Demoman

The Demoman is the fourth class of Team Fortress 2, and is labelled as a "Defensive" class by Valve. However, due to the variety of projectile weapons available to him, a Demoman can be highly versatile, able to both lead offensive pushes or to defend a given area. His role comprises area denial, choke spamming and control, and crowd control. The blast radius of his weapons makes him a ready counter to the Engineer's buildings, while he himself is opposed by most close-combat classes. A good Demoman can hold off an entire team with well-timed and well-placed spam. On 5CP and KOTH maps, he is most often the first to arrive at the midfight due to the use of Stickybomb Jumps, which allow for a high mobility over long distances. He possesses both the highest DPS in the game (using the Stickybomb Launcher) and the third-highest hitpoints.

6v6

Main Article: Demoman (6v6)

In 6's, Demoman holds the primary role of dealing initial damage and crowd control. He makes sure the enemy never pushes into his team without taking damage and uses his spamming abilities to funnel the enemy team so they can be cleaned up by his teammates. He is also essential for defending as his sticky traps can get him easy kills and force the enemy to retreat, and his pill spam can easy chunk the enemy teams health if they are careless with their positioning. Demo is considered one of the harder roles in 6's due to his lack of mobility, causing him to have to consider his positioning carefully if he wishes to both not die quickly in a fight and still do substantial damage to the enemy.

Highlander

Main Article: Demoman (Highlander)

Similar to the role of the 6s Demoman, the Highlander Demoman is expected to deal high amounts of damage to an enemy team. The core evaluation of a Demoman, therefore, is in his total damage output. The Stickybomb Launcher possesses the highest DPS of any weapon in the game, while the Grenade Launcher can incur upwards of one hundred damage per hit. With 175 hitpoints, the Demoman has a moderate survivability rate, though it should be noted that he may be damaged by the blast radius of his own projectiles and thus should take care when detonating them at close range. Though he is somewhat slower than other classes, moving at approximately 90% the speed of a Pyro (the baseline speed for Team Fortress 2 classes), he makes up for this lower mobility through the use of Stickybomb Jumping, which allows him to cover large distances by exploding a Stickybomb beneath him and Crouch Jumping in the desired direction. This method is both faster and longer-ranged than Rocket Jumping, although the Demoman does take more damage (a loss of approximately 70 hitpoints) through its use.

The Demoman is most traditionally part of the Highlander Combo, alongside the Medic, Pyro, and Heavy. When using the Ubercharge, he is often the recipient on Payload or A/D maps, where it is necessary to use his Stickybombs to take down a Level Three Sentry; otherwise, he is responsible for cleaning up any weakened enemies left alive after the initial push. If the Medic is using the Kritzkrieg, the Demoman is nearly always the primary recipient due to the high blast radius and damage output of his projectiles when under the influence of a Kritzkrieg charge; a Kritzed Stickybomb can kill any class in one hit, excepting an overhealed Heavy. Thus, the Demoman is the main pocket of the Medic on KOTH and 5CP maps such as Viaduct or Gullywash due to the popularity and viability of the Kritzkrieg on such maps.

Stickybomb traps, while not as useful as in less-organized formats (both due to the Pyro's air blast and to metagame predictions of popular trap locations, such as outside BLU spawn on Upward), do allow the Demoman some defensive skill, especially as the mere threat of a trap can influence the movement and strategy of the opposing team. Through projectile spam or traps, a good Demoman can control choke points while causing long-range distance to the enemy. In a manner similar to the Heavy, the Demoman also exercises a large amount of area control; however, while the Heavy controls a certain area within range of his Minigun, a Demoman can control the movement of enemy classes between different areas, and can therefore force an opposing team into a much less strategic placement.

The Demoman is most accomplished at mid- and long-range combat, and thus is most readily opposed by classes such as the Scout and Pyro, both of which excel at close-range combat. The latter is especially dangerous to a Demoman, as the Pyro's airblast is capable of reflecting any one of the Demoman's projectile weapons. There are currently no hitscan weapons available for use by a Demoman. Close-range combat and overall survivability can be improved by the creation of a "Demoknight," most often through exchanging the Stickybomb Launcher for the Chargin' Targe or other similar tool alongside the use of the Eyelander or Scotsman's Skullcutter. However, this reduces the Demoman's utility on a Highlander team, as the resultant weapons set makes him most useful as a high-mortality pick class while simultaneously reducing the ability of a team to output high amounts of damage or to take down an Engineer's buildings.

Primary

Grenade Launcher		Recommended for medium to close range. A single grenade (or "pill") can do 102 damage when it is a direct hit. It can vary between 102 and 99 depending on how close of a direct hit the pill is. It is often used to spam chokes when the demo already has a sticky trap set up, and because pills are tangible they can roll across the ground if they have not hit someone directly before touching the wall or floor or ceiling (these are often called rollers). Rollers can do 35 to 70 damage depending on the distance from the person they are near.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	Yes
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Ali Baba's Wee Booties		The Ali Baba's Wee Booties increase the demoman's health from 175 to 200, allowing him to take more spam and survive for longer. Many demomen wear the item because their grenade aim is off or bad, or for kritzkrieg pushes in order to stay alive longer without invulnerability.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Loch-n-Load		Most demomen do not use the Loch because of its required high-accuracy aim and also because of the heightened splash damage taken from a close range pill, but also because other players not hit by it do not take splash damage.
ESEA 6s legal?	No
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Loose Cannon		The Loose Cannon is rarely used in competitive, it lacks the damage potential of a grenade launcher both up close and at long range. The cannonballs do 16-48 splash damage after they hit the ground, compared to 22-64 of the grenade launcher.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Secondary

Stickybomb Launcher		This is the most versatile weapon for the demoman, and almost all upper-level competitive demomen swear by it. It can be used for almost any range, from close to medium to far, because of its charging ability. A single stickybomb (mostly referred to as a "sticky") will do 135 damage maximum and 20 damage minimum depending on the distance of the enemy player. By holding down the left click button, the demoman can charge a sticky in order to fire it farther, proportional to the amount of time charged. Many use this for area denial by spamming long-range stickies through a choke point that is too long for pills to reach. It is also used to plant a "stickytrap", a small, packed together group of stickies on a wall outside of a choke point that is detonated when a team pushes through, dealing high amounts of damage. Some well-placed stickytraps can often go unseen and may even kill multiple enemies. It is also used for sticky-jumps, where the player places a sticky under their feet and detonates it to propel them in a certain direction at high-speeds. The minimum damage from a successful stickyjump a player can take is 45, and can do around 100 damage max (often resulting in a failed stickyjump.)
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	Yes
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Sticky Jumper		The Sticky Jumper can be used in combination with the Ullapool Caber to attempt a pick on the medic or other important class. It is occasionally used as a way of flanking the other team. Usage of this weapon is typically in desperation to rush to the point, or simply "trolling" the other team.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Chargin' Targe		A very small portion of high-level players still use this, as it denies them the ability to arrive at midfights first and a fraction of the damage that they could do before, and with many new updates disabling some charge scripts, many find it harder to use without a clear path.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}

Splendid Screen		Splendid Screen info
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}

Scottish Resistance		ScoRes info
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}

Melee

Bottle		Stock melee info
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	Yes
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Pain Train		The Pain Train lets you cap at 2x speed, but gives you a 10% vulnerability to bullets. Many Demomen use the Pain Train in Stopwatch games on Offense to maximize cap time and therefore also their team's chances of having the faster time. 10% vulnerability to bullets effectively means that an unbuffed demo fighting a scout starts with 158 base hp instead of 175. This is a very small difference (and not enough to kill the demo in a single sniper headshot), so the weapon is generally considered a near upgrade.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	Yes
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Ullapool Caber		Caber info
ESEA 6s legal?	No
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	Yes

Eyelander		Often used in combination with booties as the 25 health reduction is debilitating for some, the Eyelander has one of the largest melee ranges in the game. It grants an extra 15 health with each kill with it.
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}

Scotsman's Skullcutter		HEAVY AXE info
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}

Claidheamh Mor		Claymore info
150px
ESEA 6s legal?	Yes
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}

Persian Persuader		While the ammo to health conversion may help in some situations, it becomes impossible to use stickies to spam chokes as you quickly run out.
ESEA 6s legal?	No
UGC HL legal?	Yes
ETF2L 6s legal?	No
ETF2L HL legal?	{{{etf2l_hl_legal}}}