Making your Medic Cosmetic Set: How to not look like any other healer on the battlefield.

So you've decided to be a Medic Main, and you have no idea what you want for your cosmetic loadout. If that's the case, then you're in the right place! This guide will be a short, but detailed tutorial on how to dress yourself for the pittance of Combat Medicine.

That's not to say that ALL these ideas are 100% supposed to be followed, but you might want to if you want to stand out from the crowd.

What NOT to Wear: Loadouts for Noobs or Trolls

This section will cover loadouts that should only either be worn Ironically, or shouldn't be worn at all if you want to look like you know what you're doing. The website I use for previewing loadouts is http://loadout.tf

1. The Gibus-Vision
Do I really have to explain this one?

Sure, It might be your first hats, and you may want to put it on, but if you want people to make you a laughing stock of a doc, you might wanna steer clear of
this set.

The same applies to the Mann Co. Cap or the Skull Island Topper.






2. The "Medic Girlfriend" Loadout
This loadout is so overused, Soundsmith made it a point to say, "If you're making a new medic loadout, PLEASE pick something else." (Hat Stereotypes #8: Medic), and he's pretty much right. the sheer number of Grimm Hatte/Blighted Beak Medics that permanently affix their mediguns or kritzkriegs to the backside of someone they love and don't let go the entire game is enough to say that this loadout should be avoided by newer Medic Mains.

Coats can vary, but one of the most common sights is the Heat of Winter.






3. The Guardian Angel/Jesus Loadout
The lord may be with you, but he's also with the hundreds of Medics who use the Nunhood/Angel of Death combo. This set isn't bad, but enough people use it that it can get you in trouble if you DON'T HEAL EVERYONE 24/7, because thats what is expected of Jesus Medics. Usually the beard goes with this set, but the Ruffled Ruprecht can be replaced by nearly any other Beard the medic can have.










4. The Mad Doctor Loadout
The Brush with Death is a VERY Overused cosmetic for one kind of cosmetic loadout: Psychopathic. There are a lot people who use the Brush with Death with the Ward, and then either use a Hair Cosmetic, like the Das Maddendoktor or the Das Guttekutteharen, or more recently, use the Colossal Cranium.

There is no specified head cosmetic for this slot, because any hair cosmetic or The Colossal Cranium would fit in that position.The Colossal Cranium looks bad enough, but its actually viable for some loadouts.¹






5. The Youtuber Copycat(s)

Copying someone elses loadout for impersonation is not clever, nor will anyone with more than 15 brain cells be fooled by you shoddy attempt at impersonation. Ther are many TF2 Youtubers who get their loadouts impersonated, but there are only a few who are medic mains. Most Notably:

5a. ArraySeven:

• Team Spirit Bonzo the All-Gnawing Berliners Bucket Helm
  
• Team Spirit Practitioners Processing Mask
  
• An Extraordinary Abundance of Tinge Colonel's Coat

The King of Combat Medics Himself.

Most of the time when a Medic Main Youtuber is being impersonated, it's him. There are others, but ArraySeven is the one most people think of.






6. The All-Class Elitist
"It's an all-class hat for a reason, and that's because it looks good on all the classes."

Uhhhh, sure, and the Well-Rounded Rifleman fits on a class that's designed to not be able to kill anyone from more than 6 feet away.

This Rule doesn't just apply to this hat, but this hat carries the best example with it. Any Loadout that consist of nothing but All-Class Hats and cosmetics isn't very original, HOWEVER it can be CHEAPER, and sometimes Cheaper is better, but for the purposes of this guide, 100% All-Class Cosmetic loadouts are a no-go






There is one major exception to all of these rules, and that is when you PARODY them. A parody of any of these loadouts can be rather successful, if you use it the right way, but it would be better in any case to come up with one of your own, and THAT is where this guide will come in handy for the rest of the time that you're here.

¹Fun Police™ made a guide for Colossal Cranium Loadouts here

Where Do I START? The Basic Principles of Virtual Dress-Up

The best place to start is by Visiting the Official Team Fortress 2 wiki. there is a small table of contents which leads to the place we want to go to look at the 114 different Cosmetic Items that only the Medic specifically can wear.

There are three main steps to the process of creating a loadout after that.

STEP 1. Be inspired!

That section of the wiki is the Full List of the Medic's Cosmetics in the Game. There are some in there that I had NO IDEA existed until I looked at the Wiki, and there are sure to be some surprises there for you too.

The Main Goal of this step is to pick ONE of the 114 cosmetics on the list to start conceptualizing your new loadout. Will it be the Surgeon's Stahlhelm, or the Wilson Weave? The Platinum Pickelhaube, or the Teutonic Toque? The old school Vintage Tyrolean, or new and juicy Field Practice? There are so many to choose from, and many people simply ignore 80% of them to focus on the ones that people commonly say GOOD medics wear, like the Team Captain, or the Grimm Hatte, or even the Berlin Brain Bowl.
Just for an example, my Primary Character Loadout, Smoothie Boy, pictured left, came from a day of searching for a new loadout for my new main. I used to main demo, but I changed to the Deutsche Doctor after playing as him for a little over 10 hours. Whilst looking through http://backpack.tf listings for a hat that I might like, I had an epiphany when I looked at the TF Wiki Page for Medic. That feeling of "Hey, I don't see anyone wearing the Surgeon's Shako that much, and it looks pretty dang cool!" and I happened to find an unusual variant that I liked.

The effect has since changed, but I will never forget my older version with Green Confetti. My current version, Kill-a-Watt, was a step up from G.Fetti, and the seller was very willing to sell at backpack price, even though they are rare.²

That feeling of "Oh, I don't see that many Medics wearing this thing," can take you a long way in terms of picking out items for the next step.








STEP 2. Build Something Unique!
As a random example of this step, I chose the Baron Von Havenaplane as a base. It's a rather underused hat, and its rather aesthetically pleasing to the TF2 art-style. Then I wanted to pick some cosmetics that sort of complimented the idea of a Pilot Medic, and the Mustachioed Mann plus the Vascular Vestment give off that vibe of Historic Pilot theme mish-mashed with a semi-modern soldier at war. Put together, they make a pretty decent loadout, but most importantly, it's UNIQUE.






Continuing with the example of Smoothie Boy, I found another obscure Cosmetic that I happened to like: the Ze Übermensch. Just to finish the loadout, I got a Colonel's Coat, and the rest is history. To this day, My loadout has gone unmatched, meaning that I have never seen anyone with either a replica, or attempting to imitate my loadout.

STEP 3: Add some Color!
Paint Cans are one of the best ways to really make a loadout yours. To improve upon our pilot example, Let's give him some Gray paint on the Baron and some Gray paint on the Mustache. This way, he'll look older, and it will be even more unique in it's own right.

"But DIppy, Didn't you say All-Class Cosmetics were not a good thing to have on your loadout? The Mustachioed Mann is ALL-CLASS!"

I said 100% All-Class Cosmetic loadouts are bad. That doesn't mean you can't use or shouldn't use All-Class Cosmetics in your loadouts, It just means that you shouldn't use the same thing on your medic that you use on your other classes.



² The seller of the Kill-a-Watt Shako I bought was ✪Natdacat100 on Steam.

What ELSE Can I do to Make My Loadout Good?

So you've built your loadout! That's great! Now you want to improve upon it in some way that doesn't necessarily change your cosmetic choice? You could try to improve the ITEM QUALITY of the items you chose, by Buying Strange Variants, or even trading up to an unusual variant of the hat you chose.

UNUSUALS
If you want your loadout to have an unusual, there are a few things to consider, such as the trading tier of the hat you chose. An unusual Baron Von Havenaplane is normally going to be much Cheaper than an unusual Vintage Tyrolean, so plan but not all Unusual Vintage Tyrolean effects are more expensive than Unusual BVHs. Effect choice is also important based on your budget. Some great low budget effects include Disco Beat Down, Circling TF Logo, and the Storm effects, Blizzardy and Stormy. Luckily, some Lower tier Medic hats can carry god tier effects for cheap, like the Flames and Energies, or Sunbeams.
A Green Energy Baron Von Havenaplane is more than 80 keys cheaper than a Green Energy Field Practice.

MEDIGUN CHOICE
There's also the matter of the healing beam that your Medic uses. You could use a stock medigun to keep the look simple, or you could upgrade to a Botkiller, a Medigun Skin, an Australium Medigun, or even an Unusual Medigun! If you run Kritz, then you could get a festive one or a vintage one just to upgrade the quality, or you could splurge on a Strange one to count your kill assists. Things can get a little tacky, but it really just comes down to preference.

And that leads me to my final point about this whole list.

CREATIVITY IS KING

Being tacky, like having uncommon colors, having some weird themes, or even clipping some cosmetics together should not stop you from making the loadout of your dreams. But at the same time keep in mind that a loadout looks better when it is coherent.

To put it briefly. I think would be better to have a coherent looking loadout like this,


Then it would be to create some lab experiment gone wrong abomination like this,


Thank you for maining Medic! and I hope this guide could tell you how to dress to the nines in a mobile field hospital.
-DIplaya

[󠁳⁧⁧ dziadzio overwatch]

You know that making a quide like this makes people use theese loadouts, and then people cant be original. Keep the idea to yourself.

[Bonk Addict!]

Most of this guide doesnt even apply to just medic.

[ParryFingers]

yeah my medic is a pope. only seen one or two other popes

[MediCat]

Wow thanks, now I'm gonna pick pocket gurl loadout.
Current effects:
+ 80% chance to ignite random teammate's or enemie's chair.

[The Fists]

I just make mine look like a bunch of crap crammed together
-battle boonie
-Doc's holiday(A distinctive lack of hue)
-The nine pipe problem(ye olde rustic colour)
No idea what i was thinking.

[wyome]

Because I don't see him mentioning it, you can test loadout items with the site Loadout.tf
correct me if he said this

[Laticauda (They/Their)]

I would honestly LOVE to have a brilliant medic cosmetic loadout, but i'm still looking for my dream unusual of a prussian pickelhaube .

[MuttDud]

this is cool! my loadout is eye catcher coldfront carapace Das Maddendoktor

[Princess Fanny Of Pink]

Great guide!

[Gaby The Red]

what do you think about my medic loadout?


vintage tyrolean

the quadwrangler

the graybanns