[Newspaper] CTF Class Monthly - Volume 1 Issue 2 - April/May 2017

All Class, All The Time Vol 1, Num 2
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Letter from the Editor

Hello again CTF Community! Thank you very much for all of the support that you gave me on the first ever issue of CTF Class Monthly. I didn’t expect that I would receive all of the support that I did, and I am deeply appreciative of everybody who took the time to read the newspaper, rate it, and comment.

I would also like to take this time to apologize in advance for this issue, as it does not contain everything that I would have liked it to. I had a death in my family this past week, and with the combination of the funeral and studying for my final exams, I have not had as much time as I would have liked to construct this issue. I’ll have plenty more time over the summer to construct the next issue of CTF Class Monthly to include everything in the third issue that I plan, so expect a much larger third issue. With that being said, I hope you enjoy the second issue of CTF Class Monthly. Happy Reading!

• THECOMMANDER5643, CCM Chief Editor

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Resources

CTF Class Guide - https://www.brawl.com/threads/62000/ - This resource put out by myself offers an in depth guide on how to best format your class idea, how each aspect of the class should be thought out, and how it should be played in CTF in order to maximize its potential for implementation.

Damage Calculations Guide - https://www.brawl.com/threads/65187/ - Put out by @2002Tiki, this guide offers an easy resource to calculate the potential damage output of your class and reworks, allowing you to balance out the damage potential yourself, without relying on others.

CTF Rework Guide - https://www.brawl.com/threads/45158/ - Created by @Admiral_Munson , this tool offers a very clear tool on how to understand the inner workings of CTF, what needs to be changed, how to change it, and create a fully functional, balanced rework to an existing CTF Class.

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Class Ideas and New/Suggested Rework Ideas

Elf Update Suggestion - https://www.brawl.com/threads/65380/ - This post put out by the CTF Committee asks the community for what they think should be the best change made to Elf in order to improve its performance in CTF. Should its offensive strength be buffed? What about its survivability? How about its ability to support its teammates? You decide!

Medic Update Suggestion - https://www.brawl.com/threads/65271/ - Medic is both a strong and weak class at the same time. Its ability to heal teammates and restore steak is extremely powerful, but its 1v1 damage output is severely lacking. This suggestion put out by the CTF Committee seeks to increase its potential to survive 1v1 encounters with other classes such as the heavy, prevent its targeting when attempting to cap, and reign in its healing capabilities. Don’t agree? Post your opinion in the thread or below.

Assassin Rework by @Rhoske - https://www.brawl.com/threads/56279/ - This rework serves to help maintain the fun factor of assassin, while keepings its viability of recovery and high damage intact, in addition to removing the requirement of the blocking mechanic.

Ninja Update Suggestion by @GalaThundR - https://www.brawl.com/threads/66508/ - This small suggestion gives ninja efficiency 1 or 2, allowing it to break cobwebs faster. This will help ninja to be able to escape webs without having to resort to using its ender pearl.

Archer Update Suggestion by @Tenshirox - https://www.brawl.com/threads/65746/ - This update will give the arrow fired by archers a particle and sound effect that will make it easier to spot by enemy players. This will help players to be able to see where an arrow is in the sky and allow for easier dodging to avoid those pesky headshots.


Trapper Class Idea by Myself - https://www.brawl.com/threads/61972/ - This new class idea helps provide another premium structure-centric class to CTF that helps provide defense and support from a wide variety of traps at its disposal. Watch out, that torch might be your death!


Nightmare Class Idea by @TWC123 - https://www.brawl.com/threads/57005/ - This class provides a new aspect on recovery, with its ability to deal true damage to its enemies with tracking wither projectiles. Its ability to slow, combined with its ability to increase its true damage provides a new way to recover.

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State of the Class Tier List


S Tier

Spoiler

(Classes in this tier are guaranteed picks in matches and are very strong, not having them puts you at a severe disadvantage.)

Pyro: Pyro is a must have defensive class. Fire damage is an incredible tool for a defense, and pyro is the only class that can provide that, and even benefit off of it, dealing increased damage to a player on fire. Pyro’s frenzy mechanic also has extreme potential, being able to quickly two shot any class on offense except for medic, which now rarely enters the flag room anyway.

Assassin: Assassin is an extremely strong pick in the current meta because of both its defensive capabilities and recovery potential. The potential to chase down a flag carrier makes it very strong in the mid-field and its ability to instantly kill any class regardless of their armor makes it an extremely tool in halting rushes on the flag. In the right hands, the assassin is arguably the most influential class on the map and each team will always have one.

A+

Spoiler

(These classes have consistently performed well in the competitive scene and are very strong in the current meta. However, certain scenarios and maps prevent them from being placed in the S tier.)

Medic: Medic is an extremely strong pick in the current style of play in competitive CTF, with enormous potential on offence, defense, and recovery. Its ability of healing teammates and restoring their steak can mean the difference between a capture and a recovery. However, because it is not as strong individually as either pyro or assassin, it is not as important on the battlefield as either of those two classes.

A Tier

Spoiler

(Classes in this tier are your staple classes in all team competitions. Not too strong, not too weak, with just the right amount of utility makes they consistently present in almost all CTF scenarios. The only thing that keeps these classes from going up a tier is the fact that they are currently chosen at about the same rate, but rarely altogether due to map dependency)

Soldier: A mainstay on the offensive perspective of CTF, a soldier is a very solid pick for competitive CTF. Its ability to scale walls combined with the third strongest armor in the game provides a very potent pick in most scenarios. We’re starting to see soldier played heavily on defense as well as offense, this makes the class a great pick for matches. However, soldier does fall off in effectiveness on certain maps, preventing its higher ranking.

Heavy: The generic class of CTF. It is the class that everyone will default to if another class is not picked. With the highest armor in the game, it is also the tankiest passive character in the game. Its ability to control the flag room as well as its potential to steamroll through a defense makes it the staple class of CTF. Heavy can be used to lock down certain maps on defense such as Opposites Collide V, which is very common in matches.

Archer: Archer is a very useful tool on the battlefield, capable of removing any threat off of the map provided that it is at least 30 blocks away. In the hands of a master marksman, archer can cause havoc all over the battlefield, assisting in both recovery and silencing the enemy offence. However, as archer’s greatest weakness is the map that it is played on, its pick-rate is dependant on which maps are played competitively.

Ninja: Ninja is a strong pick on most maps for offense, defense, and recovery. Its ability to cross large portions of the map instantly and it’s extremely high damage output make it a potent threat to players trying to capture. Its invisibility and damage output make it a high priority target in the flag room, and it is extremely useful for taking out enemy pyros when used on offence. However, as ninja both has low armor and is also map dependent, it does not have as much impact on the battlefield as some other classes.

B+

Spoiler

(These classes are stronger than their counterparts in the B tier, but still do not see enough performance or pick-rate to boost their placement into the A tier.)

Empty

B Tier

Spoiler

(Classes in this tier have the potential to be great classes when paired with skilled players and the correct team composition. However, due to a lack of consistency in their pick-rate and or their performance, are generally not played competitively.)

Chemist: Chemist suffers from a low pick-rate and performance in competitive CTF in the hands of the majority of CTF teams. However because of the chemist’s abilities and potent strength potions, when paired in the hands of a master chemist player, this class has the ability to be a strong offensive support class with a lot of utility, sustainability, and damage. Chemist right now is a class that you buff as, switch off of, and stay off of until you need buffs again. The only exception being players that are very good at the class or certain compositions.

Mage: Much like chemist, mage is also a class that suffers from low pick-rates and performance in competitive in CTF. When paired with a skilled player under the right scenarios, mage is a very strong tool on the battlefield. When used correctly, mage is a very strong harassment tool in the mid-field, a viable counter to enemy archers, and a useful addition to flag defense. Mage can be used to stall very well defensively and for recovery, but it is difficult to play around as you drop dps in the flag room in favor of stalling.

C+

Spoiler

(While not as weak as classes in the C tier, these classes still do not have enough impact on the game to be placed in B tier. Picking these classes will put a detriment on your chances of winning.)

Empty

C Tier

Spoiler

(Classes in this tier are significantly weaker than other choices in the current gameplay, due to a lack of performance and or a lack of significance in their abilities. Picking these classes will severely hamper your chances of winning.)

Elf: Elf is an extremely weak pick in competitive CTF in its current state. Its pure element has the potential for tremendous damage and when paired with a skilled player in the perfect scenario, it has the potential to cap. However, because the majority of its abilities are lackluster, in addition to the strengths of all other playable classes in CTF, Elf is a very weak pick in the current meta. Elf can be fairly useful in the hand of the right player, but you can argue that even then, the class is fairly weak.

D+ Tier

Spoiler

(While still not currently allowed in competitive play, recent changes to these classes have brought the potential for their reintroduction into the competitive scene.)

Necro: Thanks to new changes to Necro, the CTF Community and Committee have decided to re-allow Necro to participate in official matches. Until more data about Necro’s pick-rate, in-match performance, and potential performance can be calculated, it will remain in the D+ Tier.

D Tier

Spoiler

(Classes in this tier while weak in their own rights, have been deemed too strong in a majority of their attributes, and as such have been banned from competitive play. These classes will not be allowed in competitive play without significant changes.)

Engineer

Dwarf

Fashionista

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Tips and Tricks - New section this issue! In this section, we hope to cover the specifics of both playing specific classes more effectively and how to play against other classes more effectively. In this issue, we have some tips on how to play the new and improved Necro class by @Miskey !

Tip Number 1: You have one of the strongest weapons in the game combined with great armor. Don't be afraid to get in there and fight like a heavy or soldier. Just be sure to back out when you get low to maintain your killstreak.

Tip Number 2: Try to get your team to give you early kills. When you get a 5ks you will get skeletons, which are great for defense in a match format. Slowness I on a flag carrier can be the difference between a quick recov and a capture.

Tip Number 3: Spawning zombies on players to knock them back/around can be very useful when blocking pathways or trying to recover.

Tip Number 4: The final upgrade of skeletons, which gives them a bow can be very useful when defending side entrances on maps like skyworlds. Players can be shot into the void by skeletons on here, making the class very strong as you can defend multiple entrances at once.

Tip Number 5: Blazes are most useful on enclosed maps as they can hit most of the flagroom with their aoe fireball spray, just be careful cause medic snowballs will kill your blazes. This will also boost the damage of your pyro, as it lights potential cappers on fire.

Tip Number 6: Use your mob beacon wisely. On maps that are very restricted not using it can often be better not to use it, but to let your zombies run, despawn them, and respawn them each wave. That being said, the mob beacon is super strong on maps like blackout. I recommend hovering around your beacon when someone steals so you can determine whether or not you need to break it to let your mobs chase down the flag carrier.

Tip Number 7: Spread your buffs out equally between your mobs. If your strongest mob dies you don't want to be stuck with a bunch of lvl 1 mobs.

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Special Section - In this month’s special section, we have an exclusive article for you about the community’s preference of what type of class they want to see next implemented into CTF. All of you CTF class creators, take note of the results of this article. If you make a good enough class, your idea just may be considered by the CTF Committee. Please note however, that making a class idea does in no way guarantee that it will be accepted.

Earlier this month, I put out a poll in the CTF forums about which type of class that the CTF community would most like to see in a new class, should one be released into the game. Fifty nine people participated in the survey which was comprised of 8 different choices. Between the choices of

• Free/Premium Offensive Support
• Free Recovery
• Premium Recovery
• Free/Premium Defense
• Free/Premium Offence
• Free/Premium Midfield
• Free/Premium Support
• And other

A whopping 34 participants or 57.6% of the voting population requested that the next class be a Free Recovery class. The next closest category was for a Free or Premium Offensive Support class with 7 votes or 11.9% of the voting population.

This was to be expected however, as one of the most requested class types for CTF was a free recovery class, even dating back to MCPVP. This is due to the fact that there are no classes that can efficiently recover that are not premium. In competitive CTF matches, and in casual play, recovery generally falls into the domain of ninjas and assassins, both premium classes.

This monopoly on recovery by players who have purchased classes has been a bane for many free players who don’t have the ability to get the premium classes. A free recovery class would open up this role in CTF to all players, making the game of CTF more inclusive to all players and more fun to play in general.

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Thought of the Month

What makes a class Underpowered or Overpowered? Is it the way that CTF is played as a whole? Is it some ability or item that a class has that gives it an un-countered and unbalanced advantage over every other class? Is it something completely different? Post your thoughts in the comments.

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Closing Remarks

Thank you so very much again for reading the second installment of CTF Class Monthly. I hope to keep bringing you quality information on all things classes for as long as I am able. Again, if anybody has any other ideas for new sections that could be added into the newspaper, please post them below. Just keep it in mind that they should related to class information in some way, shape, or form.

I’d like to make a big shoutout to all of the new people who’s content made it into this month’s issue. A big thank you to @Deppuccino and @Daniellll for their work on the new signature! Also, a big thank you to @Miskey for your work on the Necro Tips and Tricks section.

Thanks again, and we’ll see you next month. Happy CTF’ing!

 

Personally, I find necro a bit weaker now than the old necro. While this necro encourages players to be more active in their play style and discourage the AFK necro strat, I personally never used the AFK necro strat myself. I always stood by my spawner and defended a location with my mobs. While I agree that overall the changes were necessary, I still like old necro better.