XiD
01-08-2010, 02:02 AM
The Heavy
http://img694.yfrog.com/img694/138/1255044790268.jpg
tl;dr: Be aware, protect your medic, know good spots, communicate.
I am writing this guide because Heavy is my favorite class, and I often see players misusing it or not using it to its fullest potential. Heavy is interesting because the skill of playing a heavy isn't necessarily snap aim or fast dodging skills. Let me say that this guide is long-winded, but I promise its worth your while to read it.
What makes a good heavy good is, most importantly awareness.
Awareness comes in many different aspects:
Knowing the map. Where are the health packs? The ammo packs?
Knowing where your team is. Do you have someone backing you up? Are you alone in the enemy base?
Are you backstabbable? Have you been checking your corners to ensure a spy isn't waiting for you?
Actively seeking out and remembering where enemy snipers are camping
Where is your medic? Is he in danger? Is there a spy next to him?
Your own health level. This seems obvious, but most new players don't understand the value of retreating. Fall back to a medic or health kit if you are about to die and have the ability to retreat. You could be back in the action in 10-15 seconds instead of the 20-40 it could take you to spawn and walk your slow ass back.
These aspects are crucial to playing a heavy. An aware player rarely gets backstabbed, and rarely gets ambushed by odds that he cannot handle. He rarely gets headshotted by a sniper he didn't see. These are preventable, stupid deaths that the heavy has control over. It simply requires the player to look around; getting focused on one player/doorway/path is a common issue that new heavies suffer from. We may walk slow, but we turn as fast as everyone else - you shouldn't be getting snuck up on.
So beyond looking around more, what can you do to improve your heavy game? First, perhaps most importantly, positioning is key. Let's take a look at some classic spots in Dustbowl that the heavy is extremely powerful in:
(note that I play on 1280x1024. I shrank to 800x600 for ease of viewing)
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/9209/heavyspot3.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1396/heavyspot2.jpg
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1830/heavyspot1j.jpg
See what they all have in common?
1. Confined areas. The heavy is best when he's up close, in your face. These areas all give him great opportunities to hop around a corner and blast someone in the face. He is nearly unheadshottable and spies will have a tough time backstabbing him when the heavy is appropriately aware.
2. Healthpacks. Heavies have the highest base HPs in the game at 300. This means health packs give them a tremendous amount of HP back. Killing a heavy that appropriately abuses healthpack spawns is irritatingly difficult. This is a large part of playing heavy correctly. A good heavy knows when to push and when to retreat to his health packs, or further back into his base/spawn for health.
3. Ammopacks. Besides health, our minigun chews up ammo fast. We're going to need a steady supply if we are in for the long haul with our ownage.
Let's take a look at the three main opponents to the heavy.
The Sniper
The sniper is the ultimate bane of the heavy. Able to kill him from miles away, with no chance for the heavy to retaliate, they are the heavies number one enemy. This is easily avoidable by placing yourself in areas or situations in which a sniper cannot headshot you without significant risk of being annihilated by your spray of doom. See screenshots above for examples of good spots.
The Spy
Spies are the next hard counter to a heavy. The heavy's huge size makes a gigantic backstabbing hitbox. Combined with our very slow runspeed, the heavy is a spy's "lolz" kill. The spy is interesting as it requires the jump on us. If we protect ourselves by checking around corners/flanks often, we can prevent these most often. Occasionally you will be backstabbed - its impossible to avoid entirely - but most of them can be easily prevented.
The Demoman
The demoman is a tough kill for the heavy, if the demoman has ample skill. A good player with the grenade launcher can drop your health extremely quick, often killing you before you have a serious chance to kill them. His stickies can also be a challenge, but more often than not, I find GLs to be a bigger threat. Demoman are the toughest opponent for a heavy, as it requires you to make judgement calls on when to stop spinning to avoid fire since he can put out such a high DPS. More on this later.
* Note that two of the three hard counters to a heavy is completely avoidable in most circumstances. This is why I believe heavy is still a strong class, unlike most of the steam forums (qq).
Advanced Heavy Tactics
So you're thinking to yourself, this is great, but how do I change my game? There are a few techniques that elevate heavies tremendously in the pwnage category. Luckily, they are all easy tips that don't require much practice, if any.
Jump Spin
First and foremost, the jump-spin is paramount. The jump-spin to the heavy is the rocket jump of the soldier and the stickyjump of the demoman. If you aren't using it, you're not playing the best you could be. The jump-spin is straightforward, and not difficult: when you are going to begin spinning your gun, you should always jump and then immediately begin spinning mid-air. Since we run so slowly while we are spinning, we don't want to begin spinning and then turn a corner - it's a dead giveaway that we are about to show up. Any good player will take precautions against you at this point - start firing at you, run away, etc. Thus, this last boost of speed as you begin spinning is crucial for the heavy to turn corners quickly and effectively, while still providing to be a threat as soon as possible. Reiterating, whenever you turn a corner, you should always be jump spinning. Even if it means you stop spinning only to jump spin around the corner.
Take another look at the screen shots above. Look at how easy it is for a heavy to jump-spin into a doorway, surprising enemies with how quickly he turns the corner - and how fast he's in their face with bullets. Taking too much damage? Stop spinning and run back to your healthpacks. Repeat ad-naseum, until the other team builds an uber just to kill your ass.
Retreating, and the Sandvich
The other big difference between a good heavy and a bad heavy is knowing when to retreat. When the heavy update was released, Valve gave heavies their best friend (besides the medic): The Sandvich!
http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/sandvich.jpg
I rarely use the shotgun on the heavy these days. And I mean rarely. I think the last time I didn't have my sandvich equipped was because I lost connection to my Steam loadout. The sandvich gives the heavy a crucial survivability tool, at the price of losing mobile ranged damage. A fair tradeoff, I say, as you shouldn't be in huge open areas without your team surrounding you, or the enemy far off. If you are, you're doing something wrong.
The sandvich heals the heavy beyond his maximum 300 health. This means you can eat a sandvich and survive a rocket or two and still come out with max health. Furthermore, a feature that most heavies don't realize is the sandvich has a right-click ability. It throws the sandvich on the ground, which turns it into a half-healthpack (restoring 150 hps immediately to a heavy, and extinguishing him). This is beneficial for two reasons:
1. You need health, and you need it now. Good examples are you are burning to death waiting for a healthpack to spawn and you know the enemy is right around the corner. Without ample time to eat the sandvich, and without your godsend healthpack spawn, sometimes we need health in an emergency. Bust out your sandvich, throw it away from the enemy (so you are running away from them as you do this - hopefully you can throw the sandvich around a corner) and grab it. There is almost no delay from when it hits the ground and when you will receive healing from it, so run over it immediately.
2. Your medic needs health immediately. Good examples are a medic burning to death behind you as you just slaughtered some baby pyro that thought he could put a dent in you. WE LAUGH AT THE BABY PYRO. Alternatively, if a large group of enemies is about to turn the corner and your medic is low, its a good idea to top him off.
It should be noted that when you throw your sandvich, you cannot get another one until you die or retreat to spawn for the lockers. Thus, this is an emergency-only maneuver.
* Note how both of these scenarios require excellent awareness. You or your medic is close to death, its an emergency, and you know the enemy is about to turn the corner. Without good awareness you will know none of this, and will probably let your medic burn to death, or perhaps start eating a sandvich only to have the enemy team come curbstomp you in an embarrassing taunt kill.
http://img694.yfrog.com/img694/138/1255044790268.jpg
tl;dr: Be aware, protect your medic, know good spots, communicate.
I am writing this guide because Heavy is my favorite class, and I often see players misusing it or not using it to its fullest potential. Heavy is interesting because the skill of playing a heavy isn't necessarily snap aim or fast dodging skills. Let me say that this guide is long-winded, but I promise its worth your while to read it.
What makes a good heavy good is, most importantly awareness.
Awareness comes in many different aspects:
Knowing the map. Where are the health packs? The ammo packs?
Knowing where your team is. Do you have someone backing you up? Are you alone in the enemy base?
Are you backstabbable? Have you been checking your corners to ensure a spy isn't waiting for you?
Actively seeking out and remembering where enemy snipers are camping
Where is your medic? Is he in danger? Is there a spy next to him?
Your own health level. This seems obvious, but most new players don't understand the value of retreating. Fall back to a medic or health kit if you are about to die and have the ability to retreat. You could be back in the action in 10-15 seconds instead of the 20-40 it could take you to spawn and walk your slow ass back.
These aspects are crucial to playing a heavy. An aware player rarely gets backstabbed, and rarely gets ambushed by odds that he cannot handle. He rarely gets headshotted by a sniper he didn't see. These are preventable, stupid deaths that the heavy has control over. It simply requires the player to look around; getting focused on one player/doorway/path is a common issue that new heavies suffer from. We may walk slow, but we turn as fast as everyone else - you shouldn't be getting snuck up on.
So beyond looking around more, what can you do to improve your heavy game? First, perhaps most importantly, positioning is key. Let's take a look at some classic spots in Dustbowl that the heavy is extremely powerful in:
(note that I play on 1280x1024. I shrank to 800x600 for ease of viewing)
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/9209/heavyspot3.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/1396/heavyspot2.jpg
http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1830/heavyspot1j.jpg
See what they all have in common?
1. Confined areas. The heavy is best when he's up close, in your face. These areas all give him great opportunities to hop around a corner and blast someone in the face. He is nearly unheadshottable and spies will have a tough time backstabbing him when the heavy is appropriately aware.
2. Healthpacks. Heavies have the highest base HPs in the game at 300. This means health packs give them a tremendous amount of HP back. Killing a heavy that appropriately abuses healthpack spawns is irritatingly difficult. This is a large part of playing heavy correctly. A good heavy knows when to push and when to retreat to his health packs, or further back into his base/spawn for health.
3. Ammopacks. Besides health, our minigun chews up ammo fast. We're going to need a steady supply if we are in for the long haul with our ownage.
Let's take a look at the three main opponents to the heavy.
The Sniper
The sniper is the ultimate bane of the heavy. Able to kill him from miles away, with no chance for the heavy to retaliate, they are the heavies number one enemy. This is easily avoidable by placing yourself in areas or situations in which a sniper cannot headshot you without significant risk of being annihilated by your spray of doom. See screenshots above for examples of good spots.
The Spy
Spies are the next hard counter to a heavy. The heavy's huge size makes a gigantic backstabbing hitbox. Combined with our very slow runspeed, the heavy is a spy's "lolz" kill. The spy is interesting as it requires the jump on us. If we protect ourselves by checking around corners/flanks often, we can prevent these most often. Occasionally you will be backstabbed - its impossible to avoid entirely - but most of them can be easily prevented.
The Demoman
The demoman is a tough kill for the heavy, if the demoman has ample skill. A good player with the grenade launcher can drop your health extremely quick, often killing you before you have a serious chance to kill them. His stickies can also be a challenge, but more often than not, I find GLs to be a bigger threat. Demoman are the toughest opponent for a heavy, as it requires you to make judgement calls on when to stop spinning to avoid fire since he can put out such a high DPS. More on this later.
* Note that two of the three hard counters to a heavy is completely avoidable in most circumstances. This is why I believe heavy is still a strong class, unlike most of the steam forums (qq).
Advanced Heavy Tactics
So you're thinking to yourself, this is great, but how do I change my game? There are a few techniques that elevate heavies tremendously in the pwnage category. Luckily, they are all easy tips that don't require much practice, if any.
Jump Spin
First and foremost, the jump-spin is paramount. The jump-spin to the heavy is the rocket jump of the soldier and the stickyjump of the demoman. If you aren't using it, you're not playing the best you could be. The jump-spin is straightforward, and not difficult: when you are going to begin spinning your gun, you should always jump and then immediately begin spinning mid-air. Since we run so slowly while we are spinning, we don't want to begin spinning and then turn a corner - it's a dead giveaway that we are about to show up. Any good player will take precautions against you at this point - start firing at you, run away, etc. Thus, this last boost of speed as you begin spinning is crucial for the heavy to turn corners quickly and effectively, while still providing to be a threat as soon as possible. Reiterating, whenever you turn a corner, you should always be jump spinning. Even if it means you stop spinning only to jump spin around the corner.
Take another look at the screen shots above. Look at how easy it is for a heavy to jump-spin into a doorway, surprising enemies with how quickly he turns the corner - and how fast he's in their face with bullets. Taking too much damage? Stop spinning and run back to your healthpacks. Repeat ad-naseum, until the other team builds an uber just to kill your ass.
Retreating, and the Sandvich
The other big difference between a good heavy and a bad heavy is knowing when to retreat. When the heavy update was released, Valve gave heavies their best friend (besides the medic): The Sandvich!
http://www.britishgaming.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/sandvich.jpg
I rarely use the shotgun on the heavy these days. And I mean rarely. I think the last time I didn't have my sandvich equipped was because I lost connection to my Steam loadout. The sandvich gives the heavy a crucial survivability tool, at the price of losing mobile ranged damage. A fair tradeoff, I say, as you shouldn't be in huge open areas without your team surrounding you, or the enemy far off. If you are, you're doing something wrong.
The sandvich heals the heavy beyond his maximum 300 health. This means you can eat a sandvich and survive a rocket or two and still come out with max health. Furthermore, a feature that most heavies don't realize is the sandvich has a right-click ability. It throws the sandvich on the ground, which turns it into a half-healthpack (restoring 150 hps immediately to a heavy, and extinguishing him). This is beneficial for two reasons:
1. You need health, and you need it now. Good examples are you are burning to death waiting for a healthpack to spawn and you know the enemy is right around the corner. Without ample time to eat the sandvich, and without your godsend healthpack spawn, sometimes we need health in an emergency. Bust out your sandvich, throw it away from the enemy (so you are running away from them as you do this - hopefully you can throw the sandvich around a corner) and grab it. There is almost no delay from when it hits the ground and when you will receive healing from it, so run over it immediately.
2. Your medic needs health immediately. Good examples are a medic burning to death behind you as you just slaughtered some baby pyro that thought he could put a dent in you. WE LAUGH AT THE BABY PYRO. Alternatively, if a large group of enemies is about to turn the corner and your medic is low, its a good idea to top him off.
It should be noted that when you throw your sandvich, you cannot get another one until you die or retreat to spawn for the lockers. Thus, this is an emergency-only maneuver.
* Note how both of these scenarios require excellent awareness. You or your medic is close to death, its an emergency, and you know the enemy is about to turn the corner. Without good awareness you will know none of this, and will probably let your medic burn to death, or perhaps start eating a sandvich only to have the enemy team come curbstomp you in an embarrassing taunt kill.