So, my conclusions are as follows:

-Even though I do not believe the heal stats have skewed super far towards pockets, the game still feels more pocket-soldier-centric, with a) less spam denial and b) less of a reason to uber demos as well.
-Roamers and scouts aren’t necessarily getting more kills, as their demo is putting out less damage for them to clean up on, but they are outputting more damage themselves, as their aggression goes more unpunished.
-Teams like froyotech with very high-performing and, frankly, heal-heavy flank classes are more adapted to deal with these changes than teams like elevate.
I realize I did not discuss IM and open stats, but from what I saw the patterns were largely repeated (with the exception of the 4-5 individuals playing pocket or demo on the top open teams that roll everyone else, who all have like 450 dpm average).
I know this is rather a tl;dr, but I do it because I care. I didn’t like the sound of this nerf, and a month later, I still don’t like it.

Anything that makes scout a stronger class is uncalled for

the game was good with regular stickies and unmarked equalizers esp with how good scouts are now

I agree, the mini crit escape plan is such bullshit, I used that weapon constantly to like fast juke around corners to dodge dmg when I was low health

really the only clear answer to this whole thing is

Whats happening is that Valve wants us to play the game they intended. We as players turned demo in to this powerhouse class that did a ton of damage, and used stickies offensively. Demo was intended as far as Im aware to be area control, where he would just spam into a choke, not move with his team and make a ton of space. I personally liked the nerf, yes they nerfed stickies, but they also buffed demo in general, that damage variance and the fact that pills were inconsistent damage annoyed me. But, to every man their own. I think Valve had good intentions with this update. But, I think that it was the most logical of any nerf they couldve applied imo.

splitting up the equalizer and escape plan was eh with me but the mark for death makes no sense, if youre that low theres no reason for mark for death, youre going to be 90% of the time anyway lol.

6 scouts on each team to level the playing field

I agree with you that this nerf was logical in terms of fitting in with Valve's original vision of the game.

The problem is, who gives a fuck about Valve's original version of the game? I am willing to be a sizable number of people on these forums understand the way TF2, especially competitive TF2, works better than any Valve employee ever has or ever will. I am dead positive that I do, at least. Valve put pyro under "offensive", demo under "defensive", and sniper and medic both under "support", for fuck's sake.

In terms of describing this as an overall buff for demo, I think that that's extremely naive. Sure, if you make a list of the changes made both columns seem equally long, but they certainly do not carry the same weight.

http://www.vossey.com/gallery2/d/76617-1/equalizer.jpg

rip. running away with escape plan today from scouts is like trying to run away from the gestapo

the american classes have to be the best classes

Despite the fact I mostly play scout, demo is my favourite class and I consider myself a demo main, and to be completely honest I forgot the nerf even happened. I have noticed the lower damage stats for demo recently but I don't think that has to be a bad thing. I still find the game equally enjoyable as it was before the nerf, on every class including demo.

That said, there is a lot in this thread I agree with, I just don't think it's as big of an issue as you make it.

For what it worth I typically play with <60 ping, I don't know what kind of ping you are playing with if it's making it terrible.

I agree with you, but Valve was planning on nerfing demo for a while, If we bitch enough they will give us those stickies back (hopefully). But Im glad that it was done with more poise than just straight up making stickies do like 30 dmg. I agree that Valve probablydoesn't know nor care that much about comp. But, if you want to get your stickies back, get some traction, do something about it, put this post on other outlets where valve seems to pay attention like reddit or something. Naive, maybe, but Im just voicing my opinion.

(Sorry double post)

"Grenades and Stickybombs now have the same base blast radius as rockets. Changed to 146 from 159."
This is the radius change: http://i.imgur.com/T0WfNkH.jpg

Although Valve is known to give us wrong data.

Why don't we adapt the playstyle like any other game? It happens in dota every 3 months where the meta changes. Albiet a very different game I think the concept is the same

the buff ruined passive demo play not aggressive there for aggressive demo ubers can still be very effective. The thing with the nerf now is you are forced to play that aggressive demo and for a lot of demo and even teams its very hard to get above 280+ dpm if you play a very passive demo style. For Europeans this won't be a problem since they are used to having there demo in every uber and tanking him a lot, but for Americans that play strongly off there scouts and pocket to get frags in the ubers.

Personally I think that the combo damage situation or whatever you want to call isn't the biggest problem with the nerf. The mids are the biggest problem because thats the one point in the game where demos can't just run into people and just spam stickies into them(unless the mids are small like in badlands, gully, or viaduct) its the point in the game where demo actually is forced to charge their stickies and aim them into the enemy. Heres the thing though with demo you used to be able to charge up stickies and deal 70-90 damage with one sticky per charged shot, you hit 3-4 of those it can impact the mid and the game a shit ton. Now with demo, you charge up a sticky and shoot it directly into a enemy and it only does 35-50 dmg. The only place where demo can be useful in mids now is trapping up things in mids and trying to get an early demo pick. If the enemy team has a competent med the 35-50 damage you shoot into the enemy team won't matter because he can heal the 35-50 damage in about 2-3 seconds. The stickies you hit will basically do nothing to the enemy team besides make their team feel more insecure and weaker.

demo is now by far the most boring class to play

it hurts me when i know a sticky should hit but it does not because of smaller radius

According to the old comentary:

Judging by this they damn well knew he was a powerhouse and your statement is erroneous.

I'm pretty sure this is the change for stickies on the ground. Air-detted stickies ranges are significantly smaller.

--

Anyways I think demo's just become a lot more boring to play in 6s. I can't really threaten an advancing team unless they're all standing in a choke, and all I feel like I'm doing is putting up impromptu traps and perpetually backing up. I think it took a while for that to become apparent to me cuz people reflexively dove for cover when stickies showed up, even if they weren't really dangerous anymore, but eventually they figured it out

You haven't taken into account the radius rampup, it means that airdets have something like half the volume they used to.
Ninjaed lol

Thanks for clearing that up! I never listened to the commentary, thanks!

i think sticky speed should be increased

demoman is still fun when ur drunk

I do feel like demo is much less a great target to focus on pushes and whatnot. Like picking the demo doesn't feel as important. Playing demo in pugs at least, I felt as though I needed to be closer to the fight to be impactful, but not as safe and more likely to die. He definitely doesn't feel like a class that needs to limited to 1 any more. I mean pipes still hit hard, and stickies on the ground I've seen still do 115+ in the right situations. Also, I'm not advocating for him being at 2, just saying how less important he is now.

Demoman is worse now than it has ever been. It's not a bad thing its just different than what people are use to. You can still do well with the current changes but it very hard to dominate a game like you could in the past.

People will adapt

loose cannon is incredible though

waaaah demo is too hard now, I have to actually do more than alternate mouse1 and mouse2

I don't understand what's so bad about the nerf. I still do around the same amount of damage and, ultimately, the demo is still strong. Demos can still completely trap/spam off huge areas of the map, and stickies aren't that hard to do damage with if you just try to refine your aim with the projectiles.
It's a good way to cater to the pub community whiners about stickies, as well as catering to the comp players by requiring better aim.
Anyway, even if the nerf makes the game more pocket-centric, what's wrong with that? Might as well change the game's meta so that we get a little variety every once and a while.