Scout

Class – I do not think it is a very good idea to buff Scout as a class. Scout already has arguably the most abilities of any of the classes and giving him another that makes him even better at combat will make skilled Scouts infuriating to fight. I would not add the +50% overall weapon switching speed, but if you all really do want to add it, I would personally tone it down a bit because 50% is very fast.

Shortstop – While I think that the changes listed are great, I would reduce the cooldown between shoves from 1.5 to 1 second as well as reduce the reload time from 1.52 to 1.25 seconds (faster than it currently is but not as fast as it once was) in addition since the Shortstop reload time is so unforgiving on top of how accurately the user must shoot with it compared to the alternative options. The shove, while allowing it to interrupt reload is good, has an unreasonably high cooldown for not much reason.

Baby Face’s Blaster – While I agree with some of the changes, I think that the weapon is overall left in a state where the downsides outweigh the upsides. I would remove the -1 capture rate on wearer penalty as well as the boost reduce when damaged or the boost decaying over time penalty (one or the other) because it would be a bit too easy and fast for a Scout to lose almost all of their boost within a short period of time.

Bonk! Atomic Punch – I don’t think that adding an extra upside with no extra/changes to the downsides to the bonk is a very good idea. If the move speed while under the effects is added, then I think that a 150% slower consumption time penalty should be added (3 seconds to drink from 1.2) to discourage the use of the weapon as a get out of jail free card and would make the user guaranteed to be slowed down by 25% for 8 seconds if no damage is taken to make it so that it cannot be used to get one Scout to a fight faster than another for no serious downside.

Flying Guillotine – One of the problems with the weapon is that it is a free long range spam weapon for Scout, a close range class. Adding another upside to the weapon without tweaking the weapon otherwise is not a very good idea in my opinion. If the mini-crits vs players below 50% health is added, then I would remove the long distance hits reduce recharge time penalty and increase the cooldown between cleavers from 6 to 8 seconds.

Candy Cane – I think the changes are fine, but I don’t think that the added slower firing speed penalty is necessary since the weapon gives a passive upside, so it should just have another passive downside to compensate (which it does).

Soldier

Class – Just like Scout, I do not think that it is a good idea to buff Soldier as a class. Soldier is already one of the most mobile classes in the game and allowing him to be more mobile is pushing it. I would either scrap or at least tone down the increase in air control while blast jumping.

Black Box – While both changes seem fine, I don’t really understand why the Black Box is basically two different weapons depending on the items equipped (the design with a banner equipped sounds like a decent rebalance to the current Liberty Launcher to me).

B.A.S.E. Jumper – I think that adding a perk to hurting yourself intentionally as an upside is a bit counterintuitive and could be abused a lot.

Escape Plan – I think that the user not taking damage from the taunt kill only when the Rocket Jumper is equipped is a bit pointless and I think that the marked for death penalty while the weapon is active and for a brief time after should remain. The other changes sound fine though.

Pain Train – If the proposed changes are implemented, then I think that a holster speed penalty should be added as well to make it so that a user cannot immediately swap away from it after utilizing its upsides to avoid the penalties.

Disciplinary Action – I think that the weapon should have a utility/passive downside added to it especially if its utility aspect is being buffed, as it is already a very powerful weapon in roll outs.

Pyro

Gas Passer – While I agree with basically every change made to the weapon, the afterburn being mostly unable to be extinguished could be very annoying to fight. I would maybe make it deal +50% more afterburn damage per tick (6 from 4 for example) to buff the same aspect but make it less frustrating to fight when on the receiving end of it.

Powerjack – While I agree that the Powerjack needs changes that make the downsides more impactful overall, I think that having a fixed slower move speed on wearer penalty when the faster move speed upside is only accessed while the weapon is active is a bit much. I would maybe make it so that the weapon holsters slower instead (and cannot be bypassed) and tone down the faster move speed a bit (back down to +15% most likely) to compensate.

Backscratcher – I think that the intensity of the downsides are a bit much for the upsides and that they should each be toned down a bit.

Sharpened Volcano Fragment – I think that the weapon would be too similar to the Gas Passer in the effects of its afterburn and that it should maybe be changed so that the afterburn will continuously linger (to infinity) until it is extinguished to make it a bit different from it.

Demoman

Class – I don’t think that spawning a dynamite pack on death is very fair to enemies and would just lead to cheap deaths.

Loch N Load – I think that the downsides outweigh the usefulness of the upsides. I would either tone down the clip size penalty or remove the other penalties completely.

B.A.S.E. Jumper – Same feedback as for the weapon for Soldier. I like the added upsides for Demoman though, they sound very interesting.

Chargin’ Targe – I don’t think that the charge meter needs to be full in order to attain the bullet resistance on wearer upside.

Tide Turner – I don’t think that the speed boost upon taking damage upsides is a good idea because it could be very annoying to fight on the receiving end of it and could be a bit inconsistent. The +10% move speed on wearer I also think should not have to require boots in order to be applied.

Quickiebomb Launcher – While I am fine with the changes, I think that the clip size penalty should be reduced a bit (maybe to -25%).

Pain Train - Same feedback as for the weapon for Soldier.

Scotsman’s Skullcutter – I don’t think that two downsides are necessary. I think that one or the other would be enough to compensate for the upsides.

Ullapool Caber – I think that the base damage penalty should be slightly lessened to ensure that the weapon will be able to consistently 1-shot 125 health classes when the user is not blast jumping (the weapon deals 135 damage but the explosion damage is subject to falloff effects which could be a bit inconsistent when hitting enemies if it is not high enough to ensure that at the maximum range that the explosion deals enough damage to 1-shot 125 health classes). Otherwise, the changes sound great.

Persian Persuader – While the changes sound interesting, the weapon suffers from the same problems that I see with the Backscratcher in that the downsides outweigh the upsides, so I would tone them down a bit.

Heavy

Class – I don’t think that increasing Heavy’s max health and making it so that he cannot be overhealed is a good idea. Heavy’s tank-ness and defensive capabilities are already very good, and I don’t think that that needs changes. The rest of the changes sound good though.

Natascha – I don’t think that the weapon slowing down nearby enemy players on kill for 3 seconds is a very good idea. The weapon is already very strong and can be a bit frustrating to fight against.

Tomislav – I don’t think that the weapon really needs any changes from how it currently is in-game (the added 15% non-critical damage resistance might be a nice addition though).

Huo-Long Heater – This is possibly the only weapon on the list of proposed changes that I just don’t really understand the intended use of. I think that the stats should just be redone completely.

Sandvich – I don’t think that removing the ability to pick the Sandvich back up after it is thrown is a very good idea. This could lead to accidents while throwing it that could be serious. The other changes sound fine though.

Buffalo Steak Sandvich – I think that the user should get some kind of a damage buff while under the effects of the weapon on top of the other effects, as it is still very difficult for a Heavy (even with a speed boost) to get melee kills on enemies.

Killing Gloves of Boxing – I don’t think that the user should be marked for death on kill with the weapon as it is just counterintuitive and the weapon is going to be challenging to get melee kills with without random critical hits.

Gloves of Running Urgently – I think that the GRU is fine how it currently is and does not really need any changing (the increased melee range would be nice though).

Warrior’s Spirit – While I lie the overall changes, I think that the downside may be a bit too harsh. Maybe tone it down slightly (maybe to 30 hp).

Eviction Notice – I don’t think that allowing the user to hit teammates to gain a speed boost is a good idea, as it can be abused heavily in roll outs. The less primary and secondary ammo downsides are also pretty harsh if my previous recommendation is taken into account.

Holiday Punch – Other than the user being able to pick up their own edible being kind of pointless is my previous recommendations are taken into account, the rest of the changes seem fine.

Engineer

Pomson 6000 – I think that the weapon reducing Medigun healing given and received on hit is a bit pointless and should be replaced with something else (maybe projectile penetration or an overall damage buff).

Southern Hospitality – While I like that the weapon’s anti-spy aspect has been improved, the downside seems a bit lackluster compared to the upsides, so I think it should be changed to something else. I also think that the bleed on hit should be toned down to maybe 7.5 seconds from 10.

Medic

Class – While I am fine with the changes to the primaries, I don’t think that the other changes are a very good idea. Allowing a Medic to see enemy health lowers the skill ceiling of damage counting in combat and will also allow the Medic to see enemy ubercharge (as far as I am aware) which also heavily lowers the skill ceiling of uber counting. The buff to health regeneration just sounds a bit odd to me as it just gives Medic a free class buff overall that I don’t particularly think he deserves (Medic is arguably the most important class overall in the whole game especially in more serious settings and the class does not really need to be made much better overall besides maybe the primaries).

Blutsauger – While the idea sounds interesting, I would maybe tone down the duration of the Mad Milk effect, maybe by just 1 second.

Overdose – I like the changes, but the overheal build rate penalty is very harsh for the only other buff to the weapon specifically being that the user and heal patient can move 10% faster dependent on ubercharge, so I would maybe tone it down to around 20%-25%.

Quick-Fix – I think that the proposed changes would make the Quick-Fix stupidly strong in defensive situations and maybe a bit too good all around. The increase in ubercharge duration I find to be an unnecessary buff and the increase in the heal rate bonus would make the weapon even stronger in defensive situations (the weapon is banned in 6s because it makes defending stupidly easy due to the bonus heal rate and pushes very difficult due to the lackluster ubercharge, so implementing some of these changes would only further stress the problem). The faster ubercharge rate could also lead to one Medic obtaining ubercharge a lot faster than the opposing Medic, which leads to imbalance. Overall, I just suggest reconsidering almost all of the proposed changes to the weapon.

Vaccinator – I don’t think that giving the resistance bubble 25% more resistance to damage from all other sources is a good idea. By activating the ubercharge, you can basically negate damage taken from that source completely, so making it stronger against the other would not be good. If anything, I would suggest to replace or tone down the overheal penalty with a damage vulnerability to the damage sources not selected while healing and while under the ubercharge effects.

Vita-Saw – I think that increasing the health penalty to -25 is a bit much. I would maybe say increasing it to -15 or -20 would be better (keep in mind that the health penalty means that you receive less health from health packs the less max health that you have). The rest of the changes sound fine though.

Solemn Vow – I would also make it so that enemies can see your health for 3 seconds after you are hurt on top of your ubercharge percentage. The rest of the changes sound good.

Sniper

Class/Sniper Rifle – While I think it is good that Sniper’s ability to body shot was nerfed in exchange for the other class buffs, but I do not think it is enough to make up for all them. The “Melee wall climb” ability completely changes how Sniper can be played and is an extremely powerful ability. I would recommend adding a form of reverse damage fall-off to all of Sniper’s primary weapons while scoped (e.g. headshots made with 512 units deal only 75 damage at the closest range as an example). The ability to quick scope headshot really messes with Sniper’s overall class balance, so I think that this would be an effective way to help fix that problem. I understand that this would be a pretty massive nerf, so I would maybe buff Sniper’s close range combat capabilities by further buffing the SMGs to deal mini-crit damage on headshots within 1200 units or by making unscoped headshots deal mini-crit damage within the same range or both.

Machina – I would add a slower charge time penalty since the two downsides can basically be completely negated if the user is good enough at Sniper.

Hitman’s Heatmaker – I think that the damage penalty should be a bit less than 33%, maybe around 20%. The rest of the changes sound good though.

Cozy Camper – I personally don’t think that the weapon needs any real changes and I don’t really understand what the new design would be going for in its niche.

Shahanshah – I think that the changes are fine, but that it should remain the way that it currently is in that the lower the health you are the better the weapon is.

Spy

Ambassador – I don’t think that the increase in the fire rate penalty is necessary, but the rest of the changes sound good.

Enforcer – While I like the changes, I think that the weapon may be a bit too good in most situations. I would maybe increase the vulnerability while disguised to 20% or 25% especially since the disguise kit now grants an extra 20% resistance to damage while disguised.

Red-Tape Recorder – While I can’t say that I disagree with the changes, the weapon would be very frustrating for Engineers to fight, so I would maybe add some kind of a downside to let Engineers combat it a bit better.

Your Eternal Reward – While I think that the change to Spy’s class that makes any killed players or destroyed buildings not show up in the killfeed for the other team is a good change, it kind of killed the Your Eternal Reward’s Purpose. While it still has two useful upsides, I think that the downsides just kill the weapon off in comparison. I would either remove or at least tone down the +33% cloak drain rate to compensate.

All in all, I like quite a bit of the changes, but I think that some need some tweaking or revising. Some of the changes I would need to test and see in-game to gain an opinion on them, but most of them sound pretty good. I would greatly appreciate it if you could take this feedback into account when looking to tweak the list of proposed weapon changes.

Thank you.