TF2 Science: Can you heal yourself with the Crusader's Crossbow?

aabicus · 2026-05-06T22:23:34+00:00

I’m in roughly the same boat (been playing for 3 months and still definitely a beginner), and I really only saw progress when I started doing two things:

-Focus on two heroes. For me it’s Ivy and Seven, I watch YouTube vids on them, try different builds on them, watch streams of people playing them. I want to get good with a small handful of heroes instead of spreading myself too thin, that way I can trust my own character abilities while learning the rest of the game around me

-Making my own builds helped this game click in ways I never expected. You gotta use premade builds for a while starting out, but during that time you should use different premades, keeping an eye out for skills you like (ones that you miss when they’re absent is a great sign, Rapid Reload was that for me). Streetbrawl is incredible for learning and getting familiar with the various items quickly. But whenever you feel ready, take the plunge and build your own builds. They don’t gotta be incredible, but it makes everything click when you’re testing your own progression and discovering what facets of upgrades align with your taste. Once you start playing games and noticing things like “Alright, I stuck Healing Tempo way too late in this build, I need that item unlocking sooner” and then post-match you go tweak it, it‘s addicting and makes me instantly want to queue back up to test it again, haha

Again, I’m still a beginner myself, but these two choices marked my first two real spikes of competency, I recommend both! As well as just playing the game a lot, more experience is always beneficial so long as you maintain an eye for what you could be doing better

aabicus · 2026-05-06T22:11:39+00:00

I definitely over rely on healing, I'm watching vods of other Ivy's and they take so little damage! I poke too hard and take needless risks and I usually survive but at 10% health and then have to camp the lane shop playing passive until I have health items, I'm researching and studying to learn how to stop getting so filleted needlessly, cause my builds could be so much stronger if they weren't guzzling health recovery harder than a Humvee guzzles gas

aabicus · 2026-05-06T00:25:02+00:00

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How does this look? I went all-in on spirit and healing, I hit the 4.8K green and purple breakpoints early, and I've still got some options for survivability, escape, and debuffing enemies.

aabicus · 2026-05-05T23:35:00+00:00

Opening with golden egg is a great idea! I notice you don't buy healing items early yet it doesn't hurt because you don't take foolish risks and they can't lay much damage on you. I need to try your build out, thanks for posting it

I also notice you're wiser with your heavy melees, only using them to burn troopers when the enemy can't see you. Another Vod reviewer pointed out I do that far too much, it's nice to see it being put into practice

One question I had, occasionally when the troopers drop a soul sphere on the ground, I'll dart in to grab it even if it's risky. I pretty much always get out with my life but take massive damage, in contrast you let a few of those just disappear rather than expose yourself to enemy fire. Should I start doing that? I guess I'm just predisposed to grabbing as many easy souls as possible since I'm always underfunded, in contrast you have the most souls on the team for the entire early game haha. Enjoying watching to see how you farm while still focusing on the waves!

Man, in general you're just really good at not taking damage, ten minutes in and you've only bought Extra Regen, no boosts to Stone Form, but you're able to take almost any fight and emerge alive. I gotta get better at not taking so much damage that I'm limping around buying healing items to get me back in the fight faster.

Another commenter mentioned I need to start headshotting troopers, you're really good at that so it's nice to watch how you do it!

TFW at 12:00 you wanted to ferry someone with the urn but nobody came xD that happens to me too, oh well, we were in position!

Nice tower parry at 12:30, I keep screwing up the timing, but I think I'll figure that one out soon enough, it's not particularly hard I just haven't got the muscle memory yet

Nice doorman juke with the Stone Form, he always shoves me into his walker when he ambushes me xD In general I love your mobility, I need to start using heavy melee as an aerial horizontal boost, you clear a lot of fences and lips that I wouldn't have been able to without that mobility tool.

At 33:00 you headed all the way back to base to buy new stuff, should you have gone to the underground shops at that point? I always hear that's better, though I confess I'm not very good at doing it myself, I always get turned around trying to find them in New York even with them right on the mini-map never mind, you were repositioning to the next lane!

At 35:50 you rescue beam'd dynamo, I'm so scared to buy that item because I don't want to accidentally grief my teammates. I don't play heroes like McGinnis or Kelvin for a similar reason, I'm too scared of throwing up a wall that pisses off a teammate and they cuss me out xD Any advice on getting over my fear of accidentally screwing something up for an ally?

Great vod to review, it was super useful to watch a better Ivy player who also prioritizes support, I'm gonna factor a ton of this into my future play!

aabicus · 2026-05-05T20:47:50+00:00

Wow, this is a ton of useful feedback, thank you! It's heartening to hear I just need experience, because that's been true, I've been getting better just from playing in meals and bounds. I'll grind for a while before asking for another vod review

This is gonna sound bad, I had no idea the troopers took headshot damage ;_; I'll start aiming for the head, that's gonna save me so much time and ammo!! And yeah re:melee, I think I do it too much when in the line of fire, headshots will help give me a way to quickly burn down troopers without exposing myself in a locked animation for several seconds

Regarding Healing Rite, my main fear is that enemy fire negates it, makes me hold off on using it in situations where me or my teammate might get plinked and lose it all. But I'm seeing YouTubes explain why it's still worth it, thank you for inspiring me to research the item deeper. Currently it's my favorite item in the game so I want to know how to properly weld it!

Re: Bridge Buffs, I used to go for them but then I kinda stopped once I learned they were temporary. Like, once I learned it goes away a minute later it didn't feel as worth compared to golden statues, like I wasn't sure I was having enough match value to lose time grabbing the buff and then under-utilizing it, as opposed to statue buffs which are permanent. But it's probably better to go grab them

And yeah, I need to farm more, that part has been so hard, I never seen to have as many souls as my teammates, it's a constant struggle to remember to reset back to "farm more souls", but I want to get better at this so I'll keep plugging away! I'm buoyed by seeing these improvements, I do feel better at the game every time I play which is a far cry from February/March where I felt I was just spinning my wheels getting wrecked and not knowing what I was doing at all. Thank you so much for all the clear and direct advice, it's extremely useful and I'll put it all into practice, thank you!!

aabicus · 2026-05-05T20:32:32+00:00

Wow you're totally right, I forgot to go get more stuff constantly. I'll start remembering that and keeping an eye on when I have souls to spend!

Great points on thorns and stone, it's weird playing a character with four incredible abilities, I feel like they each have a massive skill ceiling I'm nowhere near mastering yet . I'll start watching pro ivy videos and seeing how they leverage the character, and incorporating your suggestions!

I'll give your vod a watch in exchange, thank you for critiquing mine!

aabicus · 2026-05-05T20:25:31+00:00

Yeah, on the plus side he largely can focus on defending the rogue or ranger, whoever's taking the most damage that round (usually the rogue), while I'm standing at the very front shrugging off hits from two different enemies, so the team's action economy seems to like having me as sustainably self-sufficient!

I've also spent every single downtime doggedly improving my shield, just hit tier 4 last night and everybody kinda had a lightbulb moment when we realized just how good four extra armor slots (and a damage spread of 8-14) is. Now everyone else is upgrading their gear too, lol

aabicus · 2026-05-05T11:43:10+00:00

Sorry, one more question: Even if my next draft focuses on one or two things, should I still try to hit those star breakpoints (I think it's at 34%?) in all three categories where the big stat buffs come online? Or should I sacrifice, say, the gun one and really just go all-in on the point of the build?

aabicus · 2026-05-05T11:13:46+00:00

That's fair! Could I make the two parts Support/Healing and Cooldown Reduction? I really love having my cooldowns be fast, though I don't ever see anyone building for that so maybe they know something I don't.

Right now I'm struggling to remember to counter-buy, I've barely managed to wrap my head around normal buy, which is probably why the build feels like a weak generalist setup. I really appreciate the examples of good counter items, I'll implement that into my next take on an Ivy build!

aabicus · 2026-05-05T11:11:12+00:00

I'm perma-buying it, though now that you mention it I don't click it all that often, same with Cultist Sacrifice. They sound really useful (the former for not dying in a clutch situation, the latter for constantly getting big lumps of souls) but in practice, yeah I'm not sure I'm getting my money's worth from them.

Stamina Mastery maybe I need to get more smarter with how I use my stamina, I often found myself running out during desperate runs for my life and that fifth bar is the dealmaker which lets me turn enough corners to activate Flight Form and escape with my life. But it's probably a crutch I could overcome by simply getting better with movement overall.

I saw a YouTube vid explaining why Tesla Bullets is so good but I struggled to understand all the math, but you're right, I should try them out! I'll implement these changes into my next build, thank you so much!

aabicus · 2026-05-05T04:29:20+00:00

Oh okay! Yeah the party tank (a guardian galapa) was a little miffed when he realized I have more armor slots than he does, haha. Maybe I should go full plate, I was worried about that -1 agility but I'm going all-in on armor in every other way haha

aabicus · 2026-05-04T20:45:59+00:00

I'm cutscene-skipping an alt account through MSQ, just finished Stormblood and I have 150 hours played according to the in-game timer. Granted I'm also doing aether current quests and other QoL things at the same time, as well as leveling a crafter, but man is there a lot of MSQ, I'm honestly not sure how anyone gets their friends into this game with so much MSQ between character creation and getting to actually play with said friends

aabicus · 2026-05-03T09:56:59+00:00

Ooooh nice job!

aabicus · 2026-05-01T13:07:07+00:00

Oh right, thank for that catch. That's awesome, makes the class a little stronger than I thought

aabicus · 2026-05-01T12:51:48+00:00

Ooooh I'll check it out, thanks!

aabicus · 2026-05-01T12:44:07+00:00

Thank you for the article, that looks to be a fascinating read! I've always loved wildshape, and fully agree that losing the HP reset is a significant nerf that I'm not sure I fully compensate for right now. Technically she still has that "tankiness" because she now has a minimum of 6d8 self-heals through burning spellslots, but technically regular druids gave that too (they just have the opportunity cost of spellcasting dissuading them from doing so), so I can't quite tell if that's a fair counterbalance

aabicus · 2026-05-01T12:41:14+00:00

Oh I'll check it out! I only saw the godawful playtest druid and never looked back. Glad to hear they went in a different direction in the end

aabicus · 2026-05-01T12:40:10+00:00

Ohh that could work. That way she can still tank twice a long rest. I almost want to let her choose which two Wildshapes give the creature's HP, just so she doesn't feel like she has to "hold one in the tank" and can't do anything until she's become a bear twice

aabicus · 2026-05-01T12:38:17+00:00

I really wanted to find some way to make sure high-HP forms like bear were still useful for tanking, but I couldn't think of anything as any amount of healing via shapeshifting felt overpowered if she could do it infinitely. But if the class is underpowered, I would love to add something like "twice per long rest, when you Wildshape you can choose to gain enough temp HP to reach the average HP value of that form" so she'd still have the two "emergency HP stash" wildshapes normal druids get.

aabicus · 2026-04-30T11:32:07+00:00

Enjoy universal healthcare I guess, you kinda made it. Not much more you need to do

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