How to deal with Uber Medics

[Sintharius]

I just realized that Intermediate difficulty taught most people the wrong way to deal with uber medics, so I’m making this both because it needs to be done, and on request.

What is an Uber Medic?

Uber Medics are a subtype of robo-medics in MvM. They carry the stock medigun instead of the Quick-Fix seen on other subtypes, and are identified by the cross icon with an U in the middle on the wave bar.
Uber Medics generally spawn in two fashion: One at a time while attached to a normal bot, or a group attached to a giant. (one Uber Medic attached to a giant is also sometimes seen)

What makes Uber Medics so dangerous?

They have 150 HP similar to human Medics, and full ubercharge upon spawning. When either their patient or themselves drop to 25% of its HP (the latter is more common given people’s tendency to shoot the medic first[tvtropes.org], they pop uber – making themselves and their patient invincible for 8/5 seconds (depends on type).

There are two types of Uber Medics: Type 1 charge uber and heal at the same rate as human Medics, and have a normal uber duration. Type 2 charge uber 5x faster, but heals 90% slower and have ubers only for 5 seconds.

In Intermediate, Uber Medics typically pocket weak giants - so most people’s reaction is to make it pop uber early and eat the attacks until its uber wears off. However, in Advanced the giants are much more powerful (rapid fire crit soldiers for example), and letting an Uber Medic pops ubercharge on the giant can mean defeat.

So how do you deal with them?

The most common – and most reliable – method of dealing with Uber Medics is to kill them before they pop. That means you need to deal at least 150 damage all in one pop.

How would a team go around doing this?

1. A Demoman’s sticky trap. This needs a Kritzkrieg Medic and preparation time, but it’s less skill intensive.
2. A Sniper’s headshot. Level 1 Explosive Headshot inflicts 150 damage in a radius, just enough to kill uber medics attached to a giant. However the Sniper must be able to get consistent headshots.
3. A Spy’s backstab. Guaranteed kill and robo-medics do not turn around when they are healing another bot, setting themselves up for chain stabs.
4. A Soldier’s rockets. This only works in very specific circumstances: 1) The launcher is not Liberty Launcher or Air Strike; 2) Damage is fully upgraded; and 3) The Soldier is boosted with minicrits or crits, or the rocket is a direct hit with Rocket Specialist. As such it’s easier to use the above three.

Some other methods of preventing ubers:

1. Drain ubercharge with the Pomson 6000. This can work on Intermediate when Uber Medics spawn one at a time, but on Advanced they tend to spawn in groups. This also exposes the Engineer to unnecessary danger.
2. Airblast the Medics away from their patients. This may not work (to be honest it had never worked the few times I saw it used, the Medics ubered just fine).
3. Push the uber medic into bomb resetting pits. This can only be done on maps with reset points (Coaltown, Rottenburg etc.) with weapons that cause knockback in some fashion, and not feasible against large groups of medics. Besides reset pits are far away from the front line, so this can only be done once the frontline breaks – which means the defenders aren’t performing well.

If I’m not a medic killer, what should I do?

The success of killing Uber Medics rely both on the medic killer’s skills and the team.
1. Know when uber medics spawn. The TF2 wiki has comprehensive lists of robot spawning order, but observing the bots as they walk over the terrain is enough. Snipers or team members on higher ground can call out approaching medics in order for the team to prepare.
2. Pay attention to the medic killer’s status. If the person is dead and no Medics are nearby to revive them, pull back to give them time. Better to wait a few seconds than setting off uber and get everyone killed.
3. DO NOT SET OFF UBER MEDICS! If your team has a capable medic killer, do everything in your ability to avoid damaging them to set off ubers – Engineers wrangle your sentry or put it away, other classes stop attacking and pull back.
4. Once the medics are dead, feel free to resume attacking the now medic-less bots.

Good luck! (and blow up those uber medics for me, they belong in hell!)