I'm distracted by speedruns at the moment, but I'll try to check your channel out. Maybe leave some comments of my amazing TF2 wisdom!!

inb4Clank

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n049JQaXAPE

this series has everything you need to properly play TF2

>>125836

Thanks for the link. I watched the series in full and subscribed, but I do know the vast majority of that stuff already (didn't know that picking up health kits at full health recharged the sandvich, though I'm sure I probably heard it somewhere before).

That, and not everything in those descriptions is absolute (scouts taking teleporters, for example, can be valid aside from them using the baby face's blaster).

And, of course, Krunk's rule... Well, I try to play a class that's received some of the least playtime and is a class my team needs, so believe you me when I say that I understand that there are almost always too many snipers and spies. That said, three total on the team is not necessarily a bad thing. It depends on the situation at hand, the number of players on the team, and what's getting done. If there's a sniper and a spy, but that sentry nest is destroying your team, then they clearly aren't doing their jobs and somepony needs to do it. In that situation, you aren't the one wasting the team slot; they are. And they'll be wasting the team slot whether you go sniper or spy or not.

They are very hilarious, though, and they do provide good advice. Thank you.

Though I do disagree with it having everything I need. Where's the episode on dealing with counterpops, darnit?!

I can't really help with combat tactics since I main medic, but I'll try to point a few things out

1. You're trying to play too perfect. I understand if you're criticizing yourself for dying, but saying 'I didn't kill that spy fast enough' or 'I didn't get that ammo fast enough' Doesn't really get you anywhere. Things like that are learned passively through play, not something you should immediately worry about.

2. The easiest way to get better is to play with people who are better than you. In that regard it seems like you're lacking. You don't have to do anything competitive, just find a server with dedicated regulars and figure out what they do in situations you don't know how to handle. Learning by osmosis is the easiest way to get better at most things

3. You need more weapons. Honestly, you're at a disadvantage with an only-stock arsenal. It's not that stock is bad, it's just that being deprived of that variety makes your options very limited. First thing I would do is get a degreaser, personally.

Other than that, I think it's great that you're trying to get better at tf2, it's an awesome game and probably the most unique fps out there.

Oh, and as for the counter-pop, you pretty much did all you can do. It was the offense that screwed up by not jumping on the point to block any captures.

>>125838
>get headphones so you can hear more

I don't get this. Do people really think headphones make you hear more or something?

>>125841

Actually, I'd say right now that medic is my worst class. I can even go scoped sniper or pyro better than I do medic, so I could really use help in that area. I would definitely appreciate any advice you could give me in regards to that, and I do appreciate your advice so far.

I would like to comment on your advice, but I realized that my post would have to be pretty darn huge to respond to it all, so I'll leave a thanks in one of my videos and comment on it if it's relevant.

I do sometimes play on servers with regulars that are way beyond my skill, just because I happen to love maps that aren't official. I made a video [www.youtube.com] where I play on one of those servers, but I get destroyed (though that could have something to do with the fact that I was trying to throw mad milk on everypony I saw just for the sake of the video).

Don't worry about me discouraging myself through criticism. I know that it will take time to get better, but it helps when I actually notice that I've made a mistake and point it out to myself. I don't think I would have noticed the fact that I spent too long waiting to get health or that I always try to fire off one last shot as a huntsman (which usually gets me killed) for a very long time if I hadn't watched that play and pointed it out to myself. Now that I know the issue is there, I can work to correct it. The criticism is entirely positive, I assure you.

>>125842
Oh it does...It does.
I don't know how many times my flank was save cause I heard a certain class voice or a spy decloaking.

Liking being able to hear a sentry or something.

Okay, I've added two new videos since my last post:

Black Box on Harvest [www.youtube.com] and Week 04 Update [www.youtube.com], which has some good news and some bad news.

For the black box on Harvest, I really don't do as much with the black box in those critical situations where it's key as much as I could have if I was... y'know... a better player, but it does work for helping to keep me on the front lines quite a bit in that video.

>>125871

Yeah, after watching it a few times, I noticed that it was just a forward jump.

I do know about the various uses of rocket jumping, I'm just fairly useless at everything except hitting my feet for now.

I don't think the escape plan is rubbish. It was nerfed, certainly, but if you're a couple of hits away from death anyway, isn't it better to get to the health ASAP? I can point to a couple of times where I died and I wouldn't have with the escape plan.

I could've sworn I'd turned off mouse acceleration, but it turns out that I hadn't. Let's see how that affects my ability to headshot and quick-stab.

I do know where health and ammo locations are on maps. It's actually a very important part of learning how to use the black box effectively. The only thing I can do to explain why and why I happen to be doing so much better with the black box than the default rocket launcher is to link vhalin's video on the subject [www.youtube.com].

I'm not going to respond to everything, but thank you very much for your thoughts and advice.

>>125872
I wish they would have decreased the Escape Plan's base damage instead of marking you. I would have liked if it did half the damage of a regular melee weapon. The Escape Plan is supposed to primarily be used to escape, and a minicrit a lot of times can be the difference between a death and a massive speed boost to getting away from the next hit.

My personal problem with the Escape Plan was that it gave a Soldier the soldier quick speed and the same amount of melee damage, which does make it difficult if the soldier is close up to you, trying to take you down with his melee, especially to demomen. At lower health, it essentially made him a scout when it came to a close quarters fight.

They shouldn't have penalized the escaping function, they should have penalized other uses of it. Still a good weapon, just more risk now. I personally use the Disciplinary Action now. It has a hidden long range attribute to it even though having a damage penalty.

>>125871
The Black Box is a very, very good primary weapon. It works especially well on certain maps like 2fort, where there's not a lot of health packs to begin with, or you're in a situation where you're pestering and watching yourself more than you are going on the offensive.

I'll usually rocket jump my way behind enemy lines, especially on a map like Upward and shoot at an Engineer and his buildings, gaining me health in the process of doing so. It takes a lot more time to go back for that health pack, assuming the Engie is in that generic place on first, and more dangerous to go back.

Black Box is a common situational weapon. It's definitely a different playing style where you're being more careful or don't plan on taking on heavy classes. If there's an annoying sniper killing my team, I might use the gunboats and the blackbox, jumping myself over there and shooting him as I come down or as I land, gaining back all that health to have enough to escape when other enemies start coming for me. It's definitely a bit of a "Lone Ranger" primary.

Always Pop before you drop.

>>125885

You're thinking of the Black Box all wrong. Again, I stress that you watch vhalin's video. He's one of the top UGC Platinum players and does both 6v6 and Highlander. That video is a commentary on a Highlander match, in fact, though I believe it is a scrim.

I was going to type out a 3+ paragraph explanation, but... it really would just be what vhalin said in his video.

As for the escape plan, watch that Harvest video again. You'll see that they didn't start firing at me until I was near the doorway. If I had the escape plan, I would have been through the doorway. You're thinking that you'll be using it under fire, but that's not the correct way to use it now. Nowadays, it's for when you take a lot of damage in a fight and have a bit of breathing room. Either that or the same usage as the GORU, but after a couple rocket jumps (it's always been used for rollouts, though).

The fact of the matter is that the Escape Plan, as it was, was far too overpowered. It's not that the other Soldier melee weapons are crap (most are quite good); it's that the Escape Plan was so much better than even them that everypony was equipping it.

As far as the whip goes, that relies on having an ally around. It is useful, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't have the same use as the Escape Plan.

>>125880

If they had done that, it still would have made the other Soldier weapons kind of pointless by comparison. Every soldier would still be equipping it simply because it's that good.

>>125890

I will admit to dropping uber three times since I started this "Let's Learn" series. First in my Fastlane video, where I was whacking the heavy in the back with my Ubersaw and didn't realize I had it (really stupid mistake there). Second was during my stream, when I died as I was clicking the button. Third was during a game on Gorge that I didn't record where I was trying to get my beam on a particular Soldier amidst a mass of other allies.

I don't think any of them would have happened if I was a better player, but it's all part of the learning process.

Also, I'm pretty sure that, if I had popped that second time, we would have won. The fact that I dropped it caused our loss.

>>125885
If you're pushing, a medic will usually stick to a heavy or a demoman. As a Soldier, I try to give the medic this option by being able to be self sufficient, but still fearsome in a group. The extra rocket isn't that important if you pick your shots right. You only need two rockets for an enemy soldier, and a heavy, only three, if you get the shots right, which I usually do. I've faced heavies before where I was at medium range with them, so they were chewing me down, but not as quickly as I was chewing him up, since I had the Black Box and escaped that battle, winning it, with 30 health, the Black Box having saved me. It's situational, but it is a life saver.

The Black Box allows you to be self sufficient when you need to roam.

One of the important parts of playing a Soldier is paying attention to the map. It doesn't matter if the map is poorly designed, that's how it's made, and you can either adapt to that or go play on a different map and use the stock rocket launcher. One of the things about unlocks is that they fit well with broad situations better than there All-Around Good stock counterparts.

>>125895
It still would have been good, but only in one regard, and I like that. You basically are switching a melee weapon for faster speed.

>>125898

That's an important point in general: Adapting to the situation. I find that people that diss everything outside of the metagame "best" weapons tend to use any weapons other than them as if they were that weapon. A good example in this very thread: Trying to play with the Black Box in the same way as you would with the default rocket launcher. In my Harvest video, when I did my best, I was up on the rooftops playing a harassment role; I wasn't trying to go for this kill or that, but rather to play a supporting role. I got top scoring in that last life because, when you do that, you're in a position where you can get the medic or kill the distracted Heavy or surprise the pyro or whatever.

But now I'm practically quoting vhalin. That video really tells you most everying about what makes the Black Box better if you know how to adapt your playstyle.

As for the Escape Plan, well... unless you're Equalizing or Market Gardening, how often do you really use your melee weapon in battle, as a Soldier? This is why the shovel is useless to most: Soldiers just don't use melee weapons very often. It still is good, but you just can't overuse it like everypony used to. Part of the point of the rebalancing was to buff the weapons that nobody uses and to nerf the ones that are just so obviously too good. The escape aspect of the Escape Plan was too good. Now, it still has the escape aspect, but it's much more situational than it was before.

>>125898

>Melee weapon sacrifice

Considering that Soldier barely used his to begin with, this was never seen as a big loss.

That's why when the Equalizer was split in twain, everypony gravitated towards the Escape Plan. Because ZOOM ZOOM was the function the weapon was being used for in the first place. I AM SUPERMAN AT LOW HP was only ever used for gits and shiggles, or the occasional surprise gibbing.

>>125906
You kidding? It wasn't for shits and giggles, the original Equalizer was a bad flank weapon for taking out your attacker when you were already close to dying. You could close in quickly and not have to worry about the splash damage of your primary. The shotgun was barely used to begin with, since you needed the gunboats, so the Equalizer was an extremely good melee weapon to have in your arsenal.

I still use the new Equalizer, just not as much as before. I'll usually use it when I know I'm going to be up close and personal, and there's not a lot of space. The battlements on hightower is a perfect example, or the hightower itself.

The problem is not many people used it strategically, and the ones who did were usually very, very good at it, which was one reason why it was nerfed. The old Equalizer had a very low skill floor and a very high skill ceiling.

>>125912

>Lmao well you'll excuse me for not taking UGC seriously.

Did you seriously just say that? Why?

>>125912
>hahahahahAHAHAHA
Elaborate on your point or I can't take it seriously. The gunboats are probably the most used secondary for the Soldier. It's more important to save health with rocket jumping than it is to have the shotgun. I probably even use the Concherer more than the shotgun. The original Equalizer was very good for making up for this.

I'll usually sneak up on the heavies first, since I'm a roaming soldier with the black box. If I can get that first direct hit on him, I'm golden, and can survive whatever he throws are me with my other shots. If I can take out the heavy before he has a chance to make it to the front lines, that's a life saver for my team.

Just because the map is bad or doesn't have a lot of med kits doesn't make me immediately give up and goof off. I like to goof off on certain maps already. On a map like badlands, where health kits are only in closed corridors or chokepoints, I'll probably use the Black Box to avoid going in there and pogo jump my way from one spire to the other, having the Black Box to recover my health instead of inevitable team mates who go that way. I might start using the stock for that jump again though, since now they took out that little rock that messes me up every time trying to get to the spire.

The Black Box really is an anti-meta game weapon, and it works very well at that.

>>125915
UGC isn't that great, actually. Competitive play never comes down to weapon usage, anyways. A soldier could be paraspritediering and still win if he has a good team and communication.

>>125919

But that assumes that vhalin isn't a good player in his own right, and I mentioned in my post that he's one of the top soldiers in UGC Platinum. It's not his team carrying him. In fact, in the video, he points out just how much his Black Boxing is helping his team.

The assumption here is that it's his team carrying him, but if anything, it's the opposite. He's shutting down the engineer, sniper, and scout for most of that video along with getting a couple picks on the medic.

And all because the Black Box allows him to flank much more effectively. And yeah, he's a good player besides, but the Black Box does help him and he is more effective because of it.

Also, I'd like to see a video of a team with a paraspritedier winning in a UGC Platinum scrim.

Oh, right, and:

>>125912

Here's the video of it happening [www.youtube.com], at the exact time. First goes the medic (he would have died even without the crit), then goes the heavy, then the pyro. Then I get headshot because I stand around like a noob/scrub. This is all while I miss all over the place, so don't act like it's a crutch and I won't do better in those situations as I improve.

Not only that, but I did get some damage on some other players, helping my team that way.

In other words: Don't go toe to toe with heavies. That's stupid. Hit them from the flank while they're distracted. See: Professor Hugbox's post about sneaking up on heavies (in other words, flanking them).

>>125922
I'm not saying that Vhalin isn't a good player, I'm saying that UGC isn't something to base what's a good weapon or not. Anypony can take a bad weapon and utilize it to their advantage. Would they have been able to be more efficient with another weapon? Maybe. Just because a pro uses it doesn't make it good. The weapon should stand out in its own regard and be keen to the mechanics of the game (like health pack scarcity) than the person who uses it.

At least in that video of Vhalin, he's not even that good.

>>125923

Believe you me, I am fully aware of that. I talk about the fact that the Degreaser isn't the end-all, be-all of flamethrowers that people seem to think it is in my latest video [www.youtube.com] (I also give a shout-out to SkyChama, Clank, and you, though I forget to give a HUUUUUUUUUGE thanks to Clank for noticing that I had mouse acceleration enabled). I actually prefer flamethrower/reserve shooter/axestinguisher more simply because it's a lot more versatile, especially compared to the degreaser/flare gun/axestinguisher combo that metagame fanatics love so much.

But Clank dismissed it based on a lack of knowledge of who vhalin is, so I was explaining it to him.

Also, vhalin was messing up a bit in that video, but he was clearly being a much bigger credit to the team with the Black Box than he could have been with the rocket launcher. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that there's not even a point where he could use a fourth rocket after switching. Not only that, but he explains why it's so useful, which is the main point.

>>125929

All of that is a red herring argument when I present vhalin, one of the top UGC Platinum players (including and especially as a soldier), as an expert in playing soldier. None of that says anything against him being an expert or even how knowledgeable UGC Platinum players are in general. All of that is basically you just getting pissy at the league because I'm guessing you had a bad experience with it somewhere along the line. In fact, I could go further in my guessing (in fact, let's just say that your kind of complaints aren't new to me, though it's not about UGC), but I won't. The point is that your argument is fallacious in its entirety.

I don't like Highlander or even 6v6. Heck, just class limits make me roll my eyes, but if you're going to argue that vhalin shouldn't be considered an expert on playing soldier, find a better argument.

>>125930
I personally use the Degreaser/shotgun/postal pummeler set, or the Backscratcher if there's no medics on the team. Powerjack helps close that gap between you and an enemy, and the damage vulnerability isn't that big of a deal. I'll usually fight them on fire, airblast them and shoot them with the shotgun, then if they start to run, chase after them with increased speed and get that extra health. I personally just don't like the axtinguisher because your biggest problem, if you know how to airblast, at least, is going to be an enemy pyro. Axtinguisher combos aren't worth it a lot of the times for more open areas or stronger classes. Either way, the backscratcher provides a base increase in melee damage, and is EXTREMELY good against enemy pyros. If all else fails, I still have my six shots with the shotgun that I can use at a medium range against enemies and not having to worry about getting them in the air for a critical hit.

>>125931
Either way, UGC shows that they're UGC players, not pro players. Somepony like STAR_ who doesn't even play competitive would mop the floor with other UGC players. Not ALL of them, because STAR_ isn't spectacular, but he's good regardless of his affiliations.

I don't like competitive really, but if I were running the show, Highlander or Double Highlander (2 of each) is definitely how I would run it.

Last edited at Wed, Jul 31st, 2013 18:15

>>125932

I think you mean the powerjack. The Postal Pummeler is an Axestinguisher reskin.

But... yeah. I do like the powerjack. I just wouldn't be able to use that extra speed to my advantage. I have enough trouble hitting melee on a regular speed pyro, let alone one that's running faster than a medic (another point about it is that you can chase down medics with it).

That said, I will probably give it a try, but I'm probably going to go ahead and try to get it regularly, rather than trading scrap for it.

>>125931
<wall>UGC's bar is also fairly low, if their 6's players and their highlander players playing 6's are anything to go by.

If you think this is just because of some grudge then allow me to put it this way: the Black Box has never ever been banned in 6's, except maybe when it came out in the middle of a season. How many people do you see running it? Okay, rhetorical since you don't know about it, but I'll say it's restricted to low-open, UGC, and pugs.
It's not a coincidence. Saying it can compete with the stock launcher implies that these teams who want to win, don't want to touch it simply because it's "not the meta."
Most people as far as I've seen who come from a regular background also only play highlander to goof off, that is to say, play other classes and use other weapons that they wouldn't when they're actually trying to win. Run this test: try and find a video of vhalin playing 6's that's not a random lobby or pugscrim, where he's using the Black Box.

Even if he is an "expert," whatever that means, it should at least be justifiable when you think and experience it. I say that the loss of one rocket implies too much: the loss of that mobility and damage stacks up too high, and those small 15 health buffs only help in long, protracted battles where nobody's getting any kills. Your counterargument should not be "x says its good" without any back up, and then calling my argument fallacious because I don't accept what he says.

If they wanted to make it good, it should do a base of 72 damage and heal you 25% of that new base (72+18=90), and have 4 full rockets. Implying Valve knows how to balance anything that delicately lmoa rfol lool.

>>125932
Please no, I don't even want to think of a server with 36 people on it for any reason other than trading aha.

>>125933
Reserve shooter is decent, and pretty easy. Although with peero I find shotgun is still the best, because once the enemy gets out of the breathing range of your flamethrower, what else are you gonna do?

Powerjack is now a mini equalizer without the health requirements, you can use it to get around rather than as an actual weapon, and degreaser makes the downside negligible.
You should probably trade a scrap for it, because otherwise "getting it regularly" involves waiting on the odds that one of the hundreds of weapons you could get turns out to be it.

>>125932

Actually, STAR_ does play competitive. UGC Platinum, in fact. He played Sniper in one season and Pyro last season [www.youtube.com].

Eh. I would prefer it just be standard Valve setup: 12v12 with no class limits. The problem I have with 6v6 or Highlander is that playing competitive means that you're not actually playing the game. It is, in fact, an entirely different game.

>>125934

Translation: "6v6 is all that matters because I say so."

I was going to type up several paragraphs, but instead, I'll just say this: Oh, look. A 6v6 fanboy. And I could have sworn this was a thread about TF2, not CoD.

Actually, you know what? I'll go further: TF2 is a game that emphasizes a larger battlefield and interclass dynamics. 6v6 completely removes 80% of TF2 and breeds players that stand still never look behind them [www.youtube.com] and don't understand that you don't shoot rockets at a pyro [www.youtube.com]. 6v6 is completely removed from the actual game, and just because your favorite 6's players get their flankes handed to them when they switch to Highlander doesn't mean that they're goofing off. Chances are, they just can't handle playing an actual game of TF2.

And I do have backup. He justifies the use of the Black Box in the video I linked. My video on the Black Box shows how good it can be, even in the hands of somepony as bad at the game as me. I have plenty that I provide to you every post to back up my argument, you're just ignoring it.

>>125934

By the way, this brings up a fantastic (poker-related) point: I'm not playing 6v6.

In fact, I will never play TF2 6v6 simply because I have no respect for the format.

How does this relate to poker? Well, in poker, playing against professional players is a lot different than playing against fish. And playing against Rocks is a lot different than playing against Gamblers. You could be fantastic at taking the income out from under Rocks, but if you can't adjust your play for the average fish, you're going to lose all your money to them and you're just a shit player in general.

What makes it even more relatable is the fact that there's shorthand play (6 at a table) and regular (9 or 10). There's also heads-up, and, if you play tournaments, you'll likely end up playing against anywhere from 1 to 9 other people at some point (assuming that you're good enough to final table). Just funny how the numbers match up, but here's the thing: There are a lot of poker players that can final table like pros, but once things get shorthanded, they completely fail. I actually had this problem with Stud8 for the longest time, and I'd probably still have it if I played Stud8 anymore.

The point is that you're bringing up 6v6 like it can be applied to any and all games, but it can't. As I said before, it's so far removed from any actual play outside of 6v6 that even discussing it is pointless. It's like talking about how Jennifer Harman is a pretty average as far as the famous professionals go when it comes to tournaments while ignoring the fact that she's a fantastic cash game player (where it really matters for professional poker players).

Oh, and I mentioned CoD before. My bad. 6v6 is a CS legacy, not CoD.

Actually, talk of poker tournaments made me wonder if maybe the same could be done for TF2. Have 16v16 matches of randomly assigned players (randomly assigned each round). Those that win the most games in a level advance to the next level until there are 16 players left. Then it goes 8v8, 4v4, 2v2, and then 1v1.

Just a thought.

So I just wanted to let you guys know that, this morning, I traded for those Pyro weapons (Degreaser, Flare Gun, Reserve Shooter, Postal Pummeler, and Backscratcher) and gave them a try on Nucleus, which is just... like... the best Pyro map. Lots of narrow corridors, a giant pit for airblasting, and plenty of cover for flare gun reloading? Gotta love it.

Anyways, I'm really loving the degreaser/flare gun/backscratcher combo. I didn't do quite as good against pyros as I was expecting, but I only had one or two pyro fights and I didn't really switch to it as quickly as I probably should have. I even had trouble this past game with using the shotgun options (I also tried flamethrower/reserve shooter/postal pummeler for one round and degreaser/shotgun/postal pummeler for one round) against pyros, so maybe it's just that I need to up my pyro game.

I also did do pretty darn well with reflects this game (except when I decided to charge a soldier with the pummeler... for some reason). It's always nifty to see an intelligent soldier switch off his launcher when he realizes that that gibus pyro can, in fact, reflect rockets. Of course, nine times out of ten, it doesn't help. He's already down to 67 health vs. a faster, 175 health guy that also has a shotgun, so he's screwed.

Still, I do like seeing that sort of stuff. Partially because I happen to like switching weapons.

Speaking of, I equipped the reserve shooter on my soldier and gave it a shot on Badwater. I want to point out that there was one time where I probably would have survived if I had an extra rocket, but I could also have survived if I hadn't missed so bad. So there's that.

Also, it was a pyro, so if I was a better player playing against other players, I probably would have died in that matchup anyway.

I didn't miss the three extra shots from the shotgun very much, but the switching really wasn't too helpful. I still managed to do pretty darn well, though.

So... yeah. My pyro and soldier gameplays are looking pretty good right now. They're far from perfect, but certainly much better than they were when I started. It really emphasizes just how important it is to consider the actual gameplays over the PPD or KPD. Even though those have improved, the improvement really shows in when I'm hitting >50% reflects, getting behind and harassing my enemies. One life as a soldier, for example, I got one kill, but I managed to completely disrupt their push and give my team time to get their defense going. Of course, if I was a better player, I would have checked the tunnel before sneaking up behind the rest of the team and therefore might have gotten more kills or been able to get out of there alive, but I still did the team a great service, even though my PPD and KPD that life will read as 1.

>>125949
>I traded for those Pyro weapons (Degreaser, Flare Gun, Reserve Shooter, Postal Pummeler, and Backscratcher) and gave them a try on Nucleus

You're doing TF2 videos and don't even have most of the weapons?

Man, I've had every weapon since 08 and would get new weapons after each release in under a week. Gotta have a very large arsenal.

Anyways, we should play some matches together, because I'll mop the floor with you. Kidding, but really, I'm going to be starting a TF2 commentary channel in a few weeks here once I get some certain things set up and completed, and it'd be nice to have another Youtube TF2er to play with at times, kind of like Jerma and Star_ do

>>125952

I think you need to reread the first post, and/or watch rules video [www.youtube.com]. I actually had all but the Backscratcher (and could have easily traded for it at any time), but I decided to start over from scratch completely. Which means that I deleted all my old weapons and just started over with only stock.

It was painful, especially for Soldier (Black Box and Escape Plan), Pyro (weapons listed), and Engie (Jag, Widowmaker, Frontier Justice, Wrangler, and Gunslinger), but it had to be done. I also hated missing out on the Amputator, of whose taunt I am a fan.

Since I restarted, of those, I'm still missing the Escape Plan, the Widowmaker, the Jag, and the Wrangler.

Oh, and I have a couple of achievement items I haven't yet gotten, but I've been deleting achievement items as I get them to keep it "pure."

By the way, another rule I set was that I would always wear a gibus. The gibus would signify that I am a noob and would show everypony as such until I become skilled. The only exception is the memory of my past, crafted with the scrap metal I receieved from scrapping all my weapons: A hat for my demoman whose name I forget but it's the pirate one.

Once my year of learning is complete, I'll have prooved that I am no noob and thus worthy of something aside from the symbol of the noob.

By the way, playing pyro is so much fun. I was trying to think of the best feeling as a pyro, but it's really hard to say. Killing a soldier with a reflected rocket? That's pretty awesome. Airblasting somepony off a cliff/into a hole? I love it. Airblasting a rocket into that soldier's teammates? That's gotta make them rage.

In short, I love playing pyro.

>>125955
Pyro is nice, but doesn't have as high of a skill ceiling that Soldier, Scout or Demoman has. A soldier can time his rockets so that the pyro doesn't time his airblasting right. What I'll usually do is that if I see the pyro airblasting one of my rockets, I'll start shooting at him with a bit of a random delay for each rocket afterwards. It throws the pyro off and is very hard to time the airblast if I'm already at mid range with the pyro.

Pyro is fun, and one of the most fun things to do as a pyro is to rocket jump with a reflected rocket, like in this first clip of LazyPurple's "Return to Offender": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S8uJKNuXQY

I could never delete all of my weapons, because it would be SO painful. I have mostly Strange and Genuine weapons anyhoof, which some are pretty expensive.

>>125959

Well, I had no stranges. I was a free player before I started this series anyway, so I had a tiny backpack and not many weapons (just my favorites).

Yeah, I saw that video before and it does look like it would be a fun thing to do, but I like doing things that, y'know, kill people and whatnot.

I watch the rockets to time my reflects, man. It's not based on when the last rocket left, but rather when that rocket will get to me.

See? Already got good practices. Now I just need to get a little better with the timing and a little more accurate.

And also not rush soldiers with postal pummelers, whether or not they're on fire.

Seriously. What was that?

Anyways, yeah. Scout, to me, is the easiest class to learn, but a hard class to master. With scout, you really don't need to learn a lot of things, you just need to practice doing them well. The problem I have with Soldier is that people act like it's the best class and blah blah blah and Soldier wins games and whatnot.

But that's not true. Soldier is just the most forgiving class for new players. You'll get frags just by hitting anywhere near a weakened enemy, you'll be able to survive a lot of hits (including headshots), and medics will heal you before the weaker classes. That said, there is a lot to learn about Soldie and, as you said, it does have a high skill ceiling. People just need to recognize that the class being forgiving doesn't make it a good class.

As for Demoman, that is a very difficult class to learn, and it's rare to see people play it right. I often see "pro" Demo players only ever using the stickybomb launcher, completely forgetting their primary and melee weapons (which do have uses). I was that way for a while, too, but I've been taking out my grenade launcher more and trying to determine exactly when it's appropriate to use. I can definitely say that it does have uses, though, which is how I know that those "pro" players are making a mistake by not using it.

Anyways, enough of my ranting. How's about you spectate me while we talk over Skype sometime while I'm doing a live commentary and you can point out my mistakes or things I missed?

>>125941
>just because your favorite 6's players get their flankes handed to them when they switch to Highlander doesn't mean that they're goofing off. Chances are, they just can't handle playing an actual game of TF2.

>squid
>HARBLEU
>RUWIN
>indust
>BOINK
>bloodsire
>duwatna
>overseer
>Ma3laa
>alfa
>nearly everypony on Ginyu Force
>nearly everypony participating in the Highlander Nations Cup for USA and Canada

?????????? hello ?????????

>>125996

I didn't say that there weren't good 6v6 players, but Clank seemed to be implying that his favorite 6v6 players spent a lot of time losing in Highlander, and I was presenting an alternate explanation to his, that being that 6v6 players don't take Highlander seriously. I know for a fact that a number of people on that list do.

Edit: By the way, I just watched an MGE match of Ruwin vs. TLR. I loved the fact that Ruwin won by causing TLR to crater. That's also another fun thing to do as a pyro: Cause soldiers to crater with their own rockets.

Last edited at Thu, Aug 1st, 2013 21:09

btw clank vhalin has played multiple seasons of ESEA in Open, IM and Invite, most notably for check 6 and Pinball Wizards :P

naturally he didn't use black box because it's 6v6,

>>126003
TLR was my favourite soldier before dota train came and took him away

>>126008

The video I linked about demos and medics not turning around was actually showcasing vhalin on ESEA IM getting a double stab.

Oh, that reminds me of another thing to relate to poker: Did you know that, up until last year, Phil Hellmuth had 11 WSOP bracelets, and all of them were in Hold 'Em? Part of the whole "11 bracelets" thing is because the WSOP has been far overstressing that game (simply because of its popularity), but the all in Hold 'Em part was because Hellmuth really isn't that good of a player outside of Hold 'Em... relatively speaking. I don't like the man, but he does play a good game of Hold 'Em.

And, in 2012, when he did get a non-Hold 'Em bracelet, it was in a $2,500 Razz tournament, where he won less than $200,000. To compare, in 2007, he won a $1,500 Hold 'Em tournament for over $600,000. In other words, there were a lot fewer players and thus a lot better chance at winning.

Hellmuth is a classic result of the overfocus on Hold 'Em. We have poker players that couldn't play Draw to save their lives. Well, there are 6v6 players that just can't handle Highlander.

Now, that's not to say all 6v6 players can't. Much like there are good all-around poker players, there are good all-around TF2 players. Ma3laa, vhalin, and Ruwin are three of which I know that fall into that category.

Okay, I've got a new video up: Engie, Demo, and Medic on Viaduct [www.youtube.com]. I talk a lot about the point system and the limitations of my graphings.

I also have been getting a little more heavy into scripts. I've got a lot of Spy scripts that will allow me to quickly disguise as the six "best" disguises (and I could set up a key so that I can pick from the not so good disguises), as well as having view models off for the sapper or revolver (though, then again, I'm not sure how view models being off for the sapper helps me), while turning them on for my knife and when I pull out the invis watch. These scripts also enable me to turn them on or off in case I, say, switch to the revolver and still want to stay invised (I have plans to write a script that will disable the turning view models off while I have my invis watch out and will turn them off if I have my revolver out when I uninvis, but for now, I think these are pretty good).

I also made some scripts to do similar stuff to the view model of my scout. I also set up a quick build/quick destroy script for engineer.

And keep in mind that I use the numpad and a five button mouse for all this.

Yeah. I'm that good.

Oh, and the spy script currently also doesn't work with quickswitch. Not sure how I'd fix that, but I'm not really sure it even needs fixing. I mean, if I really need to, I've got my mouse wheel and scrolling up turns on view models and scrolling down turns off view models. Pretty simple, really.

I may set up scripts for some other classes, but they look good right now and I'd really like to see them in action.

Oh, and the view model thing: I've found that I hit a lot more shots as a scout or spy (especially scout) when I turn off view models. So that's why I have them set like that.

>Pic is misleading, as I actually tried playing Gunslinger, and it actually worked okay.

>>126063
Scripting is something that should be tread lightly, because sometimes they break or just aren't usable anymore because VALVe decides to update in a way where it's not usable. A perfect example of this is a rocket jumping script that was popular a while ago that would C-tap perfectly and shoot the rocket for you to do a rocket jump. So many people were upset when it was broken because they didn't know how to rocket jump without it. The spykit isn't as bad because it's a user interface, but hitting 1 and then 3 is actually a lot faster for me now than doing anything else.

>>126065

Most of my scripting is based around one of two things:

1. View models
2. Key selection

Like I said, I use the numberpad and a five button mouse, which means that I have exactly 23 keys (and a number of those are not quite as easily accessible as is ideal) I can use. Keep in mind that I need to have some dedicated to movement, weapons, one to call for a medic, and one for voice chat, and we end up at a point where I need to find some way to assign keys in a way that's good for each class while not sacrificing my key bindings for other classes. For example, for the longest time, I had a key dedicated to "last disguise." Well, that's great for spies so that I can switch disguised weapons, but what about my engineer? FYI: My build/destroy scripts for TP entrances and TP exits are all assigned to the scroll wheel. That same thing on a spy (and scout) is to turn view models on or off.

Oh, and speaking of rocket jumping, I'm apparently better at doing distance jumps (as opposed to height jumps) than I thought.

>>126066
>find some way to assign keys in a way that's good for each class while not sacrificing my key bindings for other classes.

There's a nifty thing that allows to to bind keys to specific classes. Here's a topic that kind of talks about it:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2567529

Basically, Autoexc.cfg is processed before class specific configs, so if you were to, say, have the B button be something in general for all classes, but you wanted it to be last disguise for spy, you can bind B to whatever you want in Autoexc and bind B to last disguise in the Spy config.

You only use you numpad and mouse? Not the rest of the keys?

>>126067

Reaching the other keys from the numpad is not something that's viable, and that's pretty much what I do, but I add some other stuff in to make it work a little better. Like quickswapping certain key bindings using another key binding (I use this to toggle between build/destroy and between two sets of three disguises).

True, I could go for WASD, but playing EQ since the Trilogy has made it rather difficult for me to use them for movement. It still feels weird when I play Skyrim (and don't have access to the numpad for movement and whatnot).

>>126068
You can use an external program that maps the keys you press to other keys, so you can map whatever keys you use to move in Skyrim to your numpad keys.

Personally, whenever I play games, especially FPS ones, I'll usually bind all the keys to the ones that match most with TF2's default configuration, because I like that and am used to it.

Also, check out my new hitsound that took hours to get a fucking good quality version of: http://tf2.gamebanana.com/sounds/20286

Okay, I've got a new video [www.youtube.com] posted. It's just me playing Scout and Pyro on Nucleus, with me showcasing a few of the Pyro weapons I got and my new viewmodel scripts on Scout. I do show off my wrap assassin, though I only hit one person with it (and he ends up getting backstabbed shortly before he would have killed me).

I only show off one pyro set, though I have three set up right now. The one I show (degreaser/flare gun/backscratcher), and two I don't (flamethrower/reserve shooter/postal pummeler and degreaser/shotgun/postal pummeler). I want to make a silly set that I would call the Purple Dragon, which is Backburner/Detonator/Backscratcher. Again, it'd just be a silly set and if you guys get the reference, you'd understand the whole point of that set.

I actually do a lot better on Scout than I have been doing, but it's kind of hard to tell what with how often I just do very little. But Scout... it's not a class where you get a lot of points (unless there are a lot of pyros and you run mad milk), but even aside from that, it is a difficult class to play. It's not difficult to learn. In fact, the Scout is a pretty basic class, but it is difficult to play, so it is one of my worst classes right now, but I'm hoping to improve that.

Got the week 05 update video [www.youtube.com] posted.

I just realized that my pyro loadout ideas was missing a homewrecker option for helping engies. I'd probably go with flamethrower/scorch shot/homewrecker for that one.

So, Hugbox, after playing with me, what do you think? I got a little too overeager to kill you when I was running Spy, but I actually think I did a lot better that life than I usually do.

Also: Backstabbing you was way fun.

So in case you were wondering, I really hate Hightower [www.youtube.com].

>>126243

Brother! Friend! Amigo! Let us join together in mutual hatred of one of the worst maps to ever become an official map.

>>126248

I gotta be honest: I don't think it's necessarily the map itself that makes playing it so frustrating. Since I've started the series, I've played the map twice and each time it was made terrible by the players. I was playing Engineer and for 40 minutes, my team just congregated around my sentry and dispenser until the other team finally won. This time around, the other team was pretty close to rolling us and yet it seemed that they refused to cap.

When STAR_ calls it TDM Hightower, he's not kidding. Nobody bothers to try to actually play the objective. For some reason, Nightfall and Pipeline... just don't have these problems. I've never been in a game of either of those maps where people just went around killing each other and ignored the objective.

>>126269

It's not much better when teams are trying to play the objective, trust me. The map has a very, very bad habit of stalemating for long stretches of time.

What servers are you playing on? I've been thinking about jumping back in, but the servers I used to play on are no more. :<

>>126284

I don't really play on any particular servers. I just open up the server browser and pick a map I feel like playing. The only server I regularly visit is the only one that consistently has a good amount of players on Pipeline. I actually don't like that server very much because of the killstreak/headshot notifications (very annoying, even when I was on an 8 kill streak with 6 or 7 headshots), the drinking game, and the music... stuff (it will play a bit of music when one team wins). All that audio and visual spam is just... annoying.

Other than that, I do tend to play on Skial, Firepowered, Top Notch, and Valve servers simply because they're the really common ones that don't do the Pinion thing. I don't seek out those servers, there are just a lot of them and they don't do Pinion is all.

>>126362
>>126284

By the way, I forgot to mention: Feel free to add me on Steam and we can play together sometime. Though Hugbox can tell you that I tend to get a little silly when I'm playing with people I know.

Steam profile: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198059791435/

Okay, I have a new video posted. It's me being silly and trying out the Amby on Barn Blitz [www.youtube.com].

I was seriously in awe at how much that team didn't kill me. That's actually a problem I have when playing spy: I scale down my skill when I'm facing bad players. Chrysalis (Neri on here) was probably the best player in the team. I seriously could not believe the complete lack of spychecking that was happening, even when I ran right into a pyro after stabbing a medic. And then the two spies that just let me butterknife them to death...

I just... yeah. I couldn't take that game seriously.

Did get two headshots with the amby, though, which is nice. Of course, I'm not going to tell you the circumstances of those headshots, because then you'd realize just how out of practice with the amby I am.

I think I'm going to post a video tomorrow about some rocket jumping stuff on which I've been working (with tr_walkway).

Okay, so the next video should be up tomorrow (or later today, depending on where you live). I'll try to post it by 7 PM Eastern, but I don't know. I'm going to do a bit of editing (adding text, etc), so that might take some time.

The next video is me rocket jumping and air strafing on tr_walkway, and discussing the merits of the "w" key in air strafing.

Before you post the reflex response of "don't press w while air strafing omg noob" comments, you... should probably watch the video before you say those kind of things. I will explain in the video why that advice is given, why it's BS, and why you probably shouldn't press "w" during most air strafes even though the advice is BS.

>Calmly waits for people to post it anyway

>>125890

>TFW this guy has left the thread and didn't link the last two [www.youtube.com] videos [www.youtube.com] (even though I actually do have issues putting the second one into practice).

>>126448
>why you probably shouldn't press "w" during most air strafes even though the advice is BS
That statement is confusing. you give the advice even though you don't believe in the advice?

Besides, I don't even have to watch the video to tell you that the advice is sound to say you shouldn't press W while air strafing, especially while rocket jumping. The only time you should is when you're wall climbing, or tapping w while wall pogoing. If you air strafe and hold W, you notice that you don't move as much as you could if you weren't hitting W. You're already propelling forward, so it's arbitrary.

>>126463

Actually, you probably should watch the video. It'll be available at 7 PM Eastern.

Okay, gents, here it is: Rocket jumping and air strafing on tr_walkway [www.youtube.com].

Watch and be amazed at how I use forward to pull off the same air strafe as using left. It's a very simple strafe, but it's a very important point.

>>126474
>"Jump maps only teach you jumps that you use on jump maps"

oh boy could you not be more wrong

Jump maps don't teach you how to do jumps that you'd use in actual maps, jump maps teach you basic rocket jumping techniques. If you want to learn a jump on an actual map, just jump on the map and...jump

>>126477

If you want to argue my claim, please refute the evidence I provided before stating your conclusion. When is it ever useful in a non-jump map to have that ability?

>>126478
you're right, a lot of jumps on jump maps aren't actually used in real games, but they're not supposed to teach you actual jumps

and I'm not arguing with you're claim, I'm adding to it

Last edited at Sat, Aug 10th, 2013 20:09

>>126479

Well, that's the point. Jump maps are effectively useless beyond the basics, and even then, they don't teach so much as tell you what you should be able to do and then expect you to do it. I've yet to see a jump map where you combo a wall boost into a skip jump on top of a rise and then another skip jump further down.

And yet, that's a very useful setup and is used in a lot of maps. You can practice the basics of comboing a wall jump into a skip jump on tr_walkway. You can't do that on jump maps.

Edit: To stress the point, you can practice basic rocket jumping techniques on tr_walkway and learn the theory of them (such as crouching when jumping or even not crouching to avoid fall damage) elsewhere, even just the TF2 wiki. And then the rest of your time that you could be using to practice actual jumps or even just more basic jumps is spent wasted on giant wall climbs that have no purpose in game or ultra-low gravity air strafes.

Last edited at Sat, Aug 10th, 2013 20:15

So I did my thing with the charts and graphs and ended up with 47 minutes of me talking about stuff.

...Crap.

So I'm going to need to do some heavy editing so I can get it down to under 30 minutes. At least, I hope I can get it under that.

Well, I forgot to tell you guys, but my Week 06 Update [www.youtube.com] is up. I'm really excited about how well I'm improving as Soldier and that I seem to be getting the hang of hitting things while going at the speed of sound.

Also airblasting stuff. That's always fun.

Unless the soldier has the direct hit. Then not so much.

It's... 26 minutes long, but I've got some annotations and links in the description about the things at the various times. I also added a little music to the background so you can lean back and relax while you listen to me talk.

Since Sunday, I've been trying to record a video where I talk about holding grudges against teammates.

I'm starting to think that it's just not going to happen. Every time I try, I end up with 30 FPS or I end up taking 25 minutes to cover three points that should each take two minutes at most.

That's annoying.

I'm also going to make a full air strafing guide and explain why and when you should use w (and why and when you shouldn't), complete with vectors and other visual representations.

I also made plans to make a video with a twitch.tv guy on Pipeline, either with us both as Scouts or both as Soldiers (depending on our team), but I also found something amusing that we might be able to do if we're both engineers.

Anyways, expect that stuff in the next week or so, assuming that I can actually get it done.

Well, it took me 25 minutes to make my point but whatever. I'm not re-recording it for the fifteenth time.

Okay, here's the video about which I was talking [www.youtube.com] , which discusses holding grudges and a very simple way to stop grudges when you screw up (because you will).

Also, there's a clip at the end that's just a continuation of the video and I do pretty darn well with a sentry in a spot that apparently worked very well, in spite of me thinking that it was going to be a massive failure. I wonder how well it'll work in the future, cause I'm gonna try it again.

Edit: By the way, I got the air strafing with the w key tutorial done. I had to redo a few shots, but oh well. I'll be adding some stuff to the visuals (arrows and lines and whatnot) and then I'll be uploading it.

Last edited at Wed, Aug 14th, 2013 22:32

  Someguy I'm subbed to uploaded a new video, and I thought I'd drop it here. It might be helpful. I love watching him play spy.

Last edited at Sat, Aug 17th, 2013 10:26

>>126673

Thanks for the video! I do like Stabby, and I was actually watching one of his streams on Twitch. I knew most of the stuff, but I realized yesterday that I do need to watch more Spy gameplay and pay attention, because I've been blaming bad luck when I run into pyros and scouts in doorways, but it's been happening pretty consistently, so I can't deny that there's something I"m doing wrong. I've been working on taking routes that are more open, but, well... I guess I just have to consider what I'm doing that's causing me to run into these guys so much.

I think I need to record more spy gameplay and really compare the times that I'm successful as a spy to the times that I'm not and what I'm doing.

>>126674

Gonna just lay it out there: any time you go into a narrow space, you accept the risk of a death that happens because of something you couldn't forsee.

It never stops being frustrating dying because somepony walks through your intended target.

>>126688

Yes, but I'm pretty sure that I can prevent it by being more aware of things.

And then there are maps like Turbine, where there doesn't seem to be any good spots for a Spy, and no ammo in the center (unless a weapon or a destroyed building is there), either.

...Yeah, now that getting a dual monitor setup isn't going to happen soon, I think I'm definitely going to want to get a L'etranger.

>Pic is a knife I will probably never master, and also most likely not even try

>>126692
Hm, yeah. You're either gonna have to recover cloak while hiding (under the stairs in the middle room, perhaps) or use some cloak and dagger.

While there's not really any good spots for spy, there is a good overall technique. If you can figure it out, you can sort of slide up to that one higher platform with the healthpack. It's a weird jump, but if you learn it, it'll be helpful. Basically, any class can get up there by themselves. It's tough to explain in text though.

but who cares turbine is a boring map hyuck hyuck

>>126700

I like it simply because it's one of the few CTF maps that doesn't completely suck.

And yeah, I do know that spot. I got up there once as a sniper and haven't been able to get up there again. I suppose now that I've learned how to scout out a map without updating my stats (normally wouldn't worry about it, but what with the weekly updates, well... yeah), I could practice that jump a bit.

I was playing on Turbine as a soldier today and I was using that platform a lot (on both sides), but I just rocket jumped up there.

Also, Fraps isn't playing nice right now, nor is Vegas when it comes to .avi files, so I think I'm going to have to start trying DXTory again. It... didn't really work all that well before because my mic would be far too loud, but it doesn't seem that I have a choice now.

At least I'll be able to record without sometimes dropping to 30 FPS.

Last edited at Sun, Aug 18th, 2013 15:19

Okay, Week 07 Update [www.youtube.com] is ready to go. Nothing really to say in it, though.

I'll be posting some videos that I recorded this past week, but something went screwy with all my .avi files, so I'm going to have to fix that.

  >>126702
You really have to learn the jump. It's like there's an invisible ramp sittin' there. The video here shows the one on the right, there's one on the left too.

Also, I keep forgetting to ask. I know there's a video explaining it, but um, I guess I didn't understand it. Why exactly did you feel like deleting your weapons and going stock? That does sound refreshing, but it took me forever to get all the weapons I have, and I still don't have them all. I couldn't imagine wiping them out. I don't see how it would be helpful to learn the game either.

>>126725

Yeah, I went ahead and practiced it a bit and now I've got about a 40% success rate. I used that jump while playing engie yesterday.

Basically, I just wanted to start over from scratch. I wanted to show the kind of improvement you could get starting from nothing. At the start of week 08, I've got most of the weapons I want. I have 10 on my "to get" list, but they're not really all that important and I probably wouldn't use them all that much.

>>126730
Oh yeah, the jump is definitely helpful as engie. It's a pretty decent sentry spot, and you don't have to use buildings to get up there. Y'know, the ones that spies can also use, heh.

Also, alright. I guess that make sense. At least you have what you want, mostly.

>>126731

Well, before I learned the jump, I'd get up there with a teleporter or dispenser and, after I was set up, I'd destroy the building I used to get up there.

And, by the way, I was plagued by a spy while I was up there. I don't know if he did the jump or some other engie (I don't think there was another) built a dispenser by the island, but he did manage to get up there and stab me when I wasn't paying attention.

>>126732
Haha. Well, you just gotta hope that he can't get up there. There's no guarantee.

Heck, I learned the jump by being a spy who watched the engie get up there, I'm pretty sure.

So week 08 update [www.youtube.com] is up. Sorry for no videos this week.

the last update, i didnt know it let you see your hats and stuff in the under left corner.

>>126873

Yeah. I disabled that. The eye is drawn to movement, so moving things in the UI aren't necessarily a good thing. Besides, I only have my viewmodels turned off with Scout and Spy and I know what I'm using there.

By the way, I went and uploaded a video of me playing after I just woke up [www.youtube.com].

Funny thing is that I still do better than when I started this series, but I just have to facepalm at the terrible mistakes, missing the sentries, W+M1ing, and all them friggin' mistakes.

>>126880
omg that is sooooooooooo hot!

I want to change the language of my TF2.

in the properties of the game, it say is on english.
but just the audio, the name of the weapons and descriptions are on spanish.

this is a problem because the item properties are not changing from alot of weapons in the descriptions.

for example, i just discovered the crit-cola dont give you any more mark of death, the same for the heavy meat, the description still saying it does, a lot of items specifications are wrong.

this is just because the language?

Week 09 update is up [www.youtube.com]. Not much to say about this one that I didn't say in the video. Sorry.

>>126905
Localization files haven't been updated yet to include things in the item changing update. Give it some time. Might want to play with English if it annoys you that much and wait for the files to be updated.

Got a new live commentary going and it's Blaster Scout on koth_Badlands [www.youtube.com]. I must say that I think that I did quite well for how new I am to the loadout. Not as well as I was doing on ctf_well after the first five minutes or so, but still pretty good.

I have now posted my Week 10 Update [www.youtube.com].

Okay, since my last post, I posted my Week 11 Update [www.youtube.com], but I also went ahead and did a gaming video of me trying out a weapon I'd never used before. Two, actually. So... yeah. Here's me trying out the Phlog [www.youtube.com]. I actually do pretty good with it.

And that makes me feel ashamed.

I've been running into a lot of frustrating moments recently, especially with people taking my health as a medic while I'm healing them, Going Scout and getting spammed to death in an instant when I get anywhere near the enemy team, or being the only one that cares about the objective as an Engie.

Certainly, when I'm playing Demoman or Sniper and just missing every sticky or headshot ever (including the absurdly easy ones), that's my bad, and it's not really quite so frustrating when that's the case (it also helped that the most recent time on Sniper, I still managed to lay waste to the enemy team, which is probably thanks to my team).

And it's not so bad when it's just one time, but, well... this is why poker players have bankrolls. When variance hits them hard, they can still bounce back. Variance always seems to treat me really well or beat the crap out of me. I rarely ever find myself in between.

I'm really enjoying these videos.

They feel kind of special. It's cool to watch people from familiar places playing games that you like.

Keep up the good work!

>>127093
you sound like a girl

>>127365
The hardest part of TF2 is never really the mechanics of the game itself, but the variation, the unexpected, and adapting. It comes with time, and you begin to be able to adapt better to situations regardless of other factors. Plus the other players doing silly things is just a pub thing, try playing some Tf2lobby matches.

>>127427

Variance doesn't mean "different situations." It's the concept of luck without the idea of such a thing as having good luck or bad luck. In other words, everypony averages to 0 on the variance scale, but where you are at any particular point varies.

http://www.thepokerbank.com/strategy/other/variance/

In other words, the top poker players don't have good luck and poker players that lose money don't have bad luck, but there will be times when it feels like that.

For the first part of this week (and certainly earlier today when I kept getting bad scrambles), it feels like I have bad luck. That's just variance kicking me in the crap. Last week, variance favored me. I had "good luck."

But the fact of the matter is that there's no such thing as good luck or bad luck. It's all just... variance. Everypony will have those stiuations as Scout or get put on a team that doesn't understand how to capture points as an Engie (of course, most switch, but because of the rules of this series, that's not always the best option). Everypony will also have times when they'll be able to clear out half the enemy team without getting touched, as I did last night as a Scout on Badwater. Better players would probably have been able to up the kill count or known what to do afterwards, but everypony will have bouts of massively good luck, and they'll happen about as often with one person as another (same with the massive bouts of bad luck).

I just have real trouble when variance hits me hard. It might be easier if I were a better player and be able to still squeeze a few kills out of the situation (actually managed to do that with demo with those bad scrambles, and my last point defense was pretty friggin' awesome if I do say so myself).

Anyways, as it is right now, I'm like a break even poker player. When my variance is at about 0, I can keep the money I have. When my variance is highly positive, I can make lots of cash. When my variance is low, though, I lose it... and fast. In other words, my TF2 gameplay pretty much entirely revolves around luck. If my "luck" is good, I do good. If my "luck" is bad, I do bad.

This is true across the board, of course, but it's all about how bad. Top tier players would look at their bad "luck" and look at how bad they're doing and feel bad about it. Well... that's my semi-good. On the other hand, bad players would get good luck and probably complain about how terrible their luck is because the numbers tell them that they aren't doing as well as they'd hoped.

But... yeah. I got really "lucky" with that Phlog Pyro setup. To happen to run into no soldiers, demomen, or medics and a ton of people charging me when my Phlog is glowing? Frickin' A, man. That was some crazy variance, there.

I did make up for it today by playing my standard setup. Reflected plenty of rockets to make myself feel better as well as got them beautiful combo kills. ;)

>>127428
I was taking variance in its ordinary form, by probability, and I meant that each situation will have different variables each time that will make an outcome, but you'll be able to outmatch more and more variables to come out with a better result.

I see that a few people here play pyro.

With +150 hours as pyro, I can give you some advice.

Whilst the Homewrecker can be used to assist engies, it's very, VERY situational, and can drag you down a lot of the time.

The Axtinguisher, combined with the Degreaser makes for some incredible damage output, whilst still retaining utility.

As for your secondary, this, again, is situational.

Flaregun/Detonator can be used if you find yourself being kited a lot. Stock shotgun is a very safe bet, I use it most of the time.

I'd also like to put in a good word for the Backscratcher. By and large, you are not the medic's primary healing target, meaning that HP packs will be your #1 source of healing. As long as you can be self-sufficient, and use it well, you'll find that it can make a strong alternative to weapons like the Axtinguisher.

It's mostly down to personal preference, but certain weapons (such as the degreaser) are way too good to pass up.

This goes against a lot of the general rules (often applying to demoman, soldier etc) where by your stock weapons are often the strongest.

>>127485
I'd also like to continue by mentioning Phlog, as I saw the OP using it in one of his videos.

Phlog, when properly utilised, can be incredibly powerful. Be mindful of the considerable downtime, though. Having multiple Phlog-using pyros roaming together and/or pushing makes for a good strategy, as there is usually at least one person always crit buffed.

>>127485

Funny story: I was playing cp_mountainlab just now with my default pyro setup (degreaser/flare gun/backscratcher), and the medic ubered me.

Twice.

I want to point out the fact that my default pyro setup also includes a gibus (part of the rules of this series).

Honestly, Demoman is the only one that I run full stock. Scout, Pyro, Engineer, Medic, and sometimes Heavy are all completely non-stock (it's complicated with Engie) and Soldier, Sniper, and Spy are usually 2 non-stock, with Heavy being always at least this.

Of course, with Demoman, if I'm on offense, I've got to be running the Pain Train as my melee.

I actually had somepony get pissy with me about my Scout loadout this past week, but what can I say? The Shortstop isn't a bad weapon and it's not even a worse weapon than the Scattergun. It's just... different. And it suits my style better. And, if you don't need the pistol for medium range (as the Shortstop can output the same damage as a pistol with greater accuracy), you can replace the pistol with a support item. In my case, the Mad Milk.

>>127486

I don't like the phlog. I only used it for one video. One of the things that I wanted to do originally was become rather skilled at the Phlog. As time went on, however, I found that the airblast suits my style far too much. I mean, it worked really well in that video, but I had people charging at me while I was crit boosted and there were no Soldiers or real Demomen on the enemy team. nor were there any Medics that I might need to airblast (something I also did just today on cp_mountainlab).

(Edit: I'm not arguing the point that it can be a great weapon, mind you. In fact, I think it can be. I just really like being able to airblast.)

Thank you for your comments, Anon. I agree with most everything you've said. I definitely like the backscratcher with the flare gun because it allows me to take down pyros, something that pyros that run degreaser/flare gun/axestinguisher just can't do.

Anyways, before I forget, I went ahead and posted my Week 12 Update [www.youtube.com] . It's got charts and graphs and me clearing my stats (I explained why in the video).

Because I'm all caught up with my TF2 playing, I think that I'll be able to get some gameplay videos posted soon. We'll see about when.

Last edited at Sun, Sep 22nd, 2013 15:31

>>127487
Don't be surprised if you are frequently über'd, it's just that the medic will usually be with his primary pocket, often a soldier, demo or sometimes a heavy (depending on where you play).

A good pyro is made devastating when über'd, it's just that you have to be prepared to step up your self-sufficiency in order to stay alive. If you're playing in pubs, most of the time it's good to play as if you will have no support from your team.

>>127488
Following on from this, OP. If you'd like, post your steam. I'd love to play TF2 with some fun people.

>>127489

I posted a link on my Youtube page, but here you go [steamcommunity.com].

Just be aware that I can get a little silly when playing with friends.

>>127488

My only problem with being ubered is that I'm just not sure how to play it with Pyro. Sure, I can set a bunch of people on fire, but what then? If I had the stock flamethrower, I could do some good damage, but a degreaser really isn't meant for that. Should I try to get those flare gun crits? Swing my Backscratcher at people?

These two times, I set a bunch of people on fire and then went after the Medic.

My Medic was smart enough not to follow me behind enemy lines (a requirement for the second one), though, so I lost uber about halfway through and two soldiers came after me. I managed to get the Medic and one of the soldiers, but I can't help but feel that I could have gotten more out of the uber than that.

But I really don't know how to handle situations like that, I guess. Ubers happen so rarely, especially on pubs, that I just don't have enough experience to think back and notice a pattern in what I could have done or shouldn't have done.

>>127490
Just remember, über is a lifeline. Even if you do nothing, it isn't "wasted", it kept you safe. Don't charge into colossal fights yelling HUDDAH HUH whilst your medic is having his spine pulled out by the enemy team.

The lovely thing about the degreaser is that you can weapon heckle at the speed of light. Occasionally, this will render a foe completely stumped. Regardless, the fight suddenly becomes yours to do what you wish.

Are you going to try and kill him at med-long range with a weapon like the flaregun or shotgun? Are you going to take it to melee range?

The Degreaser's spectacular utility makes the damage reduction un-noticeable. The stock flamethrower is not often used by most people, with them mostly opting for DG.

9 times out of 10, use the Axtinguisher, especially in pubs. In the same way that Jarate + Bushwacka go together, Axtinguisher + Degreaser provide a lot of damage.

>>127491

FYI, Cocoa, I've sent you a friend request.

I hope that we'll get to play together, soon!

>>127491

The problem is that I feel I get more utility out of the Degreaser + Flare Gun combo than I do the Degreaser + Axestinguisher combo, and that combo does enough damage that only heavies are really a threat, and they're not so much if I just hang back and flare gun them to death.

Furthermore, the Degreaser + Flare Gun combo doesn't require that I get super close or approach opposite a wall, which is nice when fighting scouts or if I happen to turn a corner and run into a soldier.

And, as I hinted before, I don't like losing the ability to take down pyros by going Degreaser/Flare Gun/Axestinguisher, so in a choice between the latter two, I like going Flare Gun.

I'm not usually bothered by the Degreaser's damage reduction. As I've mentioned, I like to do combo kills as a pyro, so the degreaser's real purpose is to light enemies on fire and then set them up for a flare gun shot (unless it's a spy that's trying to run, in which case, I'll just flame him down and that doesn't really require a whole lot more time than the stock). The problem is when it comes to being ubered. Melee is not really something you should be doing while ubered and the flare gun takes too long to reload to be relying on that for damage throughout an uber. That leaves me with the Degreaser. Which really isn't a weapon with a lot of damage potential. Sure, I can cause some panic and chaos and retreats just by lighting people on fire, but I feel like that uber could have been put to better use.

>>127492

And I accepted it.

>>127494
I agree with a lot of what you're saying here.

Loadouts are completely down to personal preference, and I'd say that about 95% of your efficiency comes down to playing what works.

Check out http://www.pastebin.com/u/theoperator . He has some very good class guides, the pyro one is no exception. Please note that he is VERY honest, in an incredibly brutal way.

I switch my secondary out multiple times each game. There are maps where you NEED some ranged damage, which is where I substitute shotgun for flare.

Operator can probably explain a lot of the things in detail, more so than I can. But as you've said yourself, the power of the degreaser comes into the fact that it empowers your off-weapons, and makes heckling a breeze.

Thanks for accepting my request, I really hope to be able to play with you soon.

Last edited at Mon, Sep 23rd, 2013 01:42

>>127505

That's not so much "honest advice" as it is, "This is the metagame and don't you dare break it." Except for a couple exceptions, that is, when he goes against the metagame and he shouldn't.

He says to go after the medic first as a Soldier, but he doesn't seem to understand that a medic without his pocket is easy pickings. That metagame is one of the most frustrating things around. Yes, if you are a Sniper, Spy, Pyro, or Scout, the Medic should be your primary target. However, as a Soldier (and Demoman, for that matter), it's... situational. A roaming Soldier? Bomb the Medic. Pocket Soldier? Focus down his pocket with your teammates and then just blast or gun down the Medic. Your team will be a lot better off with both the pocket and the Medic dead and you still alive than the Medic and you both dead and the pocket still alive because he got free shots on you while you were going for the Medic.

Seriously watch some scrims from top players and you'll see that they focus down the pocket first and then go for the Medic simply because, well, as I said, a Medic without his pocket is easy pickings.

Also, using the Machina? Are you serious? It's not a straight upgrade at all. It's useful as a teaching tool for staying mobile and not getting caught unaware, but other than that, it's pretty shit. Sure. You can do a little extra damage with a fully charged body shot, but the damage difference is negligible and will only lead to maybe an extra kill out of 10-15 fully charged body shots.

So maybe one every other round.

In exchange, you have to equip the SMG or else wave goodbye when a Scout or halfway-decent Spy sneaks up on you.

It's actually kind of interesting to read all this advice that's drawn straight from the metagame today. I was watching a Twitch scrim last night and the streamer (as a Soldier) managed to kill a Medic with full uber in two shots. People in the stream were laughing about it and talking about how he's a terrible Medic... and then somepony asked why he didn't just pop.

And the streamer explained that, in that position, they weren't going to do anything with the uber. In that position, the Medic was better off going with the chance that his team could protect him and then pop it later. In other words, over the course of 100 matches, the Medic made the right choice; he just got unlucky in that match.

I pointed out the fact that the TF2 pro silenced all us metagaming noobs. Metagame says to pop, but that Medic was far better than the metagame.

Anyways, I could go into some other stuff that's bad about the advice he's giving, but the point is: It's just metagame (including bad metagame) except for a few spots where he goes against the metagame and shouldn't.

I would like to apologize for the poor framerate and the spikes in my latest video [www.youtube.com]. I think I've (mostly) fixed it, and tomorrow's video should be free of them.

In the video, I talk about some frustrating things that have happened to me in the past few days and I also kill things.

OH CRAP! I totally forgot to tell you guys about [url]my birthday commentary[url] using the Sydney Sleeper!

Sorry. Anyways, feel free to go watch it.

>>127595

Okay, I screwed up the link and didn't even notice until 24 hours later. Fantastic.

Anyways, here's the commentary [www.youtube.com]. Sorry I forgot. A new live commentary's going to go up late tonight (or early morning tomorrow, either way) and I'll have at least one Mistakes Were Made video on Friday or Saturday.

And here is that live commentary I promised you [www.youtube.com]. Scout and Soldier, one on Gravelpit and one on Mountain Lab.

Oh hey dere, it's finally another Mistakes Were Made video [www.youtube.com]. This time, I'm a Medic (and Soldier) on Barnblitz.

I posted two videos since my last post: My week 13 update [www.youtube.com] (which I'm sure you're all dying to see) and a Heavy live commentary video [www.youtube.com].

So I just played a round of Engineer and here's what I'm learning about TF2:

Valve cares a lot more about tracking your deaths than tracking the rest of your stats.

I did fantastically (for me). 35/12 kills/deaths with plenty of assists and one capture on Doomsday. Go into my stats and find that my Engie KPD and PPD went down.

Thanks so much, Valve. You're really helping me with my point. Or you would be, if my point was that you can't handle a simple feature like keeping track of player stats.

>>127714
Whole point of no leaderboards is because they think stuff like K/D are stupid.
They want you to play for fun, abstract I know.

>>127716

Yes, but the whole point of the series is to show me improving at TF2. Part of that's supposed to be the videos where you can see improvement in my aim and tactics, but part of that's supposed to be quantifiable measures of improvement. I try to stress every week that PPD and KPD aren't everything, but it's kind of hard to make my point about that when it just looks like I'm trying to excuse my poor stats.

>>127487
My apologies for the horrendously late reply, I just started lurking this thread a while ago and didn't remember to check the 'chan again until today.

About the Phlog: I am a rabid fan of the Phlogistonator. The actual crit-boost thing is only arguably useful (although it becomes invaluable if you can ambush enemies in enclosed spaces), but as a whole the weapon is far superior to any other flamethrowers at long-range. I actually run Pyro in place of Sniper in many instances since the Flare Gun is absolutely devastating with good prediction, and you can strongly discourage enemies from getting too close to easily snipe because flamethrower.

The afterburn is pretty damning on its own, and very few things survive a second hit while the fire is still burning. Medics and Pyros are very significant exceptions, but in any pub game where they don't have enough Medic support you can wipe out most enemies rather handily.

The reason the Phlogistonator is ideal when using the Flare Gun as a primary weapon is that ANY fire damage builds Mmmph, including critical impact damage from follow-up flares. You can build up Mmmph from sniping easily enough that you can use it primarily for the healing instead of the crit bonus. I've used it to pin down entire teams as Pyro without resupply on wide-open custom maps that have no medkits, and I am obligated to attest to its effectiveness. >:3

>>127717
TF2 stats is and always has been broken. It doesn't have anything to do with selling hats so don't expect it to be fixed anyyear soon.

If you really think KD against random people is a good indicator of skill, write a script that calls for medic every 10 seconds, switch to heavy and stare at people until they die. Then maybe demoman once you actually start fighting good players.

>>127758
FFFFFURRRY

Edit: lol I just realized 90% of the thread is you talking to yourself. Seriously, why.

Last edited at Wed, Oct 2nd, 2013 01:25

>>127761

Please actually read the post to which you're replying.

In other news unrelated to that post, I have yet another Scout live commentary for you guys where I run into an interesting phenomenon: Demoswarms [www.youtube.com].

I also forgot to link you guys to my Medic on Hoodoo [www.youtube.com] video where I talk about, well... why I don't spend a lot of time on Hoodoo.

>>127793
Well SORRY then. Maybe if there weren't so many of them <.< >.> ⌐.⌐ ¬.¬

Okay, so you guys might notice that my Demoman on Turbine [www.youtube.com] video carries the name of "Fewer Mistakes Were Made." Why? Well, because we're in the second set of measurements.

My original intent (and it still is my intent) was that it would go like this:

Mistakes Were Made > Fewer Mistakes Were Made > No Mistakes Here > ?

With each ">" being a stat reset.

Also, a bit of side-news: I'm starting a new series on the channel. Look for it tomorrow.

So the new series is called Hard Carry and, as you might have guessed, it's me being team carry. In this case, it's Soldier and Pyro on Harvest [www.youtube.com]. I, uh... I do some work. When my team isn't spawn camping, that is.

>MINE COUNTENANCE WHEREUPON I realize a new way to combo kill people, as I slowly come to the realization that the best way to do it involves a weapon that's considered scrubby

It might work or it might be a massive failure. Either way, though, you can sure as hell bet that I'm going to try it.

>>127921

>MINE COUNTENANCE WHEREUPON it's not working out too well

Admittedly, I haven't had much practice with it and I've spent most of the time with it trying to carry the team, which means I couldn't concentrate on getting those combo kills and instead had to use it like I would the default version of the weapon, and when you do that, it's pretty much a direct downgrade.

Oh well. I have two videos for you: A game of gunslinger Engie game on Doomsday [www.youtube.com] (that Valve forgot existed) and my Week 14 Update [www.youtube.com].

I might need a new series for what just happened. Nine kills in one life as a Scout. Medic was the only one trying to kill me for the longest time. Took a crack shot spy and an Engie to kill me (which was a shame, because I had just milked them).

The series would be called "SERIOUSLY?!"

There's no way that should have happened.

The best part was that this was on Gorge and they were at the second spawn, so in my last life (got something like four or five kills before this happened), I was waiting under their spawn with three spies just to get a chance to do something. towards the end. This was how far we had pushed them.

Also? I was on Blu and managed to get my team up to the room with the last CP as a Pyro. They had one level one Sentry up, and then I got ambushed.

And that's when I was autobalanced to Red and all that happened.

Redemption [www.youtube.com], wherein I attempt to redeem myself after a scared Medic dies just before I can give him my sandvich.

...And then it happens again.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you my views on teaching weapons [www.youtube.com], while I use one of them (the Soda Popper) on Gullywash, followed by one life of me with that same loadout on Fastlane.

>>127986
I personally have found the Soda Popper is best used for improving a Scout's long-range capabilities... mini-crits for the Pistol (or for bleed via Wrap Assassin ornament/Flying Guillotine, if you're feeling ornery) are remarkably effective, and no class aside from Sniper has particularly effective hitscan weaponry at that distance.

>>127988

Yeah. I did notice that my Pistol was doing a crapload of work when I got those minicrits. 28 damage per shot for something that rapid-fires? If only the Pistol were more accurate, it would be absolutely insane. The minicrits in general are just really great. I actually killed a Sniper in one hit in that gameplay. I also noticed that they last a long time. When I dominate that Medic in the end clip, I miss him about five times before I actually hit him, and I popped the minicrits pretty early.

>>127989
A pretty old update changed the Pistol, Revolver, and SMG so that the first shot always goes straight down the crosshair... so if you're sniping with anything, just fire one shot, reload, and repeat to maintain pinpoint accuracy. The timer for accuracy reset is 1.25 seconds, but the Scout's pistol reload has exactly the same duration.
Therefore, if your range is great enough that you don't think you can land more than one shot a second firing full-tilt with the accuracy that entails, just fire one shot at a time. After all, your volume of fire is only as important as the bullets that actually hit, and this way has the upside of saving a ton of ammo.

Last edited at Tue, Oct 8th, 2013 19:00

So here I am, doing things on Foundry [www.youtube.com] as a Spy.

...Somehow. I seriously shouldn't have been able to survive most of that match. That video should have been 90% respawn screen.

But apparently, people were relying on their hats to save them. That Heavy had a nice hat.

It didn't save him. Either time.

You never asked for it! It's a video about my thoughts on the Pomson 6000 [www.youtube.com].

And here we go, a bit of channel news and some information about a stream [www.youtube.com].

Okay, gents and gentettes, here's my super special, (not so) secret loadout [www.youtube.com]. As you may have guessed, it's one that's been around for a while, but as near as I can tell, the subtle change to the playstyle really makes all the difference.

Right. So here's my week 15 update [www.youtube.com], with a little bonus at the end.

So here I am, playing Scout on Nightfall [www.youtube.com], using the Crit A Cola and stock scattergun.

So I have two live commentaries: Destined Destruction [www.youtube.com], where I'm a Pyro on ctf_well and I Can't Do It All On My Own [www.youtube.com], where I play Engie on Mountain Lab.

Okay, I have a couple videos I've posted since then, but I really wanted to share with you my latest project where I talk about air strafing with w [www.youtube.com].

And before you quote the metagame, please watch the video.

>>128450
>Not holding W while rocket jumping is meta game.

They say that cause it's a bad habit to just hold W cause "W makes you walk faster...so W must make you fly farther!" Trust me, I've seen people all the time think that. And then they get into the habit of trying to hold W down all the time.
If you are always holding it down or touching it, you'll never strife.

Good video nonetheless. It kinda rubbed me the wrong way (Probably cause of how I grew up playing solider or something) but nice to see you are making vids to teach people.

>>128461

>If you are always holding it down or touching it, you'll never strife.

But... you will. This only holds true if you're moving forward. Even then, if you turn 180 degrees, you'll find that you strafe 90 degrees.

That's about 80% of the point of the video.

It could be that what rubbed you the wrong way is the fact that I didn't address when you shouldn't use w, which is pretty much any time when you're not trying to keep your crosshairs in a single area. So pretty much any time you're using the rocket jump to travel some place or you're not passing by your target with your jump.

I'll talk about that in the next video about using w for air strafes. After all, I didn't discuss what happens when you hold w and a or d while air strafing, and it'll be relevant to the air strafes I'll do in the next video.

I just need to remember to actually do them in-game. I'm not used to air strafing like that. Or at all when I'm not explosive jumping, for that matter.

>>128474
>>128474
Again, most people getting into rocket jumping think "Hold W down to go faster" Which it doesn't...that's why people hate the fact that people hold W down, cause it can hinder you, and does literally nothing to speed you up.

Now, if you are going to strife, then yes. For the love of god hit W. If you are just gonna jump and trying to get ahead, you don't need to touch W at all. Just jump, and maneuver with A and D

Yeah, to me, it kinda felt like you jumped the gun a bit and dove head first into why W should be used, without hitting the other points.
>Points to the part 1 of X
But I figured you would go over it another time.


I don't know though, rocket jumping is weird for me. I thought I would be bad, but I just picked it up and boom, I was amazing at it. It was like second nature to me. Why solider is my favorite class now.

Okay, I've put off catching up on these postings for two months now, and it's time I went ahead and got this done.

A video about crutch weapons [www.youtube.com] (spoiler: There aren't any)
Me playing soldier on Arena [www.youtube.com] (it's a very long video)
I also had a couple of updates, but I've since abandoned the whole stat screen update thing, and I explain why there will be no more quantifiable measures in my Week 17.5 update [www.youtube.com].

More in the next few posts.

I spent about a week of the Halloween update doing scripted commentaries about the event and then I managed to get a couple of live commentaries about it done as well.

First is a video about the update and event themselves [www.youtube.com]
Second, I did a short video about the map [www.youtube.com] .
Finally, and this is the one that took a long time, I made a video about the various spells in the event [www.youtube.com] .

After that, the live commentaries were just me playing Heavy [www.youtube.com] and one of me playing Pyro [www.youtube.com] .

Last edited at Mon, Dec 23rd, 2013 02:46

After that, I stopped playing for a couple of weeks. When I got back, the first thing I did was make a video about the Two Cities weapon changes [www.youtube.com] ... well, a couple of them (specifically, the Baby Face's Blaster and the Liberty Launcher). Then, after a week gone again, I went and made a video of me playing on Snakewater [www.youtube.com] as Medic, where I do mention the buff to the Amputator.

A few days later, I made a video of me playing Heavy on Mountain Lab [www.youtube.com] , this one a commentary after the fact.

Back to live commentaries, we have me playing Scout on Harvest with the new Baby Face's Blaster [www.youtube.com] , where I manage to top score in spite of not being able to hit anything. Ever.

And then I finally start with the weekly updates again, but Week 24 update [www.youtube.com] is different than the earlier ones. I just... talk about improvement and whatnot over a couple gameplay clips. I'm actually really proud of the ending clip (starting at about 8:30). I don't think I've ever been as proud of an ending to one of my videos before.

Last edited at Mon, Dec 23rd, 2013 03:25

For week 25, there are only two videos: A live commentary of me playing Sniper on Doomsday [www.youtube.com], where I prove once and for all that I am destined for SMG Sniper territory and then I went ahead and did another scripted commentary, this one about the Smissmas item changes [www.youtube.com] (all of them this time). This scripted commentary only took me 2 1/2 days, though, so I guess that's okay.

stop playing, tf2 is full of kids and ive finally had it with it,almost 1500 hours in tf2 and i quit because nobody in that game knows how to have fun and always ruins fun things,and many other things like people scream into mics or just micspam, etc etc

>>130044

So what you're saying is that they're having fun wrong?

>>130046
well some people's ideas of fun completely prevent other people from having fun

>>130071

Admittedly, things like stickying spawn are rather annoying to me, but so often people get accused of having fun wrong if they're not 100% tryharding.

Edit: I would like to add that the vast majority of people don't do things like sticky spawn.

Last edited at Mon, Dec 23rd, 2013 16:48

Right. So. Week 25 update is posted [www.youtube.com].

Aaaand here we have it, the video of me using the Diamondback [www.youtube.com], along with thoughts I have about it, and about my general Spy gameplay.

Also, there's no way Applejack could be Spy, but I love this image dearly anyway.

Apple bucking thighs are unrelated to that.

>>130127
Not heard from you in a while regarding tf2, but I thought I'd cast my thoughts here.

I played stand-in spy and pyro in some HL games earlier, and I used Diamondback for a couple of rounds, replacing my usual Ambassador.

First game I subbed for was on pl_upward, I found the diamondback to be incredible useful, stacking with both stabs and mini-sentry saps. The large amounts of crit charges allowed me to either pick targets with few issues, or at least force the uber if I was unable to pick.

Whilst I doubt that it will replace my Amby 100% of the time, the new DB is much stronger than before, and is definitely viable, even in a competitive environment.

>>130576

My computer kind of went kaput in early January. I had a few videos posted before that, though, so I'm going to provide some links in a bit. I have something pretty cool for Pyros on which I'm working this week, and I thought the people in this thread might be interested in seeing.

Thanks for your thoughts on the Diamondback. It's always helpful to have people that are, quite frankly, a lot better than me provide their thoughts and views on the things I say.

Okay, so let's get caught up, shall we?

First, there's this Heavy Capper [www.youtube.com] video, where I play Heavy on a couple of 5CP maps. And then there's my Week 26 update [www.youtube.com], which has a gameplay of me playing Soldier on Turbine.

So I still haven't caught up with the links, but, well...

I made a thing [www.youtube.com] for you Pyros out there. Might be of interest to you. Just saying.

Also, I'm streaming TF2 every night, mostly trying to focus on how I'm learning to play certain classes. If you want, follow my stream [www.twitch.tv]. I'd love to talk to you guys while playing.

Once again, really behind, but I recently got 100 subscribers, so I decided to do an unusual giveaway [www.youtube.com]. Don't get too excited. It's not exactly a burning all-class.

You guys can enter, too, even if you don't wanna subscribe.

>>131819
Cool if I put my steam here?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/level5virus

While the thread's here, I might as well drop a curiosity question off.

Were you ever involved in a Heavy Army vs. Heavy Army battle to protect a Spy statue around, if memory serves, Gravel Pit A?

>>131897