Team Fortress 2 Strategy

Introduction

This is a guide that I wrote about how, where and when to use an ubercharge in Team Fortress 2. This is only a basic guide and the best guide is experience so I would advise you to go out and play. This is because there are many small naunces that can only be learnt by finding them out. The ubercharge is a very powerful tool in the hands of a skilled medic and ubercharge buddy. The type of class that you should choose to ubercharge will be entirely dependant on the following situational factors:

• What classes are available at the time
• How many enemies there are
• What type of enemies there are
• If there is a sentry gun present

If there is:

A lot of enemies – Then your best choice of ubercharge buddy will be a pyro if the enemies are close together or a heavy if the enemies are well spread out. Be sure to make sure that the heavy or pyro has enough ammo because they are prone to running out and then they would have to rely on their secondary weapons which unless it’s the flare gun it wont be useful at any other that short range.

If there is one sentry gun – Then a good ubercharge buddy would be a heavy soldier or demoman. A soldier is the last buddy that you should choose because it is hard for them to take down a sentry gun due to their small ammo clip. A heavy is the second best choice for taking down a sentry gun. To maximise the success you should aim to get as close as you can to the sentry gun before you activate the ubercharge because the heavy’s minigun is primarily a close range weapon. The demoman is the obvious choice due to his sticky bombs.

If there is more than one sentry gun – Then your best choice of ubercharge buddy would be the demoman because he has the use of stick bombs. The demoman should try to place the sticky bombs in the centre of the engineers’ setup.

How The Ubercharge Works

The ubercharge has two different rates of charge. The rate of charge depends on the health of the mediguns’ target and the type of ubercharge that is being built up.

The Medigun charges at 2.50% per second when the medic;

• is healing a teammate during the setup time (even when the teammate is completely overhealed
• when healing a teammate who is less than fully overcharged

The Medigun charges at 1.25% per second when the medic

• heals a player after the setup time
• or who is already fully overcharged

The total charge time needed for the ubercharge when it is in setup time or when healing a player who is not fully overcharged is 40 seconds, and the time taken to get an ubercharge after setup time or if the player being healed is fully over charged is 80 seconds.
If the medic is using the Kritzkrieg then the time that is needed to build up a full ubercharge is only 30 seconds because the Kritzkrieg builds up an ubercharge 25% quicker. With the normal rate of charge it take 60 seconds to build up a full ubercharge.

It is useful to note that healing enemy spies who are disguised as a teammate also increases the charge. Generally speaking it is easier and quicker to get a full ubercharge by buffing teammates to 150% of their original health. This method of getting an ubercharge is twice as fast as just healing one player.

Below is a strategy to easily get an ubercharge:

As the game progresses try to heal injured players first then once all injured players have been healed then you can go around buffing all of your teammates to 150% of their health. Another, riskier way up quickly building up an ubercharge is to attack the enemy with your uber saw, this gives you 25% of an ubercharge, it is a good way of finishing of an ubercharge quickly. This also works when you hit an enemy spy, with a bit of luck and no critical hits you can get 75% of an ubercharge by killing an enemy spy.

When you have built up an ubercharge try to be more aware of spies because good spies will make it their priority to backstab as they can see your medigun sparkling.

How To Use An Ubercharge

When you have an ubercharge and a buddy to use it with there are some things that you can do to maximise the effect of the ubercharge upon the enemy. The first thing I to make sure that you are behind your ubercharge buddy, this will shield you incoming rockets. However this strategy does have its problems though because whilst you are partially protected from rockets you are still vulnerable to grenades due to their random bouncing. The thing to look out for when using this strategy is pyro’s who are trying to flank you. Try to notify your uber buddy as soon as you can. If possible try to hide round corners to avoid incoming fire.

When you are moving towards the enemy try not to activate your uber as soon as you come into contact with the enemy because they want you to waste your uber charge. Only activate the uber when you are taking a moderate amount of damage. This most important thing at this moment is that you must remember to notify your partner just before you uber them. Many ubercharges fail due to the uber buddy not realising that he is going to be ubered. You will lose a few valuable seconds whilst he acknowledges the fact you have ubered him.
If someone on the other activates an uber in response to your own uber then try to ignore them because you cannot affect them, try to take out the sentry guns and other un-ubered enemies.

Another way in which you can maximise your ubercharge is that if you are trying to take out sentry guns let the medic go first so that he/you can take the fire whilst your buddy has the best opportunity to take out the sentry gun.
Whilst you are being ubered watch out for demomen and soldiers because whilst you cannot be affected by bullets you can still be affected by concussion damage which can knock you away from your buddy. The most common strategy to counter ubers is for demomen to fire stickies at your feet and attempt to split you, the uber will be wasted and the uber buddy will be easy separated and killed. Another way to counter uber pairs is to try and knock them of ledges. A good place to practice this tactic is the Rocket Cap on dustbowl.

Ubercharge Tactics

You can have the best of both worlds by getting a medic with a Kritzkrieg and another medic with a normal medigun, if they both uber the same target then that target will be invincible and they will also have 100% crits for 10 seconds.

You can uber more than one person with an uber, the disadvantage of this is that the uber only lasts 7 seconds instead of 10. By healing two or more people you can earn the achievement Second Opinion. This strategy can be used to hold a point against a superior force.