I Read Your TF2 Hot Takes...

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MAXIMUM DAMAGE: / @maximum.damage
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Thumbnail SFM made by @T0TEN
0:00 - intro
1:32 - sponsor
2:33 - scream fortress
5:12 - sniper
9:40 - tf2’s design
15:21 - cosmetics
19:05 - updates
22:55 - competitive
26:30 - maps
27:51 - content
30:13 - random crits
30:37 - speed round
37:29 - medic
39:04 - wrap up

[@UncleDane]

Get an exclusive Surfshark deal! Enter promo code UNCLE for an extra 3 months free at surfshark.deals/UNCLE Also, take a look at what I've been working on this year!!! www.youtube.com/@MAXIMUM.DAMAGE

[@buck3t764]

i edge to your videos

[@Meun]

Certified hood classic

[@GermaphobeMusic]

@@buck3t764🤨

[@Fang....]

Cool

[@cadmiz]

@@buck3t764 🤨

[@Graep]

Uncle dane is the kinda channel you can forget exists for a year, come back and still enjoy regardless of the topic

[@hk1371]

Like how your favourite uncle is. You sometimes forget about him but everytime he visits, its a grand ol time

[@th3unmaker]

as long as the topic is tf2.

[@Destoroyahpng]

@@th3unmakerI mean, I’d be fine seeing Dane doing other shit

[@TheDude8008]

It's perfect as background noice for how monotonic it is, I usually get to sleep if I just watch them videos

[@Looona_fan]

​@@th3unmaker No, anything he does would be good.

[@amazinggamer6002]

These hot take will never be as hot as uncle dane 😭why does this have likes😭😭😭

[@lernzolelama5938]

Real

[@toxinrazor6489]

Ayo?

[@geckoking74]

True

[@Outasteroid]

He mains engi for a reason (tick tock by joji starts playing)

[@StockFerjitsu]

Yo? 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨

[@luleta1644]

you basically hit the nail in the head by steering the convo from the dreaded "Sniper is op" to the much more accurate "Sniper is lame"

[@heretichazel]

I swear people just forget that fun factor is an important part of game design and balancing

[@shinobuoshino5066]

@@heretichazel it's fun to headshot lime sniper and taunt, so is shaking your mouse because then you can't be headshot unless sniper is using aimbot.

[@-RandomStranger-]

​​​​@@heretichazel which is why I use the huntsman and play like I'm an offense class (I land 1 arrow in a Heavy being healed by a medic and die)

[@AutumnReel4444]

Sniper is lame, strong, and has no interesting counterplay

[@shinobuoshino5066]

@@AutumnReel4444 maybe if you're low IQ who keeps running into his crosshair the same way gibus scout runs into engineer's sentry.

[@bobthebox2993]

I don't have twitter, so didn't get a chance to post my hot take, so here it is: They shouldn't have fixed the Box Trot's ability to hide the user from sentry fire. If the taunt was on any other class, I'd think it perfectly reasonable to remove that unintended feature of the taunt. But the taunt is for the spy, the one class that already has 3 ways to avoid sentry fire (disguise, invisibility and sapper). I even assumed it was an intended feature at first because it only protected you from Sentry fire while you were standing still. Once your legs became visible to start moving, the Sentry could see you and you would die. It just seemed like a neat feature of the taunt.

[@VentureCAM]

That would be really cool to see added tbh, if you see a spy in a box your gonna shoot, so he’s screwed regardless unless there’s just a random sentry in the middle of nowhere

[@teedeegremlin]

god i'd love that, would make sneaking around in a box really funny

[@cornesalvo9366]

Spy has other ways to deal with sentries, yes, but the box lets you force a sentry to lock unto a target it can't kill and keep shooting at it forever, giving teammates chances to kill it safely. Maybe you'll say "but people will just kill the taunting spy" but it will not always be the case that the engineer or a teammate will be present to do it (not by any means common, but not rare either, especially in pubs), considering that the explosive classes can destroy sentries with just a clip. It is also better than sapping in this scenario since you can taunt and be far away. Taunts in general should not be allowed to give classes a way to do something they otherwise couldn't. TF2 is not a pay to win game.

[@bobthebox2993]

@@cornesalvo9366 What you're saying is the opposite of what I'm suggesting. What I said was that I want sentries to NOT target spy while taunting. There would be no "forcing the sentry to lock onto a target it can't kill"

[@teedeegremlin]

@@cornesalvo9366 damn it, as fun as the idea is, man's got a point

[@SrPelo]

Here's a hot take: 15:55 videos like those should serve as criticism to workshop creators rather than "irresponsible takes", the fact that one of those videos proves team recognition is important with gameplay and calling it "irresponsible" and/or a boring subject just means hiding/ignoring the problem under the carpet and never try to improve your own work.

[@711sodamachine9]

hi sr pelo

[@user-vd1cy4ku1g]

It just comes off as revisionist history, because you cannot watch those videos and come out of them with the conclusion that they are anything near "irresponsible"

[@uberschnilthegreat22]

absolutely, Zesty's video about team recognition exposes how easily it is to destroy said recognition with certain cosmetic combinations that currently exist in modern TF2, it should not be something that's ignored or deemed an irresponsible take.

[@lazy_dio]

Let the table breaker cook 🔥🔥

[@xeno2053]

ok

[@Sercil00]

Hot take: The spy disguises are not useless. People who say this are just using them wrong or expect them to work too consistently.

[@Charlie-id4tv]

Absolutely. Nobody checks the sniper loitering in the back. Also, the slow disguises give the perfect excuse to let everyone walk past you and expose their backs as you pick your target. My personal favorite is Medic though. Equip medigun and nobody will question you running in a straight towards them to "reconnect" your medigun beam. Also funny to pretend you're lining up a crusader's crossbow shot, bait them into standing still, and score the easiest ambassador headshot of your life - !

[@Marmalade-64]

@@Charlie-id4tv try disguising as a sniper holding melee and calling out spy whenever you get the chance

[@skelskeleton]

the people who say this just pick the exact same disguise (usually scout) and have zero acting skills seriously just disguise as a soldier or demo once in your life, sure you move a bit slower but i promise you will get a few kills because of that disguise

[@skelskeleton]

also make sure you face towards your team (the "enemy") and avoid making a straight line to someone's back.... its not hard

[@scybydyryzz]

try not to accidentally bump your enemy walking backwards

[@ClydeIsFake]

"Opinions are like the spy character from team fortress 2, every team has 3 of them and they are all useless and bad" -Uncle Dane the engi main, 2023

[@meloybooon7383]

as a pyro main that enjoys getting outplayed sometimes, when other classes kill me i go "ahhhh you got me" and laugh, but when i die to a sniper once I become sad, twice i immediately frow up and try to send evil energy to them with my mind through the computer in a attempt to kill them in real life.

[@jerrymartin7019]

are you me?

[@meloybooon7383]

@@jerrymartin7019yes

[@Memoricalvaria]

I got the 69th like :D

[@user-bj9yt4cz9t]

Fr. I don't have a problem when sniper kills from afar, because that's literally his job, killing from high distance. But when he does a quickshot, that's sad, it feels unfair. The best decision after deleting the class entirely, is making him weak in close range, cause strong sniper has no counters, and it sucks. Make spy useful for once, he's designed to counter snipers, and he can't!

[@Jontohil2]

The fact that people hate the Dead Ringer and Kunai so much shows how 'not getting caught' is so key to spy's gameplay loop. Kunai Dead Ringer IS what happens if you buff spy too much so he doesn't die when caught.

[@Sleepy_Cabbage]

thats what im saying?!?! spies should be rewarded for their stealth, i dont feel like i was cheated when i die cause "damn, that dude slicked me", theirs noting slick about eating up healthpacks and then weezling a kill cause he has extra hp in the scenario when 1 out of 6 of the rockets aimed at the spy shouldve kiled him.

[@Agent_Alibi]

I baffles me why people would play a class who's entire purpose and abilities is based around stealth and subterfuge, only to then disgard 80% of it to run around with the deadringer to then complain that Spy is bad. If a player wants to play agressively with hitscan, they should stop playing diet Scout and actually play Scout.

[@godofportal5905]

finally someone understands

[@PhroggyBoggy]

Hello mr jonto

[@HauntlessTND]

I think the main problem with spy is that he can get disgustingly shut down by pyro (even with unlocks like the spycicle and dead ringer.) He can also get outclassed by sniper, but I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with spy himself, just how other classes interact with him.

[@Solidjj]

Wasn’t saying bots don’t suck, just was trying to consider some good to come from the current state of things

[@Stone_RedSkye]

I agree, mindset is very important no matter the circumstances

[@DontSmoketheShrooms]

Yeah, I interpreted it as people coming together to actively combat the bots, functioning as a morale booster of sorts in spite of the fact that Valve won't fix the problems themselves.

[@Purple_Lego_stud]

Holy cow, did you get a female voice actor yet?

[@KingOfTheKindle]

Yo this is the funny pokemon voice dude! I think a titanfall video would be funny.

[@naenae2350]

Why are you playing tf2

[@hightensionjapanesegoblin9821]

As a Medic main, it really is nice to get a second Medic. 2 medics on payload offense is a massive boon that allows teams to basically steamroll 90% of lobbys.

[@gmanplaysgames256]

especially if you use different Mediguns. popping stock Uber and Kritz at the same time is devastating to a lot of teams

[@aaronrachiele5521]

As a former medic main, it definitely sucks when you become a medic on a team that already has another medic, but then they see you become medic, so they too change their class. Like, now the team only has a single medic. We're back where we started.

[@applesaucemorton5443]

for real

[@StockLlama]

My hot take: stacking engineers is absurdly powerful on defense. I’ve had rounds that have been absolute steam rolls which ended in a loss because the entire enemy team went engineer on last. Even a single engineer can tank their sentry for way too long by pressing 2 on their keyboard. The engineer is not overpowered on his own, but when there are 4 of him, the game becomes a boring game of trudging through molasses.

[@rattusgrenadus8291]

Uber 2 demos gg

[@prettyradhandle]

@@rattusgrenadus8291 pyro:

[@ar-ef6kj]

@@prettyradhandlesoldier: spy: sniper: heavy: medic:

[@axkin6856]

Switch off Spy or Sniper and pick a power class

[@klutz_4348]

this isnt really hot this has been a problem since the game came out 😭agreed tho

[@PerkyPyra]

One thing about Red Tape that, while it doesn't make it "strong" but does make it really annoying, is that a Spy placing it on a Dispenser for even a fraction of a second will entirely drain its supply of metal. It's not a massive thing but man is it irritating to have a level 3 dispenser that's fully stocked on metal just... lose everything from one touch of the red tape.

[@Meladoom2]

Oh damn really? Having engineer AND a red-tape user in a match is like seeing a unicorn lol Cute channel banner btw!

[@soundrogue4472]

But would you rather lose a building or lose 1 LV of your building? You can EASILY get said metal.

[@carljohan9265]

@@soundrogue4472 red tape is what you use in a coordinated assault where you know a normal sapper won't kill the buildings you put it on so you use red tape to leave damage that can't be quickly undone just as your team attacks.

[@soundrogue4472]

@@carljohan9265 1. very niche 2. You are assuming NONE OF YOUR ALLIES SHOOT IT!

[@soundrogue4472]

@@aidaneaglesfield9148 Allies like other engies can still remove said sapper.

[@bread6596]

5:00 Maybe make reading hot takes your new Halloween tradition that would be neat

[@oneshinyboi3083]

100%. Some of these takes spooked me to my core, it would be a perfect tradition.

[@alface935]

Great Idea!

[@Romdara21]

Because theres some really spooky hot takes

[@PrismTheLoser]

I hope so

[@refusingtoconform]

That's lovely.

[@johannesneumayer6041]

The best clip to show the lack of counterplay against sniper is Lazy Purple shooting the short circuit and yelling „Flashbang!“

[@TheOneWhoHasABadName]

in the clip starting at 6:52, he even manages to use the tactic, but dies anyway because the flashbang is not the counter-strike flashbang

[@mrsquid_]

"sniper is easy to counter if you know which sightlines to avoid" thats some great advice its like saying "the best way to counter bear attacks is to never enter a forest" ... but what if i want to enter the forest? personally, i enjoy big sightlines such as on mountain lab, but i wouldnt want those to be used by snipers instead of sniper you could get another high precision class that doesnt rely on long-range shots. something like quickscopes.

[@Aprocrisin]

is english your first language

[@Helperbot-2000]

@@Aprocrisin Did you forget a question mark?

[@korhol2065]

I think the issue is that if you are dealing with a sharpshooter, going down the sight lines in bad water turns from intense fire fight to sitting in the back and hoping you can kill him

[@Cob-Kay]

As a former Medic main: Yeah he's super easy for the amount he brings to the team. It's not often as flashy or cool but it's good work

[@NerfPlayeR135]

Healers never get enough credit.

[@irregularassassin6380]

There's a reason why I gravitated to Medic from the beginning of my TF2 career. He's easy, with a fair bit of depth, and the class trains your game sense and movement skills. A great pick for beginners who don't mind the thankless task of having their face shoved into an industrial cheese grater every match while everyone cries out for more cheese.

[@ignaciopizarro97]

"It ain't much but it's honest work"

[@xanious3759]

medic was made super powerful to try and make people actually play him and they still dont play him lmao at least him being the most important/powerful class means people really can't complain when they lose

[@esueijae8352]

Auch, I usually die to everything playing medic, and playing him as your first class is kinda painful if you care about healing when all you got is stock medigun with no crossbow

[@wiggytommy8607]

12:38 Yes it is. The creator of the Mad Milk specifically stated that it’s mostly regular milk, the only difference is that it comes from radioactive cows. If you think it’s some bodily fluid because it says “Non-Milk Substance,” then I’d love to hear what you think the Gas Passer is since it’s labeled as “Gas-Like Substance”

[@not7170]

I know what the gas passer is

[@SeisoYabai]

How can it be milk if it's literally non-milk? Something fishy is going on...

[@pitbowl]

Ass sweat

[@JohnDoe-JohnDoe]

@@SeisoYabaiMOSTLY milk

[@randomguy9305]

Radioactive male cows, yes, what good milk

[@wotwott2319]

34:00 removing pyro would make both Sniper and Spy more powerful. Pyro's afterburn does aim punch which could throw off a sniper's aim, and it's excellent at catching spies. Ironically, the most casual friendly class in the game seems to be THE tipping scale that makes the game casual friendly.

[@GoodlyData86596]

Removing pyro would remove sniper’s “razorback: this time it works on his gun too”, but yea I get what you’re saying, to an extent. Throwing off a sniper’s aim is good and all but consider what pyro has to do (besides, *THAT* weapon.) to get the flames on the sniper, he ether gets close to the sniper and kills him almost immediately or he launches a projectile that is only slightly harder to dodge than a doom imp’s fireball launched from the same distance (UNLESS *THAT FUCKING WEAPON IS EQUIPPED,* THEN NETHER WORK AS WITHOUT A MOBILITY SECONDARY ON PYRO, YOU ARE NOT GETTING PAST BOTH HIS ENTIRE TEAM AND *AT MINIMUM* ONE SENTRY.)

[@cewla3348]

@@GoodlyData86596my guy the SS is a thing

[@_ikako_]

This is why true gamers only play huntsman sniper, I don't give a fuck if I'm burning to death I'll still dome that fucker

[@ianbrudnakvoss3126]

​@@GoodlyData86596 Detonator does it too and gives legitimate mobility, it's honestly easier to tag snipers with it

[@CrazyQuilman157]

Man, as a Pyro main, nothing is more satisfying than forcing a Sniper to equip the Danger Shield... and then killing them anyway.

[@classydoctor5864]

As a spy main, same with a razorback.

[@Aprocrisin]

ew

[@jerrymartin7019]

as the announcer from metal slug once said, "SHOT GUN"

[@DragoDactyl]

I only use the danger shield when there's a SMELLY scorch shot pyro on the other team

[@Katy133]

18:21 I honestly would love to see Workshop creators release showcase videos that explain their thought process and creative process behind the individual cosmetics they make. Like, having a video on the item's Workshop page that has the creator explain steps, show concepts, the research they did, etc. I want Workshop creators to normalise that! It also makes people browsing the Workshop being faced more explicitly with the fact that behind every creation is a person, and to consider how much work went into making something.

[@telivan776]

The one semi problem with that is that not everyone who enjoys making art enjoys making content. I can see a lot of folks trying to do that and getting burnt out on the entire scene instead. Also if it does take off you'd probably see a raising of the bar for the supplemental material needed to get any attention on the workshop (just making a cool hat won't get you anywhere if everyone else is doing a 15 minute video essay on top of the hat.)

[@Katy133]

@@telivan776 That's a good point. Accessibility is important, so raising the bar could create hesitancy to create, especially for instance if a creator doesn't want to use their voice in videos but feels like a text overlay isn't "good enough," etc.

[@zhubwat]

I think there's a good balance of what is typical now and what could be a realistic and ideal future. Workshop creators shouldn't be expected to pump out videos or anything, but even delving a bit more into the design process and/or why they think their item works for TF2 in their opinion in the item description would be a lot more useful than the one-liners that we usually get now. For someone who makes a whole-ass 3D model+ and textures to match, writing a little bit about why they felt like doing that doesn't seem like an extremely high bar, right?

[@Small_child_punter]

I adore the idea because it forces out transparency. The creators will have to explain their thought process and why they added certain touches as it pertains to tf2.

[@sauceboss2210]

One of my favorite workshop based series was 3kliksphilip's case showcases. He actually got in contact with creators to talk about the inspiration and process of creating their skins.

[@guy4036]

I’m genuinely interested in hearing an engineer main talk about sniper more in depth

[@mariustan9275]

Same here. I'd like to see his take on it since people like Zesty and Fishonastick have already suggested ideas for Sniper.

[@NetherOxx]

i agree with this for sure, it's an interesting topic that i feel like a lot of people don't fully understand the true problem

[@dr_crazii]

I'd definitely like to see what kind of counterplay against sniper could be proposed, especially from an active engineer's perspective.

[@TheGhostThatWas]

As another engineer main, engies have no movement abilities (outside Sentry jumping), our sentries aren't able to protect us at Sniper range, and we're is vulnerable to quick scopes. As an easy pick for highly skilled snipers, I would love to hear how Dane feels about them, since it would be the ultimate "devils advocate" take.

[@chickaen135]

absolutely

[@CheeseofWheel]

I really like how the "instant" perfectly matches up with the shot on the medic at 8:17

[@capperbuns]

Literally read this as it came up in the video. Lmao.

[@no64256]

I'm really glad to hear a large voice in the community agree about the monetization, it (along with the economy with real money, and artificial item rarity) are the reasons I quit playing TF2. It feels like every time i say this, people act like I'm crazy. Not being the worst doesn't mean it isn't still bad I never fell for mobile games or other f2p monetization models, but I've wasted so much money on TF2 when I was younger. Especially compared to the enjoyment it gave me

[@Pistol_78]

Every moment you are alive and are actively helping your teammates as medic feels amazing because you know in the back of your head the entire, and i mean THE ENTIRE enemy team wants you dead and the fact that you still aren't is so cool to me

[@EpsilonKnight2]

That and you basically feel like the team leader being able to direct pushes, pull the team back some if they are sticking with you and even help flank super hard. I personally main medic and love the sense that even if I'm sucking at getting kills I can carry the whole team to victory. Also uberchaining is super fun if you have a friend medic and an enemy team that isn't ready to stop it.

[@maximusbabaximus7121]

Picking medic as a class for sure does mean you'll win games, but a lot of the time, having too many medics on the enemy team can be a real bummer: Who wins? The team with 1 medic or the team with 3? Happened too many times on Uncletopia to count.

[@matsurischlaagen1757]

I had a game of Dustbowl recently where there were 4 MEDICS. 4! And do you know what happened? They lost. On the second point of the first area. However, my situation was unique in how my team actually had more than just a single person with a mic, and we were able to actively communicate instead of typing things out. We were able to counter push the BLU team back to their spawn because despite having 4 medics, they didn't have enough DPS to punish our overextensions.

[@blacktemplar1139]

​@@matsurischlaagen1757I'd like to see how well they heal when the enemy has a few well placed snipers

[@stevenpoche6988]

@@matsurischlaagen1757 I would say four medics is too many. Lets say you have a team with four medics and one of each other class (twelve person team). Engineer, sniper and spy can generally do fine without a medic so you don't really have to worry about them. That leaves only five players that will actually benefit from the medics, and that's if you generously include scout, which is debatable because scouts can usually just run for health packs and don't need medics as much. Considering that one medic can pretty easily keep two players overhealed at the same time, having four medics to heal five people is just too much. The only time I think you could justify running four medics is if literally the entire rest of the team is power classes.

[@matsurischlaagen1757]

@@stevenpoche6988 You just explained exactly how they lost

[@jacobfreeland6881]

I’ve found that the optimal number of medics is usually two.

[@zachlap3020]

Top 5 strategies to fight sniper 5- don’t get clicked on 4- don’t go outside 3- don’t show your head 2- don’t go in sight lines 1- just don’t be seen

[@licemere9899]

0 - your chances to win

[@sqwimpy-4]

-1 just quit the game

[@user-jt9jc3ew8o]

-2 delete tf2 -3 go outside

[@thomasracer56]

​@@user-jt9jc3ew8o -4 - hit the gym -5 - lawyer up

[@MrRedinator_]

**cue Monty Python's How Not to Be Seen sketch**

[@Hazel-xl8in]

medic is definitely the easiest class to play, but that’s a good thing. it’s important to have a range of skill floors, because while a lot of people love mastering a difficult but rewarding class like sniper, there will always be new players, people with disabilities, or people who just don’t want to have to put a lot of effort into their stress relief hobby after work. having a class that is just look at your friends, press m1, and follow the largest group of people around serves that purpose. you also will win the fight for your team in the process

[@ses694]

Its really a concequence of how the medic is the most powerful class in general, and that isn't a bad thing. If he was not overpowered, people wouldn't want to play him and if there was more healing introduced from other soures then he would get even less play

[@greasedweasel8087]

1:20 seeing “spy is a good class” followed immediately by “spy is almost useless” is priceless.

[@listertf2]

Here's my Hot Take™ on Quickplay vs Casual: Quickplay sucked, but that was the point. Quickplay was not its own system like Casual is; it was an extension of the server browser. If you view Quickplay in a vacuum, of course it sounds terrible. It was (in my opinion) a solution to the seemingly contradictory sentiment about the server browser that still echoes today, even in this video - the browser is super old and ugly and needs to be fixed up... but it also works perfectly once you learn how to use it. The issue is, why would new players invest time into learning how to use the browser when they don't even know if they *like* the game yet? Thus, Quickplay picked what it deemed to be the best server for these new players. It gave them an easy and convenient (albeit flawed) matchmaking system that DIDN'T detract from community servers - in fact, it allowed them to flourish alongside Valve servers by constantly pumping them with fresh blood. That is why people look back at Quickplay so fondly. If VAC did its job, I'd ultimately side with Casual for its vastly superior presentation and reliability (again, assuming VAC worked). But there being thousands of aimbots flooding Valve servers and even lagging/ddosing them, with human cheaters running rampant as well? That's literally the worst thing that can happen to an online game, and it's largely because of Casual killing most community servers and redirecting everyone to play on unmoderated Valve servers. Playing TF2 today can feel like a slog compared to the days of Quickplay. Waiting for Casual to put me in a server, requeueing after every match because no one else ever stays, requeueing when a server is rendered unplayable from bots/hacker party. If Casual is too unplayable I'll wait 10+ minutes to get into one of the few vanilla community servers that are still alive, and if I was planning on playing TF2 with any friends then forget it. I miss when it took 5 seconds to switch between hundreds of populated servers, and when I landed in one I liked, I could stay for hours alongside everyone else who was also having fun. I know TF2's popularity has recovered and continued to grow since MYM, but I can't help but wonder if that growth was because of Casual or in spite of it, if only because of the bot problem. I can only imagine how many people have tried TF2 for the first time with Scream Fortress, found the new maps unplayable because of bots, and uninstalled instantly. tl;dr i miss when community servers were alive

[@hypermonkeybird4945]

clicking 1 (one) button and instantly playing with real human beings for pretty much as long as you want is a crazy experience you can hardly get on tf2 anymore besides like, uncletopia its crazy how tf2 was instant fun and now you have to sift through so many queues that lead to botted matches or matches that end instantly and restart on a new map where you then have to wait for the pregame timer to finish only to get one round of gameplay before everyone leaves and you have to requeue...

[@bung9094]

I aint reading allat

[@CoolSs]

Even if i agree with everything OP said. I disagree, Quick play was better in everyway . It had minor problems and no critical problems like casual (a system that not been updated since blue moon and is still a bad mvm system) no team scramble or joining server mid game or team switching etc...

[@Eric_W_00]

Yes, tons of community servers are bad but there was a handful of golden specks in the shit pile that was the old server browser that I'll never be able to play on again thanks to MYM. Matchmaking as it stands will always be inferior to quick play as it exacerbates all the issues quick play had and multiplies them to 11. Stomps are worse than ever and player agency is taken away with inability to play for as long as you'd like with the same players, no team scrambles and no ability to switch teams to even the odds. I'd take auto-balance anyway over the incompetency of modern casual matchmaking. Also uncletopia is not really representative of the broader community server experience, as the old community servers actually had one-of-a-kind game modes and maps so fun it was WORTH waiting 30 minutes to get into a full server.

[@drkastenbrot]

quickplay gave many players exactly what they want. I don't wanna select a bunch of maps and hope that the system brings me where I want. It is much nicer to get a list of games with players and good ping where you can just pick the one you want. It would be nice if they introduced a similar option for casual. More control over where you play and less waiting.

[@rancidmarshmallow4468]

The sniper thing is interesting because I didn't realize some people see a difference between "lame" and "OP", maybe others use the term differently but overpowered to me means not "statistically good" but just "more powerful than it should be". If some class or character is awful to play against but still has a below-average stats or whatever, I would still call that overpowered, because it shouldn't be powerful enough to make that engagement unpleasant. On the flip side, something can be objectively, undoubtedly statistically powerful and not "OP" as long as it's still fun to play as, against, and with, like medic.

[@MrFlyingLamma]

I dont really know about the "death of an artstyle" discussion. I really do think there is something lost as you add more and more ridiuclous looking content, on multiple fronts. For one, "just turn it off" shouldnt be a solution. I like cosmetics. I like TF2s blend of 50s retro and wacky aesthetic. I like wacky cosmetics. But theres a limit for me on what just looks horrible. I want to see peoples cool cosmetics, but not being able to tell teams apart or class recognition is actually important to me. Also, and this is more just the nature of games that get more and more cosmetic content, but now everything tries to stand out. Before when you saw someone with a burning flames or neon it was a significant departure, like seeing Recon in H3 before they made it obtainable by anyone. Now its like, what color of 55 different flavors of flashing discoball do you want beamed into your eyeballs?

[@andrewwilliams9613]

Dane's closing take is the reason I have always and will always be a Medic main

[@lambert_the_reckless993]

lame

[@andrewwilliams9613]

@@lambert_the_reckless993 and also medic is incredibly rewarding and fun to me

[@minihalkoja590]

Kinda same. And to inhale some copium, try playing Medic when your team is dogshit without falling back onto the Quick-Fix. That isn't easy. Medics and Heavies are similar in the way their difficulty spikes up: On a good team you can practically sleepwalk, but on a bad team it's like juggling bowling pins on a tightrope that's tied between the twin towers on the 11th of September.

[@Mike-official]

@@minihalkoja590amazing analogy of playing stock with teamates who are physically unable to turn around to help you

[@user-ov6fu3hi2o]

Because you're always losing?

[@therpderp]

Yeah the problem with one shots in video games is that they never usually feel good to die to, unless the one shot requires proper planning, or it's effectively useless, just take a look at Spy. On the topic of the problem with Sniper, the counter play to something like Sniper is not really in your control: it's the hope that the other player misses. You cannot control the other player's inability to aim. That's what makes it suck. You do get to go "haha dumbass you missed" when you kill them, though.

[@SenyiKimmo]

Yeah there's a few other oneshots in TF2 but they all have their own things going for them. Demoman sticky trap: A very small area of instant death, counterplay includes finding flank routes that aren't trapped, catching the demoman off-guard, either killing him to remove the stickies, make him misfire, or distract him enough to keep the stickies from popping entirely. Otherwise, "couldn't you see the bloody bombs?" Demoknight charge: Charge is very very limited and the Demoknight has to physically thrust himself in danger to pull it off. Most classes have decent counterplay, such as Heavy simply having the raw damage and HP to shut down Demoknight, other Demomen being able to use a trap, Pyro's airblast, and Scout's superior agility. Knockback + Environmental damage: Incredibly annoying, but similar to the sticky trap it's focused on specific areas of the map that can be avoided for the most part. Kritzkrieged anything: You didn't kill the medic and honestly you deserve getting your ass kicked Spy backstab: The amount of shit a Spy has to pull off to land a backstab is insane, considering that any of them going wrong is enough to get him killed. That said, the fact that Spy paranoia has become so ingrained in the general playerbase does make succeeding as Spy a lot harder than it should be.

[@hsalfesrever3554]

This technically isn't a video game but I wanted to add to this discussion of one shots not feeling good to lose to, in YuGiOh there are deck that focus on performing an FTK, short for first turn KO, and nobody likes playing against an FTK deck because they either drop the combo and are a sitting duck that you get to murder on your turn, or you watch them combo for 20 minutes and die before you even get a turn, so they aren't fun to play against either way

[@GamerTheVoidGamingCentre]

@@SenyiKimmoI wanna touch on specifically Demoknight with this reply. He screams like a drunken train coming at you. If you cannot pick up on him coming at you and juke his mobility based on that I’m sorry that’s on you. Mainly talking Demoknight using the Targe and no booties, but even with the booties he’s not that great at making a turn. Tide Turner is arguably harder to deal with but it has less resistances so good luck because of being pushed full of bullets. There’s counterplay to it similar to spy where both are listen for them and make your play around it.

[@SenyiKimmo]

@@GamerTheVoidGamingCentre Also the Tide Turner can only go up to minicrits and not full crits which means that a tide turner swing doesn't even instakill, so it's basically irrelevant as far as oneshots go

[@SamuelTrademarked]

​@@SenyiKimmo and the sniper? he just stands at a balcony or a far away place and just has to hit your head. there is a MASSIVE imbalance of effort to reward. also the fact that sniper can be effective at every range is fucking dumb, stupid, and should not be in the game at all. the class that is balanced around long range should not also be able to be just as effective at close range, which is where he should be a sitting duck. solution? nerf quickscoping into the ground and give him much more limited ammo. or, y'know, just remove all his rifles and force him to use huntsman by default.

[@Leet-iz2fz]

The whole Sniper talk reminds me of Big Yellow's second video on banned strategies in competitive Pokémon. He talks about how Agility and Partial Trapping, a Gen 1 strat where you use a move that increases your Speed followed by a move that prevents the opponent from attacking you for multiple turns in a row while slowly damaging them if it hits. With higher speed, the APT mon will always go first and hit the partial trapping move again as soon as it ends, leaving the opponent with no chance to retaliate unless they get lucky and the move happens to miss. If you think that sounds overpowered, it's really not, but it's very uncompetitive and unfun, so it was banned all the same. The video also mentions Gen 2 Snorlax, a Pokémon so powerful it is MANDATORY in all singles teams if you seriously want to win. It's *not* banned because you still have to put some thought into how you use it, plus it serves as a hard counter to a lot of Pokémon that *would* be unfun *without* Snorlax to keep them in check. Big Yellow compares it to Medic, as both are massive game changers that are mandatory on any serious team, but the game would be way worse if they were totally removed.

[@TheFlyinSquid]

Missing the point with meet your match. The queue times arent the issue (though being able to directly join a map mid match did make things faster) but rather what we lost with it. Not being able to join a friend mid match (Literally an option built into steam exactly for this thats useless now), cant switch teams, vote scramble when getting steamrolled, cant stay in the server without it becoming a deadzone when the match ends. The only intended way to play "casual" mode is to sit down queue up, play the whole match through and then leave and requeue again which obviously leads to a more sweaty experience. What made the game magical was the pub vibe like kids gathering around with their friends shooting hoops where the fun mattered more than the competetion. I dont think its wrong to have a competetive experience for the minority of players that want it but its hard to deny the loss to the game in pursuit of esports. Also the halloween contracts now being tied to match completion is extremely annoying and only there to band aid the problem valve caused themselves.

[@Hotomato]

I normally try not to adopt opinions right as I hear them but “sniper isn’t overpowered, just lame to fight” was very eye opening and made me realize what I’ve been actually trying to say for a long time.

[@anshsgh6092]

all it takes is one direct hit

[@RecklessBucket]

​@@purplesky135but it makes sense, headshots results to instant kill irl. Not sure about csgo because I mostly played tf2. Besides, not everyone can fit being a sniper so it's still pretty fair. The only exploit I hate is when hacks/cheats are involved.

[@aejiis]

It's just unfortunate. Any changes to sniper rifle would make the class either unfun, not even a sniper class, or fundamentally flawed as far as game balance goes. I think it's got to do with skill ceiling. Honestly, I might be saying the coldest take on the planet, but if there should be a change it should cap the capabilities of sniper and decrease the power of the headshot. Like causing inaccuracy between successive shots and giving small to large inaccuracy at long range based on how fast the player is moving. Then decrease headshot to 125 base damage that increases to 300 max. He's not a bad class or unbalanced, but the fact that he is easy to exploit and the way his existence ends up redefining the meta and flow of combat into something unfun makes him a problem. He needs to exist, but for once I actually think that the game should step in and make cap player ability instead of letting skill ceiling be infinite.

[@mariustan9275]

​@@RecklessBucket A bullet to anywhere near vital organs has a good chance of killing you. There's a reason police are taught to aim for the chest than th ehead. The head is much smaller and the chest is a lot easier to hit and there are vital organs like the heart that would suck to have a bullet in them.

[@vitkosbence3705]

​@@aejiisMost of what needs to be done to sniper has already been done in mods. Nerfs to quickscopes is the key, although I'd personally pair it with some kind of turn penalty, while scoped. Point is, sniper shouldn't be able to watch his back AND a sightline. This would make him "not op (depending on the map)" But really all 8 other classes have a very limited micro skill ceiling (except soldier and demoknight) so they have to win with macro skills. On the other hand sniper can disregard a macro decision no matter how well it should counter him in theory, just by having better micro skills. He's still clearly the outlier class.

[@ebmario874]

Absolutely interested in a Sniper video. The way you spoke about the class's issues makes me think that you really could bring something to the discussion that I would like to hear. Also, I would love to see what ideas in specifics you have!

[@thecluckster3908]

15:20 “Cookie clicker ass game” 😭

[@simenon5929]

I don't think many of you guys know what a "hot take" is...

[@marcoaureliodominguesallam8347]

Hot take: A lot of people complain and meme that scouts take medkits from medics. But, a lot of medics that i see in game REFUSE to heal anyone that isn't a power class or their friend on a call, so the scout goes after a medkit and the medic gets mad at him

[@financialproblems9308]

that my friend is what we affectionately call a medic girlfriend. Unlike real girlfriends a medic girlfriend are severely loyal and wont heal anyone other than their chosen pocket for life. You dont usually find them in the wild but if you do, dont expect heals from them cause they are utterly devoted.

[@natalie6811]

Honestly those guys are missing out. Love watching overhealed scputs be a menace, and Ubering a scout is one of the most energetic feelings in the game.

[@Anderson-kg5ex]

scout mains be like "MEDIC HEAL ME PLS" when they have all the mobility in the world to dodge attacks and not take damage then when they finally get healing they run into a sentry gun and die

[@echo_9835]

Your medic hot take is objectively true. The fact that people complain about losing when there's no medic and 3 snipers/spies blows my mind.

[@matsurischlaagen1757]

Holy Shit. THIS. I can't tell you how many times I was "Nerd Emoji-ed" because I was begging our teammates to swap from having so many snipers and scouts. I usually instantly go medic if we don't have one because of fuckers like them. Don't get me wrong, that many spies and snipers can do something, but the first thing they have to do is GET PAST THE KRITSKRIEG'D STICKYSPAMMING DEMO. IF ONLY THERE WAS AN UBER, HUH?

[@BootScoot]

nothing worse than being the one to switch to medic only to have nobody to heal. Whether it be overextending scouts, the 4 spies and 3 snipers, the engineer turtling on last or the friendly hoovy, you can *try* working with what you have but even giving people the option to swap to a power class instead of playing medic only to be told no is incredibly frustrating.

[@TheMCzorro]

@@BootScoot Exactly! One player switching to medic doesn't always magically solve problems, we need power classes god damnit! Support classes are called support for a reason, they're not meant to be the main force

[@mariustan9275]

I think it's because while Medic is easy no-one wants to play him because he doesn't get frags

[@curtisleblanc5897]

That medic hot take at the end is so true, and it's why I always play medic when I think my team has enough power classes and enough Engies (the only classes I find easier than Medic are Engie and Heavy, just for me personally, those are my mains)

[@SaltyBoi1030]

1:32 I appreciate he took the time to timestamp the sponsor 👍

[@7ndrew]

I'm genuinely interested hearing an Engineer main talk about Sniper more in-depth

[@boneheadedfellow]

Hearing you say "sniper isn't overpowered, he's just lame to fight" was like my mind clearing up. A dense fog being blown away by a massive explosion of "oh yeah that's what i was trying to think of the past few years"

[@eryiusnefarious]

He's lame to fight because he's overpowered. He engages at a range that no one else can, which means while he's fighting you you cannot fight him, that and a bunch of his unlocks hard counter his supposed "counters"

[@bruschetta7711]

Guess that's why i've always gotten used to him, i knew i had always a way to counter him, just didn't like to be forced out of my comfort zone because of one class doing his usual job

[@JohnSmith-kt3yy]

Yeah, in most games snipers kinda suck to play against because they control so much of the map and you have to play so damn cautiosly to not be seen and killed by them. Its the same in overwatch. When the enemy has a sniper you have to hide behind cover constantly and jack off i alleys and stuff. not fun

[@Fatsaver]

''He isn't op you just don't like to die by him'' Is the only argument i heard. No, Sniper is op to the core.

[@Lycanzoid]

I don't normally watch videos about TF2 which makes me even happier that this video was recommended to me. Well constructed and kept my attention to the end despite not being a seasoned TF2 player. Can't wait to catch up on all of your other amazing content

[@Whooterzoot]

You are in for a treat, Uncle Dane's videos are often entertaining and informative in equal measure

[@NotWPGRalsei]

As a medic main, FUCKING HELL I wanna see more people play medic and be get better at it rather than never try or just give up

[@bolicob]

Ive always thought that sniper is best when both teams' snipers have to dual each other over the sightline and the winning side then has a minute uncontested (by the other snipers atleast) over the sightline before the other snipers respawn. I think that's one of the reasons why 2Fort is so popular for sniping

[@benial]

I still think that giving the sniper a visible laser, not just a wall dot, like the wrangler or Splatoon's charger weapons would go a long way to making fighting him feel like a much more active thing. It'd still be hard to contest him a lot of the time if you dont have the tools to do so, but at least "not being seen by the sniper" would be something you can actually correct before you die, and every time he'd go for a shot he'd be giving away his position, disinsentivising him from staying in one spot and shutting down the same sightline for too long.

[@matsurischlaagen1757]

There is a video about this made by Shounic, a moderately popular tf2 youtuber who goes over differing gimmicks of tf2 and other things. kzbin.info/www/bejne/m5nPo4iGp9t5q80&pp=ygUtd2hhdCBpZiB5b3UgY291bGQgc2VlIHdoZXJlIHNuaXBlciBpcyBhaW1pbmc_

[@mariustan9275]

That might be a bit too much given the machina. Maybe something like a SNiper glint liek in some other games

[@serPomiz]

agreed it would also give the right niche to the heatmaker, not having a marker unless the ability is activated (and slightly reduced damage so that a headshot only does 140)

[@RunicSSB]

That would make Sniper much less fun for lower-skilled players, and wouldn't affect higher skilled players at all.

[@calibaniteknight9020]

I feel like that would push sniper into a spot where charging up a shot would be pointless, since they would immediately dodge out of the way, meaning that snipers would be forced into an agressive, quickscope only playstyle - which a lot of players complain about. What I prefer is the Classic treatment, where it fires a semi-transparent tracer round, meaning you know you're being shot at from long range, especially if they're missing the first shot. More counterplay, but it leaves sniper's core gameplay unchanged.

[@qualityarsenic3922]

Consider doing more! Also hearing your insight on Sniper is fun.

[@MediocreManaAGAGAGAGAG]

As a demo main i would love to hear an engineer's opinions on a common counterpick for both classes.

[@Quamsi]

My response to Funke's tweet about sniper was this: "Ive played sniper for nearly 4000 hours. i would agree with you on these points, however i think its also worth considering that a lot of people dislike sniper because its annoying to die instantly at any range, more than the strength of the class from a gameplay perspective." I think it aligns with your opinion on sniper while staying within twitters character limit

[@ZackarySchejbalCODBO2RGM2]

I think it's more so to do with sniper bots

[@johnx140]

There's no counterplay. Playera like counterplay.

[@Drbeattles]

the biggest issue is that the counterplay is just not play the game. some of the most popular maps have sight lines that cover most approaches. so trying to not be seen is not an option. at that point is comes purely down to how good the sniper is and well, if he knows what he's doing he WILL kill you no matter what. its pure luck if you can get to him. the vaccinator is the other counter play but you know how people hate playing against that as well. the scorch shot is decent at harassing snipers but then you get people like FoAS who just complain about a class whose almost sole job is to counter other classes a counter to one of the most powerful classes. then comes the sniper on sniper duels which most sniper encounters break down into and that just points out that the only counter to him is sniper. add on the fact that either you just can't see the laser sometimes or that quickscoping is very strong and you have it where the only way to know the sniper is there is to die or almost die. most of the classes are built around close combat its why damage ramp up is a thing. TL,DR: sniper doesn't work well in TF2 because of the fact all of the other classes are made to be close range while the sniper can instagib from across the map. most maps don't allow much counter play and anything that shuts down sniper is generally hated by the community.

[@valkyrie9729]

War paints are cool and all, and I like the unusual effects, but I think the coolest thing they’ve done is the special reskins from the invasion update like the capper, bat saber, and shooting star. Also the Halloween spells and festivizers.

[@jaydenyamada2916]

Oof yeah, I stopped playing some years ago but still want a capper and batsaber.

[@engineer4769]

at minute 1:00 uncle dane kills uncle crane, i love it. and using RED Triumphs! as the sponsor music, gold. keep up the good work

[@Fish-man2]

0:58 OH MY GOSH ITS UNCLE DANE

[@kitten2799]

I'd love to hear how you view sniper from the perspective of Engineer- In fact i think talking about every class, in a balance sense, from the perspective of your main. That would be a fun series imo.

[@astrogallotron]

Hot take: As a Spy you should be able to pick up other dead spies' dropped watches.

[@FSSmash]

37:34 Literally seen this happen too often where one team REFUSES to have a medic and they get pummeled

[@Cheesefist]

One thing I really miss about pre meet your match que system is that it was on a 40-60 minute loop on each map. That way if you have a team pubstomping, it doesn’t shut down the server and change maps, it just restarts the games and reset the teams.

[@AussieBeef54099]

I reckon a bit more feedback on sniper's location would make fighting him less lame. Whether it's scope glint, tracer rounds, a more obvious laser sight or whatever else we may have not considered yet, anything to help players out maneuver sniper instead of just hiding and praying he's no longer there would aid tremendously in making sniper match ups more interactive. Simply assuming a sight line is occupied by a bushman, or having to drop dead to reveal their location is not enough at this point.

[@ShockInazuma]

This in turn would also make it so instead of just “click on head”, you would actually have to be wary on repositioning so players can’t home in on your location, while making it so players know there’s a sniper and need to tread carefully. Adding something like this would be beneficial for both sides and “respecting the sightlines” would be a lot more possible if we know where they are. It makes Sniper have a bit of a higher skill ceiling and even improves maps with horrible sightlines (Like Upward or Dustbowl) because you can actually see and respect them, and maybe even correlate a way to get closer. Maybe I'm just speaking nonsense, though. It’s late as of typing this.

[@oblue0033]

I remember the KZbinr fish on a stick made a rebalance server which makes sniper's weapons leave a trail when he shoots.

[@concord3230]

You know how Sniper bots in MvM have a constant laser on whenever they're scoped in? I wish every sniper rifle in base-game had that feature.

[@ShockInazuma]

@@concord3230 Put the wrangler laser on it, even. It would still work just fine.

[@BeaglzRok1]

I definitely agree on the Scream Fortress hot take. As a 2012 pre-Pyromania player, I loved the idea of the map giving you presents that you had to hunt for to get the new hats/cosmetics and they even had a seasonal quality in "haunted." I liked it better when they figured out how to have multiple players be able to get one present spawn instead of fighting each other over it. I'll even go on record as saying that truces during health-bar boss fights is a decent idea for the people that want to actually get the boss-killing achievements without the other team's one Scout being a dickhead. Now, ever since Gun Mettle, every new crate is now a case, containing new hats that you CANNOT craft using ref. With matchmaking you have to play entire rounds to get points in a gargoyle to get ONE hat, which you can't even craft or trade and ALSO isn't going to be one of the new ones. It's slowly going from a fun yearly ritual to a grind of trying to get the limited amount of Halloween stuff that I can for the year. They haven't even come out with a new Gibus in years! Let alone cosmetic spells, or removing the Minify gameplay spell because it breaks every map it's put on but for some reason you won't risk people teleporting anywhere but on Hightower god damn. Sniper's problem in terms of strength is that he's a strong class when played well and has an absurdly high skill ceiling purely on accuracy skill alone. That's why all of the aimbots use Sniper instead of someone like Heavy or Engineer, the average player won't know or be capable of orchestrating an ubered Soldier bomb to take out the aimbot between reloads and he has the longest effective range, and if you're playin on Wutville then you're SOL. TF2 is absolutely timeless. The only reason my Roblox-playing nephew isn't playing the game is because he's a child. The only way it could be more timeless is if all the Meet Your Match stuff stayed in Competitive where no one plays because there's no rewards. Classes absolutely have their places where they shine in different scenarios, Demo being a prime example of being considered far from the "defense" class he was envisioned as. I like the idea of warpaints but not the execution. As above, they're paywalled/tradewalled like every new cosmetic for the past 7 years, so good fucking luck if you're a F2P Andy that doesn't have the time to prowl backpack.tf for people to flip jumper weapons with. Considering that Heavy doesn't really have any bugs to fix like Pyro did (plus the fact that it's way easier to farm vote points with airblast extinguishings than Heavy kills and Sandvich throwing), I don't mind that Pyro won, and really the only thing Heavy "needs" is for Valve to just accept he should be faster with his Fists out. Not much faster, but for a guy that can punch out all of Scout's blood, he has next to no way to getting there, and due to all the debuffs/penalties applies to Melee Heavies, he'll die in two shots if he ever tries, just like Equalizer Soldiers. That's my hot take btw, splitting the Equalizer was the worst way to fix the problem, the whole point of the speed boost was because having low HP with a melee weapon, in a game designed for people to shoot you at range, needed some sort of defensive or evasive counterbalance to not just be a meme. Each map and map type has its weak and strong points. The weakest point of certain map types are the fact that there are next to none of them, like Special Delivery, or Territory Control, or Medieval Mode. Mostly because post-Match Hydro is bugged at the best of times and DeGroot Keep's Point A has been bugged for years now, even making it into the new Halloween version. The Classic would be way more used if it had the Natascha effect on leg-shots that it does in TFC. Not very used, but it would have a nice at the very least. As a former Highlander Engy, can feel the pain of the gameplan being "build here or it's your fault the team can't push." Short Circuit on cart is pretty damn bad, and so are the Bison/Pomson but a different kind of bad. Cooperative Engies are strong, but if actually giving a damn about your fellow Engies instead of being selfish in a team game is wrong, I don't want to be right. Heavy getting a double-barrel DOOM Super Shotgun as a primary weapon would be badass, inb4 spaghetti code lets Engineers pick it up off the ground somehow. People absolutely need to chill in MVM, I can't even afford Mann Up and people are on real Gamer hours. Spy being fragile is absolutely part of his balance, which is why people hate it when he has tools that say "no you didn't catch me really." Having his knife be the one melee weapon that's instant-hitscan was a mistake solely by virtue of the facestab falloff. RTR Is a mini-sentry niche and that's about it. Flex Medics are chads. Flex Medics that will spend a little bit of time building up Engy's tele at spawn so the rest of the team can tele in front of him and faster are gigachads.

[@laughy966]

Would totally be cool to see a Tf2 class rework vid about sniper, I really love your analysis because it comes from such a long term player, most people have a very narrow perspective of the game and while you may have what bias, you still have a wider viewpoint.

[@3ntfernung]

I would like to hear more of your thoughts on Sniper! I main both Scout and Soldier and find that Sniper is obnoxiously easy to play (and thus pretty boring). It's not difficult to shut down whole areas of the map. It's not difficult to dominate several people. It's not difficult to find yourself in the top half of the leaderboard. It's just not difficult. I feel like this has something to do with movement since that's an important thing for most classes (explosive jumping for Soldier, Demoman, and Engineer, double jumping for Scout, surfing for Medic and all other classes, and so on). I have a lot of fun on Scout and Soldier because there's a barrier in skill when it comes to your movement. If someone can strafe better while having relatively similar aim, then they're likely going to win in a 1v1. That's not exactly an issue with Sniper since most of the skill someone needs to play him well is having decent hitscan aim. Positioning comes next.

[@0goingmerry0]

I would love a series of your perspective as an engineer main on all the classes, more in depth than just how to fight them. Your favorite loadouts, problems, why you think it isnt your main. Stuff like that.

[@veryloudcat8839]

also I'd say that the Solemn Vow is turbo slept on. If you're not confident that you'll be able to get some ubersaw swings in because the enemy team is too competent or the map is too chokey, then it's literally free information. People say that "the ability to see enemy health is only as good as your team's ability to act on that info", but those people forget that 90% of Medics have a fun-sized sniper rifle in their primary slot at all times that they can use to pick off low health targets

[@deathvideogame]

12:48 has to be, I think, perhaps the dumbest string of text I’ve ever read. Ever

[@NarraJoker12]

37:29 Completely agreed. Reason why I always picked medic (and still frequently do) when I started playing the game. When comparing what it demands of you as a player and what it rewards you with, it's incredible.

[@historicalwater7153]

Dk if you will ever read this uncle Dane but love your videos man! You’re still the reason engineer is my second most played class! Love what you’re doing man, keep it up!

[@scychis]

I am Auntie Dave

[@historicalwater7153]

@@scychis that’s very epic

[@giglebiggle]

i am grandpa dave

[@null_nihility]

How much did you get paid to make this comment?

[@tomskeleton]

DK! DONKEY KONG! DK! DONKEY KONG IS HERE!

[@muffinman9018]

Here's a hot take. The red-tape recorder is better than the sapper against rescue ranger engies. Rescue ranger engies stay at a medium range from their sentry and if the engineer actually turns around every once in a while, your best bet is to sap the sentry during or before a push. A red-tape would therefore delevel the snetry whilst a sapper would just deal some damage (which cab easily be healed back) before being removed.

[@mothichorror446]

The problem still remains where if the Engineer does make it to his sentry, the Recorder will have weakened it rather than destroyed it. Having an active sentry, even at level 1, is more damage output and area control than no sentry. Honestly I feel like the best scenario for the Recorder is in keeping an Engi's buildings sapped longer if he's forced to retreat or respawn so he's unable to replace them, but that's a rare scenario when 98% of the rest of the team won't think twice before blowing it all up.

[@GoldDragon20]

Mini sapping is also something it can do well. Problem is…regular sapper does the same thing. It’s kinda sad

[@Buglin_Burger7878]

@@mothichorror446 It is still better then a Lv3 Sentry because your regular Sapper failed.

[@muffinman9018]

@@mothichorror446 You are right that the sapper destroying the sentry would be better than deleveling it. I'm just saying that there's a specific range where they would remove the sapper before the sentry dies regardless of red-tape or default sapper. If the engie is at that range or closer, the red-tape atleast delevels it whilst the default sapper wouldve done nothing (since the sentry is still alive and the health is restored in 2 swings). If the engie is out of that range than the default sapper would've destroyed the sentry and it would be better in that scenario.

[@-AAA-147]

@@mothichorror446 ive heard it's great against teles since, if you can't destroy it because of how good the engie is doin, you can at least make it a lvl 1 which would waste the other team's time and the engie's metal

[@ramonlongoria3356]

13:11 oof that aged horribly

[@AncientFire]

How so?

[@TheMadRatKing]

Medic is like, my favorite class in the game to play. I was brought into TF2 through ArraySeven's medic guides and I've always hugely preferred to be a support class in team games over a combat class because I can feel my impact on the game much more strongly when I'm bolstering my team and keeping them alive, rather than just shooting along with everyone else. I love to keep my teammates alive, both becasue it keeps us winning, and also because a teammate saved is a teammate who gets to have more fun continuing to play the game instead of waiting to respawn. Hence why my medic loadout is so much more decked out than any of my other classes

[@FishDrinkLightGreen]

The section on the sniper I couldn't have said better myself. Everybody likes to talk about balance rather than game feel, and I think both are equally important. If something is balanced but not fun to fight against, it is still problematic.

[@BeesechurgerProductions]

Another thing I think gets lost in the Sniper conversation is: The majority of Sniper's you'll find in a pub kinda fukkin suck at Sniper, but because of the nature of Sniper's gameplay, you can't tell if it was a good Sniper or a bad, lucky Sniper that killed you, so everyone just treats any Sniper they die to as a good Sniper, so there's this heavily inflated perception of just how many good Sniper players there actually are.

[@d00gz_]

Honestly my sniper hot take is that I think the best counter to a good sniper is playing as an offensive quickscoping sniper. Typically when I play sniper, I’m not holding a sightline, but rather a couple steps back from the main push. I like playing this way for a few reasons: 1. It’s more exciting and tests your reaction time in a different way than camping a sightline. 2. Enemy snipers don’t expect you to be that close to them, so you can catch them offguard while they’re aiming for higher priority targets around you. 3. I find it easier to shoot retreating enemies rather than incoming ones. They’re easier to predict and their focus won’t be on killing you, but rather saving themselves. 4. You can actually use your SMG as a coverfire/kill-confirm tool rather than an anti-flank measure. The downsides are that you’re more vulnerable and you don’t get to be as picky with your targets, but if you have map knowledge and an idea of where your teammates are, you can keep yourself alive for a long time despite playing so aggressively.

[@BeesechurgerProductions]

@@d00gz_ This is exactly why I love the Classic. Playing Sniper as a mid-range marksman, taking advantage of the ability to charge without scoping, and having the SMG as an anti-rushdown tool and close-range mopup is a very slept-on combo.

[@the_Red_Star]

Funnily enough, this has also always been a problem with the class most different to Sniper: there's always people who seem surprised to see a class as weak as Pyro get all the hate he has since forever. (look at how old the W+M1 meme is) Turns out that people just don't appreciate fighting a guy who runs into you puking damage all around, even if it _is_ less damage than you could do if you aimed perfectly.

[@junkmail103]

So fucking true

[@biskit6276]

Hot take: I don’t think scout brushes his teeth before bed

[@goldenbendy]

that's probably true

[@notloopers1110]

Idk have you seen that shiny smile?

[@JetSetDman]

holy shit you summarized my thoughts on sniper immaculately, i couldn't have put it better myself also @ 18:19 can you imagine if that actually landed like just think about going through a teleporter only to arrive on the other side and be immediately bludgeoned to death with a guitar

[@simonastron555]

please make another one of theses, I really liked it!

[@ThePuddingStone]

Totally agree with your medic take. There's literally been times when I was having a lot of trouble aiming at people and was ending up bottom 3 on the leader board so I decide to play medic and actually help my team win the round (which usually results in a steamroll because neither teams have a medic usually)

[@cappantwan2978]

My own hot take as somebody who plays Medic: I think people don't want to play as him because Medic is perceived as defenseless and an easy target; casual players want to get a lot of kills and pick classes that can kill instantly or can move really fast. Nobody wants to admit this because they know it'll make them look like K/D obsessed meatheads.

[@cewla3348]

@@cappantwan2978I play medic because people like to rush the person who gains 25% invul every melee hit

[@theunnamedaccount4009]

I 100% agree with your scream fortress take. I play maybe half the new maps, say "that's kinda neat", then go back to payload and play the same 5 maps over and over

[@Loxu69]

11:40 When you have 90 maps you are essentially splitting a relatively small userbase, in regions like US its fine because you can mostly find at least 1-2 lobbies for everything in the game, at least on peak hours, but if you're in a region like australia, those servers are just bots. It just increases odds of half full lobbies/empty lobbies when in reality no one would even care that much if HALF of the pool was removed.

[@AuroraIceFlame]

1:02 chad unban request lol

[@shamtrue]

I personally think Medic technically is the easiest to play, not much to do besides lock onto target, but what makes him difficult is the game sense, the reliance on your team to protect you, and just maintaining your Uber, because that may be why he is so good, but it's also what makes him so high-priority for both teams. Making his importance less, would just hurt these aspects of team play, and cause them to be more scattered about off the objective or stuck onto a dispenser, the reason he is high priority, is because no one can do what he does, and trying to supplement it would effectively kill any reason to play Medic

[@hajimehinata5854]

This is why the crusader's crossbow is such a good weapon, and honestly what should be the baseline. The amount of mechanical depth and flexibility it adds to Medic's playstyle, and how it boosts up medic's skill ceiling, are so nice to have, that I can't not play with it usually.

[@nigeladams8321]

Medic is mechanically easy, but putting those mechanics into practice are usually a lot more of a challenge then playing something like Scout. Dane is way overselling how easy medic is to play

[@metallicafan2014]

The map issue isn't about maps, it's about matchmaking. The old quickplay system was nearly perfect aside from putting you into games with 0 people. You shouldn't be able to queue into a map. You join a server that's playing the map you want to play. Also bring back map timers. Too many people leave after 1 round and force you to requeue.

[@CoolSs]

+1

[@criticalfists87]

>possibility of joining servers with no players >possibility of joining servers that isn't in/near to your region >possibility of joining to p2w servers >not being able to choose the map you want to play "better than matchmaking".

[@CoolSs]

@@criticalfists87 i miss quick play. Quick play literally was Valve answer to the server browser being outdated. now community servers are more dead than back then. quick play used to have this neat feature that show server within gamemode in a list with image of the map and how many players it has and the latency. people still coping and refuse to admit that casual was a mistake. but god forbid anyone have accountability for supporting making the game more "competitive". or being mature enough to admit that they were wrong. WE THE COMMUNITY WERE WRONG. VALVE WAS WRONG (cuz they would pushed MYM regardless) youtubers being PR for competitive was wrong. what done is done. we now should ask it to be fixed and bring back quick play.

[@criticalfists87]

@@aidaneaglesfield9148 one of quickplay's issues.

[@AcceleratorTF2]

Who even used Quickplay? Was typing the map you wanted and sorting by ping in the server browser too complicated?

[@gmanplaysgames256]

on the subject of TF2's loot box system, I think it's a reasonably ethical way to do such a system. I think of it like packs of Pokemon cards, I can either open packs until I get what I want, or I can buy or trade for the individual card I want from another player who has already opened packs. TF2 works the same ay, I can take my undesired items form opening crates and swap them for something I want from somebody else or just sell it for a bit of cash.

[@rage_tv4493]

i think a big reason why medic is the only healer is so there isn’t a healing inflation like with a certain game called ow2. the healing output of supports got so bad nothing would ever die. not only was healing so high they had immortality abilities, and better dueling capabilities than DPS. now imagine if scout could heal himself, heal others, and duel every class in the game with EASE. thats baptiste and kiriko in overwatch still to this day.

[@SleepyBrady]

Hot take. the homewrecker/Neon annihilater sapper stat was a mistake. Spy already has it hard enough to sneak into a really crowded defended area. He should be rewarded for killing an engineer and sapping his buildings in order to destroy them. It would make sense for a second engineer to be able to remove a sapper but a fuckin pyro? If his whole job is to protect the engineer and a spy successfully makes it past your defenses he should be rewarded. Why should pyro have the ability to remove sappers at all considering he already has plenty of tools to help an engineer. airblast and just flaming around an area is annoying as it is but punishing a spy who could successfully kill and sap a building should let it be destroyed. Pyro shouldn't be allowed to interact with an engi's building beyond bodyblocking and airblasting away soldier rockets and demo pipes/stickies. Don't reward a pyro for failing to protect the engineer with a get out of sapper free card. That just makes spy even more useless at a job he's supposed to be good at. Disrupting an engineer nest and helping his team get the victory. Either getting rid of teleporters or sentries. tl'dr fuck the homewrecker

[@littlehorn0063]

You can disrupt the nest with a medic and/or demo. Homewrecker can't really help with that

[@HellecticMojo]

Homewrecking pyro is a pretty useless pyro.

[@touchpadnm1]

As someone who is usually the one that nuts up and carries a pub to victory because I enjoy playing Medic, your opinion hit deep in my soul. Worst part is when I swap to Medic to win, then I see my team is a bunch of Snipers and Scouts and I just sigh and Demoknight or something. I can't care if they don't.

[@8bittortel839]

as a fellow medic main your right, that did kinda hurt; but while i do disagree with his statement that medic is easy (strongly disagree), i do think that most classes should have a out of combat regeneration

[@kregy7509]

While I sort of agree, I have to ask? Why do they have to care? What's stopping people from just goofing around?

[@someguycalledgoober155]

I'd like to hear more about your ideas about Sniper, seeing that he *is* the most hot take and debated mechanics. My personally take about it is basically yours, Sniper isn't Over Powered, but needs some adjustments for his kits. Jarate + Bushwacker though, yeah it's *a lot* that they should have thought out more.

[@8bittortel839]

I'm a medic main, while i don't think that classes should have their own way to heal others (with the exception of engineer of course), i think more classes should be able to heal themselves and only themselves with fun gimmick items, for example: a scout might be able to regenerate health dependent on how much air time he gets while doing damage. (this is related to 33:12)

[@paulussoler]

While I do agree that some people have blown the issue of cosmetics out of proportion, I feel that team recognition is something to actually be a little more worried about, because yeah maybe a banana head doesnt fit that well in tf2 art style but it doesnt change the rest of the silhouette except for the head, but the moment you cant tell if thats a friendly or an enemy thats when I think it starts becoming a problem. In my own time playing I have seen it affect me and my team because its truly hard to distinguise, and unlike spy which cant face anyone in direct combat (usually) maybe a pyro who catches you by surprise can kill you with more ease

[@raptor4916]

I think uncle dane should talk about his friendships with the hat making community and how that might inform his opinions on cosmetics first, though

[@Chromeberd]

@@raptor4916 This. He definitely has bias from steam workshop creators informing his opinion on things.

[@elyktsorb9832]

37:48 I think the amount of times I play on your server and I just look at the losing team and see that there's a medic disparity between them as the main culprit is pretty spot on for this.

[@kape2978]

So true, I main engie and I am average at it. Once the team collapses I check and most of the time its because we don't have a med. I have grown to love the quickfix the most since in my experience, keeping teammates healthy is way more helpful then forcing a play. I'm a below average med but I don't die too much so I just heal heal heal then exit with quickfix uber if it gets too hot.

[@Uranium-jj7le]

@@kape2978 A QF medic who’s trying his best is better than no medic When you pick medic in those scenarios, You are not some 6s God, You are here as the force amplifier by giving out heals, Overheals and Ubers

[@Male_Parent]

18:35 kliksphilip has made a few videos going into map creation. Not directly TF2 related but instead CS related.

[@jeremiahwright4450]

12:05 an easy way to do both is just to have the seasonal maps give extra end game xp and items. Everyone can still play all maps, and players are enticed to play other maps that are given seasonal boosts

[@The_Moe_Szyslak_Exp_feat_Homer]

The hotest take: The Reserve Shooter should get it's airblast mini-crits back, now that the airblast mechanic has been completely reworked. It actually wouldn't be even close to OP if it was brought back, because now you have to actually first aim at the enemy's feet, and the do a quick turn upwards to shoot an enemy that is moving in the air randomly (depending on his earlier momentum). Combo pyro in general should be brought back. No class will ever be as OP as soldier and demo anyway.

[@rapidkraken2638]

Based

[@herrdoctor2895]

Funnily enough, if they bring it back, I would get so much kill in 2Fort as Pyro, its not even gonna be funny

[@CharaGonzalez-lt7yw]

15:28 I agree about all the community made trash we have gotten over the years, but the original skin collections like the Gentlemanne's or the Harvest collection are just too good

[@JPH1138]

I effectively became a Medic main when I got into TF2 because I would always look at the team composition and see what was missing, and 90% of the time it was medic. (Though this was a while ago, in 2011 or so) I got pretty good, but I have to say I've always hated the pressure of landing a good uber for a push. I don't like pocketing, I always like to keep the team healed up and on the objective rather than focused on building Uber. Even though I mained Medic for years, I think one of the big frustrations is that he is SO support focused you can feel like you have extremely little agency if your teammates just aren't that good. You're also, I would say, the single weakest class for spychecking and priority number one for enemy snipers and pyro ambushes - if your teammates aren't active against these things that you have really no counter for, then you're going to die a lot. So I agree that Medic is the easiest class to play (and undoubtedly the easiness of Heavy and Medic gameplay is what got me into TF2 when I had never played an online shooter before) but imo he's definitely not the most fun. So I agree that the absence of Medics is annoying, but I don't find it surprising at all.

[@cyphersam9436]

I was pretty surprised hearing the hot take on King of the Hill, as a person with some tournament experience I gotta say that KotH feels like a breath of fresh air from the amount of 5cp that you do in comparison. It becomes a frantic tug-o-war when you only have one point to capture and it encourages teams to not only coordinate attacks together, but to do it very quickly due to time constraints, which I think enhances the importance of their roles. Sure, you can argue that 5cp makes you use your brain more and it emphasizes team endurance more, but there's plenty of moments where you have downtime to figure out your team's plan, and you aren't doing much except for building uber in the meantime. So in a game where Soldiers and Demos are flying around like air force jets and Scouts are zooming faster than Olympic sprinters, it feels odd having those longer breaks without much action.

[@TheConsuI]

Uncle Dane is the coolest uncle on youtube

[@beetleburger955]

Hi Biden

[@Number9Robotic]

Thanks Joe

[@chryspyr]

Uncle Roger is close

[@beans00001]

(THIS POST IS FACT CHECKED BY TRUE AMERICAN PARTIOTS)

[@rexdoom3848]

Glad to see the POTUS has good taste in uncles

[@ikhwananimationsbeyondweeb4528]

33:06 "It's funny to pee on people" - Uncle Dane

[@Ails1234]

I haven't played TF2 since 2017 and I have a sudden urge to reinstall just to play Medic