I'm BACK! For now, at least.

Hello everybody! Welcome to one of my guides. It's been a long time.

So! Straight to the point today because I want to get this information out FAST. Time is limited here. This is my argument as to why the Heavy should be completely reworked (basically 'winning' the war).

Oh, also, all images were found on the Google Images page. All credit for the images goes to the respective creators and all that. If you have some more info on a specific picture, tell me in the comments below!

See, I want THIS to exist. This would be so cool.

One of the problems currently plaguing the Heavy is his lack of choice when it comes to weapons. He has only 5 primaries to choose from, none of which change his basic playstyle that much
(and to be honest, with the new Natascha nerf, some of them are barely worth having). His choice of secondaries includes 3 sandwiches and 2 nearly-identical shotguns. His melee, while diverse, mostly requires that the weapon be active (reducing the Heavy to melee range) for the effects to work.

This needs some serious reworking.

I want to have Heavy loadouts that allow me to play in a different way. I want to see the Fat Scout become a thing, for instance. The Pyro already has this diversity. His weapons are only really connected by the fact that most of them shoot fire. He can use the Degreaser to combo enemies, go full-on airblast mode with any the normal flamethrower and shut down opposing Soldiers, ignore his team to use the Phlog (or, if he feels guilty, equip the Manmelter and get crits for extinguishes too), or even help an Engineer against Spy attacks and guard the nest for him. There are so many options for how to play Pyro, but Heavy currently only has one real role: Front-line combatant.




















Oh yeah, and the Pyroshark too.

As I just mentioned before, the Heavy can only be effective when he's on the front lines of a battlefield. This makes sense considering the way he's currently built, but that leaves him open to counterattacks from all sides and often from multiple directions at once. Most people have figured out at this point that letting a Heavy rev up in tight corridors is a deadly mistake, and combined with his large size and health pool he becomes an obvious and easy target while moving towards a position.

The Pyro is able to slip through the cracks a little bit more because he's smaller and less attention-grabbing (and faster) than the Heavy. The same rule applies to him about getting spotted, but he has ways to avoid detection or to 'discourage' his aggressors (Every time a Sniper gets lit on fire he returns to the spawn cabinet, giving the Pyro a window to run forward).

The Heavy is a good attention-grabber, but this invites a lot of unwanted attention. This means that, until the Heavy has actually taken a position to defend or push into an area, his team has to defend him. Ideally, he would have a Medic escorting him, a friendly Spy camping the opposing battlements, and a Scout, Soldier, or Pyro running interference on anyone harassing the Heavy. Once he gets set up, he's a pain to get rid of, but his team still needs to put almost all of their effort into getting him set up. I want to see a more self-sufficient Heavy.

Spies, Snipers, Crockets, the list goes on!

The Heavy has the misfortune of having the slowest movement speed in the game, the loudest weapon noise when not firing, the largest health pool, and a key position right in the center of a fight. This means that any and all high-damage attacks will target him first. He currently has no defense against a Backstab other than to turn around and shoot the Spy (Who he probably couldn't hear), Only one defense against a fully charged Headshot (which limits him to melee range and still requires that he be Overhealed), and just generally bad luck around crit explosives or sticky traps. This needs to change, because as it stands 3 classes can one-hit the Heavy and he currently has very few options to stop it.

This bullet... It goes about 4 feet and then becomes useless.

The Heavy's whole playstyle revolves around the ability to churn out a huge number of bullets in a very short time. The problem with this, though, is twofold. Firstly, his bullet spread means that any target outside point-blank range has a chance of 'dodging' every bullet, with the chance increasing the farther away they are. In addition, damage falloff reduces every bullet's damage to a minimum of 3. Combined, this means that the Heavy's primary weapon cannot outdamage anyone unless they are right in his face. Any intelligent opponent will use their longest-range weapon against him and will avoid tight spaces. The Heavy's only real prey is (oddly enough) the Pyro, who lacks the reliable long-range damage to deter a Heavy (unless he has a Flare Gun).

What?! This whole guide has been building a case for the Heavy, and now this?

Well, in the interest of fairness, I want to take a look at the opposite side of the spectrum for a second. This whole time, I've been talking about the ways Heavy is limited. Maybe, however, the problem isn't that the Heavy is limited, but the Pyro has spread out too far.

Every class in TF2 has a specific role, and their weapons play to that role and cause variations in it. With the Pyro, however, it seems Valve doesn't really know what role he should have and just stuck all the ideas they couldn't build a class for onto the pyro. Some of these variants make sense (for instance, Pyros hunt Spies. Therefore, it's natural that they should help the Spy's prey, the Engineer, with defending their nest), but items like the Powerjack, Phlog, Scorch Shot, and Third Degree just fragment the Pyro's role.

Pyro, at its core, is meant to disrupt the enemy team. They can knock away projectiles, ignite enemies to force a retreat, extinguish burning teammates to help hold a line, and disrupt Medibeams and ambush with the right positioning. I think that, should Pyro win, the items should fill one of two roles -- Ambush/Damage or Team Support. I think this would allow Pyros to really refocus on their role and also make themselves more team-dependent to be successful. Ambushing Pyros could use items like the Backburner, Phlog, and Shotgun; Support Pyros could have the Homewrecker, Degreaser, or Manmelter. Just make it so that the Pyro is no longer a mess of different playstyles that can't be generalized into one strategy to beat them.

Thank you for sticking around and reading another one of my guides! I really wanted to make this point before it's too late, so do what you think is best. If you want the character you picked to win, go out there and fight your hardest! If I've convinced you to change, maybe take a week off of TF2 or something. Play the occasional Casual match, but don't put too many points on the board for the other guys. Maybe find a new game to spend your time in (May I suggest Danganronpa?)

I made a Steam Group! It's a good way to get updates should another guide ever come out.
http://cs2bus.com/groups/tipstrickssubclasses

If you want to contact me, do so at my Profile!
http://cs2bus.com/id/digitic/

While you're there, check out some of my other guides! I'm very proud of most of them (*Cough* Sentry Nest Destruction *Cough*).
http://cs2bus.com/id/digitic/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides

Thanks again for reading, leave a comment down below about what your opinion is on this! I read them all.