Blog About TF2 (Rating: Teen) · 9:01pm Apr 11th, 2014
I feel like blogging about TF2 so I am going to blog about TF2. This isn't about hats and junk, it's about things in the game. Specifically, MvM.
It's been a while since I've played it and I've only started to do it again recently. For those who don't know/don't play MvM (or TF2), MvM is a game mode called "Mann vs Machine," in which six players fight against x amount of waves of various types of robots. These robots represent the 9 classes of TF2, of course, and can vary in size, weapon loadouts, movement speeds, and attack power/resistances.
It can be easy or difficult, depending on what map and difficulty you play on. It starts off as Easy and moves on up to the ladder to Intermediate, Advanced, and then Expert (I'm pretty sure that's what it is. Correct me). Expert is the hardest, but with recent additions of new maps, Advanced seems to be harder than Expert at this rate. There are also two game modes. Boot Camp and Tour of Duty. Boot Camp allows you to test out any map and play it for fun. Tour of Duty allows you to pay some money for tickets and run through a specific tour, earning items and possibly earning a shot at a very rare weapon. Anyways, that's the run down.
What I'd like to talk about is MvM Pubs and how they shouldn't be taken seriously. Pubs (or "public matches/lobbies") are meant for people to join in with randoms in the Boot Camp section of the game. This is where you can test out the maps, different loadouts, see how difficult things may or may not be. It's to have fun without being serious. However, recently, it seems the opposite. When I join a pub on an Intermediate map (which is fairly easy) and decide that I'd like to go Huntsman sniper, I usually force people to leave or people get very upset with me. On top of that, there always seems to be a lot of command among people within the Pubs. Sure, you need to co-ordinate quite a bit in MvM, but it's a public match for "fun" and "testing," not to be super serious. If I want to go pyro with 5 other pyros, god dammit let me. But, no, it's usually the same stuff you'd see in Tour of Duty: super serious game play.
This isn't always bad. Maybe you really want to test a strategy for a map before you go out and purchase those tickets. See how wave spawn mechanics work and see what upgrade do and do not work, as well as different classes and who should play what classes. But this level of seriousness is reserved for people who formed a team outside of matchmaking and decided to practice before the big game of shooty-shooty-robot-butt. If I join in a random lobby, I'd like to play whatever I want and use whatever weapons I want without having to hear the words "Heh, Spy, you can't backstab a giant! Let the real men do it!" (Truestory.jpg).
Which moves into the next point: classes. You have 9 classes to choose from and each class has a priority and benefit to the team. 6 of these 9 classes can be on the team, so, you have to choose what you want. For the sake of this talk, I'm only talking about Tour of Duty now. For these 6 classes, there is always on person who MUST go Engineer. Engineer is the biggest support class that the team requires. Teleporters, dispensers and a sentry that can be wrangled to attack specific targets (useful for when medics come through and you need to stop dealing damage on them). If there isn't an Engineer on your team, you are doing something very wrong.
There's also a need for heavy damage output (demo/heavy/soldier, demo dealing the most in a single blow, soldier dealing it in bursts and heavy dealing it over time) and support from a medic and the cash. Below is the ideal team that works a lot better than most teams:
>Engineer
>Scout
>Demo
>Pyro
>Medic
>Spy
For those who play MvM, you're probably going to say "Why the hell is Spy on the 'ideal' list" (unless the norm has changed, but for me it hasn't). The reason Spy is there because he is the most useful, yet underrated, class in MvM. Medics are a very big issue to deal with in MvM, since most of them spawn with full uber and can instantly invul their heal target or instantly heal their health. Most medics are attached to giants, but, they can attach to other units (whether scripted to spawn that way or if their heal target dies) and stay in the battle. Their uber builds quite fast, too, making them a priority target for Demo and Spy (Sniper, too, if he has good aim + explosive headshot). Although the Demo can easily wipe out large crowds of Medics for the team, it takes him time to place more stickybombs and get a perfect wipe out on constant waves of medics. So, that's where the Spy comes in. He can easily sap the groups of medics for his team so that the team can just hit their heal targets while Spy and Demo mop them up. This is also useful when large waves of 100%-Crit units come in (meaning they deal a large amount of damage with just one shot. These are normally "lucky" if not boosted with certain weapons or canteens).
Spy also places a more important role over top of every other class: giant medics and giants. Giant Medics are just the giant variants of the regular ones, but with more health and they normally spawn with 0% uber, but again they build very quickly. During the time a giant medic comes in, the team should either focus on the heal target (quick fix medic) and distract it or focus on not damaging the heal target until the Spy has dealt with the giant medic. The Spy's knife is capable of dealing roughly 1300 - 1400 damage when full upgraded, and in quick succession. It takes about 3 - 5 backstabs to completely wipe out a medic for his team. Afterwards, he can easily focus on the heal target and help output a large amount of damage very quickly. This is especially useful on Medium-Heavies (usually they have Fists of Steel, which means they take 100% more damage from melee, but a lot less damage from ranged sources) as well as the Fists of Steel boss heavy at the end of one of the MvM missions. Boss robots heal 250 health a second, so, dealing constant damage is a must. With a Spy being able to deal 13000 damage per backstab to that boss heavy, he's very useful for cutting him down. Although it takes patience, as the heavy has a quicker attack speed and instantly turns around when backstabbed once or twice. This doesn't apply to all Boss robots, either, but outputting multiple stabs of 1300 damage to anything is more beneficial than waiting for Crit Demo to charge in.
So, the Spy is useful. If anyone gets the idea that he isn't, you're entirely wrong. One of the old arguments was that he's useless against the tanks. That's entirely true, I won't lie. Spy can't do much since he focuses on upgrading his knife, sapper, and then resistances so he can support the team. A Scout is more useful than him, to say the least. However, the Spy can hold off large packs of robots while the damage dealers stay back and focus on the tanks. During a mission of MvM with my friends, I stayed at the front lines focusing on Giant Scouts that came through, as well as Giant Medics, so that the Scouts wouldn't steal the dropped bomb and get a quick deploy. Of course I stayed up there too long, because robot Engineers had built one too many sentries. But the scouts and medics were dead, so, moving back up was a better option. We won, of course, but that's due to teamwork. Very essential in MvM. But, my point is, I stayed up front getting rid of the really big threats (although the robot Engineers are just as bad) while everyone else focused on the tanks.
But, keep this in mind while playing MvM too: although there are "suggested" teams (classes you choose for your team), play what you want to play. Someone NEEDS to be Engineer. Let the person who is good at Engineer (which isn't hard, you just need to be aware, competent and wrangling your sentry at the right moments) play Engineer. Scouts are a really big thing, too, because cash is important for upgrades. During the last wave, Scout can change over to Soldier to help output more damage, but, if Scout wants to Scout, let him Scout. He's very useful for target marking, milking (Which slows robots) and dealing with snipers. Heck, if you want to do Tour of Duty where everyone is a Pyro supported by an Engie, and you're all good enough to handle it, go for it! Just play what you're good at and what you want to play. My friends and I were stuck on a mission for quite a long time, trying to figure out what we should choose instead of playing the classes we originally chose. It actually set us back. Instead, we swapped over to our original classes and played as them. Except the Demo decided to go Demoknight, which worked pretty well, for some reason. But, if it works it works. Just have fun, communicate, and make sure everyone is playing their best roles.
I enjoy playing Spy and I would love to play Scout if my computer wasn't absolute potato (MvM is the laggiest of all game modes, so, yeah). But, Spy is my best role in MvM and, although I'm not perfect at it (computer lag makes it harder to play any class) I still help the team a lot more than people tend to not give Spy credit for. All classes provide a huge benefit to the team. Scout for Cash/Milk/Marks, Sniper for Jarate/Explosive Headshot/Instantly grabbing cash (upon an insta-kill, he'll pick up the cash), Demo/Soldier/Heavy for massive damage to heavy units. Engie for his sentry/dispenser/teleporter, Pyro for his great airblast ability (this can save the team a lot of time, especially if a crit soldier's rockets all get reflected back at their units. It's also good for pushing the bomb back, as well), and Medic for his obvious healing ability/projectile shield/canteen sharing/team revive.
Anyways, that's my little rant about MvM. I'm mostly upset cause people are taking Pubs too seriously when it's for messing around. I'll take Tour of Duty seriously, but, definitely not Boot Camp. Maybe I'd like to turn my flare gun into a machine gun. That's hilarious stuff, kiddos. Also the Spy-depreciation thing, too.
Talk later!
TL;DR, pyro is sexiest class
2001074
kek
Yeah, lotsa times when players who go Shpee are told to go play another class.
And by lotsa times, I mean almost any MvM server I go on that has a shpee.
Sometimes i play shpee in decoy and it was kinda challenging.
But I dont say he's terrible, Valve put him as a character for a reason!
people taking tf2 srsly
lel
2001308
I get frustrated with TF2 like any other game, but at the same time I try to have fun versus complaining too much. Then again, it's awful being on the team that just cannot push whatsoever. There is no fun in a team that cannot try.
2001336 Dude
I'm in the top 11% of League of Legends players
I know your pain
>never played tf2.
>only been in the same room as tf2 once in my life.
2001444
It's free and fun once you get into it. Watch a few videos on YouTube and do the small in-game tutorials to learn how to play. Learning how to play will benefit your team more versus going "how do I do the thing" in chat the entire time.
Unless you already know how to play, then by all means download it.It's a big file, though.
That medic on ideal team.