Tactical Tuesday: The longest good-bye
If there’s one thing that the Tactical Tuesday/Thursday mailbox has taught me, it’s that there are hundreds of players out there who are significantly more skilled and/or luckier than I am at every game, ever.
Whether that means I have to try harder or (like most gamers) I can just slowly grow bitter about the “no life tryhards” who frequently pummel me in online multiplayer, I haven’t decided quite yet. But maybe, just maybe, we can all learn something from the triumphs of others and use their tactics as our own.*
The Uber that keeps on giving
Our good friend Doug Rattmann sent in a series of videos demonstrating the supposed value of both chain and self ubering in TF2. For those uninformed readers, chained ubers consist of two Medics using Ubersaws to continually leverage Ubercharges against a bad enemy team. For an example, check out this particularly long massacre by rayne125. Or this well-orchestrated bloodbath on defense.
Why did I say “bad enemy team?” Well, the problem with chained ubers is that they’re essentially shut down by a single Pyro with airblast. Any team that loses to chained ubercharges for more than 45 seconds straight failed on the simple principle of negligence to change classes. To that end, one might wonder if it is even a viable strategy. The answer is complicated, but it can be best summed up as “No.”
That isn’t to say Doug’s submission wasn’t worthwhile, however, because he did introduce me to a much more interesting scenario: a single medic using his Ubersaw to keep himself nearly continually ubercharged between melee attacks. I’ve considered this particular fighting method before, but I never had the dexterity, timing, and/or hacks scripts to pull it off:
Something something saw-related pun something.
Flying with expert precision
While I consider my pipebomb aim to be rather good, I’ve never been a master of highly-targeted Demoman sticky jumping. With that concession, I don’t mind announcing my astonishment that a Demoman on Goldrush can reach and decimate the BLU spawn in so few jumps. If anyone can explain a bit as to how such flight is controlled, I’m sure it would be highly informative to everyone reading, least of all me.
Thanks to Shadesnow for this gravity-defying gem.
Uncharted territory
I’d like to offer special regards to TheParoxysm for submitting videos that are about something other than Team Fortress 2. As blasphemous as the notion of playing other games is, the hobby seems to persist in the gaming community. First, he gave us this extremely well-presented guide on Uncharted 2’s multiplayer, for those of us who seem to find that Drake’s fortune doesn’t extend much past Drake and into our own lives:
If you enjoyed that piece, feel free to watch part 2 here. If you weren’t a fan, but you’re still looking for a way to not completely suck at all your Playstation 3 games, TheParoxysm also offered a nice beginner’s guide to Demon’s Souls. Apparently, this game is both very good and very difficult,** but is more easily navigated with your helpful video guide!
Send in your strategies!
That’s all the time we have for today’s installation of Top Tier Tactics. Got something you think our readers should see? Send it our way to be featured on the next Tactical Tuesday/Thursday! If it wins games, we want to see it!
* Or, you know, keep playing in 32-man instant respawn 2Fort.
** I can tell just by writing this sentence that Space Hamlet will have an interesting comment about the game.
How flight is controlled? Air strafing. And… Isn’t today Monday?
That is all.
It’s Tuesday from where I’m sitting.
NOW
It’s Tuesday. Anyways, regarding the article It was rather awesome. Dual Medic chains are useful in many situations, just not when you are fighting a team with A SINGLE smart pyro. Otherwise you’ll go to town on them.
On that chain uber point, it is significantly easier to pull off if you have backing of some sort to deal with pyros and get certain enemies closer to you, but at that point you might as well just take the two ubers and use them for someone else. Also, sorry for subjecting you to the horrid replay that was my first attempt at it. STAR posted a chain uber video yesterday I believe, so watch that for another, quite prolonged, example.
I love that guy. Star. I love all of you too. ALSO
Yeah, A chain Uber can Eff Shit up for the enemy team, but only if they’re all sharing half a brain cell.
Your modesty is an autocracy, and unconstitutional. I found the self uber to be close to the power yielded by Poe in Kung Fu Panda when he lets out Kadoosh. Just noting here, that was your first attempt, means that you are a very skilled player. Revel in your amazingness.
You deserve that hat son.
Oh, the one he posted here wasn’t my first attempt, nor was it even me. Hell, I’d kill for a computer and editing skills that are half of what that video were. It was this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJRaw-MAHWA and the uber itself doesn’t actually start until more than half way i. Yeah, I really need that replay guide. I apologized because I included it in the e-mail I sent to WiNG. I also apologize to anyone in advance if the low quality and low fps, general shittyness of the video or lack of hats hurts anyone.
… The Camera angle for that was, really bad. I didn’t see anything. AND LORD THERE WERE NO HATS
WHAT IS WRONG WITH THOSE PEOPLEYOU WERE PLAYING WITH. NOT EVEN GIBUSESESSSS (Gibusi? Gibapeople?)
Nothing. I have hats disabled.
Hence my apology.
I don’t know if I can forgive you for this.
Interesting comment about Demon’s Souls coming up!
It’s an interesting game in that it does all these things that should be bad: it’s a static world with static loot, focused around following a procedure to get the optimal build. The toppest tier tactic in Demon’s Souls is to open up someone else’s spreadsheet for the very best build (and the ingame tips almost feel like they encourage this sort of meta-play), but somehow, it really does manage to be good!
That’s because it’s SMART about how static it is. The most optimal of builds depend on your character being, well, alive, which is a fragile state where most players won’t spend the majority of their time. Plus, no matter how good your build is, it does come down to player skill in the end. An RPG that can be beaten by a level 1 character is a good RPG.
There are a few problems that surface as a result of its structure, of course – there’s one encounter everyone knows is the best for farming, most bosses are pushovers, the toughest enemies can always be cheesed by the broken-ass ranged combat system. I do think that a randomized roguelike RPG with Demon’s Souls’ combat system would be an ideal game.
ARRRRRGGGGHHH! I’ve been watching too much Zero Punctuation today so I read your comment in Yahtzee’s voice.