A Strategic Suicide Run

Anyone else make strategic suicide runs, where you dodge and weave and flank your way to the enemy medic, light him on fire, then puff and sting him? (Or set him on fire with the flare before you get in range)

I find this very helpful when trying to assassinate the enemy team's medic. They usually don't see it coming, and you can often get away with it before people realize what you're doing. So long as you don't attract too much attention to yourself by flaming away, you stand a good chance at succeeding.

That should really only be a last resort. You may get their medic, but in more intense games, it's never good to leave your team a man down for 15 seconds or more.

I only suicide-

*To clear a demo's stickies, allowing my team to push up, unless I'm a medic
*If I know for sure I can get the enemy medic, without putty my medic at risk (if I have one on me) (unless I'm a medic myself)
*To defend or cap a point that's nearly fully captured (including the payload cart)
*To repeatedly sap a sentry rather than a riskier stab/sap combo, if I know teammates are waiting to attack it.
*If I'm a W+Mouse1 pyro (just kidding!)

I always do that if I am sure that the medic will die from my attack. Else, I just kill whatever comes near my axtinguisher.

I always do that if I am sure that the medic will die from my attack. Else, I just kill whatever comes near my axtinguisher.

Koff, I understand where you're coming from, but when you can make the other enemy team fend without their medic for 30 seconds, then 30 seconds without you is a trade off I'd take any day.

There have been a few occasions where it has failed, but tbh, if you can succeed (especially while on defense) it can cripple the other team's ability to make any push whatsoever.

Combine it with an uber, and you can be absolutley devastating.

Light a whole group on fire, and they'll run. Light them on fire, then air blast them into a wall? They'll PANIC. AT their medic and any other fool who happens to get in my way, and the other team is soon pushed far back and screaming for a medic while their whole team is burning to death.

On defence: I will do this when it looks like they're preparing for a rush and I know fairly well I can nail the medic(s). I will also do it whenever I think it will buy us more time than my being on the front lines will, which is usually true; if I can get in behind them, I'll take it, otherwise causing chaos and dying is usually more time-efficient. It often means half their rush goes in, the other half deals with you and shows up when the first half is dying, plus they'll be damaged. A well-timed kamikaze attack works well; it's kind of like a mini uber pyro. Speaking of that, I wish more medics would learn how to be sneaky...><

On offence: Rarely will I bother. There isn't as much use for it unless you get a big enough opening to let you edge a sentry gun to death, then it's worth dying over. If I think I can get the defence to prematurely pop uber(s) thinking we're rushing, though, I'll make a go at it. A couple flaregun puffs, an airblast here and there, and a dive for the medic can make them think there are two pyros.

While I do understand what all of you mean with your advantages and disadvantages, I lean toward the Kamikaze rush. Take out the medic first but flame the others to cause chaos. This little bit of instability in the opposing teams defense can be just the opening your team needs to gain a foothold near the point, possibly capping it.

It depends on the size of the server, really. In a 16v16 server, hell yeah! As long as you're smart about it. Don't see a demoman with 8 stickies down? Rush in and set 5-6 people on fire because it's high pop, and maybe axetinguisher the medic, and die. You being dead isn't a huge deal when there are 15 other people left, and you caused a lot more damage to the other team by disorientating them and killing their medic. Obviously this won't happen every time you Rambo, but on high pop you'll never run out of large clusters of people to flame.

On low-mid pop servers? Go with the more advanced tactics, such as flanking, puff 'n' sting, spychecking, and sentry guarding. The only time i kamakazi on these servers is when I can blow uber targets off of obstacles, or see a medic with an undeployed uber and am in a bad position in which I can't airblast him or his partner away.