[TF2] Secondary Attack Times may increase unexpectedly after swapping weapons - Pyro Airblast Oddity

[WhispyStreams]

If you airblast and swap weapons, the airblast cooldown extends from 0.75 seconds to 1 second. This is because secondary attack times are set to primary attack times during deploy. It might be applying to the stickybomb launcher as well. Not sure if this applies to dragon's fury, I don't imagine it does.

Video demo, from 46s to 1m: https://youtu.be/0Az-g0YIIpk?t=46

Repro:

1. On Pyro, equip a flamethrower with airblast (degreaser easiest)
2. Use the airblast, and immediately...
3. Begin deploying another weapon, but immediately...
4. Switch back to the flamethrower.
5. During the flamethrower deploy animation, hold down the secondary fire button.
6. Note that the second airblast fires 1 second after the first.

Core issue: When deploying a weapon, the game sets the next secondary attack time to be the same as the next primary attack time. Flames have a cooldown of 1 second after airblasting, as opposed to the airblast cooldown of 0.75. So the game sets the next airblast attack time to next flame attack time, increasing the cooldown time if you are quick enough. This is unexpected behavior IMO, because there is no precedent, tip, or visual indication of this behavior. Though veteran players will have gotten used to this by now.

Some solutions with balance notes:

• During deploy, account for secondary attack time being less than the primary attack time but greater than the deploy animation time, and keep post-airblast cooldown times as they are.
  • This is a pretty big buff to pyro, particularly degreaser pyro. Since degreaser weapon switch times add up to less than 0.75 seconds (0.21+0.35=0.56), degreaser pyro will be able to use other weapons between airblasts without suffering a cooldown increase. Stock pyro can do more fake weapon switches or powerjack jumps to bait the opponent into firing projectiles.
• Set airblast cooldown to 1 second to match flame cooldown after airblasting
  • This is a huge nerf to pyro. 0.75 seconds is under the soldier's 0.8 second rocket rate, which enables pyro to counter continuously fired rockets (barring doppler effects). It leave the pyro vulnerable to projectiles for a very long time.
• Set post-airblast flame cooldown to 0.75 seconds to match airblast cooldown
  • This is a huge buff to pyro. In addition to bullet 1 benefits, it means that pyro will have an additional option between 0.75 and 1 seconds after airblasting, allowing them to put more pressure on projectile users and defend with flames more often after airblasting.
• Add a tip about this behavior and perhaps a visual indication of airblast cooldown times
  • If no balance change is desired, this behavior should be communicated to players in my opinion. There is nothing to indicate that a secondary fire cooldown should increase after switching weapons at any point in the game, as far as I know.

[lamioneiros]

Bumping for Johnny. Please fix, TF2 updater friend!