I OUGHT to write something about Heavy. I really ought to. I mean, I’m Medic. If we go by stereotypes, I’m supposed to be attached to a Heavy all day, every day. I’m not though, because I value being a skilled healer with a hint of reputation.
The Heavy Weapons Guy though is the face of Team Fortress 2. He embodies the soul of the damn game. Silly and childish yet dangerous and deadly at the same time. Even more so when you run around a corner only to walk into a spun-up Heavy or find yourself in the middle of a Heavy Boxing Match. Okay, the latter isn’t very common, but it does happen…
Another day begins! Many adventures await you and your fellow Pyromaniacs. You set off to good old 2fort. You take your flamethrower. Pick up the old Shotgun, or perhaps your favorite Flare Gun. Put on a hat or two, maybe three, when you find yourself wondering; Should I set my nemesis on fire and hit him with an axe, or with a garden rake?
Solve “The Mystery of Your Opponent’s Remaining Hit Points” without even having to equip the Sherlock Medic set! Picture by Gen. DeGroot.
Most Medics I know run with the Ubersaw. That’s understandable, it’s a nice weapon. It looks good. It’s useful. It’s balanced. It’s fun to use. And if you see a dumb Spy or an AFK Sniper, you’ve just got yourself free Uber. The Ubersaw also has a fancy kill taunt. A while ago, it used to be silent, so you could hide around corners and catch people unaware with it, just like the Stab Stab Stab taunt.
Some other Medics use the Amputator. When the Medieval Medic set was around, it was a great weapon, but to be fair, no one really used it for the taunt heals. They just used it alongside the everglorious Crusader’s Crossbow to get that lovely regenerating health. These days, it’s about as useful as the Bone Saw.
Lame Medics though use the Vita-Saw. Most Medics seem to agree that the Vita-Saw isn’t exactly balanced, since it rewards Medics who die a lot, and it messes with the eternal question of who has Uber advantage. And it’s got a silly downside.
Spufblog: Hey everybody! Today we’re going to be interviewing Maxillaws, one of SPUF’s most prolific posters and a sniper main. He’s going to be playing Sniper for the SPUF team in the recently announced “SPUF vs. Discussions II: Requiem.” Today’s topic of conversation: The Razorback. Widely derided as a joke secondary and one of the worst weapons Valve ever added to Team Fortress 2. But Maxillaws disagrees. Why is that?
It blocks a single type of a single attack of a single melee weapon on a single class! Can that really be worth it? Picture by FeelGoodInc.
Now, in my last Demoman vs. Demoknights post, I neglected to mention my personal favorite of the two demoman playstyles. Do I prefer demolitons man, or demoknight, or maybe even hybrid?
None. My favorite demoman loadout revolves around the Sticky Jumper.
Picture by FeelGoodInc.
The Sticky Jumper is addicting. Unlike the Rocket Jumper, it requires zero skill to use effectively (as opposed to a little skill) and it lets you keep your powerful Grenade Launcher and melee of your choice. This means you are perfectly capable of filling a viable role on your team; you have the absolute best mobility of any class in the game, bar none. You can start capping the next point within seconds of the previous being capped. You can zip ahead, find the right spot, and rain explosive death down on the upcoming sentry nest. When all else fails you can fly over everyone’s heads, locate the enemy medic, and finish him off with an Ullapool Caber from nowhere.
How can I prove the Sticky Jumper is that good? Well, it’s the focal weapon of the only loadout I’ve found that makes it reliably possible to win cp_orange_x3.
Medieval Mode. You’ve heard of it. Sounds awesome. The Wiki page makes it look awesome. But is it awesome?
Picture by FeelGoodInc.
…
YES!
Ignore the haters, this mode is great. I can have a barrel of fun on cp_degrootkeep (and a lot of custom Medieval maps, but those are way harder to find people playing.) As almost any class.
Medieval Mode gets a lot of flak from most because it’s considered a “melee spamfest”, “void of all strategy” and “a horrific cluster♥♥♥♥ of arrows and demoknights.” And they may all have a point. But there are ways to play the game mode strategically and aid your team in winning the round on a consistent basis.
There are two very distinct types of demomen: good ones and dead ones demoknights and demolitions men. Players have to choose between the two types early on, as it’s laughably easy to get your Chargin’ Targe with 5 demoman achievements, and odds are good that your next demoman weapon drop will be a sword. Lord knows pubs can’t seem to stop spitting them out on both teams, so even if you never play the class you’ll be intimately familiar with hearing the least subtle melee class on the battlefield, whose Tarzan-like cry usually precipitates a critical blade beheading you or one of you teammates in the blink of an eye (and there can be only one eye.)
Picture by FeelGoodInc.
If you’ve visited SPUF, you’ve probably heard the poor demoknight trashed as the weakest possible way to play a TF2 class, that he’s a mediocre midrange picker bested by anyone in any situation, that Valve for some reason continues buffing and releasing unlocks for him despite nobody considering him a valid class. Those people have a lot of clout and their stance is not unreasonable.
You’ve also probably heard SPUF proclaim the demoman as one of (if not the) most powerful and versatile class in TF2, capable of doling out hundreds of DPS, setting lethal traps, rapidly switching from offense to defense, and in general being a golden class that is rightly limited to one per team in any competitive setting. Again, this stance is not unreasonable.
So, when SPUF user “The Pyro King” announced (and later flaked on, forcing myself and thesupremecmdr to pick up his slack) the Demoman Vs. Demoknights fight, everybody on SPUF was quick to predict the event would be an incredibly easy win in favor of the team composed entirely of explosive weapons and bottles. The demoman team filled up almost immediately (including myself initially), and the demoknights became anyone who showed up late and didn’t mind getting curb-stomped if it meant getting to be a part of the event. Anyone who wasn’t in the event loudly questioned why such a one-sided event need bother occur, and there was a large movement demanding that demoknights be allowed to use grenade launchers to give them a fighting chance.
But I stuck to The Pyro King’s original wishes (wherever he disappeared to) and when the first round started (best out of three on badwater), demoknights were restricted to booties, shield, sword/axe.
The end result of Badwater? The demoknights won. Handily. Offense and defense. When round two started (Yukon) the demomen refused to keep playing and the event fizzled out. But it was quite interesting to me why that had happened. (Of course, everyone on SPUF started posting that they knew this was going to happen, and X reason was totally unfair in favor of the demoknights, blah blah blah.) I’d like to spend this post detailing the main reasons why I think the most powerful class in TF2 lost to the least powerful subclass.
