simply because of the rescue ranger nerf?
no, they've been steadily nerfing engineer since the csgo update that brought all those nasty looking skins to tf2
Let me run you through the changes that was made. Scroll to the bottom if you want a TLDR
Starting with the CSGO update (Gunmettle)
Nerfs:
- Construction boosts (wrench hits, redeploys) from multiple sources is now additive instead of multiplicative. Calculations are based around a 1x base building speed.
- Building repair costs increased from 20 metal to 33 metal to repair 100hp per wrench hit (from 5HP per metal to 3HP per metal)
- Level 2 and Level 3 Sentries have less passive damage resistance against Heavy miniguns. Level 2 Sentry Minigun resistance changed from 20% to 15% and Level 3 Changed from 33% to 20%
- Wrangler: Ammo and Repair given to a shielded Sentry is reduced by the strength of the shield (66% reduced) when shield is active, Engineer death keeps the Wrangled sentry shielded and disabled for 3 seconds, same as when Wrangler is switched away. Previously Engineer death caused disable state for only 1 second.
- The Jag: Added 20% repair penalty. Repairs will give up to 80hp per swing instead 100hp per swing.
This meant that with 1, multiple engineers working on a single building was slower than prior to the update and with 2 it meant that you had to spend more metal to repair your shit and this coupled with 3 meant that heavies were able to fucking storm through your shit because you physically couldn't keep up with the damage. Now then we go onto the fucking bread and butter of a level 3 engineer. The Wrangler and Jag. With the nerf to the Wrangler, it meant you can't do what you used to be able to do which was use your wrangler to help with team fights from afar while awaiting for a payload for example and repair it when the soldier or demo shoots at it. With the buffs to Demo and Soldier, this made the wrangler a literal death sentence for any engineers using it. Then with the Jag becoming literally useless for repairing, it meant you really had to choose between repairing and building.
Buffs:
- Increased base wrench construction speed on hit boost by 50%. Buildings now build 2.5x faster instead of just 2x (additive of 1.5x + base speed)
- Teleporters and Dispensers redeploy +50% faster (2.5x without wrench boost, 5.5x with wrench boost)
- Building pick up speed penalty reduced from 25% to 10%
- On Wrench equip change, buildings no longer self-destruct unless the building type is changed (i.e. Only Sentry explodes when switching from Wrench to Gunslinger)
- The Jag: With the change to Base Construction boost, Jag bonus has improved. 30% increase of 1.5x makes a total of 1.95x (total of 2.95x when base speed is added), Added +15% swing speed.
With these, Valve showed their beginning of the movement to make engineers use the gunslinger more than normal wrenches. Sure, you were able to build faster with 1 and move everything faster with 2 and 3, but these buffs really don't matter to a level 3 engineer outside of the 1st buff because you rarely moved your shit. At least with 4 it was helpful because you could build your shit with the Jag and with the added speed boost from 1 you could get your shit set up quicker, but with the nerfs above, it meant while you could build your level 3 faster, it died a lot faster too. This is even more proven with 5 seeing as sure, you could build your sentry quick but it'll die piss easily.
Onto the next update, The Meet Your Match Update.
Relevant Buffs:
- Level 1 teleporters now cost 50 metal (previously 125)
While there are no real nerfs here, it's important to note this because it adds to the mentality of "valve is trying to get engineers to only play minisentry" because they added incentive to move their teleporter more.
Next onto The Tough Break Update.
Nerfs:
- After removing a Sapper from a sentry, there is now a 0.5s delay before the sentry is active again.
- The Jag: Added damage penalty against buildings. Now takes 3 hits to destroy a Sapper.
- Rescue Ranger: Healing per bolt reduced from 75 to 60
Literally no buffs with this. This load of shit meant spies could just sap your sentry and if you used the Jag to try and remove a sapper well good fucking luck because the Spy will just stick it right back on and keep shooting you, with the added bonus of not having a sentry to protect you anymore, you're pretty fucked. Then there's the Rescue Ranger, the one thing that made a Jag still plausible. With this, they basically made the Jag a "set up" wrench and literally nothing more. All of this shit just really drove the "minisentry" engineer home because why the fuck bothering to try and maintain a build that physically can't survive for more than ten seconds of shooting when you can just have minisentries that you can just throw out like there's no tomorrow.
Second to last, August 2, 2017. Not a special update but they did this:
Buff:
- Halved the number of wrench hits needed to upgrade buildings.
While again this goes back to my point at Gunmettle, they at least realised that there was no point in playing level 3, so they tried to appease us by letting us build the level 3 shit quicker, but we don't want quick level 3's that die in seconds, we want fucking a level 3 that might take 2 minutes to build but it'll fucking survive a minimum of two waves of a full team push.
And finally we end with The Jungle Inferno Update.
Nerfs:
- Rescue Ranger: Ranged repairs now consume metal (at a 4-to-1 health-to-metal ratio, e.g. repairing 60 damage costs 15 metal).
Thus making the rescue ranger basically even worse than it was before. Not only does it heal less, you have to deal with the case of having to reload and running out of metal, most of which you usually spend on teleporting. This really makes level 3 Engineer pointless, unviable and fucking worthless compared to the "more gun" feeling you used to have.
TLDR: Wrangler is a death trap, Jag is useless outside set up, Level 3 can't stand against shit, Sappers make level 3 sentries fucking paraplegic and the rescue ranger cant heal for shit and depletes your metal reserves. Meanwhile Gunslinger was only buffed and makes it the only wrench fucking worth using. Add all this to all the buffs to soldier, demo and heavy and you are fucking obliterated in seconds.
From an ex-competitive engineer player, Level 3 sentries are fucking pointless.
