How to be a good Medic Patient (and a few random Medic tips)

[Reynolds]

Putting this here becuase people will probably just flame me for it, it's ok - if anyone learns somthing new I'll consider it a victory

There are a few things that a lot of people either forget or just don't know because they've never read it or haven't thought about it when interacting with medics in game, take a quick read through if you've ever been frustrated:

- The longer you go without being healed, the more HPS (healing per second) you get from the medi beam.

This means that if there's no action where we are currently, and a medic is healing people up, if you run up and spam medic, waiting until you're healed doesn't add much time to your out of combat at all.

- Triage is the single most important methodology to understand about being a good medic.

If you come to a medic, you should get healed. You'll be healed in the order of importance though. That guy on fire, with 2 health? He gets it first. The heavy around the corner that's taking the beating? Just chill until he either dies or fall back, and you'll get topped off ASAP. The guy with five health who just took a rocket to the face comes after the guy with 100 health if we aren't in immediate danger, just becaues of #1 above. And other, (non-battle) medics? They pretty much always get healed before anyone else.

- Ubers are important, but keeping everyone toped off/overhealed is often times *equally* as important to the overall game.

If a medic has a full uber charge, and is in a group of people outside of immediate danger, all who need healing, healing gets done before the rush. Calm down.

- Ubers build at an increased rate during setup.

No need to explosive yourself. Instead, go engy for a few seconds and help the engies, who actually need it.

- Help build an uber if you're a soldier/demo on maps with no set up time, or if you spawn together far away from the front lines, as you're running back. If you're a scout, take a second to pause here and there so the medic can continuously heal you on the way back to the front lines if you're the only one with the medic.

Faster uber is always better.

- Medics shouldn't follow you into stupid situations.

This seems to be a real struggle for a lot of people. Just because you start getting healed doesn't mean the medic is going to follow you when you start running away again immediately. Also, it's the medics call to make when judging if a situation is harmful or not. Medic is constantly looking around the battlefield, and probably has a greater overall awareness of what's going on than you do.

- Occasionally, medic will bend to mic/medic spam and try to get back to you after he's retreated. This is almost always a bad idea.

Medics bug out for a reason. Usually coming back results in medics predictible death. Don't call medic out for doing something stupid that you're begging him to do 30 seconds earlier.

- Calling medic an idiot etc means you probably aren't going to get healed the rest of the match.

Medics screw up sometimes, even if they're good. If the medic doesn't bitch at you when you can't kill anything with a kritz, don't bitch at medic when he goofs up trying to save your sorry ass.

- Look behind you.

Seriously. Look behind yourself, especially if you have a medic, but even if you don't.

- Double healing reduces your ubercharge generation in half (etc).

Bad medics double heal. Good medics don't. Experienced good medics do it when it's *needed*.

- If medic hits 100% uber while healing you, take a step back and...reload. Medic is not going to pop an uber when you're clearly almost out of ammo and reloading one bullet/shell/rocket at a time.

- If you have a mic, call for an uber on it.

Try this instead of bitching afterwards on voice about the uber not being popped. If you can talk on a mic, and medic is around a corner, medic will wait until you call for the uber most of the time. If you don't, it's your own fault.

- Medic has good sit awareness, but is not omniscient.

Don't expect Medic to know what's around the corner unless you, who are around the corner, tell him.

- Medic can primarily heal one person, but healing only that one person is a deadly sin.

Don't expect medic to have a healing beam on you 100% of the time, even if you feel like it's your pocket medic.

- If Medic is damaged...escort medic to a health pack.

This should be a no brainer. Do you really want to send your medic back all alone when he has 20 HP?

- Grow a pair of balls if you're ubered (especially with a kritz).

Get in there and get some.

- If it's time to retreat, don't retreat past medic.

Medic has 150 health. Medic is healing you. Absorb some of that damage as you run away, instead of throwing the medic behind you to the wolves.

- If medic runs in front of you...turn around.

Seriously.

- If you're a medic, and have a normal uber...run toward the damn gun in front of your patient.

This prevents them from getting knockbacked so bad.

- If medic follows you behind enemy lines, don't suddenly decide to rocket/sticky jump and leave the medic alone.

Asshole.

That's probably at the upper limit of what anyone wants to read on the subject. Thanks for reading if you did. Flame away.

[Username]

As a career medic, I think yer post is awesome!

[Agua]

I would add this: protect your fucking medic. Pay attention to their health bar on your screen. If you see them taking damage, turn your ass around and kill the bastard going after them. Experienced players know to take out the medics first. I find that if I run past someone being healed, many times they tend to go about their business leaving their precious medic completely vulnerable.

Also, medics, don't forget to heal engies every time your run past them. That little extra can mean the difference between losing all their buildings or just one.

[Reynolds]

Those are both great points. Few things are more devastating than a player that realizes if he can trade 1:1 with a medic, it's a win - this is especially true for some of the really good scouts that float around on SourceOP. Frankly, nothing pisses me off more than a good scout doing one of the things he's best at, flanking and taking the meds outs over and over when left unchecked.

I imagine a lot of medics don't overheal the backline classes consistently, and that's a mistake when it happens. If nothing else, it can save them from bad enemy snipers pulling off body shots. And every .5 seconds a sentry nest can stay up is insanely impactful - it's the difference between having to rebuild and getting your team spawn camped by an uber that penetrated too far.

[Ranma]

Also for medics, if someone seems suspicious such as a partial health engiee running from front lines or partial health heavy coming up from rear, swap to melee or needles and give them a fast spy check before healing. The last thing you want to do is start healing and turn away from a suspicious person.

And if you do happen to uber a spy, you will rightly be laughed at. Know the patient youre planning to take in, that is take someone who you might have seen around a few times and feel can get the job done or at least make the best attempt possible.

[jwstohr]

Good post!

[Hell-met]

Am I the only medic on the planet capable of defending himself without screaming AYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE everytime I get shot while healing someone?

Probably the reason why I still use the old syringue-gun and bonesaw

[jwstohr]

Am I the only medic on the planet capable of defending himself without screaming AYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE everytime I get shot while healing someone?

Probably the reason why I still use the old syringue-gun and bonesaw

I have taken out many heavies with the ubersaw. And the new syringe gun keeps me alive from the damn pyros.

[Hell-met]

Cool story brah

[jwstohr]

And then I found 5 dollars.