Team Fortress 2/Soldier

The Soldier is another attack class. They are slow, with only the Heavy moving slower, and they have 200 points of health. They carry:


 * a rocket launcher (weapon 1) - this is the Soldier's main weapon. It does a lot of damage (especially on direct hits and criticals) and can hold four rockets at once. Using the rocket effectively takes some skill, but more often than not just firing rockets wildly into cramped spaces or other entrances will yield at least some damage, if not a kill. The rocket's deadliness diminishes with range since it moves slowly, but up close it can sometimes take out tougher enemies like the Pyro outright in one hit, regardless of critical. You can also perform rocket jumps with this weapon (see Using the Soldier)
 * a pump-action shotgun (weapon 2) - this is a standard shotgun, which is useful for dealing with faster targets that the rocket launcher can't hit. The spread of this weapon is less than that of the Scattergun, so its effective range is greater, but it does slightly less damage at close range (point-blank, both the scattergun and the shotgun do similar damage). This is by no means a weak weapon, and a good backup.
 * a collapsible shovel (weapon 3) - this is the Soldier's melee weapon. The swing time is quite slow, but like melee weapons they're powerful, but are probably limited to sneak attacks or humiliating people (killing enemies with the shovel is quite difficult).

Using the Soldier
The Soldier has a lot of health which means they can take significant punishment before they go down. This contributes to their rocket launcher primary weapon, which often requires them to be in the line of fire to get a clear shot. Their rockets are also useful at range against mostly static targets, like Snipers (providing they don't kill you first), Sentries and other buildings. Two, at most three, direct hits from a rocket will kill anything providing they're not being healed or repaired.

They are also surprisingly good at close range, since their health allows them to be reckless with the rocket launcher, dealing with low-health enemies quickly by firing a rocket when they're pretty much toe-to-toe with someone and soaking up the splash damage whilst they fly away in small bloody bits.

However, Soldiers are quite slow and susceptible to Snipers and Spies, so remaining behind cover as much as possible is a good idea, and be vigilant about anybody who tries to get behind you (although this is a problem for any class that moves slower than a Spy). Unless a Heavy is nearby, Soldiers make good teams with Medics, allowing them to be even more reckless.

The rocket jump is one other perk about being a Soldier, since a correctly-performed rocket jump can propel a Soldier ridiculous distances (i.e. from the front entrance to Cap C of Gravel Pit all the way up to the top of the tower where the control point is) at the cost of losing a chunk of health. Since this opens up a lot of potential shortcuts to a skilled Soldier, this can greatly make up for his lack of speed, allowing him to reach places as fast as a Scout would. It can also be exploited to start battles before time, for example in Well, where a Soldier can rocket-jump over the cargo containers separating the two sides in the middle and start firing rockets at enemies waiting to be let into the central control point (although this also has the downside of pitting the Soldier against three or four enemies at once, which might be too much to handle).

Defeating Soldiers
There is usually multiple Soldiers on a decent-sized team, so often you will have to deal with more than Soldier at once. Staying mobile is important, but also make sure you dodge the rockets as opposed to moving randomly since especially against two or three Soldiers the number of rockets in flight can make you walk straight into one. Soldiers are best taken out at range since their rockets take time to travel distances, whereas a Sniper bullet travels almost instantly and has a much larger effective range. Failing that, surprising them with a Pyro, another Soldier or a Heavy/Medic combo is also effective at dealing lots of damage to multiple Soldiers in small spaces, especially since they can fire rockets around and wind up killing themselves with the blasts.

Rocket jumping carries the downside of health loss, so if a Soldier manages to take a particularly big shortcut with one such jump, they'll be a little easier to deal with. Also since Medics will often attach themselves to Soldiers if a Heavy is not available, a Soldier/Medic team can be dealt with if you kill the Medic first. If they use an Übercharge, then avoid them until it's over, then ambush the Medic.