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