I just had a conversation with Will from the Jarate Sandvich podcast about spies dismantling an engineer nest. He had a solid set up as an engineer and a spy was unable to take down his nest, after repeated attempts. I have been playing spy a lot lately and threw out my ideas on taking down the nest.
The scneario that he described was on a payload map. Will was playing on RED as an engineer and had set up a level 3 sentry, teleporter exit and dispenser near the BLU spawn point. A lone BLU spy kept attempting to sap his buildings, but Will was able to beat the spy down with his wrench, while working on repairing his buildings.
As a spy, I saw one major flaw in the BLU spy’s tactic – sapping the dispenser. As a BLU spy disguised as a RED player, you can use RED dispensers to recover health, cloak and ammunition… unless you sapped the dispenser.
Personally, I would’ve moved back and forth between the teleporter exit and sentry, continuously sapping them, while avoiding the engie’s wrench as best I could, and sticking near the dispenser. The dispenser would keep my health up, mitigating damage from the engie’s wrench, and the contiuous sapping would slowly drain, and eventually destroy, the sentry and teleporter exit. Once those buildings were destroyed, this nest is pretty much handled. A single offensive player could finish the job, wiping out the engie and the dispenser.
After the sentry and teleporter are destroyed, you have a choice between engaging the engineer and attempting to solo the job, or backing off and letting him cry over the wreckage of his nest.
If you attempt to engage, you are best served immediately sapping the dispenser, so he can’t refill his health while you fight him. If he chooses to repair the dispenser, you can open fire or try for a backstab, if he ignores it, you are on even footing as far as health goes. His shotgun is more than a match for your revolver, so be careful.
If you decide to back off, you run the risk of him rebuilding, so you should alert your teammates that he is disabled, and hope one of them finishes the job. If he manages to rebuild, the same tactic might not work twice if he learned his lesson and changes his layout.
What are your thoughts on taking down a nest like this?