That soldier's a spy!

After playing alot of arena, and playing all the classes, I came to a simple conclusion. I fail at playing any of the stock, always viable assault classes, which in my mind are soldier, demo, heavy and scout (scout to an extent). So I decided to try to pick up the soldier, when say an engineer (my main) is not needed, or when attack classes are in dire need.

There are obviously many different styles people adopt, and from playing a fair deal of pyro and spy, I'm going for a sneaky, taking the long way round soldier playstyle 9 times out of 10, rather than a 'right in the middle of action, centre of attention' playstyle. For example, at the very last dustbowl cap, I'll take the sewer route rather than the spammy main above ground one, then either harass players coming from spawn or go up the stairs and bombard from a distance.

But when I play this way I often feel I'm not using my rockets and large healpool to full effect- I could be beating back the enemy whilst the spies and pyros do the sneaking. Plus when I attack head on my lack of soldier playtime (20 or so hours, half of those messing about being stupid), I fail a lot of the time. Would it be worthwhile me keeping my current strategy, or to try and adapt and improve with head on attacking?

Thanks, Numenor

Being sneaky helps with every class (attacking from somewhere unexpected).  Soldier can definitely play more directly though.  If you don't like the classes, you shouldn't play them but you likely want to do more experimenting.

Soldier can definitely be sneaky differently than spy and pyro: you have a rocket jump, use it. For example in the sewer route you mention, spies and pyros need to take the stairs. You can rocket jump from the left-side alcove (where spies hide: check it for spies) to attack the spawn. Watch for an SG that's usually there though...but you can also hit that from the ground or call for sniper support.

heh, i do exactly the same thing. my three main clasess are scout, pyro and spy, but i've recently started as soldier. i actually seem to have more luck spying as scout than i do as spy, because of the double jump. people never suspect a soldier to sneak up on them so the tactic is just as effective for me as running straight at the enemy.