myGSN

Class Description

The demoman is the master of explosives and an excellent defensive class that can draw a line in the sand and help a front line crawl forwards with persistence. His slower movement speed and lack of an actual ranged firearm are his weaknesses, but he can use his own bombs to fling himself up into the air at the cost of health to compensate for his speed. He must use his primary grenade launcher and lob them towards enemies, predicting their movements in advance and ultimately nailing them directly for impressive explosive damage. He also must use his “remote” sticky mines by shooting them at the enemy or onto his surroundings (floors, walls, ceilings) in order to ward the enemy away and also to blow them up when the time is right. When desperate, the demoman can use his whiskey bottle to do pretty good melee damage and get other classes out of his face with a few swings.

The Demoman is…

• A very powerful defensive class.
• Known to deal the most average overall damage compared to any other class in the game.
• The best at “forming a front line” for his team by walling off nearby enemies with his sticky mines.
• Excellent at destroying clusters of enemies and SG’s as well.
• Able to sticky-jump higher into the air than a solider can rocket jump with his rockets, at the cost of his own health.

Class Purpose

Offense and Defense

Offense

The offensive demoman playstyle is unique and somewhat foreign compared to how other classes fight in combat. The demoman doesn’t exactly have the momentum a pyro or soldier has, but on the flip side, he’s more durable than a scout. In order to play the demoman class as an offensive powerhouse, you need to learn patience and how to fight while always retreating and dodging.

Picture this. You face off with a soldier that charges straight at you shooting his rockets. You start moonwalking backwards while shooting stickies down in front of you, and after a few stickies are on the ground, the soldier comes to a halt and tries to start sniping at you with his rockets. You start lobbing grenades at him and then start shooting stickies over by his feet. As a demoman, you can keep that soldier there forever if you dodge his attacks. You can also slowly push him backwards by shooting stickies at the area he’s standing in, causing him to moonwalk backwards while he tries to avoid them.

What I’m trying to say is that a demoman doesn’t fight his battles by pushing forwards, he fights his battles by edging backwards. The demoman controls where his opponent goes like a puppet master, and ultimately seals his death with explosive damage. You can even shoot a bunch of hidden stickies by a doorway, move forward, catch an enemy’s attention, and lure him back to the doorway to make them think they have you on the run. You’ll have the last laugh when your stickies blow him to kingdom come, and he won't see what's coming till its too late.

Defense

It’s also a no brainer to put sticky mines by your intelligence if enemy has dropped it somewhere on the field. You’re almost like a mobile defense station that can set up a hell of a lot faster than an engineer can ever set up a dependable SG. You can also sticky up a capture point and observe the incoming enemies very carefully, making sure that you will blow them up if they try to jump on the point and take it from you.

Class Weapons

Grenade Launcher

As a good demoman, you want to think of this grenade launcher as your secondary weapon, even though it packs a punch. Unless if you think you can get a clear and direct shot at your opponent, it's usually a better idea to have your sticky launcher in hand while running around the field, just in case if you need to adapt to a bad situation quickly. If it’s possible to lob a grenade in his face, quickly switch to this weapon and nail him fast. If not, keep your sticky launcher out for every other situation. Spamming these primary grenades at choke points and also bouncing them around corners to hit your opponents are good ideas. You can also hit enemies that are chasing you from behind by shooting your nades up towards a wall that’s in front of you. The grenade will bounce back over your head and hit them by surprise.

Just remember, this weapon can hurt like hell on impact and still deal good splash damage. The enemy will be hurting if he is pinned down and gets hit by explosions when the grenades go off seconds after being shot. It can take out your enemies really fast if you master it and learn how to lob them directly at your targets. Keep it fully loaded as often as possible.

Sticky Launcher

This is the best weapon in the demoman’s arsenal. You can do a hell of a lot with it. You can shoot 1-2 stickies onto the ground and then sticky jump to high areas at the cost of your health. You can also lay up to 8 stickies anywhere you want, allowing you the ability to wall off a passageway, multiple entrances, or even a wide-open area. When you want to detonate them, you simply right click (by default.) You technically can’t detonate only the ones you want to blow up at will, you can only detonate them all at once.

Even though this weapon is mostly used for defensive purposes or setting up a front line, you can also use it offensively to kill your enemies. Many players that use demoman simply shoot their stickies close to their enemies or where they enemies are running. The moment the sticky (or stickies) nears them after being launched, the demoman immediately detonates it to do damage. You can almost think of these fast stickies as passive rockets that you have to detonate on your own.

Players do this because hitting them with sticky explosive damage is simply a lot more predictable and manageable. It’s a lot easier than shooting primary grenades and having the enemy dodge them and move away before they explode to do any damage. Both primary grenades and sticky mines do around the same damage, so you’re not selling yourself short if you mostly use the sticky gun.

Many new players fail to notice an important feature of the sticky launcher. The demoman is able to click and hold down his fire button (left mouse button by default) and “charge up” his sticky launcher gun. The longer he holds it, the farther the sticky mine will travel through the air when launched. If you charge the bar (located in the lower right-hand corner) to full, the sticky mine will launch on its own, unless you hold down the right mouse button if it is your first sticky shot. By practicing your timing and honing your perception, you will be able to get used to how the sticky launcher performs when you use its charge up feature. You can even shoot sticky far distances towards distant snipers to harass them while you move across the field, or stack up stickies next to distant SG's.

Whiskey Bottle

This melee weapon is pretty typical and does pretty good damage, yet it’s very important to the demoman, because he carries no actual gun in his arsenal. If the enemy tries to maneuver himself around the demoman at very close range, it’s sometimes easy to miss with your grenades and find the perfect spot to throw down a fast sticky. In those kind of situations, sometimes it’s best to just whip out your bottle and finish him off. The bottle makes up for the clumsy nature of the gunless demoman. Nailing nearby enemies with it can be fast and easy.

On a side note, I know a handful of demomen that like a very aggressive and unconventional strategy. They simply sticky long jump forwards to propel them quickly towards the enemy. Once they land up in their face, they immediately whip out their bottle and start meleeing them to death. This tactic works well against snipers, engineers, visible spies, unprepared demomen, and medics.

Class Concepts & Tactics

• Wall them off! (Use your sticky mines to form a front line for your teammates and let the enemy fight on your terms.)
• Trick and Trap! (Put stickies in hidden spots and lure the enemy through them for easy kills.)
• Learn to Sticky-jump! (Get used to using your explosives to propel yourself high into the air. Just detonate your sticky while jumping at the same time to fly in whatever direction you want. One sticky will give you enough air to jump over most obstacles. Two stickies will shoot you even further at the cost of more health. Three stickies can kill you right off the bat, so don’t try to overdo it.)
• Master your launchers! (Playing a good demoman is all about getting used to your launchers and how they travel when launched at the enemy. Get a feel for your grenades, perfect your timing and learn how to predict enemy movements. This all comes with time and practice.)
• Sentry Guns First! (As a demoman, everyone expects you to destroy enemy SG’s and also to make them your first priority. You gotta give the people what they want, only because you’re the best SG destroyer there is and you're even more effective at doing it than a good spy. Shoot 3-5 stickies next to an SG and detonate them at once to make sure that thing gets blown to pieces.)
• Use Charged-up Stickies! (Get used to the charge-up feature on your sticky launcher to get your sticky mines to go further. This will allow you more freedom and control over the damage you can deal to the enemy.)
• Use That Bottle! (Get used to equipping your bottle and whacking the enemy if they get up in your face.)

VS. Other Classes

VS. Scout

The scout has a big advantage against you, and that’s being able to shoot at you with his guns with pinpoint accuracy. You can either frag him with a lucky grenade, or nail him hard with a lucky bottle smack, but the most dependable way to deal with a scout is to mark your territory with your sticky bombs immediately. By shooting stickies down by your feet as fast as possible, you can start restricting where the scout can maneuver himself around you, and that’s a very good thing.

Keep throwing down stickies and start walling him off. If you're able to ward the scout away, you will give yourself more room to breathe. After you restrict him well enough, either lob grenades at him by predicting his fast movements or start launching stickies near him and detonate them to blow him up when the time is right. If you don’t draw the line in the sand early, the scout will be able to run wherever he wants and then walk all over you.

VS. Soldiers

It’s always best to put a few stickies in between you and the soldier while dodging his rockets. The soldier is relatively slow, so it’s very possible to lob grenades and hit him directly to wear him down. It’s also very possible to shoot fast stickies at him and start knocking him around. Just make sure that you keep him at mid range, because it’s much harder to dodge his rockets while he’s up close and in your face.

VS. Pyro

Don’t rely on your primary nade launcher for this fight unless he's charging at you in a straight line. If you think you can get a clear shot, do it fast, because this match-up can be very sticky-dependent. Common sense will tell you to try and block the pyro off with stickies while wearing him down, but most fights don’t start off as easy as that.

If the pyro is very close to getting within range to start burning you down, immediately turn away and start running in the opposite direction. While you are running, shoot stickies DIRECTLY at your feet. Shoot one or two stickies down at a time before detonating them as fast as possible. If the pyro is as stubborn as I think he will be, he will continue to chase you. He will think that he has the speed advantage and that he will catch up to you and toast you if he’s persistent. In reality, once the stickies start blowing up as he runs by them, he will start taking heavy damage and possibly even get knocked backwards or off to the side. Meanwhile, your stickies will have a chance to propel you slightly forwards.

You can also jump up and down while you do this, making your sticky explosions even more effective at pushing you forwards. Chances are that you will still catch on fire, but the pyro will end up dying rather fast if your escape tactic makes him eat all of your sticky damage. You will be able to survive the burning damage and the damage you might have done to yourself as long as you didn’t get hit by his flamethrower for too long.

VS. Other Demomen

This match-up is kinda boring and sometimes lends itself to luck. The other demoman will back you away with his stickies and you will probably do the same to him. The fight will be decided by who is more accurate with their grenade and sticky launchers. Just keep strafing and jumping around while trying to predict his movements. If you are both in close range, trying for a bottle kill might give you the edge.

VS. Heavy

Heavies are as slow as they come, so your primary grenade launcher is your best friend. All you have to do is pop in and out of cover while lobbing the grenades directly at him. Even when they are not using their railgun, they still make easy nade targets. If you don’t have much cover around you, use a few stickies to restrict the heavy's open space and take it from there. There might even be rare occurrences where you both turn a corner and find each other standing right next to each other. Either pound him with your primary grenade launcher quickly at point blank range, or switch to your bottle and try to circle strafe around him while beating his face in.

VS. Engineer

When they are on their own, don’t let them take you down fast with their shotgun. When they are next to their SG, the objective is simply. Launch 3-5 sticky mines up next to the SG by poping in and out from the safety of a corner or nearby cover. After that, detonate as fast as possible and blow that area up. If the engineer was smart, he probably abandoned his SG before detonation and fell back. If he wasn’t smart, then he’s already dead.

There’s no way they can save their SG from the wrath of your sticky mines, unless you give them enough time for the engineer or his team to shoot and push the sticky mines away from their machinery, but that will rarely happen fast enough. This goes without saying that you should abuse your charge-up feature as much as possible when shooting your stickies right up next to the SG. Sometimes you will have to deal with SG from below as they sit on higher ledges or SG’s that are far in the distance, so your charge-up feature definitely makes it possible to nail the SG from anywhere within the SG’s actual firing range. Start charging your shot from behind cover and then pop out when you have enough juice before releasing the sticky into the air. You should get 3-5 stickies next to the SG as fast as possible, so charge up for just enough time for your sticky to reach its target and try not to miss and waste your time.

VS. Medic

Medics can be evasive targets and you want to kill them pronto to stop their healing. Take them out quickly with fast stickies or murder them with your bottle. Only a skilled medic that’s good with his needle gun or bonesaw will give you some trouble. Still, you have the upper hand and will most likely kill them with ease.

VS. Sniper

When approaching them from a far distance, send charged stickies their way to either harass them or prevent them from sniping from their current position. When ambushing them, end their lives fast with a grenade launcher attack and move on. When up close in combat, make short work of them with your bottle, or fast sticky them if they end up being too evasive.

VS. Spy

The demoman is faster than a soldier, but he is still a little slow compared to most other classes in the game. It’s very possible for a spy to stalk you and catch up before backstabbing you, because they will most likely end up disguising themselves as a sniper, pyro, or engineer (all of which are slightly faster than you.) The best you can do is check your six often to make sure there’s no suspicious activity behind you. If you notice a spy that's within stabbing range, the bottle will always beat out against his knife as long as you don’t let him strafe around for a backstab. It’s more difficult to hit him at close range with your grenade launcher, because the spy is as skinny as a scout when he breaks out of his disguise, so I suggest owning him with a bottle when possible.

Closing Thoughts