Team Fortress 2 Strategy - The Medic
December 4th, 2007 by Graham ClayOverview:
As the only healer in the game, the Medic of Team Fortress Two is a necessity for every team. Able to heal allies, über allies, fire a syringe gun, and bonesaw nearby enemies, the Medic is a powerful support class.
Weapons:
Medigun – The Medic’s primary weapon is the Medigun, a gun that shoots a beam of healing power at nearby teammates. This beam of healing can boost an ally’s health to 150% of its normal value as long as the healing is maintained, providing an important buffer against strong enemy defenses. Along with the obvious healing power and the provided health buffer, the Medigun’s beam can also wrap around corners; this ability keeps the Medic out of the line of fire. Last, but not least, the Medic has the ability to ‘pop’ the Medigun’s über. As the Medic heals damaged teammates, the Medigun gains a powerful charge, called an über, that can eventually reach 100%. When this point is reached, the Medic can use the über to make him and his target invincible for 10 seconds.
Syringe Gun – The Medic’s secondary weapon is a syringe gun that can fire quickly with a very short reload time. This gun is useful when the Medic is alone or when he is fighting enemies that his teammates cannot help him with.
Bonesaw – The Medic’s melee weapon is the bonesaw. This saw is surprisingly powerful and can sometimes be more effective against Spies than the syringe gun. It’s also useful for ganking oblivious enemies, lulz.
Strategies:
1. Since the Medic is vital to his team’s success, it is extremely important for him to stay alive. To do so, the Medic needs to watch his back (he can look behind himself with the Medigun still locked on), use übers to save his own life, use his stronger teammates like meatshields, and fight off nearby enemies with his own weapons.
2. Obviously, keeping teammates alive is the Medic’s number one priority. Under this category, there are specifics that need to be realized. First, heal all burning teammates since the Medigun stops the DoT burn effect. Second, heal teammates that need healing; Spies and Scouts can take care of themselves. Lastly, utilize the health buffer as much as possible; it is extremely important for penetrating enemy defenses.
3. Charging an über before a round starts is an important ability of the Medic. Tell your Soldier or Demoman teammates to harm themselves to help the über charge faster.
4. Other than staying alive and healing smartly, the way the Medic uses his über is extremely important. It should only be used if the Medic or one of his important teammates is going to die, his team is trying to take down a powerful sentry, or if the other team uses their über.
5. Lastly, on top of using his über properly, a good Medic knows how to ‘multi-über’. Multi-übering is targeting multiple teammates over the über duration. This is possible because über has a second or two to wear off after the Medic stops healing. Consequently through coordination and timing, the Medic can create a powerful and invincible offensive push.
Common Pitfalls
1. “I keep dying fast” – Pull back and use corners. Remember, your medigun on teammates make them powerful and a good opponent will try to take you out first. Play around with how far you can be separated from your teammate and still heal. Good rule of thumb is if you can see them, they can shoot you.
2. “I keep getting backstabbed” – If you’re staying out of the enemy’s sights well, many times a spy will try to take you out. Your medigun works no matter what direction your facing, so look behind you often.
3. “My ubers are pretty much a waste…” – Communicate with your team. Get a bloody headset to make it easy on you. Also, tell your teammates to push in and use the uber after you’ve breached. Ideally your uber should start right before the first bullet of the enemy sentry would hit your teammate. Many times 80% of the uber is spent running to the target, so make sure you uber as late as possible (without dying of course).
4. “I just can’t seem to get the medic down…” – Try different classes. People have strengths and weaknesses. You might find your extremely effective with another class and you have teammates who make better medics. That’s okay, cause the goal isn’t be the best at every class, but just pwn the faces of your opponents.
Comments:
The Medic is a class that, like Heavy, seems simple but in reality is just the contrary. I am sure that all experienced Medics can agree with this assertion. I personally play Heavy and Spy, so please tell me if I missed any small details.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:37 am
Very well written. I consider myself a great medic and the only thing I could notice might have been left out is using the syringe gun to your advantage while fleeing, since the nails slow down and knock back your target it’s a great escape weapon when you master it. In addition constantly checking to make sure all teammates are buffered will help build uber faster as well.
December 5th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Great points. Thanks for the input, Jacob.
December 21st, 2007 at 11:20 pm
I consider myself as an experience medic as well, though I am still growing.
The Syringe Gun has a more realistic mass to it, which makes it fall in an arch, much like the Demoman’s weapons. The difference I see most is the obvious explosive difference, but there is also the velocity and therefore, distance it travels.
I’ve out-sniped lots of Snipers with with this tactic across 2fort! It becomes very handy! I think it’s the medic’s best weapon.
They don’t have to be defensive!
- Thanks Graham -
December 31st, 2007 at 12:22 pm
This is a nice guide but as we all know each person has their own potential skill level in every game. But this guide is useful for anyone. Also NEVER STOP MOVING, if your a medic you never want to stop moving especially if there is a sniper or even a spy moving around. Even if its just strafing to make your target miss.
January 1st, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I would like to consider myself pretty accomplished as a medic (I once pulled 70 points during a lazytown match). I think that it is important to note that the medic is one of the fastest classes in the game. You can use this strategy to help out your soldier/demo/heavy if they are trying to take out a sentry. Since the sentry will attempt to target the person that is closest to it, you can run ahead of whoever you are ubering and the sentry will target you and leave your partner alone, allowing them to deal with the sentry unhindered.
January 8th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Thanks for the comment, Blunt. Always remember to continue moving guys.
And Zero, thank you for pointing out that technique. I had not thought of that and I will be using that with my clan in the coming days.
February 26th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
A tactic I’ve found helpful for the entire team is to overcharge multiple people at the beginning of a match, rather than just one person. Since the update negating the need to have soldiers / demos damaging themselves, distributing health overcharge like this makes it harder to charge for an uber. However, this also allows more of your team to survive the initial beating on Gravelpit and Dustbowl.
While you may not be able to heal everyone during a fight, having more people over their base health amounts means more of them will be still around when the dust settles.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
I am a demo by trade having 400+hrs in so far, my next class though is medic having 30hrs. and i agree with what you are sayign but would like to add this. Talking to your ubered player is important, i like to keep team up to date even in pubs that i’m getting close to uber. This is to line up a person and place to meet. Second i think it is vital to your life and ubered persons life that you watch the uber go and let them know they are about to lose uber, so they can back out of thier ussually overly aggresive play.
Also communicate your targets. I am a chatter box when playing medic. I feel like i can’t kill the people i see while healing so i am constantly giving locations of enemys. You have to make sure you don’t overwhelme your partner, there is a fine line here.
And last note the Syringe Gun owns, i and fellow medics i play with do not hide behide our team. If you are fighting a scout/engi/spie and your sold/demo is running out of ammo or just can’t seem to get them, finish them off with your gun let there splash damage work with your spray and you can take down any charging scout. this is one thing i see happen a lot, scouts running in and owning a medic while he heals a sold or demo.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
This strategy and all comments are great! I primarily play medic and have over 170 hours logged as medic.
I pack the blutsauger, Medigun, and Ubersaw.
I had some trouble going from bonesaw to ubersaw because of the rate of fire being nerfed, but the increase in ubers is way worth it.
I will echo the need for good communication between the person you are charging and yourself, I usually will look for the most skilled aggressive player and follow him, *If your partner does not protect you in a fight, then find a new partner* Sometimes i will ask for help from my patient and if it is not received, i move on to someone i can work with.
The biggest danger I have experienced are good scouts with nothing on their mind but to take the enemy medic out. This usually only occurs on clan matches, and not usually seen in pub servers. The only way I have gotten around this is to tell my team what the scouts are doing, and not to let them slip through our lines, (The scouts would usually run behind our force, then double back, and take me out from behind)
Medic is a lot of fun, but there are expectations of you. Your team expects to get healed when needed, and a good medic doesn’t need to be called. If a person is moving in for an offensive maneuver, they expect you to stay with them and not run away. Also, biggest rule is to save colleagues before comrades. This means, if you save a medic from dying you both can heal the rest in half the time. Medics keep medics alive, this is key!
I will also give credit to the Medic Melee, although the bonesaw is quicker, the ubersaw is just as potent, to this day, people never cease to be amazed when I kill them with my ubersaw (especially heavies) You must know when to do this tho, don’t sacrifice yourself, but if it looks like you’re going to lose the fight, get it ready.
That is all I can think of at the moment, Hope this helped. :P
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