A good Medic is a godsend in any pub server. He is loved and revered by everyone on his team, and with good reason. Even a hopeless scrub team with a good Medic becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Unfortunately, most people who play Medic are terrible at it.

Medics are there to keep their team alive and healthy so they can keep the pressure on and to utilize their Übercharge to make pushes or defend at critical moments. A good Medic can keep multiple pockets, take down heavier classes alone (sometimes), and change the tide of a game with one well-timed Über.

These people know they're the most important person on their team to keep alive, and have learned how to never die, ever. Do not overextend to chase a good Medic even if he is very injured, you will eat his blutsauger and he will laugh at you as he runs off with full health.

Similarly, don't think good Medics are harmless health dispensers. If he's in a teamfight and sees an opportunity, he WILL pull out his melee weapon and, more often than not, crit you upside the head.

Of course, these are things that good Medics do. And as I've said, there are more horrible Medics than good Medics.

Bad Medics are very common indeed. This is that one Medic who plants his healing beam firmly up one Heavy's ass, and does not move it until either he dies or his Heavy does. This is not the only mistake that bad Medics make, however it is one of the most common. This list is made up of mistakes that I as a player have seen countless times. Do not do these things.


This is when a Medic pockets one person, one person only, in sickness and in health, 'til death do they part. Death in their case usually comes swiftly, as a Medic who would pocket this hard is likely also very easy to kill. Do not do this. There are no benefits. I'm not saying don't pocket, pocketing is an important part of being a Medic. I'm saying don't ONLY pocket.


You're low on health, and there are no health packs nearby. You spot a friendly Medic healing your teammates a ways off, and head on over pressing E. Oh no, you took an errant pistol shot! Now you have only 12 health! You sidle up to the Medic and press E again, to indicate that you need some first aid, pronto. To your dismay, the Medic runs off away from you! You are killed by another pistol shot when you could have easily been at full health by then. I'm not sure if some people just have a hard time hearing their game and seeing the Medic indicator balloons (idk what they're actually called), or if they legitimately don't care if you die. Make sure to be attentive, and heal EVERYONE. I cannot stress that enough: HEAL. EVERYONE.


Don't get me wrong, I love playing battle medic. Running around, shooting some dudes and sawing some other dudes, occasionally quick-healing your homies when they need it. It's fun. But I only do it when I know that I can still be an asset to my team regardless of not healing anyone (like when the enemy team is extra special status). I DON'T do it when the teams are pretty balanced and my teammates need a real Medic.


When you should deploy an Über is largely situational, but in general you should always wait until the last possible second. Assuming a bad Medic can stay alive long enough to get a charge, he could flub it in several different ways. (These are just a few examples of what I've seen, there are definitely way more ways to flub an Uber)

• Too far away for the pocket to do any real damage, in full sight of the targets, who will then run away, thus wasting the Über.
  
  
• Against one enemy that their pocket could have easily taken down anyway
  
  
• As soon as an enemy makes a move towards them

I probably don't have to say this, but DON'T DO THESE THINGS ^


One of the main uses for Übers is taking down sentry nests, and maybe your Medic is just savvy enough to realize this. Maybe he has a full charge, and you're adjacent to an enemy engineer camping his little heart out. Maybe he Übers, and you attempt to rush the sentry...but are pushed back against a wall as the Medic stares at you, motionless. And then the Über is over and you're still against the wall, and then you're dead. The Medic is probably dead too, that idiot. The lesson to be learned here: take the knockback. Another tip is to check behind you while you're ubered. Often, an enemy heavy or pyro will sneak up and wait for the uber to end, and then gun you down. Always try to have an escape route open in case it goes south.


Overheal is OP. It's true. A good Medic knows this and tries to keep everyone as close to fully overhealed as possible. This isn't really that hard to do, as most of the more fragile classes take maybe a second and a half to fully overheal. The beefier classes take a bit longer, but they don't need as much. A soldier with just 30 extra hit points has a pretty decent advantage, definitely more than if he was simply at full health.

Then you have your bad Medics, who will ignore you if you have anything above 60% health. They don't have time to deal with your plight, they have heavies to pocket.


Bad Medics seem to think that other Medics on their team aren't worth healing, ever. I've had situations in which I, as a Medic with less than half my health, came upon another Medic, healed him, called for Medic, and then watched him saunter off, pocketing a Heavy. Then I got killed by a rocket which would have barely made a scratch had I been overhealed. Even half-decent Medics who know how to heal more than one person will absolutely 100% ignore you if you are a Medic. Even if you pocket them spamming E, they will look at you and then look away to find another Heavy. This is one of the most common mistakes, and also one of the most aggravating. I know from experience that having two medics working together can be one of the most steamrolling master techniques in all of TF2, but it does require two competent Medics, pairs of which are nearly impossible to come by.




Hopefully this guide helped a few bad Medics out there...or if you're already a good Medic, I hope you enjoyed reading about the silly mistakes you've doubtless already seen a million times :)
Please rate and favorite so that others may stop being bad medics as well!

p.s. this is my first guide, sorry if it sucks

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