Random general newbie tips I can think of from what I've seen so far are as follows:

An upgraded teleporter that stays intact close in to the action is probably the single most valuable thing an engineer can provide. A lot of the newbie engies aren't even bothering to build them.

Having four or five engies might seem like a good idea, but once the sentries nests go down the enemy team will push in ridiculously far before the sentries can get rebuilt since there's no frontliners to hold them off.

The objective is to capture the point/push the cart/capture the intel, so don't hold back!

When just shooting at people don't hold back either!

Don't forget to spy-check. Turn around occaisonally, shoot everyone you meet!

If enemy heavy + medic is RUINING EVERYTHING, especially in a small team, don't all change to spy and sniper, change to pyros, soldier, demoman and heavy, sprinkle in one plus medics, and swarm them.

Groups are more effective than running out one by one!

I keep forgetting this one myself: With the basic rocket launcher or the tank buster, shoot the ground at the enemy's feet, not the enemy. You'll catch them in the splash and hit a lot more.

Medic medic medic medic!

Forgive me if some are a bit too obvious.

SEEEEEEEIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLL!
 

Yeah, it was a bit dumb.

I guess I needed to get the "Why would you do that?" off my chest.

Ok, well, I am apparently LESS clueless about what to do during Uber if the basic strategy is to topple sentries and anything in the way. I've just had a lot of Uber activated on me with no one around to kill or break, and they expected me to know what the hell to do with it. When I can, I rocket/Minigun Snetries anyway cause I hate them, and Not a moment goes by in a group of people that I don't spycheck like a crazy man as a Pyro.

Does the air burst do damage? I've been lighting up spies and scouts and then hitting them with the air burst, and I can't tell if they explode because the AB does damage or the fire kills them.

You mean the Compression Blast?

It does nothing but bounce back. But if you hit a soldier/demo with their rocket/grenade, you get crits.

Compression blast has a few uses.

You can deflect pipebombs and rockets with it. You can also put out team mates who are on fire. Finally you can use it to knock people around, which is potentially handy for a few things, like pushing them into enviromental hazards (like off cliffs), breaking up an ubercharge pair or just knocking someone briefly airborne so you can axetinguish/point blank flaregun them while they're on fire.

If you are some freak of nature, you can also reflect flares from other pyros, Sandman balls and Huntsman arrows.
Yes, you can get headshots as a Pyro. I've done it once. In about... 40 hours of Pyro play. Yeah.
You can also push around stickies, whether they're already stuck on something or in mid-air. I have yet to get a demo to blow himself up with stickies, though.

If you're not that comfortable with airblasting, use the Backburner. You can still airblast with it (but for 50 ammo rather than 20), but you'll have the 10% extra flame damage and 100% crits from behind.
Degreaser is for air blast fanatics due to the extremely fast weapon change. Quick-Axtinguishing heavies, quick-flare gunning people in mid-air as they burn for the guaranteed 90 damage crit.

One highly rated but underused aspect of the airblast - you can extinguish teammates that are on fire. You even get a point for doing so.


Also, I've just disgraced the forums with 500 crappy posts. Bah.

One thing a lot of medics don't realize is they're meant to charge into the sentry first to draw its fire. Ubers mean both of you are immortal, but only one of you needs a clear line of fire on the thing and getting knocked around by an endless stream of bullets and rockets doesn't help.

Hmmm... So it seems we need a general tips TF2 thread...

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