]LoL[Harm
01-15-2008, 05:40 PM
Weapon: Grenade Launcher
The Grenade launcher is often unreliable and one that I do not use primarily. It only holds four rounds and empties very quickly, though if it connects before it bounces it does tremendous damage, most often severely injuring the target and occasionally outright killing them.
If the grenade hits the ground it will bounce through everything coming to rest after it reaches a wall or runs out of steam and then will explode causing splash damage and usually not releasing its full damage on any nearby target, unlike a direct hit.
The grenade has a set time before it explodes so there is a chance that it can explode mid air before it reaches the ground if you fire it high enough, and this is often a nice tactic to use if you can have it explode above the heads of your targets (as with all things, experience will teach you this), this eliminates the random bouncing of the grenade which can cause the grenade to leave the vicinity of your target, causing no damage at all.
It's main uses are as follows:
FoF (Fire and Forget): The grenade launches a good distance and should be used to shower areas where enemies are often found, at chokepoints where enemies are flowing through or at large battles that are raging where you can hit them from a distance. The idea is you just fire them off blindly in areas that usually have badguys and continue on your way reloading as you go. I use this like many used full rocket launcher spreads in UT99.
Close Range Combat: The grenade is the only weapon you can use to try and kill those that press against your personal bubble without resorting to your whiskey bottle. These usually include Pyros and Scouts as they are much faster than you and require close range for their weapons to be most effective. Spies can fall into this category as well but they aren't quite the nemesis of the Demoman like the Pyro's and Scouts are.A huge tip on using the grenades is you want to aim high at close ranged targets, I usually aim a little above their heads, this helps in getting the arcing grenade to hit their body before it hits the ground. Remember if it hits the ground first it will not explode on contact and will usually bounce away and not harm a soul.
Weapon: Sticky Bombs
This is my main weapon. I use this to wreak havoc amongst my enema's! But seriously, this should be one of your primary weapons. It has great versatility and in experienced hands can even be used to survive Scout and Pyro's rushing you. It also has double the capacity of your other weapon with 8 rounds. The basic idea is this is a bomb that sticks (obscure reference to Saving Private Ryan...minus the axle grease), use the stickiness to your advantage. We'll cover more below.
As a note, the sticky bombs have a small arming time, so they will not be able to be set off as soon as the leave the muzzle. Also if you are launching like mad and detonating rapidly after deployment, some stickies that had not yet armed will not go off and so a second right click will be required to detonate. This is why this weapon is not good for close range combat which leaves the grenade launcher as your best bet.
Stickies can be moved around by almost every weapon out there. The most effective at moving them are the Heavies chaingun, another demomans stickies and the soldiers rockets. As a note, only the enemy can move your stickies, teammates cannot move them.
The main uses are as follows:
Defense, D-FENCE!: This is one of the most powerful defensive weapons second only to the level 3 Sentry Gun (SG3 for short). You can place this on and around Intel, Control points, or the best place, chokepoints that lead into those areas. The ideal place though is one where you can hang back and stay out of sight while still being able to see the area your stickies are guarding. If you are guarding a chokepoint, place the stickies in areas where the incoming enema's cannot see the stickys and detonate as they pass under/past them. Three stickies are all you usually need to kill a normal player, but I always load at least 6 on the doors. As soon as you sticky, reload! It is essential as a Demoman to always have all your weapons fully loaded at all possible times.
Creating a DMZ: A great use of the stickies on an offensive push is to create an area where the bad guys won't want to go, you can often use your stickies like a fence or wall. You can use this to help push forward through tough resistance, but is a more passive role in an offensive situation.There are two ways to attack with this weapon, one is the patient way, the other is the "click click boom" method, which I love.
Patience Offense: This requires you to head in with the support calvary, behind the heavies, soldiers and rage enthralled demomen. You wait for the battle to start raging, head in and patiently plop down a set of stickies, I usually throw down at least 3, the idea is to get as many down as quickly as possible and then detonate as the battle rages damaging as many people as possible. This method will get you more kills then the next one.
Click, Click Boom!: This requires a little timing and some motion prediction of your enemies. You basically launch a sticky and detonate it on or in very close proximity of your target, before it even hits the ground. You click once to launch and once to detonate in rapid succession. It takes a bit to kill people and is mainly effective when you have buddies that aid in damaging the opponents. This method mostly gets you assist kills but once you get real good at it, it becomes the defining method of killing fleeing injured opponents (no way you can aim the damn grenade well enough to ensure a hit and its delayed explosion sucks for this) and weaker opponents that have fast enough movement to dodge your patient method above (spies, scouts, pyros). This is also the best way to kill someone when you are 1v1 as they will not easily walk over a mass of stickies and tends be the only way I can win these duels.
Tool: Sticky Bombs
The sticky bomb is the best "launcher" in the game, you can sticky bomb jump to great heights, higher than the best rocket jumper. This creates an entire new level of areas to defend from since you can launch yourself in areas where attackers will have a disadvantage. This also allows you to assault the enemy from angles in which they may not be expecting it.
In order to sticky bomb jump (SBJ) you do the following, throw down a sticky walk over said sticky, as you are walking over it, jump and detonate at the same time.
You can also double sticky jump (SBJ2), just put two stickies down on the same spot, this will get you far higher than the previous SBJ. You can also fling yourself across a map using this method, just know that you will also be more injured than the normal SBJ.
Greater height can be gained by learning to tap the crouch key prior to jumping/detonating. It takes practice but does gain you distance.
The sticky bombs are also ideal for scattering enemy demoman stickies, proper placement of your sticky can allow you to push the enemies stickies to harmless locations. Use this as a means of aiding your heavies and other people susceptible to enemy demomen.I won't cover much of the melee weapons, except to state this, the demomans whiskey bottle is one of the least useful melee weapons, coming second only to the heavies fist. I rarely if ever use this (only time is the same for all classes that are ranged, if I'm up against someone and they don't know I'm there I whip it out and get them from behind!)
Overall Tips
You can launch sticky bombs a very far distance as you can charge up your sticky bomb launcher by simply holding your fire button down before releasing. A fully charged sticky will fly a very very long distance.
Aim high at close ranged targets, I usually aim a little above their heads, this helps in getting the arcing grenade to hit their body before it hits the ground.
You do not have to remain on the sticky bomb launcher in order to detonate your sticky bombs. One you have your sticky bombs laid out, switch to your grenade launcher, merely right click to detonate your bombs at anytime without need to switch weapons.
Both grenades and sticky bombs have a knockback feature, the sticky bombs being easier to use in manipulating the enemy. You can use this feature to break apart a ubered pair, but it doesn't always work. The idea is to bunch up a set of sticky bombs, wait until the duo is divided by the bombs and detonate them, sending both individuals in separate directions.
As a note, the sticky bombs have a small arming time, so they will not be able to be set off as soon as the leave the muzzle. Also if you are launching like mad and detonating rapidly after deployment, some stickies that had not yet armed will not go off and so a second right click will be required to detonate.
You can always tell how many sticky bombs you have by looking at a little number down by your ammo count.
You can only deploy 8 stickies at a time, basically a full clip. If you deploy over 8, the stickies already laid out will detonate in the order you put them down. So the 9th sticky placed down will cause the 1st sticky you placed to detonate, and so forth.
The Grenade launcher is often unreliable and one that I do not use primarily. It only holds four rounds and empties very quickly, though if it connects before it bounces it does tremendous damage, most often severely injuring the target and occasionally outright killing them.
If the grenade hits the ground it will bounce through everything coming to rest after it reaches a wall or runs out of steam and then will explode causing splash damage and usually not releasing its full damage on any nearby target, unlike a direct hit.
The grenade has a set time before it explodes so there is a chance that it can explode mid air before it reaches the ground if you fire it high enough, and this is often a nice tactic to use if you can have it explode above the heads of your targets (as with all things, experience will teach you this), this eliminates the random bouncing of the grenade which can cause the grenade to leave the vicinity of your target, causing no damage at all.
It's main uses are as follows:
FoF (Fire and Forget): The grenade launches a good distance and should be used to shower areas where enemies are often found, at chokepoints where enemies are flowing through or at large battles that are raging where you can hit them from a distance. The idea is you just fire them off blindly in areas that usually have badguys and continue on your way reloading as you go. I use this like many used full rocket launcher spreads in UT99.
Close Range Combat: The grenade is the only weapon you can use to try and kill those that press against your personal bubble without resorting to your whiskey bottle. These usually include Pyros and Scouts as they are much faster than you and require close range for their weapons to be most effective. Spies can fall into this category as well but they aren't quite the nemesis of the Demoman like the Pyro's and Scouts are.A huge tip on using the grenades is you want to aim high at close ranged targets, I usually aim a little above their heads, this helps in getting the arcing grenade to hit their body before it hits the ground. Remember if it hits the ground first it will not explode on contact and will usually bounce away and not harm a soul.
Weapon: Sticky Bombs
This is my main weapon. I use this to wreak havoc amongst my enema's! But seriously, this should be one of your primary weapons. It has great versatility and in experienced hands can even be used to survive Scout and Pyro's rushing you. It also has double the capacity of your other weapon with 8 rounds. The basic idea is this is a bomb that sticks (obscure reference to Saving Private Ryan...minus the axle grease), use the stickiness to your advantage. We'll cover more below.
As a note, the sticky bombs have a small arming time, so they will not be able to be set off as soon as the leave the muzzle. Also if you are launching like mad and detonating rapidly after deployment, some stickies that had not yet armed will not go off and so a second right click will be required to detonate. This is why this weapon is not good for close range combat which leaves the grenade launcher as your best bet.
Stickies can be moved around by almost every weapon out there. The most effective at moving them are the Heavies chaingun, another demomans stickies and the soldiers rockets. As a note, only the enemy can move your stickies, teammates cannot move them.
The main uses are as follows:
Defense, D-FENCE!: This is one of the most powerful defensive weapons second only to the level 3 Sentry Gun (SG3 for short). You can place this on and around Intel, Control points, or the best place, chokepoints that lead into those areas. The ideal place though is one where you can hang back and stay out of sight while still being able to see the area your stickies are guarding. If you are guarding a chokepoint, place the stickies in areas where the incoming enema's cannot see the stickys and detonate as they pass under/past them. Three stickies are all you usually need to kill a normal player, but I always load at least 6 on the doors. As soon as you sticky, reload! It is essential as a Demoman to always have all your weapons fully loaded at all possible times.
Creating a DMZ: A great use of the stickies on an offensive push is to create an area where the bad guys won't want to go, you can often use your stickies like a fence or wall. You can use this to help push forward through tough resistance, but is a more passive role in an offensive situation.There are two ways to attack with this weapon, one is the patient way, the other is the "click click boom" method, which I love.
Patience Offense: This requires you to head in with the support calvary, behind the heavies, soldiers and rage enthralled demomen. You wait for the battle to start raging, head in and patiently plop down a set of stickies, I usually throw down at least 3, the idea is to get as many down as quickly as possible and then detonate as the battle rages damaging as many people as possible. This method will get you more kills then the next one.
Click, Click Boom!: This requires a little timing and some motion prediction of your enemies. You basically launch a sticky and detonate it on or in very close proximity of your target, before it even hits the ground. You click once to launch and once to detonate in rapid succession. It takes a bit to kill people and is mainly effective when you have buddies that aid in damaging the opponents. This method mostly gets you assist kills but once you get real good at it, it becomes the defining method of killing fleeing injured opponents (no way you can aim the damn grenade well enough to ensure a hit and its delayed explosion sucks for this) and weaker opponents that have fast enough movement to dodge your patient method above (spies, scouts, pyros). This is also the best way to kill someone when you are 1v1 as they will not easily walk over a mass of stickies and tends be the only way I can win these duels.
Tool: Sticky Bombs
The sticky bomb is the best "launcher" in the game, you can sticky bomb jump to great heights, higher than the best rocket jumper. This creates an entire new level of areas to defend from since you can launch yourself in areas where attackers will have a disadvantage. This also allows you to assault the enemy from angles in which they may not be expecting it.
In order to sticky bomb jump (SBJ) you do the following, throw down a sticky walk over said sticky, as you are walking over it, jump and detonate at the same time.
You can also double sticky jump (SBJ2), just put two stickies down on the same spot, this will get you far higher than the previous SBJ. You can also fling yourself across a map using this method, just know that you will also be more injured than the normal SBJ.
Greater height can be gained by learning to tap the crouch key prior to jumping/detonating. It takes practice but does gain you distance.
The sticky bombs are also ideal for scattering enemy demoman stickies, proper placement of your sticky can allow you to push the enemies stickies to harmless locations. Use this as a means of aiding your heavies and other people susceptible to enemy demomen.I won't cover much of the melee weapons, except to state this, the demomans whiskey bottle is one of the least useful melee weapons, coming second only to the heavies fist. I rarely if ever use this (only time is the same for all classes that are ranged, if I'm up against someone and they don't know I'm there I whip it out and get them from behind!)
Overall Tips
You can launch sticky bombs a very far distance as you can charge up your sticky bomb launcher by simply holding your fire button down before releasing. A fully charged sticky will fly a very very long distance.
Aim high at close ranged targets, I usually aim a little above their heads, this helps in getting the arcing grenade to hit their body before it hits the ground.
You do not have to remain on the sticky bomb launcher in order to detonate your sticky bombs. One you have your sticky bombs laid out, switch to your grenade launcher, merely right click to detonate your bombs at anytime without need to switch weapons.
Both grenades and sticky bombs have a knockback feature, the sticky bombs being easier to use in manipulating the enemy. You can use this feature to break apart a ubered pair, but it doesn't always work. The idea is to bunch up a set of sticky bombs, wait until the duo is divided by the bombs and detonate them, sending both individuals in separate directions.
As a note, the sticky bombs have a small arming time, so they will not be able to be set off as soon as the leave the muzzle. Also if you are launching like mad and detonating rapidly after deployment, some stickies that had not yet armed will not go off and so a second right click will be required to detonate.
You can always tell how many sticky bombs you have by looking at a little number down by your ammo count.
You can only deploy 8 stickies at a time, basically a full clip. If you deploy over 8, the stickies already laid out will detonate in the order you put them down. So the 9th sticky placed down will cause the 1st sticky you placed to detonate, and so forth.