Jumping vs All-terrain - which is better?Simple question - which ability is more useful and worth more metal?
A lot of people wax hysterical about the boundless power that all-terrain raiders or artillery would have. I considered the map pool and concluded that to all extents and purposes bar a few niche maps like Charlie in the Hills jumpers ARE all terrain. Pyros are all terrain raiders. Jacks are all terrain assaults.
Jumpers:Can jump into water, cool down, jump out of water to bypass water. Spiders cannot.
Can jump to evade projectiles, bombers etc.
Can jump to immediately bypass a steep slope for fast movement.
Can jump up to a high point very quickly, and then from there after cooldown jump to a higher point even without pathing.
Can jump to bypass trenches as in Trojan Hills, Bandit Plains.
Can jump in combat to gain los of target and concentrate fire.
Can jump to attack high up defences without exposing themselves to much fire.
SpidersCan traverse all terrain, albeit at increasingly low horizontal speed as the slope gets steep.
Can skirmish up and down the lip of cliffs.
Require less micro to transition over bad terrain.
Cannot cross moats containing water.
Cannot effectively attack up a cliff - slow movement, slow range or in the case of the hermit, no range due to ballistics.
little to no combat benefit in most cases.
So..Jumping is outright better, in my opinion. A pyro that was all terrain instead of jump would be much worse. A venom that could jump would be uber.
Why then, do people get so stressed about the idea of all terrain spiders being all powerful and raiding the back of bases? On what maps would that take place, besides Charlie and maybe Real? Doesn't Jack do any such feared role better already?
