Okay, I have:
- New Flamethrower
- New Shotgun
- New Wrench
- The Brainiac Hairpiece craft number 21 (But that's not important)
As it stands, here is a short review:
Flamethrower: Probably about the level of the Soda Popper.
Lack of airblast sucks a lot more than you might think, and the meter system reminds me of the Buff Banner. Right-click, and Pyro taunts and you get the Buff Banner/Quick-Fix Uber circle thing under your feet. The taunt, of course, takes a second, and then you get infinite crits. It's true I played before the Airblast was added and I used the Backburner for the longest time without airblast, so I should be used to this, but I find myself wanting to extinguish teammates and not having any way to do so.
I barely got any testing in with this weapon, so I can't say much about it. :/
Shotgun: This gun is WAAAAY overpowered. I can negate 20% uber with a potshot. If all 4 shots hit (and there's hardly any spread a la Bison, so why wouldn't they?), that's approximately 80% Uber GONE and 120 damage done to the Medic. Obviously, more damage would be done if the Medic was backpedaling and less would be done if he was pressing forward, but Battle Engie is made a lot more threatening with this shotgun.
This actually makes Engineers number 1 priority on a heal target's list of... well, targets. A little less threatening than a disguised Spy in close range, but more dangerous than a good Scout. An Engineer with this plus a Gunslinger is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to Medics.
The only real tradeoff, like the Bison, is that you do less damage overall. If all 4 shots connect, you won't even kill a fully-healed Scout or Spy. It's more a weapon designed to annoy or finish off than a primary weapon, and should be used in conjunction with a Mini-Sentry.
Wrench: This is useful as hell with the new Shotgun because you can just go frontline Battle Engie, then run away and do the 2-3 second taunt and suddenly be gone with no indication as to where you went. I managed to confuse the hell out of a Soldier by poking him with the shotgun, then running around the corner and teleporting before he had a chance to really hurt me.
As a guy who mains Engie, not being able to move buildings sucks. I keep putting something somewhere and then realizing I could have positioned it slightly better, but then I can't move it at all, and having that freedom taken away sucks.
Teleporting to spawn is useful for repairing/updating teleporters and getting out of sticky spots. It's a defensively offensive weapon, good for having front-line defensive Sentries and Dispensers, but when attacking it's better to use the Gunslinger because of the extra health and because of the increased travel times.
When you teleport, you get full health and ammo without needing to actually touch the Resupply Locker; this is good if you teleport to a respawnroom that doesn't have an ammo cabinet in it. It also means you can upgrade a teleporter outside of a forward spawn and then teleport 5 feet back to refill your ammo supply. It also makes being set on fire less dangerous, as you can just run around the corner and be instantly put out.
The Wrench is effectively a defensive Gunslinger and should be treated as such. Even though you can teleport out of danger, keep in mind your Sentry will not be, and you do have to walk back to get to it. Many a time I've had a Sentry destroyed as I walked back to fix it.
The Wrench is best used with the Widowmaker or Pomson (the new Shotgun). Regular Sentries simply cost too much metal compared to mini-Sentries, and considering the frontline nature of the Wrench, Sentries will go down a lot faster. Gunslinger is better for the Frontier Justice due to these drawbacks, and the regular Shotgun simply isn't as annoying as the Pomson nor does it give you the metal input of the Widowmaker and can't be justified on the front lines when compared to the alternatives.
tl;dr:
New Flamethrower = Soda Popper/Buff Banner's bastard child.
New Shotgun = More annoying Righteous Bison.
New Wrench = Defensive Gunslinger.
