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8.18.2006

Part 2 of the TF Class Revue!

This time, it's personal.

Well, not really.


See previous post to make sense of this.

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1.5 Medic

My alltime favorite class. Not just because one hit kills (sorta... after a while... if they don't get healed... which happens less and less as players get smarter), and not just because you are the definition of an intuitive support class, but because of the balance. If you go offense, you're the second best flagcapper, thanks to conks, footspeed, and healing. If you go defense, you can heal allies, doom attackers to a quick death, and uncover spies. Even in midfield, infection can make a big difference, since it's unlike a player will get healed behind enemy lines. There is simply nothing bad about this class other than some days, you're all points, and other days - squat. But like I said, it's got the word "Team" in the title, and a good medic has loads of ways to show this.

This is why I feel he should be the last class to be nerfed. Soldier, Engie, and Medic should be the backbone of a team, especially if it is so easy to scout-proof a base.

1.6 HWGuy

Heavy Weapons Guy is like a Soldier. Only slower, tougher, and no splash damage. It's a tradeoff that favors the Soldier as a better, more fun class. But as long as it doesn't involve rocket jumping, the HWguy can do everything the Soldier can do. Just slower. And two things a Soldier can't do is guard a small hallway to 100% effectiveness (damage AND forceback from HWGuy's bullet stream) or inflict as much short term damage as the ole' MIRV grenade. In fact, I'm willing to best that the most damage that can be done by one class at one time would be a HW throwing a MIRV WHILE chopping them down with the minigun. Even another HW can't last long in that. So he's got that going for 'im.

1.7 Pyro

Pyro was the class that appealed to me first, since he was like a Soldier, only a little weaker, more of a nuisance, and because fire rules (cue Beavis saying "FIRE!! FIRE!! Heh heh"). I found out that he was a too little "Soldier", too much nuisance. Other thanspiess and scouts, Pyro is the weakest fighter in a confrontation. Unlike those two, it seems Pyro was designed specifically for battle.

Still, that doesn't make him unusable. A good pyro can work the midfield and defense fairly well. The fire eats away at enemies over time, more like a mild acid than napalm. If a persistent pyro really wants to take one or two players out of the opposing players offensive scheme, that offense will find themselves having to take extreme measures trying to free themselves of the pest that brings them to about one-third of their armor and health before they even get to the flag defense.

1.8 Spy

The thinking man's class. The spy is the best deceptive class in any first person shooter I've ever seen. Invisibility? I've never seen it done well enough graphically to be worth it. Smoke Screen? Splash Damage makes it all but pointless. The spy can mimic the other team. A good spy knows the illusion only starts with looking like the enemy. The master spy is the one who can act like it. A good spy, more than a good scout, can break a game (and enemy defense) wide open. Having both working together is a key to a truly elite offense. Very tough to learn the intricacies of the subterfuge though. Probably the only class I would say that I haven't been able to use effectively against stiff competition.


1.9 Engineer

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say, even though he isn't my favorite class, The Engineer is the class that truly separates Team Fortress from any other team based shooter. He gives the game a unique identity and provides a mechanic that is simply not found in any other game. The game is called Fortress in practically all versions of it, and it's because of the Sentry Gun. What is a Fort if not a building with capable, static defenses? Not unbeatable ones, of course, but one that take either surgical expertise, or multiplayer coordination to overcome.

Besides the Sentry, the 'Geer is a master support class, is useful on offense or defense, has arguably the most devastating grenade in the game, and everything he builds (in some games he can build teleporters in addition to a dispenser and the sentry. Oh, did I mention that this game ships with PORTAL, a game all about TELEPORTATION!!!) can detonate remotely, with at least the power of a rocket.

If you care about wins more than points, you owe it to yourself to learn how to play as, and against, the Engineer.

That's our show! Thanks for watching!

1 Comments:

Blogger Riess said...

Pyro forever!!!

3:19 PM  

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