gozieson's guide to PUB gunslinging...

[gozieson 4]

The Engineer update was one of the best class updates to ever hit Team Fortress 2. The great new array of weapons and new gameplay features introduced in the update has made the engineer not only completely unpredictable on the battlefield, but also made the class a lot more fun to play with.

 

The best new weapon created for the engineer (in my mind) would have to be the Gunslinger. I mean come on, who doesn't want to see a badass engy going all crazy on his enemies? The Gunslinger's stats of forcing Engineer players to go on the offensive drastically changes the playstyle of engineers from strategizing and area denial to harassment and offensive pressuring.

 

This Guide will cover several aspects of using the Gunslinger:

1. Knowing your mini-sentry

2. Pre-meditative mindset before using the Gunslinger

3. How to keep up the pressure

4. Personal defense

5. Assisting other engineers

6. Wrangler usage

7. Destroying lvl 3 sentries with the gnslinger

 

Lets begin....

 

Knowing Your Mini-sentry

First we shall compare a lvl1 sentry with a mini-sentry.

Lvl 1 sentry:

Health: 150

Ammo: 100

Build time: 10s, 5s if whacked continuously by an engineer melee weapon. Build time shortens further as more engineers help to build it.

Damage: Base-16 (14-18) per shot

Shots per second: 4

Average damage per second: 64

 

Combat mini-sentry:

Health: 100

Ammo: 100

Build time: 2.5s, won't be halved if whacked by the gunslinger or other melee weapons.

Damage: Base-8 (7-9) per shot

Shots per second: 6

average damage per second: 48

 

Any building that the engineer builds will not be affected by critical hits. Lvl 1 sentries can be fixed and upgraded but combat mini-sentries cannot be fixed or upgraded. The gunslinger can still build, fix and upgrade a normal sentry or any other engineer building. All buildings can be sapped.

 

One thing that most Gunslinger engineers won't notice is that when building a mini-sentry would instantly obtain full health. this means that the sentry has 100 health the moment you deploy it. Also, as it is building, a mini-sentry will have it's health quickly regenerated if it is damaged until it is fully built and online. This means that it can survive continuous minigun fire or flamethrower attacks while it is still building. While this is good news you must remeber that any weapon which can deal 100 damage in one shot (rockets, charged sniper shots, etc.) can destroy the mini-sentry while its building itself.

 

Pre-meditative Mindset Before Using the Gunslinger:

Always treat your mini-sentry as forgettable trash. simply put it, Deploy and Forget!

In fact, do not be afraid to treat all your buildings as forgettable trash. Since you're going to focus on attacking most of the time, treat all your buildings as unimportant items that you can forget about.

 

When using the Frontier Justice, NEVER EVER THINK THIS WAY WHEN USING IT: "Huh.... The enemy is attacking me. should I use the FJ on him or should I let my mini-sentry take care of him? I mean I really want to get Revenge Crits right? But then again I only have 50 health left, but also this guy is low on health.... But what if he suddenly gains crits and by then shreds me to pieces?" NO..... NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS SHOULD YOU EVER HAVE THIS MINDSET AT ALL WHEN USING THE FJ! If you have this mindset, you are completely jeopardizing your survivability and the mindset completely stops you from ever fulfilling your role as offensive engineer. Not only that, you are just wasting time by just thinking of things when you should be going all crazy on the enemy. The mindset you should have (However sad and regrettable) is "Shoot to Kill and shoot to stay alive", because you my friend are more important than some throwaway piece of machinery. always tell yourself that Revenge Crits should be treated as random bonuses like random crits.

 

How to Keep Up the Pressure:

When using the pre-meditative mindset while using the Gunslinger, several ways of assisting your teammates and killing enemies will naturally come to you. Of course, I shall list out several other ways to maximize the pressure on the battlefield against enemies.

 

Keep moving! No scout, soldier or pyro ever survived a humiliating headshot from camping a single area. you have treated yourself as an offensive class and treated your buildings as forgettable trash. You're only excuse for standing around is near a dispenser for health, ammo and metal.

Being on the move also forces you to hastily build mini-sentries and other buildings in unexpected and unpredictable places. Doing so can seriously distract enemies from attacking teammates and switch their focus to your throwaway sentry while giving teammates some time to recover or counter an attack.

 

Redeploy, Redeploy, redeploy. You would be able to build 2 mini-sentries with the amount of metal you have. Not only would rapidly redeploying mini-sentries seriously agitate enemies, this would also help to take out inattentive enemies who do not care about you once they destory your mini-sentry and forget about you.

 

Move your sentry around to keep enemies guessing, but only do this when there is a lull in the enemy team's attack. Moving your mini-sentry around can cause inattentive opponents who still think that a mini-sentry was at that first position to pay heavily for their mistake. Note that this tactic only works if you need to move your sentry a short distance. If the distance is too far, destroy your current mini-sentry for a new one.

 

When both you and your mini-sentry are fighting the same enemy, psychology can work its evil magic as the attacker has to choose between taking you out or gunning down your sentry. If they choose the latter, make them pay for their mistake of not killing you first by deploying another mini-sentry or following up the attacks with your weapons.

 

Do not attempt to run back to your mini-sentry to restock ammo. It's not metal-cost efficient, lessens the amount of pressure piled onto your enemies and it's generally a big waste of time.

 

Since mini-sentries are easily perishable, you will be able to get FJ crits much more quickly but in short bursts. This can work to your advantage short-term as enemies facing two-way fire from you and your mini-sentry will be punished with crits if they take out your mini-sentry first.

 

Use ambush and flanking tactics like a scout or pyro to maximize mini-sentry efficiency. You can pincer enemies by blocking an exit with your mini-sentry and then flank them from the other exit when they're distracted. This flanking tactic is made easier with FJ revenge crits.

 

You can set traps to punish curious enemies. Place a mini-sentry in a hidden area where enemies can't see. Next attract an enemy's attention by firing a couple of shots at him. when they begin to chase you, lead them to the trap so that both you and your mini-sentry can launch a two-way attack against him.

Sentries are notorious for their knockback capabilities. This also applies to mini-sentries. To use this knockback against enemies, place mini-sentries near bottomless pits (like in Doublecross, Nucleus and Steel). when enemies are airborne, your mini-sentry can knock them away from the platform and fall to their doom.

Mini-sentries can be used to trap important health packs for fleeing enemies. Enemies who are seriously injured could be killed while attempting to get health in these areas.

 

Since you're on the offensive, your supply of metal for mini-sentries now primarily comes from fallen weapons and ammo crates instead of dispensers. Immediately pick up any fallen weapon you see lying around to replenish your metal and mini-sentry supply and continue to pressure enemies.

 

Spies are less of nuisance when going Gunslinger engy. Do not worry if he saps your buildings and your too far away from it. Yell "SPY!" to your teammates and rebuild if you don't manage to save them. Your teleporter may be a higher priority to save than you other buildings. If a spy saps it but does not succeed, immediately haul the teleporter exit to a different position.

 

Tell your mini-sentry's position to your teammates. Smart teammates would lead enemies to it and use them as traps to deal additional damage. This is a win-win situation as the enemy can be neutralized and you will be able to gain revenge crits for your FJ.

 

In the event that you get Ubered by a medic, make sure to leave a mini-sentry in your destructive wake after the Uber fades to literally rub lead into their wounds. You would have a higher chance of getting Ubered by a medic if you have the FJ or the Widowmaker but tell your medic if you don't have enough revenge crits to last the Uber and deal enough damage against enemies for it to be effective. Have at least 8 revenge crits before telling the medic to deploy the Uber.

 

Since you're treating dispensers and teleporters as throwaway machinery, put your dispenser directly in the front lines where everyone can see and is easily accessible to all teammates. Teleporters are a little more tricky as you might want to try and make sure that they are still online when your team attacks. It would be best to place teleporters near a friendly sentry nest as the engineer can help to preserve it.

 

In fact, if you're feeling lucky, make the enemies day even worse by building a mini-base right under the enemy's noses. I have done this before. I was playing Thunder Mountain on the first stage as BLU. Before our team capped the first point, I was lucky enough to sneak behind the enemy front lines and built a mini base at the shed opposite the RED team's spawn. I first built a dispenser and a mini-sentry at the staircase heading into the shed to prevent random RED noobs from blowing my cover. Once I fully upgraded my dispenser, I built my teleporter exit. I fully upgraded the teleporter but it was not online as I hadn't built an entrance yet. Before I fully upgraded the teleporter, I told my BLU teammates not to blow the cover of my mini-base by not using my teleporter, though friendly spies can still use them. I went to the console and suicided and quickly built the entrance. Once that's done, I constantly reminded my teammates not to use my teleporter and focus on capping the first point before using my teleporter. Once, the first cap was done, my teammates were free to choke the RED in their own spawn room afterwards. And I quickly supplied the victory.

Note: When you are attempting to do a bold thing like this, be sure to remember that dead enemies in spectator mode may jeopardize the use of this tactic. The cameras placed around capture points may spot you doing something suspicious if you are not careful. All it takes is just one enemy to look at that camera angle and him changing class to Demo to cause your plans to fail. Also when making a move like this, be sure that enemy sentry nests are not built within the immediate area in which you are building your mini-base.

 

Personal Defense

sometimes when you're about to be outgunned by enemies while you're retreating, it would help to use a mini-sentry as a shield to absorb some of that damage while you run.

As I said before in the first part of the guide that when a mini-sentry is being built, it immediately gets 100 health and it's health will not reduce until fully built.

This would help to increase your chances of succesfully escaping an attack and live to gun another minute.

 

If you would want to root yourself to a certain area as you are escaping, deploy a dispenser in that area as you escape. if the dispenser somehow manages to survive after you escape, you can immediately head to the dispenser to heal and get metal.

If you think a mini-sentry acting as a shield is not enough and you have spare metal on you, use a dispenser to act as an additional shield to increase the chances of survivability even further.

 

Assisting other Engineers

Coming soon.....

 

(Note: This was taken from my cOLD post from the Steam Forums. Will update if response is good.)

[bigfoot 4]

camou PLEASE read

[babyshawn2 0]

I tried my best to read through the yellow text...

 

But good guide overall :3