Chemist for dummies

Chemist is one of the most versatile CTF classes. They can fulfil almost any role in the team well. Chemists have quite a skill cap, in that you can barely capture, score kills or defend unless you are good at pvp and have decent CTF knowledge overall. Chemist is therefore a very powerful class in the right hands because of its potential.
Your inventory consists of:

• 20 instant damage splash potions (deals 3 hearts of true damage on full contact; armour ignoring)
• 10 poison II splash potions (last 10 seconds on full contact)
• 5 regeneration splash potions (lasts 15 seconds on full contact)
• 3 slowness splash potions (lasts 20 seconds on full contact)
• 3 fire resistance splash potions (lasts 2 minutes on full contact)
• 3 strength + speed in one splash potions (lasts 3 minutes on full contact)
• 10 instant health II splash potions (heals 7 hearts on full contact)
• An iron sword
• A unique-to-chemist compass which also lets you select classes
• A nether star to select classes
• A leather helmet
• A gold chest plate
• Gold leggings
• Leather boots

PVP:
As a chemist, your inventory contains lots of offensive and support potions. Chemists have no steak, and as such must rely on regeneration and instant health potions to heal. This isn't a problem however, since the amount of health those potions provide surpasses all classes except medic's permanent regeneration ability. A chemist must remember to buff themselves with fire resistance and strength + speed at every respawn. The easiest way to do this is to walk out of spawn and throw the potions directly above you to get the full duration. These buffs alone practically give chemists a diamond sword, while giving them a strafing advantage too. All potions should be used sparingly otherwise you will be at a disadvantage without them.

When you are in a 1v1, try to combo your opponent and score consecutive hits by running and hitting them. Try to strafe (run at an angle by pressing W and A or W and D) as this makes hitting them easier and them hitting you harder. You will probably need to put the control 'sprint' on a key such as left shift or left control on your keyboard. Hold that key down to keep sprinting while hitting people to save yourself from double pressing W all the time. Occasionally jump to score critical hits, but this makes combos harder so do this when you think they are near death. These are tips for pvp you can apply to any class. Chemist has an easier time comboing opponents, because the speed buff lets you run faster. Just make sure you click quickly as well.

Chemists have lots of potions. Please, I speak for the entire CTF community, that you do not potspam. That is, to throw all of your damage and poison potions when fighting 1 opponent without even using your sword. It is very disrespectful to your opponent, and to the class. Theoretically, this would kill quickly because the damage racks up. It actually doesn't. Aiming 30 potions is harder than hitting someone with your sword believe it or not. You will never land more than 2 direct hits, as you opponent will definitely strafe. The fact that it doesn't kill will only enrage your opponent, and using all of your potions means you will have harder other fights even if you manage to win somehow. It is much better in every way to be economical with your potions so that their effects will be used fully.

With chemist, you can use offensive potions to boost your damage output a lot although this requires multitasking. If you see somebody running straight at you, throw one poison potion at them before you engage (the poison deals chip damage and slows them down, giving you a significant pvp advantage). Strafe immediately after you throw the potion and proceed to combo them. Alternatively you can strafe, jump, and throw a damage potion while scoring a crit with your sword to start. Make sure you don't accidentally poison yourself however. When you are comboing someone, every few hits throw a damage potion directly at them. Unless you can throw potions accurately and without hindering your pvp skill, there is not much point in throwing them because you cannot deal anymore damage than you would by using your sword. Switching between your sword and damage potion quickly is hard, but it is easier if you set the damage potion to R or E. Those two keys are near WASD and are close enough to reach comfortably. I personally allocate R to my sword in slot 2; E to my damage potion in slot 3 and F to my health potion in slot 9. My poison potion is in slot 1 but I can reach the 1 key anyway. You can change the default hotbar layout, but do it once and respawn to do it again so it saves. 'Hotkeying' (the act of changing keys rapidly) is quite difficult for people trying chemist for the first time, but get this technique down and you will score kills much easier, trust me.

To practice hotkeying, first you need to be very familiar with what each one you have assigned is. Otherwise you could make the mistake of throwing a damage potion and forgetting which key your sword is, resulting in hitting your opponent with a health potion and dealing minimal damage (I have done this many times xD) Even when you have memorised these keys, pvp is still the best practice. Try fighting heavies: you will find hotkeying very useful as the potions ignore armour. Heavies deal large amounts of damage, so this encourages you to try to combo and hotkey at the same time otherwise you will take lots of damage.

Healing out of combat is easy, but hard during combat. Whenever you fight somebody and reach 3 hearts, be sure to turn your back on them and run away, throwing a health potion at the ground in front of you to heal yourself (or in front of you because it is quicker, although sometimes it doesn't work in lag). Hotkeying to your heath potion is the most effective option as it saves time and lets you continue fighting quickly. Running away is to make sure you don't heal your opponent- as support potions will effect everyone, even opponents. Offensive potions (instant damage, poison and slowness) don't work on yourself or teammates, but poison and slowness will if they hit an opponent and you are in the splash radius. If you are fighting a group, don't be afraid to use a regeneration potion. They won't negate all damage, but will make you a bit harder to take down. In some ways, fighting a group is not impossible, as not everybody will manage to hit you. Try to single out the weakest member or medic and pick them off first. When you run away and gain your health, try to 360 noscope (the same as you would when running away as archer) your opponent with a damage and poison potion. If the person is already poisoned, chuck a slowness potion instead. It slows them down more than the poison and should make combos easier. This little trick will score you free damage, because they will not be expecting it. Before you do this check they are actually following you with F4 (allocate it to 4 if you find it difficult to reach like me xD). Checking your back is helpful because you will be aware of everything, so try to check often when you have nothing to do while travelling. Continue fighting after landing the potions and expect a swift victory.

PVP against a chemist:
Most classes run away because their steak is gone: they are near death. Chemists run away for a few different reasons, and this makes them very unpredictable - yet another pvp advantage. Generally, you won't know if a chemist is coming back for you, throwing a potion at your face, or literally running away. If the chemist does the first or second, you have slim chances if they have caught you off guard. To avoid this, strafe while chasing the chemist so they might miss their surprise attack.

Killing a skilful chemist is difficult, because once they start, they won't stop fighting unless you or they are dead. When I mean dead, that's potentially 10+ 10 x 7 worth of hearts + the potential 5 x 15 seconds of regeneration you need to deal with if they are going for it. If you are not defending or recovering, it is advised to not attempt fighting a skilled chemist: archers have an easier time. During a fight, try to combo them and strafe to get in their face. If you have them cornered, try to score consecutive crits while strafing close to them because you might get healed if you are lucky. If they run away and don't come back, leave them alone because they are faster than all classes except ninjas and assassins. They might surprise you with offensive potions if you chase them. If you are an instant killing class such as pyro and assassin, generally you are evenly matched because you fear eachother. Assassins should take care to not get poisoned, as you will die the next time you take poison chip damage during assassinate: never attempt to kill a chemist head on. Get them from behind swiftly if you are defending or recovering but keep in mind they will be checking their backs with F4. Pyros should only engage chemists while defending the flag. Set them on fire with any method, but unless you can hit them with your axe and kill them immediately after, don't bother abandoning your position. When recovering as a pyro, if they have escaped the flag room don't bother shooting them. It does little damage because they have fire resistance.

 

Lots of CTF classes are OP in a way
I said 'most' because chemist has a skill cap. The better you are, the better of a class it tends to be. There are a few really good chemists out there, take hallopiu for example.

 

Lol I have a similar dilemma. If I'm hit from behind, I throw a dmg pot and try to kill one or two. They really enjoy strafing, like chemists, so I just try to follow their movement. I can also relate to how you spam your heal pots. It isn't the best option, but who wouldn't panick with 2-3 ninjas chasing you xD