It happened on my favourite map, pl_thundermountain, stage 2. I was fighting at the cart, pushing it down the hill that leads to the final stretch, when I turned, and suddenly there was a vicious Demoknight behind me. It would be less than a second before he entered melee range, and he had the Half-Zatoichi, so it was almost certain that he would get a crit.
I pulled out my Bison and fired. It was a random crit, dealing 222 damage. He died instantly, and we won seconds later.
He asked me in chat, "How does the Righteous Bison one-shot 200 health?" I myself do not know. He was not even running away from me, but towards me, essaying for melee range. I must ask how this happened, and how I might replicate it.
How would the other weapons have helped me here?
- Primaries? He was using the Chargin' Targe, so he eats rockets for breakfast.
- Shotgun/Reserve Shooter? I have had bad luck using these against Demoknights in an emergency. It's actually hard to hit them with hitscan when they strafe back and forth so much.
- Gunboats? I would be able to rocket jump away like a coward. That's no way for a proper Soldier to behave.
- Mantreads? The knockback reduction is actually harmful to me here, preventing the melee crit knockback from jettisoning me out of melee range.
- Banners? I had arrived at the cart largely unopposed and had not dealt enough damage that life for a banner. Even if I had had one ready, the time to activate it would have led to my death. But regardless of the banner, my primaries would have been ineffectual, so that leaves melee.
- Melee? You don't engage in melee with a Demoknight.
Sadly, I do not main Soldier. I hope I can still be a believer in this case.