The Buff Banner

I like the Buff Banner. But I admit that by the time it was released I was criticizing that it was given to the wrong class, buffing the already immensely powerful soldier. I stated that I would have rather seen this weapon (if we want to call it that) given to another class. But of course by now I have seen it in action often, and the more I think about it the sad truth is that the Buff Banner could actually not have been given to any other class than the soldier.

Short recap for those who don’t play soldier or at least haven’t had the Buff Banner dropped on their head: What is the Buff Banner?

The Buff Banner is equipped as a secondary weapon (replacing either shotty or gunboats) and looks suspiciously like a bugle (holstered inside a bag). It cannot be used until the proper circumstances are met. A soldier carrying the Buff Banner will see a meter in the lower right of his HUD, the so-called Rage Meter. During battle the rage meter will slowly fill, depending on the damage the soldier is doing. The more damage, the faster the meter goes up [1]. If the soldier dies the meter is reset to zero. Once the meter is full it will start blinking red, indicating it’s ready.

To activate it the player selects the buff banner and „fires“ it (the soldier blows the bugle). That will give the soldier as well as any teammate within a certain range (according to TF2Wiki 450 Units [2]) mini-crits for the time the Buff Banner is active (approx. 10 seconds). During that time the meter is emptying (analogue to Medigun and Kritzkrieg). Players within the range of an active Buff Banner are discernible by the glowing weapons and a glowing ring under the character model (blue team glows in turquoise, red team in orange). These signs are visible to both teams, making it possible to detect an enemy Buff Banner.
Once the rage meter has run out the soldier can fill it again. Visiting a resupply cabinet will not change the status of the meter.

The Buff Banner is a great team weapon (a fact I very much like and applaud Valve for).
If a soldier was using it just for himself it would surely help him, but to have it apply the maximum effect it really must be used with a group of teammates. The more organized/coordinated such an attack is the greater the potential effect. It has equal value on attack and defense, and unlike an uber the team can still push a cart or cap a point while under the effect of the BB.

But now back to my initial statement that the soldier was the wrong class to wield the Buff Banner ...

My reservations stemmed from the fact that the soldier/demo update (more in case of the soldier than the demo) provided weapons/tools which added to the already powerful nature of the classes, effectively making them even more powerful.
The Buff Banner fitted right into that assessment. Giving the soldier a smaller version of the kritzkrieg very clearly seemed like a wrong idea.

But when you analyze the Buff Banner and its effect it’s almost an inevitable conclusion.

As I said, the BB is most effective when it can cover a group of players, and especially on attack that group must be able to move at a medium speed to react to enemy movements (be it to push forward, to follow a retreating group or to evade opposition like a counter uber/kritz/BB).
That makes fast as well as slow classes impractical to carry the BB. A scout, for example, would have to slow down (or move steadily around the group), which makes him ineffective as a fighting class. A heavy on the other hand would be too slow to carry momentum (even more when spinned up).
Also the BB carrier should be a class with a certain stamina, otherwise he would be killed too quickly and the BB would expire. That would eliminate the sniper, the engy and the pyro as possible classes as well (along with the scout).
The spy, hampered by the same reason, would obviously be a bad choice anyway, due to his hugely different modus operandi.
The medic would be a better choice. The only reason not to give it to the medic would be partially because the medic would also have a lower chance of survival (A Buff Banner, despite all similarity, is no Kritzkrieg), but also the class already has two similar weapons at its disposal. I suspect the concept of the BB was deliberately associated with the idea to give a different class than the medic a role which would promote (and reward) teamwork (as Jarate does for the sniper).
That pretty much cuts it down to demo and soldier. And IMO the soldier is still the more versatile class of the two, more suited universally for attack and defense [3]. Also, let’s face it: The demo is a much harder class to master, and in terms of pub games that would limit severely his value and the capability to carry such a role.

And so, by process of elimination, the only viable candidate remaining is indeed the soldier.

So while I’m still not too comfortable with the buff (no pun intended) the soldier received with this weapon I have to admit that it was a logical and reasonable choice to give THAT weapon to THAT class. And since the effectiveness of the Buff Banner rather scales to the group which is using its effect than the class carrying the weapon I guess it’s safe to say it does not make the soldier significantly stronger.

Also the weapon does not strengthen the person playing at all. A bad soldier will rarely live long enough to fill his rage meter and profit from the BB (in fact a soldier intending to use the BB will have to adapt to a slightly different style of gameplay to stay alive and fill his rage meter). A mediocre player will be able to do so, but only occasionally. Just when a soldier is fairly skilled he will be able to apply it more often. So the advantage given by the weapons to some degree scales to the skill of the player. I admit I’m not a 100% comfortable with that aspect since it adds an element of eliteness to the weapon, but it’s not enough to make me argue against it.
Also it should be mentioned that the fact that the BB replaces the shotgun presents a reasonable trade-off.

So in conclusion:
The Buff Banner is a very interesting and useful weapon with the potential to strengthen and increase teamwork, and to add a strategic alternative to the medic’s Medigun or Kritzkrieg.
Given the BB’s nature and function the soldier is the logical choice to carry such a weapon. While on paper it seems like it’s giving the soldier a serious edge in reality it comes with enough ups and downs not to make the class itself overpowered [4], but since it scales to skill it becomes more valuable/dangerous with the capabilities of the carrying player.

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Reference:
TF2WIKI (also Strategies)
TF2 Blog