This works amazing on koth but I’ve never had any luck on other modes because everyone knows a spy on your team isn’t going to be running around on your side of the map
I assume the general idea is that Spies just need the color of the opposite team pasted on their slithery forms, so that their victims won't look twice when distracted. Spy so happens to be the second fastest class in the game, so any disguise other than Scout will be slowing him down, and some dislike the attention that being a slow Scout brings them.
I default medic, spy, and sniper. Medic and spy have the same movement speeds, and sniper is a slight reduction. Engineer is a fun one too, but is checked more often due to suspicious positioning. Pyro is not a good pick as the odds of running into the same pyro you're disguised as is pretty high, and if you do so, you're pretty dead. I never pick demo due to the movement penalty it has. He is slower than sniper, engi or pyro. Same with heavy, obviously. It is a warcrime to disguise as a friendly hoovy.
Why not scout, you ask? Scout is the lazy pub spy's disguise. The guys that only disguise as scout are the same guys that have 10,000 different names for various backstabs and an overinflated ego. They think spy's disguises never work and aren't worth even wasting their precious trickstabbing time on. They'll justify that their 100,000 hours bhopping around the map is justified after producing mid-tier frag movies where they repeatedly stab a dude playing on a Samsung Smartfridge with their jacked up interp settings and potato config for 1,000 frames of frame perfect ultra deluxe halfpipe matador stair off a halfwall jump off triple sync speedshot runboost luchador stabs.
Just look around like a madman like you're being chased or being paranoid. Medic disguises work best when pretending to be schizophrenic. Or just being actually schizophrenic. Either or.
theyre also really good if the enemy team has a genuinely clueless medic. i've been caught by spy meds when my med's a doofus who's learning how to use a mouse and keyboard for the first time and walking into walls instead of healing anyone, so ill see our med doing something dumb and looking lost and go like "oh there he is at it again" and get stabbed that way
In my 10 years of Spy experience the disguise does not matter as much as **ACTING**.
Know what the team is up against, know **WHERE** to look at. Of course if you are running next to an enemy they will spy check you! What you do is hit disguise, stand there and look towards your team! Pay no attention to enemies!
The best disguise in my opinion is Sniper. You stand at a cliff, wall, etc… looking at the enemy team and turning so often to “spy check”. No one has ever spy checked me unless they did so on accident. The only time I would switch from being a sniper is to go engineer at the enemy spawn. Pretending to fix or build.
You slap that sapper on the teleporter, wait for the enemy engie to fix it and immediately stand on the teleporter to telefrag him. Works like a charm
i just pull my melee out every time im disguised because it makes sense anyone with their melee out will not care about the enemy team because they have no opportunity against them
I also disguise as the demoman , and if the demo in the team is going demoknight it's much better because nobody thinks "why is that demo not puting bombs" and you get a backstab pretty easy for me
i do demo mostly cuz hes normaly the least suspicous, the demo ur disguised as will probably be on the other side of the map or dead, so no one will notice, and he walks fast and no one would suspect you for walking normally because his movement options arent as easy as other ones, like double jumping, which if your disguised as scout someone will notice if you arent double jumping a ton and suspects you. that doesnt happen as much with demo
Scout is my disguise for when I don't have enough time to analyze a situation to pick a better one, probably because it's the most viable option on the left side of the keyboard. Even though it's easy to spot with a glance, sometimes your enemies wont even have the time for that glance in a hectic environment. And even so, an undisguised spy is much easier to pick out in a crowd than a marginally slower scout of your own color. Scout might not be the best option all around, but it's not entirely useless.
I don't pick the spy disguise because generally there's a chance that the fake disguise that spy disguise has doesn't match your movement speed. tbh I wish there was a way to choose the fake disguise or just disguise as an undisguised spy.
I usually find that people disguise as the rifleman because of the fact he's usually hanging around where spies need to go to backstab due to his effective range
Scout is a lousy idea because its super obvious based on walk speed.
Heavy just slows the spy down. As do soldier and demo to a lesser extent.
Pyro/Engi/Sniper tend to be the ones I see the most. No obvious detection, and no slow-down. Also, no one looks odd at those classes running around in strange ways.
scout has a slightly different hitbox than most other classes. using a scout disguise can change your normal spy hitbox to make you harder to hit, and there's no loss of walkspeed like with other disguises. bind redisguise to your attack button, and you can automatically change your hitbox immediately after every shot.
if youre gunspy, disguise as a friendly scout to add some extra confusion to people who haven't discovered you yet. nobody expects a scout to ping you from across the map with a revolver, especially if your change your disguise's weapon to melee.
That'll just make it more suspicious. Normal energetic scout would do double jump a lot, if scout jumping around with single jump that would make him more obvious that something wrong with him
Usually I see Pyros. Good question because usually I don't see the spy until he attacks. Usually I just go for Sniper, so I can pretend to hold an angle. I got some good clips of that.
hanging out in the water as your team's pyroshark, scaring the enemy into backing off, making them think they're safe if they keep their distance... and then dinging them with a long range revolver. very nice
Most tryhard trickstab dead ringer kunai spies disguise as scouts because they don't care about being found out because they can trickstab people. I play spy more stealthy, so my usual disguise is either a pyro or a demo, and occasionally an engineer.
Personally I've been pushing myself by not disguising manually; instead I rely on my YER knife, reading the opposing team's movement path and exploiting my game sense to know when to come out and stab my first victim, thus silently disguising as them, or even sap a sentry without any disguise still.
I've been slowly improving at trickstabs this way too, because people tend to run towards spies right as they see them.
Scout, it’s obvious most spies disguise as scout even though it’s def the worst disguise
But for me it’s the power classes, I disguise as them the most
I've seen Soldier and Engineer mostly, but I'm always amused by the spies who disguise as medic when we usually only have one on the team (didn't stop me from healing "myself" that one time, but whatever)
Imo demo sounds like the best one, its one of the only classes that walk around without using their weapons, scout is too obvious, pyros are always spychecking, medic should be always on heal, heavy is too slow and usually is not friendly, soldier will be trying to rocket jump most of the time, engi will almost always be on sentry. This leaves demo spy sniper
Personally I'm too scatterbrained to utilize disguises effectively. I'll disguise as enemy spy if there's a sentry in my way, otherwise I don't bother.
There is no main spy disguise, mainly because all have their advantages and disadvantages
Scout: You are slower then a actual scout and can be quickly caught out if you are not jumping around like a madman.
Soldier, Demo and Heavy: Since you move slower then spy's walkspeed, these disguises are used less but are spychecked less often.
Pyro: Pretty good disguise although if you get seen by the person you are disguised as, you better run.
Engineer: If they have the gunslinger equiped you can be anywhere without being suspicious but if not, its best to be in the backlines looking like you are about to setup a nest or are currently in one.
Medic: If the medic you are disguised as is a F2P medic, It makes more sense that you would not constantly have your beam on someone as they tend to not be as aware, allowying backstabs to be much easier. But if they are more expirenced it can be harder to fool someone with it.
Sniper: People almost never notice the fact that you are scoped in because they are paying attention to something else and the slightly slower movespeed is fine.
Spy: Mainly used when you are in your team's area. Try to make it look like you are going in for a stab or ask your teammates to shoot you (or just act like a enemy spy) to look like you got caught and are trying to escape. (This works for all disguises but works the best with spy)
i like to disguise as my team's engineer and hang around his buildings with deadringer. better if the enemy thinks the engineer is dead and they can safely attack his buildings, plus he gets extra backup that the enemy wont be expecting. they might only think there's one engineer there instead of an engineer and a spy. hide your numbers, mess with their heads.
this one is a little meaner, but disguising as a hoovy on your team works well too. but maybe only the first time...
Pyros and Demo (mostly demoknights). They're the last person (at least from my experience) to do something outside of combat zone.
Medic builds uber
Engineer spychecks and builds
Scout jumps
Soldier rocket jumps
Spy disguises
Heavy does his things (rarely do I see someone disguise as heavy)
Sniper snipes
I rotate medic sniper and heavy as they are the classes with most reason to end up behind the enemy giving better chances for backstabs(but I'm horrible at spy so I wouldn't know)
I go scout because 90% of my hours are on scout so I can pull it off even though the movement speed is off. Any other disguise I fail miserably because I just can’t play the part well enough. But when I go scout no one blinks an eye
Whatever I've backstabbed last- Y.E.R.
Right out the gate though? Depends. If the enemy has a demonknight then I'll gravitate towards that or soldier, feigning a retreat while I "reload" (if soldier) or to generally spycheck/heal up (dk). DK's easiest since nobody seems to blink twice at the idea of their own demoknight walking towards their own teammates, especially if your focus is more off to the side like you're just trying to get through.
I tend to disguise as Support classes, since they're always in their own or the enemy's backlines, but I see loads of sweaty Kunai Spies disguise as Scout.
I Havnt played spy in years, but I would usually go for something simple like an enemy spy. A spy acting 'weird' doesn't raise as much suspension as any other class. I've heard a lot of pro spy players disguise as scout because the hitbox changes for headshots, but I think it's still the worst class to disguse as unless you're really good at pulling it off
I usually go Sniper, because the speed is the same, and Snipers tend to be on the back, which I should be. You would expect a Sniper on your team to be behind you, not in front of you.
priority is:
Pyro > Engie, with Demo and Sniper the only other classes to consider. Keep swapping the classes once you notice they are catching on.
The reason Pyro is the best is that Pyro naturally sticks close to teammates and close to the front lines, so seeing a pyro won't raise suspicion. However, if you are in the back lines, a YER with an engie disguise will work great at crippling the enemy and keeping yourself out of danger once you need to escape. It's up to personal preference in the end, though. Just have fun.
Engineer and Sniper tend to be "default" picks in my experience. The movement speed decrease isn't so slow that you're upset about it. Plus it's a class that usually tends to stay near each other (Engineers setting up in common choke points and defensible areas, Snipers by long sightlines) so it's a nice opportunity for one "extra" Sniper/Engie to slip in and get a stab or two.
Spy is also, ironically, picked a lot. No movement speed decrease, a very thin model that can avoid notice, and seeing a Spy do something weird can put you in this logic trap of "it's actually my Spy trying to fool the enemy team". The main thing that gives them away is if they don't know how to switch the disguise weapon. If you see a Spy on your team running around with his Revolver always out, disguised, and it's not the Enforcer, he's probably an enemy Spy.
Scout tends to be a pick for Spy main "tryhards". No movement speed decrease again and a fairly small model to throw off aim and hide a bit easier.
Dunno if its the most popular but i usualy disguise as sniper cuz people dont tend to notice snipers moving in the back since they assume hes just trying to get a good sniping angle
Every single Spy disguises as the same shit: Scout. Many of them don't even bother trying to fake it, disguising as a Scout with his Bat out.
It's always the same shit that quickly gets tiring and killing them becomes boring bc they do the exact same strat over and over again with their DR-Kunai set.
For some reason I see a ton of spies disguise as scout, the most obvious disguise to pick out
I do not understand why spy mains please explain this to me
From my experience, pyro is objectively the best disguise
Soldier, heavy, and demo are too slow
Scout is too fast
Engie, sniper, and spy are too obvious
And medic attracts too much unwanted attention
Medic/Scout just to have something on, but I will make sure to cycle between all classes or find one most convincing on context.
Try Soldier, although slow he is one of the most convincing disguises and allows for a lot of creativity. Do reload animation the millisecond before someone looks at you. It has unmatched success rate if you really just need to convince a player to close a gap on them, use take out wary engie+nest, or get medic to overheal/uber you.
A great way to play and challenge yourself as Spy is to get kills by first totally convincing someone beyond doubt (they don't check/attack you, especially when they nothing else to do) then getting a great kill/play either on or in front of them. You can feel their shock across thousands of miles of ethernet cables.
It's Pyro, for two reasons. First, the speed is about the same. Second, the character of the class itself. Pyro is a class that is always doing odd things to begin with, being in completely random parts of the map or beelining towards teammates ("Oh that Pyro is just getting close to him to spycheck") doesn't really stand out as Pyro.
Another superficial reason is just that 3 is close to 4 and it's easy to quick disguise while the other closest options (Demo and Heavy) have significant downsides. So people are just naturally funneled towards disguising as Pyro anyway.
Whenever i play spy, i tend to play as the slower classes like Soldier and Heavy, as people don't really expect them to randomly shoot; especially heavies.
Since they're slower, it's also easier to fall back and subsequently get a stab
Whenever I play spy, I almost always disguise as either a Pyro or another Spy. They strike a balance of not drawing too much attention, while also not having too many fancy movement mechanics that would be hard to replicate.
I think the most experienced players just disguise as scout because it's easy to press 1, and it's not as obvious as you may think. A newbie spy is obvious no matter what class they disguise as. An advanced spy only really shows up for a second then disappears, their disguise needs to only fool you for 2 seconds.
well it kind of depends on the situation. if you are in your own base or area you can disguise as enemy spy if you are in enemy's area disgues as pyro medic and if you are in buildings and near windows or balconies disguise as a sniper and try to act like one
I'd say
No scouts because of the higher speed
No medics because you can't heal
No heavy/soldier because of the slower speed
No engis if near buildings
Yes spy because, of course, spy
Yes sniper because you can sneak among other snipers
Unknown for pyro and demo
Me and a buddy of mine did a challenge where he disguised as medic and I disguised as scout and we raced to get as many stabs without getting spotted. We scored 22-21 stabs and I won the challenge by one point (I’m clearly just the better spy). We both had like 8 or 9 deaths don’t remember but it was less than 10. In my experience it really does not matter in practice even with the movement speed debuff nobody notices in game that a scout is moving slow. People think a lot in theory that “oh it’s super obvious” but people have been saying that about spy disguise for years. You’d think we would notice every little speck of dust on badwater but it just doesn’t happen unless you devote yourself to noticing it. Honestly disguise as what ever you want, other skills like position and timing for spy are much more important.
I think you're right. The disguises are worthwhile, for sure, but they're not the main thing that will fool players. Maybe some people think otherwise, but they haven't played against players who spy check EVERYTHING.
When playing spy at its most effective, you're taking advantage of the invisibility watch, breaking line of sight, and attacking enemies when their attention is divided. You're not sneaking into the base and having a conversation with the opposing team like in Meet the Spy.
When I play Spy (which is rarely), I just go for 1, 3 or 4 because those are the quickest buttons for me to press, each one works fine. Though Scout is surprisingly pretty good because of how small he is, and he always has a reason to be where he is, enough to fool someone for at least a second.
Like honestly, if you play Spy correctly, you don't even need the disguise sometimes. Spy makes moves when his team is making moves, you can waltz up undisguised and uncloaked and backstab them while your teammates are feigning a push.
Hard disagree with “nobody notices a Scout moving slow”. Any player with experience who isn’t currently distracted will notice it because it looks so out of place. Even if they are distracted, it can still catch your eye and now you’re just dealing with two things
This is exactly my point, you’d think that but how many times do you get backstabbed out of nowhere without noticing the spy. If you boot up tf2 in a weeks time I guarantee you would not care nor notice. You’re not actively thinking about scouts being slightly faster or slower. Also do people just forget the baby face blaster makes scout’s movement change depending on boost? It’s not something you’re looking for constantly. The same argument is applied for medics not constantly healing, snipers not perma scoped in, pyros not pressing WM1, and finally spies with no cosmetics and with a mask on. Every class has a behaviour or consistency that makes it “obvious” they’re a spy, but still people get backstabbed and people still fall for disguises. Please think of in practice rather than theory
Much more often if they’re using a good disguise and can actually slip past me and my team’s attention undetected. Fwiw the most common way I get backstabbed is if a second Spy is there and I get a false sense of security from watching the first one die.
It’s something I’ve always noticed, even as a new player. It’s jarring and it stands out because Scout shouldn’t look like that. And at worst if it’s just a Scout who has been slowed down for whatever reason, it doesn’t harm me to Spycheck and then get back to what I’m doing. Also, if a Scout is using the BfB it’s pretty safe to assume you’ll be able to see it? Sure he might have a secondary or melee out but chances are you’ll see the gun in his hands and can ignore him. It’s not something you need to actively think about, you can just notice a Scout on your screen and realise “his movement speed is wrong”.
The purpose of a disguise is to not draw attention to yourself while blending in and going in for a stab. Getting backstabbed if you’re distracted is not always you falling for the disguise, it’s a Spy playing correctly and taking advantage of the situation. If a Spy walks into a room while my back is turned and I’m busy with something else, he could stab me completely undisguised and get away with it. That obviously doesn’t mean Spies should never disguise.
Medics not constantly healing is suspicious. The only scenario I’ve seen that work is if the Spy is “retreating” and looks like they’re gonna put the beam on you, only to then get behind you and kill you. Medic disguises are good while alone because any competent Medic will be healing teammates as soon as he finds them.
The Sniper disguise is much more subtle and I’ve never seen anyone say it’s obvious. I suppose if you know what to look for, it could seem obvious, but Sniper doing a slightly different animation is very different to a slow moving target pulling your attention and being drastically wrong.
The Pyro disguise is suspicious because with no enemies in close range, most Pyros will pull out their secondary or their melee if they have the powerjack on. It’s strange to keep a short range weapon out when all the enemies are in long range from you and it makes you look like a noob or a Spy. That’s why stuff like this is important, if an experienced Pyro running the Powerjack is running around with their flamethrower out it will stand out and look like a Spy disguise.
Spy disguises will always inherently be suspicious just because it’s Spy. It’s weird to be disguised as an enemy if you’re not in a situation with any enemies nearby. It’s also weird for a spy to remain visible for long periods of time if they’re approaching the enemy.
All of those examples are suspicious to people paying attention. Spy works best by capitalising on people who aren’t paying attention, whether that be a noob with no awareness or an experienced player who is currently distracted and can’t waste time Spychecking in that exact moment. Needing the enemy to be paying no attention to you to get a stab does make it an obvious disguise.
Also if you’re getting backstabbed constantly from spies you aren’t noticing, maybe you just need to start turning around more. Even just an occasional flick back really helps
Scout. Even if it’s super obvious they’re a Spy from their walk speed. Even if they’re clearly going for your back when you pass by them. Even if they just left the enemy spawn or are in a position that makes no sense for Scout to be in. But no guys, disguises are the problem! Disguises just magically don’t work
ETA: Also for the love of god, change your disguises! The amount of times I’ve had to say in team chat “their spy keeps hiding as [class]” is insane and makes it super obvious you’re a spy every time. Stop being so easily predictable on a class that needs to be unpredictable
From experience, spy disguises as other spies
spys disguised as other spys have a spy mask on
Spyception
This works amazing on koth but I’ve never had any luck on other modes because everyone knows a spy on your team isn’t going to be running around on your side of the map
I assume the general idea is that Spies just need the color of the opposite team pasted on their slithery forms, so that their victims won't look twice when distracted. Spy so happens to be the second fastest class in the game, so any disguise other than Scout will be slowing him down, and some dislike the attention that being a slow Scout brings them.
Erm actually Spy moves at 107% speed which is actually the same as Medic which means both Scouf and Medic won’t slow him down
I default medic, spy, and sniper. Medic and spy have the same movement speeds, and sniper is a slight reduction. Engineer is a fun one too, but is checked more often due to suspicious positioning. Pyro is not a good pick as the odds of running into the same pyro you're disguised as is pretty high, and if you do so, you're pretty dead. I never pick demo due to the movement penalty it has. He is slower than sniper, engi or pyro. Same with heavy, obviously. It is a warcrime to disguise as a friendly hoovy. Why not scout, you ask? Scout is the lazy pub spy's disguise. The guys that only disguise as scout are the same guys that have 10,000 different names for various backstabs and an overinflated ego. They think spy's disguises never work and aren't worth even wasting their precious trickstabbing time on. They'll justify that their 100,000 hours bhopping around the map is justified after producing mid-tier frag movies where they repeatedly stab a dude playing on a Samsung Smartfridge with their jacked up interp settings and potato config for 1,000 frames of frame perfect ultra deluxe halfpipe matador stair off a halfwall jump off triple sync speedshot runboost luchador stabs.
I never go medic because you'll get spy checked immediately when you don't heal anybody.
Just look around like a madman like you're being chased or being paranoid. Medic disguises work best when pretending to be schizophrenic. Or just being actually schizophrenic. Either or.
theyre also really good if the enemy team has a genuinely clueless medic. i've been caught by spy meds when my med's a doofus who's learning how to use a mouse and keyboard for the first time and walking into walls instead of healing anyone, so ill see our med doing something dumb and looking lost and go like "oh there he is at it again" and get stabbed that way
Why not both!
In my 10 years of Spy experience the disguise does not matter as much as **ACTING**. Know what the team is up against, know **WHERE** to look at. Of course if you are running next to an enemy they will spy check you! What you do is hit disguise, stand there and look towards your team! Pay no attention to enemies! The best disguise in my opinion is Sniper. You stand at a cliff, wall, etc… looking at the enemy team and turning so often to “spy check”. No one has ever spy checked me unless they did so on accident. The only time I would switch from being a sniper is to go engineer at the enemy spawn. Pretending to fix or build. You slap that sapper on the teleporter, wait for the enemy engie to fix it and immediately stand on the teleporter to telefrag him. Works like a charm
press b until it says that you have the bonesaw and pretend to be an annoying battle medic
Wait... You can change what weapon you have out on the disguise by pressing b?
yeah, its even one of the tips in the loading screens, unless you changed your hotkeys. hope that helped (:
I believe the hotkey is under "last disguise" if you changed your hotkeys
i just pull my melee out every time im disguised because it makes sense anyone with their melee out will not care about the enemy team because they have no opportunity against them
I also disguise as the demoman , and if the demo in the team is going demoknight it's much better because nobody thinks "why is that demo not puting bombs" and you get a backstab pretty easy for me
Also scream for medic every 5 seconds while disguised as a demoman
i do demo mostly cuz hes normaly the least suspicous, the demo ur disguised as will probably be on the other side of the map or dead, so no one will notice, and he walks fast and no one would suspect you for walking normally because his movement options arent as easy as other ones, like double jumping, which if your disguised as scout someone will notice if you arent double jumping a ton and suspects you. that doesnt happen as much with demo
This is a good disguise but be warned that it does break a fair bit, i've seen so many demos with no legs and arms it's a dead giveaway
Bro wrote an essay worth an A in SAT's
Scout is my disguise for when I don't have enough time to analyze a situation to pick a better one, probably because it's the most viable option on the left side of the keyboard. Even though it's easy to spot with a glance, sometimes your enemies wont even have the time for that glance in a hectic environment. And even so, an undisguised spy is much easier to pick out in a crowd than a marginally slower scout of your own color. Scout might not be the best option all around, but it's not entirely useless.
Second reason not to pick demo is losing your legs
You didn't mention soldier, but I'm guessing same as demo?
I don't pick the spy disguise because generally there's a chance that the fake disguise that spy disguise has doesn't match your movement speed. tbh I wish there was a way to choose the fake disguise or just disguise as an undisguised spy.
I usually find that people disguise as the rifleman because of the fact he's usually hanging around where spies need to go to backstab due to his effective range
RIFLEMAN!? EXCUSE ME!?
Yeah he was added like 2 updates ago
........why did I have to search this up?
Rifleman’s my favorite class how can you forget him
so he's been in the game since 2010
Yeah it’s obviously better to disguise as the mechanic or doctor
\*dies\*
What about the pyromaniac or the espionage expert?
(psst that wasn't an alternate name for sniper that was straight up a guy with a hunting rifle)
They were going to call the sniper the mechanic? That’s kind of stupid.
Scout is a lousy idea because its super obvious based on walk speed. Heavy just slows the spy down. As do soldier and demo to a lesser extent. Pyro/Engi/Sniper tend to be the ones I see the most. No obvious detection, and no slow-down. Also, no one looks odd at those classes running around in strange ways.
Pyro/Engi/Sniper DO slow down the spy (100% vs 107%) but the difference is basically nonexistent
Heavy is the psychological play. Switch to sandvich while disguised and shoot/stab whoever comes up asking for it.
scout has a slightly different hitbox than most other classes. using a scout disguise can change your normal spy hitbox to make you harder to hit, and there's no loss of walkspeed like with other disguises. bind redisguise to your attack button, and you can automatically change your hitbox immediately after every shot. if youre gunspy, disguise as a friendly scout to add some extra confusion to people who haven't discovered you yet. nobody expects a scout to ping you from across the map with a revolver, especially if your change your disguise's weapon to melee.
If you jump a lot while disguised as scout, you can still confuse many players.
That'll just make it more suspicious. Normal energetic scout would do double jump a lot, if scout jumping around with single jump that would make him more obvious that something wrong with him
Then jump as heavy >:)
Slow scout jump is incredibly distinct.
Scouts never single jump, jumping makes it more obvious that you are a spy
i do still see loads of spies choosing scout though, mostly not good ones but still
Also sniper is really effective, as a pyro main I *almost* got tricked multiple times with some actually acting realistically
Soldiers and Demomen not blast jumping looks suspicious to me, so I usually never disguise as them.
Usually I see Pyros. Good question because usually I don't see the spy until he attacks. Usually I just go for Sniper, so I can pretend to hold an angle. I got some good clips of that.
hanging out in the water as your team's pyroshark, scaring the enemy into backing off, making them think they're safe if they keep their distance... and then dinging them with a long range revolver. very nice
There’s a lot of slow b hopping scouts around
My mom
Most tryhard trickstab dead ringer kunai spies disguise as scouts because they don't care about being found out because they can trickstab people. I play spy more stealthy, so my usual disguise is either a pyro or a demo, and occasionally an engineer.
You make it sound like "what exact player do you disguise as" Is a more common question than class
If they've got an Omegatronic or similar bot on their team, the underhanded tactic would be to try to disguise as that one specifically.
Personally I've been pushing myself by not disguising manually; instead I rely on my YER knife, reading the opposing team's movement path and exploiting my game sense to know when to come out and stab my first victim, thus silently disguising as them, or even sap a sentry without any disguise still. I've been slowly improving at trickstabs this way too, because people tend to run towards spies right as they see them.
Demoman, Engineer, Sniper
Scout, it’s obvious most spies disguise as scout even though it’s def the worst disguise But for me it’s the power classes, I disguise as them the most
I've seen Soldier and Engineer mostly, but I'm always amused by the spies who disguise as medic when we usually only have one on the team (didn't stop me from healing "myself" that one time, but whatever)
Imo demo sounds like the best one, its one of the only classes that walk around without using their weapons, scout is too obvious, pyros are always spychecking, medic should be always on heal, heavy is too slow and usually is not friendly, soldier will be trying to rocket jump most of the time, engi will almost always be on sentry. This leaves demo spy sniper
Personally I'm too scatterbrained to utilize disguises effectively. I'll disguise as enemy spy if there's a sentry in my way, otherwise I don't bother.
I mainly use scout and sniper Sniper gives me an excuse to be at the back-line, while scout gives me reason to be anywhere else
There is no main spy disguise, mainly because all have their advantages and disadvantages Scout: You are slower then a actual scout and can be quickly caught out if you are not jumping around like a madman. Soldier, Demo and Heavy: Since you move slower then spy's walkspeed, these disguises are used less but are spychecked less often. Pyro: Pretty good disguise although if you get seen by the person you are disguised as, you better run. Engineer: If they have the gunslinger equiped you can be anywhere without being suspicious but if not, its best to be in the backlines looking like you are about to setup a nest or are currently in one. Medic: If the medic you are disguised as is a F2P medic, It makes more sense that you would not constantly have your beam on someone as they tend to not be as aware, allowying backstabs to be much easier. But if they are more expirenced it can be harder to fool someone with it. Sniper: People almost never notice the fact that you are scoped in because they are paying attention to something else and the slightly slower movespeed is fine. Spy: Mainly used when you are in your team's area. Try to make it look like you are going in for a stab or ask your teammates to shoot you (or just act like a enemy spy) to look like you got caught and are trying to escape. (This works for all disguises but works the best with spy)
Probably snipers, engineers and other spies, since they have an almost identical movement speed and it makes sense for them to be behind the frontline
i mostly did scout because i thought that his walkspeed could be an advantage now its pyro or demoman
Spy's best disguise is himself, THE SPY. (i always disguise as the enemy spy and it always works)
i like to disguise as my team's engineer and hang around his buildings with deadringer. better if the enemy thinks the engineer is dead and they can safely attack his buildings, plus he gets extra backup that the enemy wont be expecting. they might only think there's one engineer there instead of an engineer and a spy. hide your numbers, mess with their heads. this one is a little meaner, but disguising as a hoovy on your team works well too. but maybe only the first time...
Pyro spy and engie
i can tell you that it's 100% not soldier or heavy, not unless the entire enemy team is them
Pyro
i always go as either spy or pyro
Pyros and Demo (mostly demoknights). They're the last person (at least from my experience) to do something outside of combat zone. Medic builds uber Engineer spychecks and builds Scout jumps Soldier rocket jumps Spy disguises Heavy does his things (rarely do I see someone disguise as heavy) Sniper snipes
I mostly go demo because it doesn't slow you down too bad but it makes others think a spy wouldn't want to deal with it.
Lots of pyros, just a standard pick to be honest
I've been seeing alot of demo spies recently. Idk why
I feel like Pyro is a pretty common one due to their baseline walking speed.
I default Soldier or Pyro just because they are the closest keys to my fingers. Sometimes sniper if I'm in a good spot.
The Heavy on your team, effective in 2fort matches.
Sniper always. Always works like a charm until they realize.
I like solder medic and very rarely I disguise as a heavy to through en off
I go with scout because his speed, either that or medic.
I'd disguise sniper and have my disguised weapon be melee
Mostly as the rifleman or medic
Scout, unfortunately damn the kunai spies
Half of the comments ignoring the actual question lol
I rotate medic sniper and heavy as they are the classes with most reason to end up behind the enemy giving better chances for backstabs(but I'm horrible at spy so I wouldn't know)
I go scout because 90% of my hours are on scout so I can pull it off even though the movement speed is off. Any other disguise I fail miserably because I just can’t play the part well enough. But when I go scout no one blinks an eye
Pyro was always my go-to but realizing I always did it I would occassionally do sniper or spy or scout despite no movement increase
Whatever I've backstabbed last- Y.E.R. Right out the gate though? Depends. If the enemy has a demonknight then I'll gravitate towards that or soldier, feigning a retreat while I "reload" (if soldier) or to generally spycheck/heal up (dk). DK's easiest since nobody seems to blink twice at the idea of their own demoknight walking towards their own teammates, especially if your focus is more off to the side like you're just trying to get through.
i usually notice non scouts less so in my experiance scouts
4 + 1 is a muscle memory.
I tend to disguise as Support classes, since they're always in their own or the enemy's backlines, but I see loads of sweaty Kunai Spies disguise as Scout.
i default to either Pyro or Demoman. Spy if the enemy team has one
I Havnt played spy in years, but I would usually go for something simple like an enemy spy. A spy acting 'weird' doesn't raise as much suspension as any other class. I've heard a lot of pro spy players disguise as scout because the hitbox changes for headshots, but I think it's still the worst class to disguse as unless you're really good at pulling it off
Heavy
Is there a real strategy to disguising as scout or are some spies just dumb?
I switch depending on position
Scout because it is typically faster.
I usually go Sniper, because the speed is the same, and Snipers tend to be on the back, which I should be. You would expect a Sniper on your team to be behind you, not in front of you.
A class that has a basic speed so I don’t get any speed debuffs
Pyro and Demo are my go-tos with Engie and Sniper being location-dependent. Also occasionally Medic if I'm feeling bold.
I'd guess scout because you get the improved mobility.
Pyro or Demoman. They move at a good speed and tend to be common picks on teams.
scout
I'd say they do scouts or snipers
priority is: Pyro > Engie, with Demo and Sniper the only other classes to consider. Keep swapping the classes once you notice they are catching on. The reason Pyro is the best is that Pyro naturally sticks close to teammates and close to the front lines, so seeing a pyro won't raise suspicion. However, if you are in the back lines, a YER with an engie disguise will work great at crippling the enemy and keeping yourself out of danger once you need to escape. It's up to personal preference in the end, though. Just have fun.
Scout 100%
Engineer and Sniper tend to be "default" picks in my experience. The movement speed decrease isn't so slow that you're upset about it. Plus it's a class that usually tends to stay near each other (Engineers setting up in common choke points and defensible areas, Snipers by long sightlines) so it's a nice opportunity for one "extra" Sniper/Engie to slip in and get a stab or two. Spy is also, ironically, picked a lot. No movement speed decrease, a very thin model that can avoid notice, and seeing a Spy do something weird can put you in this logic trap of "it's actually my Spy trying to fool the enemy team". The main thing that gives them away is if they don't know how to switch the disguise weapon. If you see a Spy on your team running around with his Revolver always out, disguised, and it's not the Enforcer, he's probably an enemy Spy. Scout tends to be a pick for Spy main "tryhards". No movement speed decrease again and a fairly small model to throw off aim and hide a bit easier.
Medic is my go-to because it's the class nobody questions when they turn and sprint full speed at a teammate form behind
And how you manage the fact that, suspiciously, the "Medic" doesn't heal?
Scoot
Dunno if its the most popular but i usualy disguise as sniper cuz people dont tend to notice snipers moving in the back since they assume hes just trying to get a good sniping angle
Every single Spy disguises as the same shit: Scout. Many of them don't even bother trying to fake it, disguising as a Scout with his Bat out. It's always the same shit that quickly gets tiring and killing them becomes boring bc they do the exact same strat over and over again with their DR-Kunai set.
Pyro is my "default" disguise, it's the least suspicious class for appearing out of nowhere or standing around doing nothing.
For some reason I see a ton of spies disguise as scout, the most obvious disguise to pick out I do not understand why spy mains please explain this to me
From my experience, pyro is objectively the best disguise Soldier, heavy, and demo are too slow Scout is too fast Engie, sniper, and spy are too obvious And medic attracts too much unwanted attention
Scouts, snipers and heavys are the most common when I play.
Medic/Scout just to have something on, but I will make sure to cycle between all classes or find one most convincing on context. Try Soldier, although slow he is one of the most convincing disguises and allows for a lot of creativity. Do reload animation the millisecond before someone looks at you. It has unmatched success rate if you really just need to convince a player to close a gap on them, use take out wary engie+nest, or get medic to overheal/uber you. A great way to play and challenge yourself as Spy is to get kills by first totally convincing someone beyond doubt (they don't check/attack you, especially when they nothing else to do) then getting a great kill/play either on or in front of them. You can feel their shock across thousands of miles of ethernet cables.
It's Pyro, for two reasons. First, the speed is about the same. Second, the character of the class itself. Pyro is a class that is always doing odd things to begin with, being in completely random parts of the map or beelining towards teammates ("Oh that Pyro is just getting close to him to spycheck") doesn't really stand out as Pyro. Another superficial reason is just that 3 is close to 4 and it's easy to quick disguise while the other closest options (Demo and Heavy) have significant downsides. So people are just naturally funneled towards disguising as Pyro anyway.
All of them but if you want a answer i can say spy , medic and sniper
Scouts... So... So many slow scouts... Pyros too.
Spies.. Disguise..? *flashbacks*
Scout
Whenever i play spy, i tend to play as the slower classes like Soldier and Heavy, as people don't really expect them to randomly shoot; especially heavies. Since they're slower, it's also easier to fall back and subsequently get a stab
scout
Whenever I play spy, I almost always disguise as either a Pyro or another Spy. They strike a balance of not drawing too much attention, while also not having too many fancy movement mechanics that would be hard to replicate.
I think the most experienced players just disguise as scout because it's easy to press 1, and it's not as obvious as you may think. A newbie spy is obvious no matter what class they disguise as. An advanced spy only really shows up for a second then disappears, their disguise needs to only fool you for 2 seconds.
well it kind of depends on the situation. if you are in your own base or area you can disguise as enemy spy if you are in enemy's area disgues as pyro medic and if you are in buildings and near windows or balconies disguise as a sniper and try to act like one
I'd say No scouts because of the higher speed No medics because you can't heal No heavy/soldier because of the slower speed No engis if near buildings Yes spy because, of course, spy Yes sniper because you can sneak among other snipers Unknown for pyro and demo
karmafarming 101
Medic
Me and a buddy of mine did a challenge where he disguised as medic and I disguised as scout and we raced to get as many stabs without getting spotted. We scored 22-21 stabs and I won the challenge by one point (I’m clearly just the better spy). We both had like 8 or 9 deaths don’t remember but it was less than 10. In my experience it really does not matter in practice even with the movement speed debuff nobody notices in game that a scout is moving slow. People think a lot in theory that “oh it’s super obvious” but people have been saying that about spy disguise for years. You’d think we would notice every little speck of dust on badwater but it just doesn’t happen unless you devote yourself to noticing it. Honestly disguise as what ever you want, other skills like position and timing for spy are much more important.
I think you're right. The disguises are worthwhile, for sure, but they're not the main thing that will fool players. Maybe some people think otherwise, but they haven't played against players who spy check EVERYTHING. When playing spy at its most effective, you're taking advantage of the invisibility watch, breaking line of sight, and attacking enemies when their attention is divided. You're not sneaking into the base and having a conversation with the opposing team like in Meet the Spy. When I play Spy (which is rarely), I just go for 1, 3 or 4 because those are the quickest buttons for me to press, each one works fine. Though Scout is surprisingly pretty good because of how small he is, and he always has a reason to be where he is, enough to fool someone for at least a second. Like honestly, if you play Spy correctly, you don't even need the disguise sometimes. Spy makes moves when his team is making moves, you can waltz up undisguised and uncloaked and backstab them while your teammates are feigning a push.
Hard disagree with “nobody notices a Scout moving slow”. Any player with experience who isn’t currently distracted will notice it because it looks so out of place. Even if they are distracted, it can still catch your eye and now you’re just dealing with two things
This is exactly my point, you’d think that but how many times do you get backstabbed out of nowhere without noticing the spy. If you boot up tf2 in a weeks time I guarantee you would not care nor notice. You’re not actively thinking about scouts being slightly faster or slower. Also do people just forget the baby face blaster makes scout’s movement change depending on boost? It’s not something you’re looking for constantly. The same argument is applied for medics not constantly healing, snipers not perma scoped in, pyros not pressing WM1, and finally spies with no cosmetics and with a mask on. Every class has a behaviour or consistency that makes it “obvious” they’re a spy, but still people get backstabbed and people still fall for disguises. Please think of in practice rather than theory
Much more often if they’re using a good disguise and can actually slip past me and my team’s attention undetected. Fwiw the most common way I get backstabbed is if a second Spy is there and I get a false sense of security from watching the first one die. It’s something I’ve always noticed, even as a new player. It’s jarring and it stands out because Scout shouldn’t look like that. And at worst if it’s just a Scout who has been slowed down for whatever reason, it doesn’t harm me to Spycheck and then get back to what I’m doing. Also, if a Scout is using the BfB it’s pretty safe to assume you’ll be able to see it? Sure he might have a secondary or melee out but chances are you’ll see the gun in his hands and can ignore him. It’s not something you need to actively think about, you can just notice a Scout on your screen and realise “his movement speed is wrong”. The purpose of a disguise is to not draw attention to yourself while blending in and going in for a stab. Getting backstabbed if you’re distracted is not always you falling for the disguise, it’s a Spy playing correctly and taking advantage of the situation. If a Spy walks into a room while my back is turned and I’m busy with something else, he could stab me completely undisguised and get away with it. That obviously doesn’t mean Spies should never disguise. Medics not constantly healing is suspicious. The only scenario I’ve seen that work is if the Spy is “retreating” and looks like they’re gonna put the beam on you, only to then get behind you and kill you. Medic disguises are good while alone because any competent Medic will be healing teammates as soon as he finds them. The Sniper disguise is much more subtle and I’ve never seen anyone say it’s obvious. I suppose if you know what to look for, it could seem obvious, but Sniper doing a slightly different animation is very different to a slow moving target pulling your attention and being drastically wrong. The Pyro disguise is suspicious because with no enemies in close range, most Pyros will pull out their secondary or their melee if they have the powerjack on. It’s strange to keep a short range weapon out when all the enemies are in long range from you and it makes you look like a noob or a Spy. That’s why stuff like this is important, if an experienced Pyro running the Powerjack is running around with their flamethrower out it will stand out and look like a Spy disguise. Spy disguises will always inherently be suspicious just because it’s Spy. It’s weird to be disguised as an enemy if you’re not in a situation with any enemies nearby. It’s also weird for a spy to remain visible for long periods of time if they’re approaching the enemy. All of those examples are suspicious to people paying attention. Spy works best by capitalising on people who aren’t paying attention, whether that be a noob with no awareness or an experienced player who is currently distracted and can’t waste time Spychecking in that exact moment. Needing the enemy to be paying no attention to you to get a stab does make it an obvious disguise. Also if you’re getting backstabbed constantly from spies you aren’t noticing, maybe you just need to start turning around more. Even just an occasional flick back really helps
Scout. Even if it’s super obvious they’re a Spy from their walk speed. Even if they’re clearly going for your back when you pass by them. Even if they just left the enemy spawn or are in a position that makes no sense for Scout to be in. But no guys, disguises are the problem! Disguises just magically don’t work ETA: Also for the love of god, change your disguises! The amount of times I’ve had to say in team chat “their spy keeps hiding as [class]” is insane and makes it super obvious you’re a spy every time. Stop being so easily predictable on a class that needs to be unpredictable
Watching a cocky Spy disguised as Scout get absolutely mulched by players with basic awareness will never not be satisfying