Anti-Heavy strategy

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Best strategy when fighting Heavy Weapons Guy, is not to fight Heavy Weapons Guy. Click to listen — The Heavy

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The Heavy is the sturdiest class, but also the least maneuverable. He has a huge amount of health and heavy firepower, but is poor at speed and maneuvering, requiring the swift observation behind himself and ambushing. Generally, going against a Heavy head-on is suicide: his Miniguns can mow down any class within seconds at close range, and Medics tend to hang around Heavies for protection and kill assists. While not having quite as a diverse loadout as other classes, the Heavy can nevertheless change his gameplay in several different ways, including the ability to heal, run substantially faster than normal, and even shrug off a majority of ranged damage. Surprise is often the best way to overcome a Heavy's massive amount of firepower.

General

Attributes	Anti-Heavy Strategy
Role	The Heavy's large size and weapon makes him a great shield for his allies. Taking him out can make your assault far easier. The Heavy is often the focus of many pushes. Taking out the Heavy can often defeat an entire push.
Health	The Heavy can soak up a lot of damage, especially if overhealed. Teams should focus their fire on Heavies in order to take them down quickly.
Speed	The Heavy's slow movement speed makes him an easy target for Snipers and Spies. Try to catch him off guard and take him out quickly, before he can spin his gun up and start firing on you. Effects that depend on hits such as Jarate and The Buff Banner will be very effective due the Heavy's inability to dodge.
Power	The Heavy's Minigun is quite a formidable weapon. It will quickly take care of any unaware class in seconds, so remain far away and wait for the Heavy's Minigun to stop spinning to strike.

Weapon Specific

A list of useful tidbits about the Heavy's tools, and how to counter them.

Primary Weapons

• All of the Heavy's primary weapons all require a moment to spin up before he can start firing. This makes him vulnerable to ambushes.
• When any of the Heavy's weapons are spun up, the Heavy moves much more slowly. A preoccupied Heavy can easily be taken down.
• Keep your distance from Heavies with their miniguns spun up, as at close range, a Minigun can mow down enemies.

Weapon	Anti-Heavy Strategy
Minigun / Iron Curtain	The Minigun has a shorter spin-up time than most of the Heavy's other primary weapons. Be aware of this and retreat if you are facing a Minigun-wielding Heavy at mid-to-close range.
Natascha	Natascha has a longer spin-up than the Minigun. Hit-and-run tactics are more effective on Heavies using this weapon. At long distances, this weapon's slow down has little effect, but don't get caught at mid-range or closer, or you'll likely be unable to escape.
Brass Beast	With the Brass Beast spun up, the Heavy becomes slightly more vulnerable to projectile weapons fired from afar. Take advantage of this and attack the Heavy outside of his weapon's effective range. The Brass Beast has an even longer spin-up time than the Natascha, so hit-and-run tactics are much more effective here.
Tomislav	The Tomislav sports a 40% faster spin-up time and as such, hit-and-run tactics will be much less effective, though still viable. Because the Tomislav also does not any sound prior to firing, it can be more difficult to tell if a Heavy is lying or is just coming around a corner.

Secondary Weapons

Weapon	Anti-Heavy Strategy
Shotgun	Heavies will switch to their Shotgun when their primary weapon runs out of ammunition. Try to take them down before they find more. As with all the other classes, the Shotgun is a point-blank-to-medium range weapon and will be ineffective at long range. The Shotgun only has six shots. Keep pressuring a Heavy so that he will be forced to reload, resulting in considerably lowered damage output and giving you the opportunity to move in close and deal damage.
Family Business	The Family Business has a 40% increased ammo clip compared to the Shotgun, at the cost of doing 15% less damage. This makes the tactic of pressuring a Heavy to exhaust his Shotgun's clip and reload moderately less effective, but will also make combat beyond close range less dangerous. As the Family Business is more or less the same weapon as the regular Shotgun, whatever applies in the latter case will also apply here.

Edibles

• Dropped edibles can be picked up by anyone. Try to steal them before the Heavy or his team reaches them.
• Watch for Heavies retreating from a fight to run around a corner. They are probably low on health and about to use an edible. At this point, even a low-damage attack might finish them off before they get the chance.
• Edibles make a distinct noise when being eaten. Use this sound to track down the retreating Heavy.
• The Heavy is relatively defenseless when consuming an edible. Try to attack a Heavy while he is eating.

Weapon	Anti-Heavy Strategy
Sandvich	The Sandvich replenishes health quickly but leaves the Heavy distracted for a significant period of time. Should you come across a Heavy that has just started on his lunch, it will usually be an easy matter to dispatch him before he is done. If the Heavy is nearly finished eating, there is still a window of opportunity in which one can inflict damage upon a Heavy at close range before retreating. Please note that due to the length of time required to eat a Sandvich, it may also be practical to use kill taunts instead of conventional attacks. The Heavy can drop the Sandvich to recover health quickly during combat. It will be in your best interests to intercept the Sandvich or otherwise prevent the Heavy from acquiring it either by knocking him back or physically obstructing him.
Dalokohs Bar / Fishcake	This weapon only heals the Heavy for 60 health, yet takes the same amount of time to consume as the Sandvich. As a result, the Heavy is even more vulnerable when eating the Dalakohs Bar. Regardless, it does give the Heavy a temporary increase in maximum health, so try to prevent him from finishing his snack if you can. Unlike the Sandvich, the Dalakohs cannot be dropped and does not have a cooldown timer. What this means is that while the Dalakohs cannot be dropped to provide a method of quickly recovering health during combat, it can be eaten at any time to heal minor injuries and keep the Heavy at full health.
Buffalo Steak Sandvich	Attack from a distance while retreating, as the Heavy can only use his melee weapon when under this item's effect. He will receive Mini-Crit damage from all of your weapons. Like the regular Sandvich, the Buffalo Steak Sandvich can also be dropped then picked up to quickly recover health. As above, it will be in your best interests to intercept the Sandvich or otherwise prevent the Heavy from acquiring it either by knocking him back or physically obstructing him. Keep in mind that the Bushwacka's special effect of upgrading Mini-Crit hits into full Criticals also applies here. A Sniper equipped with a Bushwacka is well capable of fighting on equal or better terms, as even an over-healed Heavy under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich will die in three hits.

Melee Weapons

Weapon	Anti-Heavy Strategy
Fists	The Heavy's slow speed is a disadvantage that can be exploited by faster classes during a melee fight.
Killing Gloves of Boxing	If the Heavy has a critical buff from the K.G.B., stay back until it wears off. Your death will just extend the effect. The Heavy can also apply his K.G.B. Crit bonus to his other weapons when switched. Take him down as fast as possible to prevent this from happening.
Gloves of Running Urgently	A Heavy will usually only have these selected whilst running to a contested area on the map then change to a Minigun when he gets closer. Therefore, the Heavy will likely not expect an attack; this is a good time to ambush him. Beware that enemy Heavies will try and chase you down with the increased movement speed from these gloves. Try to kill them before they switch to their primary weapon and spin it up. A Heavy with the GRU equipped is an easier target than most, not only will his health be slightly below maximum, but in order to cause any significant damage, he will have to switch to his Minigun and spin it up - this extra time may be all you need to kill him.
Warrior's Spirit	The Warrior's Spirit inflicts more damage per hit than other melee weapons. Try to retreat from a melee battle with a Heavy wielding them unless you know that you are able to kill him. A Heavy with these in his loadout will have 20hp less than default. While still the highest-hp class in the game, he will be that much easier to take down - afterburn or bleed effects might finish him off when they ordinarily wouldn't.
Fists of Steel	Heavies take double melee damage with the Fists of Steel equipped. However, they tend to switch to their primary weapon when you approach them with your melee weapon out. Try to ambush them from behind instead if you're trying to take them out with your melee weapon. If the Heavy is taking any fire from a teammate, switch out a melee weapon to trick him into pulling out his Minigun or Shotgun, thus making him receive full damage from your teammate. Otherwise, hit him with the melee weapon. A Heavy with the Fists of Steel out is hard to kill, even without a Medic. Use teamwork to take down the Heavy from outside of melee range.
Eviction Notice	The Eviction Notice attacks 50% faster than the default Fists, at a rate slightly faster than the Scout's default Bat, but deals 60% less damage with each hit. To deal with the Eviction Notice, attack while moving back. It's great to attack while moving back, since the Heavy is slow, and with his Eviction Notice doing less damage, you would take him out before he takes you out.

Class Set

Set

Anti-Heavy Strategy

The Hibernating Bear

A Heavy wearing this set is especially vulnerable to ambushes, because of his lower health, slow wind-up speed, and slow movement with the Brass Beast spun up. Hit-and-run tactics may prove to be effective against a Heavy using this set. A Heavy using this set can heal themselves quickly by using alt-fire to throw out their Buffalo Steak Sandvich for themselves to replenish their health, providing more reason to finish them sooner. The Crit resistance this set provides is easily overcome when you spam attacks.

See also

• Team strategy