Market Gardener or Escape Plan for Roamer?

[WrytXander]

I'd like to hear your opinions on this topic, since I'm having a bit of a hard time deciding. I do, however, prefer the Gardener in maps with many rocket jumping opportunities since I can instantly kill/majorly weaken any class I jump at. Though the Plan is also helpful when I'm low on health and there's a health pack nearby and there are no enemies. So, what do you think?

NOTE: "Gardener is more difficult, Escape Plan is easier to utilize, Gardener is situational" are NOT valid arguments. If you put practice into it, Market Gardening is as easy as anything. I know, because I actually did put effort into it and find it somewhat easy. Also, the Plan is just as, if not more, situational.

Put up a reasonable argument and defend it by giving examples depending on your own/someone else's experiences please. Giving references is always nice as well.

[[ λ³ ] nob]

Disciplinary action.

[Dead Memes lol]

Pain Train. Even on CTF.
Because Pain Train actually crits 50% of the time, it's true.

[Charles and Raymond Babbitt]

Pain Train, as it really is a good backcapping weapon especially on a class with as high health and damage as the soldier.

[Reality]

Market gardener for when enemy roamers deny you the health kit and limit you to only a few jumps, also mixes better for when you have to fall back to the medic and gives you the utility to switch jobs with the non-roaming soldier for major fights.

[arcus8772]

Originally posted by ThatBlokeWithTheHat:

Pain Train. Even on CTF.
Because Pain Train actually crits 50% of the time, it's true.

[♫ Chicago ♫]

Well, I would normally say Disciplinary Action, but if you had to pick from those 2 I'd go with Market Gardner + Gunboats. As the Roamer does a lot of rocket jumping.

[Soldier wants that scrumpy]

Market gardener if you can crit people with it. It's extremely deadly when on a hands of a skilled person. Save rockets, instakill enemies. Pain train is also a good choice on CP. I don't think the EP is no longer a true escape weapon. The mini crit is too much, since it negates fall off damage. This means that even when the soldier is far away from the enemies effective shooting range, he is still a easy pick. A shotgun pellet or minigun spam can seriously risk your life. Note that a single pistol shot deals minimun of 13 damage at any range. EP must be used under the protection of teammates, but roamers dont have teammates following around. Plus, the mark on death doesn't wear off immediately. Not to mention that a gunboats soldier has to pull that out when he's out of ammo. Personally EP soldiers are free kills for me. Have EP out? Low health melee player soaked with jarate? Yes, please! They are free points, and die quickly to basically any hitscan weapon.

Conclusion: Market gardener. On 5cp, use pain train.

[Charles and Raymond Babbitt]

Originally posted by Generic F2P Player:

Note that a single pistol shot deals minimun of 13 damage at any range.

it does minimum of 8.
minicrit 20

[WrytXander]

Originally posted by Bing?:

Pain Train, as it really is a good backcapping weapon especially on a class with as high health and damage as the soldier.

That's more of a Pocket Soldier weapon isn't it? Roamers jump around the map and look for opportunities to kill high value targets. Pockets always start off the round with the Escape Plan to get to mid faster than anyone else, but they usually switch to Pain Train later on.

Originally posted by {λ³}NORTH KOREA IS BEST KOREA:

Disciplinary action.

Disciplinary Action is a better choice for HL really, and there's no Roamer/Pocket in HL. Your playstyle may still be "roaming", but I'm talking more about the 6v6 Roamer.

[[ λ³ ] nob]

Originally posted by WrytXander:

Originally posted by Bing?:

Pain Train, as it really is a good backcapping weapon especially on a class with as high health and damage as the soldier.

That's more of a Pocket Soldier weapon isn't it? Roamers jump around the map and look for opportunities to kill high value targets. Pockets always start off the round with the Escape Plan to get to mid faster than anyone else, but they usually switch to Pain Train later on.

Originally posted by {λ³}NORTH KOREA IS BEST KOREA:

Disciplinary action.

Disciplinary Action is a better choice for HL really, and there's no Roamer/Pocket in HL. Your playstyle may still be "roaming", but I'm talking more about the 6v6 Roamer.

Depending on how well you can market garden and how much it's worth doing over simple divebombing.

[V4.172.13]

Going for a MG kill against competent opponents will get you airshot and killed quickly, whereas divebombing is always an option and is 10x more reliable. Escape plan, on the other hand, has no downsides, since you'd only be using it at low enough health that one shot would kill you with or without the minicrits.

[WrytXander]

Originally posted by Nerdynoob:

Going for a MG kill against competent opponents will get you airshot and killed quickly, whereas divebombing is always an option and is 10x more reliable. Escape plan, on the other hand, has no downsides, since you'd only be using it at low enough health that one shot would kill you with or without the minicrits.

There are ways around getting airshot, such as shooting down at the enemy's feet before they shoot, tricking them into thinking you're going in another direction or air strafing. Also, the Escape Plan has a huge downside in making you take mini-crits and most of the time it does matter. You'd use the Escape Plan at around 1-60 health and when you're close to a health pack. There's no guaranteeing someone won't kill you while you make for the health. Nice argument, though.

[JarateKing (very rusty)]

If there's nocrits on, then the market gardener if your main goal is to get a pick or two, respawn and repeat. If your goal is to do some continuous harassment and do your damage more with the team, or random crits are on, escape plan.

That's at least what every roamer I know goes by.

[ManBeaR]

Originally posted by WrytXander:

Originally posted by Bing?:

Pain Train, as it really is a good backcapping weapon especially on a class with as high health and damage as the soldier.

That's more of a Pocket Soldier weapon isn't it? Roamers jump around the map and look for opportunities to kill high value targets. Pockets always start off the round with the Escape Plan to get to mid faster than anyone else, but they usually switch to Pain Train later on.

The pain train fit the roming soldier best, becouse you will be raoming, and therfore you will get a lot of oppertunities to backcap, and with the pain train a backcap is twice as effective.

[WrytXander]

Originally posted by ManBearPig:

Originally posted by WrytXander:

That's more of a Pocket Soldier weapon isn't it? Roamers jump around the map and look for opportunities to kill high value targets. Pockets always start off the round with the Escape Plan to get to mid faster than anyone else, but they usually switch to Pain Train later on.

The pain train fit the roming soldier best, becouse you will be raoming, and therfore you will get a lot of oppertunities to backcap, and with the pain train a backcap is twice as effective.

I suppose it does work for back-capping, but what about the whole game? Pockets are the ones who cap all the points in between aren't they? It makes sense to switch off your current melee for the Pain Train at the last point, but I think it would be waste of your melee slot otherwise.