Welcome! I'm Digitic, the writer of the TF2 College and Evolutionary Tree series. I've seen a lot of weapons that have a perfectly valuable use (*cough* Razorback *cough*) thrown away or deleted because people simply do not understand their use and it ends up as an ineffective tool. I want to reignite interest in these weapons and prove that Valve makes balanced weapons.


This is how the guide's sections will be ordered.

Item current use
Role
Intended function
Ideal/Unideal scenarios

Primaries:

Soda Popper

Current use: JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP *suffocates in space*

Role: Distraction/Combat

Actual use: The Soda Popper's jumps are not to be used all at once. They are mainly used to get above your opponents and prevent them from hitting you while still forcing them to attack you. If the Scout is not dealt with, he will kill you with a few solid Scattergun shots. If he is targeted, other teammates can easily maul the poor victim. Imagine the Fan-o-War, but the Scout himself is the marker. Just try to keep an even altitude above your poor target and you'll be fine.

Ideal Situation: Single high-health targets or important class assassination
Unideal Situation: Multiple opponents or Anti-Scout/Sniper/Spy




Secondaries:

Crit-A-Cola/Bonk

Current Use: *Glug* CHARGE! *dead*

Role: Assassination/Escape

Actual Use: Scouts can use the Bonk and Crit-a-Cola to escape almost any situation, but use it instead to rush into the enemy base as fast as possible only to die at the first Soldier or Pyro. Bonk is more useful when you are hopelessly outnumbered and need to run, but Crit-a-Cola is more useful when you want to tip a fair fight to escape in your favor. Both can also be used to assassinate key classes. Seeing a Bonked Scout will either have a player follow them or just forget they existed. Crit-a-Cola's minicrits help with quick kills, and the movement speed buff allows you to effectively hit-and-run a Medic or Demoman.

Ideal Situation: Key Target assassination or Fleeing through enemies.
Unideal situation: Direct combat/Pyros/Sentries.



Melees:

Wrap Assassin

Current use: I'ma melee this heavy! *dink dink dink*

Role: Finisher/Support

Actual use: The Wrap Assassin is a great tool to replace a pistol. While it does only have one shot, the bleed damage can finish off an injured enemy even if they do escape your bullets. It can either be an addition to your Pistol's finishing power or it can replace it if you use a Soda or milk. It's also better to use it at Scattergun range or closer, since there is not a Sandman-style distance cap and you're more likely to hit.

Ideal Situation: Assist in a push/Last-hitting
Unideal situation: Multiple targets/Whacking opponents

Primaries:

Beggar's Bazooka

Current Use: MvM Rocket Launcher of choice (not wrong, but not it's only use)

Role: Team Push assist/Anti-Pyro

Actual use: The Beggar's Bazooka's unique clip concept allows it to be useful for assisting in a push, because the enemy team will have many defenders on the front line and target deviation isn't as risky. Also, pyros are physically incapable of reflecting all three rockets, so you are likely to deal damage if you fire a full clip on them.

Ideal situation: Front lines
Unideal situation: Single-target attack/Long Range



Liberty Launcher

Current use: Not used commonly

Role: Chase/Finisher/Support

Actual use: The Liberty Launcher is designed to deal less damage to you when you rocket jump. The coupled lesser damage overall means that you won't be doing the same fights as with the rocket launcher and winning. The use is to identify a weakened enemy retreating for health or a key target like a frontline Medic, rocketjump to keep pace with them, and use the remaining rockets or your melee to finish them off.

Ideal situation: high-up vantage point/expert rocketjumper
Unideal situation: Low skyboxes on maps *2fort*



Cow Mangler 5000

Current use: BRRRZT *click click click click* BRRRZT

Role: Anti-engineer/Anti-Duo

Actual use: the Cow Mangler, while it doesn't deal as much damage as normal to buildings, can disable them with its alt-fire. This allows your team to get in closer and lets you hit it with your shotgun or melee. Also, the charge-shot deals heavy radius damage and also lights all hit enemies on fire, which is great for separating pairs like Heavies and Medics or Engineers and Snipers.

Ideal Situation: Single engineer, coordinated team
Unideal Situation: Multiple Engineers, Pyros



Secondaries:
None.



Melees:
None. (Equalizer came close, but it is really just a last-ditch effort no matter how you use it.)

Primaries:

Backburner

Current use: W+M1 until either you or your target meet the Devil.

Role: Stealth/Assassin

Actual use: The Backburner is a weapon for the more clever pyro, one who acts similarly to a Spy at all times. It benefits from a user's ability to get behing enemy lines and wrecking shop. It relies on using corners, shadows (maybe), hiding spaces, and more to even be close to useful, and it's increased airblast cost reflects that *no pun intended*. Back crits are insane, but useless if you're seen first. Also, watch to see where your flamethrower stem points, it can poke around corners.

Ideal Situation: Sneaking and burning, like a flaming spy.
Unideal situation: Bumrushing or reflecting.



Secondaries:

None (again a close one, but people do use the Manmelter occasionally and it's not very variable in its uses).



Melees:

Sharpened Volcano Fragment

Current use: Not used regularly.

Intent: Backup/Finisher

Actual use: Well, the SVF doesn't have much initial appeal to players. It does what the Pyro normally does more efficiently with another weapon. However, this weapon's function is to serve as a last-hit finisher for enemies who will barely survive. If you don't connect with a constant stream of fire, the afterburn of the Flamethrowers is nothing special. What this weapon does is it takes that afterburn and gives it a little bit more initial oomph (or Mmph) behind that burning. While it's not the best option, it is useful against enemies who deal knockback like Scouts or Loose Cannon Demomen.

Ideal Situation: Anti-knockback, finisher
Unideal Situation: Using it 24/7


Third Degree

Current Use: Not commonly used.

Intent: Anti-medic (duh)/Confusion/Retreat Forcer

Actual use: If faced with a med-patient pair, a lot of pyros will dive right in and blow up immediately. The tactic here is actually to hit the Medic from behind or the target while they're turned. That way, you can deal damage to both of them and help your team deal with this combo. It can also kill weakened medics or force them to retreat or drop Uber.

Ideal situation: Coordinated Medic Pair
Unideal situation: Uncoordinated enemies or enemy with no med

Side note: Neon Annihilator destroys sappers in two hits. Whack that sentry when you see it!

Well, this is the end of another guide of mine. If you have any suggestions as to what I should do for others, leave a comment below. This will be a three-part series, one for each of the class types. Sorry if there weren't any pictures or it was too long, I try to keep my writing short and to the point.

Join my Steam group if you liked this guide!
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/tipstrickssubclasses

Enjoy your day, enjoy your week, and enjoy your life.
-Digitic.