Just starting??

So I’ve noticed a few things are hard to know if you don’t read any of the nice little tips built into tf2 at the bottom of the loading screen between maps. Plus a few lil tips i’m throwing in that i’ve learned. Hopefully it’ll up the learning curve for you css and cs people switching over and you don’t look so |/|()()|3.

I’ll go class by class, then hit a few little map hints and tricks.

Scout – Double jump is your bread, butter, and all you need to rape. First thing to know, after the first jump, you can now jump in any direction – forward on first, then backward on 2nd to land where you started if you know you messed up… – forward to the edge of a wall, then 90 degrees right around the turn to catch people by surprise. It’s very useful while battling soldiers and such to randomly double jump all over the place. Get close with your shotgun, a good hit can 1-shot any class but heavy, and sometimes a crit can even get them. Anytime your trying to take out a turret or something, get out of range and use your pistol just conserve ammo.

Soldier – Rocket jumping is the thing that sets you apart from everyone, that and you can take more damage than Muhammad Ali and still keep ticking without a tick. Rocket jumping is loads easier in tf2 than in tfc, basically just jump and fire STRAIGHT down at the same time and you soar. Do it while running and you can now aim your jump to get … let’s say – over a train at the beginning of a map? The soldier’s shotgun is very under utilized as far as i can tell from playing, it takes a decent amount of time to reload after your first 4 shots, and the shotgun is very powerful and can finish off enemies that don’t need another rocket to take down that last 10 hp. One of the best things about the soldier is the ability to damage yourself which is immensely helpful pre-round to load up a medics uber-charge (more to follow under medic). Aim rockets at the ground to send your opponent in the air and then hit them as they come back down.

Pyro – The most annoying character to be up against when he’s left unchecked. The pyro is a great class to clear out a small area in which you can turn the corner and be in the room. If your ping is high, stay away as your fire won’t register and it’s annoying and hard to kill people. Pick another class or get on another server. Don’t run around with your flame thrower out if your running anywhere in the open, your shotgun is very useful and deadly. A great tactic is to run in, set people on fire (which is a dot for about 15 seconds), run out, and then either run in again after and fire up a few more, or just shotgun your way to glory. The flame thrower doesn’t work underwater – duh. And if you set someone on fire and they jump in the water they go out – makes sense.

Demo – Demoman can be a great attacking or defense class, he can get up to greater heights than the soldier with his grenade jumping. This is easily done by putting one or two sticky grenades on the ground, jumping over them, and exploding them. Just be careful not to blow yourself up, they’re powerful grenades. Few things to know, if you set a bunch of stickies around, you can switch to your other weapon – the grenade launcher – and still right click to blow up the stickies. The grenades from the grenade launcher will blow up if they collide with someone in air, if they bounce at all, they will come to a rest first, and then blowup. So if your chasing or being chased – aim up, it’s not like in tfc where you can roll them along the ground. Last thing – you can be anywhere on the map and detonate your stickies, so on a control point map – put some on a point, and once you see the point being taken on the bottom of the screen – blow up some unsuspecting victims.

Heavy – Not much to the big man – though there are a lot of fun strategies out there to play this guy. With some good practice you can run around with the shotgun, and use your 300 starting life to your advantage. In any battle vs. scout, engy, pyro, sniper – your pretty much bound to win, because you can do more damage with your shotty than they can with theirs. Very tough to master but it *edited*es people off like none other. Chaingun – it can be at the ready by holding in your right mouse button, and then just tap the left mouse button when you want bullets. Very useful when you want to be ready around a corner to pown some people. Only downside is that you walk very very slow when your chain gun is going.

Engineer – Very fun, but sometimes very boring class. The engineer can build a sentry to 3 levels, it takes 8 whacks of your wrench (25 metal each whack) to up the level, and goes from slow machine gun, to fast machine gun, to machine gun/rockets with some very nice knock-back power to keep ubered enemies at bay. Dispensers have changed since tfc and now provide their own ammo and health. They slowly gain ammo about every 10 or so seconds, 40 metal everytime, but they can constantly heal, just slowly. Dispensers are very very important on sudden death levels where there are no medpaks anywhere on the map, and if your medic goes down (he’ll probably be targeted first), then your dispenser is the only source of regeneration. Teleportors can be very useful in push/pull maps such as well and granary to reinforce your troops quickly. Also in attack/defend maps where you need to run through an area to go to the next capture point – ie. gravel pit/dustbowl. The engineers pistol is my weapon of choice, you can rattle off 12 rounds pretty quick, reload then 12 more and anyone is pretty much dead. That and not many people expect an engy to come at them with a pistol, the shotgun is nice but the reload and 6 rnds seems like a hinderance to me. The engineers wrench however has the weird ability to 1-shot lighter classes, especially spys. Speaking of spys – they will constantly be harassing you – if they sap(see spy) your turret/dispenser… hit it twice with a wrench to remove the sap, then repair it. If you know they have spies try to keep your back to a wall as they will most usually backstab you in one hit first, then sap your sentry so it doesn’t kill them. A good technique in an open area is to set your turret, get more metal, crouch up next to your turret and then look around 180 and set your dispenser behind you. Your turret will take damage and you can hide behind it, and when rockets come flying, you won’t be knocked back away from your turret, you will be knocked into your dispenser and will there fore look like a pro and pown.

Medic – Quite possibly the most important member of a tf2 team. He has the ability to heal, and while he is healing he fills up his – uber meter – which is the bar at the lower right hand part of your screen. When that is full and flashing you can right click to deliver an uber charge, and you and the person your healing become invincible (except for trains – don’t try it, it’s been done) for about 10 seconds or so. But plenty of time to rush in and wreck about 2-3 sentries. The medics bonesaw is incredibly powerful and can kill most every class in one to two hits. The needle gun is fun but weak – takes about a clip of good aiming to kill anything, and aim high because the needles are very affected by gravity and fall out of the air quickly. If you are rushing into a hostile area, and the person you are healing dies right as you get your uber – don’t be afraid to uber yourself and get out of there alive. Just don’t switch to your other weapons, as you become very easy to kill, very quickly. You can precharge your uber before the round starts – in the setup – quicker by healing someone who is hurt, which is where the soldier and demoman come in – they hurt themselves, you heal them, uber goes up faster, everybody wins! – then go and find a heavy to use it on and *edited* them off….

Sniper – Probably my favorite class in the new game. Things to note – he can 1-shot kill any class in the game with a fully charged shot – it will show the %charge right by the crosshair, and a little verizon more bars in more places animation to show the visual if you can’t read numbers yet. Always aim for the head, it will deal a critical shot, which even if your not fully charged, can kill most classes (other than heavy), or at least puts a hurtin on them. The snipers machete is very powerful and can rip through medics quickly when you have to sacrifice yourself for your team. I’m not too fond of their automatic weapon, if your going to use it – use it like a rifle from css – in short bursts little at a time to keep your accuracy. And again aim for the head. Things a sniper can kill with barely any charge from the sniper rifle – as long as it’s a headshot of course – sniper, pyro, scout, medic, engy – so don’t be afraid to take a couple quick shots to try and get them easy.

Spy – Personally my least favorite class, but as you guys know from my shotgun attitude, i’m an in your face kinda guy – not a sneak behind you and not even give you a reach around kinda person. The spy is a great class in tf2 – feign death is gone, but replaced with a cloaking device. The main difference between good spies and bad spies is how they use the cloaking device. If a team never sees you coming – your going to pown hardcore. Conserve your cloak whenever possible and plan out places to stop and rest while it recharges, where you’ll be out of sight. Your knife is a 1-shot kill to any class in the back, you also get two points for a backstab, just make sure and hit the back. Your pistol is extremely powerful, but innaccurate, though some very good spies will make you wonder. And your sapping weapon is used on anything an engineer creates. Your special ability is to change into the uniform of any class on your own or the other team. When you change to a class on the other team your name will be that of someone on that team. So if you run into them, and they have a higher IQ than a 7 year old, they’ll shoot someone with their own name. If you choose a class that isn’t represented by anyone on their team, you will get a random name of someone on that team, and look even stupider, because they can look at the scoreboard and see that… johnqdaily is a soldier, when they are staring at johnqdaily the engineer… and then you die, and they laugh.

I’m sure I left out a lot of general tips, i have a bunch for different maps but i’m very tired of typing. So happy reading, and remember not to give any of the really good tips away, cause they make you pro.