K!NG's Ultimate Competitive Medic Guide!

A guide aimed at players new on the 6s and Highlander scene. This guide will give you an introduction to the MEDIC class.
Watch this space. ROAMER GUIDE COMING SOON!

Introduction and Stats

6s and Highlander Medic Guide:
The medic: the most underplayed class in all pub servers, yet arguably the most important class in high level Team Fortress 2. This guide is going to give an overview for all of the gamemodes for medic. Just remember: Pop it, don’t drop it.

The medic has 150hp.
The medic moves at 107% (no modifiers such as overdose) relative to the engineer or sniper.
The medic heals at a base rate of 3hp/s passively. After 10 seconds, this scales to 6hp/s. This is all assuming that the Blutsauger is not equipped. If the Blutsauger is equipped, then this is reduced to 1hp/s and 4hp/s respectively.

Movement and Positioning

The primary focus for you apart from healing and ubers, is movement which is your only source of surviving a team fight.
1. Always stick with a team mate (for obvious reasons, a spy is not the greatest). They will protect you until you meet a pocket class (e.g. heavy, soldier, demo and pyro: best in that order). For obvious reasons, stay behind them!
2. Move in a zig zag motion when you spot a sniper. This will make it harder for him to hit you with a body shot.
3. Learn to air strafe. If you strafe off a rocket, it will put distance between you and the aggressor. Your team mates can then finish the bomber off. A good way to practice this is to learn to rocket jump, or sticky jump.
4. Watch behind you, especially in highlander. Spies can drop your uber from 100% to 0% in one single click. However, as long as you have a good pyro, you will be mostly fine.
5. Do not walk into a choke point unless your team says it is clear.
6. Avoid spam!
7. If you are being chased and solo, zig zag and head for your spawn, or a common rally point (e.g capture points or health kits).
8. Learn to combat medic. Contrary to point number 7, if you are caught with your pants down with a scout, you could attempt to kill him. 2 ubersaws can kill a scout or 2 crossbows and a saw. Also, the syringe guns all have excellent DPS (on par with a flamethrower).

Communication

Communication is PARAMOUNT as medic. Medic at lower levels is usually the main caller for the team. However, in my opinion, this is quite risky, especially with peeking and being dropped with 70-100% uber (disastrous!!). The best thing to do is for your team to gather information, and then relay the information back to you.

A good idea is to use the voice menus (by default Z, X and C respectively) if you do not want to speak. This involves voice commands such as "Go Go Go!" , "I am Fully Charged" and "Go left". However, do be wary that it also means that the enemy can hear you.

Try using binds.
E.g. bind f "say_team Uber Faked"; voicemenu 2 8" (This fakes uber and tells your team that you have done so.

Use voice, or 3rd party speaking programs (VoIP)
THIS SHOULD BE A BASIC OPTION!
This gives you more flexibility than using voice menus and it's faster than text chat. It can also give you better descriptions of enemy formations e.g. 2 scouts in Sewers and roamer in PC.


Finally, name places on maps. For example, Choke is usually (5cp_Process and 5cp_Gullywash) a chokepoint after mid point. You can easily say, "Combo and Roamer at Choke! 2 Scouts in Sewers and Demo flanking form IT/PC!"

Thresholds (tanking and taking damage)

As medic, you cannot be healed. This means that health management is very important. There are a few basic numbers you need to remember to know if to engage, pop, or run.

• A fully charged bodyshot, or a quickscope headshot (very dank, much mlg) deals enough damage to kill you in 1 shot (150 damage).
  
• A meatshot from a scattergun deals 105 damage.
  
• A point blank rocket deals 112 damage.
  
• A pill (grenade) deals 100 damage.
  
• A sniper shot deals 50 damage
  
• A melee weapon (bat, knife, pan) deals 35, 40 and 65 respectively
  
• A pistol shot at point blank does 22 damage.
  
• Finally, an ambassador shot does 102 damage (assuming it's a headshot).

For instance if you had 110 health, and a scout was chasing you, the time you would have to pop is when you reach 105 health or lower. This does not take missed pellets into account.

Uber Advantages and Faking Ubers

Arguably, the most important factor of a medic is uber. The uber can swiftly wipe a team, and capture a point. However, as long as both teams have uber, they will cancel each other out. Therefore, it is beneficial to use an uber as soon as possible if you know the percentages are close. However, if one team has significantly higher percentage (30% or higher), that team can push without fear for retaliation of an enemy uber. This makes it easier for the enemy medic to die, and therefore win the round.
Linked in with this is faking. For instance, if there were uber levels of 100% and 70% for team 1 and 2 respectively, then team 2 could fake an uber to get the other team paranoid and hesitate to push with uber. Therefore, the hesitation would let the pocket or passive scout build, and then get uber.
Also, a scout or soldier may hurt themselves to help build uber faster. Just ensure that the flanks are covered to ensure you are not caught ded (big surprise to team).

(6s)Heal Order , Rollouts and Midfights

It goes without saying that any class that is hurt needs to go to the medic for healing.

Always heal the demo first. He and you are known as the combo. However, do not pocket him. He should be getting around 25-30% of total heals.

Heal the pocket soldier next. Captain Obvious says that he should be pocketed. He should be getting around 40% of the total heals.

Passive scout 3rd. Passive scouts are the “clean up” class and should be used to help build uber and look out for you. Passive scouts get around 15% of total heals. Also, you should flash uber onto him.
Aggro scout should not get too many heals. Aggro scouts control the flank, similar to a roamer. Therefore, he should be picking up health kits.

The roamer is least important, and is a suicide bomber/ pick class. He controls the flank as well. A good roamer always ensures that a scout does not gank the combo. The two flank classes get around 15% to 20% in total.

On a rollout, use crit heals to buff the demo to full health. Until he is out of range, keep healing him. Then heal the roamer until “choke” on most 5cp maps, and heal the pocket. I see many medics trying to crossbow their pocket, but it’s silly. The crit heals* are enough (unless they were stupid enough to do the roamer rollout). Finally, before coming up to a choke or fight, remember to buff the scouts. They are the squishiest of classes and therefore need healing and buffing.

NOTE: BUFFING ALL CLASSES BEFORE A MID/ TEAM FIGHT IS CRUCIAL TO DECIDING THE OUTCOME OF THE FIGHT!

During the midfight, the most important thing is to STAY ALIVE (Captain Obvious strikes again). Even if there is only 1 member of the enemy team alive, s/he will bomb you no matter what to even out uber advantages.

*Crit heals are when a class has not taken damage for 10 or 15 seconds, they will heal at double and triple the rate respectively.

My preferred Melee and Syringe Guns

These are your last resort! They are fairly hard to use without experience. However, there are 2 main items I am going to discuss here (they are my favourite and go to items).
The Crusaders Crossbow:
Damage: 37 => 75 (Reverse damage fall off)
Heals 75 at point blank and 150 at max range
This is very useful! You can almost countersnipe with this weapon, and heal faster than any medigun!!! However, this weapon takes ages to master. Many times, I have killed hapless snipers (admittedly, they were extremely bad) who were oblivious to me. This weapon is almost like a mini Quick Fix. It heals extremely quickly, and you can heal a dying demo man to full health with this beast.

The Ubersaw:
Damage: 65 per swing, 88 per swing (minicrit)
OP. It has OP written all over it. I would make an illuminati joke, but it is too OP even for that. A single swing can change the outcome of a round. This ubersaw is best paired with the slow build times of the medigun. A single spy kill builds you 50% uber! A single swing provides you with 25% uber! This weapon has a 20% slower swing rate, but it shouldn’t throw you off too bad.

The Medigun

Mediguns are the defining trait of the medic. All Medigun ubers last for 8 seconds, except for the vaccinator, which has 4 2 second ubers. All Mediguns overbuff to 150% of the targets usual health, except from the Quick Fix which buffs to 125%. All mediguns have a passive “ability” in which after 10 seconds after the patient last took damage, the healing rate is doubled. After 15s, the heal rate is tripled.
Stock Medigun:
Heal Rate: 24hp/s
Time to build: 40s (Assuming heal target's health is below 140%)
Relative uber build rate: 100%
Uber overview: Once activated, this medigun allows the medic and the target to be invulnerable to ALL damage taken from other players (bullets, shotgun pellets, explosions, flames etc). BEWARE! Pyros are the perfect counter to this uber, and you are not impervious to environmental damage e.g. saws on sawmill, trains (very infamous for killing ubered medics and dropping meds) and knockback. Pyros can easily neutralise an uber by spamming their airblast. Many times in lobbies and matches, I have seen pyros (especially scouts in 6s offclassing or pyros ubered by med) airblast the combo off a cliff! This uber also has the ability to “flash” on other players. The “flash” lasts for about half a second, but it reduces the uber duration by half a second(ish) as well. This is great (especially in 6s) at a team fight. When you see a player about to die, you can flash the uber on them and it will save them. Flashing is also very useful for soldiers especially as you can uber on the demoman, and then flash onto the pocket and roamer who will jump and follow on damage done by the demo. This is a go-to medigun.

The Kritzkrieg

The Kritzkrieg:
Heal Rate: 24hp/s
Time to build: 32s (Assuming heal target's health is below 140% of base health)
Relative uber build rate: 125%
Uber overview: Referred by some to The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ by players who have bad aim :P, the kritzkreig exchanges survivability for raw killing power. Bestowing the recipient of the uber the ability to do critical hits (all damage ramp up and drop off is negated, and does 3 times the base damage) for 8 seconds, this a medigun most viable on koth (King Of The Hill) maps such as koth_viaduct or koth_lakeside. The medigun is a shock and awe weapon, but with effective coordination from the enemy team, this uber can turn to into an epic…. flop. This is because it offers no defensive buffs. However, a well placed crit stickybomb or crocket can kill half of an entire team. Beware! Popping and not Dropping cannot save you in this instance because it does not provide defensive buffs. Also, beware of pyros once again. I remember playing a round of highlander viaduct as pyro. The enemy had popped their kritz, and I charged into the fray, oblivious of the bullets and explosions. The enemy medic was in close vicinity of their demo, who was using a loch and load, and being kritz’d. One single airblast sent the poor sods back to their respawn rooms, as well as me. Another important thing to note (although it has been overlooked before) is that this is ineffective against buildings because buildings do not take critical damage. In other words, The Kritzkrieg is a double edged blade. It can definitely have its moments.
This medigun is allowed by ALL LEAGUES regardless of gamemode.

The Quick Fix

Heal Rate: 33hp/s
Time to build: 32s (Assuming heal target's health is below 140% of base health)
Relative uber build rate: 125%
Uber overview: Prepare to laugh at the pyro!!! He (she/ it, no, we are not going into more pyro gender conspiracies!) is helpless against this uber!!! This uber provides the heal target with 300% heals (effectively 100hp/s). This medigun is best used once again on koth maps where the enemy has uber advantage (more on this later). The medigun is great for neutralising an uber because it helps mount an aggressive defence. The Quick Fix can keep the entire team alive, because it outputs 4 times the amount of healing per second on an uber compared with the stock medigun. As mentioned at the start, the pyro and other juggling classes such as a FaN Scout, soldiers, demos, and pyros as well as sentries cannot do any knockback to this uber. In other words, any negative movement penalties done by the enemy team is ineffective when the uber is activated. The drawback of the Quick Fix is that it is very ineffective in offence because it cannot provide invulnerability to multiple players, or give the big boom bada boom that The Kritzkrieg provides. All in all, this medigun is most suitable for medics who like getting the upperhand in uber advantages.
Note!!! Beware that if your patient rocket/ sticky jumps, so will you!
This medigun is allowed in ALL HIGHLANDER LEAGUES. It is banned by all 6s LEAGUES except CEVO.

The Vaccinator

Heal Rate: 24hp/s (Non Buff)
Reduced to 8hp/s when overhealing
Time to build: 6.67s (1 Bar)
26.67s (Full 100%)
Relative uber build rate: 600% (for 1 “uber”)
150% for 100%
Uber overview: This medigun is like the deformed child of the Quick Fix and stock medigun. This medigun is very unique in many ways:
1. It has 4 distinct “ubers”. Each one lasts for 2 seconds.
2. The Vaccinator offers resistance (Bullet, Explosion, and Fire respectively) during an uber. This is something the other 3 mediguns do not offer. For example, if I was fighting a demo who was using his grenade launcher and I had the explosion resistance selected (non uber), a grenade would to 25% of the damage (therefore 25 damage). This applies to all resistance types. Also, you (the medic) are healed 25% of the damage done to the target assuming the same damage type is done to the patient (in this case, 25hp from a pill).
3. These ubers also negate critical hits or mini-crits. However, this does not give the patient and medic any buff against any other damage types.
The reason I said it is like the deformed child of the Quick Fix and stock medigun is because it has the uber advantage building capabilities of the quick fix (even better actually!) and the ability for the combo to absorb HUGE amounts of damage, as well as negate the dreaded Kritzkrieg.
4. You are
This medigun is banned by ALL 6s LEAGUES. This medigun is allowed by all HIGHLANDER LEAGUES except from ETF2L.

Syringe Gun and Saw Selection

When the midfight is over, and you are the only one left, it is time to run. A scout appears on your 6. What do you do? Pull out your syringe and saw of course!! The question remains: which one?

Generally, medic weapons do mediocre damage because they are so hard to aim, especially the proper, automatic syringe guns. ALL MEDIC syringe guns are allowed by all LEAGUES regardless of gamemode.

Stock Syringe Gun:
Damage: 5-12 (long to point blank)
Fire rate: 10 syringes per second
A LOT of leading and practice is needed with this weapon. The Syringe Gun is a solid option for anyone unwilling to use anything else, or those who never want to be found wanting in a situation.

Blutsauger:
Damage: 5-12 (long to point blank)
Fire rate: 10 syringes per second
This syringe gun heals you for 3hp per syringe hit. However, it drops your passive regeneration by 2hp/s to 1hp/s which scales to 4hp/s after 10 seconds. This weapon is very good if you find yourself being abandoned by your team a lot.

Crossbow: See my preferred loadout.

Overdose:
Damage: 5-11 (10% damage penalty) (long to point blank)
Fire rate: 10 syringes per second
This syringe gun is fairly good for medics who want to keep up with scouts and take Classic Mixup's Gotta Go Fast 6s playstyle. It promotes manoeuvrability, by giving you 117% relative movement speed at full uber. Because the syringe gun does not see that much use, this is a great option because it provides a survivablility boost. Do note that it requires the weapon to be active to receive its benefits.

Bonesaw:
Meh. Use a pan instead.

Ubersaw: See my preferred loadout.

Amputator:
Heals 3hp/s faster than default when active, and has a 20% damage penalty. Its taunt also heals teamates in the nearby area. Therefore, it is more useful in highlander when you will take more spam (faster health regen) and when lots of people need heals (taunt ability).

Vitasaw: Banned in most leagues.

Solemn Vow:
"Do no Harm" it says. The information obtained by this is easily obtained by a spy. If you are playing 6s, and you have no spy...... It is banned. Despite that, it is still a direct upgrade to the stock bonesaw. You can easily call out to your heavy who is weak, and he will then kill them.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading!
Just remember the 3 Golden Rules!

1. Pop it; don't drop it!
2. Heal your pocket!
3. Never go take on an enemy unless you are very confident.

tl;dr: Go read the guide; it's useful

Acknowledgements:

Kounge: Thanks for proof reading this!
Slodier / Spheesme: Thanks for reading this first time around!

Please also conside donating... It took some time to write this!
Plus you get extra karma!
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Also, if you found this guide useful, share it with your buddies, or upvote.

K!NG

[kingzzz]

If you want to donate, that's your call. If you do not, don't donate. Simples.

[soop]

ew, asks for donations....

[EHN]

What a great Medic Guide!
AWESOME

[Angel]

Can you IMAGINE how epic it would be to get headshots with the crusader's crossbow?

[Angel]

No, you will only heal the people who are close to the enemy UNTIL that enemy and his nearby team are all dead. then, when you and your whole surounding team will get healed and buffed.

[Rode112]

No, the heal order applies when you dont have a dying teammate. What's the point of buffing a scout thats out of danger when, say, your pocket is on 60 hp and being raped

[kingzzz]

I disagree. Always scouts first, roamer, demo, pocket

[Angel]

You messd up the heal order!! you need to heal the player closest to the enemy UNLESS if there are no enemies around, then heal the most damaged player first and then buff you nearby teamates. i hope this helps!

[Stake from Jate Farm]

I've always preferred the Amputator over the Ubersaw for 2 reasons

1. The healing effect negates afterburn and softens bleeding, allowing for survivability when a health pack is not readily available, or for getting back into a fight faster if you're not on fire.

2. I use the Vaccinator, a quick charging medigun. The Ubersaw is less useful with it, along with the Quick Fix, for the simple reason of 'they charge faster'.

As a side note, I find myself killing more enemies than I should with the Amputator. Idk if that makes me MLG (don't hurt me!) or if I play against pubtatoes. Could be either one, neither, or both.

But yeah, I like the Amputator

[Rode112]

Well then you should really rename your guide to "lobby guide" and not "ultimate competitive medic guide" it's just clickbait like that. Lobbies are not even up to standards with the lowest competitive tiers.

About arguing about things that dont exist, thats my whole point, a lot of crucial facts simply dont exist in your guide.