For the last part of the class guide, I had planned on making some short videos for my favorite class, but after looking over the film I took, it just wasn’t worth it and some of the tips really can’t be shown with film. As the heavy you are both the teams steamroller when moving forward and the rock solid wall on defense.
Don’t Play Peek-a-Boo – you always lose
Don’t fight people around corners, especially soldiers and demos, they are exposed to your fire for a fraction of a second, take a little damage, but launch a projectile at you that will do a lot more damage back. Just fall back and don’t even try, because you will lose.
Do Not Fear the Doctored Heavy
When two heavies fight, the one that gets the first shot off wins, even if the one who fires second has a medic, you do so much damage so fast, its not going to matter. Don't fall back thinking you have no chance, if you get the drop on them, you will win.
Exercise your Ring Finger
Start lifting weights using only this finger, because you are going to be using it a lot to spin the chaingun, alternatively, you can just
get an auto-spin script so you don’t have to hold the button down.
To Spin or Not to Spin
Knowing when to have your gun spinning and when not to is critical, sometimes its better just to run straight at someone and not spin until you are right in their face rather than try to hit them at a longer range. The best times to leave the gun spinning is when you are trying to deny access to an area like a sentry gun or when you know someone is going to be coming around a corner, remember though, players can hear the gun spinning.
Slot 2 does have a Weapon
The weapon least used by anyone in TF2 according to the Valve list is the heavy’s shotgun. To be honest, heavies should run around with the shotgun by default, it packs more of a punch than people think, and unlike the chaingun, you don’t need to spin it up. Also, when it comes down to longer ranges, the shotgun is going to do more damage than the chaingun at range.
Waddle Back! Quickly Fatty, run!
Because you are so slow, you have to be very conscious of your health, a general rule of thumb is start to fall back when you get to 200 health. With the time it takes to wind down the chaingun and switch to the shotgun, you will likely be below 150 health and in serious need of health.
Get Behind me Doctor!
Keep bantering medics until they start healing you exclusively, heavies stand to gain the most from health boost, 150 health is like adding on a Pyro’s worth of health. Make sure to protect your medic as well and still follow the fallback rules. When you have a medic make sure to watch for attacks coming from other angles at your medic and spies, especially spies. If you have to attack a sentry gun, make sure that the uber is done at close range; otherwise the engineer can heal it fast enough to make the uber worthless.
Crank up the Sensitivity
Right now you are at a 2, we’re gonna need you at about a 6. Experiment with a higher sensitivity, this allows you to more quickly spin around to watch both your back and your medic’s back for spies or anything else that might hit you from behind. This can also help with tracking people who are circling around you, like pyros.
Pre-spins are like Surprise Butt-Sex
When rounding a corner or droping to a lower level, spin your gun and jump, when you get into view you should be fully able to fire and the enemy won’t have a chance to react. If you are at very close range, anything, including a medic with a heavy, will die almost instantly.
Find Your Happy Place
On defense, find a place that you can easily retreat to a resupply area, preferably one with a full health and ammo pack. This can allow you to hold an area without the supporting assistance of a medic or an engineer’s dispenser.
You + Dispenser = Sentry Gun
Have an engineer place a dispenser for you somewhere and sit on it, literally, just sit on it, and hold down the fire button. The dispenser never runs out of ammo and will keep you healed. This works best as a spy defense on maps like dustbowl, sit right next to the sentry gun and the steam of fire will reveal any spies attempting to sap the SG.
A good heavy make for an impenetrable defense and a steamrolling offense. No team should ever be without a heavy in some role, be it offensive or defensive. Just make sure to always be watching your back for spies, and know when to go and resupply because your slow speed makes timing critical.
Check out the other class guides at the links below
General Tips and Tricks
Scout
Soldier
Pyro
Demoman
Engineer
Medic
Sniper
Spy
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The shotgun tip is probably the most useful you can give. Just seems like common sense to have it out when you're running around for quick fire but I guess people just forget about it.
Super Helpful!
I just got off some TF2 action, and I realize what a n00b I am!!!
That artwork is really creepy.
Also I fail at heavy.
The dispenser sentry trick always seems to be the deciding factor in a team's defense. I've never lost when my team had a heavy + dispenser set up correctly.
Thats a good guide. I dont often play as a heavy, but ill keep some of those tips in mind if i do. Cheers!
I used to play Heavy a lot ,but now I usually go Medic.
Hmmm... A few things to keep in mind. I'd like to do Heavy more but avoid it because I generally fail at it. :p
As dtoids resident sociopathic heavy. I approve of this post.
However, one thing not mentioned is tEh sniper and how he can take you from 450 health to 0 in the blink of an eye.
Don't be spinning your gun out in tEh middle of a battlefield, it makes it way to easy for a sniper to put a dot on your brow.
If you need to fight at least have a wall at one of your sides, or behind you to cut off some sight lines.
Another strategy to avoid being shot in the head.. if you have the otion to kill the sniper (within 15 meters) you might be able to spin up the gun while tapping CTRL, it will cause you, and your head, to bounce up and down making it more difficult to reduce you to red goo.
Agree with caff on the fallback rule, i've seen too many heavys rush in with a medic assuming they're invincible, need to keep an eye on your health if you're tryign to push a point with more than 1 defender. Do some quick mathematics and determine the rate that your health is declining (50 per second or whatever) and dont exceed the self imposed timer when you're exposed.
If at all possible, try to leave your middle finger on W, then your ring finger on X, and index on 5. Repeat the last two button presses repeatedly while running forward, and if done correctly, the enemy will hear you shouting "Put dispenser here!" This could cause him to belive that you have an engineer with you, which means he is out manned , and will retreat.
Also (cocks) try to find a
Fuck Vandamguy for one.
For two. Great series of write ups!
Okay. If there's anything I can add to this:
1) If you take a teleporter into combat, come out SPINNING.
2) Listen, a demo and a Soldier will serve you your ass medium-rare if you try to peekaboo, but if they chase you off, they EXPECT you to run, and if all you do is duck around the corner and wait for them, who has the advantage then? That's right. You do. Trust me, in the heat of battle, they'll hardly hear you spinning.
3) You don't always have to stand on the point. If the point is right next to their spawn (read:Dustbowl), just spawncamp the hell out of the fuckers and let your team do the rest.
4)Find somewhere they don't expect you to be.