Demoman

The Demoman is the fourth class of Team Fortress 2 and is labeled 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 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, effectively countering his third-lowest move speed of all the classes. He possesses both the highest DPS in the game (using the Stickybomb Launcher) and the third-highest health cap.

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 easily chunk the enemy teams health if they are careless with their positioning. The 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. Due to the nature and main goal of the class being damage dealing, with great damage output potential at medium to long ranges, the Demoman is often unprepared for close-range fights leaving him vulnerable to fast and dynamic classes such as the scout or a Roaming Soldier. On many maps such as Sunshine, Process, Gullywash and Metalworks, the Demoman may be assigned the task of calling which side to approach.

Highlander

Main article: Demoman (Highlander)

In Highlander, the Demoman's main job is dealing high amounts of damage. His weapons are great at dishing out large amounts of damage to crowds of players and slow, high HP targets. However he lacks the ability to reliably protect himself from close range threats (most often from the Scout), so he is often paired up with the Heavy and Medic to form the core of a Highlander team. He serves a similar role to his 6's counterpart of dealing damage and leading up uber pushes, but he is also expected to deal with sentry nests.

Weapons

Primary

			Weapon				4v4	6v6		Highlander
							UGC	Global Whitelist	RGL	UGC	RGL	ETF2L
			Grenade Launcher				Always	Always	Always	Always	Always	Always
							The Grenade Launcher is recommended for medium to close range. A single grenade (or "pill") does 100 damage when it is a direct hit. 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 30 to 60 damage depending on the distance from the person they are near.
			Ali Baba's Wee Booties				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							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.
			Loch-n-Load				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Loch n' Load deals 20% more damage to buildings, and the projectile moves 25% faster, but only holds 3 pipes in a clip (25% less), has lower splash radius, and will not turn into rollers upon hitting a surface. It is much less spammy than the stock grenade launcher. It is more dangerous to yourself, as you take more damage from close range direct pipes, but it can two shot level three sentry guns, compared to the stock taking three pills. The Loch n load is easier to aim than stock pills since you don't have to lead as much due to the faster projectile. It is not used in competitive often because it has less spam capability.
			Loose Cannon				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Loose Cannon fires cannonballs that explode after one second, and can be "cooked" by holding down the fire button to make them explode sooner. They don't explode on contact with the target, and instead knock the target back, which can be used to deny Über pushes. If the cannonball hits a target and then explodes within half a second, the explosion will mini-crit. However, it deals significantly less damage than the other primaries (50 damage on a direct hit to the grenade launcher's 100). In practice, the low damage, range, and firing speed gives it little flexibility and demands more effort on the player's part to achieve results that are more easily gotten with other options. As such, it is rarely used in comp.
			B.A.S.E. Jumper				Allowed	Banned	Banned	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The B.A.S.E. Jumper deploys a parachute upon a second tap of the jump button. It allows the user to glide to the floor at a vertically steady rate. This, in turn, also removes any potential for fall damage.
			Iron Bomber				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Iron Bomber is a community-created primary weapon. The grenades fired by the Iron Bomber are spherical in shape, glow, and do not bounce or roll much at all, leaving them to explode in mostly the same place as where they first collided with an object (aside from the effects of gravity). They have a 15% smaller blast radius (except for the Demoman who fired it) and a 30% shorter fuse time.

Secondary

			Weapon				4v4	6v6		Highlander
							UGC	Global Whitelist	RGL	UGC	RGL	ETF2L
			Stickybomb Launcher				Always	Always	Always	Always	Always	Always
							The Stickybomb Launcher 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 far away for pills to reach. The weapon is also used to plant "stickytraps", small, packed together groups of stickies walls or ceilings outside of a choke point that are 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. The Stickybomb Launcher 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 from a failed stickyjump).
			Sticky Jumper				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							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 rare, as Demoman loses the potential to deal massive damage to groups of enemies. It is typically used in desperation to rush to the point, or simply to humiliate the enemy team.
			Chargin' Targe				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Chargin' Targe is a shield that replaces the Demo's stickybomb launcher. It grants 50% fire resistance, 30% explosive resistance, and the ability to charge. Charging moves the Demoman forward a medium distance extremely fast and deals 50 damage at the end of the charge if he collides with an enemy. Charging also removes any debuffs the Demoman may have, such as fire or bleeding. Few 6v6 players use this weapon, as they lose the ability to arrive at midfights first and it has a fraction of the damage and versatility that the stickybomb launcher has. Despite this, the Chargin' Targe is used rarely, mainly in Highlander, for a pick based playstyle or for early game med picks on Payload.
			Splendid Screen				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Splendid Screen functions the same as the Chargin' Targe, but only has 20% fire resistance and 15% explosive resistance. Charging will always deal damage from any range and will deal 70% more damage. The Splendid Screen sees very little use in competitive play because it doesn't have the damage and versatility of the stickybomb launcher or the damage resistance of the Chargin' Targe.
			Scottish Resistance				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Scottish Resistance has a 25% faster firing rate and allows 6 more stickybombs to be placed at any given moment. In combination with the ability to detonate stickies separately, this allows for the Demoman to set up multiple traps and cover multiple entrances to a location. The stickies have a 0.8 second longer arm time, which makes spamming out areas and use in direct combat much less effective. When it is equipped, it is usually used to set up traps on Attack/Defend maps.
			Tide Turner				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Tide Turner is a community-created shield. Its functions are similar to the Chargin' Targe but it gives a player full control of turning while charging and a kill will replenish 75% of the charge meter. Being damaged whilst charging reduces the remaining charge time. It provides 15% fire and explosive damage resistance. Like the other two shields, it does not see much competitive use - it takes away an extremely versatile source of damage.
			Quickiebomb Launcher				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Quickiebomb Launcher is a community-created secondary weapon. The stickybombs are armed 0.2 seconds faster, and can detonate after roughly half a second. This makes it optimal for direct-combat detonations (or "airbursting"). Additionally, due to a 70% decrease in max charge time, the charge meter is filled up after only two seconds instead of four, allowing long-range "sticky sniping" at a much higher rate of fire. This is complemented by an increase in damage based on a charge by up to 35%. The stickybombs are also able to destroy enemy stickybombs, similar to the Scottish Resistance. However, the Quickiebomb Launcher's utility is limited by its 50% smaller clip size (loading only 4 bombs at a time) and 15% damage penalty.

Melee

			Weapon				4v4	6v6		Highlander
							UGC	Global Whitelist	RGL	UGC	RGL	ETF2L
			Bottle				Always	Always	Always	Always	Always	Always
							The Bottle is the default melee weapon for the Demoman. It will break when it strikes something with a critical hit. The broken bottle is only cosmetic.
			Pain Train				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Pain Train lets you cap control points and push the payload bomb cart at 2x speed, but gives you a 10% vulnerability to bullets. Many Demomen use the Pain Train in Stopwatch games on Offense to maximize capture time and therefore also maximize their team's chances of winning the game. It is also commonly used in 5cp maps to capture control points faster.
			Half-Zatoichi				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Half-Zatoichi grants the Demoman 50% base health gain upon a kill, and 37% longer melee range. However, it comes with the cost of reduced weapon switch speed. Additionally, unless the Demoman lands a melee kill with it, it deals 50 damage to him when he switches weapons. If he has less than 51 health, the weapon cannot be put away. This "honorbound" mechanic severely limits its viability in competitive.
			Ullapool Caber				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Ullapool Caber is rarely used due to its immense nerf in the Gun Mettle update. It can still be equipped as the Demoman's rarely used Melee, and can be used to deal extra damage in desperate situations. Partnered with a shield, Demoman gains the ability to land a critical explosion on demand, which will kill a Medic instantly, and severely damage anyone near him. However, the Kamikaze nature of the Caber severely limits its utility in Competitive, and competent players can easily outmaneuver a melee-wielding Demoman due to his slow movement speed and short attack radius.
			Eyelander				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Eyelander gives 37% longer melee range and allows the Demoman to gain "heads" from killing enemies. Each kill increases his max health by 15 points and boosts his movement speed by 8%, up to four kills. A maxed-out Demoman will have 125% movement speed (almost as fast as a Scout) and 210 max health. However, the weapon will take away 25 max health from Demoman will spawn with only 150 health. The health reduction makes an Eyelander-wielding Demoman too fragile for competitive play - it is extremely difficult to gain the two melee kills necessary to offset its downsides. The only way to land melee kills consistently is by equipping a shield, which takes away Demoman's incredibly useful Stickybomb Launcher. Even then, Demoman can only use the Eyelander to kill isolated enemies - charging into melee range of a group of enemies is suicide.
			Scotsman's Skullcutter				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Scotsman's Skullcutter grants Demoman 37% longer melee range and 20% more damage over the stock Bottle. However, its decreased switch speed and 15% slower movement speed makes Demoman considerably less mobile while wielding the weapon, decreasing his already slim chances of landing a melee kill. This weapon is considered one of Demoman's worst melee weapons - a Skullcutter-wielding Demoman moves at a speed comparable to a Heavy, preventing him from attacking or fleeing; enemies will simply stay out of his melee range and fight back.
			Claidheamh Mòr				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Claidheamh Mòr grants 37% longer melee range and 0.5 seconds longer charge duration at the cost of a 15% damage vulnerability while active. This weapon is essentially a straight downgrade from the stock Bottle unless paired with a shield. With a shield, the Claidheamh Mòr extends Demoman's charge radius by 25%. Like other swords, this weapon sees little to no use in Competitive; its decreased switch speed makes it difficult to land melee kills, and using a shield to compensate requires Demoman to give up his invaluable Stickybomb Launcher
			Persian Persuader				Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed	Allowed
							The Persian Persuader grants 37% longer melee range, and restores the Charge Meter on hit. Additionally, ammo packs also recharge the Charge Meter. However, one stat makes it undoubtedly the worst melee weapon for Demoman: it reduces Demoman's max ammo by 80%. Without a shield, this sword is essentially useless, forcing Demoman to adopt one of two playstyles: a Demoknight (a shield and boots), or a Hybrid-Knight (a shield and grenade launcher). Demoknight is not competitively viable, as Scouts can easily dance out of his reach, while other Demomen and Soldiers can use the knockback from their weapons to stop him in his tracks. A Hybrid-Knight is even worse with the Persuader, as it limits Demo's ammo reserve to 4 grenades and 5 stickybombs. A Persuader-wielding Demoman will constantly have to travel to multiple ammo-packs to restock grenades, where he can be killed fairly easily.

See Also

• Demoman (6v6)
• Demoman (Highlander)