User blog:Desertfighter777/Team Fortress 2 Builds, part 2: The Soldier

The Soldier class.

Suggested path
Level 5: Get Berserk.

Level 6-8: First off, the Soldier has lots of health, however, not as much as the Heavy. Let's begin with giving you some survivability in the form of 3 points to Hardened.

Level 9-13: By now, you'll probably have found yourself a rocketlauncher. Adding 5 points to Endowed should help your efficiency with it.

Level 14-18: The Soldier has a tool called the buff banner. When he does damage, the banner fills. When it's full, he gets a damage boost. 5 points in Revenge, and you'll have your very own buff banner.

Level 19-23: Another useful piece of equipment of the soldier are his gunboats. When rocket-jumping, he damages himself less. 5 points to Cast Iron simulate your gunboats. Advise: don't try to rocket-jump with them. Instead, they give you explosive resistance in general.

Level 24-27: Rocket-launchers don't have much ammo in general. Using 4 points in Master Blaster to preserve some ammo could work out well. Additionally, you can shoot your rockets faster.

Level 28-30: The Soldier has a real strong melee attack. With 3 points in Iron Fist, so do you.

Level 31-34: You may have found a Torgue Redemption by now. If that's the case, you'll find it empties your magazine like a maniac. Therefore, 4 points in Wide Load is highly necessary.

Level 35-36: We're gonna want a few skills from the Tank tree, but we don't want to put too much points in Hardened. Therefore, 2 points in Safeguard should do the trick.

Level 37-39: With 3 points in Bash, using melee will become even more useful.

Level 40-41: 2 more points in Juggernaut, and we can use the Tier-3 skills from the Tank tree.

Level 42-46: The Soldier has a melee-weapon called the equalizer. The lower his health is, the higher he runs and the more damage he does while he wields it. Though running faster can't be done, a damage-boost when on low health can be done, by means of 5 points in Pay Back. This doesn't just count for melee, all your weapons will benefit.

Level 47-50: Lastly, the Soldier's personality is that of a crazy American soldier (who actually failed every attempt of joining the military). He's known for phrases like "You can't hurt me. Pain does not hurt me!" As such, 4 points in Diehard will fit his personality.

Mad Moxxi points: The two extra points can be spent on Master Blaster and Diehard respectively.

Suggested weapons
Main weapon: Torgue Redemption with a magazine-size of 5. Possible drawbacks: no scope and no elemental damage. May require a minor Launcher SDU.
 * This is your standard Rocket Launcher. In order to make the Direct Hit (next up) stand out, I chose the launcher with the slowest rocket-travel-speed. Magazine-size 5 and 4 points in Wide Load combined give you 3 successive shots before having to reload.

Secondary weapon: A balanced shotgun without extreme damage, accuracy or rate of fire. Ideal is all of these things a little bit above medium. Preferably a magazine size of 6. No SDU is needed for this.
 * The shotgun of the pyro is the same shotgun the soldier uses. Therefore, this shotgun is the same too.

First added weapon: A single-shot rocket launcher with higher damage and accuracy than the Redemption. Possible drawbacks: magazine size 1. Possibly a Harpoon. May have a scope.
 * This is the Direct Hit, a launcher with a high rocket-speed, but small blast radius. Therefore, as the name implies, direct hits is what should be looked for. While the Redemption is good for groups of enemies, this one is meant to fight single enemies. The Direct Hit the Soldier uses has a scope, which he can't use. So, scope or no scope, this one will do.

Second added weapon: An explosive weapon. For ammo sharing purposes, a launcher or shotgun isn't recommended. Seeing the Soldier's style, best would be a combat rifle.
 * The Soldier doesn't have any weapons that weren't already implemented (Rocket launcher/Direct Hit/Shotgun), replaced by melee (Shovel) or recreated through skills (Buff Banner/Gunboats/Equalizer).

Suggested equipement
Shield: Medium-high Muscleman Shield.
 * The Shield used isn't of great importance, but seeing the soldier has relatively high health, a muscleman would do well.

Grenade mod: Explosive. Possibly MIRV or Bouncing Betty. No SDU needed.
 * Obviously, the Soldier uses something explosive. MIRV and Bouncing Betty grenades are both used by the army, going well with the military-theme.

Class mod: Bombardier, focusing on Launcher Reload Speed, Launcher Ammo regeneration (when it's fixed), Launcher Fire Rate and/or Endowed skill.
 * Increases efficiency with Launchers. Rapid Reload isn't needed, as no skill-points were invested in it. Wide Load is high enough already.

Artifact: Explosive
 * Again, obvious.

Suggested strategy
Suppose you're level 50, have all the points invested, and the exact loadout as described (including drawbacks). You're fighting method should probably look like this.

When encountering a group of enemies, use the Redemption from a safe distance. The massive blast radius makes sure you kill almost everything in sight. If the enemies dodge too much, try the shotgun, Harpoon or fourth weapon from a closer distance. When faced at extremely close range, use just the shotgun, fourth weapon or melee. This build doesn't support Berserker, and you should refrain from using it too much.

If a boss is alone, use the Harpoon. If there's lots of henchmen around, use the Redemption instead. Always aim for the boss, the henchmen will probably die because they're in the blast radius. Try to stay out of the blast radius yourself, and use the shotgun if the boss is too close to you.