Small tips thread!

[general_norris]

This is something we have in my clan. Basically post some smalls tips that may come handy from time to time.

Example:

1) If you are using the Sandman you can pick up baseballs by looking at them and clicking M1.

[rental]

2) Call out the HP you take off the enemy medic. This will give your teammates a good gauge of how much health he has at any given time, making decision making on whether or not to attack him easier. (e.g. "Med 101" , letting your teamates know that he is now under 50 hp. Of course you have to understand that every second that passes, his HP is going up)

[Blind]

Tell teammates when you made a fake call on someone who's lit, or if the got health. Kinda annoying to play super aggresive on a soldier only to find out he was at 300.

[Fish #641]

Be, aggressive. Be, be, aggressive.
Seriously though, aggression wins mid battles. Pushing your demo and a soldier through the middle part of Granary (as long as you can keep scouts off of your ass) can do tremendous damage, especially if you do it with no hesitation (so their combo is still inching out of corner). The same applies on Badlands, where teams sometimes spend 2-3 seconds trying to get in position on top of carts when you can be pushing up and doing damage to their practically-stationary bodies.

Have a dominant focus-fire caller, or simply have your heavy classes follow one person's lead. For instance, the medic could call out to focus the threat (usually the pocket) or medic (which is a lot of the times not as good of an idea as you might think), and/or you could have a general rule like "Whatever the pocket/demo is shooting at, you shoot at as well." The same applies to scout 2 on 2's.

Mid points are about using heavy classes more efficiently than the enemy (unless there is a huge skill disparity amongst scouts). Having a soldier jump to high ground near the enemy (such as Badlands' crates) can cause them to use 3 heavies to focus 1 of yours. All of that time can be spent doing unrestricted amounts of spam.

Trust your teammates.

Spend time with each other outside of TF2. Some of my team's fastest-improving days (and most enjoyable days) were spent playing a few scrims of TF2 and maybe 30 minutes on pictionary.

Have round-robin discussions after scrims, win or lose.

Each game, make a list (though you don't necessarily need to write them down) of three things that YOU could have done better. Keep yourself accountable.

Call clearly; call concisely; call consciously.

Communication is listening, thinking, and responding. After that, it's talking.

Positioning and communication is ten times as important as aim. Vengeance, for instance, has pretty mediocre aim, but his ability to be in the right place at the right time and to play with the team makes him better than 80%+ of TF2 soldiers.

If you're a soldier with 60 hp, and 100 damage is going to hit you even if you dodge as well as possible, it's smarter to rocket jump away.

Think while you play.

Think while you practice.

Think afterwords.

Have the best strategist be the caller.

Listen to the caller.

Bring up new strategies in a positive way. Include a brief explanation of what the pros and cons are (and what it aims to address). Note that explanations should be left for after the game. Smash, for instance, switched from soldier to heavy halfway through a turbine scrim against VG's infamous turtle strategy. He suggested dropping down into their intel from ducts, which ended up breaking apart their defense, scoring us enough caps to win.

Save the trolling for after the game.

Save the raging for after the game.

If you even THINK about blaming someone else for something, consider all of the POSSIBLE things that you could have done to prevent it. Unless you're sure that what you did was absolutely the best tactic, then be very careful about how you bring it up.

Save corrections for a post-game discussion.

Maintain a 2:1 positive to negative comments ratio.

Only remove a player from the roster if replacing him/her will hurt moral less than keeping him/her on.

Listen.

Jumping makes you hard to hit.

Relax when you're in a pressure situation.

Use your shotty soldier.

Get uber faster than the other team.

Adapt faster than the enemy does.

Try new things.

Understand the reason that successful strategies work. Don't just copy what you see.

Scouts, you're not as good as Carnage dm-wise, please think. Watch flanks.

Talk to friends on other teams. Discuss strategies.

Think.

Listen.

Think.

[chipbuster]

Don't jump against a good sniper, he'll have the crosshair right where your head should be when you land before you even get there.

Don't die :P

Spec pugs and listen in mumble, or if you can get it, do the same thing with mumble recordings and a scrim demo. Notice what mistakes are made, what strats are used, what is and isn't called, and what's miscalled (I've seen a lot of people call that the demo is lit when he's just about full buffed).

Tell your demoman that the targe is not, in fact, better than the stickylauncher.

Tell your roamer to read wand's article -__-

[NeoRussia]

I don't know if this makes sense, but I see a lot of scouts dodge to throw off enemy's aim instead of dodging to avoid. Don't dodge in patterns, do it to avoid projectiles or throw off hitscan aim by timing your jumps.

If someone dies on a point trying to cap it and you get on it (to attempt to cap it) while it still has some cap meter on, the announcer won't voice the cap and it will be considered "silent".

If you are not doing well at a class at all, or are tired, either don't play or see if you can do better as another class. Sitting out if you are just not feeling it is a good option if you have a backup in a serious match.

http://www.myeg.net/article/article_detail.php?article_id=281 this blog post has a lot of great tips not only for Quake but relevant to TF2 as well. It has in it many concepts that will NEED in order to succeed at all.

Put your team ahead of yourself unless you are the medic. By thinking selflessly it will give you a better view of the situation.

Not only play through strategies with your team, but every 6 player team has "partner" type play involved in it. Go through strategies on how you can work together in groups.
pocket - medic : pretty obvious here, your team revolves around you, take this as an advantage and act like a well-oiled machine so your team can do their job. If you are the pocket run through several spots that you would like the medic to stand so you are better at protecting him and vice-versa
scout - scout : truly only at full force when working together, remember to call weak enemies that you can gang up on, and hear for the other parts of your team doing the same as well.
roamer - demo. Unusual it may seem to some but this is a pretty effective combination that many good teams use, where both of these players can go off together to flank and do some really good damage. Standard cookie-cutter would be that you stay with the combo and go off when needed to other places, but flanking together you may find a new union, as well as a very fast style of play.

[Jeeka]

can you really pick up baseballs by looking at them!?

omg i feel like such a noob

[general_norris]

Don't jump against a good sniper, he'll have the crosshair right where your head should be when you land before you even get there.

This is the most important thing to avoid snipers.

In fact I would say that I have most problems with Snipers when they are mediocre.

I think my best skill is prediction. I turn around exactly when Spies are going to backstab me, I always know if I'm going to be flanked or not and I crouch the very same moment the Sniper hits M1.

Now, imagine than my prediction is perfect (It isn't). What can the Sniper do to avoid my prediction? Not being perfect.

This means that against mediocre players I can't predict very well because they take more or less time to aim on me each time while those players that are amazing will only take the neccesary time to reload.

My point is, Dodging is a mindgame, it's not based on aim once the skill level is high.

Basically what NeoRussia says, dodge to avoid, not to throw their aim because good players will not fall prey to that.


Tip:If you kill a player, try to predict where he is going to be. It's easier than it looks and gives you a lot of power.

Tip:

[2thumbs]

Take the time to reload before peaking that corner.
Breathe.
Communicate effectively. Communicating where the opposing team is (classes and location) allows your whole team to better draw a mental picture of the maps with threats. Leading to:
Learn map terminology so everyone is speaking the same language.

[Grimm]

Don't interrupt each other, no matter how important the message is. If you interrupt someone, both of your messages will be lost.
btw its BE! AGGRESSIVE! B! E! AGGRESSIVE! :cool:

[rental]

Very good input so far. This is a productive thread, keep it up!

Keeping track of Momentum:
My team uses a numbering system for players down. That way with three syllables we can guage the basic situation.
For example:
If there are 4 enemies down and 2 friendlies down we say:
4 to 2.
If there are no enemies down, and 3 friendlies down we say:
0 to 3.
We also add in if the medic is one of those guys.

The reason we always put ourselves first is so that it's consitent. It would get confusing and add to the comms if we had to say "we are up 4 to 2" or we are down 0 to 3". Also, since it resembles a sports score, it king of lets us know who's in the lead.


Basically it's a way to communicate effectively without clogging up comms with "words". In my opinion this should be called as often as possible, especially when in a close fight for a point. If you need to fall back, precious seconds could be wasted in making the call, and you may lose another person, making the next CP harder to defend, etc etc domino effect.

Also, if the enemy has like 4 down and we are advancing on a CP, I like to call out as I'm running:
"Still 4 down.... still 4 down... 2 JUST SPAWNED!"
This gives my team a better idea of when to expect confrontation so that they can get themselves into better position.

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.
Communication is just as, if not more important than Aim.
Also, when I am just spawned or not in the battle

[djfivenine]

Lower uncooked eggs into a bowl of water. If the egg settles horizontally, the egg is fresh enough for human consumption. If it settles vertically, feed it to the dog. If it rises to the top, feed it to the hydrangeas.

[Hawkeye]

As scouts, call out what you are doing and where you are.. Nothing drives the heavies crazier then "I am down, a scout got me" with no information as to where he might be coming from..

During the opening engagements in a holding situations, call out when you engage and who your engaging so the others can get a idea of where the enemy is at to steer the push or prepare for incoming.

[NeoRussia]

As a soldier, always keep at least 2 rockets loaded when not in direct combat ( an enemy that can fire on you easily), so spam with care. This is more important for pockets. It's the number of rockets that allows you to kill all the heavy jumpers and the scouts, so you don't be caught with your pants down.

As demo the most important thing in a direct combat situation is distancing. Since stickies are very hard to dodge even at their max non-charged sticky distance you should learn this and stay that much away from your enemy.

If you have the medic near you never jump while not buffed, ask the medic to receive a buff before rocket-jumping, and be sure to never leave him alone by doing so, unless it is important to save a point and you think there is little danger for him. Check to see if the enemy scouts are alive before you make this assumption.

[aaronlol]

Play smart

[Sigma]

As a medic, choose your positioning based on the classes the enemy has up. For example, killing the enemy medic and both soldiers means it's time to move up with your sollies, but killing the enemy medic and both scouts means you need to stay back/indoors until the enemy soldiers are taken care of. Two 6v3 situations that call for a very different response.

[Bodknocks]

As scout, avoid picking up weapons after getting kills. Leaving them for your soldiers can be of great benefit, especially after long mid fights and on maps where ammo is scare or out of the way.

[chipbuster]

dodge stuff by running at it, the rocket will splash behind you if you move toward it, and you won't have to worry about it as long. Of course, you can't move towards the solly/demo all the time, but make sure you're not only backing up if you're trying to dodge some damage (applies to sollies and demos as well as meds)

[Grimm]

dodge stuff by running at it, the rocket will splash behind you if you move toward it, and you won't have to worry about it as long. Of course, you can't move towards the solly/demo all the time, but make sure you're not only backing up if you're trying to dodge some damage (applies to sollies and demos as well as meds)
Uhh... why would you want to be direct hitted instead of splashed?

[rental]

He's talking stictly on the forward-back axis. Obviously avoid the rocket laterally. He's saying by moving forward (and to the side), you stand a better chance at avoiding splash damage. I have no scientific studies to backup his claim. Personally, I do like Van Halen and jump.

So my tip of the day: if you are a soldier and some other soldier comes to RJ onto your face... instead of getting hit with his almost-forgone-conclusion 100+ HP rocket.. RJ straight up. Here is the logic:

If you stay put:
-You just ate a 100hp rocket, goodluck in this 1v1.
-You could hit an airshot on him... you could.
-After he lands you should be relatively equal position-wise. Unless he lands in a better spot (think train on badlands mid). So if anything, he'll be in a better spot.

If you RJ:
-He will miss his 100HP shot. You will have taken (w/ the fall dmg) roughly what, like 65HP dmg?
-Enemy will be disoriented and have a low probability of hitting you with an airshot.
-You will land at minimum 2 rockets for at least 85 dmg. If you did it right, more likely in the neighborhood of 120-160.
-You will probably still have a half second or so of dis-coordination on his side once you land. Also you can land on that super-cool nearby pirch for added positioning.

Thoughts? Questions? Concerns? Rebuttals?:beer:

[NeoRussia]

but you NEED to go for airshots. YOU NEED TO GET AIRSHOTS. Why else would you not spam battlements. AIRSHOTS ARE IMPORTANT.

[Jesus]

Scouts: Contrary to popular belief your job is not to just suicide rush the medic. Use your speed and hit and run style of play to mop up the weakened enemies. Taking out the medic is important but if he has two soldiers and a demo on him your chances of doing so have drastically gone down.

[Jesus]

but you NEED to go for airshots. YOU NEED TO GET AIRSHOTS. Why else would you not spam battlements. AIRSHOTS ARE IMPORTANT.
Airshots win games. :cool:

[rental]

neo, i dont know if your post was in relation to mine, but if it was.. you misunderstood what i said. i never said dont attempt airshots, i just meant that the probability is lower than the dude in the air's - shot.

[general_norris]

Nothing drives the heavies crazier then "I am down, a scout got me"

THIS. It's the difference between getting killed and the baby not doing you any damage.

[Nassty]

Another thing for demo, make sure you block off areas where you know scouts or the combo can come through. Make them go a different way or force them to run through it.

Stickies to block off scouts helps out alot. Keeps them from getting into your face, but if they do, just bust out some pipes or the bottle if they are right on you.

[oblivion]

if one scout watches flanks then the other needs to be with him unless one of the other teams scouts are offclassing. hold flank until all their scouts are down (usually you kill them) or your heavies are pushing in. While holding flank position one scout for bait and flank, the bait will attract the scout/scouts and the flanker will pop in while they are focused on the bait and hopefully kill them, usually bait doesnt die due to the focus being switched to the flanker. Also, if you die by a rocket, chances are doing it wrong

[JonDigweed]

As a roaming soldier, take the time to learn spots where you can double-jump. By that I mean a single jump that takes you to the wall, and another off it. Single RJs make your landing spot predictable, whereas double-jumps give you more options on where and when to land.

[NeoRussia]

There aren't very double-jump spots that are useful and they are seldomly used. In fact I can think of 4 that are relatively useful; 1 off the wall as soon as you enter spire area on defense on blands, one off the zbridge on blands to catwalk then to point, 1 on granary coming out of choke from the left side to middle point, then rocket jumping from the wall beside the lamp post to the enemy crates, and one when exiting gpit out of spawn when defending on the right side, then jumping up to the wall and off of it onto the higher level catwalks of point C. Anybody know of any others?

[2thumbs]

This one may be pretty obvious but: Before springing a stick trap, check for a heal beam.

[Grillz]

I eat rockets and fly away all the time as last resort. It's fun.

[Hawkeye]

I eat rockets and fly away all the time as last resort. It's fun.

Just remember to crouch..

[2thumbs]

I eat rockets and fly away all the time as last resort. It's fun.

And strafe

[gypsylord]

As a med:
Remember, all the uber does is make someone invincible. It does not increase your pocket's damage output. Be sure to spread the love and juggle your uber to whoever is about to take a rocket in the face INCLUDING SCOUTS. A quadruple uber that keeps everyone alive with moderate amounts of health is usually better than a singular uber that keeps your pocket overhealed but leaves everyone else in the red or dead. Of course the downside to juggling uber is that it doesn't last as long, so play it smart.

Try to get good at the other classes, even if you only have time to play them in pubs; especially scout, soldier, and demoman. Learn how to rocket and sticky jump. Learn flanking routes and hiding places used by jumpers. If you are able to kill medics as a scout you will be better equipped to avoid being killed by scouts as a medic.

BS if you predict that you will be spending a lot of time defending yourself (random PUGS)
NG if you trust your team to protect you

As a demo:
When your team is about to push with an uber into an open area ask the medic to give it to you for a second at the start. You can double stickyjump behind the enemy without taking damage.

As a Soldier:
USE YOUR SHOTTY

(pocket)Don't leave your medic without anyone else to heal unless he tells you to. If the situation requires otherwise at least TELL HIM that you're going to be jumping away.

As a Scout:
Work with your partner if possible. Two scouts focus firing a single enemy works wonders.

If you and your partner are of different skill levels wear the same hat. You don't want the enemy to be able to tell you apart.

Don't use the bat unless your only satisfaction is derived from the utter humiliation of your enemies. But seriously, don't use the bat.

Pistol does more damage at long range. It's also a GREAT finisher for when you know they're in the red.

Don't take on soldiers one on one unless it is absolutely necessary. A good soldier WILL kill you.

Don't just run off at random. Coordinate pushes with your team. The best time for you to take out the med is when his soldiers are looking in the other direction and busy spamming the rest of your team.

Backcap ftw.

As a sniper:
Stick with your team, if you're too far away they won't be able to save you when you get double teamed by the enemy scouts.

[shdw.puppet]

as a medic, please for the love of god keep your scouts buffed. If you are just building, or you have a free moment, buffing a scout to 185 takes less than a second and can keep them alive a lot longer. More damage output = less people to try and kill you.

[aaronlol]

Uhh... why would you want to be direct hitted instead of splashed?

I am not claiming his post was smart but he had some good intentions to an extent. GOOD medics ride take rocket damage on purpose, GOOD medic use rollers as a way to escape/strafe to safety, GOOD scouts ride splash damage as a speed boost. Very had skill to train learn or even find, but you CAN make enemy damage work for you in TF2.
JK rides rollers B)

Also sorry to bash on you but saying this "A quadruple uber that keeps everyone alive with moderate amounts of health is usually better than a singular uber that keeps your pocket overhealed but leaves everyone else in the red or dead" gypsy basically translates to "I have never played medic in Div1/Playoff level", don't let that sink in. Keeping your pocket at 300 or 2 soldiers at 200 usually win blands last compared to keeping everyone at 60 hp so they can get one rocketed.

[gypsylord]

You sir are correct, I play TWL. So my "small tips" would probably work better for lower level players. As skill levels rise viable tactics come and go.

However, the point I was trying to make is that it is often a good idea to spread the uber out to the people taking damage, "moderate health" meaning they aren't going to get one-shotted. What I DON'T advocate is randomly switching around the uber to everyone in range. Simply watch where the enemy explosives are going and give your teammates a tap if they're about to get taken down. Perhaps I didn't use the best wording.

Too often do I see other teams (or my team) get nearly wiped when the ubered medic sticks to one soldier and ignores the scout and demo taking rockets right next to him. Sure, the soldier stays buffed, but the rest of his team is dead. Hey, that might mean you win, but depending on the circumstances it could also mean having to fall back or at least waiting for your team to respawn before the next push.

[NeoRussia]

When ubering on offense think of who you are going to uber and for what reason. uber demomen first for fast damage output, soldiers for a strong push (most used), and scouts to kill the enemy medic before he has a chance to charge his uber or make him pop if he hasn't already.

[Sigma]

I think what aaron is getting at is that getting yourself into a situation where you have to split the uber a lot is generally a bad idea. Obviously there's value in blocking all the damage you can with your uber after popping, but if you have a lot of people next to the enemy uber such that you have to do that, you've made a mistake. It's much better to plan your ubers (even defensive ones) such that the majority of your team is not in the same area as the enemy charge and you can mainly keep the uber on your pocket.

[Grimm]

Just a small question here, what does the game consider a split? If you take the beam off someone then start healing them again, does that constitute a split?

[Sigma]

If you take the beam off then retarget, it's not a split. A better way to think about how fast your uber drains is to take it as losing 12.5%/s while 1 person is invincible, and 25%/s while 2 or more people are invincible. So once you split, you're committed to at least 1s of 25%/s drain.

[gypsylord]

good point

[brainpower4]

Is 25% the max drain per second? When I play medic, I try to protect everyone in the area, and it isn't unusual for 3 people to be uber when I spot a sticky trap.

[Grimm]

I believe that once you split it once, it doesn't matter how much you split it after then.

[blackbanjo]

I believe that once you split it once, it doesn't matter how much you split it after then.

false

[Sigma]

25%/s is the max drain. In a way Grimm is correct -- splitting to 2 people or 3 people (or 4 or 5) has no difference in the rate your uber drains at. If you pop uber, split to one person 0.2s after popping, and split to a third 0.4s after the pop, that last split really only costs you 0.2s of charge, not 1s, since you'll be draining at 25%/s for 0.2-1.2s after the pop regardless.

I think blackbanjo may have interpreted the post as "once you start splitting, you're stuck draining at 25%/s for the rest of the uber" which would indeed be false. You go to a 12.5%/s drain once your flashes fade (1s after you last switch).

[NeoRussia]

Sigma you should just write a guide on comp TF2. It'll probably be as big as a novel.

[chipbuster]

I agree with neorussia. I'll bet what Sigma knows that a med like me doesn't could easily fill a book.

[Hawkeye]

Speaking of splits, the only time I am actively splitting the uber on a charge, is when a soldier empties his rockets, or demo empties and needs to fall back. I will also split when we are pulling back from an uber to try to survive the spam a bit more. If we get surprised by a Kritz, I am splitting it all day to try to get as many heavies alive as I can to force them to back up.

Generally, I try not to split unless there is an advantage in doing so however.

Also, I am seeing more and more of the uber scout strategy. I will try to split those to get two scouts in rapidly to remove a heavy or two from the fight quickly.

[JonDigweed]

I agree with neorussia. I'll bet what Sigma knows that a med like me doesn't could easily fill a book.

Finally 10 pages on TF2 I'll finally enjoy! :tongue:

[Grimm]

Sigma = TF2 encyclopedia

[rDx]

I play Medic now but I'm just getting into competitive scout, any good tips for starting out?

My aim is decent but my movement is rather predictable, probably a lack of simple tactic.

Thanks,

tech.

[Grimm]

Get a scout mentor is my #1 tip. It helped me a whole hell of a lot.

[rDx]

I have my name on the forum but it doesn't seem like many people get mentored.

Watch and shoot, I suppose.

[brainpower4]

The squeaky wheel gets the grease. I had a mentee application sitting for a month, bumped it to the top and had a mentor the next day.