Team Fortress 2/Soldier

The Soldier is the main combat class in TF2. As long as he's not fighting the enemy in their element (attacking a sniper at long range, for example), the soldier will triumph in any fight. Although slow, his high health and high damage weapons mean a Soldier can be a threat to almost any class on any field.
 * Health: 200
 * Speed: 80%
 * Type: Offense
 * Special Ability: Rocket Jump

Weapons
Because the soldier has splash damage and a hitscan weapon, it is nearly impossible to kill a soldier without taking a fair bit of damage yourself.

Primary Weapons

 * Rocket Launcher - Clip Size: 4 - Reserve Ammo: 16 - Reloaded one at a time

The Rocket Launcher deals a lot of damage on direct hits and a lot of splash damage to nearby enemies. A direct critical hit will kill most classes, even with a medic, in one hit. The rocket launcher is strong, but it fires slowly to make up for its power. Rockets from long range are easy to dodge and reloading is time consuming. Whenever you aren't in combat, reload your rocket launcher. Always be ready for combat. With the Rocket Launcher you can Rocket Jump by jumping, crouching and then firing. This allows you to get to high places that other classes couldn't normally reach or get to a higher place faster, it can also be a tactic to get a temporary height advantage in combat. Rocket jumping deals about 50 damage to you, but if you bungle it it can do up to 100 damage, so be careful. If you have a medic attached to you, rocketjump often as it helps build his uber and gets you moving faster.

The rocket launcher has a tendency to run out of ammo with heavy use. Find a dispenser or supply cabinet. If it's safe to do so, you can also pick up dropped weapons.

Secondary Weapons

 * Shotgun - Clip Size: 6 - Reserve Ammo: 32 - Reloaded one at a time

Your standard shotgun. While the rocket launcher deals superior damage, the shotgun is useful when you need to finish off an enemy quickly or if your rocket launcher is empty and reloading it is too slow. It is also effective against scouts, who can dodge your rockets at midrange and pistol you to death.

Melee Weapons

 * Shovel

Like other melee weapons, the Shovel will deal about 60-70 damage a hit. Generally you will want to use your rocket launcher in close combat, but killing someone with a shovel is always good for a laugh and humiliation. When your clip of rockets runs out during an ubercharge, you might be better off swapping to the shovel instead of the shotgun.

Using the Soldier
The Soldier has a lot of health which means he can take significant punishment before he goes down. This contributes to his rocket launcher primary weapon, which often requires him to be in the line of fire to get a clear shot and has a tendency to deal heavy damage to the soldier himself. Their rockets are also useful at range against mostly static targets, like Sentries and other buildings. Two to three direct hits from a rocket launcer will kill anything providing they're not being healed or repaired.

He is also surprisingly good at close range, since his health allows himm 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 moving in and out of 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). Soldiers make good teams with Medics because the extra health plus constant regeneration allows 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 Gravelpit 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 are 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. The best way to reduce damage from rockets is to jump and crouch just before it hits, reducing the damage taken greatly.

Soldiers are best taken out at range since their rockets take time to travel distances, whereas a Sniper bullet travels 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.