Personal tips
From TF2 Wiki
Introduction
Team Fortress 2 has a variety of different classes to use. Some may suit your playstyle while others may be more beneficial to the team at the time. This article is designed to teach you the strategies and skills you need to use to be an effective player. See Team strategy for tips and tactics for teams.
Aiming
The two most important skills required in most shooter based games are:
- Reflexes
- This means reacting to an enemy. When you see him running, you should be able to quickly put your crosshair on him.
- Accuracy
- After you've reacted to him, you should put your crosshair in the most effective spot for killing them. Soldiers may want to aim at the enemies' feet to launch them. Snipers will want to put their crosshair on the enemies' head.
In TF2 these skills are still present for most Classes however if you find yourself lacking in either department, the following can make these skills less important:
- Engineer - Placement and situational awareness are key elements of Engineer play, Sentry guns are accurate and reflexive enough for you.
- Medic - Good situational awareness is the key to being a good Medic, your Medic buddy should possess great reflexes and accuracy on your behalf.
- Spy - Stealth and an ability to blend in are key to being a good Spy.
- Scout - Reflexes are very important for the Scout but the scatter of the shotgun means that accuracy is not as important. Instead you should be able to avoid fire while aiming your shotgun blasts in the direction of the enemy in the hope that you will out last him.
- Heavy - The Heavy doesn't rely on twitch reflexes or incredible aiming but instead requires the player to be aware of his surroundings and anticipate enemies' actions to be successful.
Your Control Setup
Default isn't always the answer. That's why it's very important to find the right control setup so you can be both comfortable and efficient when playing. Look at the default control pages (Xbox 360 Controls, List of Default keys, and PlayStation 3 Controls) and try out different settings. You may find one you like but if you keep messing with them, you may find one you may like even more.
There is also a large amount of peripheral equipment available that can aid you in becoming a better player. Use GamePC.com to help you find the setup that is right for you. You could also use a search engine to find more info on gaming rigs and how to build your own.
A Solid Connection
Wireless and Wired both have their advantages and disadvantages when it comes to internet gaming. Wired allows you to have one simple wire running from your PC/console to your wireless router. However, that big cable running across your room could get damaged. Wireless allows you to avoid the messy cables and just go with a good connection anywhere in your home. Unfortunately, interference may occur from 2.4 GHz cordless phones, microwaves, cellular phones, and other wireless networks nearby.
There's no simple answer for which is best, but you should talk to your ISP and try to purchase the best connection service package possible. Having a 1.5mb upload speed or higher will be best for hosting solid 16 player games over Xbox LIVE.
Remember: Lag can make it difficult to move around the map and react to certain situations. Either find good hosts or get a good connection so you can host your own solid games.
The Music
Music can be both a distraction and a relaxation tool. TF2 doesn't have any background music playing when a game is in session so it can be quite quiet. Having the music on or off has its own benefits and deficits.
Playing your music too loud may make it hard for you to hear other in-game sounds. A Sniper may want to listen for spies de-cloaking in their area. Players may also want to listen for the in-game responses such as when an Engineer is building a sentry up ahead.
However, playing your favorite music will also make you calm. An important part of the game is to control your own emotions and those of your team. Playing music will allow you stay calm and feel better.
Thus, you should try to find a medium where you'll be able to listen to your music and also hear the in-game sounds well enough so that you can still react to them.
Communication, Trash Talking, and Policing
When communicating with your team, remember this simple acronym: S.E.C.. It stands for Speed, Clarity, and Efficiency. Speed means don't take too long when talking. Clarity is making sure you can be heard well. You can't be clear if you have music in the background, you're talking to someone else, or you're eating/drinking something. Efficiency is talking simply so that everyone can understand you. An example would be something like "Heavy by the grating". A inefficient communicator would be someone who says "Heavy by that door looking thing to the right near the stairs". The best way to be efficient would be to know the Map terms and all the well known locations in each Map.
Trash talking is found on almost all games. Trash talking isn't all bad, but there are several understood rules each player should follow.
- Trash talk your enemies but not your team mates.
- Don't be vulgar, obnoxious, or disrespectful.
- Don't get too personal.
- Try being funny when trash talking.
- Never trash talk if you can't back it up with your scores.
Remember: The host has the power to kick other players. Breaking any of these rules will give the host just more reasons to boot you. On the Xbox 360, players have many police options they can use to stop offensive players.
Giving other players negative feedback will reduce their rep and lower the chance of that player getting matched up with the player again in the future.
The File Complaint option allows the player to send a complaint which will get filed by the Xbox LIVE Police. Too many complaints over the course of a few weeks can get a player banned from Xbox LIVE.
The Mute option allows a player to cut off communications between the two. That muted player can't hear you and you can't hear them.
There's also the Block Communications option which will automatically delete any voice, text, game invites, and picture messages from that player. The only way to turn that off is to have the Blocker send the Blockee any type of message.
Controlling your emotions
One of the most important (yet also the most neglected) parts of being a skilled player is controlling your own emotions. There are many emotions but the most common ones that hurt people's performance are frustration, overconfidence, and fear.
When a player is getting killed a lot (or is even getting dominated), they frequently become frustrated. When you're frustrated you act in very irrational ways. You may charge out in the open in attempt to get a revenge kill. You may try to play as a class that may be totally be useless at the current time (being the 5th spy on the team in an attempt to backstab someone). You must learn to relax and understand that these things happen. By simply taking a few deep breaths or going to get a small drink of water normally helps people calm down.
Overconfidence can also be considered just a pure adrenaline rush. When you've just dominated your 5th opponent and you are feeling unstoppable, you should settle down. Normally when you're playing extremely well, you get greedy. You may leave your capture point or intelligence in attempt to kill more players and increase your score even higher. Scores are great but when they interfere with the objective they can be your enemy. No matter how well you are doing, your objective is always more important than your point scores. Never leave the objective unless someone else is covering it.
Fear is a small emotion but ties into frustration. Fear that you will lose the game can make you act differently. You may panic in a situation and miss a shot or make a bad call. Fear happens when you fear you are going to lose the game. These usually crop up in team/clan matches. Fear can also arise when playing someone better than you. You fear that they will kill you more and frustrate you. You may also fear the enemy team. If they all have clan prefixes in their names, while your team is just a bunch of random players, it can put fear into you and your team. When this happens, you'll need to calm down.
If you see a player getting angry or really upset, you should try to calm them down. Nothing is worse than having a player do completely stupid things. Try talking to them about it or make some jokes to lighten the mood. Taking a few minutes to talk to them could lighten the situation and give you and your team the positive feeling needed to take the initiative and win the game.
Essentially, Poor performance usually happens when a player gets too emotional.
Psy-Ops
Emotions can be a double edged sword; they can both hurt and help you. You learned the concepts of trash talking and controlling your emotions, now its important to understand how to reflect that back at your enemies. This is a military strategy called Psy-Ops.
Never give your enemy any type of encouragement. When they get a good kill off of you, don't say to them that it was good. If you do, you are encouraging them. When they are encouraged, they are happy, and when they're happy they play well. As a general rule, people play better when they are feeling good. Don't let them feel good. Instead of encouraging them completely by saying "Great shot!", give them a little encouragement by saying "It was good..." but then strike fear into them by saying "... but now I know where you're at." This ensures that you didn't be too disrespectful when trash talking and you didn't encourage them. Thus, you played their emotions. Do this a lot to them, and their good mood will soon swing.
In terms of TF2, if the enemy team has a good sniper, tell them (in lobby) that you'll be a spy the whole time and you will only be gunning for him. Now that sniper has to worry about you constantly backstabbing him. After the 4th or 5th backstab (especially if you start dominating him), he's going to get a little shaky. He won't be in a positive mood. He's going to play worse than usual and soon he won't be that great sniper that he was before.
Basically, to "get in someone's head", you simply don't let them feel good. If they're feeling good, they play well. Do whatever you think necessary (except cheating) to mess with them.
Avoid Predictability
In TF2 this is using the same exits, routes or ambush spots even if they are no longer effective or are not helping your team win.
These can become habit forming even if they fail to win you the game. After each game check the results for your personal stats and compare these to your memory of how the game went.
Review your routes and compare them to those available. Did the same players constantly kill you ? were you dominated ? and how and where were you dominated ?.
To be unpredictable when playing, head in different directions and use all the routes that are available. When moving through areas change the direction you are facing by strafe left to right.
Learn to think in all dimensions; attacking from above and below.
The aim here is to get the opposition defending empty doorways and vacant spaces spreading them out to enable you and your team to win the game.
General Strategies
These are the strategies of the game that most players should learn and understand. Using these in combat will allow you to get a leg up on the competition.
- Find alternate routes and use them (even if they take longer than direct route). Don't take same flanking route too often or else you're being predictable.
- Wait around corners and surprise your enemy. You can avoid being ambushed by strafing in the direction where you believe they will be ambushing you from.
- Communicate between you and your Medic buddy. Ubers are special; don't waste unless it's needed or wanted. Have a quick plan for what you will do when ubered.
Map Specific Strategies
You can't be a good player unless you know at least the basics of each map. Read these guides and try to implement the tips within them.
Class Specific Strategies
Know the weapons, know the classes. These guides are meant to help you understand what to do in certain situations and when fighting other opponents.
Specialty v. Versatility Debate
Many players debate over which method of practicing (specializing or being versatile) is the most effective. The definition of a Specialty class is one that a player loves and/or is effective with. A specialty player is one that sticks to just one or two classes and tries to master that class. This kind of player may try to practice with just one specific weapon and try to master that as well. On the other hand, a Versatile player is one that can play multiple classes but doesn't have a specialty in any of them. He goes whatever is needed at the time. For this kind of player, he may try to get practice in with all the weapons but he never has one where he has significant practice with.
Now, we all have our favorite classes and we all have the class we are best at playing (these are not necessarily the same) but in the course of any game you may be called upon to play any of the classes if you are the next person to respawn.
As such it is best to practice with all the classes at some point to elevate you above the normal level of play for that class.
Think of this in terns of a decathalete training for all the disciplines, you need to be OK at all of them but you need a few areas where you specialize more to increase your chances of winning.
Drills, Practices, and Mistakes
It's important to practice if you want to keep your skills up to snuff. Such training could be done simply by trying to hit a specific spot (or the little cans scattered around the maps) while strafing or jumping.
You can also familiarize yourself with the maps looking for good spots to do certain things. For example, if you're trying to improve with the spy you should look for good spots to decloak. You could also try testing your cloak and see how far you can go before it runs out.
If you're trying to do something alone, you should try to do them in a closed (private) server. If you're doing something private on the Xbox 360, you should host a System Link game. This way your friends and other online players can join.
After dying or losing a round/capture, think about what just happened and what you should try to do next time. Did you miss your shot? Try practicing more with that class. Did you have someone guarding the point? If not, go volunteer for the position. Did you get played by your emotions? Try relaxing a little. The loss could've been your fault or it could've been your team's. Blaming it on your team will never help. If you know that it was your team's fault, then try instructing them politely on what they should do next time. If the enemies were ubercharging too much, try having a spy stop their medics.
Criticals can cause frustration in game and are hard to counter. Remember, crits can't capture points; it's the people that do. If one team seems to be shooting off lots of crits, find a way around it. Use spies and stab them. Get a Medic and Ubercharge through them. Work with your team. A well-coordinated team can easily beat a bunch of crit spewing players. Alternatively, you can join a no crits server (available on PC only).
Pages about Team Fortress 2 strategies.
