@logion567 Funnily enough, the pomson uber drain can be stupidly good. I'd still prefer widowmaker or ranger on big maps, but if you want to you can basically nullify giant medics as engie.
5:24 Solemn Vow makes sense to craft, you need 9 samples of urine (Representing the 9 classes of the game) to see the health of your enemies, which, in fact, is what the Solemn Vow do
@@muhammetaydogmus4404 He could have still seen on the bottom left that he had the same name as the sniper besides him, so he should have known it would have been very obvious he was a spy
What we learned is that weapons that move the slide from single target to crowd control tend to do poorly or be less effective in the base game, where you won't fight the entire team at once, but in mvm where it's nothing but crowds they excel
One niche thing the Heatmaker does well is long range sentry busting. Since the focus charge can be activated on demand and the damage penalty only applies to players, you can deal 150 damage shots to buildings slightly faster.
@@kisoogavares9530 well 450 kills overheated soldiers, pyros, demos, medics, gunslinger engies, BB soldiers, and eyelander demos with more than 2 kills, while 205 does not
5:23 Actually Solem vow crafting recipe makes a lot of sense because Hippocrates (the guys who's head was used to model solem vow) really liked urine therapy so using jarate to craft it is a very cool historical reference
Another comment also said this: you need 9 jars of jarate, i.e 9 jars of urine from each class, which is why the medics able to read their respective health
This is the second time I read a comment saying that the crafting recipe is a reference to Hippocrates and both times I read it as "Hippo crates" thinking it was some old TF2 unboxing UA-camr.
@@tysonvienneau1830 wrong, thier could hypothetically be a game mode like Versus Saxton Hale where a liver king verison of the spy uses his cloak Meter as a Meter ability, the only thing keeping the Liver Spy at bay is the pomson.
@4:07 MAJOR correction: what the Focus meter actually does is that your *_NEXT_* shots will *_START AT_* 25% charge, rather than gain 25% more charge -- 25% more charge is what you see on the Sydney Sleeper, NOT on the Heatmaker while under Focus. This distinct difference is actually why the Heatmaker is so good in MvM; bypassing the usual pause in charge rate in-between every shot means you get more than just 150 damage out of every uncharged headshot, and this grows exponentially more as you upgrade the rifle's charge rate, damage and reload speed.
@@Heratic_ From sigsegv himself: ua-cam.com/video/faQvRLAv2Hk/v-deo.html Full charge under Focus takes 3 seconds, while a full charge with the Sydney Sleeper takes 2,7 seconds even with the charge delay upon scoping; the "25% faster charge rate" on the Heatmaker's tooltip isn't actually 25% faster charge rate, and the Wiki saying otherwise doesn't mean it's right. If you actually played with the Sydney Sleeper for any reasonable amount of time, you'd be able to notice this much as well.
Protip for MVM snipers! If you're playing with a friend or are great at persuasion, have your engineer place the teleporter on the rock on the right side of Rottenburg's main field. (Yes, you can do this) Doing this will make people teleported onto the rock invisible, just like in BigRock. Provided a dispenser is near the rock, and you're a good shot, you can basically solo Hamlet Hostility and Bavarian Botbash, with your engie covering for the tank.
Rock strat explained: climb behind of rocks where enemy doesnt see you. Because of how bots work on a generated mesh and that the rocks usually lack it, you are always invisible to them until they see the spot where you climbed a rock.
Honestly the hitman has always struck me as a weapon that promotes bad habits (being hard scoped a lot) but a lot of good players use it so I guess it’s just a me thing
They use it because they land their headshots with ease. If you aren't as sweaty (which is fine on both ends) and miss more, its more or less a 'meh'. And they don't stay scoped enough for something like the bazaar bargain to be useful as often.
honestly the heatmaker is more or less a stock reskin in casual if you're the type who only goes for quickscope headshots since there's no downside of doing that but compared to the bazaar bargain it's still not that great, but that's really the issue with the bazaar bargain as it's blatantly op.
The reason is simple. The focus mether has a secret massive upside. During focus, you can jump while scoped, wich makes you a lot harder to hit in a sniper duel. Also, a focused Headmaker has higher DPS than a full power Bazaar Bargain, at any level of charge. And of course, heads go boom.
you can jump using any rifle, while focused or not. even when focused, you'll always be unscoped if you jump. thought it was weird i didnt know that after all the time ive spent with the weapon and thats why.
you didnt talk about the fact that you can unscope after shooting way faster in focus than normal. it gives a good advantage in sniper vs sniper combat and also fighting enemys from multiple directions while trying to keep cover etc
Yeah this is IMO the bigger upside of the focus, keeps you out of scope and more mobile and aware, which is ironic when you consider the intended use is to stay perma-scoped. Also turns what he said about it making you vulnerable to other snipers on its head and lets you counter second scopers a lot easier
Yeah, this is pretty much the draw of it for me. You get to spend less time scoped/scoping meaning more awareness and mobility in hectic situations. Also not being forcibly unscoped helps your damage output substantially vs. engineer buildings.
Fun Fact: When your using focus the scope functions the same way it does on the classic in that scoping and firing are now two independent mechanics that don't effect each other, this is why you can stay scoped in after firing. However because of this you can also scope out immediately after firing a scoped shot, bypassing the small period of time that you would be stuck in scope if you had not been using focus. This makes it ideal for fighting second scoping snipers and staying out of tunnel vision.
The best use of the Hitman's Heatmaker is to counter second-scopers who wait to hear your gun go off before they shoot The silenced Hitman's Heatmaker keeps them waiting forever...
coolest thing about the heatmaker is that at launch the focus also gave your SMG tracers. it got patched out within a few weeks iirc but god was it terrifying while it lasted
Personally I love the hitmans heatmaker because it’s perfect for my subclass, the sneaky sniper. The silencer is basically a soft buff to hide you better, and pair that with the shooters stakeout (or as I like to call it the discount boxtrot) you can get behind the enemy and snipe them in the most unexpected ways. It’s awesome to see the chat when I do this on pl defense lol
You are absolutely right that I only use the Heatmaker for aesthetic reasons. When I play sniper, I prefer the quieter sounds of the Heatmaker to the sounds of stock. I do occasionally use the charge but most of the time it doesn't really do much. The most value I get from it is being able to kill heavies a little faster.
when the hitmaker is focused you can unscope immediately after shooting which makes it kinda like a regular classic without holding down fire and its kinda nice for dodging... if only i do remember this mechanic in the battlefield
Personally I find it nicer in teamfights that youre physically present in. Removes the downside of your even more extreme tunnel vision with allies watching your back, and your target priority becomes more akin two a scout where you deal with injured enemies instead of just waiting four the perfect opportunity
I remembered and old bug that happened where if you activated focus and switched to SMG, your SMG rounds would turn into tracers. Meaning you could spam a bunch of these particle effects around.
I swear by the heatmaker. It's a very team-oriented sniper rifle, it works best when you're supporting a push or a defense because of the fact that it obviously is for clearing groups. The noise will drown out your silenced gunshot. If you only land a bodyshot, that still takes off a huge slice of health from someone who is presumably fighting one of your allies. And if you are landing headshots, particularly with focus on, you can thin out a crowd to a manageable size all by yourself.
I remember one time I got 7 kills in one life and the last 3 were in focus on a big group pushing the cart. I grabbed the perfect sightline, downed a heavy, demoman, and medic all within 6 seconds. I immediately got toasted by a flanking Pyro, but it was worth it.
I remember Wambu talked about this weapon Its greatest value is that its downside actively encourages good sniping habits with the headshot reward while disensentivising body shots
The intro basically shows the issue with so many modern games. All the weapons are essentially the same and the differences are minute at best. And in modern games that means they're all fully automatic rifles that play the same. How "good" a weapon is pretty much only depends on how much damange they do.
It's not really how the rifle probably wants you to use it, but the fact you can use the charge whenever means that you can headshot one enemy, and then pop it for a tiny duration just to make sure you have a full charge for his mate you saw peeking around the corner.
The way I see it, this is the epitome of “training wheels” great for learning how to blast their heads, but it may end up doing more harm than good if you’re good at headshots
I remember back around like 2016, I only used the Hitman's Heatmaker as Sniper for a few months just because I thought it looked cool. In all that time, I never figured out what it actually does.
I'm gonna be honest with ya, i swear this weapon did not exist until like 1 year ago. I had never heard of it nor seen anyone use it, then i saw someone commenting about it in a discord server and i was so confused because i had been playing tf2 for over 2 years and had never even heard of the "hitman's heatmaker"
You can unscope immediately after a shot with a Focused Hitman though, meaning you can jump immediately afterward. It makes you harder to second-scope, and you could surf damage more easily.
The neat lil trick I found while playing with Focus is that you can unscope immediately after firing. Usually, you'll be forced to stay in scoped mode for a bit after taking a shot when you are vulnerable but with Focus active, you can press M2 to quickly get out of scoped mode and possibly juke enemy snipers or incoming rockets. I think HiGPS did a vid about it. Ofc its hard to prove its viability for general combat but its a cool gimmick that seems to get glossed over.
Well akshually, the Focus mechanic also enables you to unscope INSTANTLY after firing a shot, downright deleting Sniper's greatest weakness by allowing him to ignore the dangerously long period of vulnerability after a scoped shot.
Hitmans Heatmaker is the best 1v1 sniper rifle in the entire game, when you have the charge meter, you can unaim instantly after shooting, negating in-scope stall which causes you to die after shooting in sniper fights.
most weapons being sidegrades is one of tf2s biggest strengths. the fact that most stock weapons, at least stat wise, aren't just disposed of immediately after unlocking something is awesome. means that no matter how new u are ur still on a level playing field with the only differing factor being time and skill. that said i only use the heatmaker bc i like the aesthetic of it and i love to use full class sets like the milk man or the urban professional
The Hitman's Heatmaker's focus is significant because it removes a bottleneck in shooting. This is most notable in MVM but also can be seen in casual. When you fire any other sniper rifle, you have to unscope and work the bolt, which almost always takes the same amount of time. This is lousy in MVM because the unscoping and rescoping process is the only part that doesn't get upgraded when you upgrade charge and reload speed, so you'll always have the 0.2 bottleneck to firing charged shots, and it can feel very sluggish when you've upgraded every other aspect of the rifle but you still wait for that bottleneck each time. With the Hitman's Heatmaker, firing in focus mode skips that step altogether. This is the biggest deal in MVM because it means your rifle upgrades finally aren't bottlenecked. That said, it can be significant in casual too because it means you can fire the rifle again and again, and each shot is viable for a headshot. I honestly think you find this weapon underwhelming because you're playing too carefully with it. You're going for good shots that you'll probably hit, like some kind of careful sniper. I think the purpose of Focus is actually to encourage you to spam the hell out of it and try to shoot at enemies more frequently. Next time you use this thing (although you probably won't touch it after using it for a month), try focusing and spamming shots you might not hit if an enemy is trying to juke the one shot. Then again, Sniper is my least played class, so I am probably wrong.
I really like this gun even if I’m bad at sniper. It’s helping me practice my headshots so I get into the habit of not bodyshotting, honestly, if I could make a change to it, I would make it so it does like 30 percent body shot, but it allows you to scope in and out faster Also the silent shot for whatever reason helps me focus(unintentional pun) and aim better
2:25 @fishstickonastick-gaming Can we acknowledge how bad of a day that demoman was probably having Dude literally died to a near-full-charge headshot in the middle of a shield charge. That's how demoknight typically goes for me
Something I learned a while ago is that, despite the stats making it seem like it’s for going on amurder sprees, focus can be activated even with just a ninth of it loaded whenever you need charge. For example, the little over a second of fast charging you get from one assist is enough to almost let you pop a soldier, demo or pyro and long enough to fast-track your way to killing heavies in one shot on-demand. Assuming you land that kill, also, you get that charge back.
Except the Machina is a glass cannon that can usually one shot body shot a full health Heavy on full charge. Cause that %15 damage buff is insane, not only that but it has a piercing shot, which could snag extra accidental kills.
The only REAL downside of this gun is that it isn't the Awper Hand. Jokes aside, Non_The_Ninja has made what is probably the best video about this rifle. The Focus meter is obviously the important topic any discussion about this weapon will hinge on, but being able to de-scope independently of your reloading (something the Classic can also do) can keep you more mobile in Sniper 1v1s. The Classic can't ever abuse such a tactic, since it's got a hard baked ~4 seconds before being able to headshot, but this gun really lets you get away with some quickscopes that almost feel like robbery.
I don't think you play with all of the knives the same way, tbh. The Big Earner and YER have very different ways to play the game. You can simplify every class to the same level as simplifying spy to 'get behind and backstab'
A couple thoughts on this video. 1- I think that the hitman's heatmaker's ideal use in standard play is to use it's focus meter for short bursts, more often. It would be ideal for taking on a small cluster of 2-4 enemies, where it could take them out before enough of them started firing at you. Smaller groups, more frequently. 2- I think that it's fine for a weapon to be overpowered in MvM. I'd rather valve focus on balancing a weapon's base stats for standard play than try to balance it for both. Explosive headshots is also the only way for sniper to be viable against that many enemies at once, and even then you still have to have good aim.
I think one way to make the Hitman's Heatmaker a bit more interesting is to play further into the idea that the weapon is for hitmen, silent assassins, so, what if the weapon gained the "Silent Killer" attribute, where the enemy team cannot see kills by this weapon in the killfeed. It would still have the focus meter, but maybe as a way to make the silent killer attribute not too powerful, the Heatmaker would have a reduced maximum charge headshot damage, maybe something like 300-350 or some other number. I'm still terrible at suggesting weapon rebalances, so, I could still be spewing complete nonsense with this stuff.
Eh, I mostly use it because it’s a lot quieter than stock an people usually don’t notice me if I miss them unless I nip em. Am unless the person I headshot immediately tells their team about getting killed by me, I usually just quietly keep going
The point Fish makes about reaload speed or clip size is so true. Give this rifle a slightly faster reload speed while using charge and give the Bazaar Bargain a universal slightly slower reload speed and you get better balanced versions of the weapons.
I think the Heatmaker would feel more special if it had a bit more extreme stats. So. Ditch the "no need to unscope" thing, up the damage penalty, and make the Meter refill slower if it's active (1 kill on an inactive meter means 25% charge, whilst 1 kill on an active meter is 10%) And in exchange for all those downsides, make the Heatmaker charge passively whilst unscoped. This means that when your meter is active, you have to Focus harder. It's a similar premise as the Bazaar Bargain, rewarding you for doing well with a snowballing power, except it's forcing the Sniper to be faster paced and riskier. When Focus is active, your most efficient option is quick scoping. It means less time sitting on a full charge and burning Focus, when you could be killing. A faster paced playstyle then means you have to take risks, putting yourself in more vulnerable positions that the enemy can counter.
About what you said about the Machina, I dont think its worse than stock. I prefer to constantly move around the map or just stay in one position to scare the enemy team into not crossing the sightline. Besides, you can either quickscope or use the stock smg to cope with a lack of noscoping. At least its good for taking down sentries and revved up Natascha heavies with a bullet resistantance from a vacc medic.
5:25 This recipe is because the Solemn Vow is based on Hippocrates. Hippocrates was a major figure in early urology so the recipe for him requires 8 jars of piss.
A clever way to animate the slower reload speed for the Bizzare Bargin would be to have Sniper physically struggling to open the chamber. It is a rusty musket after all
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 Yeah, but I'm refering to the clip idea Fish brought up. Plus, it could work with base reload too. Increase the time by 20%, and show sniper struggling a bit to eject the round.
I honestly would really like a sniper designed to take uncharged unscoped shots, I have this bizarre playstyle since I can’t click on heads, I’ll just body shot then use the smg, having a better sniper or smg for that would be nice
I use the Heatmaker all the time and i start watching this video and i immediately start questioning if i missed an update to the weapon, thats how little the focus meter comes into my mind. Awesome work fish
The main thing with focus for me is you can get out of your scope instantly after shooting so it drastically increases your evasiveness vs other snipers.
Here is an interesting balence change that might not be too bad but make te He hitmans more unique. Its a silenced weapon so we should make it more stealthy. They should remove the dot that shows up on the wall like the rest of the sniper rifles on the hitmans so people dont realize that there is a sniper aiming in your direction.
If you're not that good at the game, focus actually makes sense as a panic button for when you want to deal with a single target that's noticed you and is approaching evasively. At that point, being able to line up your next shot as you reload gives you the best chance of killing an opponent who is closing in from a longer range. Also, if you're actually behind your team in a big team fight, especially against blu on payload, its definitely something you can get mileage out of against groups.
For such a long time I didn't know you can activate focus at any time. I thought you had to wait for the bar to fill up... you know... like every other timed buff in the game. It sure would be nice if Valve made that clearer because it transforms the Heatmaker from C-tier to a solid B+.
ok but there is one thing that not a lot of people talk about this weapon having, which is scope cancelling. this used to be doable with all snipers back in the day, but it was patched out a long time ago. if you use focus, you can shoot and jump within like 5 frames of the shot to cancel your reload animation all together. its so incredibly powerful for svs battles and no one seems to know about it
Ehhhh you forgot that this gun has so many secret stats on it. The focus metter gives you better movility and fast scope and unscope, there´s a few seconds delay when you shoot to unscope and with the metter it can be reduced to cero, making you a force to be recognized on sniper duels, not to mention that you can focus, shoot and then jump, a mechanic that has been removed due to being too powerfull for the sniper on posterior updates. If you are perma-scope with the hitman´s you are not using it right, there are a few instances were you can do that but it doesn´t mean that you should do that everytime, the weapon it´s not only about headshoting, but also movility and speed (speaking about scoping).
I initially used the weapon as a practice tool to land more headshots, eventually I got so used to it that I can’t see myself using any other rifle outside of special circumstances.
I really love the focus reload system and honestly I think it should just be permanently active, it would give this weapon a bit more personality as a DMR style rifle and would have the obvious downside of terrible, terrible tunnel vision and maybe a max charge penalty to force you to go for consecutive shots rather then charge shots
I've kind considered the remain scoped while reloading a bad mechanic, as you can change your settings to remaining scoped while reloading and it will apply for all snipers.
![[TF2] Sniper's SMG: Subpar or Supreme?](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7-GBYrFbXKI/mqdefault.jpg)
![[TF2] Sniper's SMG: Subpar or Supreme?](/img/tr.png)
![[TF2] In Defense of the Bonk Atomic Punch](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/6tu_MY7ITNM/mqdefault.jpg)
![[TF2] The Dragon's Fury: The Anti-Flamethrower](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eAv_1tCzQYg/mqdefault.jpg)
The thing that we learned is that no matter how bad a weapon is MVM will always make it overpowered
Mantreads: Has like 0 upgrades
"Laughs in pomson"
Sun on a stick moment
I mean, the pain train ain't bad but i don't see a payload yet.
@logion567 Funnily enough, the pomson uber drain can be stupidly good. I'd still prefer widowmaker or ranger on big maps, but if you want to you can basically nullify giant medics as engie.
5:24 Solemn Vow makes sense to craft, you need 9 samples of urine (Representing the 9 classes of the game) to see the health of your enemies, which, in fact, is what the Solemn Vow do
it's also a reference to how hippo-crates was a watersports guy
what the fuck you're right
lmao that’s clever af
No, it represents you taking a gigantic piss on the Hippocratic Oath.
Noice
Missing the taunting scout but hitting someone just running by is a classic.
No, classic is a shitass rifle
@@bread6811 and you're a shitass food item
@@bread6811 Classic is good.
@@thatrandomcrit5823 wtf do you mean?? Classic is the best rifle in-game
@@bread6811 Yeah, but what's the best rifle out-game?
8:22 props to the spy who actually tried to pretend to be a sniper. only if he haven't gotten the same disguise as you
Another testament to the fact that spy is luck based
Fish is the only sniper on his team (if you look at the icons above) whether that spy likes it or not his disguise is always gonna be fish
@@Traxi3 how do you know that as an enemy spy?
@@muhammetaydogmus4404 He could have still seen on the bottom left that he had the same name as the sniper besides him, so he should have known it would have been very obvious he was a spy
What we learned is that weapons that move the slide from single target to crowd control tend to do poorly or be less effective in the base game, where you won't fight the entire team at once, but in mvm where it's nothing but crowds they excel
doe this mean I should use the bison in mvm?
@@Dietbutcher yes.
@@Dietbutcher if it wasn't for the banners then yeah, it would be the best secondary probably
@@scout4996
I tried this with the MvM refund glitch.
It did not go well.
Also you see a lot more enemies that can survive multiple headshots in MvM. The Heatmaker can do crazy boss damage
One niche thing the Heatmaker does well is long range sentry busting. Since the focus charge can be activated on demand and the damage penalty only applies to players, you can deal 150 damage shots to buildings slightly faster.
Hmm perfect another thing to piss of engineer mains mwahahaha
Sydney sleeper is far better at this whilst being a significantly easier weapon to abuse than the stock rifle. The heatmaker is garbage…
@@homesinc maybe so but you cant headshot with it.
@@Dietbutcher well you can its just mini crits witch i believe make it deal 205 at full charge so still kills everything but not heavy
@@kisoogavares9530 well 450 kills overheated soldiers, pyros, demos, medics, gunslinger engies, BB soldiers, and eyelander demos with more than 2 kills, while 205 does not
5:23 Actually Solem vow crafting recipe makes a lot of sense because Hippocrates (the guys who's head was used to model solem vow) really liked urine therapy so using jarate to craft it is a very cool historical reference
Another comment also said this: you need 9 jars of jarate, i.e 9 jars of urine from each class, which is why the medics able to read their respective health
@@vin8754why not both?
@@vin8754Please don't turn me into a solem vow
This is the second time I read a comment saying that the crafting recipe is a reference to Hippocrates and both times I read it as "Hippo crates" thinking it was some old TF2 unboxing UA-camr.
@@wismuelthats how scout reads it too hahaha
I love this bizzare ratio that exists that seems to demand that if it's garbage in one gamemode, its broken in the other.
case in point the tomislav vs the brass beast
If there is a rule there is an exception
looks at pomson
@@tysonvienneau1830
There's also the stock fire axe, which is never the best option for a given scenario
@@tysonvienneau1830 wrong, thier could hypothetically be a game mode like Versus Saxton Hale where a liver king verison of the spy uses his cloak Meter as a Meter ability, the only thing keeping the Liver Spy at bay is the pomson.
Thermal thruster is op in Arena.
@4:07
MAJOR correction: what the Focus meter actually does is that your *_NEXT_* shots will *_START AT_* 25% charge, rather than gain 25% more charge -- 25% more charge is what you see on the Sydney Sleeper, NOT on the Heatmaker while under Focus.
This distinct difference is actually why the Heatmaker is so good in MvM; bypassing the usual pause in charge rate in-between every shot means you get more than just 150 damage out of every uncharged headshot, and this grows exponentially more as you upgrade the rifle's charge rate, damage and reload speed.
The Wiki says that it "charges 25% faster, continues charging while reloading (effectively having each shot start at 25% charge)"
@@Heratic_
From sigsegv himself: ua-cam.com/video/faQvRLAv2Hk/v-deo.html
Full charge under Focus takes 3 seconds, while a full charge with the Sydney Sleeper takes 2,7 seconds even with the charge delay upon scoping; the "25% faster charge rate" on the Heatmaker's tooltip isn't actually 25% faster charge rate, and the Wiki saying otherwise doesn't mean it's right.
If you actually played with the Sydney Sleeper for any reasonable amount of time, you'd be able to notice this much as well.
@@Heratic_ Wiki is innacurate sometimes, such as with Scorch shot or pomson
Protip for MVM snipers! If you're playing with a friend or are great at persuasion, have your engineer place the teleporter on the rock on the right side of Rottenburg's main field. (Yes, you can do this) Doing this will make people teleported onto the rock invisible, just like in BigRock. Provided a dispenser is near the rock, and you're a good shot, you can basically solo Hamlet Hostility and Bavarian Botbash, with your engie covering for the tank.
Rock strat explained: climb behind of rocks where enemy doesnt see you.
Because of how bots work on a generated mesh and that the rocks usually lack it, you are always invisible to them until they see the spot where you climbed a rock.
As an engi main, Ive been kicked doing that for my teammates since they wanna play the game fair and square and do not use strats.
Fun
idlerock
Honestly the hitman has always struck me as a weapon that promotes bad habits (being hard scoped a lot) but a lot of good players use it so I guess it’s just a me thing
They use it because they land their headshots with ease. If you aren't as sweaty (which is fine on both ends) and miss more, its more or less a 'meh'. And they don't stay scoped enough for something like the bazaar bargain to be useful as often.
honestly the heatmaker is more or less a stock reskin in casual if you're the type who only goes for quickscope headshots since there's no downside of doing that but compared to the bazaar bargain it's still not that great, but that's really the issue with the bazaar bargain as it's blatantly op.
The reason is simple. The focus mether has a secret massive upside. During focus, you can jump while scoped, wich makes you a lot harder to hit in a sniper duel.
Also, a focused Headmaker has higher DPS than a full power Bazaar Bargain, at any level of charge.
And of course, heads go boom.
you can jump using any rifle, while focused or not. even when focused, you'll always be unscoped if you jump. thought it was weird i didnt know that after all the time ive spent with the weapon and thats why.
I use it to force myself to hit headshots
you didnt talk about the fact that you can unscope after shooting way faster in focus than normal. it gives a good advantage in sniper vs sniper combat and also fighting enemys from multiple directions while trying to keep cover etc
👏🦕
Yeah this is IMO the bigger upside of the focus, keeps you out of scope and more mobile and aware, which is ironic when you consider the intended use is to stay perma-scoped. Also turns what he said about it making you vulnerable to other snipers on its head and lets you counter second scopers a lot easier
Yeah got heatmaker used correctly can lead to really nutty chain kills where you constantly quickscope people and refill the draining focus bar
@@tlamminh3133 yess this is the best feeling
Yeah, this is pretty much the draw of it for me. You get to spend less time scoped/scoping meaning more awareness and mobility in hectic situations. Also not being forcibly unscoped helps your damage output substantially vs. engineer buildings.
Fun Fact: When your using focus the scope functions the same way it does on the classic in that scoping and firing are now two independent mechanics that don't effect each other, this is why you can stay scoped in after firing. However because of this you can also scope out immediately after firing a scoped shot, bypassing the small period of time that you would be stuck in scope if you had not been using focus. This makes it ideal for fighting second scoping snipers and staying out of tunnel vision.
The best use of the Hitman's Heatmaker is to counter second-scopers who wait to hear your gun go off before they shoot
The silenced Hitman's Heatmaker keeps them waiting forever...
coolest thing about the heatmaker is that at launch the focus also gave your SMG tracers. it got patched out within a few weeks iirc but god was it terrifying while it lasted
Personally I love the hitmans heatmaker because it’s perfect for my subclass, the sneaky sniper. The silencer is basically a soft buff to hide you better, and pair that with the shooters stakeout (or as I like to call it the discount boxtrot) you can get behind the enemy and snipe them in the most unexpected ways. It’s awesome to see the chat when I do this on pl defense lol
ah yes new Zeeland spy
@@mostdefinitelynotadurian exactly
I think it should lean into the stealth a bit more. Like, removing the Red/blue Targeting dot, But you fire tracer rounds.
that scout medic double tap at 7:53 was bonkers
Also w medic
You are absolutely right that I only use the Heatmaker for aesthetic reasons. When I play sniper, I prefer the quieter sounds of the Heatmaker to the sounds of stock. I do occasionally use the charge but most of the time it doesn't really do much. The most value I get from it is being able to kill heavies a little faster.
Can confirm, I have indeed seen this weapon in my inventory occasionally.
My favourite rifle. Started using this early on to practice headshots. 125 hours of sniper later and never gave it up. Awesome weapon. Awesome design.
when the hitmaker is focused you can unscope immediately after shooting which makes it kinda like a regular classic without holding down fire and its kinda nice for dodging... if only i do remember this mechanic in the battlefield
The only reason I dont use the heatmaker more is because of its firing sound, but Ill probably start using it more now. Nice video fish, keep it up
I find the focus works really well at stopping pushes, as it refills your charge bar while reloading. That's just my upsides to it at least.
Personally I find it nicer in teamfights that youre physically present in. Removes the downside of your even more extreme tunnel vision with allies watching your back, and your target priority becomes more akin two a scout where you deal with injured enemies instead of just waiting four the perfect opportunity
I remembered and old bug that happened where if you activated focus and switched to SMG, your SMG rounds would turn into tracers. Meaning you could spam a bunch of these particle effects around.
I swear by the heatmaker. It's a very team-oriented sniper rifle, it works best when you're supporting a push or a defense because of the fact that it obviously is for clearing groups. The noise will drown out your silenced gunshot. If you only land a bodyshot, that still takes off a huge slice of health from someone who is presumably fighting one of your allies. And if you are landing headshots, particularly with focus on, you can thin out a crowd to a manageable size all by yourself.
I remember one time I got 7 kills in one life and the last 3 were in focus on a big group pushing the cart. I grabbed the perfect sightline, downed a heavy, demoman, and medic all within 6 seconds. I immediately got toasted by a flanking Pyro, but it was worth it.
I fully agree, the Hitman's Heatmaker is definitely a weapon that exists
I remember Wambu talked about this weapon Its greatest value is that its downside actively encourages good sniping habits with the headshot reward while disensentivising body shots
The intro basically shows the issue with so many modern games.
All the weapons are essentially the same and the differences are minute at best. And in modern games that means they're all fully automatic rifles that play the same. How "good" a weapon is pretty much only depends on how much damange they do.
It's not really how the rifle probably wants you to use it, but the fact you can use the charge whenever means that you can headshot one enemy, and then pop it for a tiny duration just to make sure you have a full charge for his mate you saw peeking around the corner.
0:31 jonto heavly disagrees
The way I see it, this is the epitome of “training wheels” great for learning how to blast their heads, but it may end up doing more harm than good if you’re good at headshots
I remember back around like 2016, I only used the Hitman's Heatmaker as Sniper for a few months just because I thought it looked cool. In all that time, I never figured out what it actually does.
I'm gonna be honest with ya, i swear this weapon did not exist until like 1 year ago. I had never heard of it nor seen anyone use it, then i saw someone commenting about it in a discord server and i was so confused because i had been playing tf2 for over 2 years and had never even heard of the "hitman's heatmaker"
Weapon reskins in TF2 have always been a strange case to me.
I still don´t know where this joke comes from
@@thatrandomcrit5823 it's a video by Great Blue, its called "What if weapon reskins were different?"
@@harrysteel864 Thank you!
@@harrysteel864 I’m still confused on WHY it’s a joke tho
@@reportedbooch697 Chucklenuts Podcast
3:18 fish's aim is so destructive that even his teammate got headshot by him.
You can unscope immediately after a shot with a Focused Hitman though, meaning you can jump immediately afterward. It makes you harder to second-scope, and you could surf damage more easily.
15:35 that Pyro air blasting the crit heavies was cheek-clenchingly painful
Happens all the time during his schizo MvM streams.
"What's the world without a bit of chaos?"
The neat lil trick I found while playing with Focus is that you can unscope immediately after firing.
Usually, you'll be forced to stay in scoped mode for a bit after taking a shot when you are vulnerable but with Focus active, you can press M2 to quickly get out of scoped mode and possibly juke enemy snipers or incoming rockets.
I think HiGPS did a vid about it. Ofc its hard to prove its viability for general combat but its a cool gimmick that seems to get glossed over.
12:05 | *You mean **_mag,_** right blud?*
M A G A Z I N E
I use the Hitman's so that when I miss 8 shots in a row at least it's quiet enough that nobody notices.
"what's the world without a little bit of chaos?"
- some beggar's bazooka soldier main
15:35
Well akshually, the Focus mechanic also enables you to unscope INSTANTLY after firing a shot, downright deleting Sniper's greatest weakness by allowing him to ignore the dangerously long period of vulnerability after a scoped shot.
Great video! I was really glad that you brought up MVM
The hitman's heat maker is one of the weapons in tf2
Hitmans Heatmaker is the best 1v1 sniper rifle in the entire game, when you have the charge meter, you can unaim instantly after shooting, negating in-scope stall which causes you to die after shooting in sniper fights.
7:55
"Unless you're pretty much a god."
*Proceeds to make the sound of a whining puppy
4:51 crocket gaming
I was just thinking about how all of these upsides would make it broken in mvm, then you said it.
most weapons being sidegrades is one of tf2s biggest strengths. the fact that most stock weapons, at least stat wise, aren't just disposed of immediately after unlocking something is awesome. means that no matter how new u are ur still on a level playing field with the only differing factor being time and skill.
that said i only use the heatmaker bc i like the aesthetic of it and i love to use full class sets like the milk man or the urban professional
at the end of the day, sniper is all about gerting head
The thing about this weapon is that when you kill someone via headshot, the enemy's head will actually roll. As description says
The Hitman's Heatmaker's focus is significant because it removes a bottleneck in shooting. This is most notable in MVM but also can be seen in casual. When you fire any other sniper rifle, you have to unscope and work the bolt, which almost always takes the same amount of time. This is lousy in MVM because the unscoping and rescoping process is the only part that doesn't get upgraded when you upgrade charge and reload speed, so you'll always have the 0.2 bottleneck to firing charged shots, and it can feel very sluggish when you've upgraded every other aspect of the rifle but you still wait for that bottleneck each time. With the Hitman's Heatmaker, firing in focus mode skips that step altogether. This is the biggest deal in MVM because it means your rifle upgrades finally aren't bottlenecked. That said, it can be significant in casual too because it means you can fire the rifle again and again, and each shot is viable for a headshot.
I honestly think you find this weapon underwhelming because you're playing too carefully with it. You're going for good shots that you'll probably hit, like some kind of careful sniper. I think the purpose of Focus is actually to encourage you to spam the hell out of it and try to shoot at enemies more frequently. Next time you use this thing (although you probably won't touch it after using it for a month), try focusing and spamming shots you might not hit if an enemy is trying to juke the one shot.
Then again, Sniper is my least played class, so I am probably wrong.
I really like this gun even if I’m bad at sniper. It’s helping me practice my headshots so I get into the habit of not bodyshotting, honestly, if I could make a change to it, I would make it so it does like 30 percent body shot, but it allows you to scope in and out faster
Also the silent shot for whatever reason helps me focus(unintentional pun) and aim better
4:52 That random crit timing with "game balance" HAD to be intentional
2:25
@fishstickonastick-gaming
Can we acknowledge how bad of a day that demoman was probably having
Dude literally died to a near-full-charge headshot in the middle of a shield charge. That's how demoknight typically goes for me
Something I learned a while ago is that, despite the stats making it seem like it’s for going on amurder sprees, focus can be activated even with just a ninth of it loaded whenever you need charge.
For example, the little over a second of fast charging you get from one assist is enough to almost let you pop a soldier, demo or pyro and long enough to fast-track your way to killing heavies in one shot on-demand. Assuming you land that kill, also, you get that charge back.
Except the Machina is a glass cannon that can usually one shot body shot a full health Heavy on full charge. Cause that %15 damage buff is insane, not only that but it has a piercing shot, which could snag extra accidental kills.
1:09 "Weapon Reskins"
The silencer is funny for flanking super far behind enemies
13:25 dont forget the brass beast (i get 150k damage with it often in two cities)
The only REAL downside of this gun is that it isn't the Awper Hand.
Jokes aside, Non_The_Ninja has made what is probably the best video about this rifle. The Focus meter is obviously the important topic any discussion about this weapon will hinge on, but being able to de-scope independently of your reloading (something the Classic can also do) can keep you more mobile in Sniper 1v1s. The Classic can't ever abuse such a tactic, since it's got a hard baked ~4 seconds before being able to headshot, but this gun really lets you get away with some quickscopes that almost feel like robbery.
3:18 Heavy jumpscare !!
Fun fact: the faster charge rate is BECAUSE of the unscope thingy. Otherwise it doesn't have a faster charge lol.
I don't think you play with all of the knives the same way, tbh. The Big Earner and YER have very different ways to play the game. You can simplify every class to the same level as simplifying spy to 'get behind and backstab'
A couple thoughts on this video.
1- I think that the hitman's heatmaker's ideal use in standard play is to use it's focus meter for short bursts, more often. It would be ideal for taking on a small cluster of 2-4 enemies, where it could take them out before enough of them started firing at you. Smaller groups, more frequently.
2- I think that it's fine for a weapon to be overpowered in MvM. I'd rather valve focus on balancing a weapon's base stats for standard play than try to balance it for both. Explosive headshots is also the only way for sniper to be viable against that many enemies at once, and even then you still have to have good aim.
I think one way to make the Hitman's Heatmaker a bit more interesting is to play further into the idea that the weapon is for hitmen, silent assassins, so, what if the weapon gained the "Silent Killer" attribute, where the enemy team cannot see kills by this weapon in the killfeed.
It would still have the focus meter, but maybe as a way to make the silent killer attribute not too powerful, the Heatmaker would have a reduced maximum charge headshot damage, maybe something like 300-350 or some other number.
I'm still terrible at suggesting weapon rebalances, so, I could still be spewing complete nonsense with this stuff.
I didn't expect to hear Deus Ex sountrack in your videos, you have a good taste!
Well, it definitely is one of the weapons of all times.
Eh, I mostly use it because it’s a lot quieter than stock an people usually don’t notice me if I miss them unless I nip em.
Am unless the person I headshot immediately tells their team about getting killed by me, I usually just quietly keep going
The point Fish makes about reaload speed or clip size is so true.
Give this rifle a slightly faster reload speed while using charge and give the Bazaar Bargain a universal slightly slower reload speed and you get better balanced versions of the weapons.
I think the Heatmaker would feel more special if it had a bit more extreme stats.
So.
Ditch the "no need to unscope" thing, up the damage penalty, and make the Meter refill slower if it's active (1 kill on an inactive meter means 25% charge, whilst 1 kill on an active meter is 10%)
And in exchange for all those downsides, make the Heatmaker charge passively whilst unscoped.
This means that when your meter is active, you have to Focus harder.
It's a similar premise as the Bazaar Bargain, rewarding you for doing well with a snowballing power, except it's forcing the Sniper to be faster paced and riskier.
When Focus is active, your most efficient option is quick scoping. It means less time sitting on a full charge and burning Focus, when you could be killing.
A faster paced playstyle then means you have to take risks, putting yourself in more vulnerable positions that the enemy can counter.
I use it because it lets me play sniper and not feel bad about being stingy with money
About what you said about the Machina, I dont think its worse than stock. I prefer to constantly move around the map or just stay in one position to scare the enemy team into not crossing the sightline. Besides, you can either quickscope or use the stock smg to cope with a lack of noscoping. At least its good for taking down sentries and revved up Natascha heavies with a bullet resistantance from a vacc medic.
4:40 bloody flankas
5:25 This recipe is because the Solemn Vow is based on Hippocrates. Hippocrates was a major figure in early urology so the recipe for him requires 8 jars of piss.
valid opinion but headshot decapitation's makes it a straight upgrade to my eyes.
Never forget Smissmas 2020 where every server was plagued by the Festive Hitman bot using the heatmaker.
A clever way to animate the slower reload speed for the Bizzare Bargin would be to have Sniper physically struggling to open the chamber. It is a rusty musket after all
thats the problem i have with the concept, not even stock has a magazine, what clip is sniper gonna reload?
@@dkskcjfjswwwwwws413 Yeah, but I'm refering to the clip idea Fish brought up. Plus, it could work with base reload too. Increase the time by 20%, and show sniper struggling a bit to eject the round.
I honestly would really like a sniper designed to take uncharged unscoped shots, I have this bizarre playstyle since I can’t click on heads, I’ll just body shot then use the smg, having a better sniper or smg for that would be nice
I use the Heatmaker all the time and i start watching this video and i immediately start questioning if i missed an update to the weapon, thats how little the focus meter comes into my mind.
Awesome work fish
The opening "made possible by viewers like you" brought me back to channel 2 in the 90s
1:28 Nobody starts being able to play any class perfectly.
The main thing with focus for me is you can get out of your scope instantly after shooting so it drastically increases your evasiveness vs other snipers.
2:21 Yeah, I’m not a good sniper so I just use this because it looks and sounds cooler than the other sniper rifles.
Here is an interesting balence change that might not be too bad but make te
He hitmans more unique.
Its a silenced weapon so we should make it more stealthy. They should remove the dot that shows up on the wall like the rest of the sniper rifles on the hitmans so people dont realize that there is a sniper aiming in your direction.
If you're not that good at the game, focus actually makes sense as a panic button for when you want to deal with a single target that's noticed you and is approaching evasively. At that point, being able to line up your next shot as you reload gives you the best chance of killing an opponent who is closing in from a longer range.
Also, if you're actually behind your team in a big team fight, especially against blu on payload, its definitely something you can get mileage out of against groups.
i use this rifle and im not disapointed, i like the "focus" effect, it really helps me
For such a long time I didn't know you can activate focus at any time. I thought you had to wait for the bar to fill up... you know... like every other timed buff in the game. It sure would be nice if Valve made that clearer because it transforms the Heatmaker from C-tier to a solid B+.
It’s funny how all the weakest unlocks become really broken in MvM.
"Three sniper primaries that are not just stock" (The sniper that can't headshot, the not a gun, and a weapon pulled form a different game)
Huge respect for using the original Deus Ex ost, a very nostalgic and powerful soundtrack for me.
ok but there is one thing that not a lot of people talk about this weapon having, which is scope cancelling. this used to be doable with all snipers back in the day, but it was patched out a long time ago. if you use focus, you can shoot and jump within like 5 frames of the shot to cancel your reload animation all together. its so incredibly powerful for svs battles and no one seems to know about it
Ehhhh you forgot that this gun has so many secret stats on it. The focus metter gives you better movility and fast scope and unscope, there´s a few seconds delay when you shoot to unscope and with the metter it can be reduced to cero, making you a force to be recognized on sniper duels, not to mention that you can focus, shoot and then jump, a mechanic that has been removed due to being too powerfull for the sniper on posterior updates.
If you are perma-scope with the hitman´s you are not using it right, there are a few instances were you can do that but it doesn´t mean that you should do that everytime, the weapon it´s not only about headshoting, but also movility and speed (speaking about scoping).
The Heatmaker is a weapon I constantly forget exists except when it’s being used by, y’know, “FINE SHOT, MATE”.
Oh my god the heatmaker is my favorite rifle and I never knew you could activate focus without a full bar
I initially used the weapon as a practice tool to land more headshots, eventually I got so used to it that I can’t see myself using any other rifle outside of special circumstances.
I really love the focus reload system and honestly I think it should just be permanently active, it would give this weapon a bit more personality as a DMR style rifle and would have the obvious downside of terrible, terrible tunnel vision and maybe a max charge penalty to force you to go for consecutive shots rather then charge shots
13:27 my man the penis scout is the best for pvp especially when damaging yourself to steal a health pack from a teammate on low HP.
One thing that I did not know is charging while reloading part. I say that while my heat maker has over 1000 kills and stacked countless robot bodies
I just use it like stock because I really hate using stock weapons and I don't know why.
I've kind considered the remain scoped while reloading a bad mechanic, as you can change your settings to remaining scoped while reloading and it will apply for all snipers.