The Simple Basics of Combat Medic

An easy-to-understand guide that will briefly cover the fundamentals of being a Combat Medic, including how to react in specific situations.

Introduction to Combat Medic

Being a combat medic demands much more than just an ordinary medic, whose goals are to heal teammates and uber them before dying occasionally. The role of a combat medic throws you into an ever-changing environment where you have to adapt fast to the circumstances in order to maximise your contributions to the team.

A mountainous task for you? Fret not, this guide will kick-start your combat medic journey by addressing some key points to note for beginners.

Differences between a Combat Medic and an ordinary one

The key differentiating point between the 2 types of Medics are the roles they play in battles.


An ordinary medic does what he's supposed to do: heal, uber, and repeat until they die. Most of the time, they are seen behind the frontlines healing others (if not, they just pocket a heavy all the way) to build uber before initiating a push once his ubercharge meter is filled.

However, these medics are often prone to long-distance damage by Snipers and ambushes by Spies. Since most people will be engaged in the heat of the battle with few people allocated to spychecking, apart from the occasionally pyros, medics are left in an especially vulnerable position, which leaves them exposed to attacks from behind, often losing the ubercharge they painfully built in the process.

On the other hand, a combat medic is directly or indirectly involved in the battle, either picking off low-health players retreating or actively looking out for spies behind the frontlines and dealing with them quickly and confidently without diverting too much from the Medic's main role; healing.

Nevertheless, being a combat medic exposes you to more unpredictable situations while you're fighting, which can potentially overwhelm beginners and less experienced players, limiting their contributions to the team. It is always good to practice some basic skills, such as aiming with your Crusader's Crossbow and maneuvering during a 1-1 fight with a Spy.

Choosing your Weapons

Primary

Ah, the good ol' stock weapon. Very easy and reliable to use, it's an ideal weapon used in both offense and defense because it does not affect the normal health regeneration rate. Despite so, it lacks the range for further attacks, rendering it for in close-quarters combat.

Due to its downsides of reducing the normal health regeneration rate, it puts passive medics in a disadvantaged position if they do not make full use of its buff. This weapon is very helpful for close-quarters combat and regenerating the health of the medic at the same time. A common tactic when using this weapon is to walk backwards while shooting at an advancing pyro as they have limited ranged attacks and the added health regeneration boost partly cancels out the afterburn damage.

A weapon largely favoured by the combat medic community, this long-ranged healing weapon is the most suitable weapon for healing your teammates while staying at a further distance. However, it's effectiveness is limited should your teammates make the medic's life harder, such as moving around too much while the medic is trying to aim. Nonetheless, this feature plays a key part should the medic have low health yet he is trying to heal his teammates at the frontlines. A good weapon for beginners to try out, but you will have to get used to aiming.

While it's ubercharge boost allows you to churn out uber after uber at a faster rate, it's damage penalty leaves medics extremely fragile to ambushes aimed at taking out the medic. It's downside is a definite no for those aspiring to be combat medics.

Secondary

Highly recommended medigun to use. It guarantees damage invulnerability during ubercharge, apart from airblast pushes or sticky/rocket knockbacks. Reliable for beginners.

The usefulness of the Kritzkrieg is highly dependent on the situation. While its faster ubercharge rate and critical damage is a sure way to wipe out the opposition, especially in choke points, it's not effective in keeping your heal target safe should the enemy team decide to initiate a heavy push.

It's faster heal rate and ubercharge rate makes it an ideal medigun for healing multiple teammates in a shorter period of time. However, its reduced overheal leaves teammates more vulnerable and unable to last longer in a battle should the medic not continue healing them. Not a very good medigun for combat medics as it will force them to stay near their teammates for the whole duration, unless there is another medic backing up.

A medigun that is very versatile in most situations, it provides significant resistance to the chosen damage type. However, it does not function that well during overheal and is vulnerable to pushes involving all 3 damage types (Fire, Bullet and Blast).

Melee

The bonesaw is a reliable weapon when it comes to melee combat. With no downsides, it's a handy option for medics who want to play it safe, or for those who are adapting to the style of combat medic.

An extremely useful choice for combat medic veteran, the ubersaw charges your ubercharge meter by 25% per successful, albeit a reduction in attack speed. This weapon has maximum utility when a medic can land most, if not all, of his melee hits to churn out ubers faster for his teammates.

Although it allows medics to retain up to 20% of their ubercharge upon respawn, the decrease in health of the medic makes in less of a viable choice for combat medics.

While it's health regeneration is a boon to nearby teammates while the medic is taunting, this leaves the medic in a rooted position and unable to do anything in the presence of enemies. Furthermore, a combat medic has to be constantly on the move in order to contribute as much as possible to the team, and it's damage reduction will further relegate this weapon to a less effective role for combat medics.

A rather ordinary weapon, the Solemn Vow's buff is largely rendered ineffective for it's slower firing speed, compromising the efficiency of combat medics. Even though it allows medics to view enemies' health, the follow-up attacks will deal less damage.

Recommended Combat Medic Loadout

The Crusader's Crossbow
Stock Medigun
Ubersaw

What to do when encountering the respective classes

Scout
The Scout is a very mobile class and it's highly recommended to take extra caution when dealing with scouts. While on 1v1 with a scout, it's more reliable for beginners to land a few crucial hits on the Scout with your melee weapon instead of potentially missing shots with your primary weapon and dying in the process.

Soldier
Maneuvering is key to dodging the rockets from the Soldier. It's easier for beginners to attempt to pick Soldiers off at a distance with your primary weapon, but for advanced combat tactics, you can land a few hits on the Soldier with your melee weapon. Be sure to stay close as his rockets have blast radius, potentially injuring himself and suiciding in the process.

Pyro
Deal with pyros like how you deal with most Soldiers: use your primary weapon to finish them off at a distance. If you have health to spare and you want to finish them off quickly, you can afford to move back and forth to land as many hits as possible while taking less damage from the flamethrower. If not, use the Blutsauger and shoot at the Pyro while moving backwards as his flames will not reach you and the extra health regeneration can cancel out the afterburn.

Demoman
This is largely similiar to dealing with Soldiers, except that you can stay as close to the Demoman as possible so that he will face difficulty picking you off with his stickies. Should he mistime his sticky detonation, he can potentially injure and kill himself.

Heavy
Do not try to hit Heavies with your melee weapon if you are not experienced enough in dealing with them. For beginners, pick them off with your primary weapon as they are big slow targets.

Engineer
You can occasionally try to damage the buildings with your primary weapon, but that role should be left mainly to your teammates. Focus on dealing with the retreating engineer where possible after his buildings are destroyed.

Medic
Both primary and melee weapons are ideal in this face off as medics lack significant accumulative damage for primary weapons.

Sniper
Beginners will have to maneuver as much as possible to evade headshots/bodyshots while shooting the Sniper for him to flinch and probably miss. For Snipers who have not been alerted to your presence, finishing them off with your melee weapon is your fastest and most efficient method.

Spy
All the different kinds of stabs come to mind: facestabs, stairstabs, sidestabs, matador stabs etc. As such, ranged combat is recommended unless you can maneuver well enough to evade backstabs, and at the same time, land your melee weapon hits quick enough. Beware of dead ringers, and always check your back after some time, or shift+tab to check whether they are dead or not. (this is entirely dependent on spawn time, you will have to estimate their spawn time to ascertain whether they respawned after you killed them or they came back after dead ringer).

Good Luck on your journey to becoming a Combat Medic! :)

Trust me, it won't be an easy job, but the hard work pays off in the end.

Some Tips:
Constant practicing is important so that you don't lose touch and get rusty after some time.
Try new methods of taking on different classes so that you can better adapt to each situation.
Evaluate your performance after every session, so that you are confident of knowing where to improve on in your following practice session.

Good Luck to all! ^^

P.S. Looking for Help? Join my group below:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/rafflingkingalp
and you can receive further help from me* and join my training centre: (private group)
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/trainingasateam
*Due to hectic schedules, I may not be able to attend to you immediately. Sorry for the delay and inconvenience caused.

[Bob.]

ewow rating it

[burlap sack]

I play Combat Medic all the time.
I do find this guide fairly accurate.

[Left4Gibus]

nice guide! thx

[Jay Trainwreck]

Nice