HANDS ON GUIDE

Defence #2 - Heavy

Heavy: 300 HP

The Heavy is a slow beast of a character. On his own, he’s a formidable adversary for any other class, as with 300 HP he’s very difficult to take down in a fair fight. Which is why you’ll find the people who kill you won’t be fighting fair. Opponents will take advantage of your low manoeuvrability, relatively short range and your slow reaction time to take you out of the battle.

Primary Weapon: Chain Gun

200 bullets of pure death and it doesn’t require reloading, the Chain Gun is deadly although it takes time to spin up and when it does start firing it swiftly drains your ammo. You can keep the barrel spinning by holding down your second mouse button, but this slows your pace and creates an easily identifiable noise which gives away your location and intention.

At close range, the Heavy doesn’t need the benefit of surprise, but take care if you’re without a Medic. You can absorb a lot of fire, but the key to a long life is to know when you’re close to death. At about 1/3 health you should stop shooting and run back to cover. Without a Medic it’s unwise to venture entirely out of cover. Try to keep as much of your mass in cover, so when you leg it from the fight you haven’t far to run. If you’ve come out too far, then your best bet is to switch to Shotgun and lay down fire as you pull back to find a dispenser or a health pack.

Secondary Weapon: Shotgun

It may not be as powerful as the Chain Gun, but the Shotgun doesn’t carry the movement penalty either. Cradled in the Heavy’s hands it looks small, but it’s the same Shotgun used by the Pyro and Engineer. Just as with those classes it’s a useful medium to close range weapon, and an aggressive player can get kills with it. That said, the Heavy is severely limited by his slow run speed. If you chase down an enemy as a Heavy, someone’s really going to enjoy sticking it to you. The shotgun is best used in retreat, if however you need to reload the Shotgun and you haven’t any Chain Gun ammo, then it has to come down to bare fists.

Melee Weapon: Bare Fists

The Heavy may be slow and cumbersome, but like Chuck Norris, if he gets close enough to land a punch, he’ll probably kill. The left and right mouse buttons each control a fist, and you can alternate the two to create a crescent of death in front of your character. A healthy opponent may survive a single hit, but the second punch should floor them. While the punch is deadly, if you’re up against more than one or two enemies, you are basically dead. Don’t wade into them unless you intend to commit a suicidal act. If that is what’s intended, then fisticuffs is a heap of fun.

*Update, December 2008*
Natascha

Natascha is the Heavy’s new Chaingun, and it's more suited to tactical play than the original weapon. Each successful hit will slow down the player you’re attacking. This makes it effective against players at mid-to-long range, especially if you use it to trap them out in the open. Do this and you can prevent them evading the fire of more effective long-range weapons such as like the Soldier’s rockets - you’ll find you get a lot of assists this way.

1 | 2

Latest Hands on guides

These are the most popular features articles over the past three months.

Mobile Broadband

Compare prices

Fastest, cheapest 3G mobile broadband dongles from 3, Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange
from just £10/month