Help needed surviving spies.

[..]

I need some advice from people who have been playing TF2 for a while. It seems like every match I play as of late, the vast majority of my deaths come from backstabs from spies. It's almost never spies disguised as my team mates, because I spy check EVERYONE. It's the cloaked spies that get me. Any tips on avoiding this, other than keeping my back to a wall all the time? Thanks!

[Mucinex]

Do what I do and turn around every so often. Or just keep your ears open for uncloaking sounds.

[greko]

Автор сообщения: funguy

Do what I do and turn around every so often. Or just keep your ears open for uncloaking sounds.

This is definitely good advice. Its basically this or play on valve servers. :P

[Joey Swashbuckle]

The razorback can be a savior if you happen to play Sniper, as does the Hou Long Heater for The Heavy- especially if the majority of the Spies are using the Spycicle.

As for the rest of the classes, just keep looking behind you every once in a while.

[..]

I play 95% heavy. I don't have the heater but I'll look into it, thanks

[Octavia]

Good Spies will try and backstab you when you're already engaged in combat, distracted by something else or when you're simply not checking your back. There are some situations where Spies will be backstabbing you, as you're already engaged in combat and concerned with an important threat, such as forcing the enemy Medic to pop his Uber, and the Spy will take advantage of that to nail you. A good Spy will, in essence, take your life when it is needed the most, and at times, you'll be unable to check your back and avoid it.

Comrades can assist with that, as they can watch your back, deal with Spies or momentarily prevent them from dealing with you, in the form of various movement impairing effects. In some cases, you can hear a Spy uncloaking and you should check your back regularly, but even more often if you hear a Spy in the environs; the main element a Spy functions on is stealth, which once broken, weakens his ability to deal damage and kill players.

Dealing with cloaked Spies who don't use the Dead Ringer is relatively simple; generally, they tend to take a route which goes around players, and will then find a spot that nobody is watching to become visible. At that point, unless they happen to go unnoticed, it's merely a matter of dealing with a Disguised Spy, which you seem to be able to uproot.

Spies are, essentially, easy to uproot if discovered, which means good Spies will try to avoid direct confrontation and move around unseen; if you check your back occasionally, especially when playing slow classes, in addition to listening carefully for sounds of uncloaking Spies, you'll be able to counteract the stealth aspect of a Spy, and thus you'll be able to deal with them much easier.

The Huo-Long Heater really doesn't do much, just like the Razorback; a competent Spy can jump over the 'ring' of flames, or simply gun you down if using the Razorback. The main thing the Huo-Long Heater accomplishes is making a Spy unable to backstab targets around you without exposing themselves, as well as revealing them if they move around you, while the Razorback tosses a wrench into the plans of any Spy using Your Eternal Reward.

Both are generally a little lackluster at countering Spies, but in the case of the Huo-Long Heater, it tends to outclass the Stock with proper ammo management, while the Razorback is bad a majority of the time, unless dealing with a Your Eternal Reward Spy, or around allies, especially in a narrow corridor, where gunning you down would expose the Spy and cause him to be killed rather easily.

[100% Recycled Awesome]

Автор сообщения: SkitteryPete

I play 95% heavy. I don't have the heater but I'll look into it, thanks

Don't play heavy. I hate to say it, but Heavys don't really have good ways to avoid spies.

The Hou Long Heater eats ammo so fast that it kind of makes you a drag on the rest of the team.

You're slow, so it';s much easier to catch up to a heavy and backstab them.

Independently, the best way to just to pick up to clues of decloaking. Also be careful around corners where spies like to wait cloaked for someone to pass them. Turn around a bit, but even that is hard as the spy can simply move faster then you to get a backstab. This goes for all classes.

Your best defense against spies is the rest of your team. Sadly.

[Chairforce]

Keep your ears open for decloak- and Spy-cicle melting sounds, and pay attention to the kill feed.
A Spy loses nearly all his advantages if you know he's there.

Oh and another thing is if your problem comes from competent Spies a Heater won't do much since the ring of fire can easily be jumped over or avoided by timing.
It might actually scare off less expirienced backstabbers though.

[..]

Автор сообщения: 100% Recycled Awesome

Автор сообщения: SkitteryPete

I play 95% heavy. I don't have the heater but I'll look into it, thanks

Don't play heavy. I hate to say it, but Heavys don't really have good ways to avoid spies.

The Hou Long Heater eats ammo so fast that it kind of makes you a drag on the rest of the team.

You're slow, so it';s much easier to catch up to a heavy and backstab them.

Independently, the best way to just to pick up to clues of decloaking. Also be careful around corners where spies like to wait cloaked for someone to pass them. Turn around a bit, but even that is hard as the spy can simply move faster then you to get a backstab. This goes for all classes.

Your best defense against spies is the rest of your team. Sadly.

I love playing heavy, and have become quite good at it. I'll just keep dealing with spies and do my best to avoid them.

I have certainly noticed then when I play on a team of talented players, the number of times I get backstabbed drops considerably.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Автор сообщения: SkitteryPete

I need some advice from people who have been playing TF2 for a while. It seems like every match I play as of late, the vast majority of my deaths come from backstabs from spies. It's almost never spies disguised as my team mates, because I spy check EVERYONE. It's the cloaked spies that get me. Any tips on avoiding this, other than keeping my back to a wall all the time? Thanks!

They're not cloaked -- if they were, they couldn't stab you (or shoot, or sap). They're probably decloaking outside of hearing range (which is effectively much shorter if you're firing your noisy minigun) and approaching you from outside your field of view -- which is at most 90 degrees.

Headphones make a difference, especially with the ever-popular Dead Ringer (unless they're one of the rare Saharan spies -- then, the decloak sound is practically silent). You can hear cloak sounds, you can hear footsteps if it's quiet enough, you can hear knife swings and stab-impact sounds, and the kill-feed can alert you if spies aren't using YER/Spycicle/Wanga Prick. Headsets are better, as you can call out spies -- location, load-out if you can infer anything, disguise if they were YER/Wanga Prick.

You also want to be aware of what's above you, incidentally.

Dead Ringer usage has give-aways. Turn on damage numbers; if you "kill" an undisguised spy, but you do NOT get a damage number (or hitsound, if you've got those on), it's a definite Dead Ringer use. If the dropped weapon does not replenish any ammunition, same.

And specifically for heavy -- it's not really a solo class. You're ridiculously slow unless you're using the GRU and the minicrits taken make it terrible either for getting out of a bad situation or chasing somebody down before they can escape. If you spend most of your time alone because your team refuses to act in a remotely coordinated fashion, you should probably consider the shotgun over the Sandvich.

[ChromeAlum]

Try playing as a scout. They move faster then all the class, except when using baby faces blaster, and can outrun a spy. The only thing is you can never move backwards as you can run right into their backstab. Try not to bump walls as you might stop for a split second giving the spy the opportunity to stab you. The extra speed can also be used to chase down someone that you know is a spy. Also if it seems like you killed them to easily they might have dead ringer.

[BB Kokaine]

It depends.

Scout is able to run quickly, making him a hard target for Spies to stab. If for some reason, the Scout is not constantly moving and a Spy could easily get to him, Scout does have some bleed weapons. Disguised spies are also affected by stunning and I believe Holy Mackeral has the ability to spy-check.

Soldier doesn't have much to prevent stabbing, but he can rocket-jump far from the spy. A few rockets should also be able to screw up the average spy. One of his only ways to spy-check without killing him is using a fully-charged Cow Mangler 5000 laser, and we all know that no Soldier wants to do that.

Pyro walks at the same speed as the Spy and has the ability to burn spies with all his primaries, making Spy a hard target for Pyro and some Pyros may even lure away spies.

Demoman can't retaliate as well, but can still run away from the Spy even with less speed.
Eyelander helps you run faster if you don't like a Spy having you behind your back all the time.
He can also sticky-jump away.

Heavy has Huo-Long Heater, but that's it. Heavy should be having a hard time with Spy.

(Too lazy to right the rest)

[100% Recycled Awesome]

Автор сообщения: SkitteryPete

I love playing heavy, and have become quite good at it. I'll just keep dealing with spies and do my best to avoid them.

Only really sniper, pyro and spy have decent defenses against spies. The rest just have to manage the best they can. What makes heavy the worst of the lot is that he's just so slow. In movement and in weapon usage. Spinup takes time opposed to a rocket to the face.

I have certainly noticed then when I play on a team of talented players, the number of times I get backstabbed drops considerably.

If you have a talented team, they can totally shutdown spies. Talented airblasting pyros can blow spies away before they stab, light them on fire, blow them into a wall and then axe them al in the span of a few seconds. A good pyro may not be able to kill a spy before he stabs, but he can blow them away or out of stabbing position. That extra second or two of time for the rest of the team to deal with the spy can be invaluable.