Recently I was thinking about how TF2 has default class categorization. Most people don’t even think about it, but it does exist.
Offense: Scout, Soldier, Pyro
Defense: Demo, Heavy, Engineer
Support: Medic, Sniper, Spy
If you have spent any good amount of time playing TF2 (and believe me, I have), then you probably realize that these categories are not really worth anything. For one, Pyro can be a defensive powerhouse, with his air blast and area denial. On the other hand, Demoman is probably one of the strongest offensive classes in the entire game.
So, I was thinking, what would be a more accurate way to describe the class roles? As someone who has spent a couple seasons playing competitive highlander (9v9) at a high level, I think that some pretty clear distinctions can be made. So let me take you through my thought process.
Let’s start with each class’s role in highlander. (If you aren’t familiar, highlander is a competitive ruleset that requires one of each class played at all times. You can think of this as classic tf2, just in a competitive setting. Every class gets equal representation in every match played.)
Scout: Scout is most often played as a flank class. His high mobility and damage potential makes him a great option for monitoring the flank routes of a map. He can easily track down and pick off stragglers who found their way away from the team. But his role isn’t purely flank, as his fast movement speed lets him quickly reposition to the main fight to add critical support.
Soldier: Soldier often plays side by side with the scout on the flank for similar reasons. His high mobility through rock jumping makes it easy for him to position himself where needed the most. In addition, his splash damage rockets make it easier to shut down flank routes with spam. Soldier’s additional function is to bomb. This is a (often suicidal) play in which the soldier rocket jumps into an important class like the medic and tries to get enough damage in either for a kill or for another class to finish the job.
Pyro: The pyro plays with something known as the combo. The combo is the main fighting force of the team, and it consists of pyro, demo, heavy, and medic. More on those classes later. The pyro can provide great damage output when the moment calls for it, but for most of the game he takes a more defensive role. His air blast can be used to easily deny bombs from enemy soldiers and demos, and his flamethrower is a great way to check for spies and shut down pushes. Because of his great defensive capabilities, he is often relegated to babysitting the medic, and for good reasons. He has the tools for the job.
Demo: Demo is a contender for the strongest class in the game, and the most important class in competitive highlander. He is often the player calling the shots due to his massive role in the combo and taking fights. His damage output is one of the best in the game, and he hardly needs to sacrifice any mobility unlike the heavy. The demo is offensive powerhouse of any team and is the main force of every push.
Heavy: Heavy dominates many casual servers when he has decent aim and a competent medic. However, in competitive, his low mobility and high hitbox makes him an easier target. He is far from useless, however. His high hit scan damage and large health pool makes him a great damage soaker in firefights and is a force to be reckoned with. Because of his risk to snipers, he often needs to play slightly more defensively, but as soon as the threat of a sniper disappears you will not want to come face to face with his minigun.
Engineer: Engineer has a really interesting role in competitive, in that he often plays on his own. He is kind of a jack of all trades depending on the situation. On king of the hill, and offensive payload, he is often seen playing around the flank and providing support through dispensers and minisentries. However, on defensive payload maps, his ability to provide teleporters and level 3 sentries makes him quite the dangerous class. In this role he will play very closely with the combo and add a huge amount of damage output to the enemy team.
Medic: I don’t even know if medic needs that much description. He is the support class. Like demo, there are many good arguments for him being the most important and most powerful class in the entire game. His ability to heal anybody to full health in a few seconds and the devastation of an Uber charge push makes the medic the holy grail of any good team. When the medic dies, the team panics, when the medic stays alive, the team thrives.
Sniper: Sniper is the third class in which I feel there are valid reasons to call him the strongest class in the game. Many highlander games (especially in the US) revolve entirely around the sniper’s positions. In highlander, snipers aren’t going to miss anywhere near as much as in casual, so crossing a sightline no matter how much health you have can always lead to certain death. The sniper’s ability to shut down entire areas of the map simply by looking in their direction makes him key to any good team.
Spy: Spy is by far the weakest class of them all, but his role is far from unimportant. The spy actually takes on his name much more in a competitive setting than many pub stomping spies might lead you to believe. Since all players will be in a discord call during game, the spy can go invisible and provide key information about team positioning, sniper locations, health values, medic Uber charge, and more. The Spy also can go in for key plays and attempt to kill high values targets like the Demo, Medic, and Sniper. A good competitive spy can go with a negative k/d and still have had a strong influence on the outcome of the game.
Okay, so let’s summarize. There are a few big categories that we can start with to fix the tf2 class roles. There is the flank, which consists of Scout and Solider, and sometimes Engineer. Ther is the combo, which consists of Pyro, Heavy, Demo, Medic, and sometimes Engineer. Then there are the pick classes, Sniper and Spy.
There are two big problems here. The obvious one is what the hell do we do with Engineer. And two, I don’t want the class roles to purely be competitive. The purpose of the class roles on the class select screen is to aid new players in being able to generalize what each class does so they can make more informed decisions in choosing a class and putting that class to good use. Using a phrase like “combo” doesn’t provide a whole lot of information for new players.
Here is my first proposal. For the combo, we don’t want to name any of the classes strictly offensive or defensive, as depending on the flow of the game either can be true. Be since combo can be confusing to new players, I say this group of classes should be the frontline. This describes their role pretty accurately. Whether the combo takes the offensive or defensive position, they are always at the front of the fight, providing all the damage for the team.
I think the flank classes have both an obvious role and name. Soldier and scout can easily place themselves wherever needed on the battlefield, and I see no problem with keeping the flank labeled as is.
Now we start to get into the weeds. We have an obvious support class, the medic, and we have the previously labeled support classes, sniper and spy, but I think things get difficult here. Spy plays a highly supportive role in competitive, but in casual he often is purely a pick class. Sniper isn’t really support either, he is better described as a pick class. Then we have an engineer, who can play on flank and combo alike. This is where I think we need four groupings total to accurately describe the class roles. First, the pick classes should be given to Sniper and Spy. Yes, a spy can be supportive, but for new players to get used to his playstyle, they will need understand his ability to get key picks when the matter the most.
As for the remaining category, the support classes, I think this is best given to both Medic and Engineer. It might seem odd at first to say that the Engineer is a support class. But I really think he is. Everyone associates the engineer with his sentry gun, but I wouldn’t want new players to ignore his equally as important dispenser and teleporter, which can have a massive supportive influence on the outcome of the game. Even his sentry gun, either offensive or defensive, is often supporting the combo or supporting the flank. This is why I think he is the best fit for this category. I believe Medic needs no explanation.
So, to finalize the listings, this is how I would remake the class roles if I were given the powers of valve.
Flank: Scout, Soldier
Frontline: Pyro, Demo, Heavy
Support: Engineer, Medic
Pick: Sniper, Spy
If you for some reason read this huge blog post and also happen to play tf2, either competitively or not, let me know what you think!