Team Fortress Tuesday #2

Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Team Fortress Tuesday.  I think today I'll talk about the recent balance update to the game, and what I think of everything.  They changed a lot of weapons, most of which were for the better.  And of course, there are two more maps, Standin and Process.

Standin is a crazy map.  You really have to watch your back, because Standin is pretty much Scout heaven.  There are a ton of flank routes, so unless you have eyes on the back of your head, you're gonna have to deal with surprise Scouts quite a bit.  My big complaint about this map is that there aren't enough health packs, considering the Team Deathmatch style.

Process is a great map.  It is fun as all hell to play Soldier on this map, because of all the rampslides.  You can get to mid faster than Demos can, which is saying something.  Seriously though, this map is really good, and it's quickly joined the few maps I consider the best, along with Gravel Pit, Badlands, and Gullywash.  If you haven't tried it yet, go, it's seriously a lot of fun.

A lot of weapons got rebalanced, but to be completely honest, I'm not too familiar with all the changes, since I don't use most of the weapons that got changed.  The weapons that affected me that got changed were the Quick-Fix, Gunslinger, and Powerjack.  The Quick-Fix is now essentially equal to the stock and the Kritzkrieg, and more importantly, it's fun.   You really feel actively engaged when using it, and if you've got a trustworthy Soldier by your side, you can sail around the map with him.  The Gunslinger no longer heals damage while being built, which isn't a big deal for me, since I use the minis properly.  Still, it is a change, and there have been a couple of times where I've been killed because my mini was killed too quickly.  The change, while small, was enough to really make the mini balanced, at least in my opinion.  The Powerjack got changed so that having the set no longer gives you a passive speed boost, but having it out gives you a slightly faster speed boost.  It's useful for 5CP maps, but that about it.  I still like the Powerjack, and frankly I've been using it a bit more often than before, but I felt the Gas Jockey set gave some variety to Pyro, and that variety has been lost.

All in all, I'd say this was a great update, and it should hopefully encourage people to use weapons that aren't as annoying.