blaze has pretty amazing rocket aim even with 90 ping, puts out a ton of damage and destroys a lot of scouts on the flank but is kinda heal heavy

harb is really good with initiating/distracting/dropping or forcing medics and pretty much creating any advantage he can for his team

tagg hides places sometimes

Jumping, if you can trick jump, it helps getting behind the enemy team.

Ballsy, when the game get's slow and no one wants to make a push, someone has to get in there and force an opening. Going under the point on Gully and starting a cap, even when the enemy team is there.

Stealing Health packs and Ammo packs, whenever you flank, eat them up like pacman eats those little pills.

Even if you get behind the enemy team, try to be a annoying from a distance, sending some rockets their way so they know they have to chase you, even when they are trying to hold a flank.

Off classing, not a big requirement, but Mackey did it often enough to keep the other team on their toes.

Also, don't be bothered by bottom fragging, it's common.

Well it helps if you have really good DM since most of the time you are playing away from the combo and you won't be getting heals. You need to play smart. Look for openings to get behind the other team and do lots of damage for your team. Be sneaky and do things that the other team won't expect.

You need to realize that you are totally expendable, and you are the least important person (especially to your medic), and you are going to die a lot. Yes the basic job for the roamer is to watch the flank, get picks, force ubers, make openings, and cause distractions, but what really sets good roamers apart is game sense. Knowing how to position yourself, and when/where to go for those big plays (and when to fall back and stay alive) is very important.

An example of an avarage roamer vs. a good roamer: granary mid... Your team lost the fight and are backing out into yard. You are caught behind the enemy team. They are stacking the point and you know you have to make a play. The avarage roamer might try to bomb the point while they are clustered on it. The roamer MAY force an uber there or even get a pick, but most teams are going to be watching behind them as they cap a point expecting that bomb. The good roamer may very well let them cap and wait for them to let their guard down. When the enemy team is starting to engage yours in the spam fight in the yard, the good roamer makes his move while they are spread out, distracted, taking some damage, and have let their guard down from behind.

Game sense and DM.

You should watch old POVs from Jaeger from Complexity, he kinda defined the roamer role. He's kind of a textbook example.

Be in all the right places at all the right times

Hit your rockets

All of them have the highest levels of game sense. That's what allows them to find opportunities to make big plays that change the tide of the game. That and they obviously have great DM and movement (including rocket jumping).

I used to get that feeling a lot as well (still do sometimes), and one thing that helped me is to simply be more aggressive. You'll be surprised how many pushes you can initiate by surprising a scout or roamer on the flank who's pushed up a little too far by jumping and killing him.

Blaze, Tag, and Harbleu are in the "Invite Illuminati". That's their reason.

On a serious note, you have to know when to bomb, where to position yourself, know that it doesn't really matter if you die most of the time as long as you get an important pick, distract the other team, force ubers, steal the health pack and ammo from the other team. Game sense and DM is obviously essential.

Knowing how to play a pick class such as sniper or spy is also nice, it's not required, but it's always nice to know that when you're playing in a scout map, the roamer can off-class.

Jumps dont need to kill anything, if you open up space then you've done your job, and sometimes opening up space means killing something, usually demo, pocket, or med.