In my Play Ball series of posts, I will introduce you to the cIasses and maps of the new Team Fortress, which is shipping as part of Valve's The Orange Box. I recommend opening some of the images used below in a separate window to see them in full detail.

Previous Posts:

Gibs and Pipejumping: An Introduction to Team Fortress CIassic

Play Ball! Part 1: The Offensive CIasses

Play Ball! Part 2: The Defensive CIasses

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In TF2, Valve has split the nine character cIasses into three broad subgroups: offense, defense, and support. The three cIasses below don't quite fit into an offensive or defensive role, but are built to support the other cIasses in obtaining the map objective. Spies and medics tend to be useful for offensive support, while snipers are more useful for defense.

Medic

-Abilities: Using the medigun to heal others charges the Ubercharge meter, using this makes the Medic and the targetted friendly invulerable for about 10 seconds

1.Hypogun 2.Medigun 3.Bonesaw

Following your fellow teammates around and watching them kill opponents without getting to actually shoot anyone yourself might not sound like much fun, but somehow, this cIass is insanely fun to play. When targeting a fellow teammate with the Medigun, you will constantly provide them with a stream of health, and increasing their maximum health by 50%.

Unlike the old Team Fortress, you don't have to be at point-blank range to heal your targets anymore; the Medigun works at a distance of up to a few meters. Also, once you have your target selected, you can look around in any direction and continue to heal them, as long as you stay in range of them. Be careful of corners and certain obstacles, as they will cut off your medi-stream.

Anytime you are using the medigun, you will fill an Ubercharge bar. Once completely filled, right-clicking with the medigun out will deploy your charge, making yourself and your healing target invulnerable for about 10 seconds! During invulnerability, you can still be knocked around by concussive blasts such as pipebombs and rockets, but they will not do damage to you. Keep in mind that your Ubercharge will fill faster when healing a wounded target. One strategy for quickly getting a full charge is having a demoman or soldier hurt themselves with their explosives, which will give you a wounded target to heal. Proper use of the invulnerability can quickly change the status of the battlefield, and learning when and how to use it is part of becoming a top-notch medic.

On the offensive end, medics have the Hypo-gun, which rapidly shoots small hypodermic needles that actually do a fair amount of damage. For a melee weapon, they have a bone saw, which is really fun to use on unsuspecting opponents. Just keep in mind that healing your teammates is much more important than getting your own kills. Whenever the person you are healing kills someone, you get an assist for that kill, which counts for a point.

The Medic character is German, and has some really funny lines like "OKTOBERFEST" and also a few that are in German. His taunts are all hilarious. With his saw, he begins to play it like a violin and you can hear a tiny string vibrating. With the hypo-gun, he will say things like "Oops, that was not medicine" or "That was doctor-assisted homocide!"

Sniper

-Abilities: Zooming in with the sniper rifle charges the shot and makes it more powerful, headshot is always a critical hit

1.Sniper rifle 2.Auto machine gun 3.Knife

This cIass is fairly self-explanatory. The sniper rifle has a scope, which is enabled by right-clicking. When zoomed in, a laser dot will indicate to you and anyone else in the area, to where you are aiming. Just to the right of the reticle is a small charge bar, which charges whenever you zoom-in within about 3 seconds. This will determine the amount of damage your shots will do. Headshots are automatic critical hits and can kill most cIasses except for the Heavy and Soldier in one shot.

The scope restricts your field of view in TF2, which is much different than the mechanic in TFC. Also, headshots no longer make your enemies gib like they did in TFC, but it is still quite satisfying to watch them fall to their knees. If your enemies get up close to you, the sniper has a sub-machine gun that can do a fair amount of damage.

The Sniper is Australian. I haven't really heard any really standout voice commands from him besides when he makes a hot-barrel noise after some headshots.

Spy

-Abilities: Can disguise as any friendly or enemy cIass, can cloak by right-clicking, can sap engineer buildings (disables then destroys them), knife in the back is insta-kill

1.Pistol 2.Sapper 3.Backstab knife 4.Disguise

This cIass probably has the greatest variety in how you can play it. The spy has the ability to disguise himself as any other cIass in the game from either team. Shooting or attacking, but not sapping, while in disguise will turn him back into his normal form. The spy can also cloak for a limited time by right-clicking with any weapon out, making him completely invisible. This is very useful for getting past the front line, where being in disguise is more believable. The cloak meter will recharge slowly over time, so use it wisely. When in disguise, teammates will see you as a spy with a mask portraying whatever cIass you are in disguise as.

The spy's knife is an instant kill if used on an opponent's backside, and can be used while in disguise, but revealing you. The knife can not be used in cloak however, so you must first reappear, before you can backstab someone. The trick to being a spy is backstabbing then running away. Its really easy to be killed once you are discovered, so cloaking and hiding so you can change your identity is the safest way to go. Act the role of the cIass you are disguised as. In disguise, you will be given the name of someone playing that cIass on the other team, at random. You can't see the name you are given, it is only viewable by the other team, since mousing-over a teammate shows their name. Be careful hanging around enemies who are the same cIass that you are disguised as, because it's fairly obvious you are a spy when you have the same name as them.

The spy's sapper makes it much easier for your team to take down enemy sentries. The sapper must be placed at point-blank range, and can be placed in disguise without revealing your identity. The sapper will disable and slowly drain the health of any engineer equipment it is placed on. It takes some practice to be able to sap an engineer's sentry and then backstab him before he can take the sap off. Stabbing the engineer before sapping will get you killed by his sentry. This cIass is all about practice, and you need to know what other cIasses would be doing on each map, so you can successfully hide amongst the other team.

Being that the spy is usually always in disguise, I don't know any of his normal taunts except for his sword-fighting stance when he has his knife out. Keep in mind that taunting will reveal your identity, so don't use them!