Community Projectile Shield strategy

This article is about Community Projectile Shield strategy.

Medic

• Be wary of your surroundings, especially when in a defensive posture against Soldier and Demo Robots.
  • Rockets hitting walls and props behind you or your sides can splash you.
  • Grenades can bounce back towards you.
  • Splashes from explosions cannot be blocked on non-flat surfaces.
  • Flames will pass through the shield, including Dragon's Fury's fireballs.

• Doorways can be effective places to defend with the Projectile Shield, since you can both block Robots getting past you and be safer from splash damage.

• Blocking critical-boosted Robots, most notably Soldier or Demoman Robots, especially spamming giants, is essential to your team's survival.
  • Pay attention to when these spawn and have a Projectile Shield ready, you may need more than one charge to take down the really big ones.
  • If caught without a charge, hold back as those Robots advance while you find a teammate in a safe location, possibly run back towards Spawn, especially if you know your Pockets are coming from there.

• The Projectile Shield can be used as a fall-back option if your team cannot handle the robots, or if most of your team is down, use it to save your ÜberCharge.
  • Or use your ÜberCharge to save your Energy charge, often your well-timed Projectile Shield can contribute much more than an ÜberCharge.

• Any damage your patient deals, and any damage they take, will all contribute to making the Projectile Shield recharge faster.

• Be wary of temptations to charge Robots just to kill them with your Projectile Shield, you risk being too far forward without support and often flanked when the charge is exhausted.
• Lighting up a Vaccinator resistance when you charge Robots with the Projectile Shield can protect you and your Pocket if they can fire through.
• Eyelander, et al., can sometimes reach you through the Projectile Shield.

• Reviving dead teammates's reanimators will not help you gain Projectile Shield charge. Heal others to refill your charge if you need to.
  • However, using the Vaccinator's shield bubbles on a dead teammate's reanimator will fill a huge amount of charge for your Projectile Shield. Reviving classes with higher health will almost fully refill your Projectile Shield immediately instead.

• The Projectile Shield moves closer to you if you look up or look down. You can exploit this to bodyblock giant robots without any threat of them firing back.

• Medic Robots cannot heal their patient if the Projectile Shield is in front of them, this may be useful to temporarily make their patient lose the Übercharge's effects.
  • This also affects other Medics on your own team.

• Since the Projectile Shield charges based on healing, the Quick-Fix will help you in charging the Projectile Shield quicker.
  • Using the Quick-Fix's Megaheal will refill your Projectile Shield's charge quickly.

• Because teammates play nearer to you as a Projectile Shield Medic, practice Überring two or three teammates simultaneously.
  • Effectiveness of the Kritzkrieg charge is enhanced by Crit-boosted teammates shooting from safety behind the Projectile Shield.
  • The Medi Gun's ÜberCharge is usually redundant behind the Projectile Shield, pop it before or just after you use your Projectile Shield.

• After the Pybro, the Projectile Shield is your best Spy checker.

Other classes

• Understand what your Medic needs to build Energy, keep a practical distance while building, but close to striking range for the activation.
• With a good Projectile Shield Medic, the Heavy's position is in the direct path of the Robots; pick a place to stand where you would not be overrun before the charge runs out.
• Understand what you need to do for both you and the Medic to survive the expiration.
  • Watch out for the expiration, be in reach of cover.
• If a Medic is attempting to revive you and is using a Vaccinator, consider letting him revive you before you decline a revive, as he could be wanting to use an Übercharge on you in order to recharge his Projectile Shield.