ERRATA:
1. The Soda Popper has a +25% Reload Speed statistic built-in, making Clip Size less useful than it is for the Force-a-Nature. The optimal upgrade path is probably something closer to alternating Damage-Clip-Damage-Clip-etc., rather than 2 Clip, 4 Damage, 2 Clip.
2. Another downside of the Force-a-Nature that I forgot to mention is that it sometimes reduces your *own* DPS by pushing your target further away from you.
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Here at Underscore Gaming, we are committed to bringing you high-quality content in the form of video treatises, but sometimes it takes awhile. After all, this is not our full-time job, or even our main hobby.
See a lot of maps in the video that you don't recognize? Play them here for a limited time:
https://us.potatomvm.tf/
or download them here to run on your own server:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1vOz2DyEQmr9BIcIuCXhEM5J-uUpFM8St
Timestamps:
Opening: (00:00)
Intro: (01:26)
Part 1 - Weapons: (03:35)
Part 2 - Upgrades: (08:27)
Color-Coded Upgrade Paths: (08:42)
Part 3 - Gameplay: (10:59)
Part 4 - Expectations: (21:58)
Outro: (27:22)
Full video of the Bavarian Botbash game with 6 Scouts can be watched here (if it ever finishes processing:
https://youtu.be/RqRMiOu8FvA
Music:
"Takeoff Sting" - Ethan Meixsell
"Detour Sting" - Gunnar Olsen
Special thanks to Mrs. Underscore for providing additional voiceovers.
Text at 3:06, since it's not completely legible (my bad):
"Empirical *Evidence* that the 'Meta Scout' is Weak:
•The Scout is expected to be at the bottom of the scoreboard by 'meta' standards.
•Teams with Support Scouts often struggle on waves in which sufficient damage output, not survival, is the primary challenge.
•Having 2 Scouts on the same team is typically considered a capital sacrilege, while duplicates of most other classes are just mildly frowned upon, if even discouraged at all.
•It is literally possible for a Scout to unbind all attack keys, go full Pacifist, score 0 points on the scoreboard, and get told 'Good Job, Scout' by his teammates as long as all money gets collected. This is indicative of just how low expectations are for The Scout within the 'meta.'
Reasons *Why* the 'Meta Scout' is Weak:
•The weapons of emphasis (Mad Milk & Fan O' War) are completely redundant to Kritzkrieg Medic and Buff Banner Soldier, both of which are popular 'meta' classes. The presence of a Medic is especially redundant to a Support Scout, leaving a maximum of only 4 player slots for actual combat roles.
•Over-emphasis on Money Collection results in one player spending a large portion of the game looking for 'those last 5 credits' instead of playing the objective, which leaves the team chronically short-handed.
•On maps were the robots field multiple bombs or attack from multiple directions (e.g. Mannhattan; Doppler), devoting player slots to unnecessary support roles stretches the team thin.
•Mad Milk & Fan O' War synergize best with The Heavy. Their effectiveness falls off sharply on teams without a Heavy or Pyro.
•It is not uncommon for MvM missions to feature waves where healing is not really helpful, and the main challenge is to output enough damage before the bomb reaches the hatch. These waves are generally not conducive to Support playstyles.
•Support playstyles, even good ones, do not work if the combat classes being supported are not competent. Not only does an excess of Support classes increase the bad kind of redundancy, it also reduces the good kind of redundancy by leaving the responsibility of killing robots to a smaller group of Combat classes.
•Casual players tend to not use the Fan O' War effectively, so telling them it's a 'must-have' for The Scout is a bad idea.
•Many teams struggle with destroying tanks. The Scout is one of the best tank-busters in the game, but the 'meta' upgrade and playstyle guidelines actively repress this ability.
•The introduction of the Medic's Projectile Shield in 2013 made it easier for even slow classes to walk into the killing zone and retrieve money, reducing the importance of a dedicated 'money collector.'
TL;DR: The Support Scout playstyle used to be a reasonable subclass due to its context within the 'meta', but now it's more of a weird, dysfunctional anachronism. Meanwhile, Combat Scout (i.e. Regular Scout) is reliable in a wide variety of situations without [his usefulness] depending so heavily on the class and weapon choices of his teammates."
This video was created with Movavi Video Editor Plus.
https://www.movavi.com/
#tf2 #tf2gameplay