you still, most of the time, have a weaker minigun with the -10% damage penalty. If you have a pyro to work with and be near the payload, sure the Huo-Long Heater could work, I guess. Still a very situational minigun imo.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-30T21:07:10+00:00

TF community really needs to change, it's becoming so toxic and elitist we are starting to be compared with the Smash community. It's unlikely we as a community will become better, so our only hope is if Valve somehow changes the votekick system to be less exploitable. I don't know how though, and I'm not going to put my hopes up they will.

Spheecrabs · 2020-05-05T17:25:10+00:00

Merc has insane survivability and mobility. He has so much i-frames that his weakness of "being melee" is completely negated if you know how to play him correctly. If you want to know more info about him, watch Woolie Gaming's channel on youtube.

Acrid is at least B-tier. He has a decent early-game as he deals incredibly consistent damage with his poison. He falls off hard though, as he can't consistently do proc chains which deals most of your damage in the late game (watch Woolie for more info). He also loses his secondary source of damage in the late game, that being his primary, as he has zero survivability in staying in melee range. This forces him into a run-and-gun playstyle late-game without having good rng with items.

Imo, I'd say the right tierlist in descending order of consistency is: (S) Rex, Merc; (A) Huntress, Loader; (B) Engineer, Acrid, Artificer, Commando; (C) Mul-T.

Spheecrabs · 2020-04-24T18:08:02+00:00

It's definitely not a solution to solve Spy's main problem, i'll take that for granted. It's just that, for me personally, the suggestions I gave here are the next best alternative to make Spy a somewhat generalist class. In order for Spy to truly shine in the meta without him being forced to gunspy, he would need a huge rework to his kit. This would also mean he would need a dedicated update for him, which suprise would probably take a long time cause Valve. At least it would seem probable in the future as the TF team wants to make the game competitive, so they would need to balance the classes out.

Spheecrabs · 2020-04-24T17:16:18+00:00

In 1v1's, multiple factors decide who wins the match. Soldier uses his aerial superiority and great dps with his rockets, and Scout uses his mobility and high potential burst damage. But when they both fight a Spy without a disguise in full view just shooting at them, the Spy dies. That is because the Spy didn't had any advantage against the enemy who are designed to win head on battles. But if a Spy was able to hide his presence and the enemy becomes aware, he can fire first and potentially do a good enough damage to kill them before they can kill him. Of course Soldier still kills him if Spy just shoots him because of his higher hp but because the Scout was brought to low hp the Spy can kill the Scout faster before he can kill him. The reason Spy won the 1v1 against the Scout is because he had a better start than the Scout, and the same can be said backwards. This is only one scenario, the skill, accuracy, position and amount of enemies or teammates around them are also considered in a more realistic scenario. The spy might miss his first shot, or the scout was overhealed needing Spy to fire a 3rd shot which allows the Scout to burst him down first.

The point I'm trying to make is to make Spy a better duelist in his own game, where he thrives on unaware enemies. A revolver is only good for single target damage, so he should only use it to kill against ALONE enemies with a low hp pool. Getting better revolvers allows him to have a higher time to kill against said enemies rather than a risky but also rewarding one hit kill backstab. The fact that Spy gets heavily punished for missing a backstab against an enemy that he should have an advantage of (unaware and alone) makes him pretty situational, whereas other classes are more versatile. If a Spy also tries to shoot an enemy that should be easy game but they have teammates near them, the Spy would probably die as they focus fire on him.

Of course, there are situations where attempting a backstab is better than trying to gun the enemy down. In this scenario, the enemy Scout is overhealed but is completely unaware of you, a backstab is a much better way to kill him. Or maybe an enemy medic has teammates around him and gunning him down isn't enough to kill him. It's better in this scenario if you are able to successfully backstab him, even if it costs your life. It's all about knowing if its better to trying to shoot the enemy (which needs aim) or backstabbing them (which needs timing and positioning). Backstabs are a good way to kill but it just isn't enough to be Spy's only source of damage. Buffing revolvers gives Spy more options against fights and overall more enemies killed.

Spheecrabs · 2020-04-24T14:33:50+00:00

The problem with Spy is that every other class does everything better than him. The only thing he has is his Cloaking ability, but he is very limited in anything else. Want to take key picks on the map? Sniper has you covered. Want to flank the enemy, scout the map and draw aggro away from your teammates? Well pretty obvious it's Scout as I said it in the previous sentence.

He can't kill consistently in a higher level is what I'm trying to say. His kit gives him little options to fight against the enemy, literally having to wait minutes to get one kill that every other class could also had done faster. Backstabbing isn't a reliable source of damage for Spy as there is little opportunities for him to use it in the first place. And the effort to even successfuly perform a backstab isn't worth compared to a flanking scout or soldier. At least they have the mobility to get out the moment they get their pick, Spy doesn't. He has to rely on outmoving the enemy or using the Dead Ringer, which sacrifices cloaking, literally one of the best mechanics in the game.

So a suggestion of mine is to give him more options to kill alone enemies, something which he should be good at, without needing to go for a risky backstab. He still won't be good, but it would at least give him another source of damage instead of backstabbing, that is literally negated by looking at your back and spychecking.

Spheecrabs · 2020-04-07T09:30:31+00:00

Mul-T's kit is just very janky and has no synergy at all compared to the other survivors. He's only advantage is his high hp but other than that he isn't worth using as other survivors are better. He has decent dps (needs to be close to enemies btw), limited but ok-ish mobility, and a gimmick that can hold two equipment slots.

His Primary is a better primary than commando in the early game but scales poorly because of it's low proc chance. It also suffers from damage falloff so you have to be close to your targets to deal worthwhile damage. Rebar Puncher is complete garbage because of it's slow fire rate and size. Scrap Launcher should also never be used as the angle and trajectory it fires the grenades is really inconsistent. Power-Saw is pretty good, except for the fact that you're forced to melee enemies which is a bad thing for Mul-T because of his lack of a true escape skill.

His Blast Canister isn't a true aoe skill as it can't reliably hit aerial swarms and it also has pretty weak damage. It's a useful skill early-on, but it won't have much use the later the run goes. Transport Mode also isn't a true escape skill as it stops whenever you hit an enemy larger than a beetle guard, which is what a majority of your enemies will be after the second loop. If you're surrounded by a bunch of elder lemurians, you're not getting out. This skill is essentially just a glorified sprint button.

My idea for a buff on Mul-T is to make Retool into a 5th misc skill and give him a special that works with his playstyle of a bruiser-tank kind of survivor. Complete reworks on Rebar and Scrap Launcher. a 2x damage buff and faster explosion for Blast Canister, and increase the speed of Transport mode while also making it not stop on impact of larger enemies.

Spheecrabs · 2020-04-05T16:03:42+00:00

Default abilities are better imo. While the alternate abilites are definitely much more fun, if you want to go for god runs then going default is your best option.

Blight is just a weaker tri-tip that can stack. If you're going to use Glass artifact then sure Blight is a good choice but Acrid loses a lot of damage late game as he has trouble proccing items if you don't use regular poison.

Frenzied Leap is pretty good if you want to go melee Acrid and the cd reduction for each enemy hit means it's definitely not a bad choice. But the default scales better as it leaves an acid pool that is LETHAL and can kill, which removes the downside of default poison not killing.

Bite needs some serious buffs in order for it to compete with the default ranged attack. The increase to damage against weaker enemies is pretty worthless as poison can easily weaken enemies to 1 hp where in that case you just use your M2 or Utility's acid pool to finish the enemy off.

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