Skymin's suggestions (1/3)

4:30 : "Ever since MvM dropped, the gamemode has always struggled to find a balance in classes. Some more superior and always a good choice (giving Soldier as an example), while other made people yell at you for playing a useless class (giving Sniper as an example)."

4:52 : "Two Cities was literally created to give Medic a solid role in the MvM meta."

the Two Cities meta is NOT the overall MvM meta

4:57 : "To make sure he was used, the tour that came with it basically built around always needing having a Medic."

5:03 : "The basic meta became Scout, Soldier, Demo, Heavy, Medic and Engie, but they are varying team meta such as the 4 Soldier meta."

5:10 : "However, aside from Medic, no other classes were really touched aside from Soldier being made even stronger with the Rocket Specialist upgrade being introduced."

5:23 : "Pyro [before Jungle Inferno] just wasn't good. His job could be done by basically every other class and better."

Skymin's video was the video too much. The MvM community I'm part of is working on a bigger project due to this video, regarding the actual problems with MvM overall, but progress on this is slow.Despite that, Skymin's video in itself is not that bad. Most of the loot and tour suggestions are actually really good, and an excellent base to go more in-depth about the overall loot problem MvM have.What is problematic however, is the entire part about class balance, where Skymin miss the point on multiple occasions, and falling for the classic bias and uncomprehension the less informed players have regarding MvM.The class balance part, which we will be speaking about, starts at 4:18.In reality, after the Two Cities update, there was some kind of proper balance that was reached. There was people complaining about Medic's actual state here and there, but the feedbacks were overall good. The two main big disturbances in MvM's balance since then were the introduction of infinite refunds and the Gas Passer.As for the example classes given, even if Skymin is out of touch as to what is always good or bad, I will give here the benefit of the doubt and say she choose these to show to the average watcher an example of what they think is good and what is bad to show her point.The Two Cities meta. NOT the "MvM meta". Medic in itself is only present in the Two Cities meta. I will go in-depth later as to why, but I think it's really important to say it :. When you want to make MvM suggestions, not only you should look at MvM as a whole, but also do some trickle-down balancing (just like how balancing for Competitive will balance for Casual) and look at the higher tours. All the TF2 Youtuber in this guide made the mistake of only caring about Two Cities and the impact on what they say is visible.I'm not sure how great it is balance-wise to make an entire tour based around needing a particular class. Imagine this concept for the other 8 classes and see how a mission made to need one class affects the other 8. In the case of Medic, it discourages the use of classes that can't profit from a Medic's healing and Ubers, like Sniper and Spy.Or even try to imagine a missions based around DISCOURAGING the use of a particular class. The Potato Officials noticed in missions made to discourage Gas Passer Pyro, classes like Scout and Spy had an easy time due to the lack of crowds and Tanks and the abundance of Giants.Again, the Two Cities meta is NOT the overall MvM meta. Notice how Skymin also only speaks about metas present in the Two Cities tour.Also, side question to anyone using the 4 Soldiers meta : why 4 ? Why not 3 ? You know the same type of banners doesn't stack, right ?Valve actually did their job here. Before the Two Cities update, Soldier and Medic were barely played, or even discouraged, in Gear Grinder. Valve noticed this. So they buffed them both, Medic more than Soldier, to encourage them in the most difficult tour of the game. They did look at the overall balance of the game and tried to do something about it.Now with these changes, Soldier and Medic are... still not used in Gear Grinder...You might ask "Why ?", and let me explain. Let's start by the Medic.When you play as a Medic, you have to prove that you can compensate for the loss of a damage class. The tools Medic have to do that are healing, Ubers, revives and his Projectile Shield (because you won't be insane enough to rely on canteens on a missions where the difficulty is coming from the low amount of money you get).Healing is not needed. Expert players knows how to rely on the dispenser, items like the Mad Milk and upgrades like Health on Kill and Health Regeneration to not need any other source of healing. A good MvM player is one that can sustain himself and so a Medic's healing isn't needed.As for Ubers, Expert players learned to not rely on canteens due to the low amount of money in the tour, and even came to realize that canteens by themselves aren't needed anywhere. Engineer can be the exception with Upgrade canteens but Medic can't provide that. Considering how the Ubers' effects are pretty much the canteens' effects, Ubers are not needed. It's even a bit worse for the Kritzgrieg. You would think you could use it on a Giant or Tank, but a Giant, when taken care of properly, dies in 5 seconds ! What's the point in reducing that time ? As for Tanks, teams generally use a Phlogistinator Pyro to take care of them. You know, the Phlogistinator, the item that can gain free crits... This ALMOST makes the Kritzgrieg a bad idea for Gear Grinder.Now for the new tools Medic got, revives by themselves aren't needed because death isn't really a problem in MvM. You respawn after all. The real danger is when your team wipe. True that reviving players should help prevent wipes, but so is killing robots and you even progress in the wave. On top of that, since your team should know how to sustain themselves, you shouldn't be wiping in the first place.As for the Projectile Shield, which is mostly used to block projectiles, it's not useful in a team that knows how to dodge projectile and, again, knows how to sustain themselves.And despite all of that, Medic became viable in Gear Grinder. Yes, he does. But players there are not ready to sacrifice a damage class for something they consider, and technically is, not needed. However, on the lower difficulties, players sadly became reliant on these new tools Medic have, even to the point of not buying Health on Kill upgrades. That's why you can hear on a regular basis "We need a Medic" when, in truth, you don't. And when players rely on something that is not needed, there's a problem.Also, Projectile Shield is ignored by Pyrobot's flamethrowers, and flamethrowers are EVERYWHERE in Gear Grinder. They are also the reason why teams don't want a Soldier in Gear Grinder, because these Pyros reflect rockets. When you get a Soldier in Gear Grinder, you are pretty much expecting to get airblasted rockets in the face, and Rocket Specialist doesn't help with that AT ALL.As for its stun on direct hits, it could technically be good on Giant Scout, but teams here became reliant on more viable sources like upgraded Mad Milk, sentry-blocking and body-blocking. A Heavy tends to be preferred over a Soldier not only due to the points above, but also because he deals more damage overall and it's easy for him to body-block.Excuse me ? Pyro ? The best Tank Buster with his amazing close range damage and his minor abilities while being the cheapest class to max out, NOT GOOD ?!Skymin really needs to explain what she considers Pyro's job. And before anyone says it : no, airblast is NOT Pyro's main job. Airblast is a tool at best when your team gets pushed back and there's an opportunity to push the bomb in a pit.