Personal Advice And Tips Thread - Games

[QUOTE=Lium;39675548]Don't follow spies up stairs.[/QUOTE] No. Half follow them so they think they can get a stair stab. Easy killins.

As a medic it's handy to have an übersaw equipped.

As any non-explosive class, if you're competent with explosive jumping, throw your spam-happy foes for a loop by using their own explosives to quickly close the gap, hit them from above, or fly to safety. Nothing feels better than being a Backburner Pyro against a spammy Soldier, jumping onto one of their explosions and getting just enough height and distance to land behind them.

thats specially effective when medics have to run away from bad demos. simply crouch jump and [QUOTE][video=youtube;bZRzVIhBBQg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZRzVIhBBQg[/video][/QUOTE]

Here's a protip for Snipers: If your hand twitches a bit whenever you click and it's throwing off your aim, try binding Attack to a different key like Shift. That hand will twitch instead, not your mouse hand. It sounds weird, but people with stress-induced fine motor twitch like myself swear to it, and it's been done since the dawn of Counter Strike. [QUOTE=Mr. Magoolachub;39674340] Decent guideline? Yes. Always? Fuck no.[/QUOTE] I state it as a rule because I'm really fucking tired of people taking my teleporter only to farm their stranges faster, knocking the Medics off as they go. Because "OMG ITS ONLY A SUGGESTION FGT" I've outright destroyed teleporters out of spite for these people. They aren't interested in helping the team, just killing as many guys as possible before they die in ten seconds, respawn and hog it again.

I guess I'll repost all those tips I posted in a previous thread, tons of stuff here. -A simple, quick headshot will instantly kill a non-overhealed Medic, Scout, Engineer, Spy, and Sniper. A quick headshot and a no-scope/SMG spray will finish off a non overhealed Soldier, Demoman, or Pyro. Two quick headshots will kill a non-overhealed Heavy. -You can rotate your buildings with right click. An arrow on the blueprints on the ground when you're about to place a teleporter shows where your teammates will exit from, make sure they don't teleport facing a wall. -A fully charged Machina body shot will instantly kill a non-overhealed Croc Sniper. On nospread servers any fully charged sniper rifle shot will do, but on normal servers it's a crapshhot. A Croc Sniper will die if he has 1HP left and gets headshotted, by the way. -Rocket jumps go higher if you crouch and jump at the same time while simultaneously firing a rocket at your feet. Same goes for sticky bomb jumps, just detonate at the same time you jump and crouch. 1 Sticky bomb should be enough to go wherever, never use two unless you're overhealed/have the sticky jumper. If you're a Demoknight, you can use your grenades to nade jump if you time it right and crouch jump. Same goes for the Detonator on the Pyro, which can get you across the bridge on 2Fort. Firing the Force-a-Nature while looking slightly lower than straight ahead while crouch jumping will give you a huge jump, which you can then double jump out of. You can save your health as an Engineer by Wrangle-jumping via bullets instead of rockets, just jump on top of your sentry and aim directly up and put your body near the front-right of the sentry's top. It works best with a mini-sentry. If you need to go far, get an overheal and use a LVL 3's rockets. -As a Sniper, rapidly moving side-to-side while unscoped is a great way to mess with other Snipers so they can't hit you, and once they shoot you can zoom in and headshot them. While moving side to side you can no-scope them to throw off their aim - 3 no-scopes will normally kill a non-overhealed sniper. -You can light Sniper's Huntsman arrows with flame weapons, the Pomson, the Righteous Bison, and the Cow Mangler. -The Buffalo Steak Sandwich's speed increase does not stack with the Gloves of Running Urgently, so there's no point in using both. -You can aim away from your patient as a Medic and your medi-gun beam will still stay connected to him, just make sure you're not too far away or he moves behind a wall. -The Crusader's Crossbow does more damage/healing from farther away. It's pointless to use it up close to a teammate when you can instead use your Medigun and gain uber. -Players who are wounded build uber faster than fully overhealed players. Having a Soldier, Demoman, Boston-Basher Scout or Detonator Pyro hurt themselves will build uber faster, just make sure they don't run out of ammo before you decide to uber them. Also, please don't use the Backscratcher to build uber, it just makes the Medic have to baby you longer to heal you when they could be more useful healing other player to gain uber instead, and a Backscratcher Pyro won't build overheal as fast so when under a lot of damage he won't get as much health from a Medic. Also, players who haven't been hurt in over 10 seconds will heal faster than players who have been hurt under 10 seconds. -An overheal on any 150hp or less class will allow them to survive a body shot or quick headshot. When leaving the spawn, make sure to overheal your Snipers, Scouts, Medics and Spies before you pocket a player. Also, if you see a Soldier or a Demoman with a sticky launcher, overheal him as you leave the spawn so they can rocket jump/sticky jump to the front lines and not lose as much health. -If you're a Medic there's another Medic nearby, make sure to constantly keep them at full health. Medics have trouble defending themselves and the occasional dead-on hit from a rocket or grenade can kill them if they're under 110 health or so. -If you've lost a lot of health as a Heavy and there's a small medkit nearby, instead of grabbing it, eat your Sandvich, then grab it, so you'll have full health and your Sandvich back. -Killing a Spy who activates his Dead Ringer will award an Eyelander Demoknight a head, as well as a Bazaar Bargain Sniper (but that's not as useful of a weapon). This is a great way to farm for 4 heads if you manage to follow the Dead Ringer Spy and catch him before he grabs more metal. As for Spies, try not to activate the Dead Ringer when a Demoknight catches you unless it's an absolute priority that you survive, as you could be responsible for making a 200HP+ monster. -If you are low on health as a Spy, and you can drown yourself, activate the Dead Ringer and then attempt to drown. Continue drowning until your cloak runs out (and before you die, of course), then resurface. You will recover the health amount you would have lost if you drowned without the damage protection of the Dead Ringer, thus actually giving you a net increase of health. -Jumping before you rev your Minigun as a Heavy will allow you to move farther than simply revving your gun while walking. This is good for jumping out of cover and then attacking, instead of slowly waddling out of cover. -If you time it right, you can jump over a Huo-Long Heater's fire ring and stab the Heavy without being ignited. -Hitting a Dead Ringer Spy while he's currently invisible with the Pomson will drain his cloak, forcing him to de-cloak earlier. If you hit a Spy who activates the Dead Ringer he will cloak, and then take the 20% cloak loss, but if you hit him before he activates it once and then hit him again he won't have enough cloak left to activate it, so if he dies he's really dead (unless he grabs metal before you kill him). -You can "body block" pathways, so that enemies cannot move past these pathways without having to deal with you first. This is a great tactic for stopping Bonk Scouts and Dead Ringer spies from moving past you, as well as splitting up a Medic that has used their Medigun Ubercharge (you just have to hope his patient doesn't turn around and kill you). If the patient doesn't notice in time, he could walk right into your teammates or a sentry nest and his uber will run out since his Medic isn't following him, giving him a swift death. -A Spy will be able to stay fully invisible with the Dead Ringer or regular Invisible Watch if they stand on top of or near a LVL 3 Dispenser. A Dead Ringer spy will lose his damage reduction and will be able to flicker upon touch after 6.5 seconds. If you use your Dispenser to block pathways instead of a source of healing and ammo for your team (mainly only useful in the blue hay room path to intel on 2Fort), consider keeping it at level 1. -You can keep the Soda Popper's hype level, as long as it isn't full, by switching weapons to your secondary or bat. Consider nearly fully charging your hype, then switching to your pistol, running towards enemies, switching to your Soda Popper and nearly instantly get minicrits. -The Sandman won't stun enemies moderately close to you, but still will do damage. -If you want to avoid getting headshot as a Sniper, upon shooting your rifle, jump. You won't move faster, but the height elevation is unexpected and can mean the difference between 50 damage or instant death. -If you hold left click while using the Buff Banner or any other type of banner, you can delay the effects until you let go. If you hold it, then move towards enemies, as soon as you're ready to fight just let go of left click and you'll deploy your banner and have your rocket launcher out. -Mantreads reduce the amount of knockback you receive from a Sentry gun as well as other damage. Consider using it with the speed boost from the Disciplinary Action when moving towards a group of Sentries so you can just run through, get behind the guns and kill the Engineer without being pushed back and suffering from the effects of damage falloff. -You can reflect Jarate, Mad Milk, Crossbow Arrows, Huntsman Arrows, Flares, Manmelter flares, all Scout balls, Cleavers, Rescue Ranger bolts, and Sentry Gun rockets with your compression blast as a Pyro. Piss off that Bushwacka Sniper by jarateing him, orkill an Engineer with his own gun's rockets before you get to his sentry during an uber. -The Bushwacka will crit enemies if you're under the effects of a Buff Banner, or if your enemy is using the Crit-a-Cola, GRU or is hauling a building with the Rescue Ranger. -The Vaccinator will not reduce the damage of any attack that is a critical hit, so during an uber with it you'll only reduce 25% total damage. The same goes for minicrits, so during an uber you'll only reduce 56% total damage. It's way less total resistance for both when you're not ubering a patient. Point being, don't bother pocketing a Sniper. Also, the Vaccinator will not reduce any damage from melee attacks, and arrows count as bullet damage. -If you're on fire/bleeding and near death, using the Kritzkreig's taunt will give you 11 HP, as well as some extra health from your normal health regen, which can mean the difference between life and death. -The Shortstop and pistol/Winger share the same ammo pool, so using both at the same time is a bad idea. -If you kill a Dead Ringer Spy with certain weapons, you can tell if he cloaked or not. Specifically, if you kill him with a weapon that has an on-kill effect, such as the KGB, Holy Mackerel or Unarmed Combat, Powerjack, Eternal Reward or Wanga Prick, Candy Cane (or just having it equipped), Conniver's Kunai, Half-Zaitochi or Spycicle, you won't get the effect it gives (Health, Frozen Corpse, Disguise, Crits, Fish Kill, etc.) If you use a weapon that dissolves a corpse, like the Cow Mangler, it will still do so. Dead Ringer Spies will drop no ammo/metal upon death, so walking over his dropped knife/gun/sapper and not getting anything is another clear sign. Also, if you kill a Dead Ringer Spy and his corpse falls flat to the ground instantly, that's a Dead Ringer Spy. If you know you killed a Dead Ringer Spy, make sure to grab any ammo packs before he can get to them, and if you see any health or ammo disappear, then you know he's been there. Building gibs as give near full cloak to a Spy, so if he's destroyed a building, watch that area for any disappearing gibs (they will despawn eventually though). -If you die with the Vita-Saw equipped, but you change melee weapons before you respawn, you'll keep the uber you saved while using the Vita-Saw. -If you do the moving taunt glitch with the Amputator (taunting as you walk over a ledge), you'll be able to do the medicating melody while also being able to move. -You can use the Holiday Punch on enemies who have been ubercharged with the Medigun, forcing them to laugh and wasting their uber. To avoid this happening to you, make sure to jump a lot, as you can't be forced to laugh if you are in midair. Also, you can't laugh while underwater. -If you overcharge the Loose Cannon and jump at the same time, you can do a huge grenade jump at the cost of health. The same goes for the Beggar's Bazooka, which is only really useful if you're in MVM and have explosive resistance so you can fly across the sky, or using the gunboats. The Loose Cannon deals more damage at longer range, by the way. Finally, reflected cannonballs do not deal minicrits. -If you are healing someone who is also healed by another medic, the uber build rate is halved. If the patient is being healed by a dispenser or payload, the build rate is halved as well, which most people don't know. -During setup time, uber builds at its maximum rate, so self-damaging isn't helpful. -The Huntsman, Ubersaw and Gunslinger's taunt kill can stun ubered enemies. -The Widowmaker will gain metal from shooting a Spy who is cloaked with the Dead Ringer, so if you can guess where they are going by shooting, just don't waste all your ammo. -Bots will high five you if you use the high five taunt while they are nearby. They'll sometimes taunt too early and instead do a regular taunt. -All hitscan weapons, such as miniguns, pistols, and shotguns, will fire one bullet directly down the crosshair after 1.25 seconds has passed from firing. The ambassador only has to wait .8 seconds. -When disguised as a Spy, the hitbox, or the invisible boxes that surround your character's limbs, head and torso and is the way the game knows you've been shot by a bullet, is the Spy's hitbox regardless of which disguise you choose, so enemy players who attempt to hit your head as a Sniper will have to aim to where a Spy's head would be instead of the disguise. Disguising as a Scout is semi-useful because the hitbox for the head is completely above where the Scout's head is, and disguising as a Heavy is useful because the head hitbox is completely off to the left. -Miniguns will not cause a Sniper to flinch if they fire from medium to long distances. Up close they'll still cause a Sniper to flinch and mess up his aim, but he'll be dead before he can fire a shot most likely. Instead, as a Heavy if you see a Sniper at long range use your shotgun to shoot at him, it will cause flinching. I can provide a demo if somebody disagrees with me, because last time I mentioned this one there was disagreement. -The Spycicle instantly regenerates upon contact with fire in medieval mode. -Similar to a minigun, as a Sniper with the Huntsman you can hop and pull back your arrow to get some more speed than just simply walking. Great for getting out of cover without staying too vulnerable. -The Natascha will cancel a charging Demoknight's charge, so that's kinda useful if you find yourself getting one shotted by Splendid Shield Demomen when you turn a corner. -Spies can take enemy teleports, and can telefrag enemies who are standing on it, like Engies/Pyros repairing/knocking a sapper off of it. This leads to a lot of greifing if you can build in the spawn area, so if you see an exit in your spawn, be wary. -You can destroy a building that you've sapped faster by using your revolver while it's sapped, but if you're using the red-tape-recorder then you'll have to wait for the building to go to level 1 before you can do any meaningful damage. -If you've been stunned by the Sandman as a Heavy, you can still punch. If you were charging up the Cow Mangler or drawing an arrow as a Soldier or Sniper respectively you'll fire upon being stunned. -The Fan o' War will show the marked for death above Dead Ringer Spies. This along with the Mad Milk will make you an excellent Spychecker if the Spycicle is pissing you off as a Pyro. -If you have an Eyelander and kill a Bazaar Bargain Sniper who has a headcount, his number of heads will transfer to you, similar to if you killed another Eyelander wielding Demoman who had heads. -If you deactivate a Sentry Gun during humiliation with the Cow Mangler, once it recovers it will shoot the winning team. Really only good for griefing. -The Disciplinary Action has the longest reach of any melee weapon in the game, but it doesn't say that on the weapon's stats in the backpack. -You can apply Jarate (either jar or Sydney Sleeper) and Mad Milk on Medigun ubercharged players, but they won't have any effect until the charge wears off. Good if you're about to die and want to coat the medic, as the patient will quickly lose the jarate/milk due to being healed. -The payload only goes faster up to a maximum of three players (or one player and a Scout/Pain Train wielder), there is no bonus speed for 4 or more players on the cart. So, if there's 3 by the cart, move up and make sure the path ahead is clear. -As a Medic, you can't uber Medigun uber while holding the intelligence or if your patient is holding the intelligence (you'll be ubered, but he won't be if you uber an intel carrier). However, you can drop the intelligence and then uber. You can Kritz, Megaheal and Vaccinate without dropping the intel. -If you're disguised as a Soldier, Pyro or Heavy and no one on the enemy team is playing that class, changing your disguise weapon to the shotgun will make your disguise look like the character is in the Civilian pose. If you disguise as an Engy with the shotgun out and there are no enemy Engies, you'll have your Spy weapon in the Engineer's hands. If you attempt to change your disguise weapon to a secondary for a class that has a passive one, like the gunboats, razorback or targe, you'll hold the stock secondary weapon while also having the passive weapon, which is impossible for a real player to do. Apparently you can't disguise as a Huntsman or Machina Sniper properly, and will have the regular rifle out instead, but that's hearsay and I've never seen it personally (doesn't mean its not true). Spies disguised as Medics using the Quick-Fix or Vaccinator will have the default Medigun backpack. -If you use the Buff Banner near a friendly Engy, his Sentry Gun will deal minicrits while the boost is active as long as you're near him. If the Engy is not in range of the boost, the sentry will not deal minicrit damage. -You take more fall damage when you land while crouching, since it calculates you as having fallen farther than if you had landed standing since your legs are pulled up. -You can heal Soldiers who have the Escape Plan equipped with the Crusader's Crossbow. -Hitting a Dead Ringer Spy with the Phlog is a great way to earn Mmmph, as the damage done fills the gauge as if it was not being reduced by the damage resistance of the DR. -The Rainblower's taunt kill will still occur if the Pyro dies before the rainbow/blast comes out. I think you can do it by doing a moving taunt, but I've never tried that out. -Airblasting an enemy downwards will cause them to take mini-crits from the Reserve-Shooter until they jump. -The detonator's blast will destroy sticky-bombs.

if you think less about your aim the better it will be ez

The one thing I've discovered which might sound really odd is that when dealing with projectile weapons, track your target with your eyes and fire accordingly rather than focus on lining up the cursor with the target. I've found it to be particularly useful as it relies on your hand eye coordination more than it does on split second reflexes as soon as your crosshair hits the target which makes it somewhat easier. Use maps like [URL="http://tf2.gamebanana.com/maps/66113"]rocket_shooting[/URL] as well to practise juggling which can substantially help to disorient your victim. Get maps like [URL="http://tf2.gamebanana.com/maps/120297"]tr_newbots[/URL] if you want to practise your game against a slightly lobotomized version of the game AI to have a newbie version of MGE. Practise makes perfect but don't get to comfortable practising against bots - bots are idiots, and while real people have infinite capacity for stupidity, they won't fall for the same tricks you try on a bot. As a Pyro - put out other players on fire, practise your reflects (see tr_newbots above) and also remember to be versatile with your loadouts.

Fine tuning your mouse sensitivity is one of the biggest things you can do for your aim other than practice.

[QUOTE=ZeroSupport;39667612] medic stuff blah blah (high crit chance because of assists) [/QUOTE] Explain this part please I'm not sure what you're saying? you don't gain more crit chance from assists surely

[QUOTE=A Glitch;39690608]Explain this part please I'm not sure what you're saying? you don't gain more crit chance from assists surely[/QUOTE] You'd be right on that one (I think). You gain it from healing, because crit chance is higher the more damage you've done in the past 15 seconds, and melee already has a 15% crit chance. So healing friendlies raises your crit chance higher because it counts at -damage, which is why medic and engineer have such a high crit chance (healing and sentry damage, respectively) I could be completely wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure this is how it works

It IS possible to rocket jump with the Cow Mangler, but please dont do it, you will end up burned and vulnerable. Also, if you happen to be a scout with the bonk! and sandman/atomizer in cp_degrootkeep, drink your bonk and when anyone tries to hit you, tant with your bat and send him flying away, or as soon as you can move at the start of the round, throw your ball to the door of the enemy spawn, you will lock the door. [video=youtube;vR3Liblb0Vo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vR3Liblb0Vo[/video]

[QUOTE=AlphaAGENT;39690667]You'd be right on that one (I think). You gain it from healing, because crit chance is higher the more damage you've done in the past 15 seconds, and melee already has a 15% crit chance. So healing friendlies raises your crit chance higher because it counts at -damage, which is why medic and engineer have such a high crit chance (healing and sentry damage, respectively) I could be completely wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure this is how it works[/QUOTE] I could have sworn to have read somewhere that the critical chance rises with assists as well, atleast for the Medic, since he won't get as many kills as any other class, but still gets all those critsaws. I'm sure healing does not have anything to do with this, but I really don't know about assists.

Healing counts as damage (-damage that is) and increases crit chance.

The wrangler doesn't just extend your sentry's range, it allows it to absorb a lot more damage. If your sentry is on the verge of being destroyed, you can whip out your wrangler to buy precious time to repair it. The wrangler is also a godsend against ubers; if you pop that shield and start repairing at the same time the medic pops his uber, you stand a much better chance of surviving. I've used this strategy to fend off countless heavy-medic pairs.

if a demo is stacking stickies(heh) near your sentry, you can always pop a rocket on the floor to blast them away. i'm surprised how a lot of engies just ignore that sentries arent afected by selfdamage.

[QUOTE=AlphaAGENT;39690667]You'd be right on that one (I think). You gain it from healing, because crit chance is higher the more damage you've done in the past 15 seconds, and melee already has a 15% crit chance. So healing friendlies raises your crit chance higher because it counts at -damage, which is why medic and engineer have such a high crit chance (healing and sentry damage, respectively) I could be completely wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure this is how it works[/QUOTE] christ i've been playing tf2 since release and I always just thought crits were completely random, hence why competitive games turn them off

[QUOTE=A Glitch;39693994]christ i've been playing tf2 since release and I always just thought crits were completely random, hence why competitive games turn them off[/QUOTE] It works that way to reward players that are doing lots of damage with better chances at even more damage, and to help get some momentum going for worse players so they actually contribute. Also, Medic's DPS + Medic's healing rate = Medic's crit chance, and Engineer's DPS + Engineer's Sentry's DPS + Engineer's repair rate + Engineer's Dispenser's healing rate = Engie's crit chance. Here's a graph by Valve themselves to best illustrate it. A is the way crit chance ramp-up used to work, and B is how they work now: [t]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/5/59/CritHitChance.png[/t] As you can see, it starts a bit lower now (1/50 compared to old 1/20 chance), and doesn't go as high as it used to (1/7 compared to old 1/5 chance) This plus the dramatically increased melee starting crit rate of roughly 1/6 means that at maximum healing output per second, Engie and Medic are more likely to crit than not (65% chance). And you thought crits were random. :v:

The main thing that I can recommend to anyone is that not all fights are worth taking, this is more applicable to scout who can easily choose which fights to run from though. Based on how a fight begins, you won't always have the distinct advantage, so it might be better to retreat temporarily to wait for teammates to help or for better positioning, rushing into battle to die fast won't help your team. At the same time though, sometimes you need to take risks in order to at least have the chance of getting huge reward. Rushing forward to the next points before your team has finished capping the current one can catch the enemy team off-guard and give you a faster victory. Points and objectives can be used in general to help control the enemy team, if you're a scout behind enemy lines and most of the enemy team is in between your team's point and their point, trying to cap the point behind them will force a few to go back to deal with you, giving your team an easier time at the front to move in.

[QUOTE=Everything;39695215]It works that way to reward players that are doing lots of damage with better chances at even more damage, and to help get some momentum going for worse players so they actually contribute. Also, Medic's DPS + Medic's healing rate = Medic's crit chance, and Engineer's DPS + Engineer's Sentry's DPS + Engineer's repair rate + Engineer's Dispenser's healing rate = Engie's crit chance. Here's a graph by Valve themselves to best illustrate it. A is the way crit chance ramp-up used to work, and B is how they work now: [t]http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/5/59/CritHitChance.png[/t] As you can see, it starts a bit lower now (1/50 compared to old 1/20 chance), and doesn't go as high as it used to (1/7 compared to old 1/5 chance) This plus the dramatically increased melee starting crit rate of roughly 1/6 means that at maximum healing output per second, Engie and Medic are more likely to crit than not (65% chance). And you thought crits were random. :v:[/QUOTE] there is a reason why a lot of spies die to a lawfully, critical wrench to the skull-

[QUOTE=Everything;39695215] And you thought crits were random. :v:[/QUOTE] snipping till i create enough proof

Facestab everyone and everything.

Unlike you might think, acting can go a LONG way as a Spy. Do NOT look anyone in the eye when approaching them, in fact, act like you're covering their back by jumping a lot and staring in areas your teammates may bust out of to keep up your masquerade. Disguising as a frontline Soldier, for example. Since not many like using him as disguise because of the speed penalty, he is prime choice for frontline stabbage. Use Spy-cicle for extra unconspicuousness. Oh, and more importantly, you can switch your disguise's weapon by selecting the slot you want your identity to equip and redisguising to the same class. Example: disguise as Medic, switch to sapper, then disguise kit and redisguise as medic, you have successfully switched your disguise's weapon from syringe gun to medigun without blowing cover.

[QUOTE=Nitro836;39710752]Unlike you might think, acting can go a LONG way as a Spy. Do NOT look anyone in the eye when approaching them, in fact, act like you're covering their back by jumping a lot and staring in areas your teammates may bust out of to keep up your masquerade. Disguising as a frontline Soldier, for example. Since not many like using him as disguise because of the speed penalty, he is prime choice for frontline stabbage. Use Spy-cicle for extra unconspicuousness. Oh, and more importantly, you can switch your disguise's weapon by selecting the slot you want your identity to equip and redisguising to the same class. Example: disguise as Medic, switch to sapper, then disguise kit and redisguise as medic, you have successfully switched your disguise's weapon from syringe gun to medigun without blowing cover.[/QUOTE] I suck at spy so I've recently started practicing. My biggest problem is how to keep distance and judge their movement so as to not bump into them but also keep up the charade until they go away. DOes anyone have any tips on managing to do this and not get killed? Almost all the examples of spy that I've seen involve the guy swooping in on an enemy that has been distracted and nailing the backstab, but what about these tricky moments when you're in danger of being discovered?

It's all about keeping calm and not making stupid mistakes such as wildly swinging knife around in a cluster of heavies. As for avoiding people while cloaked, they tend to move in predictable patterns (usually strafing), and if you're not sure what they're going to do, or see that if you keep running forward you will bump into them, you can simply stop and wait for a second or two. If you're about to uncloak behind them and stab, you're not going to need those 6 or so extra seconds anyway. Helps a ton till you learn common patterns and how to avoid them. Then about connecting stabs, practice on heavies, soldiers and demos (they are the most important picks anyway). It's like using rocket launcher, you have to walk where you expect them to go and click just before you bump into their back. Pretend you're a rocket, not a homing missile, and walk in a straight line. If you curve your path according to where they go, you'll almost always end up walking into their view and get torn to pieces.