So, it's been roughly a month since the most recent round of demo nerfs (although substantially less time since they removed the super dumb stealth buff where dmg falloff was removed). I figured it was about time to talk about how the game has changed, both anecdotally and statistically.
To begin, from an anecdotal perspective. I was always opposed to any demo nerf that could have unforeseen (or seen by me but not by other people for some reason h3h) consequences. Unlike the most basic and, in my mind, acceptable nerf of reducing the number of stickies in a clip to like 6, the radius reduction has a much more tangible effect on other classes. Simply put, other classes just fear stickies less, as the ability to quickly airdet on scouts and rocket jumping soldiers has been vastly nerfed. Personally, I find the change very frustrating, as I feel like my playstyle (ie I was never exactly a pipe god) has been affected a lot in particular, and a lot of shots that would have hit before no longer do. I had like 1400 hours in demo before the nerf and it almost feels like I wasted a lot of the time.
Now, you might say all this is just a washed-up demo main whining about his class and not "adapting" like all the top players must surely be doing. I'm glad you thought that/said that out loud, generic composite forumgoer, as I have a bit of data I'd like to go through.
Let's start with the ESEA-I dmg stats from this season so far. Keep in mind, only two weeks have passed; however, the maps (snakewater and process) are certainly ones where demos have quite often top damaged in the past (at least more than on badlands and granary).
What we see on our top 10 is a field dominated by pocket soldiers. The highest-up demo is xalox at 3rd place, but he has a particularly small sample size, consisting of 1 game where his team annihilated Show Me the Monet, and two games where his team got rolled but his heals were roughly equivalent to those of his pocket soldier (leading me to believe that he got most of that damage falling back with his med after all of the rest of his team had died, or maybe holding last). After xalox, you have to go down to 10th place for Bdonski, a demo who has dominated such stats in the past as the core damage dealer of elevate. Here, he doesn't even crack a 300 average. The third highest demo is deadbolt at 18th, followed by duwatna at 22nd. To even get to the top 4 demos, we have to go through every pocket soldier in invite except for marmaduke (whose team has been rolled in every match they have played, and despite that he still sits at 23rd, above the bottom 5 demos), as well as a ton of roamers and scouts. Let's compare these stats to last season's ones.
The difference between these two stat lines is staggering. Bdonski is at #1, as he should be given his team's playstyle, and most of the other demos are close behind (insom at 2nd, duwatna at 5th, deadbolt at 7th, chriz tah fah at 8th, dingo at 11th, xalox at 14th). There are only four players who don't play pocket or demo in the top 20- b4nny, clockwork, blaze, and ma3la. The three biggest outliers on their respective classes, followed by the roamer for the team that went 16-0 in the reg season last time around. In s18 so far, there are 8 such people.
If this is getting a little complicated, let's narrow the field and compare some team damage stats from season to season. Let's start with froyotech.
Last season, duwatna got outdamaged by lansky, not surprising with their team's playstyle. However, both were well above 300 average dpm, and both were far above the rest of their team. Let's compare that to now:
The difference is definitely noticeable. duwatna has gone from the 2nd highest damage-dealer on his team to the 5th, and lansky is now completely unchallenged at the top.
Let's look now at elevate, a team that is much more demo-centric and therefore might still have decent demo stats. Starting with last season:
Again, Bdonski is clear #1, and rando is the clear #2, followed by a gap between those two and their flank classes. Now our current season:
Bdonski has fallen to second on his team, despite the roamer/pocket switch that his soldiers made, leaving his team with no one cracking 300 dpm anymore (which is probably related to why they're less dominant than last season).
Finally, Street Hoops, our other consistent LAN presence. Here's last season:
Despite their team's very pocket-centric playstyle, as well as deadbolt being a fairly passive demo, their team still has the pocket and the demo neck-and-neck, with deadbolt taking the slight edge. Both are above 300 dpm, and both are significantly higher than the rest of their team.
Now here's this season:
Grape has pulled ahead as the clear damage dealer on their team, nearly hitting 350. ash has also surpassed deadbolt, who sits barely above cyzer at around 250 dpm.
Now, before I draw my conclusions, there are a few devil's advocate arguments here.
1. Not enough time has passed and the sample size is too small. This is sort of unknowable; I believe there is enough data to pass judgment, others may not.
2. You're looking at online play only! Yes, to be fair LAN is a bit of a different beast, with all soldiers receiving a significant buff. However, this does not tend to make demos weaker, only scouts if anyone.
3. Viaduct hasn't happened yet. I'm not sure if I will even receive this criticism, but I feel I must bring it up because it is my only nagging doubt here. I can only say that a) Viaduct won't warp the stats towards demoman THAT much, b) maybe the demo nerf will reduce the number of crazy 500 dpm demo games on the map and make it more of a general dmg boost to every class than a demo stat whore paradise, and c) the maps thus far are more demo-friendly for stats than most other 5cp maps (gullywash being the notable exception) and that fact balances the stats out.