### Spy checking --- During spy time, avoid wasting ammo on constant flame spam. Spy check with your eyes by positioning yourself such that you can react to a spy decloaking/making a play before he can get a pick. With proper [[Spy Tracking]] and [[Vulnerability assessment]] you should have a good idea where the spy can be and who he will most likely target. Use this information to choose your position and be purposeful in your ammo usage. There is no value in spending your ammo checking the same corners over and over again and you will end up in situations where the wasted ammo will be the difference between winning and losing a fight for your team. If you have to step away from your players to get ammo during spy time, before an uber, or during potential sac times, you create openings for the enemy team to exploit your absence. Much like [[Health and damage management |health]], ammo is an important resource that should be conserved so that you have it during high impact moments. ### Spam --- Spam selection is an extremely important part of ammo management. Just because you can reflect every rocket, pipe, or sticky, doesn't mean you should be investing your ammo. Take into account the impact that the spam will actually have before deciding to reflect. Demo spam across mid on a map like [[Product]] is far higher in the priority list than random spam on [[Swiftwater]] that isn't going to splash your players. Much like with spy checking, reflect spam purposefully and avoid dropping your ammo too low to respond to high impact situations. ### Extinguishing Players --- Like with managing spam, not every player on fire needs to be extinguished. Against a pyro who is spamming heavily, you can easily spend every bit of ammo you have just putting out players and leave yourself and team defenseless. It is almost always worth putting out your sniper to prevent him from getting aim-punched. Medics and scouts are generally good to keep from burning as well. Otherwise use your best judgment based on HP (obviously if someone is going to burn to death, extinguish them) and your own need for health recovery. Trading ammo for health to avoid burdening your medic, combined with solid [[Health and damage management |health]] management, can be extremely effective at staying alive for high impact moment. Your 430 HP heavy probably isn't worth spending ammo on if you aren't in need of health. ### Ubers --- Now that you've made it to an [[Understanding Ubers |uber]] exchange (or even just denying an uber) with decent amount of ammo, its still important not to overspend ammo. Effectively using [[Advanced Mechanics and Knowledge/Airblast and controlling engagements|airblast]] to control an uber includes use of good ammo management. By airblasting players up and away, you can create space for your team with very little ammo invested, and then allow the rest of your combo to take advantage of the space you've created while you setup for the post.