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Competitive TF2, Part Four: The Demoman

by himmelstoss on August 23rd 2009

Continuing with the series of articles on competitive TF2 written by clubtheseals and I: the Demoman. As the only Scottish class in the game, Demomen are generally expected to be the most all-around awesome folks around. Three cheers for Scotland! Apologies for the hiatus, folks.

Demoman poster gravelpit

The Demoman is one of the most versatile classes in the TF2, and that versatility makes him especially useful on a competitive 6v6 team. Accordingly, the Demoman has a number of disparate objectives:

Area denial
Forward support
General splash damage
Alternate ubercharge target

Area Denial

This is perhaps the most important role of the Demoman in competitive play. If you’ve played the game enough to understand this guide, you probably have realized that going close to sticky traps, especially those placed by vigilant Demomen, is suicidal.

Wouldn’t you know it, it is suicide. But that’s good! As a Demoman, you can exploit that fact to seal off choke points and prevent the enemy team from advancing.

There are two ways you could go about this.

The first option is to plant a carpet of stickies in plain sight. This usually stalls the enemy team for a few seconds. In 6v6 play, sticky carpets can be surprisingly robust. Pyros and Heavies can make mincemeat out of sticky traps with the airblast and the minigun, but they’re generally so situational that they’re unlikely to be around in a competitive game. In essence, it’ll take a while to shoot every single sticky, which is, naturally, in your favor. One caveat: the fastest way to clear a sticky carpet is not to shoot every sticky, but to kill the Demoman who planted the stickies in the first place. Expect the enemy’s scouts to hound you – more on that later.

The enemy team could either run over the sticky carpet (netting you a kill or two), shoot the stickies (which takes a few seconds), or find an alternate route (which can also take a while, allowing your team to fortify its position). If you can lay down a sticky carpet at a well-traveled choke point, such as the house at the middle capture zone of Badlands, you can delay the enemy team’s advance quite a bit, giving your team an immense advantage (read on if you want a visual explanation).

The second option is to use the sticky bomb launcher to ambush the enemy. This entails placing stickies in places that the enemy is unlikely to see them, like so:

cp_granary0005

The obvious advantage here is that you can kill enemy team members who are unaware of the danger; the caveat is that you won’t stall the enemy (unless, of course, you kill a player who is key to the enemy’s advance, such as their medic). When setting up such ambushes, it’s generally better to place stickies above doorways and on ceilings, where surprisingly few people bother to look.

Forward Support

Demomen are great for area denial, but they have another huge advantage – their mobility. The Demoman, in the right hands, is the fastest class in the game. What this means to you is that you can go ahead of your team and pave the way for them. To draw an analogy here: Let’s say that you’re rock climbing with a friend, and you, the Demoman, are the point climber. You climb up ahead and drive a pylon in to the cliff face, by which your partner (the rest of your team) can climb up (advance) safely. However, as with rock climbing, don’t go too far ahead of your team. It may help to partner with a Scout who can defend you.

Fast Mid

The Demoman’s sticky jump technique enables him to reach the middle capture area of most 5-CP maps (especially Badlands) in record time. Top-level demomen can reach the middle long before the scouts get there. The fastest jumps to mid are quite different for different maps, and the best way to learn them is to watch publicly available demos on websites such as GotFrag and RedrumDemos (note, however, that most of the older demos will not work any more because of recent patches). Moving on:

Once at mid, a Demoman’s job is to try to pave the way for his team.

On Badlands, for instance, you can lay a sticky carpet in the “house” choke point, cutting off the most important route for the enemy and possibly forcing them to take the much more dangerous “valley” route (the area under the central bridge). In the following images, potential sticky trap locations are circled in red.

cp_badlands0011

On Fastlane, you could try to get on the roof of the structure on top of mid. As with a soldier, height advantage is enormously useful. Never underestimate the power of explosives raining down from the sky! But at the same time, sticky jumps take out too much of your health to use frequently. Ask your Medic if “Overheal” is right for you.

cp_fastlane0001

Capping

In some areas, Demomen are indispensable for capturing points. Once again, the same principles of area denial and forward support apply.

cp_badlands0012

In the above scenario, I have sticky jumped up to the Badlands spire (the Demoman is certainly very well-suited to capturing such a CP) and am capturing it – in some sense, I’m driving the pylon into the cliff face. The easiest route that the defenders could take to get to the spire is the balcony; accordingly, I’ve locked the balcony down with some sticky carpets. I’m still vulnerable to soldiers rocket jumping from the yard, though.

Note: the Badlands spire is a bit of an exception, because it’s elevated and easily reachable by Demomen, giving any Demoman on top immense height advantage. In that case, it’s a good idea to try to get up top and capture. In the majority of cases, capture zones are extremely exposed, and if there’s any talent a Demoman lacks, it’s the ability to defend himself.

The rule of thumb really is to try to seal a choke point ahead of your team’s position. It just so happens that in the Badlands spire, the best place to seal the chokes is on the CP. Not so with any of the other maps.

General Splash Damage

I hate to say it, but by this, I mean spam.

Intelligent spam.

In essence, using your pipes and stickies, keep dishing out damage. Even if the damage isn’t enough to kill your enemy, try to weaken them enough that your team’s scouts can finish them off.

I’m not going to go into depth on this point; there really isn’t much I can say about it. The best teacher here is practical experience; for these articles, the authors will stick mainly to strategic discussion.

Alternate Ubercharge target

Let’s face it, all you Soldiers out there. When it comes to sheer destructive power, Demomen leave you in the dust.

My personal opinion is that if the Medic has a Kritzkrieg ready to go, it’s better to charge the Demoman than the Soldier. This is a common tactic in European leagues, where the focus, rather than being on the Pocket Soldier-Medic combo, is really on the team’s Demoman. The team tries to keep their Demoman alive as long as possible in order to land heavy damage on the enemy (the Demoman, arguably, is the best class for that role).

demo-medic-kritzkrieg

Unfortunately, Demomen are supremely ill-equipped for defending their Medics, which is why Soldier-Medic combos are so much more common. However, in certain situations (especially those involving Kritzkriegs, toothpaste, and cans of cat food), Demoman ubers can be just the thing.

If your team chooses to run a Demoman-Medic combo for some time, make sure that the combo is very well defended! Unlike Soldier-Medic combos, which can defend themselves, Demoman combos require the Scouts and Soldiers to stick around and defend the medic from the enemy players, especially enemy Scouts.

Scouts are your arch-nemeses.

Try your best not to mess with scouts. They can take you down in two hits, they’re hard to hit, they’re fast, and they’re strong. Plus, as a Demoman, it’s not exactly easy to defend yourself. You don’t have the luxury of rocket jumping away, either.

But it’s possible to meet a Scout and live.

scout-demo-well-night

(No, cp_well doesn’t actually look like that. This is a custom skybox in ubercharged.net TF2 server 3).

The best way, of course, is just to stay alive and call for backup. If you can get a friendly Scout, or better yet, Soldier in the fray, you have a very good chance of living.

Scouts are fast and hard to hit, but they also have very low HP. Two direct explosive attacks will kill a Scout.

To survive, try to put some distance between you and the scout. If you can lay a small sticky carpet on the ground between you and the Scout, you have a good shot at escaping (but beware of the pistol, it’s a surprisingly deadly weapon at mid range).

Resist the temptation to blow up the stickies prematurely. Even the best scouts forget about sticky traps sometimes. If you can leave them on the ground for a while, it’s possible that the enemy Scout will inadvertently go over one. You have to be vigilant, though, to catch them when they’re doing so.

Also, if you can land one sticky hit on them, they’ll go high in the air, where you can take them out with an easy airpipe. If they double jump in the air to dodge, they’ll certainly take fall damage, and regardless, you can send a pipe flying towards wherever they’re going to land.

Oh, and…

If you get a ‘Fro, you are likely to be respected more. When the enemy sees that hairdo in their deathcams, they’ll want to grovel at your feet. Guaranteed.

The top hat too. Everyone respects respectable Scottish gentlemen.

Sadly, I’m still waiting on the pseudorandom number generator to decide that it’s time that I get some respect.

61 Comments »

himmelstoss on August 23rd 2009 in demoman, game classes, how to, maps, tactics, team fortress 2, ubercharged

Stumble it!

61 Responses to “Competitive TF2, Part Four: The Demoman”

Paper Shadow responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 10:41 am #

Question; If you have a different Demo Hat, such as the Top Hat, will you still be respected as much as if you have the ‘Fro?

I ask because the Top Hat is my favourite Demo Hat out of the three…
Himmelstoss responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 10:43 am #

Oh, yeah. Added that to the article.
Deepsmeg responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 10:52 am #

Top hat perch atop a ‘Fro.

Clearly, Himmel is not a Gentle Manne
Tesla Tank responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 10:53 am #

Great article.

That scout in the last picture looks damn sexy.
Feralt responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 12:16 pm #

Nice article indeed.

…

I have a DemoFro.
Adoring Fan responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 12:27 pm #

I too have the ‘fro. The sad part is I am an awful, awful Demoman. I would like to say that this article has given me some pointers, but it really hasn’t. I’m absolute shit with the sticky launcher.
Daggity responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 12:41 pm #

Wait a second, there are No True Scotsmen!
Jazmeister responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 12:43 pm #

Reporting here from Scotland, can’t seem to find any gentlemen though…
FlyingHat responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 1:34 pm #

I happen to be a gentlemanly Scotsman.
HelisPoe responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 2:47 pm #

Good article, Demoman is my second favorite (Next to Scout) class and my second most played. Something about a Black Scottish Cyclops raining down pipes has a certain ring to it.

: O I’m surprised by the lack of depth into the Demoman’s pipe bomb launcher. It’s probably one of the most fun to use weapons in the game.

I still think sticky using demomen are overpowered. Stickies are TRAPS PEOPLE, NOT A ROCKET LAUNCHER.
Corodan responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 4:37 pm #

Tesla stole mah’ thunder.

Good article. I need to branch out, Demoman sounds like a good try.

But first I need to get out of my pathetic fail-spell. D;
jrhather responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 7:59 pm #

Great article as per usual.
xeno responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 9:27 pm #

scouts: hard to hit; stickies

you’re doing it wrong

pipes are OP
Killa-Ewok responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 12:52 am #

@xeno

Oh please.
Akash responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 1:12 am #

Great article bro, I got a competitive match coming up and I’m the desired Demoman. It’s gonna be my first
This is not my real name responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 1:25 am #

Nice guide, but what is this random number generator you are talking about.
Also, whoever thinks the demo is OP needs to learn how to play.
Seriously folks, stop that.
HelisPoe responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 4:55 am #

@This is not my real name

The only part of the demoman that is OP is his sticky bombs (I DON’T CARE IF IT’S NERFED IT NEEDS BE NERFED AGAIN, IT STILL DOES A CRAP TON OF DAMAGE WITHOUT THE NEED TO AIM WELL LIKE THE PIPE BOMB LAUNCHER).

I love the Demo, that much is good. His Pipe bombs aren’t OP, they’re hard to aim but you are rewarded with good aim with really high damage output.

Now I don’t see the sticky bomb requiring ANY precise aiming. It still does a crap ton of damage (Significant enough to 125-175 health classes) without the need to aim very much. Just M1 + M2 that’s it. Being a Spy player, it’s extremely annoying when all a Demo does is pop stickies at his feet and blow me up. I don’t move fast enough to get out of the blast radius. So no, don’t say “YOU’RE DOIN IT WRON”.

Because only the Medic and Scout are actually fast enough to dodge the M1 + M2 combo.
AlphaTM responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 6:51 am #

Anything I say here would just be repeating HelisPoe, but yeah.

I have stated my ideas for fixing the Demo (”DON’T FIX WHAT AIN’T BROKE HURR”) and people have chided me for it. (”An indirect fire weapon wielded by an indirect class not being able to be direct? USELESS”) so, yeah.

I, actually, have TWO Fros.

TWO.

AND NOT A FEDORA.

OR A BEANIE.

I’m going to go cry now.

:’[
Sadahige responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 7:55 am #

A direct grenade with any sort of ramp up will kill a scout if he has the sandman, so it might be worth it to take your chances and lob grenades, just my thoughts although, I’m not exactly a great demo by any means.
Neal Kenneth responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 11:52 am #

Thanks for the new article, Himmel. I can’t wait for the rest!
Eldrake responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 4:25 pm #

@Sadahige:

Except that the Sandman has been banned in competitive gameplay, meaning that you will never find a Sandman Scout to one-shot.
EchelonThree responded on 24 Aug 2009 at 9:57 pm #

Am I the only one who thinks that the fro makes the demo look like the guy from pulp fiction?

I once said that the demo is OP, and I’ll stick with it, mostly because of the stickies being used as a direct fire weapon too easily.

Let’s look at it this way, the demoman has effectively got a weapon with the same effectiveness as the rocket launcher with twice the ammo – the stickies, he also has indirect fire.

The RL wins at long range, but the key factor is that the demo has a slight edge (about 55/45) over a soldier at medium range – the effective range of both the sticky and rocket launchers.

The soldier has a major trump in the shotgun though, and that’s probably the key reason that sollys will continue to see action (along with the 25 extra health).

In competitive play this becomes less of an issue, but nonetheless one that should be addressed.

For the record, I am a roaming soldier.
Punisher responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 3:50 am #

I have no hats, no fro, nothing………………………..
n00bie51 responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 3:58 am #

I think I’m in agreement with EchelonThree. In competitive play, the Demo Man is far from OP (Soldiers will always have an advantage over them in 1v1 at least); some may even argue that the periodic nerfs and adjustments (removal of damage reduction to self-inflicted explosives, destructible stickies, etc.) have made it much less viable for CP play than it already was.

However, regarding pubs, experienced players can empty their primary and then switch to stickies and continue firing without having to reload until they’ve fired twelve projectiles (four grenades, eight stickies). A rough analogy would be that a skilled Demo Man has a damage output similar to a Soldier that can fire twelve rockets before having to reload. Obviously, this doesn’t happen in competitive play, but in pubs a Demo Man can be successful this way.

Although Valve’s done much to nerf the poor Cyclops, skilled players will enter pubs and still dish out a gratuitous amount of damage as this class, learning to compensate for the occasional changes Valve makes to quell the numerous complaints of imbalance and over powered stickies.

I’ve been thinking about it, and honestly, I can’t think of anything that would resolve this issue that wouldn’t involve radically altering the Demo Man and/or render the class non-viable for competitive play. Perhaps it’s just a fundamental flaw in the design of the stickies and there’s not anything we can do about it.

I don’t like the Demofro either.

Also, I know a Scottish dude who’s really good at video games. That is all.
Spotter responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 6:59 am #

Nice piece
I also share your pain of being hatless
HelisPoe responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 8:35 am #

@n00bie51

I think Valve still sees the sticky bombs as an issue. I’m not worrying too much because Valve will find something to please both Demoplayers and those who find the sticky bombs OP. (Which they are)

(PIPEBOMBS ARE NOT OP).

I conclude.
Sandman responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 8:38 am #

Anyone else think hats are big red targets? Especially on pubs, people tend to learn that the demo with the top hat is the one to target first, as he’ll quickly decimate you. I know that I use them to pick targets constantly as a sniper.

Be a sheep. That’s my motto.
n00bie51 responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 9:03 am #

HelisPoe, I know Valve still sees stickies as an issue — I have little doubt they’ll make another change to the Demo Man because of it sometime in the future.

I used to say “Stickies are OP,” but now I think “over powered” isn’t the best term to use. The supposed role of sticky bombs is that they should be used to clear out entrenched Sentry Gun emplacements, to set traps and for area denial. They were not meant for direct confrontational combat, but they can do exactly that. If “The Demo Man is OP and imbalanced,” it’s not just because the stickies are over powered, but it’s because players use the class in a way that was not intended (using the secondary in place of the primary; it’s not balanced that both weapons should overlap in performing the same role). As I mentioned earlier, there’s nothing stopping players from using stickies in this manner (as of now) and it seems that anything Valve does that would sufficiently change the sticky launcher to limit it to its intended role (to quell the complaints of the Demo Man being too strong) would significantly alter the potency of the class and maybe make it weaker (and thus bring about new complaints that it’s too weak, as some even do now).
duckyinc responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 9:38 am #

The sticky bomb thing really is OP in pubs and not the sort of w+m1 OP, medium players really have no ways to counter it. I suggest that stickies range should be decreased or the charge time to increase its range put higher so it really is just used to clear sentries and to make traps. Also pyros should be able to make stickies explode after air blasting them, this’ll probably encourage some players to stop and think.
n00bie51 responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 10:25 am #

Of course, doing any of that would significantly affect the Demo Man’s effectiveness in competitive play.
HelisPoe responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 11:18 am #

@n00bie51

I still cross my fingers that Valve will address this and many other issues that still plague TF2. They’ll figure out something, they did tell us that they were working with competitive leagues to improve the game both for Pubs and competitive play.
HelisPoe responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 11:23 am #

And really, the majority of players are public players. Most (NOT ALL) of us prefer the less restricted and more free (Though in no means superior, just in terms of preference) gameplay of public servers. So obviously Valve’s updates and work will be to please their largest player base. Not that there is anything against the competitive players, but because it simply makes logical and efficient sense. This is NOTHING to say that Valve isn’t working with the competitive scene. Just keep in mind that the majority of the player base are pub players.

By public I mean the few 24 man mostly vanilla servers still out there. I like to play the game the way Valve made it to be played. (AGAIN, NOT IN ANY WAY SUPERIOR)
AlphaTM responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 11:29 am #

PFFT. The only way to fix the Demo is to (all together, everyone) make stickies so they can only detonate after they have been attached to a surface for 3-4 seconds. TELL ME HOW THIS ISN’T GENIUS I DARE YOU
n00bie51 responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 12:25 pm #

No, HelisPoe, I’m in agreement in regards to Valve catering to the majority of the player base, it’s only understandable and I don’t blame them for it.

Also, AlphaTM, people have already thought of a similar concept for the longest time, and as I mentioned earlier, doing so would make the class much less viable for competitive play and weaker altogether (although perhaps one may argue that’s the way it should have been in the first place, it’s too much radical change).
Ninja Kow responded on 25 Aug 2009 at 5:18 pm #

I’d like to have a tophat, but I guess for now I’ll have to enjoy my Spy-respect.
Nick responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 2:09 am #

I have 8 minutes of total Demoman gameplay on TF2, but I must say it:

I don’t play the demoman because the TF2 version differs a lot of the TFC Version, at least the demoman got a shotgun to close combat action. The lack of this weapon sucks in many ways…

Why the Demoman needs two grenade launcher when that can be solved with only one grenade launcher and the middle mouse button as detonator?

Even an Engineer can beat in close combat a demoman, because he have a bulletspreading middle-short range weapon (a shotgun) and a long range weapon (a pistol) and an effective wrench to deal criticals.

It’s just my tought, the Demoman it’s a dumb class in my Top 2 (First the Demoman, Second the Pyro) because the lack of need to aim, just shoot a whole load of pipebombs and kill, and a load of sticky bombs and boom!
Sandman responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 4:46 am #

AlphaTM:

You uber into a sentry nest, pop off 4 stickies on one sentry, turn, aim, and fire the last 4 on another. During that time you and your medic are being bombarded with sentry fire, the sentry pushback is usually making it take a while to get good shots at the second gun, the other team is taking aim & waiting for the uber to wear off, smart heavies are blocking your path out so that you die instantly, and smart engies are coming around to shoot your stickies.

Tell me how, a few seconds after your uber is gone, the stickies are all still there and you’re alive to detonate them.
Himmelstoss responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 7:04 am #

@Nick: Because obviously you suck at it.
AlphaTM responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 8:04 am #

WELL SANDMAN YOU ARE DUMB AND AN OVERPOWERED WEAPON SHUT UP

But if you fire 4 stickies, then turn, the first four should be detonatable. So, one sentry down. And don’t forget that SMART teammates (I’m assuming that you have smart teammates, because if the enemy engies are “smart,” then you must be playing on a server with competent players.) will rush in and shoot the Sentries while you are ubered. So… Goodbye sentries.

Also, don’t say “Well the enemy team could kill your team nyanyanyanya” because in a situation with an entire team attacking your defenses, no one can think straight.
HelisPoe responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 10:16 am #

@n00bie51
So……… I’m not getting what you’re saying. Could you be more clear?

@AlphaTM
That tweak would fix the Demoman, but then we would have people complaining about how less effective he is. Which may or may not have been the original idea for the Demoman (As n00bie pointed out).

@Sandman
Stop pulling scenarios out of your butt. Many things can happen, but trying to prove or disapprove something with scenarios really doesn’t hold up in an argument. That’s like saying the DR is useless because:
WHAT IF YOU STABBED SOMEONE AND THEN USED DR AS SOMEONE SHOT YOU AND YOU DECLOAKED IN A CORNER SOMEWHERE AND THEY HERD IT AND KEELD U?

See? Moot.
Sandman responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 11:20 am #

HelisPoe:

I wasn’t talking to you, I was addressing a concern of someone else. If you read up, you’ll see that it was requested. Not once did I say that I was arguing about whether the demo is OP or not. I wasn’t. Please check your assumptions next time.

AlphaTM:

lol @ first sentence But under your scenario (3-4 seconds before detonating), I won’t have a chance to detonate as I turn. I’d have to detonate to kill the first sentry in the middle of laying my second volley of stickies on the other gun. Thus, my first 1-2 stickies on the second gun might go off as well (or I might get partial detonation on the first set). This would enable a tanking engie to repair and leaves at least 1 gun standing if my timing isn’t exactly perfect.

You’re right, I won’t argue that their team could kill my team, because that can happen with or without sentries. But IMHO, most of the time it’s better for your “smart” teammates to hang back, keep full health and clips, and rush in once the demo has the guns down (and with pipebombs, many of the enemies low on health). I admit that a kritz-soldier a few steps behind me is an utterly devastating friend to have, but as we know critical hits don’t affect sentries so I’d rather him target the enemies while they’re running/distracted. I stand by my argument – a delay in detonation nukes the effectiveness of the uber-demo against sentry nests. Especially to players who aren’t highly skilled – which is who we’re trying to help.

(Of course, a truly smart teammate would be a spy and would sap everything for me, allowing me to use pipebombs to finish them off Those are simply glorious moments of teamwork.)
EchelonThree responded on 26 Aug 2009 at 2:09 pm #

@ Nick
If you think that TF2 should be played the same way as TFC, you’re one of the reasons we needed a new game in the first place.

Your problem is that you’re stuck in the TFC mindset, right now the demoman has new strengths and new weaknesses.

If we all played like you, we’d see combat medics all over and sentry farms popping up all over the place.

@ Sandman
Your scenarios would be much better if they were more general and realistic.
Nick responded on 27 Aug 2009 at 12:33 am #

@EchelonThree

No, I don’t think TF2 should be played like TFC.
TFC was good time ago, but the technology advanced and there is a lot of new possibilities with the Source Engine. Im not a past-whore ranting about TF2.
I just wanted to state the lack of close combat weapon on the demoman.
NotJim responded on 27 Aug 2009 at 10:09 am #

@Nick,

He’s meant to be an indirect combat class, the only one in TF2. (dunno what the engy falls under) Ergo, nothing that is really suitable for close combat.
HelisPoe responded on 27 Aug 2009 at 10:31 am #

Yeah Echelon nailed exactly what I was trying to say. Think realistically Sandman. If your team is good enough to protect a medic to get an uber, chances are, you’re going to win unless the other team has a counter uber.

Thus why ubers where made into the game. It encourages teamplay and breaking of stalemates and chokepoints.
EchelonThree responded on 27 Aug 2009 at 6:12 pm #

@ Nick
So like…. the class with no close-combat weapons is weak at close range…. wow…
[Official] OCN TF2 Team - Page 54 - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net responded on 28 Aug 2009 at 11:06 am #

[...] four of the Competitive Team Fortress Guide has come out. Competitive Demoman One of the main jobs of a Demoman (and his most obvious one) is area denial. There are two ways to [...]
Xadavid responded on 28 Aug 2009 at 12:14 pm #

Would the pyro, sniper and the heavy be considered competitive?
himmelstoss responded on 28 Aug 2009 at 1:28 pm #

@Xadavid: Yes, they can, though it’s tricky. Part six of the guide will discuss those classes in depth. Part five should be out in a day or two.
wat responded on 29 Aug 2009 at 2:17 pm #

There is one surefire fix i have heard for the demomans sticky launcher.
Make each sticky go up logarithmically in damage based on the number of stickys around it.
have it so that one sticky (IE, the one spammed at you by that annoying noob demoman) does only 25-50 damage or so, but having a trap of 4 will kill level 3 sentries and overhealed heavys. this will encourage the class to be played correctly, but also not completely nerf the gun or drastically change the play style.
AlphaTM responded on 29 Aug 2009 at 2:33 pm #

Actually, wat, that sounds pretty good.
gelugon2105 responded on 04 Sep 2009 at 6:38 pm #

Urgh. The Demoman is already very heavily nerfed damage-wise, and the current nerfs actually do not make much sense, really. Just Valve’s way of quieting the masses. There’s no need to nerf the damage any more than it is.

If a bunch of Demomen are demolishing the other team, that’s because the other team is painfully disorganized. I personally knows this because as a Medic, I watch idiots that I am healing run straight towards those Demomen all the time and get gibbed by dead-on grenades.
robot makes music responded on 07 Sep 2009 at 6:46 am #

I like the kritzdemo pic – it looks like medic’s kritzing the demo’s ass.
The Competitive TF2 Guide : Team Fortress 2 (TF2) på Onlinegamer.se responded on 12 Sep 2009 at 8:31 pm #

[...] The Demoman [...]
Kenny responded on 18 Sep 2009 at 10:27 pm #

This guide is exactly how anyone should play the demoman. I agree with everything except for the ‘fro=respect. Top hat FTW!
zaper151 responded on 23 Sep 2009 at 3:32 pm #

@nick

you must be pretty bad not to kill a engy at any range
felllike responded on 28 Sep 2009 at 8:58 am #

i don’t really have the authority to give a proper opinion, i’m just an average player (at best). but from my experience the scenarios where the demo seems overpowered are normally on pub servers (esp dustbowl) where the defending team has a LOT of demos, the constant spam of stickies is really hard to break, even for a quite coordinated team. in a competitive match, normally with one demo per side, there is so much space that the demo can’t cover everything hence the points that he stickies are down to his skill and prediction.. this takes the spam element away. there is a real skill to where and when he uses his stickies (i know this bcos i suck at playing demo )
SweetLikeGravy responded on 27 Nov 2009 at 2:07 am #

I only have the glengarry bonnet
RhusRadicans responded on 31 Dec 2009 at 5:23 am #

Has the competetive community had time to respond to the new demo/soldier unlocks?

I imagine the close combat kit is too big a break from the demo’s traditional combat role to see much use in competition, but the Scottish Resistance seems like a more viable option in some cases. I know it will be widely disregarded because the increased arm time makes it difficult to use in direct combat, but on defence it can multiply a demo’s area denial capabilities.

thoughts? (especially from main demo players)
Ghiduri Team Fortress 2 – Demoman-ul « Team Fortress 2 Romania Blog responded on 04 Apr 2010 at 12:28 pm #

[...] – http://www.ubercharged.net/2009/08/23/competitive-tf2-part-four-the-demoman/ [...]
Graven_Image responded on 01 Aug 2010 at 4:38 am #

The bonnet does not command deference. It commands respect.

YEW WILL RESPEHCT MAH AUTHORITAH!