Unique Loadouts 1 – Direct hit + Buff Banner

This week’s loadout is brought to you by RabidKarim.

“If I might make a suggestion have you tried Direct Hit and Buff Banner? It is really fun because mini crits have no fall off coupled with the direct hits extra damage and rocket speed you can hit 150 damage rockets from across the map.”

When using this loadout I at first was incredibly frustrated, most of this stemming from me just being terrible with the Direct Hit. But after about 8 round of using this on mainly payload and KOTH, I found it is most effective on payload offense, especially if you have a good team. The times where I used this effectively were great, on the occasions I managed to utilize the Buff Banner I got many long ranged Medic and Sniper kills I normally would not have. I also was able to take out pretty much most ranged threats while my team handled people nearby, this is why I find this loadout really helpful on payload offense where you have the cart nearby to keep you alive and your team nearby.

However when this loadout didn’t worked, it sucked, I felt so defenseless without splash damage. Normally when running Direct Hit, I run a shotgun because I need a more reliable weapon to fall back to, with Buff Banner I was really punished for over extending. So if you plan on using this I suggest you play smart and stick with your team. Spam from afar and deal with flankers. Think of your Buff Banner as an Ubercharge. You play passively and avoid the front lines so you can live to pop that flag, turning a good push into a great one with minicrits for your team and you being able to take out Medics and Snipers from across the map. But moving too far forward will get you killed and you won’t be able to utilize the Buff Banner (and this load out to its full potential). Save the roaming for the Gunboats.

The best rounds I had were when I had a good Heavy and some Medics giving me heals and a few Kritz Ubers, which to my surprise I actually managed to take out 8 people with. Something about being Kritzed just made me actually capable of aiming for awhile I guess. But the rounds where I was on teams with excess Snipers, no heals and no power classes to back me up were the worst. This loadout is not something I would use to go solo or carry a team. These rounds without allies were really frustrating and at one point I just got annoyed enough to switch to my regular loadout.

Overall I would say this combination is terrible with a bad team, but amazing if you have support, those long range minicrit snipes were really fun and I’m sure the Buff Banner helped my team in a lot of pushes. Use this loadout with a reliable team to back you up and you are unstoppable.