Editing Engineer (Highlander) (section)

=== Spies ===
Whilst spychecking is a team's responsibility, engineer is nonetheless a prime target for enemy spies. Other classes may be too busy / too many things on their plate to keep a constant vigilance for spies. For example, a medic has to keep track of Uber advantage and positioning, a heavy has to call, etc. However, an engineer is not burdened with so many responsibilities such that he can still look out for spies while doing his job as described above. An engineer's shotgun and sentries are potent weapons, with the ability to decimate spies within a few seconds. Often, a few rounds from one's shotgun and / or wrangled sentry are enough to kill the spy, or at least reveal him for your teammates to kill. In lower levels of competitive play, spies will often sap your buildings before going for picks, that can alert you and your team to him before he goes for a damaging pick. In higher levels of competitive play, spies will not give themselves away by doing that, and hence, spychecking is the only way to go.

While on defense, however, you are the prime target for spies. As the only person who can keep your sentry up, spies will be gunning for you. However, unlike on offense, you will have a lot of things to worry about, such as enemy ubers, spam, snipers, whether it is time to fall back, etc. Spies' saps can be deadly especially when coordinated with an uber or constant spam, as it is a guarantee that your sentry will go down. Often, good spies will communicate with their team to distract you for that one moment during which you turn your back and present an easy target. The most prudent way to counter this is to constantly communicate with your teammates, about the whereabouts of the enemy spies, etc. Moreover, it is imperative that as the engineer, you check your back / other hiding spots often whenever you can. One major mistake a lot of lower level engineers do is to sit still and hit one's sentry in order to upgrade/ repair it without moving. This opens the engineer up to attacks by spies. The way to counter this is to constantly move. The engineer's melee weapons do not register their hits instantaneously like a hitscan weapon; there is a slight delay. Hence, if the engineer times it right, he can move about or quickly turn around to check if there is a spy before turning back to hit his sentry.