Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe. Maybe.
I’ve yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet.
Heavy Weapons Guy – Team Fortress 2: Meet the Heavy
Introduction
A towering pillar that holds the team together, Soldiers thrive on the battlefield with their mastery of area of effect attacks. Soldiers pump out additional damage and control when using these kinds of weapons through their signature class features, Suppressing Fire and Primary Target.
The Soldier does their best when facing down several enemies at once, allowing them to lay into whole squads while at the same time keeping up the pressure on the biggest guy in the room. Soldiers tend to fill a role somewhere between Defender and Controller, capable of taking punishment while also making lots of space for their party to operate at peak efficiency.
The choice of Fighting Style helps determine where on this scale any given Soldier sits. An Action Hero, for example, naturally wants to get in front of his allies to avoid clipping them with friendly fire while also being able to put the extra hurt on that one foe who is hanging out way in the enemy backline. Don’t be fooled, though: the Soldier isn’t restricted to ranged combat. The Close Quarters style and the Whirling Swipe feat allow these area tactics to be used up close and personal with hard-hitting melee swings.
If you want to be a literal wall that harries foes to keep the team safe from harm, you should give the Soldier a go. Whether from down range or in their face, your foes will feel like they have glue on their boots, unable to hold their defensive formation and ultimately crumbling in total defeat.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Understanding RPGBOT’s Rating System
- Soldier Class Features
- Soldier Attributes
- Soldier Ancestries and Heritages
- Soldier Backgrounds
- Soldier Skills and Skill Feats
- Soldier Class Feats
- General Feats
- Soldier Weapons
- Melee Weapons
Understanding RPGBOT’s Rating System
RPGBOT uses a 4-tier rating scheme which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Soldier Class Features
Key Attribute: Constitution. This will give you one of the largest health bars in the system and help you shrug off Fortitude effects. Additionally, some of our class features slightly expand our use of Constitution.
: 10+ but with our key stat being Constitution, we’re functionally on par with Barbarians’ 12+.
: Great offense and defense with above average saving throws leaves Soldiers as premier combat brutes tailor made for battle.
- : Our perception starts Trained and becomes Expert at 5th level. That’s not the worst, but it’s far from good.
- : We have an amazing Fortitude save that goes all the way to Legendary, a Will save that goes to Master, and a Reflex that stops at Expert. All things considered, Fortitude and Will saves tend to have worse effects, so this is a better than average spread.
- : Forced Intimidation and then 3+ Intelligence. This is about average , but still enough to focus on something. Don’t worry about needing Charisma for that Intimidation, though: there’s a feature later on to address it.
- : Simple and Martial with Expert at 5th. but Master comes later at 15th instead of 13th like most martial classes.
- : The second best advancement in the game, shared with Champion, and only beat by Guardian, that progresses all the way to Legendary.
- : Tied with Kineticist for the best Class DC progression in the game. This is identical to the progression of Spell DC for full casters like Mystic or Witchwarper. We get this because Soldiers specialize in Area Fire and Auto-Fire weapons which use Class DC.
- : When a Soldier uses Area Fire or Auto-Fire attacks, creatures that fail receive the Suppressed condition for a round. This is a pretty solid defensive condition, imposing a -10 status penalty to speeds and a -1 circumstance to attacks.
- : This feature is the real bread and butter of being a Soldier. While anyone is capable of using Area Fire or Auto-Fire weapons, the Soldier can make a normal Strike as part of the activity in addition to the targets having to make a saving throw..
- : Your fighting style will largely determine what kind of weapon you prefer to use, granting bonuses to specific kinds of weapons. None of these are bad options, each one instead emphasizing a different style of play.
- : If you prefer to use automatic weapons, Action Hero will vastly improve your area and control for Auto Fire attacks but also allow you to keep a target Suppressed in situations where it’s not safe to create a cone of death and destruction.
- : If you want to be a ridiculous tank that fires burst shaped Area Fire at point blank, Armor Storm is what you want. You’re never counted as being in your own area attacks and you gain half your level in resist all vs attacks from suppressed creatures. As icing on top, you don’t need free hands to perform Athletics maneuvers like Grapple or Trip. Probably just putting the target in a headlock with the barrel of your Stellar Cannon.
- : The Bombard is the most capable of supporting fire of all the styles. Instead of making yourself immune to the blast, a number of allies can be unaffected instead, allowing you to fire heavy artillery directly into a melee fight without pasting your party. Additionally, enemies that save, but don’t critically save, are still Suppressed by your Area Fire.
- : With the Close Quarters style, two-handed melee weapons become Area burst 5 weapons for the purposes of interacting with and using Soldier feats. Get up close and personal to cleave through hordes of foes with ease.
- : The Erudite Warrior takes a different approach. Instead of being focused on using a specific type of weapon, this style instead grants an automatic scaling choice of Diplomacy or Society and a special taunting action. Once per round, a single enemy is automatically Suppressed until either the start of your next turn or until it takes an offensive action against you specifically.
- : This allows a Soldier to put less priority into Strength by replacing it with Constitution for the purposes of Bulk and Armor requirements. This is good because the ranged strike of Primary Target is still Dexterity-based (for non Close Quarters Soldiers) so we need to spend our points there.
- : Everything else in the Soldier’s progression are standard features that appear in most classes.
- : This is like the Walking Armory feature except for Intimidation checks and to perform Shove and Reposition Athletics actions. Again helping a Soldier to be less MAD. This is the feature I mentioned above in the skills section about not needing Charisma for Intimidation.
- : Soldiers gain Armor Specialization, which is an uncommon feature, only appearing previously on Fighters and Champions.
Soldier Attributes
Ranged Soldier
The grand majority of Soldiers will be ranged combatants, using Area Fire or Auto-Fire and making ranged Strikes as part of Primary Target. These Soldiers will rely on Constitution and Dexterity for Offense and Defense while also putting points into Wisdom for Will saves.
- : You can easily drop this if you want, but, if you’re an Armor Storm Soldier, it doesn’t hurt to give yourself more Strength to perform those Athletics maneuvers not covered by Fearsome Bulwark.
- : Primary Target requires a Soldier to still make and land ranged Strikes.
- : As our Key stat, this controls our Class DC, which in turn is the DC for Area Fire and Auto-Fire weapons. It also increases our hit points and Fortitude saves.
- : Outside of skills, Soldiers don’t need this.
- : To improve Perception and Will Saves, this is the best choice for a Soldier who doesn’t need Strength to get a little extra out of Armor Storm.
- : Outside of skills, Soldiers don’t need this either.
Melee Soldier
The subset of Soldiers that choose Close Quarters will likely swap Strength for Dexterity and rely on armor with the Bulwark trait to compensate for the lower Reflex save value.
Soldier Ancestries and Heritages
The Soldier needs to prioritize Constitution and their attack Attributes and can generally ignore Intelligence or Charisma. The safest options are anything that has a penalty to one of those.
Soldier Backgrounds
Look for anything that grants Constitution or Dexterity (Strength instead for Close Quarters). After that, look into the skill feats that are included. Many can really give you an edge in encounter or exploration mode.
Soldier Skills and Skill Feats
Like most classes, a Soldier can usually raise at most 3 skills all the way to Legendary. Erudite Warrior Soldiers can gain an extra because their choice of Diplomacy or Society will automatically scale at 3, 7, and 15.
- (Dex): If you are not at least trained in Acrobatics, you will be really sad if you land on an Ice Planet. Balance will stonewall you.
- (Int): With Intelligence being a low priority it’s unlikely you’ll want to invest in this.
- (Str/Con): Most Soldiers who don’t pump Strength will only be able to Shove or Reposition reliably due to Fearsome Bulwark. Armor Storm Soldiers, on the other hand, will be pulling off wrestling moves while carrying a rocket launcher and want this maxed out.
- (Int): With Intelligence being a low priority it’s unlikely you’ll want to invest in this.
- (Int): It would take too much investment to get anything out of this and Soldiers don’t start with Shield Block so there’s no need to repair a shield.
- (Cha): Soldiers don’t have the Charisma to back this up.
- (Cha): Soldiers don’t usually have the Charisma to back this up but an Erudite Warrior can choose this skill to automatically level if desired.
- (Con/Cha): This skill is automatically Trained for every Soldier and, thanks to Fearsome Bulwark, a Soldier uses Constitution for Demoralize and Coercion instead of Charisma with the main uses of this skill.
- (Int): Lores are incredibly varied and specific skills that are generally reserved for Intelligence primary classes. However, if you want to know a lot about something super narrow, spending a skill feat on Additional Lore to get an auto scaling Lore is a fine use. Also, Erudite Warriors get to pick any topic as an automatic scaling Lore in addition to their choice of Diplomacy or Society.
- (Wis): Being at least Trained in this is useful in a pinch if you need to Stabilize your Mystic or Cleric or Animist or… There sure are a lot of great healers these days.
- (Wis): Soldiers are likely to have a decent Wisdom but unless you’re using Trick Magic Item to cheese a Tailwind Spell Chip to get higher speed every day, this is an easy skip.
- (Int): With Intelligence being a low priority it’s unlikely you’ll want to invest in this.
- (Cha): Soldiers don’t have the Charisma to back this up.
- (Dex): Because Soldiers tend to need Dexterity for Primary Target ranged Strikes, they have enough to also be good Pilots.
- (Wis): Good for knowing about Undead and Fiends. That’s about it.
- (Int): Low Intelligence makes this tough to use, but an Erudite Warrior can pick this to automatically scale.
- (Dex): A ranged Soldier might as well invest in this to take advantage of higher Dexterity. If you Avoid Notice as your Exploration action, a heavy investment into Stealth will beat your Perception.
- (Wis): Not useful often enough to invest in heavily.
- (Dex): While a Soldier can have the Dexterity for this, they won’t have the Perception to find traps. Can still open locks, though.
Soldier Class Feats
See our Soldier Feats Guide.
General Feats
- : A little extra insurance to stay alive doesn’t hurt if you’ve got everything else you want.
- : Five extra feet of movement will help offset your heavy armor.
- : While this helps offset the Solder’s low Perception, the Scout Exploration Activity is also a Circumstance Bonus, so they won’t stack.
- : If your party has multiple characters with Battle Medicine, this is like taking Toughness that many times. Also adds a bonus to Treat Wounds.
- : More Hit Points than your body has room for.
Soldier Weapons
The Soldier specializes in Area and Automatic weapons thanks to the Primary Target class feature and, as such, will want to use one of those. Each of their Fighting Style options will further drill down and emphasize a particular subcategory in this group, but there is plenty of overlap between those as well.
Automatic Weapons
Automatic weapons have a special kind of versatility. You can either make a Strike as normal for a ranged weapon or you can use them to perform the Auto-Fire activity. Auto-Fire covers an area equal to a cone with half the length of the weapon’s range increment. When used in this way, the Primary Target is the creature in the cone closest to the Soldier.
Action Hero style Soldiers have multiple improvements to their use of Automatics. A successful ranged Strike will suppress the target, allowing more precise control in environments where it would be unsafe to use Auto-Fire. Additionally, the Auto-Fire cone’s size increases to the entire length of the weapon’s range increment and the Primary Target can be any creature in the cone instead of the one closest to the Soldier.
- : This is the only Simple Automatic weapon and the Soldier can do so much better with Martial weapons, so skip it.
- : With 1d8 piercing damage, 40 ft. of range, and being a projectile weapon, the Machine Gun has the best range of the Automatics, which will give the largest cone.
- : This is the only energy-based Automatic, which gives it an edge in the ammo economy department. While the smallest batteries are smaller than the Machine Gun’s magazine, they quickly grow much larger. The main drawback of the Rotolaser is that it does Fire damage instead of physical.
- : While it has 1d12 damage, longer range, and a larger magazine, it is also an Advanced weapon, making it hard to use for most people.
Area Weapons
Weapons with the Area trait can only be used to perform the Area Fire activity and cannot be used for normal Strikes without the use of Primary Target or specific Soldier feats. Using one of these weapons is a commitment to wanton destruction and collateral damage. Two Fighting Styles deal directly with Area weapons: Armor Storm and Bombard.
The Armor Storm style protects a Soldier from their own Area attacks. This pairs well with the Area Burst weapons, allowing a Soldier to shoot their own feet to blast everyone in melee. This pairing isn’t required; however, the rest of the Armor Storm’s powerful defensive features work just fine with all Soldier weapon options.
Bombard style, on the other hand, protects your Allies instead of yourself from Area Fire. This means anything except Automatic weapons will work with Bombard, even melee weapons utilizing the Whirling Swipe feat.
Area Burst
Area Burst weapons create an area of the designated radius anywhere within their range.
- : 1d10 piercing damage in a 10 ft. burst with 50 ft. of range will certainly handle swarms of foes that have made the tactical error of being grouped up.
- : It has impressive stats such as 1d12 Fire damage and the Plasma weapon group, but it is held back by the Advanced weapon category being tough to use.
- : These are primarily utility consumables, but they do use the Area Fire action to use, which makes them 100% compatible with Soldier class features. They won’t be your primary attack, but don’t overlook using them.
Area Cone
Area Cone weapons create a cone with a length equal to the weapon’s range increment.
- : While it is a simple weapon, it has a respectable 1d8 damage die and is the only physical damage cone area weapon. The only real downside is the 4 round magazine.
- : Of the cone weapons, this is the largest at 20 ft. and the damage of 1d8 electricity is quite nice. Do note that it has an Expend value of two, which means that it uses 2 charges of battery for every shot. With a basic 10 charge battery, that is only 5 shots, but with the quickly scaling size of batteries that rapidly becomes a non-issue.
- : It has more damage but shorter range than the Arc Emitter, but that damage is fire, a common resistance and immunity.
- : 1d12 Sonic damage that is unfortunately trapped behind the Advanced category.
Area Line
Area Line weapons create a line with a length equal to the weapon’s range increment. Line AOEs are hard because you’ll very rarely catch more than two enemies in the area, and doing so nearly always requires you to move to line up your targets.
- : The 40 ft. line and 1d8 electricity damage are nice, but the Expend value on this weapon is 5, making it incredibly battery hungry.
- : A 40 ft. line of 1d10 cold damage with an expend of 2 makes this the best line option.
- : Besides being Advanced, it would be easy to glance at the damage, range, and expend, and dismiss this weapon entirely. What makes it deserve being Advanced is the fact that it’s the only 1-handed area weapon.
Melee Weapons
Thanks to either the Close Quarters style or the Whirling Swipe feat, any two-handed melee weapon can become an Area Burst weapon in the hands of a Soldier.
- : While the Breakdown trait won’t help in a fight, there are times where being able to disassemble a weapon for hiding it is useful [a] .
- : Reach 1d10 with modular Cold or Piercing gives the Cryopike a lot of versatility when it comes to combat.
- : It’s a fancy space-age piercing greataxe with the Parry trait.
- : 1d10 Slashing with 1d12 Boost gives this the most damage potential of the 2-handed melee options.
- : It’s 1d8 bludgeoning and brings nothing else special to the table.
- : Sporting Boost and Reach, this weapon brings the best balance of area and damage.
- : It stands out by being the only 2-handed Fire option for melee weapons. It also has the Plasma Critical Specialization, which makes it do Persistent Electricity damage as a critical effect.
- : It has the lowest base damage in this group, but it does have Boost 1d10 and it is a Sonic damage weapon.
Soldier Armor
Because the Walking Armory feature allows a Soldier to use Constitution to fulfil the Strength requirements of armor, Soldiers should have no trouble wearing either medium or heavy armor to take advantage of Armor Specialization. It primarily depends on the choice of trading off +1 AC with heavy vs +5 speed with medium. Or you can just invest in a Mobility Enhancer upgrade for your heavy armor to remove the speed penalty.
Soldier Multiclass Archetype
The Soldier Archetype can add solid improvements to area damage for anyone that wants to rely on area or automatic weapons. With enough investment, the only thing you don’t get out of this Archetype is a fighting style.
- : An increase to Bulk limits, trained in Intimidation, and scaling armor proficiency. People take Champion Dedication just to get the armor part, and that requires +2 Strength and +2 Charisma compared to Soldier only asking for +2 Constitution.
- : There are great options all around, but the biggest stand out would be adding Whirling Swipe to any melee martial for access to area damage.
- : 3 Bonus HP for every Soldier Archetype feat you have. These feats are generally not the best, but can add up if you’re playing with Free Archetype and stick to just one Archetype.
- : There are plenty of good feats in there, but you will get them far later than a real Soldier would.
- : Soldiers have two core features. Being able to suppress a target that fails the save against your Area Fire and Auto-Fire attacks is one of those features.
- : This is the other big core feature of the Soldier: A Free Action ranged Strike as part of the Area Fire or Auto-Fire attack.
- : If your Fortitude never goes beyond Expert, this can help bump it up.
