Do you love playing guard, but do you never know what class to pick? Don't worry- i'll try to explain the role and effectiveness of particular classes in a neat list below! Scout The Scout is particularly useful because of his mobility and his movement speed- little classes are as good at chasing rebellers as the Scout is (especially when the rebels are other Scouts) and the Sandman's ball is particularly good at letting you catch up on people and firing warning shots - however, if you're intending on killing someone you should just be using your scattergun or pistol. Another very useful tool in the Scout's arsenal is the Shortstop, which functions as a bootleg airblast and allows him to push prisoners around; unfortunately, it also deals a little bit of damage to said prisoners. While your speed is useful to chase rebellers it can also be very useful to get away from rebellers if you're getting overwhelmed and your double jump can aid you in this escape. Another tool i'd forgotten to mention is the Baby Face Blaster, which allows the Scout to move at an even faster speed at the cost of not being able to use double jumps. Ask your Warden if you can get the first few kills so you can get that speed boost going! + Fastest class in the game! Great at chasing or fleeing. - Low health and moderate damage at best; two melee strikes will kill you - With your ludicrous speed you may find it difficult to land shots Soldier The Soldier is a great bulky class and his rocket launcher does a particularly great job at taking out rebels. My personal favorite is the Liberty Launcher; most critical rockets will instantly kill all light classes, the bonus to projectile speed is essential when people start to turn the corner and the extra rocket in the clip can mean the difference between la revolution and a dead rebel. On top of his rocket launcher, he also has access to both the Disciplinary Action and the Concheror, two useful tools that respectively allow you to boost the speed of you and fellow guards and regenerate health over time. As Soldier, you have the second biggest health pool in the game (which you can increase even further by equipping the Batallion's Backup). Your movement speed isn't too high, but that doesn't take away from your mobilty- you've got access to rocketjumping and the previously mentioned Disciplinary Action. The Rocket Jumper can prove to be an extremely useful tool if you use it in conjunction with a shotgun, allowing you to chase most if not any class around the map when they believe they can get away. + Rockets are easy to land on rebellers; possible to chase them by rocketjumping + High health means you can become subject to a random critical and live to tell the tale; health regen - Rockets may cause collateral damage and kill innocent prisoners instead if you are not careful. Pyro The Pyro doesn't see a lot of use in the BLU team. While the Powerjack is useful for high movement speed, the Pyro just isn't able to use the criticals very well; many of their items are crit-based on their own, the Flamethrower is short-range and has a very wide spread and the afterburn immunity is only really useful against REDs using the Volcano Fragment (the axe that sets you on fire). The only real useful tool the Pyro has access to is airblasting, which can be used to push prisoners around; for example airblasting a Heavy closer to the rest of the prisoners because he's falling behind, or airblasting a Rebel away from the Warden. The Pyro also has access to the Shotgun as many other classes do, which can provide lethal when supplied with crits; but this is really the only weapon in their arsenal that can use them well. + Flamethrower does not require you to aim very well; good at warding off close-range attackers + Powerjack gives the Pyro great mobility; on par with the Medic - Can do very little against long-range targets other than hope some of their shotgun pellets land - Cannot use criticals in their favor very well as most of their items already inflict crits Demoman As a Demo, you've got access to two stupidly inaccurate weapons and the most effective melee weapons in the game. The Demo has a moderate health-pool and moderate movement speed; unfortunately, placing stickybombs is considered baiting and this means you're not allowed to "prepare" defenses in places like the armory. If you choose to use stickies, you need to detonate them right after you place them- for this reason, the Quickiebomb Launcher is usually used. The Sticky Jumper is a good alternative which can be used to amp up your mobility by a huge amount. Unfortunately, Shields are disabled by default which leaves you without the damage resistance and charging abilities they would normally give you. Your swords have a huge range and make great use of the guaranteed crits; who cares about the lack of random critical hits when you've got a 100% crit rate at all time? Additionally, collecting heads can increase your movement speed and maximum health; ask the Warden to allow you to make the kills so you can obtain these heads. + High damage, good mobility with Sticky Jumper, reasonable healthpool that can be expanded through head collecting - Restrictions on secondary leave the Quickiebomb Launcher and Sticky Jumper as only options - Weapons tend to damage or even kill innocent prisoners unintentionally Heavy As Heavy, your mobility is horrible but you've got the greatest bulk and one of the greatest damage outputs in the game. With your mini-gun landing crits 100% of the time, damage fall-off is ignored- this essentially gives you a rather inaccurate rapid-fire sniper rifle that can kill any class other than Heavy in two hits. The problem here, however, is mowing them down before they get out of your line of sight. You're very slow and even slower when you have your minigun spun up: this gives any other class plenty of time to maneuver around the map. Weapons like the Eviction Notice and the Gloves of Running Urgently tone your speed up just a little, but most of the time it still isn't enough to catch up to whatever's running away. Your Sandvich can be a lifesaver for a member of your team, or can save a random RED a trip to the infirmary. + Extremely high damage output and high bulk; can survive two critical hits in a row when overhealed + Sandvich can be given to both teams to heal them - Extremely slow, especially when spun up; no good at chasing rebellers Engineer While the ability to build a Sentry seems great, you're not allowed to. Similarly to the Demo not being allowed to place stickies, building a Sentry is considered baiting. The Shotgun and Pistol are great all-around weapons, but with little mobility and low health all the Engineer can do for the team that other classes can't is build a dispenser or a teleporter. + Dispenser can save BLUs trips to the infirmary or armory + Teleporter can quicky bring a BLU to important places like the armory or buttons that allow the prisoners to escape, changing the outcome of the round greatly - Low health, low mobility, moderate damage - Not allowed to build sentries Medic Healing your teammates is very useful, especially overheal which will protect many classes from random critical hits; Medic is the second fastest class and can increase their speed even more by using the Overdose while fully ubercharged. The Medic also has health regeneration over time, which will allow them to regenerate health from being damaged- but their initial bulk is rather low at 150 HP and their damage is mediocre at best. + Healing teammates is a huge benefit + Second fastest class; health regeneration over-time - Low damage output; mediocre health Sniper Being able to pick off disobeying and rebelling prisoners with an instant 100% accuracy kill on most classes is a great advantage, especially when prisoners think they're being clever by standing inside their fellow prisoners. However, 100% accuracy comes with the responsibility of actually having to aim and you might find it difficult to hit a scout jumping in every imaginable direction. The usability of Sniper at long range is great; you can seperate yourself from the prisoners on maps with big areas and give yourself plenty of time to shoot down anyone that tries to get within your melee range. Your damage is huge and accurate, but your mobility is very bad and you are among the "light classes" meaning you're at 125 HP. + Accurate weapon can pick off the naughty ones and leave the good ones; + High damage, independent of distance; - Mediocre movement speed; low health Spy Like the Engineer and Demoman, there is a restriction to this class; cloaking or disguising is considered baiting, and this means you're not allowed to do either of these things. Your Revolver is accurate and deals 120 damage per hit, 5 damage short of an instant kill on the light classes, which means two hits are enough to kill every class with the exception of the Heavy. Unfortunately, backstabbing is extremely impractical as rebels will most likely be charging at you. Your speed is moderately high, but the commonly-picked Scout, Powerjack Pyro and Medic prisoner can all outspeed you. You are a light class at 125 HP. + Revolver is accurate and deals high damage; you are moderately quick - Low health - Your Sapper is useless - You are not allowed to cloak or disguise - Knife is impractical I hope this guide was of use to you. As usual, if you've got any feedback, throw it at me! Create a comment and tell me what you'd like to see, what you agree with, what you disagree with etc.