Fix the backstab ffs

I don't play the spy all the time, but I see he is needed on the battlefield for taking out medic combos, sentries, ect. It seems though the more I play spy class, more I take notice to the bugged back stabs. I would get behind someone every time and when I went for a back stab the animation would come up, but if I move slightly left or right, it misses. Or if the person moves forward or some other direction it might miss. Now if the animation was not there, I would get the kill, but every time the animation pops up, I get screwed over about 50% of the time.

  I noticed this too when I back stab a engineer after I sapped his sentry. I only have about 2-3 seconds to sap it and knife the engie in the back. For some reason most of the time I sap it, pull out the knife, and when I back stab him it does that long drawn out 1 second process, by then I get blasted away and the hit doesn't register, even I hear the noise of a knife hitting someone.

  Am I doing something wrong here? I really considered giving up on the spy class because of this, it's really annoying.

Most everyone hates it, learn to flick stab.

I play spy allot and even though the backstab animation is annoying it makes more of a challenge to play the spy. The trick to backstabbing is to always attack early. When your running at someone from the back if you get the timing right then you should get the quick animation and get a fast kill.

I heard of flick stabbing, but didn't read about what it meant, mind explaining? Also to reply to your comment ash I do notice if you swing early, you do a quick slash which does a back stab to them, seems to work good too. But the down side to this is I have to be at the right distance for this to happen, and it takes more timing than a regular back stab.

I find that even with the normal stab, sometimes I should have killed the person, or the knife looks like it went right through them, but it doesn't kill them D:  What I also hate is when you stab someone, but then a sentry shoots you away right as the knife hits, and it doesn't count it.  Though in that case, it may have shot me away before the knife hit at all...>.>

And I think a flick stab is when you run past an enemy, with them running your way, and right as you pass by each other, you click, then flick the mouse in their direction, and it kills them, as whatever is in the knife's swing radius dies.  At least, I think that's how it all works.

snap stab, its just attacking before you even turn so that the delay of the melee attack is right as you turn to face the enemies back, either when walking past them or circle strafting around em.  Main part is to attack and then turn in that small time frame.

I know at one point valve talked about making the "long backstab" animation shorter.  I don't know if they are still planning on doing this or not.  Maybe with the spy update......

A flick stab is stabbing early so you get the shorter flicking animation rather than the longer knife coming down animation.

Not necessary. If you miss them with the backstab animation, that means you're not being patient enough. The Spy is not meant to take out guys circle-strafing and firing wildly. The next time you're behind a Soldier or Pyro and he's firing at your team and moving about, ask your self this: Should I wait for him or the group to calm down on their assault and take them out at the CP or Intel, or as they make their way in a nice tidy line? Or, do I take out my pistol and try to help my team out then and there and might get a lucky Crit? The only exception to this would be the Heavy, since he moves so slow anyway.