The Amputator Explained.

[The Incredible World of Dic]

The Amputator is a medic melee weapon, with stats not well understood by most, and a weapon that is not used often, so here I will explain what exactly the amputator does and how good it is.

Lets start with the most simple of its stats and the only direct downside, the damage penalty. Listed as "-20% damage penalty". For the base damage, it goes from the stock (65) to the little (52). This means you wont be able to kill scouts and spies in two hits but three, which can be pretty important, as spies tend to be the only thing medics can kill in any serious game.

Now for its self healing, its very eluding. When it says "+3 health regenerated per second on wearer" That is simply not true. For one, people know about this but the effect is ONLY active when you have the amputator out, its not passive like the conch. The other part of this stat that most people DONT know, is that its healing rate is gradual like the medigun. It gives you less self heal after recently hit, and you get more self heal when you havent been hit for a while. It goes from +1 (which is right after being hit) to up to +6 (which combined with the deafault self heal ranks it up to 9 health per second total). This means the +3 is actually just an average, because if you pull it out right after getting hit it will only do +1 and after a while you will gain +6 per second.

And now the healing taunt, or better known as the Medicating Melody. How much does it heal? You would be suprized to know that it heals just as much as the medigun per person. Just like the medigun and amputator, the heal rate increases if the target hasnt been hit for a bit. So its not just a small buff, but essentially gives you as many mediguns you need for everyone in your range. That range is also the same as the medigun. The main problem with the taunt is that it leaves you vulnerable, so make sure to do it behind cover, so you dont get caught. One problem is that the area healing cannot result in overheal, meaning forget that precious buff, but if you are healing masses, you probably have everyone damaged, so you shouldnt be overhealing anyways in the situations you should use this taunt. Another interesting thing is taht the third degree can work against the taunt, a pyro that hits any of the people you are healing with the third degree can damage you. However with the new update i believe it is possible to gain ubercharge from the taunt, yet Im still testing it so i cant give the exact ammount but i imagine its identical to the medigun like all its other properties.

So with the stats clear, is it actually good? As a medic main, I have to say i like it but its not a very good weapon. You make yourself even MORE team dependent, as you leave yourself vulnerable while taunting, and you deal lees damage so less options to defend yourself with. The self healing requires you to take out the amputator, meaning you wont be healing unless you are taunting while doing so. And its gradual so its not good for whipping out for quick heals after taking some damage. You have to use it after exteneded periods to be effective, of which your default passive healing can do just fine. Very little situations where you should pull it out, and makes the standard situation to pull out your saw even less effective. When compared to the other great sidegrades, like ubersaw, vitasaw, and solemn vow, I could easily mark it as the WORST.

Well then how could we buff it to make it a great weapon along with all the other medic melees? Here are some of my ideas.

1) Make the active healing passive, meaning that self heal should be active even if you have your medigun out, keeping the medic alive longer is a huge thing, so having to not heal while doing so is really not a fair tradeoff.

2) +6 set self heal, but active. Meaning you heal 9 damage per second when you have your amputator out, instead of the petty +1 that it starts out with. No more gradual build up.

3) Taunt self resistance, oen of the biggest downsides of the taunt is that you are so vulnerable, but it alread has lots of downsides like not moving, no overheal. So I think it would be fair if while using that taunt you resist around 40% damage from all sources.

4) Remove the damage penalty. The thing is all the upsides already have an inexplicit trade off. Losing your little damage you have is not a good choice. So It could be a fairly balanced weapon even with no set downsides, but rather situational ones.

Now these ideas combined would reek havoc, I mean only one of them to happen.

So now you know how the amputator works if you didnt already, and you are aware of how good it is, and some good ideas to make it better. Thanks fo reading! GL medic mains and everyone else out there!

[Holly the Jolly]

It's balanced as is

[Fedora the Explorer]

This is longer than my history term paper. And it's about the amputator.

Why?

[Tai Ling Particle Accelerator]

longer than a credits scene

[The Incredible World of Dic]

Originally posted by ƘЯϒƵƬΛℒ Zhe ÐΣѴƗƪ:

TL;DR?

The point of this discussion is to explain in detail what the amputator does exactly, the other half iis explaning out good it is and how it could be buffed. You can just read half of it and get the info, however there is nothing I can simply cut out.

[Comrade Komko]

No one really uses the amputator in regular gameplay. Its mostly just a medieval weapon like the crossbow

[Vlad the Impala]

Make your whole team start by damaging themselves in spawn. Amputator will now charge uber ridiculously fast with the taunt

[The Incredible World of Dic]

Originally posted by Kommie Afterlife:

No one really uses the amputator in regular gameplay. Its mostly just a medieval weapon like the crossbow

Well considering the crossbow is the most used and viable primary of the class, I highly doubt that. Its like calling the direct hit a useless weapon

[gaming]

They broke the amputator in the update, I preferred the flat +3

[Segatic]

It's already balanced but if i had to give it a buff i would choose 3) but with a smaller dmg resist since the Amputador suffers the same thing as the Overdose, it's Outclassed while still being balanced

[The Incredible World of Dic]

Originally posted by Segatic:

It's already balanced but if i had to give it a buff i would choose 3) but with a smaller dmg resist since the Amputador suffers the same thing as the Overdose, it's Outclassed while still being balanced

Yeah I agree, amputator is my fav melee medic weapon, but I know there are just so many better choices. The amputator does need a buff, I never meant to say its bad or unbalanced.