The Pomson 6000, or Pomson for short, is regarded as the worst Engineer weapon as well as one of the worst weapons to exist in Team Fortress 2. In this special edition of 'Just the Basics' we'll take a look at this weapon, see what makes it so bad, and how it can potentially be fixed.
The Stats
Shoots an electric projectile instead of shotgun pellets.
+Does not require ammo (replaced with an ammo meter).
+Projectile cannot be deflected.
+On Hit: Victim loses up to 10% Medigun charge.
+On Hit: Victim loses up to 20% cloak.
-Deals only 20% damage to buildings.
-Has a 33% smaller clip size. (hidden)
Damage:
Maximum Ramp up: 72 (players)
Base:60 (players), 12 (buildings)
Maximum fall off: 32 (players)
Function:
Fire Rate: 0.8 seconds
Reload(initial): 1.02
Reload(consecutive): 0.53
As shown above, the Pomson is one of the few energy based projectile weapons in the game, this is shared with the Cow Mangler and the Righteous Bison. It does not require ammunition, but does need to be reloaded. Its projectiles also cannot be reflected and cannot be destroyed by the Short Circuit's secondary fire. This weapon's unique feature is being able to drain Medic's Ubercharge and Spy's cloak upon them being hit with the projectile. This charge drain is affected by range, with the falloff starting around 512 Hammer units (around the same distance as Heavy's Showdown taunt range (which is 500 Hammer units) or, for perspective, about the length of a shipping container in Granary), and doing no charge drain at 3 times that distance. It also deals 20% less damage to buildings and has only 4 shots in it.
In of damage, the Pomson deals about 1.25x less damage than the stock Shotgun at close range, but deals 2 more damage at long range. This makes it the only weapon Engineer has for long range battle that doesn't involve a Sentry. However it shares the same base damage and crit damage as the Shotgun but you are guaranteed the 180 damage if the projectile hits someone.
The Good
The Pomson’s main focus is to disrupt two classes that can endanger potentially an Engineer’s nest: Medic and Spy. Though it affects the Medic more than the Spy. This allows for Engineer more time to set up or to make a hasty retreat. It can also be used to interrupt Medics who are building Ubercharges and potentially allow your team to kill the Medic before he’s full Uber. It’s also good for shortening Ubers that don’t render the Medic invincible.
The Bad
Even though it was made for long distance, the Pomson deals pitiful damage both close and far away. This means Engineer has to rely on his melee weapon to fight enemies that come too close to him, and that’s practically asking yourself to get trickstabbed. The DPS on the Pomson is way too low for it to be a reliable damage dealer that is not a Sentry. Besides, an Engineer is supposed to use his Sentry as his main damage dealer, not his primary.
The Ugly
The following above does not really matter due to one particular problem: hitting your opponent. This is the Pomson’s biggest issue and the main reason it is bad. The energy bolts move extremely slow and can be easily avoided, even at close range. The only times you’re guaranteed to hit someone is if you’re shooting them point blank or they’re standing still.
The Changes
With the Pomson’s ups and downs laid out, here are two possible versions of the weapon I believe would make the Pomson a bit for viable:
Version 1
Speed of projectile stays the same
Deals splash damage (Area of effect is similar to the Direct Hit’s splash range)
Splash does not drain Uber or Cloak
Splash damages
Splash damage deals less damage than if person was hit with the projectile
Cannot destroy sticky bombs with splash
Version 2
Speed of projectile is increased significantly (maybe around the speed of the Short Circuit ball or slower)
Base damage increased (60 to 70)
Uber drain is reduced to 5%
Cloak drain is reduced to 10%
30% slower fire rate (Increases fire rate from 0.8 seconds to 1.04 seconds
Version 1 Pomson would introduce a Pomson with splash damage. However, the AOE of the splash is really small and deals less damage than a direct hit with the weapon. The splash is also unable to drain Cloak or Uber.
Version 2 Pomson would increase the speed and damage of the projectile, but at the cost of draining less Uber and Cloak and how fast it fires. This is to reduce the potential spam with the weapon as well as decreasing the penalty of being hit by it.
Comments (2)
Holy crap dude, mad respect. If anything deserves a feature, it's this.
If only the projectiles weren't so impossible the pomson would be a weapon worth reckoning with. I agree with the second version of the changes.