Forum
Best class for maincalling in 9v9?
Created 16th June 2014 @ 10:43
Add A Reply Pages: 1 2 3 Next »
My team has had problems with finding the best class for maincalling in highlander. I have heard many different opinions from different people, but I don’t know who to believe. I came here to ask the same question.
Consider it this way:
-It’s a low-division team
-Everyone has equal experience and gamesense
-They want to know the best class for maincalling and reason for that
Everyone’s opinion is welcome, but please include the reason for your opinion in the reply.
Cheers.
As the classes are divided by 2 roles (Core being the Medic, Engineer, Heavy, Demo and Pyro. The roamers/pickers are Soldier, Scout, Sniper and Spy), the maincaller should be from the first group as it’s the heart of your team. The maincaller should be able to control the Core and be able to know what’s happening on the battlefield. Engineer behind a sentry and Pyro constantly spychecking aren’t the best choices, because they have something else to focus on. The demo may have traps in other places than the core are and needs to concentrate on aiming, making it not the best choice either. In my opinion, the maincaller should be the Medic or the Heavy.
Medic however should always know the uber advantages and telling this to the maincaller or use this information yourself to maincall.
tl;dr: medic or heavy. I haven’t played highlander in a long time so I don’t know if there have been meta switches I’m not aware of.
Last edited by Setlet,
Quoted from Setlet
As the classes are divided by 2 roles (Core being the Medic, Engineer, Heavy, Demo and Pyro. The roamers/pickers are Soldier, Scout, Sniper and Spy), the maincaller should be from the first group as it’s the heart of your team. The maincaller should be able to control the Core and be able to know what’s happening on the battlefield. Engineer behind a sentry and Pyro constantly spychecking aren’t the best choices, because they have something else to focus on. The demo may have traps in other places than the core are and needs to concentrate on aiming, making it not the best choice either. In my opinion, the maincaller should be the Medic or the Heavy.
Medic however should always know the uber advantages and telling this to the maincaller or use this information yourself to maincall.
tl;dr: medic or heavy. I haven’t played highlander in a long time so I don’t know if there have been meta switches I’m not aware of.
in my opinion it’s pretty much not sniper scout or soldier, I don’t know why any other class cannot maincall.
Quoted from Phnx
[…]
in my opinion it’s pretty much not sniper scout or soldier, I don’t know why any other class cannot maincall.
Let a Spy maincall, okay.
From my experiences Demoman is the best maincalling class due to the mobility of the class, then Medic. Heavy is viable, too, but I find the other two classes much better for it.
Kind of pointless topic tbh, let me explain why:
If the majority of ETF2L says that medic is the best class to maincall, you will probably end up “forcing” your medic to maincall. You pointed out that you all have equal experience. What is going to happen eventually is that your medic attempts to maincall and isn’t able to due to a lack of experience/confidence.
In my opinion, you don’t really need a dedicated maincaller, it’s much more helpful if everyone in the team calls a lot and if the core of your team can agree on their next move quickly.
As pointed out before though, the combo classes are probably best for maincalling, pyro kind of being the exception because you just don’t have the overview needed to maincall.
There is no perfect solution, you’ll probably have to find out with your team what works best for you!
Demo should be the most viable option, especially in low divisions, where it’s extremely easy for a demoman to stay alive most of the time.
As a downside of medic maincalling, he probably want to be a little behind of the other combo classes, not seeing everything he should to evaluate the situation correctly.
P.S. And about engineer maincalling: you just dont want it to.
P.P.S. As for a new team, dont try to force any specific player to maincall. If you want to improve, you probably want to do a team demo review with voicechat recorded, pointing out who should’ve reacted on specific information, and who should’ve given specific information.
Last edited by olBaa,
Quoted from MARS^
In my opinion, you don’t really need a dedicated maincaller, it’s much more helpful if everyone in the team calls a lot and if the core of your team can agree on their next move quickly.
that’s not how it works. If everyone does what they think is best then you will end up playing messy. A maincaller’s purpose is to make sure that the entire team is working towards a common goal. So when the maincaller says push, everyone does it, and not just 3-4 people. It also prevents people from making a play in the wrong times amongst other things.
However, “best” maincaller depends on the team really. Demo is usually best due to him being the most far forward, thus having the most vision on the battlefield. Heavy is pretty good too especially in teams that heal the heavy lots. Medic isn’t that great, because most of the time you are sitting BEHIND your combo players and not have vision of whats around the corner etc, and also medic is one of the genuinely hardest classes in the game so having a medic focusing on actual medicing will play much better than a medic who has to also control the flow of the game.
I used to maincall as soldier, it’s not impossible, but you need to have a very talkative combo so you get the full picture.
And press TAB a lot.
Last edited by Linus,
Demo does the most damage, is more mobile and is usually the furthest forward player (so will have the best view of whats actually happening). He’s the most powerful class and you want him maincalling so that your team can make the best use of him.
In lower divs heavy is a much stronger class (heavy is an “easy” class to play in terms of deathmatching skills and your teamwork will likely be poor so your team may not be able to take advantage of the demomans mobility) so heavy maincallers are good too.
Any class can maincall, but you’re weakening your team significantly by not having one of the Demo/Med/Heavy do it. It’s also important you don’t force somebody to be maincaller if they don’t feel they can (if nobody in the combo is willing to maincall then maybe you need to find somebody who is to play those classes).
Last edited by EmilioEstevez,
Quoted from Linus
Demo is usually best due to him being the most far forward, thus having the most vision on the battlefield. Heavy is pretty good too especially in teams that heal the heavy lots. Medic isn’t that great, because most of the time you are sitting BEHIND your combo players and not have vision of whats around the corner…
And press TAB a lot.
Quoted from Linus
[…]
that’s not how it works. If everyone does what they think is best then you will end up playing messy. A maincaller’s purpose is to make sure that the entire team is working towards a common goal. So when the maincaller says push, everyone does it, and not just 3-4 people. It also prevents people from making a play in the wrong times amongst other things.
forgot to add that I meant in lower divisions where nobody in the team feels confident or experienced enough to maincall. woops.
It’s no coincidence that pretty much all the best teams in Europe and America have had a demo main calling, for all the reasons that Emilio has mentioned.
In lower levels heavy is a good option for main calling because whilst he is slower, the pace of the game is also a lot slower. Having 450 health means that he should die less, and thus have a better grasp of the flow of the game.
Medic is a poor choice in my opinion, since it usually involves too much risk against the ‘reward’; the medic usually has to commit himself if he wants to get vision on a situation, so often you make a blind judgement to see if it’s ok for you to actually go around a corner or whatever! Keeping track of uber etc is important, and often easiest for medics, but everyone can do it.
But the key is just to play the game and learn through experience, with no pressure on anyone. If someone steps up and takes on responsibility to be a main caller then everyone else has to respect that and be prepared for them to make mistakes. People only get better at calling by playing the game and gaining experience. I remember the days when Emilio couldn’t call at all, but now he’s one of the best. Sadly, there are no short cuts. Luckily you’ve got Linus and Emilio, the main callers for 4 of the last 6 HL champions giving you their insight ;)
Quoted from Bulow
Medic is a poor choice in my opinion, since it usually involves too much risk against the ‘reward’; the medic usually has to commit himself if he wants to get vision on a situation, so often you make a blind judgement to see if it’s ok for you to actually go around a corner or whatever! Keeping track of uber etc is important, and often easiest for medics, but everyone can do it.
yes!!!!!! no one understands that i cant see around the corner !!!
im not rude
Last edited by nibo,
Add A Reply Pages: 1 2 3 Next »
content rss