How to Play Defense on an Attack/Defense CP Map

This seems relatively simple ostensibly, set up a few good Engineers, Heavies, and Demomen, and you should be fine. However, there are a bunch of nuances that can separate victorious team from dominant ones.

Engineers play an extremely important role. However, unless they can set up camp, they are useless. Therefore, having a combat class stick by an Engineer while he builds defense for himself gives him something to make sure he doesn't get overrun, and therefore allows him to do this quickly. This is extremely important when, after you lose a point, he tries to roll back to the next point for the taking. The quicker this can get done, the quicker you can create a bottleneck.

There are two stages of a defense: Rush and Bottleneck. The former is when he other team seems to be attacking points with relative ease, and the latter is when defense is in control. Even though the latter seems like a good place to be all the time, a good rush can allow for a powerful defense. If you decide not to defend a certain point, you can use this to give time for a buildup of Engineer nests in key places which are difficult to ascertain in a quick rollback. Also, it allows other classes to get into places which make them the most useful.

The key classes in defense other than Engineers are Medics, Demomen, and Snipers. The latter are only useful if they are good, as they can stop any class with ease with a well placed headshot. Two good snipers can stop any offensive in its tracks. The Spy can alternatively do this, but it's much more difficult to perform this as Spy. Demomen can spam grenades around corners and down checkpoints, laying down suppressive fire which will force a team to not move. Since respawn times near 20 seconds all the time, Medics become very important in this style of play. If you can heal classes you can't afford to lose, you give them another life within which to perform their duties.

How to Play Arena

Arena is a style of TF2 Gameplay in which two teams are set in a relatively small map, with the goal being to eliminate the other team or to capture a central Control Point, which does not become available until late in the match. There is no respawning in Arena. It is difficult because instead of strategy based on trying to accomplish some objective, the player must come up with strategy for one single purpose: killing.

Arena maps are generally divided chronologically into two stages: territorial, and non-territorial. The former is when the RED team is generally in one spot as with the BLU team, and the latter is when there is no general spot each team can call their own. The former becomes the latter when the finding of enemies leads everybody all over the map. The former can be prolonged for an entire round by a good engineer who can keep a sentry nest going with people healing all the time in their team's base, but the latter can be brought about more quickly by a set of good Scouts who isolate the core of the opposing team.

This segregation of the round lends an important difference between this and any other style of TF2 play: in other types of gameplay, such as Payload and Capture Point, one team can be said to come from one side, and the other from the other side. This is lost in the second half of Arena matches. Scouts can use this to their advantage. It is difficult to Scout in the first half of Arena matches, as everybody is generally in the same spot, but once everyone scatters, the Scout becomes the main killer. If you're playing Scout, you should be focusing on hit and run for the first half, while going for kills in the second half. Not only will the other team be weaker (barring good Medics), but they will be all over the place.

Healing is important in Arena. There are no medpacks, and once you die, you're not coming back. Therefore, it's important to have at least one Medic on your team, which should avoid combat at all costs. This becomes hard in the second part of Arena matches, as combat is all over the place. Therefore, a Heavy or Soldier should be protecting the Medic from harm.

The point is a good way to get turtling Spies or Engineers away from their comfort zone and towards combat. If people are capping, they will win unless stopped. Therefore, they will come out the woodwork to try and kill you. If there's only one person left on the other team, and they're turtling waiting for people to come by, try to cap, and when it gets close, they will try to kill you.

Other than this, every decision you make should be either to stay alive or to kill someone. If you're lowering in health, prefer the former, and if you're well off, prefer the latter. This is the key to Arena.

Spy

One of the most difficult classes to play, Spy is less point, click, then shoot; and more about infiltration than anything. Spies have one of the only instant-kills in the game, the backstab, and have the only item designed specifically against one class, the sapper. This makes them highly specialized.

GENERAL STRATEGY

As a spy, trust your cloak, not your disguise. When you're cloaked, nobody can see you. When you're disguised, people can monitor your behavior and spycheck you. If you bump into anyone while disguised, you will be immediately shot, whereas if you're cloaked, you can get away and have them shoot wildly. They will be on full alert, true, but it will pass if you are patient. This is the number one skill of successful spies. Be patient. Don't go for a risky backstab immediately, wait until it becomes more clear. Don't sap while the Engineer is working, wait until he goes and gets metal.

The old debate goes: sap then stab, or stab then sap? Do you sap the Engineer's buildings then kill him, or take care of him first? The answer lies within a couple of factors. First, consider the damage caused by the sentry once you undisguise yourself. If it's level one, or distracted by someone else, you should be fine. Second, consider the knockback. If you're knocked back by the sentry after you kill the Engineer, you're dead, as you can't approach the sentry to sap it. Overall, it's better to sap then stab.

Engineers will have two responses to your saps: either unsap, or try and kill you. They will undoubtedly know you are a spy, so they will react most definitely in one of these two ways. If he tries to unsap, keep applying the sapper. You have an unlimited supply, so you should be able to keep going until it dies. After a while, though, most Engineers will try and attack you with the wrench, so back off and shoot him to death.

Backstabbing is often called the primary of the Spy. If you're not trying to sap, you will be trying to kill via backstab. Nobody goes for the revolver kill. It is a useful tool for getting out of tough situations, but it's not the ultimate goal. Backstabbing should be for primarily slow enemies. Kill Heavies, Soldiers, and Snipers, mostly. Not only will this take out a huge part of any team's offense or defense, it will cause the rest of the team to focus on finding you which, if you're good, will take a while. At this point, your team can push, taking down the confused team. Second, backstabbing should only be done once you're sure. If you've managed to avoid enemies thus far, you can wait a couple more seconds. More times than not I've gone for the backstab and the enemy turned around right as I was trying to kill him.

AVOID PYROS AT ALL COSTS. If you walk near one and he even accidentally presses his Mouse 1 button, you're dead. Don't even try to backstab them, they will be constantly spychecking and therefore will kill you often.

UNLOCKS

Ambassador (First unlock, replaces Revolver) - Slight damage dropoff for accuracy (with a cooldown), and crits on a headshot. I would definitely use this. Wait for the cooldown if you can, so you can have pinpoint accuracy for the headshot crits, which can end any firefight relatively quickly.

Cloak and Dagger (Second unlock, replaces Watch) - Indefinately recharges while standing still but, while moving, runs down based on how far you have moved. I don't like this because I pick up metal on the battlefield to recharge my cloak (And to piss off enemy Engineers), but many people use it as a way to hide until the opportune moment is found. Use at your own discretion.

Dead Ringer (Third unlock, replaces Watch) - If you have it out, fakes your death if you recieve nonlethal damage and cloaks you for up to 8 seconds. I don't like this because, along with the inability to pick up metal for cloak, it makes an obnoxiously loud sound when uncloaking, and most people can figure out a Dead Ringer Spy as soon as they shoot.

Sniper

Sniper being the most straightforward class (Find a spot, aim, BOOM HEADSHOT), this post will be relatively short and will only deal with the weakness of the sniper, close combat, and the unlocks.

GENERAL STRATEGY

Other than the progression mentioned above, Sniper has only one other thing to consider: close combat.

Close combat is fought by a Sniper as a means of getting away, not of actually trying to kill. You want to hold him off until a combat-oriented class can come over and finish him off. Let your team know you need help (Either through voice chat or voice commands) and (hopefully) they will help you.

Jarate makes the Sniper a more support-ish support class by giving him an aspect beyond that of hiding far away and shooting people every once in a while. You can put out fire, which makes Arena matches infinitely easier, and you make enemies take more damage, making winning said matches easier.

UNLOCKS

Hunstman (First Unlock, replaces Sniper Rifle) - Makes Sniper a viable mid-range combat class. Useful for Arena, where there are few Sniper nests. However, makes long-range combat difficult. Use discretion.

Razorback (Third Unlock, replaces SMG) - Don't ever use this. The benefit (blocking one backstab) isn't useful in most situations versus the detriment (slower speed + loss of the SMG).

Jarate (Second Unlock, replaces SMG) - Useful if you're using the Hunstman, as you're in the thick of combat already. If you like to camp far away from the rest of your team, use SMG as your out if it gets back. Otherwise, if you're with your team, use Jarate.

Medic

TF2Wiki

It's midway through an arena round. Half of your team is gone, as well as theirs. Everybody is rushing back to spawn, with half of their health whittled away. At this point, Medics are crucial. They form the backbone of an offensive in a CP push map, keep the cart moving in payload, and stop people from dying in Arena. It isn't difficult to play medic, but it's one of the most important classes for every playtipe.

GENERAL STRATEGY

The way a Medic stays alive is through having a team around him. Even though you may be paired up with a Heavy, merely having one teammate around you will leave you exposed. It is often smart to abandon a rambo-style player for the rest of your team, even if that rambo is a "traditional" medic partner, i.e. a Heavy or Soldier. Doing so will keep the majority of your team fueled with health, and will keep you alive longer.

If you are hanging around with a Heavy or Soldier, try to keep them within your line of sight without being in the line of sight of the other team. This will also keep you alive. Communication is key. If neither of you have microphones, use the voice commands (brought up ingame by pressing c or x) to communicate. This is crucial when your Ubercharge meter fills, as only the combat half of the team knows when he needs it.

The Ubercharge is the ultimate goal for a medic. The ten seconds of invulnerability (or of critical hits with the Kritzkrieg) can swing the momentum of a round on its head, giving you an advantage. Therefore, tell your team if you're nearing one so they can protect you more. If you do get 100%, the loud "I am fully charged!" should let them know to get a class able to commence a good Ubercharge attack over.

Speaking of which, the Heavy is not good for Ubercharges. The large spray and the stop-and-go movement involved with that class makes most attacks fail. The best class for Ubercharges is the Pyro. He can constantly put out damage with the flamethrower, and can turn wildly to damage an entire team. He can also destroy buildings easily with the constant damage he puts out. His speed also makes most attacks effective, leaving a wake of fire wherever he goes during the 10 seconds.

UNLOCKS

Blutsauger (First unlock, replaces the Syringe Gun) - Largely considered to be the most upgrade-ish of the unlocks in the game. This roughly means that the downside (no crits) is unbalanced compared to the upside (+3 health for every hit). Therefore, if you have it, equip it. It will give you the health boost that you need to survive a firefight. If you land an entire clip on someone, that's +150 health, which is a huge boost in a round.

Kritzkrieg (Second unlock, replaces the Medigun) - An extremely balanced support gun. Acts similarly to the medigun (except your Uber recharges 25% faster), but, when the charge is released, the recieving player gets crits for 10 seconds instead of invulnerability. This is a situational weapon: it's extremely good for defense when a team seems to be rushing, as it will kill a ton of players very quickly. However, despite how it may seem, it's not very good against sentry nests. You can die while recieving the charge, and therefore you have little time to let the crit blasts go.

Ubersaw (Third unlock, replaces the Bonesaw) - Again, a powerful upgrade. Gives you 33% Ubercharge per hit, which can also turn the tide of a round by giving you an Ubercharge quickly. I'd upgrade to this, even if the downsides (slower fire rate) make you wary.