Whenever I enter a server and join a team, we have 2 medics on our team. So I think to myself, "Well, that's pretty good," and leave as a soldier/scout/etc. into the frontlines. When I'm low on health after getting shot God knows how many times, I yell for a medic. Medic ignores. He might have not heard me, so I yell again. Frustrated, I go right up to him to call for a medic, and he barely notices me and heals his personal assistant/partner. I've been on too many servers where the medics are too frazzled to realize what's going on around them or when the medic is incredibly good, but will only heal one person. Then I wonder where the "Team" in "Team Fortress 2" went.
So here it is,
My Guide to Being a Better Medic.
Medic is kredit to team!Heavy speaks the truth! I've played games where we had no medic for the period of the map and had gotten 3-0 wins. But I've also played games where we had 3 medics for the period of the map and lose 0-3 for two consecutive maps. The idea of pocketing is good in public games, as it promotes some teamwork, but it sets your team back quite a bit.
This doesn't work well because:
a) 16 people on your team are dying and you're keeping this one guy alive expecting to take on the other team with a single uber. Not a gud idea, doktor.
b) Every member of your team is a valuable asset. But they can't regenerate health and half the time the med-packs are being eaten up by other players.
So if you are the only medic,
remember to heal everyone equally. Priorites on the battlefield are usually low on health (lit), half health, slightly hurt, and then buffed. If you have a setup time to work with, you should buff everyone on your team. Remember, just because that spy isn't as good as the other spy, doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a heal or a buff. He's still your teammate.
C'mon, Doc! Do it!Knowing when to use your ubercharge or kritz is essential. Hitting it too early would be a tremendous waste and hitting it too late could spell disaster for you and your uber/kritz target. So either time it right, or communicate with your teammate to coordinate your attack and send the enemy packing.
Knowing when the enemy is going to use their ubercharge is also an important part of being a medic. Your teammate won't be able to focus on the battlefield and the oncoming attack, so as a medic, you're a second pair of eyes. You watch your back, and your team's surroundings to ensure that they keep you safe, and they stay safe.
Hitting a charge is a game of cat and mouse, someone once said. So think about it.
How embarrassing! Letting a man of science get away with their papers!The idea of being a passive healing medic is kind of.. boring, to some. Personally I find it a lot more fun when I'm keeping the team alive and hitting ubers and mowing the other team down. But I find it 10 times more fun when I'm spraying an endless amount of needles onto a buffed, spun-up heavy. Especially when he dies.
So if you are going to gung-ho into the middle of a firefight, remember that you won't be healing when you're a battle medic. So make those needles count and aim your shots to ensure that it was all worth it. Afterwards when there's no one to
drugkill, return to healing your teammates. Having an all battle-medic isn't really worth it. D:
Follow me, Doktor.Communication is key in Team Fortress 2. This is especially true between a medic and his partner. The partners priorities are keeping the medic alive, and looking out for oncoming dangers like incoming rockets, pyro in the corner, or stickies somewhere hidden. The medic has an equally important task; to keep his target alive, to watch for little things that happen, like a spy that just flashed in front of you (this sentence sounds very wrong), a stray crit grenade, that one sniper aiming for your partner and to hit the charge at crucial moments, like taking a sentry down.
So if you are a medic, it's important to use voice commands or use a microphone to communicate with the rest of the team and your partner.
Get behind me, Doktor!The most used excuses for someone not being a medic are:
- But I don't know how to be a good medic!
- But I'm scared I'll die too much and let the team down!
- But I can't keep up with the rest of the team!
These excuses aren't true, because everyone's a good medic, you just have to find a way on HOW to be good. For example, if rushing into the battlefield gets you killed too much, go back in and assist your burning/hurt teammates looking for a medic. Most of you might say, "Just use the resupply, I mean, it's right there". Keep in mind that your team will have to take twice as long to reach the resupply and make themselves sitting ducks by running towards the resupply in a mad dash for health, while the medic could take 5 seconds to reach his hurt teammate. Those 5 seconds could mean a win or lose for your team, depending on the severity of damage.
Recently I've met medics who don't heal the rest of the team because it would make their jobs easier. The reason why they say it's hard is because there's too much going on. There are a few easy solutions, like turning on medic specific options. (Go into your TF2 settings > Multiplayer > Advanced and look for the MEDIC: options) There are also things that you need to keep in mind, such as:
- You're the healer. It's your job to heal, not to worry about that sentry in the corner. It's your teammates' priority to take it down, all you have to do is make sure he makes it through it ordeal.
- Your teammates trust you to heal them, so do so. Don't run head on into the battlefield with your bonesaw out, running past 5 burning teammates, all in the red area. You'll make yourself look bad, and jeopardizing your team's chances of winning.
- The obvious is exactly that: obvious. Your teammates can see the obvious, and process what needs to be done. It's not the medic's job to state/deal with the obvious. The medic's job is slightly more daunting, but definately more helpful to the team. These are, a) watching out for enemy spies, b) looking out for enemy snipers, c) looking out for enemy sticky traps, d) stray rockets, grenades, stickies and the occasional scout.
Scouts may seem harmless when compared against the other 7 classes, but when it's a scout against a healing medic, the scout will almost always win. So never disregard the fact that that one scout is across the map charging head on. He may succeed at doing that, and kill you when your Ubercharge meter is full.
Did ze Fräuleins have zeir Mittelschmerz?I've been onto the forums and been in-game and have almost always heard people raging about "teh blutsauber is amasing cuz u git hiled when it hits" or "the regyoular suhrinje is amasing bcuz it heals faster". These rage fests last for hours, and eventually end with both of them being muted or banned.
The Blutsauger and Syringe Gun are completely situational, or depend on your playing style. If you're almost always caught in a situation where you're left alone in a secluded area (which sounds liek rape lololol), it's better to use the Blutsauger for a lot of reasons. Mainly:
- The Blutsauger negates the need to wait too long for a medpack seeing as every hit is +3 health. You may get 35/40 hits in, which is 105 health on its own, leaving you healthy enough to get out of there alive.
- You can fight off a big class capable of hitting over a long distance, seeing as he will have to use an item, have a medic, or use a medium or large sized medpack to make it through 120 rounds of +3 health needles from a fast medic capable of taking him down within a few seconds.
- You can raep heavies. lololol.
Though, the Blutsauger does have disadvantages, such as lower health recovery. You may think of health recovery as a minor detail, but when you're caught in a situation where there are no medpacks and you're boxed in, you'd wish you had it.
The Syringe Gun has advantages, like:
- Better health recovery, which is better suited to healing medics. Half the time the enemy will eat up your medpacks, so with health recovery, you have a chance of getting out of there and meeting up with your buddy at full health.
- As I've noticed, it gets a lot more crits compared to the Blutsauger (correct me on this, I'm not sure). It also does a steady amount of damage, which the Blutsauger doesn't have. (It has random amounts, such as 11, 9, 13, 8, 3, etc)
So when someone rages about which weapon is better, there's no need to rage back. Just look up some stuff on the blutsauger and the syringe gun and see which style of play suits you.
This is basically a field guide for medics who want to be better. It may or may not be helpful, and it all depends on what you think is useful or effective. All of these were written on my experiences when I have played as a medic. I'll update it with tips when the time comes around.- Updated 7/March/2010: Added 2 more sections.Also:
MEDIC IS FRONT PAGE. 
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