X_StickmanNot good enough for a custom title.Join Date: 2003-04-15Member: 15533Members, Constellation
Hmm.
Just played a game where the only scouts playing were apparently quite talented. They never missed, at all, with the sandman.
My new conclusion? *Hate* it.
If you're the first person through a door, or around a corner or up a flight of stairs, or anything, you're getting sandman'd. The "short" stun time doesn't mean crap when the scout / whoever else can get right up to you before the stun runs off.
A scout can jump behind you and stun you point blank, and they have at least one free hit. With the FAN, that's a guaranteed death.
I really, really do not like the sandman. Nothing else in the game is unavoidable. If a backburning pyro gets you from behind, you can deal with it (if you react quick enough). If there's an uber coming, you can get out of the way. If you hear a sentry, you can avoid it.
There ain't ###### you can do about the sandman. You're fighting and OH WAIT there was a scout who has run around and now you can't move and you're mincemeat.
It has turned the scout into the ultimate 1-on-1 class, and that is terrible. The only class that can reliably stop a scout from closing in too close is the heavy (by basically just sweeping the area with minigun fire), but he's so slow that it takes a fool to miss him with the sandman. The pyro, demoman, soldier, medic, engineer and sniper can do very little to stop the scout from getting to medium / close range. Usually this isn't a problem, the scout's low health means you can dispatch them pretty easily. But now they can close in and stun you, leaving you defenceless.
Remarkably annoying. I've always disliked the sandman, but this has just pushed me into hating it. If this is what a group of pub players can do with it after only a coule of weeks or so, I am not looking forward to the coming months.
NeonSpyder"Das est NTLDR?"Join Date: 2003-07-03Member: 17913Members
What's important to realize is that the scout is and always has been a pretty damn good 1-on-1 class. You throw a scout against any other class Solo with the possible exception of a lucky Pyro and you've got the scout coming out on top.
Run up behind a heavy and throw down a point blank scatter shot? WHOOPS Mr.Heavy will now take 1 second to figure out where the shot came from and 2-3 seconds to warm up his minigun all while the scout has landed another bunch of shots into his ass. Dead Heavy.
Medic, Engineer, no real survival chance unless they have a teamate or sentrygun.
Demomen, Soldiers and Pyros are a little bit tougher to handle but it's possible especially if you can close the range against a demoman or dodge rockets from the soldiers. But good scouts can do that.
The scout class is all about skill, luck and timing. Sandman just makes his solo power a lot better.
Though if you ever get hit with a baseball bat against a lone scout, if you have even ONE teamate next to you to give you cover fire that scout is going to reconsider an attack. I've seen this happen a bunch of times.
Maybe thats why I don't think it is as bad as some apparently do. I play exclusively on 30+ player servers, so its pretty rare that you end up alone against a scout. Except on badlands, but that was always a very scout friendly map.
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
edited March 2009
Still, TF2 is still a FPS isn't it? FPS cornerstones are movement skill, tracking skill and aiming skill and perhaps out thinking your enemies tactics/movement. All of these are thrown out the window as soon as you introduce stuns, where you can't move or shoot at all. As I said, change it to supression or daze effect and the problem is gone...
Leave stuns in indirect/autoattack combat systems like MMOPRG's... It just feels like Valve is trying to turn TF2 into somekind of RPG/FPS hybride.
One more thing which is kinda silly, headshot taken away by "miss" hovering onscreen (headshot can be countered by Bonk drink right?). Hahaha random server variable messing with the cornerstones aiming and tracking <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
<i>- Engineer dodged your backstab - Engineer crits you for 130 with wrench - You die</i>
I think Valve's next game is indeed World of Half-Life...
X_StickmanNot good enough for a custom title.Join Date: 2003-04-15Member: 15533Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1702156:date=Mar 6 2009, 08:29 PM:name=NeonSpyder)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NeonSpyder @ Mar 6 2009, 08:29 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1702156"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What's important to realize is that the scout is and always has been a pretty damn good 1-on-1 class. You throw a scout against any other class Solo with the possible exception of a lucky Pyro and you've got the scout coming out on top.
Run up behind a heavy and throw down a point blank scatter shot? WHOOPS Mr.Heavy will now take 1 second to figure out where the shot came from and 2-3 seconds to warm up his minigun all while the scout has landed another bunch of shots into his ass. Dead Heavy.
Medic, Engineer, no real survival chance unless they have a teamate or sentrygun.
Demomen, Soldiers and Pyros are a little bit tougher to handle but it's possible especially if you can close the range against a demoman or dodge rockets from the soldiers. But good scouts can do that.
The scout class is all about skill, luck and timing. Sandman just makes his solo power a lot better.
Though if you ever get hit with a baseball bat against a lone scout, if you have even ONE teamate next to you to give you cover fire that scout is going to reconsider an attack. I've seen this happen a bunch of times.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, but that is reliant on the skills of the player involved. That is my main beef with the sandman; it removes all skill of the person on the receiving end.
As a heavy, demo, pyro, medic and engineer, I've been ambushed by a scout in a one-on-one situation, and I have won, thanks to my quick aiming and general ability. I've also lost. But that is based on the skill of me and the skill of the scout. I'm not exactly happy when I get pwnt by another player, but I can understand it; being beaten by better people is what the game is about.
But the sandman removes that. It's no longer about whether or not the scout is better than you, it's about whether or not he can get in close enough to get a hit with the sandman. And if he does, you're dead. There's no skill involved, there's no way to dodge or counter it at close/medium range (unless the scout is terrible or you're amazingly lucky). That is what annoys me. It removes the "skill" element of the game far, far more than crits do, since you get to choose when/where you use your sandman.
The 1-on-1 element is annoying, but what really gets to me is the crowd issues. Take the first round of dustbowl, for example. As defenders, at the start, you're basically spamming the hell out of the doors and the general area around the doors, trying to keep them back. You stand either inside the building with the CP in, or mill around outside, dodging snipers and keeping the spam up so they can't break through.
The sandman messes with that. So say I'm a demoman, I'm standing in the doorway shooting off pipebombs and stickies down towards the main spawn exit. Now I'm sandman'd, and I have to stand there helpless while a soldier/heavy/pyro/demoman blasts away at me. Or I'm a pyro running around causing mayhem in the general area. Again, I get sandman'd by a scout who is already on fire, and I'm helpless while the rest of the team finish me off.
My beef against the sandman is not that it's really powerful; if that were my problem, I'd be against the uber and a kritskrieg'd soldier/heavy, too. My beef with it is that in everything but extremely long ranges, it's essentially unavoidable and un-counterable. Every other situation in the game is dependant on the skill of the player, even crits. If you're doing good, you get more crits. If the other team is doing good, they get crits, and you <b>hear the crits coming</b> and can, if you're good enough, do something about it. Same with snipers and spies. If you're good enough, you'll avoid snipers and spies by strafing and constantly checking around you. You can avoid pyros, soldiers, demomen and heavies. You can deal with ubers, both kritskrieg or not, by knocking them back or getting out of the way.
You can't deal with the sandman. That is my issue with it. You can't stop it, most of the time you don't even know it's coming. And once you do know it's on the way, it's too late to deal with it.
I agree that a suppression or daze effect would be better. I just don't think the stun effect is all that bad. Valve wanting TF2 to be some kind of RPG/FPS hybrid would certainly explain the otherwise nonsensical tying of items to achievements. Headshots can indeed be countered by Bonk! I've had it happen to me on a few occasions and it is quite annoying seeing as it is really hard to headshot a scout in the first place.
what happened to the server browser? can you seriously not sort by ping or players or anything else anymore? why would they REMOVE that functionality? <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" /> the server browser looks like a Duplo server browser, with those huge buttons... or maybe it's large print for old people...
Kouji_SanSr. Hινε UÏкεεÏεг - EUPT DeputyThe NetherlandsJoin Date: 2003-05-13Member: 16271Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
<!--quoteo(post=1702300:date=Mar 8 2009, 09:51 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Mar 8 2009, 09:51 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1702300"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->thanks peeps - I swear I looked everywhere for a toggle and didn't see one, but it was right under my nose...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> The most saught after answers are usually located in the least expected places (under ones nose being the most occuring one <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)
After having played with this patch and prior to it for many hours of playtime, I can sincerely say I feel that the scout patch is indeed unbalancing and the why of it really comes down to one thing:
<b>bonk + force-a-nature nullifying the stalemate-breaking value of übers</b>
Ãœber-charges were put into the game <i>specifically</i> as a means of further promoting teamwork and breaking stalemates... So scouts bonk the slow moving Heavy (or get a lucky hit in on the medic) and then force-a-nature them to push them away. It's almost like what happened to the Onos in NS in a way... They used to be more feared, but now since there's a solid counter to nullify it's gameplay value, you see it less and people don't react the same defensively.
So, does it even matter if there's a counter? Yes, yes it does indeed. Ãœber's are <i><b>not</b></i> easy to get if the pyros and spies are doing their job. Trust me I play medic a lot, I would know. (damn pyros... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> )
To acquire an über-charge and utilize it effectively requires a lot of communication, combat skills, timing, and a little good luck. None of that is easy at it requires so much teamwork, yet it can be key to breaking through a mess of sentry guns causing a stalemate. Now, when I see an über it's usually responded with a "bonk" or a complaint about not having scouts. And the result? You see more stalemates... Certain attack-defend maps will grant defense the win more often than not as long as they have enough engineers and pyros to spy-check with just a scout or two to bonk every über the offense attempts. (i.e.: egypt, dustbowl, goldrush, etc.)
It's not that the scout upgrades are bad, in fact they are funny and a lot of fun (well unless you are the person being bonked). That is not my point. My point is, über-charges are key stalemate-breakers and require teamwork, but now they be countered by a <i>solo</i> player, well-skilled enough at scout. I'm sorry, but that just isn't right. One person's attack renders good teamwork and communication of the time and effort needed to get those über-charges readied in the first place?! Seriously, wtf VALVe?!
NeonSpyder"Das est NTLDR?"Join Date: 2003-07-03Member: 17913Members
Are we all forgetting that if the heavy or demoman gets bonked there are hopefully still a pyro or soldier kicking around? Bonk doesn't nullify an uber unless it hits the medic but that dancing and weaving sonofa###### is hard to hit!
Yeah, but they used the word "Bonk" to signify someone hit with the Sandman, meaning everyone refers to it as being bonked. I think Valve was incredibly high when they planned this update.
<!--quoteo(post=1702351:date=Mar 9 2009, 04:20 PM:name=NeonSpyder)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NeonSpyder @ Mar 9 2009, 04:20 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1702351"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Are we all forgetting that if the heavy or demoman gets bonked there are hopefully still a pyro or soldier kicking around? Bonk doesn't nullify an uber unless it hits the medic but that dancing and weaving sonofa###### is hard to hit!<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd--> The lost time is vital. Your über partner is psyched up and ready to mess some ###### up. Then he gets stunned. Now you have to find somebody else to über. That person will be behind you, since they probably intended to use the über-team as meatshields, so they'll have to step up to the plate once they notice that you are now übering them. They may also very well be sub-optimal for the role. And while you're switching targets you'll briefly have two targets übered, so your charge drains faster. You'll easily lose three seconds out of your eight-second übercharge doing this. Unless stunned from long range, it's probably faster to just wait for the stun to wear off (and hope there isn't another scout with a second stun lined up).
I'm late to the party, but when do you guys use ubercharge vs. kritzkreig? kritz is pretty sweet when your partner gibs 4 guys with it, but is also really frustrating when you or your partner dies early. I find myself favoring the old fashioned ubercharge. you don't get as many kills, but it saves your ass so very often, and pushes back the enemy lines.
X_StickmanNot good enough for a custom title.Join Date: 2003-04-15Member: 15533Members, Constellation
<!--quoteo(post=1702380:date=Mar 9 2009, 11:35 PM:name=DiscoZombie)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DiscoZombie @ Mar 9 2009, 11:35 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1702380"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I'm late to the party, but when do you guys use ubercharge vs. kritzkreig? kritz is pretty sweet when your partner gibs 4 guys with it, but is also really frustrating when you or your partner dies early. I find myself favoring the old fashioned ubercharge. you don't get as many kills, but it saves your ass so very often, and pushes back the enemy lines.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
When I'm medic I use regular uber, but when I'm heavy or pyro, the kritskrieg can turn me into death incarnate.
Trouble with kritskrieg is that regular uber is better in pretty much every situation, but every once in a while, the krits is better. But it's extremely annoying as a medic running around with the kritskrieg and being useless 90% of the time (other than in regular medic healing role).
Kritz is worse for initial warmup rush because you'll inevitably end up with your charged kritz uber against their charged uber uber, and then you can't do anything but run away. It's also worse if there's a good medic on the other team using the regular uber if the map is fairly small (eg dustbowl stages) for similar reasons. I'd say it's better any other time though - outright killing the enemy is preferable to just pushing them back. Although you won't be able to get past a pair of sentries... Another point in favor for the uber uber.
Which I use is highly dependent on the map, team role, and class distribution on both teams. Some situations I'm more likely to use the kritz: Defending certain parts on certain maps, because while defending your sole goal is to kill the enemy, so it can work out better. If there is a particularly good soldier on the team. If I happen to play arena mode, since it charges faster. Maps like granary (no setup time) for the same reason as arena, if you can get a kritz to the center and charged before the point is capped you'll probably get the point. Finally if there is another medic with the standard uber I'll be more inclined to mix it up and give the enemy more things to deal with.
Kritz is just as useful now after they made it charge almost twice as fast as uber. For instance, you can now use it once when charging first point and then again when reaching the second. For same reasons it's not as bad if you use it and there is only two enemies around, unlike uber. Demomen particularly like kritz, being able to shoot 12 explosives which pretty much instantly kills anything in a row.
Comments
Just played a game where the only scouts playing were apparently quite talented. They never missed, at all, with the sandman.
My new conclusion? *Hate* it.
If you're the first person through a door, or around a corner or up a flight of stairs, or anything, you're getting sandman'd. The "short" stun time doesn't mean crap when the scout / whoever else can get right up to you before the stun runs off.
A scout can jump behind you and stun you point blank, and they have at least one free hit. With the FAN, that's a guaranteed death.
I really, really do not like the sandman. Nothing else in the game is unavoidable. If a backburning pyro gets you from behind, you can deal with it (if you react quick enough). If there's an uber coming, you can get out of the way. If you hear a sentry, you can avoid it.
There ain't ###### you can do about the sandman. You're fighting and OH WAIT there was a scout who has run around and now you can't move and you're mincemeat.
It has turned the scout into the ultimate 1-on-1 class, and that is terrible. The only class that can reliably stop a scout from closing in too close is the heavy (by basically just sweeping the area with minigun fire), but he's so slow that it takes a fool to miss him with the sandman. The pyro, demoman, soldier, medic, engineer and sniper can do very little to stop the scout from getting to medium / close range. Usually this isn't a problem, the scout's low health means you can dispatch them pretty easily. But now they can close in and stun you, leaving you defenceless.
Remarkably annoying. I've always disliked the sandman, but this has just pushed me into hating it. If this is what a group of pub players can do with it after only a coule of weeks or so, I am not looking forward to the coming months.
Run up behind a heavy and throw down a point blank scatter shot? WHOOPS Mr.Heavy will now take 1 second to figure out where the shot came from and 2-3 seconds to warm up his minigun all while the scout has landed another bunch of shots into his ass. Dead Heavy.
Medic, Engineer, no real survival chance unless they have a teamate or sentrygun.
Demomen, Soldiers and Pyros are a little bit tougher to handle but it's possible especially if you can close the range against a demoman or dodge rockets from the soldiers. But good scouts can do that.
The scout class is all about skill, luck and timing. Sandman just makes his solo power a lot better.
Though if you ever get hit with a baseball bat against a lone scout, if you have even ONE teamate next to you to give you cover fire that scout is going to reconsider an attack. I've seen this happen a bunch of times.
Leave stuns in indirect/autoattack combat systems like MMOPRG's... It just feels like Valve is trying to turn TF2 into somekind of RPG/FPS hybride.
One more thing which is kinda silly, headshot taken away by "miss" hovering onscreen (headshot can be countered by Bonk drink right?). Hahaha random server variable messing with the cornerstones aiming and tracking <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
<i>- Engineer dodged your backstab
- Engineer crits you for 130 with wrench
- You die</i>
I think Valve's next game is indeed World of Half-Life...
Run up behind a heavy and throw down a point blank scatter shot? WHOOPS Mr.Heavy will now take 1 second to figure out where the shot came from and 2-3 seconds to warm up his minigun all while the scout has landed another bunch of shots into his ass. Dead Heavy.
Medic, Engineer, no real survival chance unless they have a teamate or sentrygun.
Demomen, Soldiers and Pyros are a little bit tougher to handle but it's possible especially if you can close the range against a demoman or dodge rockets from the soldiers. But good scouts can do that.
The scout class is all about skill, luck and timing. Sandman just makes his solo power a lot better.
Though if you ever get hit with a baseball bat against a lone scout, if you have even ONE teamate next to you to give you cover fire that scout is going to reconsider an attack. I've seen this happen a bunch of times.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Yes, but that is reliant on the skills of the player involved. That is my main beef with the sandman; it removes all skill of the person on the receiving end.
As a heavy, demo, pyro, medic and engineer, I've been ambushed by a scout in a one-on-one situation, and I have won, thanks to my quick aiming and general ability. I've also lost. But that is based on the skill of me and the skill of the scout. I'm not exactly happy when I get pwnt by another player, but I can understand it; being beaten by better people is what the game is about.
But the sandman removes that. It's no longer about whether or not the scout is better than you, it's about whether or not he can get in close enough to get a hit with the sandman. And if he does, you're dead. There's no skill involved, there's no way to dodge or counter it at close/medium range (unless the scout is terrible or you're amazingly lucky). That is what annoys me. It removes the "skill" element of the game far, far more than crits do, since you get to choose when/where you use your sandman.
The 1-on-1 element is annoying, but what really gets to me is the crowd issues. Take the first round of dustbowl, for example. As defenders, at the start, you're basically spamming the hell out of the doors and the general area around the doors, trying to keep them back. You stand either inside the building with the CP in, or mill around outside, dodging snipers and keeping the spam up so they can't break through.
The sandman messes with that. So say I'm a demoman, I'm standing in the doorway shooting off pipebombs and stickies down towards the main spawn exit. Now I'm sandman'd, and I have to stand there helpless while a soldier/heavy/pyro/demoman blasts away at me. Or I'm a pyro running around causing mayhem in the general area. Again, I get sandman'd by a scout who is already on fire, and I'm helpless while the rest of the team finish me off.
My beef against the sandman is not that it's really powerful; if that were my problem, I'd be against the uber and a kritskrieg'd soldier/heavy, too. My beef with it is that in everything but extremely long ranges, it's essentially unavoidable and un-counterable. Every other situation in the game is dependant on the skill of the player, even crits. If you're doing good, you get more crits. If the other team is doing good, they get crits, and you <b>hear the crits coming</b> and can, if you're good enough, do something about it. Same with snipers and spies. If you're good enough, you'll avoid snipers and spies by strafing and constantly checking around you. You can avoid pyros, soldiers, demomen and heavies. You can deal with ubers, both kritskrieg or not, by knocking them back or getting out of the way.
You can't deal with the sandman. That is my issue with it. You can't stop it, most of the time you don't even know it's coming. And once you do know it's on the way, it's too late to deal with it.
Q-Fix-For-Even-MmMmMore-Emphasis <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
The map icon browser does suck something awefull indeed...
The most saught after answers are usually located in the least expected places (under ones nose being the most occuring one <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)
<b>bonk + force-a-nature nullifying the stalemate-breaking value of übers</b>
Ãœber-charges were put into the game <i>specifically</i> as a means of further promoting teamwork and breaking stalemates... So scouts bonk the slow moving Heavy (or get a lucky hit in on the medic) and then force-a-nature them to push them away. It's almost like what happened to the Onos in NS in a way... They used to be more feared, but now since there's a solid counter to nullify it's gameplay value, you see it less and people don't react the same defensively.
So, does it even matter if there's a counter? Yes, yes it does indeed. Ãœber's are <i><b>not</b></i> easy to get if the pyros and spies are doing their job. Trust me I play medic a lot, I would know. (damn pyros... <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile-fix.gif" /> )
To acquire an über-charge and utilize it effectively requires a lot of communication, combat skills, timing, and a little good luck. None of that is easy at it requires so much teamwork, yet it can be key to breaking through a mess of sentry guns causing a stalemate. Now, when I see an über it's usually responded with a "bonk" or a complaint about not having scouts. And the result? You see more stalemates... Certain attack-defend maps will grant defense the win more often than not as long as they have enough engineers and pyros to spy-check with just a scout or two to bonk every über the offense attempts. (i.e.: egypt, dustbowl, goldrush, etc.)
It's not that the scout upgrades are bad, in fact they are funny and a lot of fun (well unless you are the person being bonked). That is not my point. My point is, über-charges are key stalemate-breakers and require teamwork, but now they be countered by a <i>solo</i> player, well-skilled enough at scout. I'm sorry, but that just isn't right. One person's attack renders good teamwork and communication of the time and effort needed to get those über-charges readied in the first place?! Seriously, wtf VALVe?!
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
The lost time is vital. Your über partner is psyched up and ready to mess some ###### up. Then he gets stunned. Now you have to find somebody else to über. That person will be behind you, since they probably intended to use the über-team as meatshields, so they'll have to step up to the plate once they notice that you are now übering them. They may also very well be sub-optimal for the role. And while you're switching targets you'll briefly have two targets übered, so your charge drains faster. You'll easily lose three seconds out of your eight-second übercharge doing this.
Unless stunned from long range, it's probably faster to just wait for the stun to wear off (and hope there isn't another scout with a second stun lined up).
When I'm medic I use regular uber, but when I'm heavy or pyro, the kritskrieg can turn me into death incarnate.
Trouble with kritskrieg is that regular uber is better in pretty much every situation, but every once in a while, the krits is better. But it's extremely annoying as a medic running around with the kritskrieg and being useless 90% of the time (other than in regular medic healing role).
It's also worse if there's a good medic on the other team using the regular uber if the map is fairly small (eg dustbowl stages) for similar reasons.
I'd say it's better any other time though - outright killing the enemy is preferable to just pushing them back.
Although you won't be able to get past a pair of sentries... Another point in favor for the uber uber.
Defending certain parts on certain maps, because while defending your sole goal is to kill the enemy, so it can work out better. If there is a particularly good soldier on the team. If I happen to play arena mode, since it charges faster. Maps like granary (no setup time) for the same reason as arena, if you can get a kritz to the center and charged before the point is capped you'll probably get the point. Finally if there is another medic with the standard uber I'll be more inclined to mix it up and give the enemy more things to deal with.
Uber for all else.
I don't usually play Arena, but I imagine Kritz can be better due to the time to charge.