]LoL[Harm
01-24-2008, 01:52 PM
The soldier is your best bet for beginning to learn the game. He is durable, easy to use in a point and click fashion and requires little to use effectively, though there are areas of "mastery". A good soldier can be devastating to any attacking force. The splash damage from his rockets do a good amount of damage, wreaking havoc when people are grouped together. Many of the main tactics used for the UT99 rocket launcher will apply here, mainly that surfaces are your friend (detailed more below).
The main drawbacks to a soldier is his slow movement (the only one slower is the Heavy I believe) and low ammo count in the rocket which has a lengthy reload time.
There are three classes higher up in the hierarchy for Medic Ubers, they are Heavy, Pyro, Demoman. The soldier comes fourth due to two main issues, massively slow rate of fire and long reload times and his poor ability to defend the medic prior to and after an uber.
Overall the soldier is one of the strongest midfielders/skirmishers having no primary foe save for perhaps the spy (because the soldier moves so slowly he is easy pickings for backstabs) and snipers. A note on snipers, if you know where they are perched, during your forays into the battlefield, launch a few rockets into their little cubbyholes to keep them honest.
Weapon: Rocket Launcher
This is one of the more powerful weapons in the game. A direct hit with a rocket does 105-115 damage at short range. Even at long range it still does from 45-60.
One of the best tactics in the game is to land a rocket at the feet of your target, this then sends them into the air, where they are almost always disoriented, then time your next rocket to hit them at their landing spot. This tactic is called juggling and completely nullifies pretty much everyone, save for the scout, who if he/she is good will merely double jump in a different direction and most likely attempt to escape. This is a great way to kill off charging pyros.
With the juggling ability the soldier is the second best class to disrupt ubers (demoman is best), with well timed and placed rockets you can punch the medic far enough away to disrupt the uber beam. Best locations for this are ledges where you can punch the medic off of it or other areas where you can put the medic behind something that interrupts his direct line of sight to his ubered target.
It is hard to hit a target dead on with a rocket, it is usually more tactical to hit the wall, floor or sometimes ceiling that is in their proximity, slowly eating them away with splash damage. It is better to hit them with splash damage then to not hit them at all.
High ground is one of the best positions for this class, if you can get high ground on an adversary it is much easier to kill.Weapon: Shotgun
This is not a bad secondary weapon, doing 80-90 damage up close, though damage suffers greatly at medium to long ranges and is practically useless doing only 3-10 at long and 10-30 medium.
It is ideal to use this on an adversary after you have exhausted the current load of rockets you have. As soon as you launch your fourth rocket and the bad guy(s) is/are still alive, hit Q to bring up the shotgun and take them out with it. Usually if you try to take the time to reload the rocket launcher you'll be dead before you get to launch it.
Tool: Rocket Launcher
Rocket jumping is an essential skill for a soldier, it allows some great vertical mobility for a class that moves very slowly on foot. !!You must be looking straight down at the ground and moving forward if you wish to launch your self high up with forward momentum!!
You can crouch rocket jump for a great boost in height and some length of your rocket jump. With a little practice you stare straight down at the ground as you move forward (and you must be looking straight down) then tap your crouch key and launch a rocket while you hit the jump key. This will launch you a great deal into the air.
You can also run backwards, and shoot straight at the ground with a jump to propel yourself backwards at a rate greater than your normal run speed.
With enough skill you can also climb walls with this gaining even greater heights. After your initial rocket jump if you are against a wall you can launch against the wall, hitting directly below your body as you slide across the wall and launch yourself again. Wall jumping is very difficult and has limited usability.
You may find times when jumping over the enemy is beneficial, I've launched myself over the heads of enemies and then launched a rocket down on top of their heads...however only once.
The rocket launcher is also a great tool for helping build up medic ubers after the game has started.Overall Tips
Though medics will often favor heavies or pyros (sometimes) over a soldier, it is ideal to hang around the medic and be apart of the main attack force. Your ability to do great damage and juggle people make you ideal for aiding the heavy and pryo in tearing apart an opposing attack force or for breaking a base.
You are ranked low on effective ubers for medics. The reason is the slow load time of the rocket launcher as well as your overall lack of ability to protect a medic.
You can safely destroy unguarded sentry guns from a great distance, given the map is open enough.
You can also do a slow creep around a corner and take out sentries as well, since a sentry gun will not lock onto you until your full body is in view. So if you have time and patience you can also take out unguarded sentry guns that are around corners.
However if you happen to come up on a guarded sentry gun (engineer is repairing) then you must only center your shots at his dispenser which should go down easy enough if he's mainly repairing the gun, which he normally is. Then retreat, reload and take him out next or try your luck with the gun if you think he's low on metal.
A note on snipers, if you know where they are perched, during your forays into the battlefield, launch a few rockets into their little cubbyholes to keep them honest.
The main drawbacks to a soldier is his slow movement (the only one slower is the Heavy I believe) and low ammo count in the rocket which has a lengthy reload time.
There are three classes higher up in the hierarchy for Medic Ubers, they are Heavy, Pyro, Demoman. The soldier comes fourth due to two main issues, massively slow rate of fire and long reload times and his poor ability to defend the medic prior to and after an uber.
Overall the soldier is one of the strongest midfielders/skirmishers having no primary foe save for perhaps the spy (because the soldier moves so slowly he is easy pickings for backstabs) and snipers. A note on snipers, if you know where they are perched, during your forays into the battlefield, launch a few rockets into their little cubbyholes to keep them honest.
Weapon: Rocket Launcher
This is one of the more powerful weapons in the game. A direct hit with a rocket does 105-115 damage at short range. Even at long range it still does from 45-60.
One of the best tactics in the game is to land a rocket at the feet of your target, this then sends them into the air, where they are almost always disoriented, then time your next rocket to hit them at their landing spot. This tactic is called juggling and completely nullifies pretty much everyone, save for the scout, who if he/she is good will merely double jump in a different direction and most likely attempt to escape. This is a great way to kill off charging pyros.
With the juggling ability the soldier is the second best class to disrupt ubers (demoman is best), with well timed and placed rockets you can punch the medic far enough away to disrupt the uber beam. Best locations for this are ledges where you can punch the medic off of it or other areas where you can put the medic behind something that interrupts his direct line of sight to his ubered target.
It is hard to hit a target dead on with a rocket, it is usually more tactical to hit the wall, floor or sometimes ceiling that is in their proximity, slowly eating them away with splash damage. It is better to hit them with splash damage then to not hit them at all.
High ground is one of the best positions for this class, if you can get high ground on an adversary it is much easier to kill.Weapon: Shotgun
This is not a bad secondary weapon, doing 80-90 damage up close, though damage suffers greatly at medium to long ranges and is practically useless doing only 3-10 at long and 10-30 medium.
It is ideal to use this on an adversary after you have exhausted the current load of rockets you have. As soon as you launch your fourth rocket and the bad guy(s) is/are still alive, hit Q to bring up the shotgun and take them out with it. Usually if you try to take the time to reload the rocket launcher you'll be dead before you get to launch it.
Tool: Rocket Launcher
Rocket jumping is an essential skill for a soldier, it allows some great vertical mobility for a class that moves very slowly on foot. !!You must be looking straight down at the ground and moving forward if you wish to launch your self high up with forward momentum!!
You can crouch rocket jump for a great boost in height and some length of your rocket jump. With a little practice you stare straight down at the ground as you move forward (and you must be looking straight down) then tap your crouch key and launch a rocket while you hit the jump key. This will launch you a great deal into the air.
You can also run backwards, and shoot straight at the ground with a jump to propel yourself backwards at a rate greater than your normal run speed.
With enough skill you can also climb walls with this gaining even greater heights. After your initial rocket jump if you are against a wall you can launch against the wall, hitting directly below your body as you slide across the wall and launch yourself again. Wall jumping is very difficult and has limited usability.
You may find times when jumping over the enemy is beneficial, I've launched myself over the heads of enemies and then launched a rocket down on top of their heads...however only once.
The rocket launcher is also a great tool for helping build up medic ubers after the game has started.Overall Tips
Though medics will often favor heavies or pyros (sometimes) over a soldier, it is ideal to hang around the medic and be apart of the main attack force. Your ability to do great damage and juggle people make you ideal for aiding the heavy and pryo in tearing apart an opposing attack force or for breaking a base.
You are ranked low on effective ubers for medics. The reason is the slow load time of the rocket launcher as well as your overall lack of ability to protect a medic.
You can safely destroy unguarded sentry guns from a great distance, given the map is open enough.
You can also do a slow creep around a corner and take out sentries as well, since a sentry gun will not lock onto you until your full body is in view. So if you have time and patience you can also take out unguarded sentry guns that are around corners.
However if you happen to come up on a guarded sentry gun (engineer is repairing) then you must only center your shots at his dispenser which should go down easy enough if he's mainly repairing the gun, which he normally is. Then retreat, reload and take him out next or try your luck with the gun if you think he's low on metal.
A note on snipers, if you know where they are perched, during your forays into the battlefield, launch a few rockets into their little cubbyholes to keep them honest.