User blog:Desertfighter777/Team Fortress 2 Builds, part 3: The Spy

Gentlemen.

Suggested path
Level 5: Get Phasewalk. This represents the cloaking device the spy has. While cloaked, the spy has a limited time of complete invisibility. Differences are that you get increased speed and can use an attack to get out of the cloak, whereas the spy retains normal speed and can't attack until he is completely uncloaked (which takes about a second). Also you can deal damage by cloaking or uncloaking.

Level 6-10: Another type of watch the spy uses is called the Dead Ringer. He loses the ability to cloak at will and gets reduced damage while cloaked and a fake body appearing in your place when shot. Since your already invincible while cloaked, it has not much use. However, with 5 points in Silent Resolve, you can get the damage reduction after the cloak.

Level 11-15: The spy's melee weapon is a butterfly knife that grants an instant kill when used from behind. However, Borderlands does not check the direction you hit an enemy from. Therefore, I just made melee deal high damage from all sides. The first step towards this is 5 points in Hit & Run. This also gives you longer cloak time.

Level 16-20: You can't kill everything with just melee. Therefore, using 5 points in High Velocity makes for stronger weapons and better accuracy through faster bullets.

Level 21-25: If you use Phasewalk often, you can use 5 points in Phase Strike to deal massive damage with your melee attack.

Level 26-30: 5 points in Blackout reduce the time you have to wait before Phasewalking again. You need only 6 enemies to refill your skill completely. This somewhat represents the ability to pick up weapons from enemies you killed in order to refill your cloak in Team Fortress 2.

Level 31-33: 3 points for Quicksilver for faster shooting.

Level 34-35: 2 points in Spark for using Shock weapons.

Level 36-40: The spy has an electronic device called the sapper. It can be used on enemy buildings to disable them and deal damage over time. Use 5 points in Radiance and you'll have your own sapper, for use on enemy shields.

Level 43-45: 5 points in Slayer for more damage.

Level 46-50: The last 5 points are to be used in Striking, to enhance melee even more.

Mad Moxxi points: If you have these two points as well, you can use them on Quicksilver and Spark respectively.

Suggested weapons
Main weapon: A revolver with medium-high damage, medium-high accuracy, extreme recoil reduction and a medium rate of fire. Will probably require a revolver SDU.
 * The Spy has two primary weapons; this is the standard revolver. The most important trait is the fact that every bullet has about the same accuracy.

Secondary weapon: A revolver with high accuracy, lower damage than the main weapon. A possible drawback is no recoil reduction.
 * The second primary weapon of the Spy is called the Ambassador. The Ambassador trades damage in for higher accuracy and the ability to do headshots (which the standard revolver can do too in this case). Interestingly, this is the only weapon in Team Fortress 2 that has recoil, so I figured the emphasis should be on that.

First added weapon: Medium-high to high accuracy, medium-high damage single shot weapon with x1 or x2 shock. Possibly a revolver, combat rifle or sniper rifle. No additional SDU needed.
 * The two revolvers are the spy's only ranged weapons. The minor shock further adds to the sapper and the usefulness of Spark.

Second added weapon: A single shot weapon with added melee damage. No SDU needed.
 * You use melee a lot, so using a weapon that adds to this will help.

Suggested equipement
Shield: Simple shield.
 * The Spy is a really fragile class, you shouldn't spend much time looking for shields.

Grenade mod: Simple shock grenade mod. No SDU needed.
 * Again, not a standard part of the spy's equipment, don't waste your money on one. More sapper implementation through shock.

Class mod: Catalyst, focusing the skill cooldown reduction.
 * So you can cloak more often.

Artifact: Shock.
 * Spy sappin mah shield.

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.

The best way to start a fight is phasewalking in. Try to stay near enemies with shields as long as possible to make good use of Radiance. When nearing the end of Phasewalk, find the toughest enemy and melee him. Your melee damage is ridiculously high, so it should kill him right away, or at least damage it greatly. After that, back off to a safe area, but keep using melee/shooting/throwing grenades. Remember, your strong, but fragile. If everything goes well, you should have Phasewalk ready for another go pretty soon. If there's only a few enemies left, you can shoot them with your revolvers.

Bosses are tough when on your own, but work similar to regular fights: Phasewalk, then attack from a distance until Phasewalk is ready again.