As far as I can tell it became a really viable option in 6s. Might be unbalanced in HL tho.

Yeah, all a Diamondback Spy needs to do to at least make an attempt to secure a Med pick is pick one of the flank classes (Like maybe a Soldier or Scout in 6s, or in HL probably a Sniper or possibly the enemy Spy.) then if he can, get behind the combo, pick the damage dealer (The Pocket or Demo in 6s, the Heavy most likely in HL), and then he'll hopefully have two crits ready to go, and can hit two 102 damage shots on the Med, either killing him, or forcing him. One could substitute any of those two picks with a building sapped, as the Diamondback works with both.

I like the idea of buffing the diamonback since it was a little underpowered but I dont really like the idea of getting free crits for doing what you are supposed to do , especially if you think about the fact that spies can alreaady kill every class in the game in one hit.

Yeah, I agree with that statement too. The whole "getting crits for what you're supposed to be doing" argument is what I used for the old Soda Popper, where you got mini-crits for running and jumping, which is what the Scout is supposed to do.

I didn't realize this before, but it could also be used for self defense, other than important picks, because sometimes a spy has to go through hell(and fire) to get out of some situations. It might get banned though...

I see it maybe being a problem in HL where there's always full time buildings and easy to pick flank classes (engineer, sniper)

but in 6s, i doubt it would be a problem at all, I've rarely seen a spy play do much more than pick the med or his pocket, and there's usually no buildings unless they're defending last

IMO, if you can hit most of your shots, it becomes almost a direct upgrade from the revolver.
It makes spy a lot stronger and more dangerous in both 6s and HL, for the better or worse idk.

Btw sorry for derailing but does anyone know if valve is going to nerf the SC?

I hope so. It really needs a bit of a drawback.

That, and I hate getting 90lg-ed in pubs as Solly.

what does the diamondback do now? i haven't played tf2 in like -4 months

It stores crits for every successful backstab or sapped building.

The only thing broken about it, is that it stores a crit when you stab a razorback.

WHAT

holy shit

It also stores crits upon backstabbing an ubered player or a bonked scout. :s

it should do extra damage to buildings, because it is a future gun for killing fancy buildings

or, like, the same thing it does now but per 2 backstabs or something - reward streaks of stabs or staying alive for a long time

as a spy main, its not op in highlander.

(edit: Didn't realize etf2l was in season, said something stupid)

I feel like Valve secretly made the spread larger, because I can't hit shit with the Diamondback and I never could.

I'm probably just bad though.

As far as 6s goes, I think it just gives spies potential for pulling a more exciting play. When someone offclasses to spy and gets a crucial pick, the chat goes wild. Imagine if a spy gets the med pick, pulls out the diamondback and manages to kill the demo too, the chat would go super wild and it would be even more exciting. Usually spies are killed instantly after their one attempt at a kill so I think it's still a slim chance for them to make a big play, but the play can be bigger with this gun. I don't think it should be banned in 6s, especially since spy playtime is low anyway.

As for HL/pubs, I don't have a comment really.

as a spy main, it's pretty op in highlander.

Definitely a buff that will hurt the game more than help it, especially in highlander. I honestly can't speak about its position in 6's and frankly I don't see why it wouldn't be banned, seeing as most competitive leagues have a variety of banned unlocks.

Pre-buff, the diamondback wasn't a bad weapon, in fact it could be an incredibly cheap one if you played your cards right. Throughout the last highlander season, I found it surely had its times. On ashville and viaduct, it was incredibly effective and catered to a play style of shutting down the enemy team's engineer and sniper, which is rather advantageous on those types of koth maps. The only real problem with the diamondback pre-buff was that it was the most situational of the revolvers, and was difficult to predict when it would really shine.

Now, this buff just dumbs down the game even more. Obtaining crits through destroying buildings in addition to backstabs is just outright ridiculous. The original point of the gun is now lost because I don't see why anyone would choose it for getting crits from destroying buildings, when they could just play the way they normally play and get bonus crits. For a gun-heavy dr spy, this gun probably wont be useful at all, but to the spies who already use their gun less then their knife and often only after a stab, its just a straight up upgrade. It requires no extra work, no thought, just boom, crit. Viperstriker explained the likely situation rather well. I just don't see how this is a sidegrade to the stock revolver anymore. You could have already been dealing the same damage with an ambassador, while actually proving you earned the damage. Why this, valve.

Feels like a similar situation to the short circuit, a weapon that was already outright awesome at times, and rewarded the user for playing smart in a balanced manner, that has now been turned into a mindless piece of crap. This is all based on weapon equip percentages mind you. The issue isn't the weapons, the problem is the majority of the community doesn't like to try weapons that don't come easy right away and have to make them adjust their play style. Sorry for ranting.

more shit to make this game more unplayable

at least when you gave smaka an ambassador he still had to click on your head to make you sad

I just have images of valve sitting around a table discussing how to make a class that can 1 hit kill, and go invisible/have a second life more powerful...

IMO I would like it if it got a crit for every two backstabs instead of one, not sure how well that would fix it though.

Both weapons were banned mid-season due to the extreme changes. Both will be reviewed before next season (Although Short Circuit is a no unless it is changed by Valve.)

The more they keep changing stuff, the more I keep thinking they're testing us. We've hardly given buffed weapons a chance before banning them because they're different, and to be frank, it's annoying.

Either give them a chance or just go pure vanilla. Because that's where this will end up eventually.

banning them because they have the potential to entirely break the way that tf2 is played and it's not worth the risk of allowing them without knowing what they would do
see: quick fix

You either have to waste a season where you play with shitty unlocks to prove that, yes, disappearing projectiles and free headshot revolvers are not fun or engaging, or ban them and risk discovering that engineer and spy are actually fun as a full time class, which we can already guess that they aren't based on shit like the gunslinger already proving they aren't

You just basically made the argument for me, without the risk, there can't be a reward.

Okay, sure there would be a couple weeks of mildly weird results. But sooner or later, teams will adapt and devise method of neutralizing the changes, the balance will be restored. And the best will always rise to the occasion.

I think it's a decent buff but maybe a bit overpowered at it's current state. I need to play with and against it more to have a better overall opinion. As of right now I think they should reduce the base damage a bit more so the crits intern do less damage (and it'll make fighting without crits much harder.) Maybe even add a max storage to crits limited to 2 or 3.