On Trimping

Trimping is what separates the demoknights from the demoknaves. iReima has a great series where he turns a sword and shield into deadly instruments of ballet that let him put to shame anyone who considers the demoknight an underpowered subclass.

Personally I can’t trimp to save my life. It’ll happen on accident a lot, and I mastered the minor ability to land on slopes and negate fall damage, but I use that in my sticky-jumping instead. I don’t think it’s much of a secret that when I want to play an advanced mobility class, I bust out the Sticky Jumper instead of the shields.

But that doesn’t mean I dislike trimping as a concept; I’m actually very glad it exists in TF2 because its the closest thing we’ve got to bunnyhopping, a cornerstone of the TFC meta that relied on abusing the Source engine. In a way trimping is doing the same thing, and for that reason a lot of people don’t like it. But I welcome anything that adds more mobility, because arena-shooters have always relied on mobility to keep the action flowing.

With the Loose Cannon I’ve been told you can combine trimping with a primitive sort of rocket jump (that other form of advanced mobility I’m abysmal at) to really bust out some agile map-crossing flanks. All of this mainly convinces me that demoknight has a very Soldier-like learning curve; decently powerful in the hands of a novice, but a dedicated veteran can really bring the subclass to unheard-of skill heights. Plus you get the Pyro ability to make your opponent rage because you killed them with a perceived underpowered class.

It’s a shame that Valve hasn’t embraced trimping in the same way they embraced traditional explosive jumping. Rather like their acquiescent cap on TFC bunnyhopping they allowed only to prevent the entire fanbase from sodding off, they appear to dislike trimping but know that the community would not tolerate a complete removal. Instead, they try to limit it by nerfing the Tide Turner and refusing to give the other shields the ability to turn while charging. I personally hope some middle ground can be found other than the Tide Turner treating every weapon like Natascha. That just flies in the face of its concept as a tool for advanced mobility.