Are you sure the Dead Ringer sucks?

I think its simply being used incorrectly.

I don't have it yet, but I will soon. What I'm dying to try is exclusively using ALLIED disguises with it. Then as a demo I'll move near my medic and heavy, take two hits, feign death. Then while cloaked switch to an enemy disguies (simply as sentry immunity) and backstab away.

The problem is that Dead Ringer puts a spy mask on a spies face. But if you look like a pyro, you die simply like all the other pyros died. It would take a bit more thinking to connect that pyro you killed to that knife in your back.

Discuss.

1) It's a better way to pop stickies than Bonk! on Gravelpit (disguise as a friendly demo or whatever).

2) I've seen it put to good use my Rick Astley -- again, popping stickies. He would go through the main door from points 4-5 on Freight disguised as friendly heavies, etc. They'd have to pop it or take the risk of him being the real deal. Then, the rest of us would go through knowing the stickies were gone, while Rick would uncloak on the point to attempt the ninja cap.

3) Generally, it's totally fine to use if you switch to it for 1-3 lives, imo. It's much less effective if you use it consistently.

The issue with that is still the BBZBZBZBBZZZZZSSSSSHHHHH uncloaking noise that alerts all half decent players that there is a spy nearby. It doesn't matter how well you have disguised to be killed and get cloaked, because you will still be stuck with the enemy team knowing you are out there with only your knife, gun and disguise to save you. It is ahellofallot'a fun though.

make the kill notification come up on all enemies screens

make the decloak sound less audible - it can be heard from miles away

Would be way cooler if for instance you took the amount of damage necessary for it to be a convincing death. You already take 10% damage so just make it so that the feign death is triggered when you take more than just 1 hp. Maybe tie that to the HP of the disguise you currently have on.

Disguise as a friendly medic at the beginning of  the match/pug. 

I just use it more to escape than anything else, if you spend ages cloaking your way into an enemy base just to get body blocked or have a stray flare hit you then you are pretty much done for. With the DR it's much harder to get into the base, but if somebody catches you, escaping to a place of safety is incredibly easy, especially with the god-like damage reduction. It wasn't made to turn the spy into an offensive weapon. It just turns the watch into a method of escape rather than infiltration.

Quote:
The only problem with that is that it can be incredibly difficult to actually infiltrate the enemy lines without a cloak. Players, even dumb ones, are pretty well drilled in spy checking. Paranoia is rampant and it doesn't take much to spy check everything that moves. You see someone walking in front of you and you get checked. Pyros flame everything. Disguises are really ineffective if observed directly for more than a split second. That and theres also the fact that many maps, especially the popular ones, are very spammy and filled with choke points that make it hard for you to be able to move behind the lines and force you to basically run the gauntlet head on.

All this makes the Dead Ringer pretty tricky to use and also makes you most reliant on luck of all your watches to get you where you need to be. As far as escape is concerned its pretty cool but its hard to trade the regular watch for this thing given how it is right now.

Honestly, the nerf to the DR is retarded given how hard it is anyway to operate without a cloak during the infiltration phase. Using up your DR charge just to get through the lines means you basically get to your operating area and then sit around scared to move cause you have no cloak til it recharges. Conserving it is impossible since you also lose the whole charge even if you uncloak earlier than 8 seconds.

Its crazy that so soon after the update valve has stacked everything against this tool to make it a gimmick with too much working against it. As it was in the beginning it was gimmicky and restricting you to a particular style. Now its also emphasizing luck more than ever.

I'll stick to my vanilla watch thank you very much.

Being one of the select few who were lucky enough to use the DR before it was nerfed I can tell you that it was extremely fun and effective pre nerf. What it allowed you to do is stroll around the map not having to worry about wayward sniper shots or scout buggers and then run right up to a group o unfriendlys and stab pull out watch run and repeat causing mass hysteria. As I said good fun. I found it a interesting more offensive and stealthy variation of the class but then *sigh the nerf and I had to g back to being the stabby bastard i always have been. I miss my DR. *sigh one more time for dramatic effect

But if you pick up ammo boxes, the thing gets filled up instantly so it kinda has more pros than cons