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.

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.

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.