Projectile Shield

“

Да, this will help. Click to listen — The Heavy

”

The Projectile Shield is an upgrade function for the Medic's secondary weapons available through the Mann vs. Machine Upgrade Station. Purchasing the first upgrade permits the Medic to build up an Energy charge by healing teammates for activation of the Projectile Shield. When activated, a glowing shield appears in an arc in front of the Medic, blocking most enemy attacks through it and damaging any Robot it touches. The second upgrade doubles the shield's width and doubles the damage dealt.

Charging and activation

When a Medi Gun is equipped after the Projectile Shield upgrade, an additional Energy charge bar appears next to the ÜberCharge bar. The Energy bar fills much faster and from more sources than the ÜberCharge. The Medic may build Energy by healing damaged teammate, Overhealing teammates, healing teammates who are damaging Robots, blocking teammate damage with Invulnerability ÜberCharges, or Reanimating fallen teammates. A beep cues the Medic player when charge is complete. When Energy is fully charged, pressing the Special-Attack key (attack3) deploys the Projectile Shield for many seconds.

Projectile Shield activation does not interfere with the normal operation of the Medic's secondary weapons; the beam can continue to Heal or Reanimate, Canteens can still be shared, and the ability to build and activate ÜberCharge continues.

Effectiveness

The Projectile Shield can destroy rockets, grenades, stickybombs, Huntsman arrows, and most other projectiles. It can also block attacks from hitscan weapons, and will deal damage to robots that come into contact with it. Slowdown is inflicted upon robots that have been damaged by the Projectile Shield.

However, this does not make the Projectile Shield a perfect defense. Some projectiles that would normally be blocked by the Projectile Shield can pass straight through on rare occasions, usually when the Medic is moving forward. Splash damage from explosives can also go through under the Projectile Shield if there are openings for it. Melee robots will run through the Projectile Shield and try to eliminate the Medic.

The Projectile Shield cannot block attacks from any of the Pyro's primary weapons, the Pomson 6000, the Righteous Bison, or these following weapons when they possess the Projectile Penetration upgrade: Huntsman and its reskins, Rescue Ranger and Crusader's Crossbow with its reskins. It is also unable to block splashes from Mad Milk, Jarate, or the Gas Passer.

If the Medic with his Projectile Shield deployed gets too close to a robot, the robot will be able to damage the Medic.

Damage

See also: Damage

Damage and function times
Damage type		Untyped
Ranged or Melee damage?		Untyped
Damage
Base damage	100%	66-67 /s (LV 1), 133-134 /s (LV 2)
Mini-crit		66-67 /s (LV 1), 200 /s (LV 2)
Charge fill damage		4000
Charge fill health		400
Function times
Effect duration		12 s / 10 s
Values are approximate and determined by community testing.

Charge and duration times

Projectile Shield charges by healing and overhealing teammates, by charging Reanimators, or by any damage dealt by patients (including self-damage). Either 400 points of healing or 4000 points of damage is needed to completely charge the Projectile Shield. Shield recharge rate is doubled when healing reanimators. Healing from the Crusader's Crossbow or Mad Milk Syringes upgrade does not count toward shield charge.

A limit exists for how much a patient's damage can charge the Projectile Shield at once. Only the first 250 points of damage on each hit on a single target counts for the charge. If a rocket does 300 points in a direct hit on one Robot, only 250 damage points count towards the charge. But if a rocket splashes 300 damage on each of three Robots, charge gets 750 points. In contrast, each of Heavy's Minigun bullets and Pyro's Flamethrower particles count as individual hits, allowing these attacks to avoid this limit.

Strategy

Main article: Community Projectile Shield strategy

Related achievements

Wall of Pain Block 5,000 damage with the shield as a Medic in a single life.

Update history

November 21, 2013 Patch (Two Cities Update)

• Projectile Shield Upgrade
  • Build Energy by healing teammates, reviving and preventing damage via Invuln ÜberCharge.
  • Press ATTACK3 to activate when Energy meter is full (mouse3 by default)
  • While active:
    • Blocks all enemy projectiles
    • Damages enemies on touch

Bugs

• Projectile Shield can block allied Medi Gun beams and Wrench melee hits targeted at buildings.
• Buying the Projectile Shield upgrade, then dying or changing class then back to Medic will cause the Projectile Shield to last for 10 seconds instead of 12.
  • Refunding upgrades will fix this bug.

Gallery

• Projectile Shield second upgrade anthal.jpg

  Second upgrade coverage.

External links

• The Projectile Shield is not your friend, a demonstration of both effectiveness and weapons getting through the Projectile Shield.