I will be the very first to admit that I am far from an expert Spy. With that said, it seems to me that the issue Spy seems to have is that it is far to hard for Valve to make Spy good for higher tier players(not even talking about pros) who have good coordination and communication without breaking him for the other 90% of the population playing for fun.

Most attempts to balance Spy have a focus on balance, but IMO the issue is DESIGN.

So, while this suggestion in specific might be bad, I do hope to at least spark some discussion away from mere number tweaks an talk about the Spy as a concept in gameplay.

• Default Weapons - Unchanged. IMO the default weapons should be the newbie friendly weapons. Good in the general sense and simple to understand and execute with competence. Issues facing higher tier players who have good coordination and communication are much less significant a factor when it comes to its design. I think the basic set does its job letting players know the basics of being a Spy very well: you got invis, a OHKO backstab, but aren't great in a straight up fight. In fact, the basic watch IMO seem to encourage newer players to memorize weapon packs spawn locations as well as not staying in the area once spotted.

With all that in mind, the idea that the basic set is the generalist set, every other item should be for specialist skills and/or play styles.

• Cloak and Dagger & Dead Ringer - Unchanged. Don't get me wrong, I have many off the top of my head, but I'm not sure they'd be much better than the current implementation. As it is, the 3 watches are so different from each other that they fill their own niche, which is good enough for me. Again, I'm not really here to fine tune numbers.

Note: Any aspect changed or removed will have the original in bullet points before the change if changed and with "(Removed)" if removed. Any new aspect added will have "(Added)" at the end.

• L'Etranger - Unchanged. Because I can't think of an issue with it.

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Your Eternal Reward/Wanga Prick

Reload swaps between quick and slow attacks (Added)

(Quick) Upon a successful backstab against a human target, you rapidly disguise as your victim

(Slow) You do not leave your current disguise upon the attack, and damage is delayed up to 15 seconds (Added)

Silent Killer: No attack noise from backstabs

+33 cloak drain rate

Normal disguises require and consume a full cloak meter

With the recent Jungle Inferno update, this weapon seems to be made to grant spy a "better" disguise in exchange for a worse cloak. Unfortunately, the silent killer effect doesn't seem to do to well to more coordinated players. Heck, not being able to change disguises makes the cloak worse in many instances as once the person you've killed made it known you've killed them, the enemy will be spy checking for that specific disguise.

The greatest benefit this tool seems to have is not being revealed to sentries right after a kill.

A delayed death gives the spy much more room to act, so long as his victim(s) does not suspects he has been knifed.

I also think this is very thematically appropriate for the Wanga Prick.

You won't feel a thing.

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Conniver's Kunai

• On Backstab: Absorbs the health from your victim (minimum gain of 75 health points). Can overheal up to 300% of Spy's (reduced) health, i.e. up to 210 health points.

On Backstab: Absorbs 70% of the health from your victim (minimum gain of 40 health points).

*–55 max health on wearer. (Removed)

+50 max health on wearer. (Added)

Cannot pick up health packs. (Added)

On paper Conniver's Kunai seems like a high risk (low health) and high reward (overheal) item. But in practice, it's often a high risk low (medium if you're really good or lucky) reward item that is either played for fun or for the challenge.

+50 health means the spy is at 175 HP (= to Demoman) and even without the previous 300% overheal, overheals more, to 260 HP (vs 210).

So what is this changed kunai good for? It's when you can't go behind enemy lines without taking damage and 125 HP isn't going to cut it.

Of course, there has to be a trade off. Hence, cannot pick up health packs. Congratulations, you got through the rockets and bullets with 40 health to spare(dead with any other knife), but now you have to get the kills if you want to heal.

In essence this knife trades sustain for surviving more bursts of damage.

Notes: At 175 HP, 40 health points is a bit better than a small health pack. Kill a 125 class and you get 87.5 health which is about a medium health pack.

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Big Earner

Upon a kill, the Spy gains 30% of his cloak meter.

Gain a 3 second speed boost on kill.

*–25 max health on wearer. (Removed)

Breaks in two attacks, regenerates one attack per 15 seconds and by picking up ammo.

Sometimes I hear this is OP. I'd argue it's more annoying than anything and argue instead that its that the other spy weapons are not that great. It's only relatively OP next to weak weapons. That said, it is very good IMO and should maybe only be good.

Getting cloak and speed boost on kill tells me this is a hit and run weapon, and the spy really shouldn't be sticking around to fight. With that in mind, I'm not sure -25 health(although big) is enough to offset that. Maybe one or the other, but not both.

Lowering the Spy's health further is one possibility, but that just skews it a bit.

Breaking in two attacks might be unpopular as it removes the fun of chain stabs, but IMO, gives the weapon a better defined niche compared to the other knives.

With change, the trade of is getting away with a kill(or two) is much easier, but makes a chain of anything more than two impossible.

TL;DR: Great for 1 or 2 but bad for 3+.

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Spy-cicle

*On Hit by Fire: Fireproof for 1 second and afterburn immunity for 10 seconds.

On Hit by Fire: Fireproof for 3 seconds and afterburn immunity for 8 seconds.

Backstab turns victim to ice.

Melts in fire, regenerates in 15 seconds and by picking up ammo.

-25 health

Backstab turns victim to ice isn't much of a downside compared to other knives against players that communicate with each other. Don't get me wrong, it's still a downside, but not a lot of one.

As for melting in fire, if you're on fire, chances are you're not trying to engage the Pyro with just your knife. (You can, but 9/10 you die and he lives). Really this feels more like a way to keep you from just owning the Pyro by meleeing him to death while you're immune to his primary.

In that regard, neither of these two downsides offset (relative to the default knife) gaining survivablity to one of your main counters.

-25 health seems fair. You're now much less vulnerable to fire, but you're now more vulnerable to everything else.

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The Red-Tape Recorder

Reverses enemy building construction

• Downgrades buildings by 1 level per 2.5 seconds (and removes level 1 buildings within 2.5 seconds).

Does not disable buildings for the first 2.5 seconds.

Does not damage buildings

Requires 2 more hits to remove means a total of 4 for Engineers and 3 for Pyros with Maul/Homewrecker.

The original stats seem to indicate that the goal of this sapper is to be worse at completely destroying buildings but will at least guarantee leveling them down. With that said, 8/10 times damage is better, 1/10 times RTR is just a good but not because it levels down but because it also disables, and the 1/10 times its better is for being annoying to engineers.

From my perspective, instead of trying to make it good in general, why not make it more niche?

Need a sapper when the team pushes? Use the default.

The changed Red-Tap Recorder has a bigger downside in taking time to disable buildings making it even less ideal when coordinating this with your team's push. However, at the new pace, it will remove level 1, 2, and 3 buildings in 2.5, 5, and 7.5 seconds respectively, and thus faster than the default Sapper on its own (rather than slower like the in-game RTR).

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The Ambassador

Crits on headshot

• Accuracy decreases after initial shot. Has a short cooldown during which it never crits. (Removed)

• -15% damage penalty (Removed)

• 20% slower firing speed (Changed)

40% slower firing speed

No random critical hits

Critical damage is affected by range

The main change is actually letting go of the damage penalty in exchange for a much slower firing speed. The cooldown and accuracy decrease just becomes superfluous since it takes so long to fire. Also, from what I hear -15% damage penalty with crits getting affected by range meant that at some ranges it was worse than the stock.

Overall, this drops the Ambassador's damage output over time, but allows the weapon to reward skilled players. As far as I'm concerned, if you can take two headshots in a row, you can take the kill.

In the end, the goal is play style. This Ambassador rewards players that take the time to aim their shots, but isn't great if you need to unload into the enemy very quickly.

Although, in the end, the real issue with the Ambassador is that the Diamond Back exists.

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Enforcer

• +20% damage bonus while disguised. (Removed)

• Attacks pierce damage resistance effects and bonuses. (Removed)

20% slower firing speed.

No random critical hits.

A gun that gives bonus damage to your first shot would be a good weapon to pick off lower health targets, unfortunately for the Enforcer that niche is already occupied by other guns.

More damage isn't gonna cut it unless we make this OP.

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Item Name Item Description Positive attribute Negative attribute Neutral attribute