In the defense of Chemists.

Change to stone sword and cut down health potions.
Done

 

I think one of these would be an appropriate nerf, but not both.

 

Being a huge chemist main and knowing EVERY nook and cranny of this class, all I see necessary are minor tweaks to make this class better balanced in CTF.
Give the chemist 5 less damage pots and 2-3 less health pots, and give it 2 less magic clicks (shown in the xp bar) before it fully runs out of magic. (For those who don't know, when the magic runs out, the chemist can't throw anymore pots until some magic automatically refills.)
In doing so, even as it's just a slight number adjustment, it would actually be a very large nerf to the current chemist class, which completely relies on its quick to use, large pool of potion availability (especially its health pots). Now, the chemist would need to keep in check the decreased health pool and pot charge up time before engaging in an attack.
I have capped with chemist too many times with 0-3 health pots remaining, and if this would be in place, along with the decrease of its magic pool, chemist would take an even higher skill and awareness to use.
This nerf still keeps the class in perspective to how it is currently played, but does a better job of leveling it out.

*cough* Even though I don't see a big problem at all with chemist, especially as a chemist buffs other classes to make them actually OP. *cough* For example: buffed heavy+ninja.

I believe that all classes need just minor tweaks to make CTF balanced.
But remember that a balanced game is NOT an eZ game... and I think many of us forget that.
CTF is made up of both steady and spiked currents, which enables the game to move along and give kills, caps, and recoveries. These two paces, steady and spiked, are made up of the camping, attacking, insta-killing, and hardcore PvP classes. Without either the steady or the spiked paces, CTF won't be able to function in its given (balanced) state.

 

Chemist is only OP when it's capping because of its insanely large healthpool. Anywhere else it's fine.

 

According to my calculations: chemist has 50% Armor, 10 Insta-health III, some dmg potions, a pot with speed I and strength I and a iron sword. 50% armor aside, the hp pots equals 6 hearts, so he has the most hp in the game: 70 hearts. Compare it to heavy: 22 hearts. plus 50% armor is about 45 hearts. The damage with the strength is incredible! 6 dmg = 3 hearts + 130% dmg = 4 hearts of dmg, plus crit hits = 5 hearts. The heavy does 3.5 hearts + crit = 4 - 4.5.

Chemist = 70 Hp + 50% armor = 105 hearts total. Deals 5 hearts of damage too. I'm not doing the regen...
Tank = 22 Hp + 100% armor = 44 hearts total. Deals 4.5 dmg too.
This was pointless. And my calculations might be wrong too...

I bet you can't beat: @Rollercoasterb8

 

Instant Health III heals 8 Hearts, not 6.

 

I think there's a lot of exaggeration about how powerful chemist truly is due to the people that play it. There are a lot of really skilled chemists out there. I think chemist should have some kind of nerf to make it fairer, but it's nowhere near as bad as pyro. I also think we should appreciate just how good some of the chemists really are at the game, as they've spent a lot of time learning to use the potions to their maximum effect ^.^

 

Using potions is hardly something to brag about. Most of the time it can be the overuse of potions that get chemists killed. Chemist excels when they focus on doing damage with their sword, potions can screw up that momentum. I may not be the best Chemist out there, but observation proves that many chemists die because of their focus on potting too much. Things such as throwing a health pot to where you're running to keep momentum or throwing a potion above you to hit from behind aren't exactly hard things to figure out.

 

That's why I said using their potions to the maximum effect, that includes health and strength potions too. Nevertheless some of the chemists out there are very good at what they do. Also, yes it's true the overuse of potions can get the chemist killed, but good chemists avoid that, and that's a reason to appreciate them for it.
I'm not suggesting that the class itself is not totally balanced, but equally I'm sure you can agree the people that play the class can also make it look overpowered too

 

I'm just going to put this point, apologies if someone has already said so:

When playing I find that I use the majority of my health potions trying to get across the middle. As a chemist you occassionally have to waste a health potion to do 2-3 hearts purely so I don't die to an archer.

I agree strongly with Ch40s the best chemists rarely use pots in combat. They tend to wait last minute to either throw health or only throw damage if they feel they'll die if they don't.

If you are going to nerf Chem I suggest reducing the damage/poison/slow pots, it weakens the class but not in a way which will affect it majorly.

 

You can block their instakill by blocking with your sword!

 

Too bad I usually play Engie

 

You have a wood sword don't you? :3

 

normally you would use your pickaxe to do more damage

 

I think a proper nerf would be if a Chemist got hit by their own Instant Damage Potion, they'd take damage.

 

That's only if you do it accurately, most chemists just throw it at their feet. I think it only heals about 6, I'll check.

 

Chemist doesn't really encourage teamwork in the form of buffs. You just throw them the buff, and the buff recipient can just run off himself and raise hell in places he previously needed a buddy to do any real damage to. Not really something that can truly be called "teamwork."

It's like this because they last a whole 3 minutes, which is a solid period of time before one would have to revisit a Chemist, especially if you're an aggressive player. If the buff time was shorter, then when buffs would be given would actually have to be coordinated or the Chemist would actually have to stick with and work with the reciever.

There's also the aspect where it can survive for ages on its own and hold its own in a 3v1, 2v1, 4v1, so the need for teamwork isn't very high in that respect either. Maybe encourages teamwork for the other team, because they need more people to take out that dumb healthpool and splash damage.

 

Teamwork itself in CTF is quite absent anyways.
The only class that gives an inkling of teamwork is engineer, and that's really more of 'standing around an object' rather then coordination.

 

i find that when im fighting chemists the problem is the damage pots. most melee classes can deal sufficient damage to chemist to make it heal quite often, but literally every chemist throws a damage pot before they heal so you can't get that last hit on them to kill them and it makes them really hard to kill. plus i see loads of chemists just throwing damage pots at their feet when they while whilst having the flag just for the knockback effect which is really annoying :L

 

I don't know what server you're playing on bud. But there's plenty of teamwork in CTF. Backing up the flag holder, people planning on how to recover the flag, Medics healing allies, etc., etc.