Team Fortress 2

Rescue Ranger is a thing. I often use it to yoink my sentry away from incoming stickies. Works well with the Wrangler.

I can see the argument for Demos being OP, but Soldiers? Seriously? How are they OP?

I use Auto-reload. There's no downside to using it at all aside from maybe the Scout's scatterguns, and if the viewmodels are a problem, they can be turned off.

I tend to main engie, spy, or sniper lately, yeah. and even if I try to do something else Soldiers always seem to be significantly more mobile, deal significantly better damage, and have enough HP to absorb a lot of punishment, even while rocket jumping.

Well there's your problem. You're maining all the classes that die to a stiff breeze.

I wouldn't say Soldier is OP, they're just very variable and have a lot of favor in terms of item selection.

I think Soldier's easily the most powerful class after the obvious Demo & Medic, by a sizable margin, though whether he's overpowered or not I'm on the fence about. I've heard Trotim argue that he is; I'll see if I can get him to elaborate next time I talk to him.

It's worth noting that the stock Rocket Launcher has the most kills of any weapon in TF2 history, counting across all players in servers that keep track of that kind of thing. And the Black Box was 5th, the only non-stock weapon to be in the top 10, possibly even the top 20.

edited 5th Sep '14 11:27:58 PM by XionGaTaosenai

Makes sense tho, soldier is a relatively easy class to get into...

Not to mention those are all classes that suck at direct combat. Of course a Soldier has the upper hand on that front.

I'd say stock Soldier is a really well balanced class at the moment. He is powerful, but his projectiles are a bit slow, and he needs good play to make the most out of him. And even then, he still has his weaknesses. Scouts can utterly destroy Soldiers.

I disagree on that front. I think any Soldier that can twitch fast enough will be able to out-damage a Scout, especially with a 75 difference in HP, and especially if you consider that Soldier having better mobility in terms of quick escapes. Unless a Scout ambushes the Soldier and gets a meatshot in, I'd say things are pretty much even if they're otherwise just confronting each other.

I'd say the only "counter" to Soldier is Pyro, but with the Pyros problem, that doesn't mean much. Being able to reflect the main source of damage, as well as bugging them with afterburn and having a superior move speed, Pyro can make it pretty complicated for Soldiers. Even if they retreat with a rocket jump, they risk the afterburn/rocket/fall damage putting a major pain on them.

No see, the problem with the Scout v Soldier matchup is that it's Hitscan vs. Projectiles. A really good Scout is hard to hit with projectiles, and the Soldier's rockets aren't the fastest thing out there. They have to predict where the Scout will go, which is tough because a Scout is fast and can easily dodge those if they have to. And Scouts have hitscan weapons so they don't need to predict where their shots are going to go. Assuming both the Scout and Solider are equal in skill level, and both are reasonably competent at the game, the Scout has the upper hand. Obviously it's not gonna work out like that all the time, 1v1s are pretty uncommon in regular TF2 matches.

edited 6th Sep '14 9:27:05 AM by Marioguy128

But to counter the projectile problem, Soldier can get a lot of damage from splash damage alone, which is easier to rack up when the Scout is coming in close to get those delicious meatshots. Then you also have the difference in HP, which means Scout is gonna fall faster than Soldier. If Scout backs up, well, assuming the Soldier is going stock, then he just uses the shotgun to make the Scout pull back more. All that scratch damage adds up pretty quick for a class with 125 HP. And again, if the Soldier is looking pretty rough, he can most of the time just rocket jump his problems away and get away from that fight - Scouts can chase of course, so it's debatable how secure of an option that is, so map layout is another factor.

So at the end of the day I think they're even at best. I've definitely seen my fair share of monster Scouts and monster Soldiers so it'd be interesting to see the two go head on.

Yeah, I find that getting in close for the meatshot runs a huge risk of a direct rocket to the face, which will kill or severely damage any Scout not at full health.

Team Fortress 2 Poster Mistaken for US Propaganda on Russian State Television Oh man, the irony. Cowboy BeBop at His Computer anyone?

edited 6th Sep '14 10:41:58 AM by ObsidianFire

PFHAH! :D

So what? That just means that Soldier is the most played class. Doesn't mean that he's the most overpowered.

The Soldier must be so offended at being mistaken for a German.

My thoughts exactly. The irony is delicious.

edited 6th Sep '14 1:15:18 PM by thatother1dude

I love those.

TF3 CONFIRMED

edited 6th Sep '14 2:13:17 PM by Tuckerscreator

But there has to be a reason why he's the most played class. That may be for a reason other than overpowered-ness, but that's why I said it was merely "worth noting" and not "proof Soldier is OP".

The Soldier is designed to be very easy to use. That itself would be reason enough for tons of players - especially new, unskilled players - to use him all the time. Besides, maybe players find Rocket Jumping to be loads of fun, especially when it's a lot easier to do than as the Demoman.

Probably because he's the easiest to pick up and play? He also has a decent amount of health, so he doesn't die that easily. With classes like Scout and Spy, positioning is super important because of what they need to do and their low health. Positioning is still important for the Soldier, but he has a bigger health pool, so it's a little harder to punish Soldiers for bad positioning. They're decent front line fighters as well, and you're not exactly bringing down a team if it's mostly made up of Soldiers. Unlike say Snipers, Spies, or Engies. Aside from rocket jumping, he's very newbie friendly as well. Honestly I'd say stock Soldier is a very well designed and balanced class. Easy for pubs to pick up, but dedicated players are rewarded for mastering the Soldier.

I'd say sticky jumping is a lot easier, unless that is what you meant to say. You have to do a lot of turning when rocket jumping. It's easier to cover greater distances with sticky jumping.

edited 6th Sep '14 9:17:35 PM by Marioguy128

Sticky Jumping might be easier, when you put it like that. I just felt it was more straight-forward, in a way, to just fire at your feet than to manually detonate sticky bombs. But this is probably getting into semantics.