LEAVE NO SOLDIER ALIVE (Demoman)

The kind Seargent Pepper has started quite a few Tactics posts, but seems to have stopped at five. So I figured I'd write a few more. Seeing as we'll be recieving new weapons in just a few days, I'll probably write a part two to this.

Basic tactics: (Credits go to the TF2 Wiki-check it out)
*Hit Attack 1 to fire sticky bombs and then use Attack 2 to detonate them later.
*With the Sticky Bomb Launcher, the longer you hold down the fire button, the farther the shot will go.
*Set off sticky bombs beneath your feet to pipe bomb jump up to great heights.
*Shoot sticky bombs onto walls and ceilings where they're hard to spot.

Facts and Tactics:

Grenade Launcher: 4 shots, 16 more carried. Grenades explode upon impact with an enemy; 81-111 damage. After a grenade hits any surface, it will not explode on impact. So, yes, the part in Meet the Demoman where he shoots a grenade at a wall and it bounces back and kills a Pyro on impact does not happen. It will hit the wall and roll away. Speaking of rolling away, when a grenade is on the ground and it explodes, it can do anywhere between 22-64 damage to an enemy.
Tactics: For some reason, people are afraid to run past rolling grenades. When playing as a Demoman, use this to your advantage; lob a couple grenades around, and escape safely, or just keep people from a point. When playing against a Demo, use this to their disadvantage and run right past them to catch them off guard. Most people that play Demoman usually try the Grenade Launcher, find that it's worthless, and stick with the Stickies. But if they continue to play Demo, and get better, they will realise that it is actually a very good weapon. Another weapon that just takes practice and timing. Don't always try for a direct hit. If they see one coming, they will avoid it, so shoot at the ground and have it bounce into the direction their going in.

Sticky Bomb Launcher: 8 shots loaded, 24 more carried. They stick to walls, detonate with M2, the longer you hold down M1, the farther they shoot, such and such. Depending on the situation, it can be good to either put them in unnoticible places or in directly visible spots. Sometimes both. You can have up to 8 stickies anywhere on the map at a time. If you shoot a 9th, your first one will explode. When you die, all your stickies dissapear, but don't explode. Stickies can be shot at to make them break. Rockets and other explosive devices will knock them away, but not break them. The Pyros' airblast will also knock them away, but the flamethrower, flare gun, and (correct me if I'm wrong) the arrows will do nothing to them. You can also use stickies to "sticky jump," by setting one or two Stickies on the ground, jumping forward, and setting them off. This is useful to get to a lot of places on Orange, as I have seen Eraserhead do many times, though I can't seem to, or just getting back into your spawn for more health or ammo. Don't sticky jump with less than 70 health.
Tactics: Don't be a stupid Demoman. Almost every Demoman I have ever seen (excluding Eraserhead) will explode their stickies on the first sight/shot of their enemy. That includes the ones they are standing on. I have been in the tower in Orange, running up as a Pyro, and on the second floor, there is a Demoman with six to eight stickies on the wall by the ramps up either side. The Demoman is sitting at the top of one of the ramps, and I run over, jump up, set him on fire, and land back down safely away from the stickies, which promptly explode about a second later, doing no harm to me at all. He just wasted his only defense and I can run up and finish him off. Sometimes if you put a few Stickies in an obvious place, say a threshold of the doorway of the tower on Orange, then put the rest around the doorway on your side. Likely, a Scout will show up and shoot the obvious stickies, then triumphantly prance in, with "his head full of eyeballs," which is when you press your left mouse button and watch his blood splatter across the floor. When defending the roof of the tower, don't place Stickies on the entry points. When an enemy comes up, you'll waste eight stickies doing absolutely nothing because by the time you realise they're there, they will be on the point, and your stickies will only kill me as I run up cloaked. Put them on the point itself, and unless you are capping the point, sit in a corner.
The xXx Bottle: 43-87 damage, breaks in half when you get a crit. Does not do any more damage when broken. An extremely fun weapon to use and then taunt with. Not much to say, pretty much a normal melee weapon, save for the change of model.
Tactics: Again, it's just a normal melee weapon. Personally, I like using stickies to knock and enemy towards me and finish him off with the bottle. Just like all the other melee weapons, don't be afraid to pull it out.

That's all for now; it'd be great if you guys could put up your tactics and correct me if any of this information is wrong.

See ya on the server!
-Firestar

Hey Fire,

Thanks for the article. The best demoman i know is Shadowreaper, but he is away for some studying right now.

Another tip i have is to pratice airshotting with the nades on this map: tr_airshot_v0

It's just great for killing enemies who are capping the tower point. Walk up there and while standing on the middle of the ramp while you can just peek your head to see who's standing on top lob some nades at them (and hit them directly of course). Especially nice when there is a whole group up there, you always kill one or two that way.

I also learned regarding soldier and demo that sticky/rocket jumping is much more effective when crouch jumping. That way you lose less health and fly higher.

Yeah, I stopped because I hardly play any heavy, demo or soldier (not until the WAR that is) so I didn't really had a tactic to share with the rest...

Firestar wrote:Grenade Launcher: 4 shots, 16 more carried. Grenades explode upon impact with an enemy; 81-111 damage. After a grenade hits any surface, it will not explode on impact. So, yes, the part in Meet the Demoman where he shoots a grenade at a wall and it bounces back and kills a Pyro on impact does not happen. It will hit the wall and roll away.

Originally, the grenade launcher's 'nades ALWAYS exploded on contact — even after bouncing.

I'm pretty sure that was done away with during the same update when they reduced the number of grenades you can load from 6 to 4 (which is the reason the grenade launcher model holds six 'nades when you can only fire four).


EDIT: Found the update. It was during the beta.

I was wrong about both updates being together. My bad.