short circuit now viable?

[Nano 7,892]

thoughts on the changes with the smissmass update?

loving it as engineer.

hating the crutch it gives to bad engineers when I play demoman.

definitely OP.

your thoughts? also keep it civil and don't attack the opinions of others or your post will be removed without notice.

[Chez-Box 3,240]

YOUR OPINION SUCKS, FUCK YOU.

But actually... I am indifferent, It hasn't hindered me in destroying an engy when I demo, and I will still never use it as an engy. True story.

[Nano 7,892]

have you run into any engineers using it yet? If so did you have any trouble taking their stuff down?

[Possum 10,776]

Yes, and no.

[+JB. 4,800]

Almost every engie on 2fort I see uses it and I have big problems killing them with demo or soldier because I can only melee them (soldier without shotgun). 

 

It's op and I have no idea what valve thought when they added it. 

[Se7en 10,762]

Almost every engie on 2fort I see uses it and I have big problems killing them with demo or soldier because I can only melee them (soldier without shotgun).  It's op and I have no idea what valve thought when they added it.

They thought: Holy shit, playing engineer on MvM is boring as fuck!

[+JB. 4,800]

They thought: Holy shit, playing engineer on MvM is boring as fuck!

[Kerberos 3,170]

I love it. I use it all the time on MvM and on 2Fort, it's my new primary weapon. It's finally got a use, and will stop those gunboating soldiers from never having a secondary weapon and to cut out rocket-jumping-whoring. Though if you die while firing the SC, it leaves a horrible graphical bug on your screen which doesn't leave till you log out. 

[DutchKev 425]

same as kerby with the graphic bug - but loving it on mvm as the vid has shown - eradicates 99.9% of spam from solly and demos alike and its also cut down on the amount of spam on spambowl too

 

the only counters to the SC are bullets and fire - so im seeing alot more hoovys and pyros on the servers

[Jabberwock 273]

I've yet to really have a problem against them. But then, I've been playing scout a lot lately since the mass jumping addition. I imagine it's quite painful for soldiers and demos, however.

[Ruigi 100]

I'm a rocket jumping whore. No problem against Short Circuit yet because I don't go after them.

[Ultimate 702]

I think it's good they buffed it, but now you get engineers that intentionally run right up to soldiers and spam it in their face.

 

I don't think that's how the class balance was meant to work, regardless of shotgun/shovel. 

[luop90 4,400]

Its stupidly OP now. That firing speed has got to be reduced....

[Sphagnum Peat Moss 748]

Yeah, uber engy with short circuit just blasted out of spawn on stage 1 dustbowl against an entire team of soldiers, demos, and heavies.  Seems like that shouldn't be possible o_O

 

I mean, a pyro can have the same neutralizing effect against soldiers and demos by deflecting, but that requires aim, timing, a lot more ammo, and a lot more cooldown.  We didn't need to give the exact same ability to another class, except ridiculously easier to do and then buff it to the point that not only is pyro's airblast less useful by comparison, but also two entire other classes.  One lone engy should not be able to fight off an entire team of soldiers and demos without doing the one thing his class is designed to do (build buildings).  Now he doesn't even need a sentry.  Seems stupid and I can't believe Valve has let it go on this long.

[point 2,268]

The wrangler is the real man's secondary choice! No but really. IMO short circuit basically makes Engie an even more independant class which makes me sad. Too many people can't play Engie well and this just made it 500% easier. If you want to learn how to play Engie like real man go watch Sigafoo.

[Computer 588]

I agree with what Hietha said. It's even possible for the Short Circuit to take down a medic in 2 seconds flat. This isn't Solo Fortress 2, it's Team Fortress 2. I can't wait until this is banned in UGC, along with the Baby Face's Blaster. They're both too overpowered. Like seriously, what was Valve thinking?

[luop90 4,400]

I tried to play solly on 2Fort against this. Its insane. You cannot do anything against it. I use the Buff Banner and going melee only against this is impossible. Its just stupid. It is sort of useful to stop spawn camping when its just a ton of demos and sollys spawn camping. But yeah... Either they reduce the firing speed by like half or make it so that its like airblast, and takes 20 metal per shot. Something needs to be done about it.

[fever 9,884]

Yeah too OP. I think they must have got lashed at the office Christmas party and thought it was a good idea. It's not a bad idea but I think they were thinking too much about MvM and even for MvM it's way too OP.

Needs to burn through ammo so the ability to use it last about half the time of an über, so you get some defence but still have to actually be an engie and defend your sh**.

Reading Luops response made me think that it should be able to refill the short circuits charge at a cabinet. That way you can use it multiple times for around 4 seconds but you're not YOLOing around the map like an assault class.

[JMaster299 654]

I am seeing more and more Engie + Medic combos. If you're not a Heavy or a Pyro, you're screwed. Medic easily heals through things like shotgun damage. My only hope is that Valve is going to fix it, but it's just been delayed because of the holidays. 

Also agree with AverageComputerGuy about Baby Face's Blaster. I thought the Scout was hacking for a minute the first time I came across one.

[Reisen 1,973]

Fine weapons get nerfed and buffed all the time. They only care about the amount of people using stuff. So once the least amount of people use a weapon, for example Natascha, they will probably buff Natascha as well thinking that it'll make people use it more often. At least that's how they justified buffing concheror and battalion's backup 2 times. It's getting really boring with Valve lately. Other than testing the weapons, they hope to be lucky to actually make a weapon balanced.

 

Short Circuit was totally ok before the buff, but that doesn't change that nobody wanted to use this piece of shit. Let's take a realistic situation:

There is 1 Heavy firing at your sentrygun, far away with a Medic. there is also a Demoman with stickybomb launcher about to plant stickys around your sentry.

You can either use Short Circuit now to destroy the stickys while Heavy destroys your Sentrygun, or use your wrench to repair your Sentrygun and the Demoman detonates it with 1 big explosion.

 

You can't use both Short Circuit and Wrench at the same time, making the Short Circuit absolutely useless when you really need it in a realistic situtation. Because the odds of you fighting a team of Demomen and Soldiers are about as high as a Medic ubering a Spy. Short Circuit defends against projectiles, leaving you totally helpless against bullet weapons. That's why most engis couldn't be arsed to play with Short Circuit, it's rarely going to be helpful for you to protect your Sentry and it was too pointless to run out and duel against Demos and Soldiers, destroying their rockets and bombs with Short Circuit just to be melee'd to death or killed by a Shotgun.

 

If Valve should do something, it's overthink the WHOLE concept of the weapon protecting only against 1 type of damage while you are surrounded by all types of damage, melee, bullets, explosives. And not make the effect aggressive by giving Engi a lightning chainsaw that doesn't just exterminate projectiles but rips people in 1000 pieces as well.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Elise

[Sphagnum Peat Moss 748]

You can't use both Short Circuit and Wrench at the same time, making the Short Circuit absolutely useless when you really need it in a realistic situtation. Because the odds of you fighting a team of Demomen and Soldiers are about as high as a Medic ubering a Spy. 

 

Play on dustbowl.

No seriously.  Short circuit + rescue ranger = unstoppable.

[JMaster299 654]

Yeah, that's the thing though, Engies are not playing like the normally do because of the change. So there it's not like that typically situation where an Engie is defending his gun from two different opponents. The Engie is out in front of his gun, in the mix of the rest of the battle, with a Medic pocketing him. He's destroy every rocket, grenade and stickybomb that is being launched towards his team, which gives his team an advantage to push the other team back.

If someone gets behind him via an alternate route, he just spins around and heals/reloads his gun with his Rescue Ranger. That Engie+Medic combo is being used a lot on offense, like I mentioned. That Engine will typically go Gunslinger and just fight along side the rest of his team, but it's much more difficult to take out his mini-sentry.

[luop90 4,400]

Yeah, that's the thing though, Engies are not playing like the normally do because of the change. So there it's not like that typically situation where an Engie is defending his gun from two different opponents. The Engie is out in front of his gun, in the mix of the rest of the battle, with a Medic pocketing him. He's destroy every rocket, grenade and stickybomb that is being launched towards his team, which gives his team an advantage to push the other team back.

If someone gets behind him via an alternate route, he just spins around and heals/reloads his gun with his Rescue Ranger. That Engie+Medic combo is being used a lot on offense, like I mentioned. That Engine will typically go Gunslinger and just fight along side the rest of his team, but it's much more difficult to take out his mini-sentry.

 

I agree. It makes the engi a lot easier to go on the offense. However, it is over powered. Just on 2fort the other day (literally yesterday) one sentry gun was stopping an ENTIRE team from trying to get the intel. There were 3 engis on it, one spamming short circuit, the other two spamming there wrench to heal the thing. They stopped 4 sollys, 3 demos, 2 heavys, and 2 medics from taking that single sentry gun down. While this entire time the rest of the team respawned and managed to protect the intel. I can see how Valve thought it would be a good upgrade to make the engi more on the offensive, but its way to easy to camp with it now. You can no longer stair-step a sentry gun because the engi is destroying all the projectiles.

[Se7en 10,762]

get a shotgun and stop whining.

[JMaster299 654]

get a shotgun and stop whining.

Yep, you go ahead and kill an Engie, using nothing but a shotgun, when he has a full time pocket medic and a SG backing him up. Let me know how that works out