by William Bentley

Created on: May 16, 2009   Last Updated: May 17, 2009

As the name suggests, the heavy is the heaviest class in TF2, with the highest max HP, largest body and a gun roughly the size of a rhino. They boast the most powerful weapon in the game, able to shred anything at close range in a matter of seconds, and due to the high rate of fire and large targeting cone, people at longer ranges will be forced to take cover unless they want to be mown down. However revving up this beast of a gun slows your already unimpressive movement speed to a snails pace, making you an easy target for enemy snipers, spies, rockets, grenades... I think you get the point.

Your high amount of health makes you the perfect Medic buddy, as not only does your large shape prevent the enemy from targeting your squishier Medic, but when over healed, you have 450HP, which makes you a serious threat to any offence / defence. When ubercharged, you become an absolute monster, and only the most organized of teams will be able to stop your rampage without suffering serious damage. If your in the unfortunate position of facing an enemy uber, its probably best to avoid revving your mini-gun and dodge the incoming fire, you may have 200 shots, but that can be eaten through at an alarming rate, and you don't want to be forced to use your shotgun when their invincibility window runs out.

While the shotgun may not be anywhere near as powerful as your mini-gun, it does have its uses, particularly if you don't want to be moving incredibly slowly in your current position, for example in front of a sniper scope or moving towards the enemy lines, you should have the shotgun out, as it means that you can lay down a respectable rate of fire, while not making yourself an easy target. Fire a couple of blasts at that sniper, and you'll mess up his aim, giving you enough time to run out of his line of sight.

The heavy's other weapon option, his fists, aren't that good of a weapon choice, considering both of your guns do enormous amounts of damage at close range, however if you've unlocked the upgraded fists, then the killing gloves of boxing open up a hole new world of possibilities, you can either go on a mad fist fueled killing-spree, 1 hit KO'ing anything short of another heavy, of you can punch down the first unfortunate to come your way, before pulling out your mini-gun and firing a stream of critical shots, decimating anything in front of you.

As a final note, a heavy stood by a dispenser becomes a truly terrifying prospect, not only will your health be constantly refuelled, but because the mini-gun doesn't have to reload, you can lay down an unending stream of bullets. The engineer who's dispenser you are using should be extremely grateful, as a spy is going nowhere near his constructions with you stood there.

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