In Response to Complaints About Axtinguisher Nerf

So people are complaining about the nerf to the Axtinguisher weapon in Team Fortress 2. It was basically a "get a free kill when you're in melee range" weapon. It did critical hits on burning opponents, one-shotting almost every class save for Heavy. The Axtinguisher is very difficult to counter, and gets worse if the pyro has a degreaser to go along with it. Now it only does minicrits on the front and full crits on the back of burning opponents.

Saying that if you're stupid enough to let a pyro get in melee range of you, you deserve to die is a stupid excuse to make the Axtinguisher extremely OP. It's like trying to justify making Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu move in the Street Fighter games a one-hit-kill.

Akuma's Shun Goku Satsu is a powerful super move in the Street Fighter games. But it's pretty easy to evade. A simple jump is enough. Trying to say that it's okay to make it a one-hit-kill because getting hit by a Shun Goku Satsu means you're stupid and deserve to lose. That will not fly at all in a fighting game community. A one-hit-kill SGS may seem balanced on paper, but in actual play and practice, it's not.

A good Akuma knows when and how to deploy an SGS. As soon as his super bar is full, and he finds the perfect situation to use it, he will use it.

But the other player was stupid and deserved to lose, right? No. That's bullshit. Balance doesn't work that way. (SGS is very damaging already and is a pretty good finishing move, especially on players who are prone to panicking if they have very low health. The move is pretty easy to tick if you're smart. But the move is pretty far from getting a free kill.)

The only thing I have against this nerf is that it could've been done better. The Axtinguisher is almost useless now. There's still use for it. That is, if you don't mind trying to sneak up behind burning enemies and hitting them with the Axtinguisher. But I'm sure you'd much rather just go with a different melee weapon altogether anyway.

The sticky bomb nerf... well, if you're one of the good demomen who knows how to use the grenade launcher effectively, you may have to slightly adjust your strategies, but other than that you're not too affected by it. Anyone whining over the nerf need to adapt to the change or quit playing.

The nerf on the heavy's minigun... I think it's rather stupid, but I don't play heavy too often, so I'm not sure. I'm a pretty bad heavy.