I never seem to be able to kill heavies within their firing range.

The thread name describes it all. No matter what I do, the moment a heavy comes at me with more than 200 health, I'm dead. I've tried using rocket, rocket, and shotgun while strafing, but I'm always managed to be outdamaged. Can this be done as a soldier, or would it just be best to stay away?

just move side to side a lot, throws most heavies off and you take less damage

Rocket Jump

Good For

Surprising and confusing him

Doing damage with the jump

Making Ninja like escapes

define firing range?
you should never be close to a revved heavy

Randomly strafing will buy you precious seconds in a close battle.  Also, 3 direct rockets will leave a Heavy nearly dead.  Usually one shotgun blast following the rockets will put them out.

Height advantage is very valuable, too.  Use it whenever possible and rain rockets down onto the Heavy's head.

If you encounter a Heavy with 1-2 rockets loaded, rocket jump away and try to hit them with the other rocket on your way out.  Also, be sure you are rocket jumping out of view.  Heavies deal a lot of damage even at mid-range if they have good aim.  The fixed trajectory of a rocket jump can give them a good idea of where to aim.

If you come across a Heavy facing away from you, it's possible to get extremely close and plug him with all of your shotgun shells.  This is useful for when you are behind enemy lines and need to quickly get through a room a Heavy is in, because his teammates may be coming up behind you.  If you were to stay back and plug him with rockets his teammates have a chance of flanking.  Of course, this takes a combination of skill and luck.

Avoid Heavy-Medic combos.  You don't have a chance alone.  Instead, retreat and try to pick off his Medic from an advantageous height.

Always call out a Heavy's location to your team.  The key to dealing with an experienced Heavy is to do more damage to him than he expects.  Your teammates can help you with this.

When you're ubered, the Heavy is your number 2 target behind the enemy Medic.  Make sure you finish him off before your uber runs out and he gets his revenge on you and your Medic.

Also, be aware that crit rockets wont kill a Heavy at full health.  You need to follow it up with another rocket (2 if the Heavy was overhealed).  In the same regard, be careful of your rocket placement when you are Kritzed, because the Heavy will fly off in a direction according to where the rocket hit him.  Usually a follow up critical shotgun shot will finish the heavy off (2-3 if he was overhealed).

The best advice I can give you, however, is to play Heavy and see for yourself what it's like.  Find their weaknesses and strengths and learn from them.  Trust me, it helps.

A lot of that I already knew, but there's a few good tips there as well. Thanks a lot. One problem I usually encounter is running out of uber just a second after killing the heavy's medic partner, causing me to freak out and pull out my shovel.

Use cover. Don't just w+m1 him in open combat. Hide behind something, shoot, then hide again while there is downtime before you can shoot another rocket.

The only issue I encounter with that is he usually chips off a huge chunk of my health in that downtime, and It's not like I can be accurate by firing while looking at the wall.

Quote:

Unless you're playing on a crit server, up-close shotgun blasts are much better and allow you to continue fire as you attempt to get away.  So, try to get in the habit of always going from rockets to shotgun.  As a matter of fact, I sometimes use a baiting tactic where I will switch to shotgun when I still have a rocket or two left, take a shot or two, then switch back to rockets.  Catches many opponents off guard.

Chaos also highlights a great point.  Your rockets have the advantage of splash damage.  Sasha does not.  So spam around corners if you know a Heavy is there or will be coming around.

That's a great idea, thanks. I never would have thought of fooling opponents with the shotgun. Does the heavy's spray of bullets also hit one who is crouching? Just wondering .