Basic Medic strategy
| “ | Ze healing leaves little time for ze hurting.
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— The Medic
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The Medic is arguably the most important class on a team. Although he only has average health and mediocre firepower, his ability to heal and overheal teammates using the Medi Gun makes him invaluable. Additionally, the Medic continually builds an ÜberCharge meter as he heals others. Once full, he can provide invulnerability with the Medi Gun, Crit-boost a teammate with the Kritzkrieg, or perform rapid healing with the Quick-Fix, effects that can rapidly turn the tide of battle. Because dying means losing any accumulated ÜberCharge, it is incredibly important that the Medic survives any fight. More than any other class, communication is key for the Medic; he relies on having good teammates to protect him so that he is free to heal and keep his team alive.
Primary weapons
Your ability to heal others will often make you the number one target of many enemy players. When in combat, be hard to hit: jump, duck, and strafe to avoid damage. Your natural health regeneration will often not be enough to keep you alive, so rely on your allies for protection and ask them to leave health pickups for you. Unless you are forced to fight, you should retreat if all nearby teammates are defeated.
Syringe Gun
Although the Syringe Gun fires rapidly and deals fair damage, you should still be relying on your teammates to protect you. The Syringe Gun's needles travel slowly in a parabolic arc; at longer ranges, you'll need to aim upwards slightly and lead fast targets accordingly to compensate.
Blutsauger
The Blutsauger can be useful if you constantly find yourself in combat or being pursued by enemies; if you consistently land your shots when using the Blutsauger, you will heal yourself more than your standard regeneration can. If you're injured and can afford to stop healing your patient momentarily, attack with the Blutsauger to restore some health. However, your decreased health regeneration will leave you vulnerable to damage-over-time effects such as fire or bleed. Continue to avoid fights and stay behind your allies; you are still your team's main source of healing.
Crusader's Crossbow
Depending on who you hit, bolts from the Crusader's Crossbow can damage enemies or heal allies, with the strength of the shot increasing if it travels farther. If used for healing, the Crusader's Crossbow can be used to provide quick bursts of health to even allies outside the range of your Medi Gun, also it allows you to check Spies, because it will damage the Spy even if he's disguised instead of healing him. Although the Crossbow reloads quickly, the bolts arc over distances and travel relatively slowly. This makes it difficult to aim and less effective than the Syringe Gun in direct combat; you may even need to tell your allies to stand still so you can line up long-range healing shots. For the most part, stick to your Medi Gun for healing nearby teammates, as the Crossbow won't help build your ÜberCharge meter.
Overdose
Depending on how full your ÜberCharge meter is, you'll gain up to a 10% movement speed increase. Although this is not enough to keep up with the Scout, the increased mobility should make dodging attacks and maneuvering around the battlefield a bit easier. Although you sacrifice some offensive power, you should not be in combat often enough for it to matter. When working with your team, don't hesitate to deploy an ÜberCharge and sacrifice your movement speed if it means completing an objective.
Secondary weapons
To make use of your healing abilities, you'll need to team up with an ally. Because you can't heal yourself, stay behind your Medic buddy so that he can take all of the damage. Your healing beam bends around corners and stays locked onto patients no matter what direction you face, so stay behind cover and turn around frequently to watch for Spies and other ambushes. As you heal allies, the ÜberCharge meter will gradually fill up. It fills more quickly if you are healing wounded allies, so spread your healing evenly during moments of downtime. Generally speaking, you first want to heal other Medics, then combat classes, then support classes. Once the ÜberCharge is ready, communicate with your team to make the best use out of your chosen effect.
Medi Gun
Most of the time, you will equip the Medi Gun for the standard ÜberCharge, as the 8 seconds of invincibility it provides can be used in almost any situation. An offensive ÜberCharge lets your team push into almost any defensive encampment, particularly those with Sentry Guns. Invincibility is useful on defense too, especially if your team is outnumbered or can't afford to withdraw from a contested area. Additionally, you can counter an enemy Medic's ÜberCharge by deploying your own, preferably just after his finishes. If you are in danger of being killed, activate your ÜberCharge in self-defense: it's better to survive than to die with a full meter. You can keep multiple targets ÜberCharged at once by quickly switching between them, as the cost of it draining faster.
Kritzkrieg
The Kritzkrieg functions similarly to the Medi Gun but comes with an entirely different ÜberCharge. The Kritzkrieg's ÜberCharge fills 25% faster and instead provides 8 seconds of guaranteed Critical hits to its target. Great candidates for this ÜberCharge are the Soldier, Demoman, and Heavy, classes that deal damage over a wide area and can use the critical hits to eliminate entire groups of enemies. Deploying the Kritzkrieg does not protect you, so use it mostly in offensive situations and focus on avoiding damage while your patient rampages. Because your meter charges faster, it is best to deploy the Kritzkrieg as soon as possible, before the enemy Medics are fully charged. Sentry Guns are not affected by critical hits, so do not use the Kritzkrieg when trying to destroy Engineer nests.
Quick-Fix
Of your available secondary weapons, the Quick-Fix heals the most rapidly, making its use more suitable in the middle of combat where there are multiple injured teammates. Additionally, the Quick-Fix grants extra mobility depending on the Medic buddy; you'll match the speed of a faster ally or copy the explosive jump from a friendly Soldier or Demoman. The Quick-Fix cannot overheal allies, meaning that your team will be at a disadvantage at the beginning of fights, when your enemies are presumably overhealed. The Quick-Fix's ÜberCharge triples the rate of healing and charges 25% faster than the Medi Gun, encouraging liberal deployment to keep your team healthy. In combat, the Quick-Fix should be used to maintain momentum; if an enemy Medic accumulates a full ÜberCharge, the invincibility offered by the Medi Gun or the crit boost offered by the Kritzkrieg can overpower your boosted healing.
Vaccinator
When healing an ally with the Vaccinator, you can cycle between granting the two of you a 10% resistance to either bullets, explosions, or fire. Its ÜberCharge, which builds 50% faster and is stored in 4 smaller bars, increases the chosen resistance to 75% for 2 seconds. The Vaccinator's defensive capabilities, along with its lowered overheal rate, means it works best at the frontlines, where allies are guaranteed to not be at maximum health. In firefights, adjust the given resistance according to which classes you're facing; for example, a Heavy will use bullets, a Demoman will use explosives, and a Pyro will use fire. Use the brief ÜberCharges when expecting a large burst of damage, such as when being targeted by a Soldier's rockets or Sniper's bullets. In the long run, the Vaccinator should be used to give your team an immediate advantage in combat, allowing them to push ahead. Unlike the Quick-Fix, however, proper timing of the Vaccinator's ÜberCharge will allow you to resist the raw power behind other ÜberCharges.
Melee weapons
Bonesaw + reskins
The Bonesaw is useful for getting the first strike on a distracted opponent, but still loses to the Syringe Gun in damage over time. There is no reason to use the Bonesaw; all of your other melee weapons possess some sort of utility and are generally seen as straight upgrades because Medics rarely engage in combat.
Übersaw
The Übersaw is generally accepted to be the best melee weapon for the Medic, as the .2 sec longer swing rate is a minor drawback compared to the 25% boost to your ÜberCharge meter for each successful hit on an enemy target. Landing a few strikes on an enemy that fails to take you out can grant a ready ÜberCharge, giving your team an instant advantage. If in a dangerous situation, you can use it to quickly fill your meter, then escape with the Medi Gun's invincibility.
Vita-Saw
The Vita-Saw grants minor ÜberCharge insurance. As a Medic, you are generally healing teammates while at the frontlines and will be targeted by any competent enemy. Death is almost inevitable, so equip the Vita-Saw if the 20% saved charge can significantly impact the flow of battle. If you equip anything except the Blutsauger, your natural health regeneration can make up for the small health penalty. It is obviously useless in situations where you cannot respawn, such as Arena or Sudden Death.
Amputator
The Amputator has no downsides and is a straight upgrade from the Bonesaw. Using its taunt to heal will not build your ÜberCharge meter, so you should still be using your Medi Gun of choice for most of your healing. Only use its taunt-heal when there are numerous injured teammates clustered nearby, staying behind cover even if there are no enemies in sight. Taunting in the midst of combat may get you killed, no matter how much healing you provide.
Solemn Vow
The Solemn Vow has no downsides and is a straight upgrade to the Bonesaw. The ability to see enemy health can be useful for informing teammates of weakened foes who can easily be picked off. Defensively, this ability can be useful when deciding to fight or run from a pursuing enemy.
Item set effects
The Medieval Medic
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The increased health regeneration granted by the item set can significantly increase your survivability, particularly against damage-over-time effects like afterburn. You will need to rely further on your teammates for protection, as only using the Crusader's Crossbow to fight off enemies can be very difficult.
See also
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