The Panic Attack; All You Need To Know.

The Smissmas update of 2014 brought the Team Fortress 2 comunity a wide variety of Bug fixes and Updates, One new Game mode, Seven new Festive weapons and Three new weapons; The Iron Bomber, Quickebomb Launcher and The Panic Attack. Throughout the Team Fortress Two community guides you'll find guides on these weapons and their uses, with this guide being how to use the Panic Attack to it's full extent.

What is the Panic Attack?

Team Fortress Two is full of Confusing Weapons, from the Shortstop to the L'etranger. Although the panic attack may not seem 'Confusing', it's intentional use is rather mixed, as the weapon works similar to both The Equalizer as well as the Beggars Bazooka. As the user takes increased damage, the gun will fire faster allowing for a faster and more effective damage output compared to the stock shotgun. The name itself hints towards the weapon being used in a time of distress; particularly when under heavy fire. This is generally the recommended use for the weapon, as altough using the weapon when at full health allows for large damage outputs, using it when at low health allows for even higher damage output.

The Pyro

The Pyro is often in close combat situations, most likely using 1 of the 5 flamethrowers to burn his enemies. The Pyro is great at close quarter combat, being able to deal massive amounts of damage and quickly dispose of enemies in short amounts of time. With a wide range of Melee weapons, the Pyro is a combatant to be feared. However, being in the middle of a warzone leads to large amounts of damage being taken from all different sources, and unless a Medic is accompanying the Pyro, the Pyro will often need to find health. This provides an ideal time for the Panic Attack to be used, as the lower health causes the increased fire rate, allowing for large damage outputs at the cost of health. Altough this weapons proves useful when being used in the search for health, I find there to be other pyro secondary weapons which can prove more useful, such as the Flare Gun, able to set enemies on fire from a distance and rewards good aim with a deadly Critical Hit. Other weapons such as the Scorch Shot also help to clear enemies from tight spaces, similar to the Detonator. These weapons do what Pyro does best; set enemy combatants alight. The panic attack however, is a much more Solo-Based weapon, used only to dispose of enemies that are disturbing you, rather than forcing them out into the Battlefield to find health, unless there is a Medic.

The Heavy

The Panic Attack is a poor choice when using the Heavy. The heavy is able to deal insanely large amounts of damage from any of his Minigun. For this reason, choosing the Panic Attack or any shotgun is a debatably bad choice, as compared to all the Heavy primary weapons, they're extremely weak. A much more reasonable idea would be to take any type of food, as they can heal the player and keep them alive on the battlefield longer.[/previewicon] Although it may be argued that this is exactly what the Panic Attack is designed to do, the Heavy will commonly be faced with the problem of death, as he is the Largest target in the game. Attempting to use this weapon when at low health while playing the heavy is a poor choice, as you will find yourself hoping that the enemy combatant has low health.

The Engineer

The Engineer focuses mainly on the Construction of buildings to assist Team Mates to help keep them alive longer, or bring them into battle quicker. Vanilla Engineer relies mainly on the ability to construct Sentry guns as well as other Buildings. However, a more aggressive type of Engineer has been introduced into the game, which relies on swift movement around the Battlefield and the quick construction of Mini-sentries. This play style has been dubbed 'Battle Engie' due to his ability to deal large amounts of damage due to the Underestimated mini-sentry, however receives more hate than the Vanilla Engineer due to his lack of Assist towards the team which he is on, as well as the power of the Mini sentry, proving to be a nuisance due to their quick Construction rate and cheap metal cost, only 100 metal compared to the 130 that a regular Sentry Gun requires. The Panic Attack is much more useful when playing Battle Engie, as mobility is key when locating spots to place Mini-Sentries, as well as the ability to deal large amount of damage to ensure Survivability. The panic attack proves well at this, as it's quick fire rate in close quarter combat can quickly take out regular enemies. However, this gun proves to be less useful when playing Vanilla Engineer, as the Engineer will often be at full health and have no need to use Primary Weaponry, due to the Sentries high damage output. Situational weapons such as the Rescue Ranger or Pomson 6000 are preferred over the panic attack, due to their more useful statistics, such as Long-Range repair or Cloak removal.

The Soldier

The Panic Attack seems to be created for the soldier, as the Soldier is the most powerful assualt class, being able to deal insanely large amounts of damage at long ranges, while also proving to be effective at close range combat with his large arsenal of Melee weaponry. The Panic Attack is often compared to the Beggars Bazooka of shotguns, due to its ability to load Four shells at a time and release all of them in a short time span. The Soldier will often use the Rocket Jump as a quick Method of Transportation, at the cost of Health and Ammunition. The Panic Attack is Brilliant at dealing damage at close Quarters, something that the soldier in general proves to be very good at.
However, it seems that the community generally prefers the use of other weaponry, such as any of the Banners due to their ability to assist the team, or the Gunboats which allow the soldier to jump Without losing large amounts of health. Experienced soldier players will generally prefer using other weaponry, as Using Either the Beggars Bazooka or Equalizer is almost the equivalent as using the Panic Attack; Especially the Equalizer, as it deals more damage at the cost of lower health.

Overall Review

The Panic Attack seems to be a rather situational weapon, seemingly more useful when playing an Offensive role. Taking more damage is what the weapon needs to full function, and is rather useless when mainly playing Vanilla classes. I'm not saying the weapon is Useless, If anything I've found it has saved me in combat situations before. But, it's strongly recommended that you use this weapon fully aware of it's purpose, and aware of whether you will be taking damage, or whether you will be at full health most of the time.

[Ludwig, Shadow Protogen]

@Clayfaceboy
STAR_ : It's the worst weapon!
Musellk : It's kinda good weapon in different situation.

[Clayfaceboy]

Have you guys seen STAR_'s video about the Panic Attack? He was doing everything wrong when he was using the shotgun. He wasn't using the Panic Attack like this guide states it should be good for. He was just acting like an idiot by rocket jumping until he was on low health then he started using the shotgun and to top it off, he was ONLY using the shotgun. Even people in the comments said it sucked. Everytime I heard STAR_ criticize the Panic Attack, I just think to myself that he just doesn't know how to use it as shown in this guide. I think this shotgun is great and if anyone says otherwise, lay it on me and prove me wrong.

[Wang]

This is literally the combat shotgun from fallout 3

[EvieVivivivivivivivivivivivivi]

I built a pyro class around that panic attack which i have found usefull. I call it quicky pyro. Basically its the degreaser, panic attack, and the powerjack. The degreaser is ment to be used in conjunction with its secondary since it has that weapon swicht speed, and the panic attack has been a great companion to it. and if i felt that i should heal up, the powerjack would get me there. I love this weapon and greatly prefer it over regular shotgun and reserve shooter.

[Cheddar]

its not bad but when your in a battle you have to reload witch can get you killed

[Robbie]

Good guide, though I feel that the panic attack can be useful in pyro vs pyro battles. This is because it can output and large amount of non-reflectable damage which can destroy a pyro with ease. This weapon can also destroy WM-1's too due to putting a large amount of damage to them before they even think to switch weapons and ease of landing all the shots.

[Squidsword]

i unboxed my panic attack from a sacking :)

[Keleox]

Great analysis! Thanks

[Blood Moon]

i must have the panic attack

[ToastedCinnamon]

This is a great guide! Before i read this guide : how the f*** do i use this weapon?
After this guide : begaars shotgun for almost all classes?