So Many Bad Dredges

[Jim Lahey]

It's truly amazing how many times I see dredge players falling for the same exact "noob traps" and never actually developing a better understanding of the character.

I believe the term for them is "One Trick Pony" and you'd think it would just be a couple doing this right? Wrong. Ohh boy would you be wrong.

Lets start with the most common mistakes that make them extremely easy pickings and just a general letdown for the ones teamed with them.

They don't utilise quite possibly the best escape/get out of jail free that can teleport you "ANYWHERE" from "ANYWHERE" this means that you can teleport back to your spawn, buy items and teleport back to where you were in the span of 10 seconds. That gives you a tremendous advantage over anybody else that allows you to near instantly adapt your items for the game assuming you got the credits. *This is a problem because time and time again you see Dredges with only the barebones of items*

This very same "personal portal" is a fairly strong self heal that never goes away and keeps healing you when you are near it.

They only sit there and spam Broadside over and over and thats it... "Yay whoo hoo! It does good damage" Sure, only against dumb people who sit there and stand around them while they slowly rise off the ground and detonate. This tactic is pretty much useless outside of trying to set a trap for an enemy to encourage them to "go where you want them to be" or area denial to some extent.

They never seem to grasp the fact that their weapon has one of the best capabilities in the game and all it requires is minimal map knowledge and an understanding of "hey, my weapon bounces bombs off walls and around corners." They never take advantage of this.

Dredge played as a proper champion is an unstoppable form of "Heavy Artillery" who can lob grenades over walls, buildings around corners and generally long distances towards spotted enemies in an area without ever exposing your self to danger. Yet I very rarely ever see this done. Why? It is what he's designed around. They even went and gave him the perfect kits and even talents to do so.

Lets discuss his other best tool that is pretty much an "Anti Flank Alarm" his "harpoon" under the right Talent your Harpoon is a trip mine that hits and deals severe damage to anything int he area, including covering your back against flanking champions and "alarming" you to their location so you can deal with them.

Again, this is never utilised. Why? It should be common knowledge and players should be putting 2 and 2 together by the time they get Dredge to about rank 7 or 8 at the latest.

Yet you get mastery 20+ dredges who do nothing but make the champion look bad and "under-rated" Stop giving the number one Pirate Boi a bad name and smarten up.

This is my rant of the day.


TL:DR - Stop giving Dredge a bad name

[Comrade Komko]

Should I feel bad? I specifically put cards into Broadside and spam it just because of how funny it is to watch people run into explosives. I will admit Dredge has a skill cap but I'm never playing this game competitively so it won't matter

[MeowMix CatFood]

Interesting read. Thx.
He's not a champ I feel comfortable playing, so I don't, but I like learning about all the champs, especially the ones that are clearly hiding a secret.

Getting Dredge on your team usually means you're going to lose but I've played with a few who knew how to play around their team and were really a pleasure to team with. They made the point uninhabitable and rarely died. I've wondered what they do differently than others and I think I understand the character better after reading that.^

[Repizify]

Nor the fact they keep spamming broadside and keep constantly missing huge damage potential cause broadside have a delay before activation while they're LMB could litterally does the work faster and better.

I absolutely love Dredge and totally agree with you. People underestimate his true potential with Hurl in hand, if the player is somehow good he can hold his own against engaging flank and can even become a Sniper which I absolutely do most of the time.

Pretty sure if Dredge had another mobility which is pretty good actually. I'm sure he could be a valid meta member.

[Bones Johnson]

I like Dredge. I don't think I'm terribly effective when I use him, but he's a lot of fun to play.

I don't understand why people think broadside is his only ability. I personally find that it's pretty redundant, except for use with the bomb jump card, as his regular fire is far more reliable. I can understand it being great when you had the card that revealed enemies in a 20 unit or something radius, but that went away long ago.

Personally, I love to use him as a 'flank,' with the mine harpoon talent and the card that lets you 'bomb jump' with broadside. You place a portal outside your spawn or somewhere safe on your teams side, then you use bomb jump to fly into position somewhere annoying behind the enemy lines. And if things get dangerous, you teleport back and reposition.

Originally posted by Hanley:

Maybe I should give him another chance, your post's definitely making him sound very fun to play with lots of possibilities. I just could never get over his character. I'm all up for pirates, but Dredge is every stereotype thrown into a blender and turned obnoxious. But, well, perhaps I can look over that once I get the hang of him...

He's pretty fun, though he does play a lot differently then most other damage champions. I really like him, but I'm the kind of person who likes being able to make traps, self-sustain and just generally likes being tricksy. And yeah, he is every pirate stereotype, but because of it I see him as less of an actual pirate, and more of some ♥♥♥♥♥♥' idiot pretending to be a pirate and loving how silly it is.

[Jim Lahey]

Originally posted by Bones Johnson:

I like Dredge. I don't think I'm terribly effective when I use him, but he's a lot of fun to play.

I don't understand why people think broadside is his only ability. I personally find that it's pretty redundant, except for use with the bomb jump card, as his regular fire is far more reliable. I can understand it being great when you had the card that revealed enemies in a 20 unit or something radius, but that went away long ago.

Personally, I love to use him as a 'flank,' with the mine harpoon talent and the card that lets you 'bomb jump' with broadside. You place a portal outside your spawn or somewhere safe on your teams side, then you use bomb jump to fly into position somewhere annoying behind the enemy lines. And if things get dangerous, you teleport back and reposition.

Originally posted by Hanley:

Maybe I should give him another chance, your post's definitely making him sound very fun to play with lots of possibilities. I just could never get over his character. I'm all up for pirates, but Dredge is every stereotype thrown into a blender and turned obnoxious. But, well, perhaps I can look over that once I get the hang of him...

He's pretty fun, though he does play a lot differently then most other damage champions. I really like him, but I'm the kind of person who likes being able to make traps, self-sustain and just generally likes being tricksy. And yeah, he is every pirate stereotype, but because of it I see him as less of an actual pirate, and more of some ♥♥♥♥♥♥' idiot pretending to be a pirate and loving how silly it is.

I love using his broadside to "encourage" people not to go somewhere. If you fire it just right it forms a "wall" and forces players to go where you want them to.

When I am playing with my buddy he will go Strix and use his flares to reveal the enemies to me to "call in an artillery strike" from far away.

Broadside is at it's absolute best when bounced off of a wall for a better effect. Around a corner or something.

I agree, I am not too fond of the "Pirate" stereotype. I prefer Barik or Makoa's pirate skins to his base form. I like Dredge's alien like skin the best as it suits him.

Personally I wish Paladins would do another TF2 crossover like with Barik and give us a Demoman Dredge.

[Repizify]

Originally posted by Jim Lahey:

Personally I wish Paladins would do another TF2 crossover like with Barik and give us a Demoman Dredge.

What makes me a good Dredgemo main ?

IF I WAS A BAD DREDGEMO MAIN, I WOULDN'T BE SITTING HERE DISCUSSING IT WITH YOU, NOW WOULD I ?!

[Jim Lahey]

Originally posted by Repizify:

Originally posted by Jim Lahey:

What makes me a good Dredgemo main ?

If I was a bad Dredgemo main, I wouldn't be sitting here discussing it with you, now would I ?!

Maybe while they are at it.

A Heavy Weapons Raum.

[CloudCoco]

Nice to see other actual dredge players. As you said, these days people either call him braindead and refuse to play him, or useless and refuse to play him. Or both

[Blumberquack]

i do love playing dredge using his full kit. his broadside may encourage braindead spamming but i find it useful for repositioning enemies (making sure they don't run away, moving them to a better spot for me to lmb them). scuttle is inexcusable tho, that thing should be removed

[Jim Lahey]

Originally posted by Sad Alcoholic:

i do love playing dredge using his full kit. his broadside may encourage braindead spamming but i find it useful for repositioning enemies (making sure they don't run away, moving them to a better spot for me to lmb them). scuttle is inexcusable tho, that thing should be removed

Meh, Scuttle is "alright" depending on what you are doing. It can infact be quite nasty and pretty much act as an extra free shot. Since you already fire a shot on reload anyways might as well make it splash damage. And a 20 unit radius for splash is nothing to shake a hat at either. That being said, I mainly find my self using Scuttle on more enclosed maps where I need to be more aggressive and just max out my reload speed.

-edit-

More on that, Hurl is also a very good Talent for a very aggressive style. As you can have it so that each harpoon hit you land gives you ammo. So you can just throw harpoons instead of having to reload. Completely eliminating the need for Scuttles existance and get better bang for your buck.

[CloudCoco]

Originally posted by Jim Lahey:

Originally posted by Sad Alcoholic:

i do love playing dredge using his full kit. his broadside may encourage braindead spamming but i find it useful for repositioning enemies (making sure they don't run away, moving them to a better spot for me to lmb them). scuttle is inexcusable tho, that thing should be removed

Meh, Scuttle is "alright" depending on what you are doing. It can infact be quite nasty and pretty much act as an extra free shot. Since you already fire a shot on reload anyways might as well make it splash damage. And a 20 unit radius for splash is nothing to shake a hat at either. That being said, I mainly find my self using Scuttle on more enclosed maps where I need to be more aggressive and just max out my reload speed.

-edit-

More on that, Hurl is also a very good Talent for a very aggressive style. As you can have it so that each harpoon hit you land gives you ammo. So you can just throw harpoons instead of having to reload. Completely eliminating the need for Scuttles existance and get better bang for your buck.

The ammo regen card also makes you more flexible. If you're fighting someone like raum (that is effective with caut) and is having trouble healing with your harpoons, you can just switch to your grenade launcher and take out a ton of health from him, occasionally using harpoon to regen more ammo.

[Zarinthal]

dredge was a great champ once, now he is not. smart players realized it, the ones that didnt figure it out are 50/50 not great.

[Jim Lahey]

Originally posted by Zarinthal:

dredge was a great champ once, now he is not. smart players realized it, the ones that didnt figure it out are 50/50 not great.

He is still great when used properly.

[Guilion]

I have more fun spamming with him than trying to learn him.
Fite me.

[DLOZanma]

My issue with Dredge is the talents. I like the huge bomb reload. I like having a relatively unfair projectile. I also like actually landing right click and ulti. I never know which one to choose.