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Heavy Tips

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Heavies, whether offensive or defensive, are key targets for enemy spies. Despite the massive amounts of health heavies can accumulate, a knife to the back is still a one hit kill. Not only are the heavies at risk but the medics that are putting themselves in danger by giving them their support. Since the medic is unable to defend himself, heavies must be responsible for both themselves and their medic buddies. Spies can be kept at bay by routinely looking around in all directions and shooting anything even slightly suspicious. Even just shooting at the air can reveal cloaked spies as they shimmer for a split second after being hit. The bottom line here is that the heavy is responsible for defence against spies, and must act as such; he cannot simply assume that his teammates will deal with them.

The heavy is ALWAYS a juicy target for spies – watch your back!

Another bane for heavies is the sniper, which can drop even a heavy with 450 health with one shot to the head. To avoid these snipers, heavies should always make sure they are running (not shooting or spinning) when they’re in the open, and spend as much time as possible in positions where there is something solid between them and the common sniping positions.

The two main strategies outlined above are pretty general and can be applied in a range of situations, or even combined. Similarly to the demoman taking a forward defence position to defend his attacking teammates, the heavy can cover any choke points, not just defensive ones. Don’t be pressured to move forward and attack, just make sure you are assisting your team where you are.

The heavy’s minigun takes a considerable amount of time to start firing from the moment you press fire, and unless there is no cover, a decent player will often be out of the line of fire before a bullet even comes out. As such it is often preferable to be wielding the secondary shotgun when running around since it can be fired on the move, and only switching to the minigun if the opposition gets more intense than a scout or two. Staying on the move allows the heavy to cover more ground, which in turn allows his whole team to push forward behind him.

Although the heavy is an ideal medic buddy due to him being a massive meat shield with a lethal weapon, his doesn’t simply have the automatic right to a medic. I’ve seen heavies that use up their entire supply of ammunition to take out one enemy at close range because they are simply too slow at aiming. These heavies are a waste of time when the medics could be pairing up with someone more effective, someone whose death would have more of an effect on the team. In short, don’t hog the medics if you can’t make full use of them. That said a good heavy should be a top priority for at least one medic.

3 tends to be a crowd, but a good heavy can make it work

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There are currently 2 responses to “Heavy Tips”

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1 On March 26th, 2008, obZen said:
glad you finally mentioned the shot gun. i have plenty of heavy hours and i have my shot gun out constantly unless a situation presents itself for the mini gun. i also run with my shot gun out when i get an uber to dish out damage while i am on the move to my sweet spot then, once i am where i think is a good spot [or 6 shots have been fired], i whip out my ac and lay waste.

one other thing i would like to add is, as a heavy you are at your best when you can lure your enemy to you (since you are slow as a turtle on crutches). i avoid rushing in unless i have a medic backing me up or i am uber’d. when alone i annoy people with my shot gun and get them to come to me. sucks for them usually because once they get to me i am waiting right around the corner with my mini gun spinning. point: play defensive offense and if you have a medic on you it works even better because you suck up damage which builds the uber faster which lets you kill everything.

you also make a good engy buddy assuming he’s smart and has a dispenser there for you. you can just hold down the fire button (you can do this with a pyro too… great spot is last stage on dustbowl first cp… if you stay out of sight as a heavy or pyro with a disp around the corner from the first cp you can stop spies from even thinking about getting past you to sneak to the last cap… assuming you dont die. pryo works from the side of the cp where you drop down from the tunnel from spawn and heavy works either side just make sure if youre on the opposite side that you are always firing ACROSS the gap that leads to the cap… this way you will see the spies flicker and can at least warn your team) which works great for keeping spies off the sg/disp and pretty much makes enemies stay hidden because you are constantly shooting/getting healed and they will surely lose that battle.

bit longer than i planned… my 2 cents.

posted on March 26th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
2 On March 6th, 2010, Raptor said:
There is a certian place in Badwater Basin just in front of the first CP where Engineers LOVE to place their stuff. I have found that getting a medic to buff you, and going around the corner firing the minigun whether you see anything or not will completely decimate anything inside. The reason why this works is that the sentry can be hit at short range without noticing you, as the hitbox can be hit before you enter the Sentrys LOS. The minigun will take off about 3/4 of the sentrys health before it notices you, and the medic will heal any stray bullets you take.

posted on March 6th, 2010 at 5:13 am