WaffleHousChef

HAP-PY!

The Demoman is classed as a defensive kit and while they excel at defense they are also good on offense. As with the Medic the Demoman has a limited number of inventory items, but don't let that fool you! The Demoman is a versatile class that can be used to great effect.

Stuff the Demoman is packin'

Grenade Launcher

This is a great weapon for area interdiction and indirect fire with massive damage per shot. However, the problem is that you're left with the disavantages associated with this as well, 4 round clip, long reload time, and no direct fire option. When most of the other classes have a backup weapon (shotgun, pistol, SMG) the Demoman is stuck with no backup options.

The grenade launcher has 4 rounds you can fire in rapid succesion, and a 30 round total in your inventory. The grenades will bounce off walls and other objects then explode a few seconds after firing. If you manage to make a direct hit with a grenade on either an emeny or yourself it will explode instantly. With FF off, a grenade will pass through a teammate without exploding.

Each individual grenade does very high damage if you can manage to hit your target directly. A direct hit is pretty much an instagib to non-buffed classes except the very few with a large number of HPs (soldier, heavy.) This is good to take out people very close in on you if you are good with a from the hip snap shot.

This weapon also has obvious weaknesses. Against fast moving classes in open areas you have to be very talented to hit directly. Watch for scouts they will try to take you out every time they can because they are paper to your rock. Your weapon being what it is, if you get caught by a scout in the open you have a limited number of chances to get a direct hit before you get shotgunned down.

The physics of the individual grenades is very closely modelled. This makes a big difference in the way that they interact with the environment. Each grenade will hit a surface with a different momentum and hit on a different edge causing it to bounce in a different manner each time. If a round hits on an edge it will make a completely different bounce then one that hits on the long side of the round. You will have to get a feel for how this ends up. Again, this has both good and bad points. No two rounds will bounce the same over a non-trivial distance which means that you can produce a larger spread while putting rounds in the same point. This automatically distributes your rounds in a larger area to possibly hit more people. The flip side is that with a lack of reproducability in trajectories you can't put damage repeatedly in the same exact area unless you have some other thing to influnce your shots (i.e. a corner or second wall to funnel your grenades.)

Another tactic that I some times use related to the high physics modelling for the grenades is to deliberately use this to my advantage. When rounds come out of your launcher they are generally front to back, but when interacting with surfaces the tend end up long on. So, what you do is use this to your advantage and do what I think of as "grenade bowling." Aim your launcher at the ground in front of your feet. Fire a grenade and it will hit the ground. The forward momentum will pull the grenade along and it will flip around until it hits the configuration with the least resistance, rolling along the ground sideways! At this point the grenade travels relatively straight, and if it encounters an enemy's feet it will instantly explode. Again, the modelling is fairly detailed, and you can't absolutely count on this, but I find it works most times on an even surface.

Sticky Bombs

The sticky bomb gun is where the Demoman shines in Defense (and offense too.) When you are playing the Demoman you will notice an additional window next to your weapon display with a spiked ball and a number next to it. This is the amount of Sticky Bombs you currently have "in the field." You can have up to 8 Sticky Bombs on the ground at any one time. Once you place 8 bombs you can still plant more, but the one that has been out the longest will explode. You have to be careful to not be near them when you di this becuase if you fire a new one past your 8 limit and you are standing near the one that explodes you can damage or kill yourself inadvertantly.

To detonate your bombs you simply right click and they explode. This can be done with any weapon equipped, so it's best to lay down your 8 bombs where you want them, reload, and then switch over to your Grenade Launcher if you're defending an area. This way you can fire your grenades or detonate your sticky bombs.

If you die your Sticky Bombs will disappear, so make sure that if you're actively defending a point to keep yourself alive long enough to make use of your Sticky Bombs.

Sticky Bombs can be placed on any surface, and are great for laying traps on walls or low hanging ceilings. Try to plant your bombs where they can't be seen until your enemies are already on top of them so you can blow them up without them even knowing what happened. If your goal is to simply interdict an area instead of reducing enemies, you should place your Sticky Bombs in a very obvious place so that enemies would rather detour to another route then to deal with the possibility of the bombs.

Sticky Bombs are not tied to the exact place you fire them. They can be moved from where you placed them by weapons fire or explosions. Keep this in mind when you place them, and when you encounter them from other Demomen. A good tactic for scattering another Demoman's Sticky bombs is if you place one or two of your own bombs in the cluster and detonate them. This will scatter their sticky bombs over a wider area (or possibly out of the area you wish to pass through.) Sticky bombs that have been dislodged by this method from walls will fall to the ground with momentum. So, the higher you place your bombs the further they can be displaced by weapons fire, and if you place them on the ground they will travel the least.

Through the use of Sticky Bombs the Demoman is also a "rocket jump" class. Just like the Soldier you can place a single Sticky Bomb on the ground in front of you, and as you walk over it jump and detonate it. It will propel you to a much greater height then you would normally jump. This requires practice and timing. It will also damage you, so it is a good idea to have a Medic nearby to heal you when you end up where you are going, or to put the 50% HP bonus on you so that gets ablated first.

Bottle o' Booze

Clonk 'em on tha noggin or have a drink, a great melee weapon. If you hit enough things, the bottle breaks and you've got a sharp-ish weapon now.

-----====== General Demoman Strategies ======-----

Point Defense

Demoman makes a great class to devote to capture point defense with Sticky Bombs. To start with lay all 8 of your Sticky Bombs on the point you are defending. This means that you can't stand on the point without suiciding if you have to blow your bombs, but that's okay. This is becuase, even if you're not actually wathcing the point, the game alerts you when there is an enemy in the area. "Our point is being captured," "Boom!" You have to be careful with this tactic becuase sometimes a smart opponent will send a sacrificial person to get you to trigger your Sticky Bombs prematurely then they will move a big follow-on force on the point while your defenses are now gone. To avoid this stay within visual range of the point and keep an eye on the point meter and the point itself. This point defense tactic is still worthwhile if you can manage to remove a quick scout or heavy/medic combo, and then have to quickly replace your Sticky Bombs. If you know another Demoman is covering the same point, try and coordinate with them who will detonate first in case of a point trip allowing one of you to save their Sticky Bombs for a follow-on force.

Turret Elimination

Turrets can be a pain to get rid of sometimes, especially when the turrets Engy is sitting on it with the wrench and Dispenser continually repairing it. Your main grenades will do the trick if the turret isn't being repaired and if you can manage to get some direct hits, but the better way to take one out is to get a cluster of Sticky Bombs on the area where the turret is. This will allow you to do a large amount of damage in one single strike denying the Engineer the ability to repair their turret before it is destroyed (and most likely killing them in the process if they don't abandon it.) Of course, you have to take the time to place enough bombs to kill the turret in one hit, and if you die before you can detonate your bombs they will go up in smoke and do no damage at all.

Sticky Blending

When you can try and get your Sticky Bombs to blend into the scenery or place them where enemies won't be looking such as ceilings or high on walls. In fact, Crit Stickys work against you on this because when you get a Crit Sticky it will light up with a glow that bubbles up above the Sticky. So, it will do extra damage, but it also has a sign that says, "Hey enemies! Look over here, Crit Sticky reporting in don't come near me!"

Pablo

For turret elimination, the demo has the ability of indirect fire. You can shoot around corners without exposing and triggering the sentry. This way you can be hitting it without it hitting you.

Also, the longer you hold down your fire button while holding the sticky bombs, the further they will go.

Oh, it doesn't matter how you bounce your nades or how well you spread them out by bouncing them, they will do pathetic damage after they hit anything that isn't flesh.

Beatnik

Grenade bowling. Very interesting. I'll have to give that a try.

Good writeup (again), Waffle.

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Zoopy

Since the last patch, grenades don't explode on contact after the first bounce, so you'll only damage someone if they are on the grenade or at least 0.5m away from it. Each ground grenade does about 20-80 damage.

Relmar

I too have found the range of the grenade explosion to be incredibly small. You really do have to be right on top of it for it to hurt you.

kormendi

I've been using the stickies more often since the change. The normal nades are way to easy to avoid to be useful anymore.

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Zoopy

The Demoman has the advantage over other classes in terms of damage over distance. Every other weapon in the game (except the sniper rifle) damage drastically decrease over range. The only problem is grenades blow up after ~4s and are hard to aim.

Sirusblk

To explode your sticky bombs do you need your pipe bomb gun equipped? Or is it just whenever you right click no matter what's equipped? I can't help but think how useful it'd be to right click and trigger your normal grenades early.

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Zoopy

Anytime you right-click they go KA-BOOM

Crapulos

This doesn't work anymore. Pipe bombs don't explode on contact after the first bounce.

Don't underestimate the range of the grenade launcher. Take the high ground, keep your fire button pressed and aim high for maximum range. There's a few spots on cp_hydro from where you can disable most common SG emplacements overlooking the capture points. Gibbing the engie hiding behind his sentry is always a nice bonus.

Zoopy

Keeping the fire button pressed only causes the sticky bomb to go farther, the grenade launcher will just keep firing when the attack button is held down. Normal grenades are not very good at taking down Sentry Guns since they don't explode when bounced anymore.

Sirusblk

Also, I'm kinda suprised that no one mentioned this. You don't have to wate for your sticky bombs to hit the ground or attach to a surface. Arch one out and right click to have it explode right in their face. You get it down and it's a deadlier offense weapon than the normal grenades.

Left Click
Right Click
Left Click
Right Click

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Crapulos

Yeah, my bad about delayed fire but using pipe bombs to destroy sentries still hold. Maybe I wasn't clear, but lobbing the grenades this way you hit the turret directly. At this range it does take a few tries to get the correct trajectory, but four of them should do the trick... and there's always the possibility you'll kill the engie in the process. The advantage of this is that you can keep your stickies for CP defense, which is very important on hydro, while making the capture safer for your team. The drawback is that you're sniper bait if you're not careful of your surroundings.

I keep referring to hydro because there's almost always a high ground overlooking the CPs.

Vinz [NL]

Absolutely! This was the way the demoman was played in QWTF. Virtually nobody used the normal grenade launcher, always the secondary fire more which allowed you to detonate at will. Great for taking out scouts as well!

nulloperations

A note on Stick placement. When defending a point, DO NOT place all your stickies in one spot. That makes them easily moved, and easily avoided. Set your bombs out in a wide "net" spreading out their blast radius. As your explosions do overlap, it's useful to still keep the net thin, but far from overlapping too much.

You'll kill/injure more opponents this way, as well as keeping your bombs from being displaced too much by an enemy demo man or explosive expert.

Speaking of anti demomen, they are the best sticky bomb removers. A blast of a sticky bomb seems to knock your own sticky bombs further away than any other class. This is another reason to bring a demo with you on offense. You're better equiped to take on any opposing demomen while you do.

In regards to the regular launcher, I only use this weapon at 2 points, 1) when I have stickies in place I don't want to go boom yet (such as those defending a cp), and 2) when I am sitting on a high up location and need to lauch at enemies behind objects.

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