Scherzic Scrawlings

Moving to a fresh new account because this one is old as balls and is technically Fractured Loyalty’s account.

ScherzosScrawlings -> ScherzicScherzo

Wasn’t entirely satisfied with the striping design of the other one.  Too much of a clash of styles.

Sent to an early grave by the Gun Mettle Update.  And I know of no other pony-related TF2 communities that plays anything resembling vanilla TF2 - it’s nothing but a sea of Versus Saxton Hale and Freak Fortress.

Welp, time to become a Pubstar I guess.

SPY

• Spy no longer smacks himself in the face while reloading a revolver (New Spy revolver reload animation that does not block cross hair)

• Changing to a new disguise while already under a disguise takes 0.5 seconds instead of the normal disguise time of 2 seconds

• In the disguise menu, pressing 'reload' will also toggle the disguise team.

• While invisible, Spy receives 20% less damage from all damage sources

• While invisible, Spy has reduced timer on debuffs (fire, jarate, milk, bleed)

• Decreased the damage penalty on Sentries sapped by the Spy from -66% to -33% (i.e. shooting a Sentry the Spy sapped with a Revolver is now more effective)

The reload animation change doesn’t really do much for me, as I already had viewmodels disabled for my primaries.  The disguise change too, is kind of inconsequential, since the majority of the time if you’re changing your disguise from another disguise, you’re somewhere where there isn’t anyone around to see you disguise.  Changing the “Switch Team” button from tilde to reload is a good quality of life change.

The buffs to invisibility, while not what I would have preferred (honestly I would have rather had faster cloak fade times or a reduction/elimination of the cloak flicker mechanic), are still more than welcome, and needed, considering the sheer amount of weapons nearly every class has been given to piss all over the Spy’s day - sometimes literally.  It’ll be interesting to see just how long this reduced timer duration is.

And with the damage penalty change vs Sentries, it’ll now be a good bit easier and reliable to ensure a Sentry gun goes down.  Sap and shoot, take it down before the Pyro can waltz over and smack the sapper off with that annoying as shit Homewrecker.

Spy-cicle

• Changed fire immunity for 3 seconds to fire immunity for 1 second and 7 seconds of afterburn immunity

• Removed silent killer attribute

• Spy-cicle recharge timer can now be reduced by picking up ammo boxes

Interesting changes here.  Makes it a bit easier for Pyros to track down Spy-cicle Spies who try to get away from them (unless they’re using the DR, more on that later), but also makes the Spy less...eh, useless?  When he’s had to waste his knife to put himself out.

The silent killer attribute likely should have never been on the weapon in the first place, but from what I gather it was more or less a hacked together way Valve could make the frozen ragdolls not scream and thusly drown out the shiny ice crackle SFX they created for the thing.  We’ll see if they scream anyways or if they managed to come up with a suitable alternative once the update is live.

Enforcer

• Changed +20% damage bonus while undisguised to +20% damage bonus while disguised

Eh.  It’s still pretty much a flat upgrade over the Revolver, but not as much now.

Big Earner

• Added 3 second speed gain on kill

FINALLY this thing isn’t useless anymore!

Kunai

• Health penalty reduced from -65 to -55 (70 Health total)

• Minimum Health gain of 75 on kill

• Maximum overheal from Kunai increased from 195 to 210

Makes the Kunai a bit more Noob-Friendly.  Having 70HP to start instead of 60 means you can take one melee hit (unless it’s a +DMG melee like the Backscratcher or Skullcutter) without instantly dying.  And having a minimum amount of HP granted to you on a backstab makes me like this weapon even more than I already did.  Was so annoying to backstab someone who had 16HP and end up with only 76 health total.  Also I have no idea what the hell they’re talking about, Kunai’s overheal maxed out at 180, not 195.  Unless they’re saying “Overheal for someone at base 70HP should be 195 but the Kunai extends that to 210 because reasons.”  If that’s so, then that’s...kind of unneeded?

Cloak and Dagger

• Can now pick up ammo kits for cloak meter while visible. Previously could not pick up ammo packs for cloak. Cloak gain is at a reduced rate when compared to stock invis watch on ammo pick up

When the Cloak & Dagger first came out, I wanted to like it.  I really did.  But it only had as much cloak as the DR and it drained REALLY damn quick.  The buff to the L’etranger (40% Cloak Duration) helped alleviate some of that, but it was still pretty crappy, and I would have rather used the IW over it.

Now?  Goddamn, this thing might actually give the IW a run for its money with this change.  Especially when paired with the Big Earner.

Dead Ringer

• Triggering Feign Death instantly removes 50% cloak meter

• Changed increased drain rate to a decreased drain rate. Overall duration of invisibility is still 7 seconds when accounting for initial spend of 50 cloak meter for triggering Feign Death

• Decreased cloak regen rate from +80% to +50%

• When Feign Death is triggered, the Spy receives a 3 second speed boost

• Initial attack that triggers feign death has its damage reduced by 50%

• Damage resistance on triggering feign death scales over time. 65% to 20% over 3 seconds

• Feign Death stealth has no bump shimmer for 3 seconds

• 3 seconds after triggering Feign Death, the Spy is under normal invisible conditions (20% armor and shimmers if bumped or shot)

• Can no longer pick up ammo for cloak meter while cloaked

And now we get to the meat and potatoes of the Spy changes.  I’m...actually kind of interested in seeing how this new DR is going to work out.  It’s no longer a tanky watch meant for brute forcing past spammy chokes, it’s now a proper escape tool meant to ensure a getaway.  Yeah, you can’t extend your cloak anymore, and the no-blink cloak only lasts for 3 seconds now instead of the full 6.5 seconds (silly Valve and your rounding up when your game doesn’t), but that’s still plenty of time to get leaps and bounds away from anyone trying to snuff you out in the immediate area.

The downside however now means that a moderately charged headshot, a backstab, or a sticky trap with a few stickies is now guaranteed to kill you instead of leaving you with half your health.  So that’s a bit of a bummer.

However, with the changes to the Spy-cicle?  Pyros have no chance of catching you, honestly.  Feign, get the speed boost, pop the Spy-cicle at the same time, and be way out of the Pyro’s range to flame you by the time you can be ignited again.

And paired with the Big Earner?  Well.