Tip of the Day: Demoman

[DemiPixel]

Demo, Demo, Demo. Also known as the spammer class. Probably gonna get some hate for that, but try reading these tips:

SpammerMan
Initially, the demoman is just a spammer class. Similar to soldier, he relies on stickies and pipes as well as the splash damage. It is difficult to aim so you either set sticky traps or you spam your pipes.

Stick trappers!
One good way to hold 2 entrances at once is with a sticky trap. Sticky trap one entrance so no heavy-medic pair or any other enemy can get through, and spam the other entrance with pipes. This is a nice way to hold off your enemy.

Loch 'n Load 'n SentryBuster
That's right. One of the main uses for the loch 'n load is taking out sentries, more specifically sentry nests. With sentry nests, you have MANY targets including engineers, sentries, or dispensers, etc. Since the loch 'n load does a lot of damage, this is a good choice in these kinds of situations. Also if you have perfect aiming, but if not, probably best to stick with stock.

Being chased
Demo is a little bit slower than the average class and it is easy to get chased. Demo isn't great at melee. Demo also can't use pipes since the splash damage will hurt if they're enemy is close. So what do you do? Stickies. One neat trick is to backup while they're chasing you and place stickies RIGHT under you. Right when you're able to blow them up, you'll be far away enough not to get hurt but it'll hurt your enemy. Do this a couple times. If they back up, try shooting away too, so they get trapped in your stickies (Can't go back because you shot them there, can't go forward because you shot down before).

Wait for it... Wait for it...
Charged stickies are important to get a large distance. Usually you'll want to be sending multiple stickies at a time, but if you have a main target (such as a sentry or medic), you may want to hold LClick for shooting the sticky to get it a little farther rather than risking your life. Not enough demomen do this.

Spawn and Corners
I know this isn't best, but it can sometimes get the job done. I'm not talking about like on dustbowl, where you shoot right at the doors, but imagine something like egypt where they have to go around a couple corners. Make sure these are heavily stickied and you won't have to worry too much about anyone coming out. Also, if a point was just captured or you're around the corner of a spawn, you can also sticky that and wait for a large crowd to come 'round.

Control Points
One of the number one things you may want to sticky if you have nothing better to do. The control points is usually fairly busy, and whoever is on it is always paying attention to the fire around them; not the stickies on the ground. Whether they're capturing it or they are going to, sticky it and wait a bit. You'll get a couple kills and help your team at the same time.

Prediction
You must predict where people go. Since you don't have a gun, you can't instantly shoot at somebody. Also, you have to wait a bit before activating your stickies, so it is extremely important to predict movement. If you see a scout rushing for the point, shoot at the point, not the scout. If you see somebody come around the corner and go back and hide, sticky the corner.

Reload
Personally, I ALWAYS use manual reload, as it gives lots of control. You don't have to use it, but it's nice to make sure you're always at 8 stickes and 4 pipes when you can, so you can instantly make some of the moves above

Thank you guys! Sorry I didn't get one out yesterday! Feel free to leave feedback, comments, suggestions, or other tips in the comments.

 

[Nix]

Ok, mostly good. Demo's a class I actually know.

SpammerMan

In the words of a man with some of the greatest skill with words:

"If Valve didn't want me to spam, why did they make pipes that bounce?"

With sentry nests, you have MANY targets including engineers, sentries, or dispensers, etc.

The Loch isn't really good for sentry nests because you only have 2 shots before you need to reload, and time during an uber is priceless. It's better to use stickies for greater range and burst and then pull out your stock pipes once the knockback from the sentry is gone.

Demo isn't great at melee.

There's this thing called Demoknight. Also, pan.

Demo also can't use pipes since the splash damage will hurt if they're enemy is close. So what do you do? Stickies.

If you're far enough to sticky, you're far enough to pipe, just sayin'. Stickies do have a less self-damage number, if you do it right, though. You also have the option of pipe-jumping, where you shoot the enemy and jump at the same time. It propels you backwards. There might be times where you don't have enough help to pipe-jump, and this is the time where you either pull out your spy melee skills (Spy's trickstab moves and strafing techniques, especially matadors, can apply to any class melee fight), or sticky your way out.

Wait for it... Wait for it...

Cannot emphasize this more.

Personally, I ALWAYS use manual reload, as it gives lots of control.

Boo. There are literally no downsides to auto-reload, as you can attack any time during the animation. If you're using drawviewmodel 0 it matters even less. Auto-reload keeps the worry out of your game.

Great guide.

 

[DemiPixel]

There's this thing called Demoknight. Also, pan.

Boo. There are literally no downsides to auto-reload, as you can attack any time during the animation. If you're using drawviewmodel 0 it matters even less. Auto-reload keeps the worry out of your game.

Great guide.

1) I don't play demoknight seriously :3 Also, pan is just as good as bottle, so

2) You have to wait a tiny bit for auto-reload to kick in. If you have 1 sticky left, the time where you can reload a 2nd where auto-reload wouldn't could save your life.

3) Thank you

 

[Nix]

Also, pan is just as good as bottle, so

You have to wait a tiny bit for auto-reload to kick in. If you have 1 sticky left, the time where you can reload a 2nd where auto-reload wouldn't could save your life.

1. Anyone who says that hasn't played with the pan much. I swear, Valve put some kind of crit-boosting hidden stat on that thing.

2. Huh, I always thought that was because the first reload animation is always longer than consecutive ones. It always seems like the animation starts instantly.

 

[UnderCoverSpy16]

Nice guide

 

[Orange [INACTIVE]]

Left click, right click, left click, right click, left click, right click, left click, right click, left click, right click, left click, right click, left click, right click, left click, right click. Reload. I don't love to hold down R2 since there is something to timing/bunching explosions.

Also, I like to fire a few pipes then go in and clean up the mess with stickies. There's little getting around the fact that you need to learn to arm pipes and predict enemy movement.

These guides are good though, keep it up!

 

[AndyGuy]

caberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[CarpalTunnel MoroccoMole]

My incomplete list of tips tricks, and info.

The pan is not crit boosted, that is a myth, it just seems that way because....

1) Some of the best demo melee weapons have 0 random crit chance.
2) Crit chance on melee weapons is 15% with 0 damage done and 60% with 800 damage done in a short amount of time. ALSO, you can perform this 0-800 crit boost dmg with any other weapon, then switch to melee, and the crit boost applies to the melee...
3) If you used the half-zaitochi a lot too, you would probably start to think that was also crit boosted .

DemoKnight IS great melee.

1) You can bash n slash with scottmans skullcutter + splendid screen for a quick 2 hitter vs a non overhealed heavy, or with a few heads and eyelander. You can kill any non-overhealed class for a near insta kill using this method.
2) You can charge jump, which is underestimated in its usefullness .
3) YOu can use zaitochi which gives you full health on kills, or persuader which gives you health from metal, ammo, and health packs.
4) Eyelander can be incredible for hybrid demoknighting (launcher, shield[usually targe for dmg res], and melee). At four heads your almost as fast as scouts who don't use baby face, you have 210 health at four heads. Also, at five heads, your targe shield bash does 100 dmg at med-long range charge distances, while your screen does 170 dmg at any range for a bash...
5) Shield bashing followed instantly by a melee hit will always be a critical .
6) If you can't quite make 90 degree turns that are indoors while charging, use a technique of "wall sliding". You basically are charging into the wall at an angle, and slowly turning as you are coming to the wall corner, so that making that sharp turn is sooo much easier.
7) If you're a hybrid demo knight, charging can be used to put distance between you and the person who just got the jump on you, so that you can safely take pipe shots at them.

Sticky Traps.

1) Sometimes covering two entrances with your stickies is better than one.
2) Sometimes placing four stickies in the exact same spot, as opposed to four stickies scattered around a small area, will make people less likely to see your stickies.
3) *Corners where low-roofs meet walls are often great places for stickies, especially when over entrances and doorways in hallways. People are generally less likely to look up to check for stickies, as opposed to their sides. (These corners are often much more useful for trapping than just the 90 degree corner of where two walls meet).
4) Stickies are one of the best weapons for aerials, because of their proximity effect.
5) When entering a long range area it is often great to already be pre-loading a sticky for that first shot. If you dont want to take that shot you can just quickswitch your weapon and not fire it .
6) Learn the ways of the high-five taunt, people will despise you for this.

Quick note on launchers

1) "Juggling" is when you hit an enemy in the lower legs with a launcher, this causes them to pop straight up a few feet in the air, essentially leaving them defenseless. It allows you to...

A) Perform an aerial shot (shot when they are in the air), it will kill them or send them flying if it doesn't kill them.

B) Continue juggling, you can hit them in the feet again to continue suspending them in the air.

C) If a hybrid demo knight with eyelander or zaitochi, you can quickswitch charge them for a free head or full health. Though this is riskier.

2) Crit chance is 2%, with a highest possible of 12% after performing 800 dmg in short amount of time.
3) You always run fastest when you are running forward and not backpedaling, demo ?s base speed is slow. If you need to keep distance than practice firing while backpedaling, doing a 180 to run as you reload, and firing while beckpedaling.
4) Explosive dmg, especially splash dmg, is determined in part based on how much of a player?s hitbox is in range of that explosion. So explosions on average always do the most dmg to heavies, soldiers, and demos. The least dmg to engis, scouts, and spies. This also means if your shot is intended to do maximum dmg possible, and isn?t a juggle attempt or trick shot of some sort, you want to hit the other player squarely in the belly or chest. This will make your projectiles do the most damage possible. Also, the explosive avg splash dmg?s I provide will be usually 50% higher if the splash is at point blank at the center of a players hitbox.
Grenade Launcher
1) You can shoot pipe bombs in a high arc, combined with crouch jumping, to shoot them long distances. Though, not nearly as far as stickies.
2) Hitting someone with a grenade launcher point blank will cause 40-75 dmg to you.
3) You can grenade jump but it takes some practice.

Loch n Load
1) Does more dmg, and travels faster and straighter than grenade launcher pills.
2) Unfortunately it does more self dmg at point blank, you get two before reload, and pills dud on environmental impact.
3) Loch n load is better for sentries when they are not actively being repaired, but when they are being repaired the 2 shots before reload makes it horrible for this purpose. Also, you need a straight shot with loch, you can bounce to an engi nest corner with grenade launcher.
4) The real strength for loch is in one on one matchups! Harder to deflect, easier to hit scouts with it, etcetera.

Loose Cannon
1) Double Donking is when your cannon ball hits someone and explodes before touching the ground. Grenade Luancher direct hits will on average cause 100 dmg, loch direct hits will on average cause ~ 120-125 dmg. A cannon ball causes 65 impact (explosive dmg) when it bounces off someone, like 43 dmg on average when it explodes without contacting any environmental surface, and about 21 when it explodes after hitting a surface. However, if you double donk, it will cause 65 impact dmg, and about 60 splash, for a combined 115 on average.
2) Loose cannon gets four shots, and fires projectiles at a faster speed than loch n load or gl.
3) You can fuse a shot till the last second, than fire below with a crouch jump, for a cannon jump. You can do the same thing but overload the shot for a farther jump that does more self dmg..
4) You can do some interesting combos of jumps with the loose cannon, especially if you?re a cannon knight. Like the flying charge, + cannon overload double jump.
5) Cannon balls sadly do extra self-splash dmg to the player. On average your own cannon ball will do 75 dmg to you. This can result in derp moments where you make some bad shots and your flying everywhere and exploding lol.
6) Cannon balls do knock back for regular hits, and insane knockback for aerials and juggles. Especially if you manage to double donk with these.

Conclusion for launchers
1) Grenade launcher is best all around. For firing indirect splash shots, spamming a high population area, tackling enemies in close proximity to each other, lean that way for sentries too.
2) Loch is the easiest to make direct hits with, biggest bonus for doing that, but largest consequences for missing. Can make handling low health classes considerably easier like scouts and mid range snipers. Good for abandoned sentries, bad for manned sentries because of reload. Good for one on ones, not as good for groups.
3) Loose cannon is the best for 1-on-1 if you can make every shot a double donk. Four of on average 115 is obviously better than four of 100 or 2 of 123. However, double donks strength is balanced a little against groups. As impact (explosive) dmg doesn?t cause an area of effect like direct hits of other launchers. Only the splash, the feeble bounce splash, and the double donk minicrit splash does. This means the person you?re hitting is going to be hurt more, but the person who is less than a foot from them is going to be hurt less (Even if you hit that mini crit double donk, the splash dmg from direct hits of other launchers is going to be slightly more if that enemies partner is point blank adjacent to them ). This is all assuming you consistently make the double donk. However, its utility for jumping, aerials, juggling, separating a medi from the person they are healing, cancelling a charging demoknight, being really hard to dodge, being useless to reflect if fused makes up for these problems.

This is in no way an exhaustive list, I?m just throwing in some tricks and tips I have learned from other people and reading the wikis.

 

[TheCheeseWhizard]

A little trick. If you get 4 or 5 heads with the eyelander, you can go back to spawn and switch out your shield for a sticky launcher. A demoman with 210 health, scout speed, and a sticky launcher can be absolutely devestating.

 

[onemeanduck]

Very helpful! Demoman is not my strong suit. Thanks!

 

[XO]

Loch n load
When playing with the loch n load, the best thing to aim at is the enemies dispenser. People crowd around it and the splash damage will damage all of your enemies and the nest. Its one of the best things to aim at when going against a nest.

The loch n load also forces you to get better at aiming, since you can't spam because the grenades shatter. This forces you to get direct hits, and if you play with it enough you will get good at hitting people directly with loch n load grenades. Then when you play with normal grenades, after you adjust to the speed difference, it will be much easier getting direct hits.

There is also a reason I have nicknamed my Loch n load the Cluster (expletive)er, if you hit a group with a crit, the entire group is going to die. Its one of the best weapons to get those large crit splashes with.

Zatochi
The Half Zatochi is my go to weapon when using demo knight and my strange one has 400+kills. The problem though is that it is much to hard to transfer it over to regular solider or demo play because of the honor bound feature of it. Once you pull out the zatochi, you can't put it away until you kill someone. So while you will get a full health if you kill someone, if someone else comes and kills your enemy, you will be stuck using your zatochi unless you can go to a respawn locker.
You're much better off with the eyelander, persian persuader, or skull cutter since they will all give you an advantage in one way or another when it comes to melee.

Also demo man is the best class for melee because he has such a wide array or melee choices. He is the strongest melee class in the game (if you don't count spies knife as a melee.)