TF2 Class Guide

[Sever]

As per the request of Zeph, I am creating this guide as not only a basic synopsis of each of Team Fortress 2's nine individual classes, but also an area for players to post their more advanced and intricate strategies, ranging from effective choke-point defense and offensive pushes to device placement to specific class vs. class skills, and basically anything in between. Post your effective skills and tactics for anything and everything, including how to counter specific classes with other specific classes. This post will be updated on a regular basis, and is an ongoing work in progress. Feel free to add any suggestions for sections or point out any errors I or others may have made - we're all human after all. Also, I'm looking for some moderately-sized (100x100 pixels minimum, but larger is much easier for me to work with) cameos of each character class (Red Team, please) which can be found images or in-game screenshots (please send the full screenshot).

Scout

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Scattergun - 6/32
Secondary - Magnum - 12/36
Tertiary - Baseball Bat - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesDouble-Jumping: The Scout can preform a second jump when midair which allows him to reach higher altitudes, quickly change his direction of travel while airborne, and prevent fall damage. While not as effective as the Soldier's Rocket-Jump or Demoman's StickyBomb-Jump, the Scout does not sacrifice any health in the process of Double-Jumping.
Quick Capturing: The Scout adds two times the amount of the other classes standard Control Point capture rate when capturing a control point, thus allowing a scout to capture twice as fast as other classes.
Tactics==========
Jelly says:
The Scout's Scattergun is more powerful then the standard Shotgun of any other class. The Scattergun has a wider spread, however, which allows the Scout to spend less time aiming, and to deal greater damage when closer to the target.
On Gravel Pit, a Scout can double jump up into the raised corridors surrounding Blu Base by ducking at the apex of the jump.
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Post your own tactics

Soldier

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Rocket Launcher - 4/16
Secondary - Shotgun - 6/32
Tertiary - Entrenching Tool - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesRocket-Jumping: The Soldier can fire a rocket at his own feet to propel himself to great heights, allowing him to reach otherwise inaccessible areas, and take shortcuts to normally accessible areas. The Soldier sacrifices some health in the process, however.
Tactics ==========
Jelly says:
Crouching in midair when preforming a Rocket-Jump means you lose 10 less health and travel higher.
On Gravel Pit, it is possible to rocket-jump from the corridor from A to the top of the tower at C, or from the ground to the roof at B. On Well, you can rocket-jump onto the trains at the start.
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Post your own tactics

Pyro

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Flamethrower - 200/No Reloading
Secondary - Shotgun - 6/32
Tertiary - Fire Axe - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesNone
Tactics==========
Jelly says:
Shallow water won't put out burning player, but deep water and healing, by a Medic, will.
As a Pyro, your range is halved when moving forward.
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Post your own tactics

Demoman

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Grenade Launcher - 4/16
Secondary - StickyBomb Launcher - 8/24
Tertiary - Scotch Bottle - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesStickyBomb-Jumping: The Demoman can place a StickyBomb at his own feet and detonate it to propel himself to great heights, allowing him to reach otherwise inaccessible areas, and take shortcuts to normally accessible areas. The Demoman sacrifices some health in the process, however.
TacticsPooky says:
The Demoman's StickyBombs can be blocked with a melee weapon when they are airborne.
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Post your own tactics

Heavy

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Minigun - 200/No Reloading
Secondary - Shotgun - 6/32
Tertiary - Fists - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesNone
Tactics==========
Jelly says:
An unhealed Heavy easily beats a level three sentry at close range.
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Post your own tactics

Engineer

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Shotgun - 6/32
Secondary - Pistol - 12/200
Tertiary - Wrench - Infinite
Quartinary - Construction PDA - 200/XX
Quintinary - Detonator - No Ammo (Equipment)
Special CapabilitiesConstruct: The Engineer can use his Construction PDA to place devices throughout the combat area. He can only have one of each device deployed at any time. He can build a Sentry Gun (130 Metal), Dispenser (100 Metal), Teleporter Entrance (100 Metal), and Teleporter Exit (100 Metal). Metal will be deducted from his supply based on the cost of the device. The Engineer can also use his Wrench to decrease the construction time of any friendly devices.
Repair: The Engineer can use his Wrench and his supply of Metal to repair any friendly devices. Metal will be deducted from his supply based upon the severity of damage.
Upgrade: The Engineer can use his Wrench and supply of Metal to upgrade any friendly Sentry Gun to instill it with more firepower and hit points. The Sentry Gun can be upgraded twice, and costs 200 Metal for each upgrade level.
Demolish: The Engineer can use his Detonator to destroy any of his currently constructed devices. The devices will leave behind 50% of the Metal that was used to construct them.
Tactics==========
skyline says:
When placing Devices, you can right-click to rotate the Device's orientation.
==========
Jelly says:
Placing a Dispenser underwater heals you faster than you lose health from drowning.
If you stand between it and an enemy, your Sentry Gun will ruthlessly mow you down. Standing on top of it is the surest way to avoid this.
Never use up all of your Metal upgrading a Sentry Gun. If it gets damaged, you won't be able to repair it unless you have some handy. Stop upgrading when you're down to about 30 Metal.
Sentries will not attack a Spy in disguise unless he cloaks, decloaks or changes disguise in front of them. Always kill the Spy before removing the sappers.
Two engineers can get a level-three Sentry up really quickly. Be nice and help out fellow Engineers first - in return they'll be more likely to repair your devices when you can't.
Building near an Ammo Crate spawn means you can put a Sentry Gun up before a Dispenser, and you'll always have metal for upgrades. The respawn time is quite short.
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Post your own tactics

Medic

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Syringe Gun - 40/150
Secondary - Medigun - No Ammo (Equipment)
Tertiary - Bonesaw - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesUberCharge: Once the Medic has healed/buffed other players enough to fill his UberCharge Meter, he can then activate it on a teammate and bestow ten seconds of invulnerability upon the targeted player and himself. Both the Medic and targeted player are still susceptible to the forces that any explosions and shots enact upon them, and the Medic must keep the target within the Medigun's range to retain the target's invulnerability.
Tactics==========
Jelly says:
All the kill assists you'll get will build up a greater chance of getting a critical hit.
The Syringe gun is a surprisingly good weapon, especially against Scouts. The needles drop sharply, however, so aim high to rain them down on your enemies.
Two Medics healing the same person will be faster than one, but not twice as fast. It's more efficient to heal separate patients.
UberCharge invulnerability lasts for a shot while after the healing ray leaves the target. A skilled medic can keep UberCharge on two players at once.
The one weakness of UberCharge is that the players can be knocked around by explosives. A few sticky bombs is enough to blow a patient out of range.
==========Post your own tactics

Sniper

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Sniper Rifle - 1/25
Secondary - Submachine Gun - 25/75
Tertiary - Machete - Infinite
Special CapabilitiesNone
Tactics==========
Jelly says:
You can stand and snipe from the water on 2fort on the blue side.
Sentry Guns have a maximum range, so snipers are useful against them at long range.
Only a medicated heavy can survive a fully charged headshot.
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Post your own tactics

Spy

SynopsisComing Soon
Basic StatisticsComing Soon
WeaponsPrimary - Revolver - 6/24
Secondary - Electro-Sapper - Infinite
Tertiary - Butterfly Knife - Infinite
Quartinary - Disguise Kit - No Ammo (Equipment)
Special CapabilitiesCloaking: The Spy has the ability to cloak for a brief, yet still moderate, amount of time, and virtually vanish from any enemies' views. The player can decloak at any time to conserve and regain the charge, but will be automatically decloaked when the charge has run out. When cloaked, the spy will retain the particle effects emitted by the Engineer's Teleporter.
Tactics==========Jelly says:
Disguising yourself as a Pyro on your own team generally means the enemy will keep their distance, and thus, you can cloak and appear behind them.
You're visible while you cloak, so run in the opposite direction you want to go until your arm turns fully transparent. Then double back and watch everyone shoot the air behind you.
A disguised Spy will not bleed when shot by an enemy unless is kills him, but a Pyro's flame will set him alight and a Demoman's Grenade will detonate if they hit him.
A cloaked Spy reveals himself for about a second if he brushes against an enemy or is shot. He also drips visibly when emerging from water.
The shimmers you see running about are friendly Spies, but their name tags don't always appear.
Definitely not enemy Spies: A Spy wearing a mask, a Medic with an UberCharge percentage, anyone not holding their default weapon and anyone under 50% health.
Changing disguise creates a huge puff of smoke and takes longer than you probably think. Only ever do it when completely cloaked or in a dark corner.
When emerging from a Teleporter, you're trailed by team-colored particles. These take longer than walking the length of the map to wear off, so don't use teleporters.
If you constantly replace them, your Sappers will damage an Engineer's sentry faster than he can repair it. Disguise as an Engineer so his team wont know who to shoot.
Players usually emerge from Teleporters facing the same direction. Instead of destroying the Teleporter, stand behind it and back-stab the players who come through.
When disguised, you appear slightly injured to the enemy. Enemy Medics healing will increase this level, but Dispensers won't. Both, however, restore your actual health.
==========
ßðÐŻÍ££å says:
Changing your disguise while Cloaked lets off a particle effect which will allow your enemies to notice that you have just changed disguises.
When attacking a Sentry Gun guarded by an Engineer you have two ways to take it down and kill the Engineer quickly.
The best and easiest, but slowest method is to place a Sapper on the Sentry Gun first, then Backstab the Engineer before he has a chance to knock it off. This will generally alert the opposing force that a Spy is Sapping the Sentry Gun via scripted voice actions from the Engineer.
The quietest, fastest and most difficult way to do it is to position yourself behind the Engineer and wait for the turret to turn so it is facing the same direction as you and the Engineer. If you're fast you can Backstab the Engineer, switch to your Electro-Sapper and Sap the Sentry Gun just before it has you in its field of fire. You need to have quick keyboard and mouse skills for this, so if you can preform actions such as double melee or backpack reload in Halo PC/CE you should just be fast enough to preform adequately.
==========
Post your own tactics

[Jay2645]

Not quite a completely in-depth guide, as some of the classes that you said had no specials actually do (Sniper can get headshots, Pyro can reveal Spies, for example).

But, I'm now MC's resident Engineer, and I found out that a dispenser, when located next to a Sentry gun, gives you a near-limitless supply of metal. Except when those pesky spies sap your Sentry, which knocks out your dispenser, too. The solution would be to have your teammates place multiple Sentry guns farther away, but still in range of each other, so that if a Spy knocks out one of them, he reveals himself, and then all the Sentries can open fire. The trick is to keep all the guns alive, and multiple Engineers in one area drain all the metal around quickly. I've lost many a loyal Sentry to too many Engies in one place.

[Pooky]

Not quite a completely in-depth guide, as some of the classes that you said had no specials actually do (Sniper can get headshots, Pyro can reveal Spies, for example).

But, I'm now MC's resident Engineer, and I found out that a dispenser, when located next to a Sentry gun, gives you a near-limitless supply of metal. Except when those pesky spies sap your Sentry, which knocks out your dispenser, too. The solution would be to have your teammates place multiple Sentry guns farther away, but still in range of each other, so that if a Spy knocks out one of them, he reveals himself, and then all the Sentries can open fire. The trick is to keep all the guns alive, and multiple Engineers in one area drain all the metal around quickly. I've lost many a loyal Sentry to too many Engies in one place.

Sapping sentries won't make the other ones shoot at you. Also if you look at the meter on your HUD the dispenser has to recharge metal before it can supply it so just camping out by your dispenser will make your sentry gun take a VERY long time to upgrade.

[Skyline]

Something that I didn't figure out for a while, when you are about to build anything as an engineer you can right click and it will rotate the object 90 degrees each click. If you are standing on your sentry on the spot where the zapper goes on, it should block the spy from setting one up.

[Jelly]

General:

Critical hits happen more often after a string of kills and melee weapons are twice as likely to 'crit'. Statistically, Medics crit more often.

Engineers:

Placing a dispenser underwater heals you faster than you lose health from drowning.

If you stand between it and an enemy, your Sentry will ruthlessly mow you down. Standing on top of it is the surest way to avoid this.

Never use up all of your metal upgrading a Sentry. If it gets damaged, you won't be able to repair it unless you have some handy. Stop upgrading when you're down to about 30.

Sentries will not attack a Spy in disguise unless he cloaks, decloaks or changes disguise in front of them. Always kill the Spy before removing the sappers.

Two engineers can get a level-three Sentry up really quickly. Be nice and help out fellow Engineers first - they'll repair yours when you can't.

Building near a box of ammo means you can put a Sentry gun up before a Dispenser, and you'll always have metal for upgrades. They respawn very quickly.

Scouts:

The scout can knock away the demoman's sticky-bombs with his bat.

The scout's shotgun is more powerful then the shotgun of any other class.

On gravelpit, a Scout can double jump up into the raised corridoors by ducking at the apex of the jump.

Demoman:

The Demoman's bottle has a 25% chance of breaking each time it hits.

Heavys:

An unhealed Heavy easily beats a level three sentry at close range.

Snipers:

You can stand and snipe from the water on 2fort on the blue side.

Sentrys cannot see far, so snipers are useful against them at long range.

Pyros:

Only a medicated heavy can survive a fully charged headshot.

Shallow water wont put out burning player, but healing does.

As a Pyro, your range is halved when moving forward.

Spies:

Disguising yourself as a Pyro on your own team generally means the enemy will keep their distance, meaning you can cloak and appear behind them.

You're visble while you cloak, so run in the opposite direction you want to go until your arm turns fully transparent. Then double back and watch everyone shoot the air behind you.

A disguised Spy will not bleed when shot by an enemy unless is kills him, but a Pyro's flame will set him alight and a Demoman's pipe bomb will detonate if they hit him.

A cloaked Spy reveals himself for about a second if he brushes against an enemy or is shot. He also drips visibly when emerging from water.

The shimmers you see running about are friendly Spies, but their nametags don't always appear.

Definitely not enemy Spies: A Spy wearing a mask, a Medic with an Ubercharge percentage, anyone not holding their default weapon and anyone under 50% health.

Changing disguise creates a huge puff of smoke and takes longer than you probably think. Only ever do it when completely cloaked or in a dark corner.

When emerging from a teleporter, you're trailed by team-coloured sparkles. These take longer than walking the length of the map to wear off, so don't use teleporters.

If you constantly replace them, your Sappers will damage an Engineer's sentry faster than he can repair it. Dress as an Engineer so his team wont know who to shoot.

Players usually emerge from teleporters facing the same direction. Instead of destroying the teleporter, stand behind it and back-stab the player who come through.

In disguise, you appear slightly injured to the enemy. Enemy Medic healing will increase this level, but Dispensers won't. Both restore your actual health.

Soldiers:

Crouching after jumping before firing a rocket at your feet means you lose 10 less health and go higher.

On Gravelpit, it's possible to rocket-jump from the corridor from A to the top of the tower at C, or from the ground to the roof at B. On Well, you can rocket-jump onto the trains at the start.

Medics:

All the kill assists you'll get will build up a greater chance of getting a critical hit.

The Syringe gun is a surprisingly good weapon, especially against Scouts. The needles drop sharply, however, so aim high to rain them down on your enemies.

Two Medics healing the same person will be faster than one, but not twice as fast. It's more efficient to heal separate patients.

Ubercharge invulnerability lasts for a shot while after the healing ray leaves the target. A skilled medic can keep Ubercharge on two players at once.

The one weakness of Ubercharge is that the players can be knocked around by explosives. A few sticky bombs is enough to blow a patient out of range.


_____
Tips thanks to PC Gamer UK magazine.

[Con]

You should put this in the Wiki when it's done :)

[Sever]

Updated - included Jelly and skyline's tactics.

Jay, the Sniper Rifle's Headshot capability and any other similar aspects for the other classes will be mentioned when I go in-depth about each weapon.

[Jay2645]

Ah, OK.

[Bodzilla]

Spy:
changing a disguise while Cloaked lets off a spark so your enemy's can notice that you just changed disguise.

when attacking a sentry guarded by an engineer you have 2 ways to take it down and kill the engineer quicky.
The best and easiest, but slowest method is to place a sapper on the sentry first then backstab the engineer before he has a chance to knock it off. this will generally alert the opponents team that a spy is attacking the sentry because the Engineer will cry out.
The quietest, fastest and most difficult way to do it is to position yourself behind the engineer and wait for the turret to turn so it's the furtherest direction away from you. If your fast you can stab the engineer, switch to sapper and sap the turret just before it turns on you. you need to have quick fingers for this, so if you can double melee, or backpack reload in halo you should just be fast enough to do it.

[Bodzilla]

Something that I didn't figure out for a while, when you are about to build anything as an engineer you can right click and it will rotate the object 90 degrees each click. If you are standing on your sentry on the spot where the zapper goes on, it should block the spy from setting one up.
no. a spy cna place a sapper on a sentry, dispenser or teleport from any angle.

you've just played with shit spys lol.

[Sever]

Updated with Bodzilla's Sapping tactics and correction to skyline's Anti-Sapping tactics. Next time I play as a Spy, which is almost never (am cry), I'll be sure to attempt your advanced sapping technique. I often use melee-grenade-melee during close quarters battles in HCE, so I might be capable of getting it after a few tries. I wish there were a TF2 AI sandbox which would allow you to set up engagements and combat scenarios...

[Bodzilla]

hmmmm. interesting :D

and i'm pretty sure you cna get multiple saps on a single sentry if you team up with other spys :)

E: i was reworded :sadface:

[Sever]

Everyone gets paraphrased here. I know how to type in a way that will make the point clear to most people and not allow for much discrepancy. Thats just the way I like to manage things.

[ka1r0sell]

CASSIDY I LOVE YOUUUUUUUUU:lol:

[Pooky]

I should mention you can knock back sticky bombs in air with ANY melee weapon, not just the bat.

[Sever]

Updated under Demoman - I never knew you could do that, Pooky. I'll have to try that one too.

[MNC]

Alright, first and foremost rule for the Spy: Get behind your enemy. Don't go disguised from your base to the other, that's just plain silly. Hide, cloak and run towards the enemy base. Don't bump into people, NEVER EVER USE TELEPORTERS YOU ASS, and be sure to be disguised when you're at the enemy base. Pyro is generally a good disguise, but to me it seems just about everyone is starting to use Pyro as a disguise so he gets spy-checked alot.

If you're way in the back of the enemy lines a sniper disguise will be pretty good. If people aren't paying that much attention they won't notice you're not zoomed in.

When taking down buildings, be sure to take the sentry first. Try to get behind/next to the engie if he's at his stuff, sap the sentry and he'll want to knock it off first, backstab, and sap again because in that short timespan it's likely the sapper has come off. If there are other people around they'll know you're a spy since you're sapping so you might as well stab/shoot the sentry to fasten the process, and lets your team progress without any sentry trouble.

Use your disguise hotkey, it's so much better than swapping to the kit then disguising.

Disguises
Scout: Generally a bad idea, you won't have the fast running or double jump so you're discovered easily.
Soldier: good disguise but you'll get the slow walking speed.
Pyro: Most useful together with Demo IMO.
Demo: See pyro.
Heavy: Slow walking speed, but you might trick a foolish medic or two.
Engineer: If you want to get to some buildings no-ones paying attention to this would be a good way to do it. however, not having a wrench in your hands might give it away.
Medic: You don't have an ubermeter under your name. Don't use.
Sniper: nice disguise for staying behind in the enemy lines, but you can't zoom in so you won't have that animation at your disposal.
Spy: lolwut

Note: When you're disguised, you'll get a name from the other team, and the enemy will see your health as never full but never in the red ( i think red is 50% hp?)

general info: Health: 125, ubered 185

[Pooky]

When you're a spy, try to avoid standing near enemy teleporters. They'll notice you dont have a colored trail behind you and also if you accidentally stand on it you run a good chance of getting telefragged.

Also when you're disguised you get a random name from the players on the other team using that class... or if none are just a random name from that team. So if the other team only has one Pyro for instance... don't use the Pyro disguise anywhere near him cause you'll have his name.

Addendum: Scout can be a good disguise if the other team isn't paying attention. Just feint like you're running towards a point then stab them before they know what happened. Also, Spy is a good disguise if you know you're going to lose, so you don't get shot at the end of the round. Don't think you can cloak near the enemy just because you have that disguise though, the cloak will still be in your team color.

Also also, and this is for any class... don't fucking stand near your team's spies. It's really annoying for us when you blow our cover.