I love that Little Gun

BarytaQ · Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 8:22 pm Post subject: I love that Little Gun

As an engineer on egypt, I cannot stand the normal sentry. So! I decided to take up battle engie as a hobby. It seems to have turned out well for me. Thought I'd toss up a few guidelines that I've figured out and see if you all had anything to say.

1.) Sentry Placement
This is, in my opinion, the most crucial part of being a Gunslinger engineer. If you can get the sentry in a place where an enemy doesn't normally look, preferably behind him/her, it's a good deal. You can move a lot more than your sentry and are thus more flexible, if you place it in an unobtrusive place then your sentry has longer to shoot at an enemy before they can see it and neutralize it. BE AWARE OF YOUR RANGE. Knowing how far your sentry can shoot makes it much easier and effective when trying to use it against the enemy.

2.) Synergy.
The mini sentry wasn't meant to be a standalone death-dealer like the normal sentry was, Work with your little friend. Jump around in the firing zone shooting the enemy while your sentry steadily chips off his health. Try not to leave the area where your sentry can lend a hand in slinging death to your foes. That being said, you need not be too attached to your sentry as a whole. Be prepared to lose it, a lot. It's got low health, and if you use the Frontier Justice then you'll be breaking it down a fair amount. This leads to my next section.

3.) Priorities (Of buildings)
Your dispenser and teleporter come before your sentry at all times. You'll build those two first. They take much longer to build up and are much better for your teammates than the stunted sentry you can toss up in 3 seconds. You'll also defend them much more frequently than your sentry. Make wise decisions. If a spy has a sapper on all of your buildings, (Say some nice pyro killed him after he sapped them all) you're going to want to break them off of the dispenser and teleporter first and just let the sentry die if there's no one pushing your area. You can't repair your mini-sentry, so you're much better off to just re-build it after it dies. The spy might get a point, but you'll have a full health sentry in another couple of seconds. Along with that, if you're using the Frontier Justice (Best gun evar) and you've got some kills on that sentry, turn em into crits! Either let it die, or kill it yourself and place another. This turns your normal gun into a death-slinging crit machine that makes your foes tremble with fear and quake with terror before your glowing awesomeness-ness.
Don't be afraid to sacrifice your sentry so you can punish some foo who got to close to you.

4.) Weapons of Choice.
Of course you'll be using the gunslinger wrench, that's what this is about, but what other instruments of chaos will you bring to this soiree? I'll toss out some pros n cons for each of the weapons at your disposal.
Main Weapons
FRONTIER JUSTICE.
My weapon of choice, I'll try to be unbiased.
Pros.
More damage and versatility with the crits that you can get at any time after your sentry has owned some idiot. 180 points of damage to the gut is pretty major, you can take out an unsuspecting heavy with two well aimed shots.
Cons.
You get less ammo, making it more likely that you'll run out of ammo before finishing the kill, can be fixed by using the pistol along with the FJ to follow up with three blasts of buck-shot.
STOCK SHOTGUN
Pros.
Reliable. It's got 6 shots and if that doesn't finish someone off, I don't know what will. Allows for a little more safety and being able to reply to any aggression with equal fury.
Cons.
No extra damage beyond random crits. Nothing really wrong with this gun, just lacks... creativity.

WIDOW MAKER (Never used it, forgot it as well)
With this gun I'm just gonna say, I've never used it, but I've been killed by it, A lot. From the bullet holes I have come to conclude that it is always a viable option, just watch out how much ammo/metal you happen to have at any given time.

PROFFESOR POM-POM (POMSON 6000)
Have not used this gun yet, I'll use it sometime in the future, probably borrow it from a friend, and use it and edit this post with my findings.

Secondary Weapons

PISTOL
Win-win. Gives you some range and fixes the drawbacks of the Frontier Justice. Reload immediately after firing, you don't want to switch to it later and only have 3 shots left in the clip.
SHORT CIRCUIT
I'm sorry, but fuck this thing. It's not worth it in a combat situation.
WRANGLER
Actually pretty good with the mini sentry. Unlimited range along with doubling the fire rate, the only problem is if you find yourself out of shotty ammo and away from your sentry, you could be dead before you reload or destroy and rebuild a sentry. Good if you know what you're doing with it.

That's all I can write for now. I'll probably update it later with a general strategy section. Basic summary, Build your sentry where it's got space and stick near it. Shoot anyone not on your team.
_________________
http://tf2b.com/profiles/76561197988317087
My pitiful backpack...
I'll still blow your ass up.

Last edited by BarytaQ on Sun Jan 01, 2012 2:01 am; edited 1 time in total

Vlad Piranha · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:15 am Post subject:

You really hit this one on the head and I agree with everything but the Frontier Justice as the weapon of choice. I've always imagined that someone who never ever misses would be fantastic with it in a pinch, but that's under the assumption that your sentry will get a kill or two to get the ball rolling. I find that emptying the shotgun into an enemy while the mini is firing at them is a more reliable means of combat. To each his own, though. I don't think anyone would go into battle without the Wrangler, though.

atatme · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 1:27 am Post subject:

What about the widowmaker?