The Backburner
Key Differences: +50 health, larger area to crit off of
This is the obvious one. The Backburner was probably the first overpowered weapon released into the game. Once it came into the game, it not only was the immediate go-to choice for Pyros, it completely changed how the Pyro worked. Suddenly with that +50 health, Medics could pocket Pyros, and it worked really well. Pyros suddenly became the go-to offensive class. I can distinctly remember playing a game on Well, and each team was 90% Pyros or Medics. You could argue it was because of the update, and this was partially true, but everyone knew the brutality of the Backburner. Sure, it lacked the compression blast of the standard Flamethrower, but at the time, air blast was pretty awful, so it was hardly a loss.
Stickybomb Launcher
Key Differences: More ammo, increased damage short-mid range, bombs could not be destroyed
I know people who would say the Sticky Launcher is still overpowered, and they would probably make a pretty convincing argument too. So imagine, if you will, today’s Sticky Launcher with more reserve ammo, and even more killing power at close-mid range. Yes, the original Sticky Launcher was just the kind of weapon that made any other weapon in the game seem weak in comparison. It might not be the most overpowered weapon ever played in the game, but it was good enough that most Demos barely even used their Pipe Launchers because the Sticky Launcher was just as effective most of the time. That really says something.
The Sandman
Key Differences: Same health but disabled double jumping, much longer stun time, could stun ubercharges, full stuns from any distance
The Sandman is the perfect storm of simply being overpowered and including aspects that make other players naturally enraged. The Sandman was born of an aspect that is pretty much a game design no-no: it made it very easy to completely rob control from other players and get them killed. Imagine, if you will, surprising a Heavy around a corner with the Backburner, and out of nowhere, a baseball hits you in the face, stunning you for 4 seconds and getting you killed. You’re chasing a Scout as another Scout, and from mid range, he chucks a baseball at your face, turning an easy kill into death. You’re pushing the game winning Uber onto Dustbowl’s last point on the final stage as a Heavy, and suddenly a barrage of baseballs make sure you never leave the corner…you get the idea.
The Equalizer
Key Differences: Did much more damage, able to 1 hit any class with <= 150 health
Another game design consideration specific to Team Fortress 2 is which classes should be able to 1 hit kill a Medic. In its current state, the Equalizer is the go-to Soldier melee solely because of the mobility it provides in dire situations. If the Equalizer did 10 melee damage at all health levels, it would still be a compelling choice. So imagine that, but with the ability to not only get Caber level bullshit kills, but at very little cost and with added mobility. At release, a Soldier with 1 health was arguably more dangerous than one with 200 depending on if you knew his location. A Soldier with 1 health could lurk in your base and destroy half your team before anyone did anything about him. Not that some classes shouldn’t be able to get 1 hit kills, but the classes that are capable of this have it as central to their play style. A Soldier, however (crits aside), isn’t really built like a Spy or a Sniper is, and making it so easy for him to 1 hit kill over half the classes was a huge mistake, one which has luckily been rectified.
The Wrangler
Key Differences: N/A
You won’t hear any arguing from me about the Engineer needing a buff before this weapon was introduced. Pre-Wrangler, sentry gun were easily dispensed (pun intended) of not only because of all the new weapons in play, but also because people had simply become much smarter about how to kill a Sentry. Literally every class in the game had a sentry gun removal game plan of some sort. The Wrangler, however, makes even a mini-sentry virtually unkillable if even remotely defended. I could go on yet again about how no damage fall off on the wrangled gun is too powerful, or how the damage shield makes level 3 guns take the entirety of an Ubercharge if the Engie is out of reach or being supported, or how the delay between switching off the Wrangler and the shield deactivating means you can heal the gun without ever losing the shield, but I’ll just give an example. My best advice for any Engineer that isn’t terrific at Engineer but has a Level 3 base up is that when an Uber shows up to attack you, take out your Wrangler and just run away. It really doesn’t matter if they destroy the gun or not. Either they destroy the gun and waste all of their resources doing so leaving your team to clean up, chase you into your own base futilely, or they take the gun out uncontested (in which case you should have left anyways).
The Tomislav
Key Differences: Faster spin up time
It’s funny how such a small change could make a huge difference. The Tomislav currently is a gun that is roughly equivalent to the Minigun in usefulness, but provides no real unique play style, and will win fights either just as often or less than the stock choice. On launch, when the spin up time was slightly faster, it was the only weapon any Heavy should ever have been using. Damage wise, the Tomislav is pretty close to what the standard Minigun does, but it inflicts a bit less pain over time. The only times this really makes a difference are when fighting another Minigun wielding Heavy or when facing a group of 2-3 players or more. On release, the spin up time was so fast it was pretty much instant. What this meant was that any player that came into contact with a Heavy with a Tomislav was likely to die just as much as he would have if the Heavy had a Minigun. So when a gun gets almost as many kills as the stock option and also makes you much more mobile and slightly stealthier, why ever use the stock option? The Tomislav didn’t make ninja Heavies; it just made standard Heavies better.
Ambassador
Key Differences: Can no longer penetrate targets, could headshot at any time
There was really only one problem with the Ambassador when it was released, but it was a big one. The Ambassador used to have no cooldown on when it was possible to headshot someone. You could get headshots just as fast as you could shoot; it would just be harder if you shot faster because your shots would be less accurate. The idea being nobody would try to shoot for constant headshots one after the other because you would always miss. In practice, this proved true at range. In short range, Spies were given more undeserved kills than was ever meant to be. While your accuracy was very low right after a bullet was fired, this really didn’t matter at short range. So if, say, a Pyro was burning you and closing in, it was actually really effective to just spam bullets at his head until you connected. As you can imagine, spamming bullets isn’t hard and was largely effective. So we already know the Ambassador wins at long range, but if it wins at short range too, you start to wonder why a Spy would choose the Revolver, and at the time, they didn’t.
Dead Ringer
Key Differences: No cloak reduction on activation, much easier to spam
The Dead Ringer is a really annoying item for people to deal with. It makes Spies very hard to kill even when you know they’re around, and for newer players, it can be tough to discern what Spies are actually dead and which are just using the Dead Ringer. Of course, when it was released, it was even more ridiculous. On release, there was no reduction to your cloak meter when the item was activated. What this meant is a Spy would get hit, activate his DR, immediately uncloak and wait the .5 seconds for his cloak to recharge, and be good to go again. The DR was less an invisibility watch than it was a troll shield on its launch. Add the fact that people were already struggling to properly identify a DR Spy, and you can see why the DR made each server into a confusing mess of constantly dying and reviving Spies.
Fortunately, the majority of the items released by Valve have not reached the “legendary” proportions of infamy most of these items have. So while I sit here, wondering if the Cow Wrangler is as overpowered as it seems, I keep comfortable in the thought that “at least it doesn’t give the Soldier +50 health.”
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