A Faulty Fuse’s Guide to the Dead Ringer

[Cambietto]

I hear a lot of bad things said about the Dead Ringer, including that it’s useless and all that nonsense. I want to prove those naysayers wrong. Also, I witness many players using it during rather unfortunate moments, who soon go back to the other watches. So I want to give you some tips on how to use the Dead Ringer.

·Get a feel for the environment, and know where the health/ammo are. Most Dead Ringer spies just blindly charge into enemy territory with having little to no plan on where to go, what route to follow, etc. You have to know the layout of the map and where the health/ammo are located. You also have to get a feel for where the enemy will most likely be and go to where he/she will not.

·Know when to pull out the Dead Ringer. I’ve seen many spies equip their Dead Ringer right away, get shot at and activate it and decloak right in the middle of the enemy base. You have to be aggressive! That means getting as close to the enemy as possible, maybe pulling off a few attacks and then whipping it out as soon as danger starts pointing towards you.

·Pyros. Pyros can be a real pain for the Dead Ringer spy, and there’s not much that can be done about them. But here are a few things to keep in mind when you come across a Pyro:

—Keep your distance. Use your revolver to dispatch Pyros from afar. Then you can go into enemy lines.

—Try not to get flamed. If a Pyro catches you on fire just as you’re about to enter enemy territory, retreat to your base to get healed up and refill your Dead Ringer.

—If you get flamed while behind enemy lines, try to run for the nearest health/ammo and make a sharp change in direction from where the Pyro is moving towards. If you’re set ablazed again, well, you’re pretty much done for that life.

—Alternatively, you can get a Pyro to flame you, get as far into enemy territory as possible, distance yourself from the flamer and activate the Dead Ringer. Most likely, the Pyro would call it a day and head back to front lines.

Well, I hope this helps for you aspiring Dead Ringers out there. I’ll add more tips and/or change ones when necessary. And be sure to add yours if you come up with one.

[abiscuit]

·Know when to pull out the Dead Ringer. I’ve seen many spies equip their Dead Ringer right away, get shot at and activate it and decloak right in the middle of the enemy base. You have to be aggressive! That means getting as close to the enemy as possible, maybe pulling off a few attacks and then whipping it out as soon as danger starts pointing towards you.

I don't quite agree with this.

Most of the time I find it beneficial to dead ringer as soon as possible when you see enemies. This allows you to get through any possible spam or stray bullet to get behind enemy lines with little damage. Once you are behind you can work your way to the enemy and start harassing them.


A few other things to consider...

It's okay to retreat! If you ham ding and you don't think you can get behind them safely, then go back. It will throw some people off when they go looking for a spy that isn't there.

Ham Dinger also allows you to do things in plain sight, even if one or two people know full well you are a spy. You can stab an enemy or two and then retreat.

Dead Ringers have the easiest time telefragging engineers. Sap, stand on the teleporter, pull out dead ringer. If someone spots you, who cares, continue crouching on the teleporter. Even against experienced engineers I still try it once on occasion. Sometimes in a panic they'll be standing on their teleporter and get killed. Even if you don't telefrag them you should have your ham dinger out or active, which means you are free to escape.

Dead Ringer also has some other utility, such as blocking ubers in narrow corridors or making a demoman kill itself. While the opportunity doesn't present itself often, use that damage reduction in creative ways. With that in mind, remember that the damage reduction only lasts for 8 seconds, not for the length of your cloak time. Your cloak time is increased when you pick up an ammo box while cloaked, but not your damage reduction time.

Ham Dinger is not a good choice in linear maps with very few ammo boxes or extra paths. Turbine and Dustbowl are two of the worst maps for dead ringer.

[Daryldime]

I just came across this... and I have one thing to add... DR makes for lulzy krit blocking. I can absorb all of the heavies crit bullets before succumbing to the pain, thereby negating TONS of damage to my team!