Thread: I am Medic, hear me roar!

First Revision


New to TF2? Or if you are just an old pro at spy or sniper and want to try a real man's class, pay attention. The medic is the most important part of any team. From the best CAL team to the lowest pub, medics can make or break a team. As a medic, it is your job to be heal people. Expect your K/D to plummet while playing a medic, if you are doing it right. But do expect your points to shoot up like Lindsay Lohan's weight after she eats once a week. Consistently, Medics are in the top 3 for their team, and it is a common sight to see a medic be #1 on his team, if not the server.

Section One: Basics for Beginners

Your Medic Gear

Primary Weapons

As a medic, you have several important weapons at your disposal. First of all, you have two choices of your primary weapon. Actually, I'm lying. There's one clear choice. The Blutsauger is going to be your primary weapon, unless you have the misfortune of not having it yet. The Blutsauger, or "Vampire" in German, if a Level 5 needle gun. It has a fairly steep drop off angle, like the regular Needle Gun, but it can easily be compensated for. Every time a needle hits, you gain three health. This gun shoots fast and reloads faster. As a medic, I rarely run out of ammo, so feel free to spam it like no tomorrow.

[img width=700 height=437]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/vicious_spunge/tf2%20screenshots/hotcraigseifertislookinggood.jpg[/img]

A common side effect of medics, happy team mates.

Medi-Guns

This is where the fun happens ladies and gentlemen There are 2 medi-guns, the Kritzkrieg and the Regular Medi-Gun. Each have their situational advantage. The Medi-Gun makes you and your heal buddy invincible for 8 seconds. The Kritzkrieg, on the other hand, gives your Buddy a 100% crit rate for 8 seconds, in addition to giving a 25% increase in your charge rate. As to which one is better, it is a personal choice. Many medics play just one or the other, while others multi task, and switch to whatever is more needed. As a general rule of thumb, ask your team what they would prefer. On a general basis, the Uber is preferred for offense (to break sentry nests) and the Kritz is preferred on Defense (usually to lay down crits on a point/cart)

Melee Weapons

Melee weapons are a very fun part of being a medic. Nothing is more fun than hopping off a heavy, and bonesawing a spy about to stab someone. There are two melee weapons for the medic, the Bone Saw and the Ubersaw. The bonesaw is your run of the mill melee weapon. Which makes it more reliable than the Blutsauger for CQC. It is actually the best medic weapon for those emergency "Holy shit, a spy just backstabbed my Heavy!" moments. A good 2 or 3 hits will take down Spies, Scouts, Pyros (which I don't recommend), and Snipers. The Ubersaw is basically the same as the Bonesaw, except that it swings 25% slower, but every time you hit and enemy, it adds 25% to your Uber Charge. Very handy against spies. The Ubersaw should be your melee weapon all the time, if you have it.

Tips and Tricks for the New Medic

Here is a very basic list of stuff that any new medic needs, and what pro medics might need a refresher on.

1: Go to the Options menu, Select Multiplayer, Advanced, and select the "automatic healing" option. This will save your index finger much strife as a medic. Once you select a target, the beam will automatically stay on them, until they get out of range or you switch to someone else.

2: As a Medic, it is YOUR responsibility to keep yourself alive. As a medic, you will rarely be fighting at all. Many people, acting on instinct will dodge rockets, leaving them streaking towards your vulnerable self. I highly suggest bunny hopping. It will not only make you very hard to hit with explosives and bullets, but makes it much harder for that Spy to come and backstab you.

3: As a Medic, heal priorities first. That scout who got 25 health knocked of by getting on the edge of a rocket is less important that the Heavy who is down to 150. It is all situational though, you will have to use your best judgment. Note: healing another medic takes priority over everything else. They need to conserve their Uber, in addition to doubling the healing power of the team.

4: As a Medic, don't wait for your Medic Buddy to holler before hitting the Uber. If you see a rocket racing towards you, hit that bitch. ANY player would rather you hit it too early than you die. On another note, Wth the Kritzkrieg hit it as soon as you get about 25% of your health taken off. Unlike the Regular Uber, you are still going to take damage when it’s activated.

5: Use your mic! A good medic tells everything, from how close you are to Uber, to where you and your buddy are pushing from. If you get separated from the main group, try to work your way back, and ask for some back up. Also, warn your Buddy before you hit it if possible.

6: Once you start healing someone, you can turn all the way around and still be healing, in addition; the beam can bend slightly and go around corners. Use this to watch your back and to stay out of the line of fire.

7: Don't be afraid to stop healing, and to Blutsauger people if you’re in a pinch. Many times that is the best way to get health fast. If a Pyro is rushing towards you, back off and needle him. You can heal your buddy back, but he can't heal you.

8: Selecting a good medic buddy. Selecting a good Medic Buddy is a key part of being a good Medic. The Buddies vary depending on if you have the regular Medi-gun or the Kritzkrieg.

Good for regular Uber:

Soldier: A good soldier can demolish and enemy team with an uber.

Pyro: Nothing scares an enemy team more than hearing "Uber Pyro!!"

Demo: Great for taking out sentries, and for just sticky bombing a point to hell and back.

Heavy: Great if you can get close enough for that Minigun chew them up. And your still very dangerous after the ubers done with too.

For the Kritzkrieg:

Soldier: 4 crit rockets? Then crit shotguns? Uh, yes please!

Demo: FANTASTIC for raining down a carpet of crit stickies on the other team.

Heavy: Flank them with the Kritz, or just burst in there guns blazing and you will see the bodies hit the floor.


Yes, those are the classes that you should be ubering. But if every combat class is dead, and you really need to kill some people, almost every class can be decent with a Kritz. A Sniper can lay down a rain of quick shots that slay anything. An Engy can shotgun anyone close, and then pistol anything that remains. A bunch of crit scattergun shots can take down almost anyone. If you have to, a crit Spy can demolish lighter classes with ease.

A common reaction to your Buddy dying. Try to avoid this.

Section 2: Tip's for good medics

This section is just a basic list of tips, tricks, and hints that not all medics know.

1: With the Kritzkrieg, you can taunt (the bong hit) and heal yourself. It is 10 HP, but when combined with the natural Medic HP regen, you can heal about 15-20 health per bong hit. Note that you cannot overheal yourself with it.

2: Double Ubering is very fun if you can get the hang of it. Simply switch rapidly between the two targets. Beware: this drains your uber rate significantly faster.

3: When Kritzing a class like Demo or Soldier, wait till after he has shot all of his rockets/pipes or stickies, the switch over to another one, or a Heavy.

4: A Kritz/Uber combo on a single person can be devastating. An Uber Heavy down a long hall is not that bad.....but an Uber Heavy with 8 seconds of crits is a nightmare.

5: Pay attention to who's calling for a medic. If you see a full health pyro calling for a medic, sick a Pyro on him. Many spies forget that they have a "secondary" health bar for their disguise.

6: Medics are second only to Pyros for spy checking. With the Blutsauger health buff, and the Ubersaw, Medics can easily know who's a spy. 7: As SOON as you or your Buddy is Jarate'd, hit the Uber. That rocket or pipe that you could shrug off normally is going to become a crit.

Section 3: How to be a good Medic Buddy

So, you got a good Medic on your team. But how do you make sure that you keep him alive, and more importantly to you, keeping you healed? There are several basic strategies that you can use to make sure that your German friend stays alive throughout the whole game.

1: Don't take health packs if a medic is healing you, or there is a medic around, unless your almost dead or there is a big rush coming.

2: Sometimes, you got to take one for the team. The Medic is more important than almost anyone else. If you see a crit rocket streaking towards you, and your Medic is almost dead, take it like a man. Or airblast it back if your a Pyro. If you are a Heavy or a Soldier, you can probably take one crit rocket, if you have the buff from your Medic.

3: Try to never get mad at the Medic. As one TTP reg said to me "Don't get mad at the Medic. Anybody who plays Medic on a pub is all right with me." Medics are trying to do their job.

4: Don't think that the Medic is your Medic. Many people think "Oh I have a medic. LEEEEEEEROY JEEENKINS!!!" only to find that the Medic is healing someone hurt.

5: Guard your medic with your life. I cannot reiterate this enough. Many times, my Buddy gets caught up in the rush killing things, and leaves me alone to contend with very very angry people.

6: Actually thank your Medic. Most Medics would rather be playing a combat class. Many times, Medics switch back to combat classes because nobody is appreciating them. Take the time to say "Thanks Squeak! Let's go kill shit now!" A little encouragement goes a long way.

7: Don't bitch about needing a Medic if you aren't willing to switch. Saying "Guy's we could really use a Medic, could one of ya’ll switch?” is fine, but if you are constantly nagging about needing another Medic, man up and switch. And especially if there are multiples of your class.

8: Don't spam the Medic button unless you actually need a medic. It is very annoying for any Medic to have half the team at full health spamming the Medic button.

9:Don’t jump around while a Medic is trying to heal you. It is so annoying to have 2 Soldiers or Scouts just spamming the Medic Button, getting angry because I can’t snipe them with my Medi-Gun in mid-air because they’re jumping around like a bunch of lemmings. Stand still until the Medic has his beam on you, and then jump to your hearts content.

10: Use your mic! It is much, much easier for a Medic to hear "Hey Squeak, could you patch me up, I'm on the other side of the door" than to just spam the Medic button.

Fin

Only advice I would offer would be to try to redo it a bit more concisely.

Lots of good info, just seems to skip around a bit and rehash some points.
A lot of readers probably wont read the whole thing.

Shorten it up, deliver the info a little more rapid fire and without as much fluff.

Otherwise, Good Stuff!

2: Double Ubering is very fun if you can get the hang of it. Simply switch rapidly between the two targets.

I completely agree and it can save peoples precious lives. Be advised that is does drain your uber much faster when you do this.

my fine literary comb turned up this :

Originally Posted by Anti-Squeaker

The Kritzkrieg, on the other hand, gives you a 100% uber rate for 8 seconds, in addition to giving a 25% buff to charge rate.

1: Go to advanced options, and select the "automatic healing" option. This will save your index finger much strife as a medic. Once you select a target, the beam will automatically stay on them, until they get out of range or you switch to someone else.

6: Your medi-gun has a 360 degree radius.

Pyro: Good if you do it right. But you will be in the middle of the enemy, which makes it easy for you to get punched in the face.

1: With the Kritzkrieg, you can taunt (the "bong" hit) and heal yourself.

Kritz description unclear. maybe change to "charges 25% faster."

the automatic healing option is super important. I would suggest bolding the entire thing.

the 360 degrees bit was confusing

it is rare to see an effective kritz pyro. For a run of a mill pyro with a run of a mill medic, i would suggest holding onto the kritz until a soldier came along. unless the pyro in question was gideon.

The kritz taunt heals 10 damage, but doesn't give you overheal (to my disappointment)

And a few suggestions:

medics need to tell people if they are going to uber them.

Medics slowly regenerate health over time.


overall, a good article

all right, thanks for all the feedback. I'm fixing all the repeating stuff, and adding in some extra stuff. I'll post a revised version after I'm done.

EDIT: Done. New feedback is appreciated.

Great Job Squeakers. Maybe I can be a better medic! (I always die when I have a Kritz)