Understanding Advanced Heavy Combat

The basics of Heavy should be engrained into your skull long before you dare peeking into this thread, simply because if you don't even know how to use the right-click to prep your mini-gun, then you're going to not understand what I'm about to talk about.

First off, basic pointers for using Heavy, things you should know no matter what:

1) Jump-Revving is the best way to prep your mini-gun.  Strafe-revving slows you down significantly, leaving you open to being countered by spies from behind and snipers from afar.  Jump-revving lets you not only move, but start firing as soon as your fat Heavy feet touch the ground.  Especially useful in close-combat situations that you accidentally run into and can't escape.

2) Make sure the Medic dances in front of you when ubering you, if you want to take out Sentry Guns that are Level 3.  Otherwise you're going to be pushed back.

3) Slow and steady wins the race.  Don't turn a blind eye to your environment.  Pay attention to who is behind you, and who is moving where.  If you can not recognize a spy, Heavy class is a waste for you.  Paranoia is your friend.

4) Those who are at a height advantage have a distinct advantage.  Always get up as high as you can.

5) Know the terrain.  If you can not find an ammo crate or med pack you are going to die, you are going to click on empty and you are going to waste your team's time.

6) Know the enemy.  This is best experienced by playing all the classes. If you know how fast a scout moves you can anticipate it's movements better.  If you know the best ambush spots for a pyro it'll make them easy to anticipate, as well as give you knowledge of places to ambush from.

7) Kill the closest first. All heavy weapons do best at close range.  If a medic loses his healing target he'll often try to run away, leaving him open to parting shots.

8) The Shotgun rules.  Do not fear the shotgun. If you can not aim the shotgun, learn. Sooner or later you'll have to rely on it.

9) You can dodge.  Just because you move slow doesn't mean you can't.  Jump, crouch, leap, strafe, stay moving and you'll piss the enemy off.  It is possible to confuse the enemy by revving the minigun, and then as they start to fire stop revving while strafing.  The sudden loss of the minigun will cause you to have a massive boost in speed, which'll throw their aim off momentarily.  Especially useful for dodging long distance rockets.

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Map specific:

~ Well ~ Difficult map for the heavy due to the wide open, long distance and easily snipeable terrain.  Concentrate your movements on the water-ways, as staying underwater makes it harder to snipe.  While revving you can not swim, so use the shotgun until you get the hang of mini-gunning while underwater.  Revving while leaping up out of the water can let you ambush the opponent.

~ Hydro ~ Stick to the more enclosed, twisty areas.  The more open it is the more likely you're going to die.  Heavy does best in close-range, ambush situations.

~ Granary ~ Easily one of the best maps for Heavy, due to the two million ambush spots.  Keep to the high ground, concentrate on ambushing and advancing slowly.  If you can get a medic, the middle point is your playground, so long as you watch out for snipers.

~ 2Fort ~ I don't have a massive k/d ratio on  2Fort for no reason.  The single best ambush map in the game(In my opinion).  DO NOT GO ONTO THE BATTLEMENTS.  Not ever!  Also, watch the compass to see what staircase the enemy is using, then get ahead of them and mini-gun away.  Sewers are your friend, just beware spies who love to go down there.

~ Gravelpit ~ If you're attacking you are going to die a lot.  Snipers love to pick you off.  Try to attack from behind, use the routes le

GREAT guide. I suck as a heavy, and I want to play as him now to try out these strategies. You did a really good job on this.

Suggestion: Record a Demo/Video of your Heavy skills. I've seen you play and I know you're a great Heavy Weapons Guy. Thanks for the tips.

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agreed, good guide

I always feel like the heavy is overlooked, and I'm glad that people find ways to creatively use them. I also suck personally, but I know from first hand experience staring down the long rotaing barrels that an effective heavy is an awesome force to deal with.

Hey as i dont own the game yet im brushing up so i dont start off as a MEGA NOOB. A really useful guide for what looks like one of the Strongest classes avalible. Thank you

Another tip: DON'T jump-rev when you're uber and trying to take out a level 3 sentry. This will get you knocked WAY back.

I get so used to jump-revving that I sometimes forget not to when taking on a level 3. It's ... painful.

Good stuff by the OP!  I'll add my two cents...

Heavy is really a thinking man's combat class.

There are a few times when you have to ping-lead a very close, fast opponent to keep them in the "sweet spot" before they circle-strafe you to death...  But otherwise, there is no real skill in the shot-making.

Because of this + slow moving speed, a lot of heavy vs X situations are almost a foregone conclusion.  Depending on the situation the heavy is either death incarnate or a sitting duck.  Some situations the heavy just cannot lose, and other times you're like "oops, guess I should have backed off 5 seconds ago -- now it's too late and I cannot avoid dying."  There are situations in between, but the most important thing to playing heavy is knowing which situations are wins, and which situations are losses.

Also be aware that good opponents will know these win/loss patterns too, and they have the advantage of better mobility, so they can often dictate the patterns to their advantage.  You have to use surprise, area denial, flank-checking and retreat to ensure that YOU get to dictate the terms of combat.

There's a lot of combat tactics and positional habits that go into being a good heavy, but I think it's really important to realize that going Heavy is not about fighting well -- it's about only fighting where and when you're going to win.

This is partly true of all classes, but it is most pronounced in the heavy where you cannot leverage epic shot-making skills or fleet feet to prop up bad decisions.

The heavy is seemingly oe of the easiest classes to play.  But i am amazed that people can still be bad at it.

When moving from spawn (or long distance) have you shot gun out.  You can deal with one enemy no problem, and shoot while moving. 

When approaching the hotzone, now get the mini-gun out and start spinning.

Every 5 secs turn around.  Especially if you have a medic buddy.  This will check for spies or enemies creepin up on ure homie. 

taking out level 3 sentry is easy. just the way you approach it. what i usually do is the i creep around the corner then start my gun the sentry will be slow to react and will get destroyed along with its engineer. easier if the engi is not there. note do not meet a sentry head on, find cover and creep. and if ubered move forward the shot will do far more damage. i always have this approach on stage 3 dustbowl