demoman

TF2 Amateur–Nade Jumping

by ZombieSkittles on September 17, 2011

I haven’t made one of these in a while, but I’ve recently learned of the art of grenade jumping.

As a Demoknight, you make the major sacrifice of giving up your Stickybomb Launcher for a shield. While the shield does give you the ability to charge forward quickly, losing the ability to set up traps and destroy Sentry Nests with ease is a rather big trade off.
By far one of the biggest loses from the Stickybomb Launcher is the ability to “Sticky Jump”, which a Demoman can use to almost leap across the whole map, getting to locations faster than a Scout.
However, I’ve learned that you can actually do the same with grenades. While you have to get the timing just right as they automatically explode, when you pull it off they do about as well as a Stickybomb, which is just dandy.

In this video I’m simply using the charge from my Splendid Screen to get across the bridge on CTF_2Fort quickly, then using a grenade to get up onto their battlements and surprise the enemy. Simple stuff really, but something you don’t see happen a lot with Demoknights.

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Timbuk Tuesday

by ZombieSkittles on June 22, 2011

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series TF2 - The Über Update

Day two of the The Über Update comes with a little less news than yesterday, and some of it actually disappointed me. Today we got a look at a weapon pack for the Demoman, Scout, and a pack for the Sniper.

Lawrence of Australia.

The Sniper’s pack only has two weapons in it, and I can see them getting used a lot. The Sniper Rifle replacement goes by the name of The Bazaar Bargain is perfect for those douchebag Snipers who insist anyone who doesn’t headshot every kill is a shit player. For “each consecutive headshot” the Sniper is rewarded with an extra ten “charge per second”. If he body shots the bonus is reduced, and if the player is so bad he misses entirely, he forfeits the bonus. Additionally, the rifle has a charge rate that starts off at -20 of the normal rate. It’s obviously built for Snipers who are good at aiming, but it also to me screams that I’m going to have a harder time with that minority of people who insist on aim botting.

The Sniper also gets what I see as his version of the Equalizer. The Shahanshah -a name that is going to be a bitch to write in in-game chat- is a new melee sword that does more damage when the Sniper is at lower health, and less at higher health. I don’t think I’ll be using it over my Tribalman’s Shiv, but it might have a situational use for me when I’m using the Huntsman as an offensive Sniper.

One Thousand And One Demoknights.

Rage. That is the one thing I get from the preview for the Demoman’s pack. Complete and utter rage. When the Demoman first got his class update with the Eyelander and Chargin Targe, everyone hated it for how impossibly hard it seemed to be to defeat. With this set it seems obvious that Valve is pushing the Demoknight play style. As a secondary replacement, we see a variation of the Chargin Targe called The Splendid Screen. It has half the fire and explosive damage resistance of the former shield, but is in turn able to deliver charge damage from any range (The Chargin Targe only caused damage at the maximum distance), and that damage is increased by 70%. God damn it.

To help this, the Demoman also gets a new sword that doubles the speed of the charge’s recharge rate. Furthermore, The Persian Persuader makes all ammo that is collected be treated as health. I’m not sure exactly how fast the recharge speed will be now, but I can see this ability being used to charge out of battle, grab whatever pickup is available (Medkit, ammo, even a fallen weapon), and charge straight back into battle. Fuck.

Finally, the ultimate finisher, is Ali Baba’s Wee Booties. With Demoknights, if you knew what you were doing you could dodge and avoid them. These shoes give the Demoman more health -not that he fucking needs it- and gives him more turning control while charging, which means if you think you’ve dodged him; think a-fucking-gain.

All I get from this set is, “Hey bro, you’re completely fucked”. I am so glad I’m a compression blast spamming pyro.

The #1 Fan.

Well this would be the set that interests me most so far. The Soda Popper is a new Scattergun that works similar to the Force-A-Nature, but with the exciting twist that running around charges up a “Hype meter”, that when full allows the player to blow people away with mini-crits. I can see this being combined with an ubercharge during setup to devastate the opponent when the gates open.

The Winger is thankfully NOT a liquid secondary, but a new pistol replacement. It’s also a very simple one at that, with simply an increase in damage done at the sacrifice of clip size. Seems decent, but we’ll have to see how effective it really is as a pistol alternative.

The Atomizer actually carries a feature in big letters that says “Grants Triple Jump”, which both excites and worries me.  In one way, it will be very fun to play with, but on the other end i can see it breaking maps, especially if it works with the FaN’s knockback to allow a quadruple jump. Shit will get real, and it will most likely get balanced some more, even with it’s 30% slower attack speed and 20% less damage.
The weapon also states it does 10 damage, but whether this is to the player, or to an enemy you jump on is unclear, and will probably remain so until the update goes live.

Random is random.

I don’t know what to feel about these weapons. While some are interesting and I love the Scout’s additions, I can’t help but worry that they’re going to break the game in some respects and make things less fun. I can only hope this trend doesn’t continue tomorrow. How do you feel about the sets so far? You’re not going to comment? OKAY!

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TF2 Game Update for April 29th, 2010

by ZombieSkittles on April 29, 2010

It’s a big one this time around. The first factors to catch the eye are the addition of a community map (CP_Freight) and a new item.

200px-Backpack_crit-a-cola The new item is a secondary for the Scout, replacing his Lugermorph/Pistol/Bonk!, called Crit-a-Cola. This lunchbox item gives the player guaranteed mini-crits for a small period of time, and as a negative makes him take guaranteed minicrits. I’d keep talking about it, but that’s what I want to focus on.

Along with these two additions and a few tweaks, there were quite a few balancing changes and bug fixes for the classes and their weapons.

Scout
The scout ended up not just receiving his new item, but also getting his Bonk! Atomic Punch and Sandman altered. The Bonk! now has it’s slowdown effect removed (would make the Scout move really slow for a few seconds after the Bonk! dodge effect went away) in favour of a charging metre which goes up in time, like the Jarate and Chargin’ Targe. The Sandman also received a small buff, in which an enemy stunned by the ball has his ability to run reduced a little. This is obviously so the scout can catch him quickly.
While welcome the Sandman’s change, I’m a little wary of the Bonk! Atomic Punch’s change. This seems to remove all the negatives associated with the item, as the Scout can use it then carry on his way without worrying about someone catching up to him. There also happens to be an achievement which requires the player to kill a Scout who is caught in the “post-dodge” slowdown effect called “Retire The Runner”1. I can’t help but wonder if this change effectively kills this achievement (at least until Valve fix it).

Pyro
As an avid pyro player this particularly update interests me. On the negatives side of things, the Flamethrowers now do 20% less damage than previously, and the after burn damage they rely on so much has been reduced too. On the other side, the airblast received a number of boosts. Airblast now shoots quicker and takes only 20 ammo (allowing for 10 blasts total, in comparison to the previous 8). Any deaths caused by an airblast (air blasting off a cliff, into a train, etc) count as a kill credit for the Pyro, and any projectiles reflected with the blast will minicrit.
This seems like Valve are trying to do one of three things. This will make Backburner Pyros use their weapon a bit more strategically (actually ambushing their enemies for the guaranteed crits), otherwise they may not be able to make their kill. It will also make people use airblast a lot more thus creating new strategy against Demomen and Soldiers, and will make people use the Axtinguisher more. With the Axtinguisher guaranteeing a critical hit on burning players, and flame not doing so much damage, there is more incentive now in switching weapons.

Demoman
Now I don’t play Demoman much, and even when I do I don’t play as a Demoknight, so I’m not sure whether this change to the Chargin’ Targe is a buff or a nerf. Looking at it, it seems to be altered so that players using the Eyelander skillfully will get more power. The Targe is altered so when damage is dealt from the charge, it takes into account any heads claimed with the Eyelander2 and adds +10 damage per head.
It seems like a good idea, but I’m not sure how it’ll work in practice.

Heavy
Heavy got a rather all round positive update as well; the minigun and Natasha both spin up and slow down quicker, and the player can move faster while shooting too. This will make it harder for those who tend to try to surprise the Heavy player and kill them before they can react. Also, Heavys gain a whole point for sharing their Sandvich item with teammates, obviously an attempt to get Heavys to stop being selfish with their food.

Sniper
The last class to get what seems to be all buffs was the Sniper. The changes centre around the Huntsman unlockable, and mainly on it’s relationship with the Pyro. A Huntsman Sniper can now have his arrow lit by a Pyro without it having to be aimed, and if the arrow is lowered, the flame isn’t lost. The player can also ready his arrow while jumping now, but it can still only be shot once feet are on the ground again.
The flaming arrow changes are quite welcome in my books; originally you had to light it then use it straight away, as after keeping the arrow primed too long would cause it to shoot off randomly. This way, you can make more accurate and deadly shots, and take your time the whole way through.

There were a few bug fixes here and there too, notable ones being:

    • The amount count in the HUD now flashes red when you’re low on ammo.
    • Extinguishing a burning teammate now earns a full bonus point (was half a point).
    • Killing yourself with your own sentry no longer increments the sentry’s kill counter.
    • Fixed crit-boosted players not getting critical hits if their weapon has custom no-crit behavior.

There’s quite a few other changes in the update, all of which can be viewed here. What do you think of the various nerfs and buffs the classes received? Are you happy or annoyed?

  1. Today, in the 119th update, Valve have fixed it to work with someone under the Crit-a-Cola effect instead.
  2. for the unaware, the Eyelander is a sword which decapitates it’s victims

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TF2’s First “Community Update”

by ZombieSkittles on March 19, 2010

Today, Team Fortress 2 released it’s first update fuelled by the Contribute! site they set up a few months ago. In that update was a new melee weapon for the Pyro and Demoman, and a new secondary for the Heavy, and of course a variety of new hats.

Seeing the attributes the new weapons have, it’s clear they’re very situational, and to me more of a novelty than anything. The Homewrecker (Pyro melee weapon) for example, is able to destroy buildings relatively quickly, but has a 25% damage decrease against other players. As a primarily pyro player, I don’t run into a lot of cases where I’m able to get that close to a building to deal out melee hits, and if I can then I’m obviously being ubercharged. If I’m that close to a building though, it’s far easier to just destroy it with flames.

The update serves it’s purpose though, and shows that despite some pessimism, the quality of ideas being contributed by the community is actually pretty good. And as an added thought, Valve said that prior to the Engineer update, there would be one more non-bugfix update. Is this that update, and does that mean the Engineer update is next? I hate having to guess.

What do you think of the new items? If you haven’t seen them yet, Ubercharged.net has made a nice post today detailing all the items, with pictures!

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Airblast; the demoman

by ZombieSkittles on February 2, 2010

Today, while playing a game on CTF_Turbine, one of the Demomen on my team was whinging about how the Pyro’s airblast ability is an unnecessary buff that just ruined the game, and it should be removed. He even went on to actually say that the airblast made Pyros  “completely immune” to any attack from a Demoman.

Most of us laughed in his face. However, some people agreed with him. So I felt the need to make this post, pointing out how the demoman could avoid the apparently invincible pyro.

Red_DemomanDon’t be a Targelander demoman. Since the war update, every demoman who has gotten a hold of the Eyelander and Chargin’ Targe has felt the need to equip them, and then use only them. The amount of demoman who run around waving just the Eyelander may have the advantage for now, but as time goes on and people learn how to handle themselves properly against it, it’s going to prove a hindrance rather than a helpful combo. Trying to run up to the clever pyro decapitate him with the melee weapon proves futile when he can just light you on fire and airblast you away until you die.
That being said, the Chargin’ Targe is designed to be handy against fire, with a 50% fire damage resistance.

You still have your grenade launcher. This is an extension of the previous point. With people obsessing over the Targe/Eyelander combo, not enough love is given to the grenade launcher. If the Pyro is blowing you away so you can’t do a close combat death, shoot him from a distance. He can deflect the grenades, sure, but he can only airblast a maximum of 8 times, and that’s if he doesn’t use any primary flamethrower fire. You have more grenades than he has airblast, plus you have the ability to shoot them as fast as he can airblast, and in whatever direction you wish. Throw some over him then push him back with others so he runs into the earlier ones. Simple, easy.

Consider your sticky launcher. The sticky bombs have always been handy, but with the introduction of the Chargin’ Targe, many people don’t have it equipped anymore. However, I still use it over the Targe because it allows for the tactical exploding of my enemies. If I’m face to face with a pyro, I’ll sometimes use the sticky launcher because it allows me to power up and shoot up over him, which brings us to what I said the point before. The only difference is I can detonate them when he’s close to them, rather than having to quickly push him to them.

All else fails, run away. Nothing is really keeping you fighting the Pyro. If his airblast is still frustrating you, run away. Throw some sticky bombs behind you so he won’t instantly chase you, and let someone other teammate handle him.

I know that I haven’t covered nearly half the different ways a Demoman can go against a Pyro, and if you’re reading this, please comment with your own tactics and strategies for this particular problem.

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Soldier or Demo?

by ZombieSkittles on December 15, 2009

war_01 So today’s update included the new body count in the current TF2 war between the two classes; 4.441 million soldiers killed, as opposed to the 4.666 million demomen killed. It’s clear that demomen are falling behind.

However, I’m wondering, who are you cheering for, or contributing to?

Personally, I’m on the side of the soldier; there’s nothing more annoying than not being able to move anywhere because of sticky bombs covering the spawn door, or a group of demomen nade-spamming the battlements on 2Fort. I feel that out of the two, the demoman class has more power when used properly, and so it’s not that the soldier needs the bonus weapon, but more that the demoman is already too powerful. At least that’s what i think, I know there are people who think the complete other way around.

What do you think?

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