Is medic a less popular class in competitive TF2?

Perhaps yes, it's not a class for the standard fps frag focused player, but some like to be counted on and as such medic can be popular. It's like in all the MMOs or mobas where supports are needed : feeling valuable when you play the role is rewarding in itself.

Are valve attempting to encourage people to play medic by making it more powerful? Is it working?

All I can say is that i don't see more pubbers play medic than before the update. But in matchmaking everyone seems to recognise the need for medics, so at least this part is working.
As for medic becoming more powerful, i don't think it is needed.

Would it not be better to re-work the medic to make the mechanics more fun (such as the crossbow?
Is there even a problem here, or is this all just my gripes as a medic-main?

There is no problem. A lot of fun mechanics are already there : crossbow as you said, quick fix and vaccinator are all fun and rewarding to use properly.

Will Thalash donate for the greater good of the community?

You are right. While some weapons like neon annihilator are clearly funny gimmicky ones and not a real problem, for pyro to get free of crits/mini crits, he needs to do his main job correctly : burn down people. I'd be fine with no more crit gimmicks for a reliable and high close range DPS.

Marxist <3

I think pyro can be fixed, but it involves a bit more than tweaking some numbers.

First, the way flames are coded is inconsistent, everyone knows that. It needs to be fixed, or changed to a hitscan cone.
Second, airblast is poorly coded too. The stun lock isn't justified IMO, nor the way that pyro can reflect things that are behind him.
Third, pyro DPS is garbage. As Marxist the smart man says, pyro is the close range specialist, and yet he can be out damaged by many things : pipes, rockets, scouts, heavies. So he isn't even good at his speciality. If the flames are somehow made consistent a damage boost would be nice, instead of the wacky heal blocking added by the last update.
Fourth, afterburn gets irrelevant in correct matches like highlander, where there is an enemy pyro and a medic. Afterburn has a lot of counters : medics, pyros, healthpacks, and all the throwable stuff. I would like to see afterburn NOT get countered by medic. For example, extinguish someone with a medi gun takes 2 seconds and during those 2 seconds healing done is reduced by 50%.

For heavy I don't know. Besides maybe changing (again) natascha and GRUs, i think he's fine. He was fine too before all the accuracy nerfs and miniguns giving weird resistances :(

Thanks for the precision.

i thought mike was stopping after DHS to play overwatch?

it's surprisingly accurate, good job!

I have a question : you displayed health with a number only, as it is the norm in TF2. Do you have a way to make the overwatch health bar? As some huds can display a health cross, maybe the form is tweakable?

I agree with you sage.

In games this complexity comes from balance vs design.

The game is designed in a way, works well, then content is added. Some of this content is poorly thought and does not work well with the initial design of the game, so it is balanced with stats adjustments.

The truth is some content simply cannot work correctly in the game, but they can't remove it. Sure with numbers it's possible to patch it so it doesn't break everything, but it's still bad design : ex : short circuit, quick fix, darwin shield, pyro hitreg, natascha, etc..

Another problem is the way valve decides what to do with the game. Nobody knows what they plan to do and nobody understands why they do things the way they do. But some other game developpers have neat systems :

in starcraft 2, before every patch a balance test map is published alongside with the changes they want to make, so players can give feedback BEFORE the actual patch.

in eve online, every year a council of players is elected from every part of the playerbase (miners, PVPers, mission runners, traders, etc) and gets to discuss in detail with the devs about what to do in future updates, what are the interests of the people they represent, and the current state of the game.

I would like valve to use both of these things to avoid all these shitstorms after every balance attempt : publish the changes you want to make early, explain your reasonings, and select a few players from every community (pubs, reddit, steam forums, tftv) to discuss directly with.

i couldnt even join a casual server in a party with another person

There's actually a fuckton of new quotes holy shit

I used to be a big rager and having to handle losses as well as manage people taught me to be calmer.
Also it helped me to speak english (more) correctly.

I'm with the no whitelist idea.

I don't know where it's at atm but i would like to see a match play a bit longer than 2 rounds on 5 cps. Maybe make it a best of 3 on 3 different maps with 2 rounds each time?

I'm also for future changes to classes made too powerful (sniper?)

thun you could have summoned graba and used vaccinator to piss your teammates off :(

who will maincall?

fool me once...