Very late last night the 50th Wrench was dropped and soon afterward the Engy Update pages revealed the 2nd unlock of this class update.
It’s called The Wrangler and replaces the pistol.
The Wrangler acts as a remote control for the sentry; with added bonus.
While using the Wrangler the sentry no longer acts automatically (comparable to a plane’s autopilot: the human pilot flies the plane or the autopilot, but not both at the same time 
). Which already manages to confuse me in regard of practicality!
I assume the way the Wrangler works is that I point it on an opponent like a gun and when pressing fire the sentry will shoot at the target in my crosshair. But what if I don’t have an enemy player in my crosshair? Since the engy can be away from the sentry the angle between both lines of “sight” can easily be rather large. So at what point of the engy’s (or Wrangler’s) line of sight does the sentry fire? That would basically mean you can’t make (any reliable) blind shots.
Also the higher the angle the more difficult it might become to judge if the sentry still has an unobstructed line of fire on the area the engy is overlooking.
Not to mention the weirdness if the engy is completely away from the sg in another area.
To some degree this reminds me of the (IMHO flawed) mechanics of the Scottish Resistance.
Not that I find the idea bad per se. This will finally enable the engy to counter attacks from outside the sentry’s detection range, especially from soldiers and demos. After the Macupdate revealing the Frontier Justice I already speculated that the attachment on the gun (now revealed to be a scope) could be a laser to target out of range enemies for the sentry.
This solution is probably better balanced since the engy has to decide whether to fight himself or to take manual control of his sentry.
But as far as balance is concerned there are two more features to the Wrangler which need discussing.
When switching to the Wrangler a shield is deployed around the sentry, decreasing all incoming damage to 33%. Right now I’m not sure what kind of damage the shield covers. While the shield is displayed on the update page as a spherical field I assume all the shield does is simply reduce all damage applied to the sentry, regardless of the source and proximity. [1] I also assume the shield will not interfere with the sapper.
But also while in manual mode the sentry will fire faster, including rockets at level 3.
In short the inaccuracy of manual control is balanced by the sentry being tougher and more deadly. As a counterbalance to that the sentry will be inactive for 3 seconds after “holstering” the Wrangler. Which means accidently selecting the Wrangler can easily become a fatal mistake.
Another question is what happens to the sentry if the engy is killed? Will it remain in manual mode (not firing, yet partially protected by the shield? Or will it go inactive for 3 seconds and then switch to automatic mode again? I assume it will be the latter. That would be another balancing factor since killing the engy would open a 3 second window of opportunity to destroy the sentry (or perhaps even cap a point).
It’s another unlock I don’t find entirely convincing in its concept.
On chokepoints the Wrangler can be quite overpowered. It’s more deadly and much harder to be taken down by a uber. In open areas it’s more of a fair game, especially when the enemy is able to distract or even kill the engy.
What could easily become tough for the enemy team would be the combination of a “regular” sentry and one controlled by the Wrangler. Such a “best of both worlds” setup could potentially be really persistent. Which, again, on defensive oriented maps could make attacking tougher.
Also the new update showcased a new PL map: Upward. Not being accompanied by much info it looks like a more vertically designed map. Another good PL map would be a huge treat, so I’m looking forward how it will play.
So I guess we only have one unlock left. That will be an alternative melee weapon. Golden Wrench (unnumbered basic ones) with modified features?
I’m still hoping they will add something to support offensive engies on A/D and CP maps, something not particularly covered by the first two unlocks. And I really think this is an area which requires addressing. A modified building tool could still provide that.
Anything else, Valve? Besides the obligatory achievements, I mean? Compared to the sneaky presentation of the sniper/spy update (especially the terrific “Meet the Spy”-video) and the extravaganza of the War on the Soldier/Demo update this update is so far quite uneventful. Well, almost.
Yes, there are the 100 Golden Wrenches. Sadly I don’t have the time to follow it fully, but I’m under the impression this is causing quite a commotion in the community. Ubercharged posted a commentary on the side effects.
Frankly I have not yet formed an opinion on all that. I understand that people would like to have a Golden Wrench. Heck, even I would love to get one. But it’s playing the lottery, and some will be lucky while many others won’t. Tough. Grow up. It’s an item which value is only defined by its exclusivity. It has no impact on the game whatsoever. People only want it to feel special. While this is very human it is also very pathetic.
Some people suggest Valve should have handled this differently. Fair enough. But in times like this I can’t help but thinking that this is shoving a mirror in front of a community’s face clearly portraying the dark and ugly side of human nature. And while that surely was not the intent of Valve I like the sobering realization accompanying such events. It’s a mix of stupidity, ignorance, envy and immaturity rearing its ugly head, and such things can’t be illustrated and demonstrated often enough.
Simply because seeing people act jealously or grudgingly on such an unimportant object like a virtual decoration I kinda dread how these people would act in real life if things are involved which actually matter.
Okay, I’ll stop the preaching. This night Valve will reveal the 3rd unlock. Tomorrow I will most likely bitch about that See you then ...
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