Scout

A smack-talking Bostonian brat, the Scout boasts the greatest mobility of all the TF2 classes; two jumps and an impressive 133% movement speed make him extremely difficult to track down, and even to kill once he's found. The Scout also carries a Scattergun, which does tremendous damage when very close to an opponent. With such a high move speed, it isn't difficult to get close to people; the only trick is staying alive once at a close range. The Scout has only 125 base health, tied for the least out of all the classes.

6v6

Main article: Scout (6v6)

The Scout is a highly mobile "clean up" class, used to capture points and move in and out of fights to deal and avoid as much damage as possible. In standard 6v6 play, a team will have 2 Scouts. When playing this class, one will be expected to successfully capture points, control the flank, and be able to clean up the damage put out by heavy classes (Soldier and Demoman). Generally speaking, a Scout will have a high number of kills and a moderate amount of damage - diving in to kill already damaged players is the primary cause of this. Scouts are also often the best candidates for off-classing, depending on the situation. The secret to the Scout class is going into a fight and catching enemies unaware. The Scout is usually more expendable than the other classes, excluding the roaming soldier.

Some teams like to assign roles to their scouts to keep everyone coordinated. Having a "passive" Scout and an "aggressive" Scout on the team keeps inexperienced players from getting out of position (either resulting in death from aggression or missed opportunities from passiveness). The "passive" Scout's job is roughly to protect the Demoman and help the Medic build Über when an opportunity arises. While he still wants to help out his fellow Scout on the flank and clean up damage, protecting the Demoman is his main objective. When there are stalemate situations in a match, the passive Scout is the one that will build the Medic's ÜberCharge using his Boston Basher. The aggressive Scout usually goes for kills and high damage on the flank. If a player is weak, he will chase that player down and kill him. The problem with this role-oriented approach is that when a Scout is smart enough to know when to be passive and when to be aggressive, it is more efficient for him to switch roles when a situation calls for it, rather than getting stuck in a mindset that can be very detrimental to his team. Most high-level teams avoid this passive versus aggressive assignment system, but it can help teams that lack the coordination and game sense.

Highlander

Main article: Scout (Highlander)

The Scout's role is severely diminished in Highlander, as his fragging capabilities are limited by full-time high-damage per second classes, such as the Heavy or the Engineer. Because of that, the Scout is often more of an utility class, helping the team by being on the flank, capturing points and objectives and sometimes following up on damage dealt by the combo. A scout can also be used to focus classes which can cause large problems for your team, such as sniper. Most Payload and Attack/Defend maps can greatly limit the Scout's usefulness due to their tendency to clump everyone together, but on certain koth maps, a good scout can score a high amount of points due to a large amount of flanking routes which are available.

Highlander leagues allow a greater variety of scout unlocks than 6v6 leagues do, which allows for interesting strategies with unlocks like Mad Milk, Bonk! Atomic Punch, and Crit-a-Cola. The scout's role can be enhanced by any of these, leading to a more supportive class that splashed Milk during pushes, a pick/harassment class that runs to enemy spawn with Bonk!, or a highly aggressive damage-dealer that runs with with Crit-a-Cola and uses the speed to offset the increased damage taken by dodging. As long as the Scout plays smart and stays alive, opportunities to flank and to fight directly come up just like in 6v6.

See Also

• Scout (6v6)

Scout (Highlander)