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| − | ==Beginner medic guide==
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| − |
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| − | -Introduction-
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| − |
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| − | -The bare basics of medic
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| − |
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| − | Here I will state the absolute basics just to clear up any confusion that absolute beginners
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| − | may have. Your main role in a team is to keep the team alive, always keep that in mind.
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| − | The medic class was deliberately nerfed when Tf2 was released in terms of combat so that
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| − | the medic would not be overpowered. As a medic YOU ARE NOT A COMBAT CLASS. Don’t
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| − | for one second think that you are. Killing people as a medic is fun and is humiliating for the
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| − | killed enemy, but you shouldn’t really be going out of your way for kills unless it is to build
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| − | uber with the ubersaw. Of course, everyone likes to have a laugh once in a while, so going
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| − | huge at the most ridiculous moments can be acceptable in lobbies and maybe some mixes,
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| − | but during scrims and officials this kind of thing will get you kicked out of a team.
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| − |
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| − | -survivability-
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| − |
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| − | -Pop it don’t drop it
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| − |
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| − | So here we are at the survivability section of this guide and right at the start I’d like to talk
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| − | about a common saying that is used among the Tf2 community. Dropping in terms of
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| − | competitive Tf2 is having an ubercharge and dying with it, meaning that those 8 seconds of
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| − | invulnerability are lost. Dropping an uber is one of the worst things that you can do as a
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| − | medic. Another bad thing to do is to pop your uber when you are not in danger or when the
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| − | threat has been removed. This happens to even the best medics but it is better than
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| − | dropping the uber because you can still continue to heal your team. The best medics will
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| − | pop when attacked only if they are on the verge of dying (literally a few mille-seconds away
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| − | from it). In order to survive an attack you have to be able to identify what is attacking you,
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| − | how far away it is, and whether or not your team will protect you. These skills can only be
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| − | acquired through experience, but there are a few tricks which you can learn before going
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| − | out into the field which will help you. Usually identifying what is attacking you has to take
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| − | place the moment you lose health; you shouldn’t have to find the attacker with your eyes to
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| − | know. It all comes down to how far you move when attacked and what you hear, for
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| − | example, if you don’t move much but you lose a lot of health, and you hear a scattergun
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| − | shot the then attacker is a scout. Similarly, if you get launched into the air and you hear the
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| − | bleep of a sticky bomb detonation then a demoman is trying to kill you. Now to whether or
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| − | not your team will protect you. Usually, if the attacker has reduced your health beyond the
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| − | “safe zone” (the amount of health where nothing except for spies and snipers can kill you in
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| − | one hit (110-120hp)) you want to pop. Of course, if you are confident that the attacker
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| − | won’t be able to kill you because of distance, height disadvantage etc. and your team are
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| − | ready to kill him then you don’t have to pop. Similarly, if you are below the “safe zone”
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| − | however you believe that you have a big advantage over your attacker (you have better
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| − | dodging, you have the height advantage etc.) then don’t pop. Also, in certain situations such
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| − | as if you are about to push last and time is running out then it is better just to dodge and
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| − | keep dodging no matter how low you are, because if you drop then your team will probably
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| − | lose however if you get forced then your team won’t be able to push with uber and so your
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| − | chances of winning are also slim. Of course, there are many situations apart from this where
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| − | risking a drop is better than getting forced, however I won’t go over all of them as in the end
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| − | what you do in these situations depends on your play style and that of your team.
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| − |
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| − | -Dodging-
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| − |
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| − | -Dodging in close quarters
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| − |
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| − | Dodging in close quarters is a skill that takes a very long time to master, (I myself probably
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| − | won’t master it for a while) and usually you can master it faster if you consult
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| − | high division standard players on how they like to aim and what kind of movement confuses
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| − | them (or just practice a lot). Most players will try to predict where you will go so that they
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| − | don’t have to react to it. The solution to this is to be unpredictable in your movements. If
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| − | you want to, take a look at how bots on aim maps move and move in a similar fashion. What
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| − | I usually do is put myself in the enemy player’s shoes and think about where I would predict
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| − | my own movements and how I would aim according to this. Once I have devised a plan that
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| − | I think the enemy player will take (for example, only shoot when he changes direction so it is
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| − | hard for him to react to it) I usually adapt my movement to counter this plan. A key thing to
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| − | remember when doing this is to keep calm and stay focused. Don’t try to make tactical calls
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| − | when doing this if you are not experienced in surviving close quarter encounters otherwise
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| − | you will move very predictably (taking the shortest routes to safe zones etc.) and you will be
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| − | killed quickly.
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| − | In terms of dodging soldiers, I’d like to steal a tip that Mirelin gave during a mentoring
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| − | session with huhy’s stream viewers (which I think sums up dodging soldiers very well). What
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| − | he said basically goes on the lines of:
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| − | There are two kinds of soldiers, the high sens soldiers and low sens. High sens (sensitivity)
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| − | soldiers like to “flick” shot you (basically use fast mouse movements to move their crosshair
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| − | before their shot) and rely solely on prediction. He then told the stream viewers how when
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| − | he was playing against Darn (a prem soldier who is known as a high sens soldier) he simply
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| − | stood still when jumped by him and made small movements by strafing left and right
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| − | quickly, and because Darn was always trying to predict where he would run, Darn ended up
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| − | shooting rockets and shotgun shells either side of Mirelin instead of aiming direcly at him.
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| − | Mirelin then describes the other kind of soldier the low sens soldier. He didn’t really
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| − | say much about this kind of soldier apart from that they aimed on reaction more than
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| − | prediction (they don’t rely on flick shots).
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| − | ALSO, remember to make it hard for jumping soldiers to hit you by running towards them
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| − | when they jump (think about it, the cannot strafe to the point where they change direction
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| − | completely and still have enough momentum to keep moving).
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| − |
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| − | -dodging spam (explosive)
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| − |
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| − | Not taking damage to spam is easy when you stay focused and calm. The key to dodging
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| − | explosive spam is to predict when it will explode. Rockets will explode on impact so just get
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| − | out of the way of them, however grenades will roll and bounce if they hit a surface before
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| − | a player, so sometimes when you see a few grenades rolling towards you it is better to run
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| − | towards them and across them so that they explode behind you rather than run away and
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| − | let them catch up to you before they explode. Once you are able to stay calm when you
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| − | need to dodge, you will find that you will be able to dodge all spam that comes to you.
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| − |
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| − | -surfing
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| − |
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| − | Surfing is the most annoying thing that a medic can do. A few times when I play soldier I
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| − | was on the verge of picking the medic before he surfed on my last rocket to safety with his
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| − | soldiers or a health kit. Surfing with demomen (when they are using pipes not stickies) in my
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| − | opinion is hard because they aim for your body not your feet. Soldiers aim for your feet so
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| − | they can juggle you (as a medic you can do next to nothing when you are caught in a juggle
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| − | by a soldier). Use this to your advantage, predict when the soldier will shoot his next rocket
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| − | and jump and crouch as it hits the ground in front/behind you. Sometimes the crouch is not
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| − | necessary to get to safety. Once in the air, it is important to be able to strafe so the soldier
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| − | does not predict your path and land an airshot in you. When strafing, it is advisable not to
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| − | hold W but only use the A and D keys. Press A to strafe left and D to strafe right, then slowly
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| − | turn your mouse so that your path is bent in the direction that you wish it to be. Of course,
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| − | if you want to strafe right left in a wider curving motion then hold down W as well as A or D.
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| − | My best advice for learning to surf is to play jump maps as a soldier and learn how to rocket
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| − | jump very well. Surfing is essentially rocket jumping when you don’t have control of when
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| − | you fire your rockets, so there are many aspects of both disciplines which are the same.
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| − |
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| − | -Deathmatching
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| − |
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| − | Every legendary medic is good at deathmatching. There are 2 main parts of doing damage
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| − | as a medic. Firstly, your primary weapon. Obviously the syringe guns and the crossbow
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| − | are going to have to be aimed differently, and I find that the crossbow is more beneficial
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| − | to use in your average 6v6 team, however definitely do use the syringes if you feel that
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| − | your pocket is not protecting you very well and you need that extra damage. The crossbow
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| − | should only really be used if you are very good at aiming with it. Of course, the main reason
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| − | that most medics use the crossbow is that it gives that 40-150 hp to any teammate that you
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| − | hit with it, but it can also be used for long range pot shots or airshots on jumping soldiers/
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| − | demomen (not really advisable but sometimes it’s the only thing you can do to survive). I
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| − | could spend the whole guide discussing the advantages of using either weapon, however I
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| − | think that Byte sums my thoughts on medic primary weapons up very well in this response
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| − | to a question about them:
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| − |
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| − | “Stock Syringe = better than nothing out of the 3 options given, means you can hit a
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| − | scout no matter how shit you are at aiming as a medic.
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| − | Overdose = An apparent upgrade for the Stock Syringe, again same shit you can hit a scout
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| − | or enemy that is right up and close to you no matter how shit you are at aiming, plus side is
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| − | if you have uber you can move 10% faster than normal when it’s out…OH JOY.
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| − | Crusaders Crossbow = Quite obviously the winner in that it can do heals from 40-150hp, and
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| − | can do damage from 39-79hp, can clutch moments when you kill or save your man from
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| − | dying, blah blah blah.
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| − | Bottom line is, if you can aim with the crusaders crossbow, then use that it’s by far the
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| − | superior weapon, if you can’t aim then overdose, if you want to be the odd person and
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| − | brand yourself ‘special’ then use the stock Syringe.
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| − | Simple as, move along discussion over.
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| − |
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| − | Cheers
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| − |
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| − | Byte”
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| − |
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| − | Obviously we have to take into account the blutsauger and the overdose. In my opinion
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| − | don’t even try these weapons until you have a firm understanding of the pros and cons of
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| − | using the crossbow and stock syringe. I personally hate the blutsauger because it removes
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| − | all of my hp regen and this is crucial when playing medic. Sometimes it is useful if you have
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| − | an aggressive pocket soldier because getting health from hitting enemies will sometimes
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| − | save your life. As for the overdose, it does help to have that extra 10% speed when you’re
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| − | running away from a suicidal player and you don’t want to pop, however I don’t think this is
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| − | such a great advantage in competitive.
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| − |
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| − | -positioning
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| − |
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| − | This is something which really can be summed up quite easily. KEEP YOUR
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| − | TEAMMATES BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR ENEMY. Of course there are certain situations
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| − | (during pushes, holding in a certain way, baiting etc.) where this does not apply but
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| − | generally you want to use this mind-set all the time. This is especially important when you
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| − | are walking through a choke or door. Stickytraps, ninja sollies and camping scouts could
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| − | always be just round the corner and you want to send your teammates in first so when you
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| − | get dropped by a 6 bomb trap you can blame them (no seriously tell them to check stickies if
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| − | the demo is still alive and check popular scout/solly hiding places). Also, if the teammate
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| − | you are healing is between you and the enemy but that teammate is being insanely
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| − | aggressive then don’t be afraid just to back out (unless you think you can survive and there
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| − | is a specific reason to be seemingly over aggressive).
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| − | If people are complaining that your positioning is bad then just remember that and you
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| − | should be fine unless there is a serious problem with how aggressive or defensive you are as
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| − | a medic etc.
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| − |
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| − | -healing
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| − |
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| − | -uber build
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| − |
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| − | In tf2, your uber percentage is determined by the amount of HP (health points) that
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| − | you heal up. For example, if you are constantly healing a player which is being damaged
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| − | then your uber will build faster than if you are healing a fully buffed player (more HP is
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| − | healed). You want to be building uber (healing a player which is damaging himself/herself)
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| − | whenever your team is not fighting, for example holding a point, after having cleaned up a
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| − | push/counter push etc. Ideally you want to build uber with a scout who has a boston
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| − | basher, this is the fastest way however in some areas/situations you want to build with
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| − | demomen and soldiers (for example if you want scouts to watch the flanks more or if the
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| − | enemy know you have uber advantage and are trying to kill you so you need more powerful
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| − | classes to protect you). Because the most powerful weapon in Tf2 is the ubercharge you
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| − | need to be able to know as a medic when to be building. The best way to do this is with
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| − | experience or by talking to highly experienced players (no I’m not a highly experienced
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| − | player I just decided to do a medic guide).
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| − | N.B. uber advantage is the concept of having a higher uber percentage than the enemy
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| − | team, having uber advantage is very useful simply because you will have uber before them
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| − | unless they build faster.
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| − |
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| − | -kritheal
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| − |
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| − | Kritheal is a feature in the tf2 engine where if a player has not taken damage for a long
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| − | period of time then they will heal faster than somebody who has taken much damage. This
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| − | is especially useful during rollouts.
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| − |
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| − | -overheal
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| − | Buff who you need to. Whoever is taking the most heat gets the most heals. A scout sitting
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| − | watching the flanks doesn’t get as much as a solly who is about to jump or is already in and
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| − | taking a lot of heat.
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| − |
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| − |
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| − | -game sense-
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| − |
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| − | -uber counting
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| − |
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| − | Generally, base the amount of uber that the enemy medic has (to calculate who has
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| − | advantage and by how much) on how much you or your team see the enemy medic healing
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| − | and when he gets picked. Also, remember not only to count uber percentage of the other
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| − | team but also to frequently call out your own percentage at intervals (every 15% for
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| − | example). Counting enemy uber percentage accurately will come over time, but here in
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| − | the guide I have to point out that European medics generally tend to be quite slack about
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| − | calculating uber percentage. American medics seem to be better at this. Just saying that we
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| − | may not have gotten sat down at i46 if F2 could count a little better.
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| − |
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| − | -rollouts
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| − |
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| − | At the start of the round, heal your teammates likewise. Some teams may prefer you to do
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| − | it differently, but this is my “default” heal order at the moment.
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| − | Demo first to 260 hp, then fast flash over the roaming solly (so you get kritheals by mid) and
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| − | then buff both scouts to 185 (or just 1 if you don’t have time). Heal the demo as he goes out
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| − | of the door. Whether or not your pocket is equalising or not, don’t heal him to mid unless
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| − | he fails his rollout. Only heal him once you have almost reached mid (on badlands when you
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| − | get up onto the bridge at resub, on granary when you are in yard etc.) Heal your roamer or
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| − | keep giving buffs to your scouts on the way instead of healing your pocket.
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| − |
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| − | -midfights
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| − |
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| − | Stay alive. Steal health packs; heal those who are getting the most heat etc. but the most
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| − | important thing is to stay alive so you don’t give uber advantage to the other team. The mid
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| − | fight is often the part of the round where your skills as a medic are challenged the most, so
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| − | just stay calm and collected.
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| − |
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| − | -KRITZ!
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| − |
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| − | Kritkrieg is a weapon that you may or may not want to use on your demo or sollies
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| − | depending on how they like to play, some teams always kritz soldiers because their demo
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| − | doesn’t like shiny sparkles on their weapons (not really but you understand that different
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| − | demos have different playstyles). Usually I will go kritz when I know my team will probably
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| − | not get pushed to last (defending last with kritz will rarely pay off). Even if the enemy team
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| − | has uber advantage (if they have kritz advantage then I would just hold back and try to make
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| − | them pop e.g. send a scout or solly to act as bait) it is still a good idea to use kritz as you
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| − | can force the medic with or without kritz and you will end up with a kritz advantage (if you
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| − | don’t understand this look up the stats to a kritzkrieg). There are other moments when I will
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| − | use kritz, but I don’t think I am in the best position to explain all of them, and you should
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| − | find that this knowledge of when to use kritz will come over time and also if you ask high
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| − | level players what their krit strategy is. Whatever your strategy is, kritz can be a devastating
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| − | weapon that can win you a round if used correctly.
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| − |
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| − | -UBER! (and multi-ubering)
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| − |
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| − | Multi-ubering is basically keeping two or more people alive by ubering the first one then the
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| − | second one when he is in danger (you can do it with more than two but this is a bit useless
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| − | as I will explain). Multi-ubering uses up the invincibility time of an uber faster, so you want
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| − | to do it only when you have to and only when a un-ubered player is getting a lot of heat.
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| − | Because you will have less uber time than a medic who single ubers, more damage will be
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| − | dealt to you and your team by the time both ubers run out, which is generally not a good
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| − | thing at all. Only do it if somebody is taking a lot of heat.
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| − |
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| − | -loadouts
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| − |
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| − | I usually keep my loadouts like this: A = syringe and uber, B = syringe and kritz, C = crossbow
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| − | and uber, D = crossbow and kritz. To switch quickly between these loadouts (do equip
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| − | different weapons for different loadouts, sometimes switching quickly is very important),
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| − | you can hold F and select the letter of the loadout you want to switch to (this is a default
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| − | command, if you downloaded some cfg and that doesn’t work now then that’s just bad
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| − | luck).
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| − | Well, that concludes all I have to say about medic at the moment. I’d like to repeat here that
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| − | this guide is for absolute beginners so most of the sections here are underdeveloped. This
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| − | is just what I think I owe a community which has helped me out and taught me lessons for a
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| − | while now.
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| − | Finally, Id like to conclude with a little piece that dodgydogman wrote on the forum about a
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| − | medics attitude:
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| − |
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| − | “Stay positive ALWAYS. If you find yourself losing hard, you have two options as a team in
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| − | order to keep a positive attitude in my opinion. The first option is to keep trying to win, you
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| − | are the underdogs, let your team know this. Break the game up into smaller goals, even
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| − | if they are meaningless. For example instead of complaining that you cant get 5 rounds in
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| − | 12 minutes. Set goals like, if we win mid, we can bm them a little. If we win one round, we
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| − | pretend we won the game. If you get the medic you get a gold star. It doesnt matter, just
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| − | keep the team focused on a reachable goal. The second is to write it off and start trolling.
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| − | Call them skillfakers, go highlander classes, anything to keep the mood up. Roll heavy to
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| − | mid, tbh that actually works more than you would think, you can come back in games by
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| − | breaking your tilt in creative ways. Even if you lose that game, as long as you are having fun
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| − | and have a positive attitude you will get better.”
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| − |
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| − | Thanks for reading
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