Team Fortress 2 Strategy

The aim of this guide is to give you an indication of where and when to use the different unlocks and to give you some strategies to go with them. Whilst both of the guns function in the same way they utilise different play styles and at first it can be hard to get to grips with.

Overview

Sasha is the basic minigun that every heavy starts off with, it is simple to use, just point and hold mouse 1, you don’t even need to exert more effort by pressing w! However by thoughtlessly revving up in bad places will end up in you dying prematurely.

Natascha is the alternative to the bog standard minigun, you sacrifice 25% damage but in return you slow down an enemy that you hit, this can work very well when you have team mates with you or if you aren’t in an enclosed space as it prevents the enemy from getting away and forces them to run to the nearest corner or attack you.

When and Where You Would Use Them

Although it may seem like a good idea to only use one of the miniguns, there is the time and place for both of them, it just depends on who is on the enemy team, what classes they are playing and which map you are playing on. For example the minigun isn’t as effective in open spaces as Natasha is. Whereas the minigun is more effective at close range due to having 100% damage compared to the 75% and 100% chance to slow that Natasha has.

Sasha (Normal Minigun)

If you aren’t sure if the other team has a heavy or if you know that they do have a heavy but you aren’t sure whether he is using Natasha or Sasha it is generally best to use the normal minigun, this is because it gives you a better chance of winning if the heavy turns out to be using Sasha as well and if they are using Natasha then you are pretty much guaranteed a kill assuming that they don’t have a medic permanently attached to them. On a side note, if they do have a medic permanently attached to them then it is advisable to continue harassing the heavy/medic combo as you are depriving the enemy team of a medic and the valuable that they need. Later on I will talk about how to get the better of heavies that have medics latched on to them.

Meet Sasha!

The aim of this guide is to give you an indication of where and when to use the different unlocks and to give you some strategies to go with them. Whilst both of the guns function in the same way they utilise different play styles and at first it can be hard to get to grips with.

Overview

Sasha is the basic minigun that every heavy starts off with, it is simple to use, just point and hold mouse 1, you don’t even need to exert more effort by pressing w! However by thoughtlessly revving up in bad places will end up in you dying prematurely.

Natascha is the alternative to the bog standard minigun, you sacrifice 25% damage but in return you slow down an enemy that you hit, this can work very well when you have team mates with you or if you aren’t in an enclosed space as it prevents the enemy from getting away and forces them to run to the nearest corner or attack you.

The minigun is also good in small maps where you can jump out from behind a corner and catch the enemy in a small confined space such as a corridor where you know where they will retreat to, the extra damage that you have compared to Natasha will mean that you can do more damage per second, consequently you can kill the enemies quicker thus reducing the amount of time you are exposing yourself to spam and snipers.

If you find yourself on a map with long sight lines such as Well or Freight then it doesn’t mean that you will need to switch over to Natasha because there are still small, confined indoor spaces where you can catch enemies out, it just means that you either have to be more reliant on your shotgun to attack the enemies or it means that you will have to be more careful about where you spin up, only when you are sure that you can’t be sniped and you have team mates with you.

Natascha

Natascha is better suited to spaces where the enemy can get away more easily, this tend to be in more open spaces such as the last point on Well, or where there are lots of obstacles or alternative paths that they can escape or run behind corners such as Lumberyard.

One thing to be wary of when you are using Natasha is other heavies, especially those who are using the other minigun, Sasha. You will need to avoid head on confrontations with them and find an alternative, sneakier approach. For example, the middle point of well, it is quite usual for a heavy (with Sasha) and a medic to attack the point head on, what you will need to do (preferably with team mates as going on the offensive without team mates and away from medkits and ammo is suicide) is to flank them by going around the side of the crates and attacking the from the rear, this way you will kill the medic first which is very important as the heavy will no longer get his health back. Even without his beloved medic to heal him the enraged, fully over healed heavy is still a very dangerous beast (adult assistance may be required ;D), in order to make sure that you kill him whilst he hasn’t revved up or doesn’t know that you are there you must get as close up to him as you can before you rev up so that you do as much damage as possible in the time that it takes for him to realise you are behind him. In this time you should try to waddle around the other way that he is turning to it takes him even longer to start firing at you. A good approach on the middle point of Well – although it is harder with the more people that are on the enemy team and who are alive – is to go behind them, up the stairs and jump off from there as it is highly unlikely that the heavy, who will be occupied with the people that are in front of him will have the time to attack you as well.

Strategies

I am going to go over this as some people who play the heavy don’t seem to understand it, the heavy is primarily a defensive class due to his slow speed, this means that when he does decide to attack he needs to push up with team mates and preferable a medic who will be able to overheal and heal him, this is because the heavy can only focus on one target at a time and if an inexperienced heavy is confronted by two reasonable scouts they will make mincemeat of him. However if that same heavy had a soldier and a medic then he would probably have survived that encounter.

The above example also highlights a second key thing that every heavy must do, that is to target a specific enemy and continue to attack them until they are either dead, out of optimum range or if there is another more urgent target such as a spy decloaking to the side of you.

This brings me neatly onto my third and final point, spy checking is essential, the spy is arguably one of the heavies strongest counters if they aren’t careful. If you aren’t engaged in contact it is always a good idea to turn around and check the area for spies and if you see a team mate acting strangely then briefly fire at them.

Sasha Strategies

Assuming that you are somewhat familiar with the heavy, you shouldn’t find it to hard to use the normal minigun, abusing corners is a good idea as you can get up close to the enemy and do a lot of damage but you will also be able to retreat quickly. There are some corners which are better to attack from than others, for example on the final point of Dustbowl, the corner that the attackers nearly always come from -straight in front of the cap point- is a bad corner to attack from as the enemies can attack you from above which is harder for you to defend yourself and the second reason why it is bad is that it the enemies do attack you from above and on the ground then you are forced to split your attention between two places which means that you can’t focus on attacking a specific enemy.

The corner that I have mentioned in the above example can be used as a corner at a pinch assuming that your team control the top half of it and the enemy are pushing into the area, what you have to be aware of is snipers who hide on the top balcony looking at the corner, due to the slow speed whilst you are firing the minigun means that you will be a prime target due to your large frame. It is also advisable to have a medic nearby, if not healing you nearly continuously as you will be taking a lot of spam from the attackers who will be attacking you by popping their heads around the other corner, squeezing of a few rounds and popping back where you can’t shoot them. Soldiers and demomen may be on the balcony as it provides a height advantage that they benefit from, especially the soldiers.

Keep hugging the corners

My final point to make is that when you are coming out from behind the corner or whatever piece of cover you are using, you should jump and rev up your gun at the same time so that you can quickly get around the corner and you will be able to fire right from the start and catch the enemies off guard. If you kill a few of the enemies and the rest start to retreat then there are two things that you can do, they depend on who is with you, how much health they have and whether they have enough ammo and are reloaded. If you do have team mates with you and they are healthy enough and full of ammo then I would suggest pushing forwards because you will continue the defensive push and it will start to gather momentum (more so if you have a medic or two who are/is ready to heal you when you need it. However if you don’t have any team mates nearby or if you don’t think that you or they have enough health to push then pull back and look for more ammo and a medic or a medkit or dispenser if there are no medics around or on your team.

The trick of playing the heavy is to know when you need to retreat, it is all about managing the resources that you have effectively (your health and ammo) so that you survive, there is no shame pulling back to a more defendable place where there is health and ammo. Generally if you don’t have a medic nearby or permanently latched onto you then you should stay at a place where you can guarantee a steady supply of health. For example the “hut” on the second point of Dustbowl stage two, there are two medium size medkits and two medium size ammo packs. More often than not the enemy that you retreated from will run towards your new place assuming that you retreated because you didn’t have a lot of health or ammo.

Natasha Strategies

With Natasha you should also be using the corner technique that you have read about in the Sasha strategies section because it is still relevant to you as the heavy has a large frame which is a good target for rockets and grenades and the sniper. By hugging a corner you are reducing the time that you are exposed to that, therefore meaning that you will be able to defend a spot longer than if you were out in the open.

Natascha is particularly good in arena mode because of its ability to slow an enemy to less than the heavies walking speed, this coupled with the no respawning means that you can pick off the enemy team one by one, it also protects you to a certain extent against scouts and pyros as it limits the scouts speed dramatically which means that you have robbed them of their major advantage and they have a tiny amount of health so they will go down really quickly. You will also reduce the amount of damage you take from a lot of pyros, the amount of damage that you reduce depends entirely on when you spot them and when you start firing. If you spot them a long way away then you probably won’t take any damage from the flamethrower as they won’t reach you before you kill them, however if the manage to sneak up on you and get right in your face there is a good chance that you will die, especially if they have the axtinguisher and they start circle strafing you, this encounter could go either way depending on how much health you have and they have and also how good they are and how good your aim and tracking is. If you have a sandvich you might want to drop it either before the fight if you are low on health or after the fight when you are burning and there is no medic to heal you.

If you use Natasha you will need to pay more attention to your health, where you can get more health – so you need to know if your team has medics and if so where they are – and you also need to know where the enemy heavies are and if they are using Natasha or Sasha. So whilst Natasha protects you against some of your encounters such as scouts and pyros to name a few, it also means that you have to be more careful of enemy heavies and your health as you do less damage per second.