Vorsprung's TITs: Episode 1

Health: 125 base, 185 overhealed
Speed: 133%
Special Ability: Double-Jump
Normal Melee Strength: 35 damage
The Scout is a very versatile class, and one of the four professional competition classes. Why? It’s simple. The Scout is the fastest of all the classes, and can quite literally run rings around the competition. His primary weapons all have the ability to inflict massive amounts of damage instantly at close range. His double-jump allows him to access areas most other classes can’t, and he captures control points and pushes carts at double the rate.

Scouts are a great class to choose in most game types. In Attack / Defend, King of the Hill, Arena and Control Points, they can rush ahead to uncaptured points and quickly claim them for their team. In Payload or Payload Race, they can push carts at double the rate, and thus can be invaluable. They also thrive at Hydro (Territorial Control), where often they make the difference between a win or a loss.
That being said, Scouts have a number of shortcomings. Being the weakest of the classes, he’s easily dispatched, and can be killed in one hit by Demomen or Soldiers. They are also notoriously inefficient at long range. A Scout is more or less defenceless when it comes to one-on-one confrontations, and his Scattergun can suffer from inaccuracy.

Capture the Flag: Scouts do well on CTF, as they can quickly snatch up the flag, and return it to their base with ease. However, they can easily be decimated in the firefight that often appears in the middle of the map, and they can be cut down to size by Sentries.

Control Points: Scouts also thrive on CP maps. They can reach points quickly, and thus clear ground further afield for the rest of the team. They’ll have difficulty defending points, however.

Attack / Defend: An attacking (BLU) Scout will be very successful here, as they’ll be able to capture the points quickly. However, it’s a very bad idea for a Scout to defend (RED). Being a Scout on RED on Attack / Defend is a bad idea. Because there’s no points to capture as RED, the Scout’s point bonuses are useless, and their low health and sketchy weapons are not good against BLU forces.

Territorial Control: Hydro, the only TC map, is a great map for Scouts. The map is very large, but Scouts can easily navigate it with ease. (They can also clear the many crevasses and drops around the different stages.) Their slight profile and quick speed makes them hard to kill here.

Payload: Once again, a BLU Scout will be deadly here, and they can be a driving force pushing the cart. Being a RED Scout is not a good plan, unless it’s a large map, where they may have some success getting to BLU quicker.

Payload Race: Scouts can be useful here – the team will be at an advantage if they can push the cart quickly. That being said, they can fall prey to cunning Snipers whilst pushing the cart, and when the two carts meet up, they’ll usually be the first victims.

Arena: Arena’s not a game mode that appears often, so you shouldn’t worry about it too much. If you’re playing on a map with only a few people, Scout’s a good choice, as you’ll be able to simply avoid the enemy, and capture the point quickly when it’s open. Otherwise, they’re not a great choice, as their low health will put them at a major disadvantage.

King of the Hill: Scouts will do O.K. on KOTH maps. Although they’ll be able to get to the point quickly, and capture it for the team, ultimately they won’t be able to defend the point well.

Medieval Mode: Scouts aren’t a great choice for Medieval Mode. Their low health and very weak melee weapons do not do them any justice. However, they will be able to capture points quickly, and avoid cumbersome opponents. An uncommon but unusually effective tactic is to team up with a friendly Pyro with the Sharpened Volcano Fragment (or a friendly Sniper with a Huntsman who can light up his arrows using other sources) and wield the Sun-On-A-Stick. Then, you can work as a team to burn the enemy and then score crits with the Sun-On-A-Stick.

Scout vs. Scout: Opposing Scouts will likely be adversaries; for example, they’ll both be working to capture points in CP, KOTH, TC or Arena maps. They’ll also be able to keep up with each other. It will likely come down to weapons choice and / or skill when it comes to Scout on Scout combat.
Friendly Scouts can work together to capture points and push carts, but will still be weak targets for the enemy.

Scout vs. Soldier: If you’re not careful as a Scout, Soldiers will make short work of you. Soldiers can either leave you at critical health or outright kill you in just one shot of their Rocket Launcher. You’ll also be tossed a fair bit by rocket splash damage, too. Watch out for Soldiers attempting aerials. If you can get up-and-close with a Soldier, you’ll do much better, as their rockets will only serve to harm themselves more than you. Still, be careful of their Shotgun, and also their Equalizer, where applicable. In most cases, your speed will be enough to avoid their rockets.
Soldiers and Scouts can work together to clear out points before capturing them. Apart from that, the Soldier’s tardiness just won’t be able to keep up with the Scout.

Scout vs. Pyro Pyros pose a significant threat to Scouts. Scouts are incredibly vulnerable to a Pyro’s flamethrower, and although a Pyro will be unlikely to finish you off with a melee attack, or get you with his secondary weapons, if you get too close, he’ll decimate you with his afterburn. You’re also quite vulnerable to his airblast. Stay away from Pyros and harass them with your Pistol, where possible.
Pyros and Scouts can work together reasonably effectively. Pyros can clear out threats such as stickybombs, grenades, rockets or even Sentries, and can pave the way for you to attack. They can also protect you whilst you capture a point, and extinguish you if you are on fire. In Medieval Mode, if you team up with a Pyro using the Sharpened Volcano Fragment, whilst you use the Sun-On-A-Stick, you can do some damage. In many ways, Pyros and Scouts are great partners.

Scout vs. Demoman: Be careful of enemy Demos. It’s unlikely that they’ll score a direct hit on you with their grenades or stickybombs, but stickybomb carpets and primed grenades will maim you, and toss you up into the air, leaving you open to aerials. That being said, you can use your Pistol or Scattergun to destroy stickies, and if you come into close combat with a Demo, they’ll be more or less defenceless. (Watch out for grenade direct hits, though.) Also be wary of a Eyelander-wielding Demo. Its long range can be deadly to you. Note that a Chargin’ Targe or Splendid Screen Demo can go faster than you when charging.
Scouts and Demomen will seldom work together. However, Demos can effectively remove Engineer installations, paving the way for you to attack.

Scout vs. Heavy: The Scout and the Heavy are natural rivals, and the antithesis of each other. The Scout is weak but fast, and the Heavy is slow but strong. Because of this, confrontations can be relatively balanced. A Heavy will be able to mow you down in mere seconds, so keep moving. Their high health will also make them a difficult target. That being said, their large body will soak up a large amount of Scattergun fire, and they are less effective at distance, so use your Pistol on them. If you can manage to get up close, you can really rustle their jimmies. You can, quite literally, run circles around them, punching large amounts of health out with your Scattergun, and pounding them with your bat.
Because of their differences, Scouts and Heavies will unlikely be working together. You’ll probably be way ahead of your Heavy buddy. But, if punch comes to punch, Heavies can clear the way for you, and can act as a bodyshield.

Scout vs. Engineer: You are extremely vulnerable to Sentries. You’ll feel their knockback more than any other class, and you’ll be likely killed instantly when up against a Level 3. It’s also hard for you to kill Sentries. Try and use your Pistol to shoot at them at a distance. That being said, you can me a menace to unattended Dispensers and Teleporters, and an Engy will be no match for you. It’s as simple a matter as outrunning him, and finishing him off with your Scattergun. You’ll do fine if you stay away from his Sentries, and focus on him.
Although you won’t be much good defending a friendly Engy’s buildings, his Dispenser can be life-saving for you. Just don’t be a dick and use up all his ammo, or make him or others wait for a Teleporter trip. Just run there yourself, goddammit!

Scout vs. Sniper: Snipers pose little threat to you. 99% of the time, you’ll be moving, and you should be moving. Thus, Snipers won’t be able to get a headshot on you. However, be careful whilst pushing carts, for example, because even an uncharged bodyshot will do a large amount of damage to you. In close-range combat, you’ll be able to dominate a Sniper. They simply won’t be able to deal with you. Be careful of a Tribalman’s Shiv-wielding Sniper; the bleed effect will hit you hard. Jarate can also be deadly to you. But realistically, Snipers are the least of your worries.
Scouts and Snipers will seldom work together. However, you can both use your Jarate and Mad Milk, respectively, to extinguish each other, and teammates.

Scout vs. Medic: Medics are a priority target for you. They’re pretty easy to take out, too. Their largely inaccurate Syringe Gun won’t be an issue for you. That being said, Medics are usually with other classes, such as Heavies. In that case, you won’t stand a chance. Always look for opportunities to isolate an enemy Medic from their team, and dispatch them.
A Medic is unlikely to Ubercharge you, as your low health, relatively weak and inaccurate weapons, and your speed that’s hard to keep up with, will mean Medics will largely ignore you. However, their overheal can be quite useful to you. All being said and done, a Medic with the Quick-Fix will be able to run at your speed whilst they’re healing you, so you can be quite an effective team.

Scout vs. Spy: Apart from the obvious ‘be on the lookout for Spies’, they won’t be an issue for you. You’re a hard target to backstab, as long as you keep moving, and it’s hard for a Spy to gun you down. Conversely, you’ll be able to kill them quite efficiently, and you can even use your Mad Milk to reveal their location (a hit from your Boston Basher will also kill them quickly, as well as reveal them.) You can also be a reasonably effective Spy-checker.
Scouts and Spies don’t and shouldn’t work together. There’s zero advantage to sticking together. The only thing you two can do together is you can extinguish a friendly Spy with your Mad Milk. Although that’s useful, that’s about it.

1: Advanced Jump Tips
REQUIRES: N / A
The Scout’s key skill, besides his speed, is his double-jump. When used correctly, it can let the Scout take advantage of other classes, instead of just jump a little further.
The most obvious thing to do with the double-jump is to access areas most other classes can’t. For example, a Scout can use his double-jump to jump onto the upper echelon in the intel rooms in Turbine, where he can access a medikit. Another use of the double-jump is to jump on top of the Payload cart, which can be a useful thing to do (although, it does leave you open to headshots). You can also use the double-jump to change direction mid-air, which is great for bamboozling Snipers and slow classes. You can even use your second jump to avoid fall damage. Finally, you can use the jump to strafe mid-air, maintaining your speed and being tactical at the same time, and you can also use it to effectively ‘bunny-hop’. Bunny-hopping takes advantage of the way the Source engine works. When you jump, you cover more distance, but you can maintain your speed. Because of this, you can go marginally faster if you continually jump. This effect can be even more useful for the Scout, because of his second jump. You can give yourself a triple-jump if you equip the Atomizer, a craftable melee weapon. It allows you to have a third jump, at the cost of 10 health at the third jump. (The bat does marginally less damage, though.) This can be used to go even further.

2: The Force-A-Nature Jump
REQUIRES: Force-A-Nature
The Scout’s double-jump is an incredibly useful ability, but it’s not always good enough when it comes to accessing some special areas. Plus, the Atomizer, although useful, does hurt you a fair bit, and often does more bad than good. However, there is a way for you to get a bigger jump without losing health.
The Force-A-Nature is an unlockable primary weapon which has a +50% faster firing speed and gives +20% bullets per shot (at the cost of a -10% damage penalty and -60% clip size, meaning you’ll have to be reloading often). However, its most useful ability is this: it delivers’ knockback’ on both the target and shooter.
When you shoot someone with it, this will knock them backwards, hence ‘knockback’. This can be useful in combat. That being said, it knocks you back, too, when you fire it, which can be very noticeable if you shoot in mid-air. However, you can use this knockback effect to simulate a jump, allowing you to go further.
It’s as simple as this.
1: Jump once or twice.
2: When mid-air, fire your Force-A-Nature (at the ground).
3: Fly, birdy, fly!
4: Continue to fire for more airtime.
Coupled with the Atomizer, this can give you a quadruple jump!
You don’t necessarily have to fire at your feet, either. You’ll get knocked back no matter which way you point it. That means you can also use it for greater propulsion, to reduce fall damage, or even for a quicker descent. Mind you, the first two shots seem to be the most effective. If you fire after the first two, it’s nowhere near as effective. So make it count.
This technique is useful, as it means you conserve health, and you minimize the risk of fall damage. (The Force-A-Nature jump seems to slow you down a little, which means you can reduce the risk of fall damage. You can also fire at the ground to slow you down.) It also means you can access hard-to-reach areas in maps, giving you massive tactical advantage. For example, you can use the Force-A-Nature jump to access the opposing team’s spawn area from the bridge in 2Fort, or completely bypass the tall dividing fence to the other team’s half in Sawmill. Not to mention, you can also use it to rain down pain on unwitting foes.

3: The Boston Basher Jump
REQUIRES: The Boston Basher / Three-Rune Blade
You thought I couldn’t come up with any more jump techniques? YOU’RE WRONG, TUNAPIANO!
The Boston Basher is a craftable melee weapon that, on hit, will make an enemy bleed for 5 seconds, dealing significant damage. However, if you miss, or swing carelessly, you hit yourself (idiot). This can leave you on significantly low health. Whilst you bleed out, you suffer periodical knockback. You can use this knockback to simulate jumps, much like you can use the knockback of the Force-A-Nature to simulate jumps. Better still, the Basher jump is fully automatic. It really makes your jump a lot larger. If you use in it conjunction with your Force-A-Nature, you can have a very large jump, albeit a very slow and painful one. Always use the Basher jump with caution. It will leave you almost dead, and can kill you if you’re not on 100% health. Aim to use it whilst under the influence of a Medic beam, or if you’re overhealed.

A good Scout is a very dangerous force on the battlefield. However, a bad Scout is a massive detriment to the team. It’s always a good idea to go Scout when attacking, but don’t go Scout if you’re defending. Also, avoid having too much Scouts on the team. It seems to me that Scout is an abused class, in that a LOT of people play it - which is not a good thing, because most people are shit as Scout, and the Scout is a very weak class. Try to have under 3 Scouts on a team, and no more than 1 if you’re defending. Other than that, all I can say is to utilise the Scout’s innate agility, and be aggressive in attack.
Top Tip #1: Use hit-and-run tactics.
Top Tip #2: Take advantage of your +1 capture bonus
Top Tip #3: Don’t have too many Scouts on the team.