Jcdragon said:
After enjoying a couple of free weekends on TF2, I finally decided it was time to buy the game. So I've been playing on and off for about a week or two and I still pretty much suck. I'm pretty much a complete noob when it comes to PC FPS. I used to play CS and Halo back in school, but was never that good at any of them. Any tips on what classes I should play with? Or just basic things on how to improve my game?
For my most played classes (Oh god walls of text):
Demoman: Lay traps all the time. If an enemy is giving chase and you turn a corner, instantly put a sticky on the floor/wall when you turn it and detonate if/when the enemy turns it as well. Don't rely too much on the grenade launcher during combat, it should only be used if your target is standing completely still (And preferrably doesn't notice you), or if there's a large cluster of enemies. Grenade launcher's primary use is to just blindly fire around corners or over walls and hope you hit something (Remember, grenades bounce). Sticky jumps cover huge distances if you crouch for a split second before jumping, but they take off half your health, so don't use them too much (Best used if you have a medic healing you or you'll land near a health pack). Remember that you're also the best class for taking out sentries as you can dish out a ton of damage in one hit. Best way to do it is to shoot stickies around a corner so that they land right next to the sentry, and then detonate them. You'll probably also frequently get ubered.
Engineer: Spycheck everything, never leave your back uncovered. Don't think you're safe by sitting on top of your dispenser/sentry and crouching, because good spies will know that they can just crouch jump on top of you and stab you from above. It's best to stand a little bit away from your sentry (But not in a spot where you can be taken out from elsewhere without the sentry seeing your assailant, obviously). If you're on the offense, try throwing down sentries in unexpected spots (For example, if you're on Gravelpit, throw down one under the metal balcony near B, when your team is capturing B it will almost certainly kill at least one or two people provided they don't notice it). Also, ALWAYS have a teleporter up if you're on offense. If you're on defense and a spy manages to get your teleporter entrance, don't go back to place a new one unless you have another Engineer watching your sentry, because I guarantee it will be sapped/destroyed while you're gone.
Medic: Heal everybody. Don't just stick to one person, if you pass somebody else just give them a quick boost so they temporarily have some extra health to use, it will help in the long run. Always look out for spies and alert your partner if you see one while you attempt to take him out, especially if your parnet's a heavy. Keep moving and jumping around randomly, so that in the event that you don't notice a spy, there is a chance he'll miss his backstab. As for unlocks: Blutsauger is a must (If you're being assaulted by a scout, pyro, engineer, medic or sniper, USE IT, against spies you might want to use the Ubersaw if you have it for some free charge, against anybody else, just run away). Kritzkrieg is terrible (I don't see anybody using it anymore) and the Ubersaw really only improves on the Bonesaw, so use it as well.
Sniper: Scouts, engineers, medics, snipers and spies will all die with one headshot (Any % charge) or a fully charged shot on the body, so always just go for a quick headshot. If a scout is being incredibly frantic with his movement, then wait for a full charge and just try to get a bodyshot. For any other class except Heavy (And without a medic), charge to 50% to kill (With a headshot, even with a 100% bodyshot they won't die if at full health). For a heavy, you'll have to charge to about 70%, and for any class with a medic, wait for 100%. If you're trying to shoot a target with a medic, kill the medic first, if you kill their patient first, the medic will instantly notice you and run away, while if you kill the medic first, their patient probably won't notice you. Any class being buffed by a medic will only die with a headshot. If there are enemy snipers around, after dispatching them once or twice, switch places to throw them off. They'll probably expect you to stay in the same spot, but in reality, you'll be elsewhere. You're also excellent at taking out buildings - A fully charged shot destroys a level 1 sentry, dispenser or teleporter, and deals about 80-90% damage to a level 2 or 3 sentry. If the engineer is repairing, destroy his dispenser, and then just whittle away his metal while he keeps repairing your shots on his sentry, until you can take it down.
Spy: Always disguise correctly depending on the situation. If you're going to take out sentries disguise as engineer, if you're going for snipers disguise as sniper. At any other time your best bets are pyro and demoman. Remember that your speed will change accordingly to the class you're disguised as (Except medic and scout, who are both faster than normal), so you'll want to avoid disguising as soldier/heavy most of the time. Never disguise as medic, and only disguise as scout around CPs. Don't rely on your disguise to go by undetected, as there's a metric ton of different ways for the other team to see that you're a spy, so if they have any experience at all you'll die as soon as they see you. Use cloak to get past groups of enemies, sap sentries if your team is near so they can destroy it easily, backstab enemies while they're distracted by the rest of your team, and cloak as soon as you've stabbed to get away.
If you're being chased while uncloaked, turn around a corner, cloak, and then instantly go back around the corner and pass by the person who's chasing you, he'll probably continue in the direction he thinks you were heading. Remember that the revolver is actually pretty damn powerful, especially if it crits (One crit + one normal shot will kill any class with 125 health), so if there's no escape use it and hope you get lucky. As a spy you're also excellent for capping stuff, you can grab the intel easily by running in cloaked (Even if you do it just to extend the time it stays on the ground). You're perfect for sneakily capturing the final point on Well, Badlands or Dustbowl as the cap time for those is incredibly short. The spy is pretty much the most difficult class to be good at, watch this as well:
http://www.vimeo.com/1373245?pg=embed&sec=1373245
