Other guides:
In my opinion, demoman is the hardest but most rewarding class to master. A professional demoman should have great map knowledge, instinct of grenade arc, melee skill, bomb placement strategy and so much more. But you will be the pillar of your team once you mastered him. Learn from the basics, don't aim for doing trick shots and look cool, cause you will fail badly without the foundation of skills. The KDR will be terrible in the first few months of playing demoman, but don't give up. When the day you get a clean killstreak comes, congratulations, you have gone through the most difficult part of playing demoman.
Watching gameplays of demoman did help me a lot, try to use your instinct instead of remembering rules, instinct is the most reliable ability in playing any classes.Tips:
-Locate and destroy engineer nests. Communicate with your teammates well, you are the only class that can destroy them without the chance of getting hit. Use sticky bombs if possible to save grenades for combat.
-Use grenades flexibly. You can blind fire grenades to hold off enemies, or bounce them around corners so the enemies don't know what hit them. Aim for direct hit in fights to damage multiple enemies. Familiarize yourself with the map to do trick shots, but don't stand still too long, because enemies will find you eventually.
-Use melee + shields for 1v1 only, you will become significantly stronger at duels if you choose to become a melee demoman, this is especially good in capture the flag gamemode. You can take the briefcase by surprise when still having the ability to clear out sentries. But R.I.P. if you encounter a group of enemies.
-Perform stickybomb jumps, its similar to the rocketjumps of soldier. Go to see the soldier's guide for details about these kind of jumps.
-Stickybomb traps:
Standard Stickybomb Launcher - Set up two traps at most, as you will detonate all bombs at once, which means some bombs are wasted. Set up traps when you are sure that enemies will come across them in the next minute. Don't camp at one spot, for you are not contributing to your team by doing so. Use them when escaping or preparing for team fights.
Scottish Resistance - Equip it when you are the defending team, set up as many traps as you can, I recommend two stickybombs for each trap. Place a few of them on main path to slow down the advancing team (they need time to remove them). As all of the bombs are tagged on your screen, it can be a signal of possible ambush if bombs around the battlefield are disappearing.
My Builds:
Grenade Launcher + Stickybomb Launcher + Bottle
The standard build is actually great when you are the offensive side. The grenade launcher allows you to perform bounce shots. The stickybomb launcher provides great firepower in frontline and can disturb enemies. You can choose sticky jumper instead but I prefer more firepower than mobility. I use bottle instead of swords as a sheild partner up with them better.
Loose Cannon + Scottish Resistance + Scotsman Skullcutter
This build is completely for defensive purposes. The loose cannon can push back enemies which drag the speed of the enemy team. The scottish resistance is great at defending as I mentioned above. I choose scotsman skullcutter as mobility will be less important in defending an objective, so I sacrifice movement speed for more damage output instead.
Fully charge scottish resistance to place traps far away without getting yourself in the battlefield.
Loch N Load + Tide Turner + Persian Persuader
This melee build is for dueling enemies. But you will have a harsh time in team fights. Loch N Load boost your damage a lot and is easier to hit a moving target. Don't use it in melee range as it really hurts you. Persian Persuader have longer range and benefits your shield, and it also heal you when picking up ammo (grenades are seldom used in this build). Equip half zatoichi for more ammo, but I hate its 'honorbound', you are dead meat if you draw it out prematurely in a duel.
