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Medic Guide

Medic Guide Courtesy of Silver Dot

The Medic, not a bad class, then again, his weapons are deadly at short range. He is a supportive class. Hence his name, Medic; he heals you. The Medic is lucky to be a heavy, pyro, soldier, demoman friend. Of course, he is a friend of the whole team and anyone is willing to help him out. The Medic is not a really quick class and should not go assaulting a paired-up heavy or something.

Weapons

  • Primary: Syringe gun The syringe gun is the primary weapon for the Medic class. It fires low-damage projectiles at a high rate. The projectiles have a travel time and follow an arced trajectory, so it is necessary to lead a moving target and aim upward to compensate for distance. The syringe gun is reasonably accurate when the trajectory is taken into account and has a moderate damage falloff with distance. Damage Range- 10-15 per syringe (30 crit per syringe) at 10 syringes per sec = 100-150/sec (300/sec crit[fast reload]
  • Unlockable: Blutsauger The Blutsauger (meaning "Bloodsucker" or "Vampire" in German) is an unlockable primary weapon for the Medic class and replaces the Syringe gun. It is unlocked after 10 of the medic achievements are completed. The gun fires low-damage projectiles at a high rate. Whenever a projectile hits an enemy, three health is added to the medic who fired the shot. As compensation, the Blutsauger is unable to fire critical shots. Like the Syringe gun, the Blutsauger's projectiles have a travel time and follow an arced trajectory, so it is necessary to lead a moving target and aim upward to compensate for distance. When this trajectory is taken into account, it is reasonably accurate. It's also useful for spy checks, as any friendly that gives health when shot is a spy. Damage Range- Syringes steal 3 health for each syringe that hits an enemy. Does not crit
  • Secondary: Medigun The Medigun is the secondary weapon for the Medic class. It can heal injured allies as well as disguised spies, and will boost the total health of the target to 150% (also called overhealing). As the Medic keeps his beam focused on a teammate, his ÜberCharge bar will gradually fill. The ÜberCharge meter will fill faster (2.5%/second) when healing injured teammates or teammates whose health is not at 150% (at 150%, 1.25%/second). When the ÜberCharge is used, the Medic and his target glow their team's color, and become invulnerable for 8 seconds. The heal rate is based on how long ago the target was damaged; if they were damaged less than 10 seconds ago, it heals at 24 health per second, if they were hit 12.5 seconds ago, you will heal them at 48 health per second, and if 15 seconds have elapsed, they will be healed at 72 health per second.
  • Unlockable: Kritzkrieg The Kritzkrieg is an unlockable secondary weapon of the Medic class. It is unlocked after 15 of the medic achievements are completed, excluding Milestone 1. Just like the Medigun, it can heal injured allies as well as disguised spies, and will boost the total health of the target to 150% (also called overhealing). As the Medic keeps his beam focused on a teammate, his ÜberCharge bar will gradually fill. The ÜberCharge meter will fill faster when healing injured teammates or teammates whose health is not at 150%. When the ÜberCharge is used, the gun of the person being healed emits team colored sparks, and shoots 100% critical hits for the next 8 seconds. It charges 10% faster than the Medigun. While the Medigun's beam has a small cross symbols floating into the recipent, the Kritzkrieg has small yellow lines floating into the recipient as well. The Kritzkrieg beam will stay locked onto its target as long as the wielding Medic keeps the attack button held down and keeps within range of the target. This allows the Medic to turn around and effectively keep an eye out for incoming enemies from behind.
  • Melee: Bonesaw The Bonesaw is the melee weapon for the Medic class. It is especially useful for taking out Spies that may be attempting to Backstab the Medic's heal target. In some cases, the bone saw is favored over the syringe gun as a combat weapon. According to Valve's statistics, the bone saw has a marginally higher critical hit rate of all other melee weapons. Its critical hit animation is an upwards sawing motion. Damage Range- 43-87 (195 crit) [a little more than 1 hit per second]
  • Unlockable: Übersaw The Übersaw is an unlockable melee weapon for the Medic class. As of a June 23, 2008 update, it is only necessary to get 20 medic achievements, excluding Milestone 1 and 2, to unlock the Übersaw. It is especially useful for taking out Spies that may be attempting to Backstab the Medic's heal target. The Übersaw has a 20% slower attack rate than the Bonesaw, but will charge any secondary Medic weapon by 25% per each successful hit. The Übersaw has a large needle in the middle, which fills up with the team's colour as the Medic's ÜberCharge meter increases. Damage Range- Each hit on an enemy charges any secondary Medic weapon by 25%.

Basics

The medic is a nice supportive class. Commonly seen with a heavy or Pyro or Demo man or a soldier. When seen around anyone of those the enemies will try to attack you first if they are smart. Why? Because you are the only one keeping your patient up. If a scout tries to attack a heavy with a medic it is useless. So instead he goes for the medic so it can be MUCH easier to kill the patient. Unless your enemy is a spy he will go for you and quickly for your friend. Most likely he will attack your patient. Basically this is a Hi-I’m-Going-To-Be-Your-Healing-Friend-But-I’m-Not-A-Homo-So-Protect-Me class. Yes I made that up. There is no other class like that. But still a medic must worry about a lot of other players. Their virtual lives are in your hands. Do what you must to save your teammates but be carful to spy check anyone you heal for you might become an enemy spies friend..

Class Strategies

The Heavy: Never try to attack them without backup. Never.

The Pyro:These guys are really annoying. The best thing to do is get the Blutsauger and just spam syringes at him and leech that Devils health.

The Soldier: The soldier’s rockets are so easy to dodge but with practice it becomes easy and a soldier seems weak to you. Except when he pulls out his shotgun or dirty little shovel. You can just leave him alone and get help or spam syringes at him hoping he doesn’t get a critical hit.

The Demoman: Don’t go near these guys’ stickies. They are LETHAL. The day I don’t see a sticky spamming Demoman that will be the day when there will be a Team Fortress 57. Just leave them be and flank or go get a friend.

The Scout: You can not outrun a scout so don’t even try. Unless you are close to a spawn you can try running. His weakness is that he gets really close to you which give’s both of you an advantage of killing each other. Your needles hurt at short range, and so does his Scattergun. (He also has the same HP as you.) Change He also has the same HP as you to: You have more HP then him too.

The Spy: The worst little snitch of them all. He takes your life easily and same with your friend that you are healing. You can spam syringes at someone you think is a spy. Or easily spy check him with you Bone saw/Übersaw. The good thing is that they will not attack you at first so they won’t blow their cover. The tricks to finding a spy are:

  • Colliding with them
  • Suspicious behavior- Always check your corners or your behind because those are your weaknesses and the spies advantage.
  • HP is commonly at 75%

The worst case scenario is a backstab or a lucky critical hit gun.

The Medic: He will try to counter you or run away or show his friend to you. Either way he is you only a different colour.

The Sniper: Basically same case with the scout. Only a professional sniper can perform sniper shots are close range. Otherwise he will pull out his sidearm. The Sub Machine gun. It hurts at close range but so does your syringe gun. If he decides a melee fight he will pull out his Machete. This is a pain. But the Bone Saw has a high- critical hit rate so you still bear the advantage.

The Engineer: Commonly placed next to his baby the Sentry Gun. Don’t try to attack the sentry gun. Those are other classes job and your job is to Uber those people to crush the sentry gun.

Techniques

The medic has no special techniques of any kind.

Other Tips

  • Be sure to keep an eye out for players calling for a heal. You can easily hear them shouting "Medic!" or "Doctor!", as well as seeing a small red cross balloon appear over their head. You'll also see a message appear in the chat window.
  • It helps to communicate your intentions to your team. The built-in voice comm is invaluable for this, so be sure to use it if you have a working microphone. If you plan to Ubercharge the nearest Pyro while you have been healing a Demoman, let them know, so that he doesn't run to his death.
  • If you are paranoid about encountering a Spy, the most effective way to "Spy check" is to walk into that player. If you pass through that player, then he is not a Spy, and is on your team. If that the player blocks you, then he is a Spy.
  • Note that disguised spies cannot have a health bar that is in the red. Therefore anyone with a red health symbol is safe to heal.*A Medic's Ubercharge will fill more quickly during setup time, so long as he or she is actively healing someone. Other players do not need to damage themselves in order to boost your Ubercharge fill speed during this period.
  • Ubercharges are typically used in one of two ways: Defensively and Offensively. If you are using it defensively, you are using it to protect yourself or your partner from dying. This is better than dying, but can sometimes be a partial victory of sorts for the enemy team; if you have to use your Ubercharge to save yourself then you cannot use it for a well-coordinated offensive push. On the other hand, sometimes a defensive Ubercharge makes the difference between the other side taking a capture point and being beaten back. When being used offensively, you have more choice of when, where, and on whom to use your Ubercharge, so be sure to communicate with your team to make maximum use of that charge to take down a sentry or to do as much damage to the enemy team as possible and achieve your team's objectives.
  • So you've managed to survive long enough to fill that shiny Ubercharge bar; now, who should you use it on? This depends almost entirely on the situation, but cases where a Sniper, Spy, Scout, or Medic are your best bet are very uncommon. The targets you're most likely to want to use your Ubers on are typically Pyros(for offensive pushes); followed by Heavies (for defense); Demomen(using stickies to take out multiple sentry guns is safer than using an Uber on a Heavy); and Soldier (less desirable because of their reload time, but still pretty damaging); followed by Engineers (sometimes it's the only way to prevent a crucial sentry gun from going down). Use your best judgment to determine which class can best make use of your Ubercharge in the current circumstances.
  • Also, given the choice, you will probably want to use your charge on the more experienced players on your team, the ones who are likely to use it to full effect instead of wasting it. Typically (but not always!) these will be the people at the top of your team's scoreboard.
  • If you're using an Ubercharge to take out a sentry, take the lead during your push to absorb the knockback from the sentry, allowing your partner to attack it with minimal resistance.
  • If you have more than one attacker in a group, it's possible to switch targets in the middle of your Ubercharge, but you will be penalized for doing so. Your Ubercharge will drain significantly faster if you have more than one player Ubercharged at one time. Regardless, this is an intimidating strategy that is worth keeping multiple players invincible for a few moments.
  • Stay behind your meat shield! If you are healing a Soldier or Heavy, it's generally a good idea to keep them between you and whatever enemies happen to be firing at the both of you, unless there's a convenient corner to hide behind. They can absorb rockets and bullets much better than you can, and it'll help charge your Ubercharge, to boot!
  • Medics, perhaps even more than the other classes, need to know where the med kits are located in each level. Don't be afraid to hog the med kits (within reason).
  • Once you get a decent handle on the flow of the game, you will find that at certain times you can best support your partner by attacking instead of continuing to overheal him or her. Perhaps a spy has gotten between you and them and is going for a backstab, or they could just use a little extra damage on a target. This is tricky because a battle can change very rapidly, and your primary job is keeping your teammate healed. Still, every once in a while you can do more good by switching to your Syringe Gun or Bonesaw than by continuing to shower your teammate with unnecessary Medic love.
  • It’s better to use your Ubercharge prematurely to save yourself than to die with 100%. If your health dips into the red or things start getting too hot, it's probably a good idea to right click and look for the nearest teammate than to attempt a retreat and risk dying with a perfectly good Ubercharge.