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Class Description

The medic is an essentially a healer and a support class that helps build offensive momentum. The medic can heal his teammates while on the front lines and they can also “uber” a teammate after healing long enough by charging his uber charge to 100%. When triggered by pushing the right mouse button, the uber charge makes the medic and his healing target invincible for up to 10 seconds. The medic itself isn’t harmless on his own though. He is stocked with a potent needle gun, which is basically a reincarnation of the Team Fortress nail gun. In TFC, the medic had a more powerful version of the typical nail gun. Along with the needle gun, the medic has his melee bone saw, which some might argue is the best melee weapon in the game, because of its well balanced design and because it has the highest crit rate in the game (Medics gain crit potential from healing their targets while they do damage.)

The medic class also slowly recovers his own health overtime and this is very helpful for when there are no other medics around and he is healing a teammate while they both push further into enemy territory. It’s also worth mentioning that the medic is actually the 2nd fastest class in the game, being slightly faster than average run speed, yet slower than scouts.

The Medic is...

• An infantry support class.
• Able to heal teammates with his healing gun.
• Able to "uber" himself and his healing target after charging up his uber energy, which gives invincibility to them both for up to 10 seconds.
• Equipped with a needle gun and a bonesaw to defend himself.

Class Purpose

The medic’s purpose is simple and straight forward. The medic’s job is to heal important teammates on offense and defense, while also keeping every one of his nearby allies as healthy as feasibly possible. The medic class provides an extremely important role for his team. The healing role is so important, that I will always suggest that your team ALWAYS HAS AT LEAST ONE at all times. I can’t possibly stress this enough. Just by having one medic, your entire offensive force can recover back to full health after battles, all while moving forwards without any downtime.

The medic provides something to his entire offensive that no other class can provide to others on his own, and that’s momentum. By keeping everyone healthy around him, the offensive will always be able to push forwards at a much faster pace. Common sense will also tell you that demomen will be able to move faster by sticky jumping and soldiers will also be able to move faster while rocket jumping, all while having their HP's healed continuously. The medic can also help break through tough defenses just by ubering himself and one other target. Multiple medics with more than one ubers can push forwards together and completely trash a strong defense if given enough time to make it happen. He can also save himself or a very important teammate that's redlining by hitting his uber at the last possible moment.

The most important thing that I can tell you in this section is that the medic also has one incredibly important job that can help his team just as much as his healing can. The medic is able to look away from his healing target without breaking his healing beam. The medic must always keep moving while he heals and also take cover. Because of these two factors, the medic class is by far the best class to check his team’s six. A pro medic will always be aware of all of his surroundings. He must keep an eye on all 360 degrees and use warning macros or use voice chat to immediately alert his squad of an incoming threat, whether it’s an ambush or a crafty spy coming in from behind to backstab them. A good medic must not only heal, but double as an alarm system to unleash his true potential. You can also view the medic as a great "leader" class in this regard, as well.

Offense and Defense

Offense

Medics are truly at home on offense. They can hold their own, or at least fend for their lives while on their own most of the time. They aren’t push-overs, and with some training, you can make yourself into a combat medic of sorts. When others are around him, he can fulfill his primary responsibility by healing his offensive teammates, and more importantly, other medics. Ubers will help push his team’s offense even further when a defense needs to be cracked open. There really isn’t much to say about having medics on offense. Their skill level and their experience will determine how much they contribute to it. The only thing that you should know that medics are MADE for offense, and that is why they should be on the front line as often as possible. You should also remember to always keep moving, and watch out for incoming enemy fire in advance so you can dodge out of the way while healing your target.

A short note about ubering while on offense: The medic class is the best at being aware of his surroundings at all times, right up there with the spy class. A good medic will always know which teammates will be best to use for an uber rush. A good medic also knows best about knowing exactly WHEN to use his uber. The medic knows best, not because he’s in control of it, but because he’s more aware of his surroundings than his healing target is. His healing target should focus on what he’s fighting, while the medic doesn’t have to focus on what his target is fighting. Instead, he can look around in all directions and know when the best time to use his uber will be. Learn what classes to uber in certain situations, and perfect your timing by using your instincts and your perception.

You can also uber multiple targets if you are fast enough. By clicking on other teammates around you very rapidly, you can uber them and then quickly switch to another nearby target. This is possible because uber energy takes a full second or so to dissipate and make the teammate vulnerable once again. By alternating targets in a very fast sequence, you can uber 2-3 teammates at once. Professional medics also consider their options and pick combos of teammates to mutltiple-uber at once. They enjoy mixing and matching certain class combos in order to crack a certain defense. We will dicuss what your options are later on in the guide.

EDIT: Ubering multiple targets at once now drains your uber bar faster. The more extra targets you uber, the less time the duration of the effect will last, which means that it will lasts for less than 10 seconds. Remember this when you consider bringing in more than one guy for an uber assault.

Defense

While passing through a defensive position, the medic can fight an incoming enemy to a certain extent, or at least empower another class that’s on defense by healing them and allow them to do the damage instead. They can heal any wounded defenders they see while passing through, and they can also take the time to overheal engineers that are under siege. By healing an engineer nestled behind his SG, enemy soldiers will have less of a chance of rocketing them to death, thus not allowing them to destroy the SG with ease.

Now of course, on maps where your objective is to be on defense, having one medic around to heal your offensive classes that are defending chokepoints definitely makes sense and is more than worth it by playing the role. By healing one of your offensive teammates and ubering them when needed, you can cut through an incoming enemy force that’s pushing towards your point. By disrupting them and cutting straight through them, you ultimately slow them down or even have a chance at forcing them backwards. Some professional medics will tell you to not only attack incoming groups, but also to keep moving forwards in order to "Drag" the enemy front backwards. Accomplishing this is even better than just simply holding them back at a defensive front.

Class Weapons

Syringe Gun

This gun is not to be underestimated. The needle gun can do great damage at close and mid ranges. It does zero damage at far range, only because the needle projectiles are affected by gravity and tend to curve downwards and never reach a far distance. By aiming slightly upwards, you can increase the trajectory to hit distant targets. You also need to learn how to aim ahead of a moving target to trail them and ultimately land more needles into them to do formidable damage. The needle gun holds 40 needles and has a very fast reload time for what it is.

You can fire while strafing or trailing, fire while approaching an escaping enemy and even fire while moonwalking backwards, killing your target as he struggles to fire back at you. This gun can actually kill any class in the game if you trail them well enough. You can even kill Heavys at close range with some luck, just by circle strafing and landing all your needles into his stationary body. You need to trust in this weapon and practice with it, because it has great damage potential. Crit needles hurt like hell, and you will only need to land a handful of them to murder your target. It’s a good enough weapon for a support class to have, and it will allow you to hold your own, even though you are primarily a healer.

Medigun

This isn’t exactly a weapon, but this gun is what the medic is all about! With this gun, you can aim at a teammate and start healing them by left clicking and holding down the mouse button. After you left click and hold, your gun will lock onto your teammates and start healing him. Also, once your target reaches full health, it will continue by overhealing him. Overhealing will increase their HP’s up past their maximum health, all the way up to 150% of their maximum health. Overhealed HP’s will be gradually lost once a medic stops healing that target. Also, healing wounded teammates will build your uber faster than overhealing healthy targets.

You can also now enable an option to set a healing "toggle", allowing you to click once to lock onto a target, and to click once again to disengage the beam. I do not suggest using the toggle feature as an a veteran medic though, only because using the traditional method allows you to switch healing targets faster and uber multiple allies at once, all because there's less clicking involved.

Your Healing gun will heal lighter classes much faster than those with higher amounts of HP’s, so you should remember this and always keep the light classes around you at maximum health. You should also know that OLD wounds will heal faster then FRESH wounds. This means you will heal targets that are getting hit at a decent rate, but you will heal a target that hasn't gotten hit recently A LOT faster. You should consider this when you are building your uber, in order to heal older wounds for more in less time, thus increasing your overall healing efficiency.

Overhealing (healing after a target is at full health) will add more HP’s on targets with higher max HP’s, meaning that a scout will get the least out of your overheal, and a Heavy will get a whopping 150 more health while being overhealed! You should also remember that when your gun locks on, it will continue to heal that target until you let go. Some players don’t know this, but you can actually turn away from your healing target after locking on. You don’t have to always be looking at him while healing him and this allows you to be aware of your surroundings without breaking your healing beam.

The healing beam’s range is limited, but it is still has pretty good reach. You don’t have to be right up in your target's face to keep healing him unless you want to be. You can let your target move around a corner while healing him and hide behind the corner or other kinds of cover. Being able to heal him at range and being able to turn away from him will allow you a generous amount of flexibility and mobility. You can see enemies ambushing you from behind and also protect yourself from harm, all while healing your target the entire time.

When you are healing your target, his name and health will appear in a box around the center of your screen. Another box will appear if you are directly facing another teammate. By moving your cursor over multiple teammates (whether you are healing another or not,) you will be able to quickly spot allies at aren’t at full health or badly wounded. By clicking and quickly releasing the left mouse button over targets, you can quickly select other teammates that need the most medical attention, heal them to a good or full amount of health, and then start healing the next target. Healing multiple targets and knowing how to keep players alive (and also who to keep alive,) will all come with practice and experience. Just remember, your healing beam cannot go through objects or walls, so it will be cut if your target runs out of your line of sight.

Oh, and one more thing. Your uber will charge faster on targets that ARE NOT being healed by another medic. If two medics heal the same target, their ubercharge will go up slower. Keep this in mind during the setup phases of each round where your uber charge rate is double. If you and another medic latch onto the same target, you won't build an ubercharge in time fast enough.

Bone Saw

Most players will argue that this is the best melee weapon in the game. When you consider the medic’s movement speed, amount of HP’s, his gradual self-regeneration, the bone saw’s attack speed, damage and its very high crit rate, there’s very little you say when arguing against using the bonesaw. Even though the needle gun is great medic weapon, the bone saw is ALWAYS worth switching to while in melee range. Using the bone saw to kill your enemy isn’t only embarrassing to the enemy, it’s a damn good idea!

Don’t hesitate to pull out your bonesaw at melee range. When possible, sneak up your enemy and start ripping him apart with your bone saw. Even though its actual melee damage will vary, you will usually end up killing your enemy in 3 or so hits. You will ALWAYS kill a Soldier or Heavy with 2 critical hits and every other class with only one crit! That’s a lot of potential damage considering that it's possible to kill a Heavy in a little over a second!

Class Concepts & Tactics

• Heal! (You chose to play a medic to heal your teammates, so heal anyone and everyone, and do it as fast as possible. Even if there’s a jerk on your team, be the better man and heal him as well. It doesn’t help your team if you choose not to heal someone. You should only choose not to heal someone if you are busy healing a single teammate in front of you that’s doing most of the damage and also taking most of the enemy’s damage as well. If your other teammates complain that you weren’t able to get around to healing them, tell them that they won’t be healed if they are not in front of you doing the work for the entire team. Make your more aggressive teammates your first priority, because if you let the only brave one die, and the others end up getting trampled over, then it’s not worth doing in the first place, now is it?)
• Check Your Team’s Six! (You can look in all directions while healing without cutting your beam. Warn your team of spies and ambushes through alert macros and voice chat.)
• Learn to Spread the Love! (Be fluid with that left mouse button. Constantly check nearby teammate’s health even when healing by quickly moving your cursor over them. This will allow you to know who’s wounded and who needs your attention. If things are really bad, do your best to spread out your healing if multiple targets are near death. By keeping multiple targets alive as opposed to fully healing one, you increase everyone’s chances of survival.)
• Heal Other Medics First! (ALWAYS and I mean ALWAYS make sure your fellow medics are fully healed. This will increase your team’s overall survivability.)
• Heal from Around Corners! (Protect yourself from behind cover and corners while healing your target to protect yourself.)
• Hide Behind your Heavy! (When healing a Heavy, you can crouch directly behind him and push up against him. By doing this, the Heavy will take all of the damage from the front while you heal him.)
• Don’t Waste Your Uber! (Wait until the right time to use your uber. Don’t use it early and waste it. You should only use it at random when you are either about to die or when you really want to save your target’s life from imminent death. You can also uber 2-3 targets at once if you switch between them in a very fast sequence while your uber is activated. Keep in mind that ubering more than one target will drain your uber faster than the usual ten seconds!)
• Fight Back! (Even though you are a medic, you still have good weapons at your disposal, Don’t go down without a fight.)

VS. Other Classes & {Healing Other Classes}

VS. Scout

Scouts are the toughest for you to kill because of their fast speed. You can still trail them with your needle gun if you are fast enough though. They will usually be too fast to catch with a bonesaw, so the best thing you can do is move as evasively as possible so he misses his scattergun shots.

{The medic/scout combo is the best skirmish combo in the game, as if to say they are excellent at guerrilla combat and able to pick off enemies easily in wide open areas. The scout is faster than you and this is your main weakness. Allow him to move out of healing range in combat and move evasively. Be sure to use some of your own firepower when you both split up to help each other take the enemy down faster.}

VS. Soldier

Soldiers are tough customers. They have rockets and a shotgun, and your best bet is to needle gun him down like a pro at mid range. You will only be able to bonesaw them when you have the element of surprise. The needle gun is your only real friend during this match-up.

{The soldier medic combo is the most balanced combo in the game, and most will say that it’s the best combo in the game. Try your best to heal him at long healing range and dodge with him to avoid taking damage on your side. The both of you will be able to do a great many things. You will be able to handle small scale battles very well, be able to take out SG’s, keep a strong steady pace, and you will also be able to heal damage done cause by him rocket jumping.}

VS. Pyro

Pyros are your counter. You need to keep your distance and be as accurate as possible with your needle gun when he charges you. Avoiding direct fights with these guys is usually a good option, not because you won’t be able to kill them, but because even with your regeneration, his flames can end up finishing you off even if you win. You should completely evade getting into a pyro’s close range while your healing targets deal with them directly. A smart pyro will gun for you first, so give him the best chase you can by facing away from them and running in the opposite direction. You are slightly faster than them, so that’s one advantage for you to escape them while healing.

{The pyro/medic combo is the best blitzer combo in the game, because the pyro and the medic move almost the same speed. The pyro doesn’t slow the medic down and they still move at average movement speed. Along with this speed, the flamethrower’s damage potential and ability to hit multiple targets at once, they make a good team. A medic/pyro combo has a lot of momentum and they also have the ability to charge a large group of enemies head on and eliminate enemy medics easier than other classes can. When dealing with a mirror match, heal your pyro at far healing range while you completely dodge the enemy pyro. If your pyro is good, he will outclass the enemy pyro (dodging most of his damage) and take out the enemy medic really fast as well.

Ubering a pyro can cause complete and utter destruction in certain situations. A double pyro uber is even more devastating. Always remember this when you have an uber ready and you have a pyro as one of your uber options.}

VS. Demoman

These guys are slower than the average class, so you can gun them down with the needle gun with some luck, but if he starts to wall you off, don’t obsess over getting the kill. You can usually just play evasive or retreat if you don’t care about killing him or not. The bone saw can really mess a demoman up if you’re up in his face. If he keeps shooting nades, he’ll hurt himself as well, so if he’s smart, he’ll just joust you with his bottle.

{Keeping demomen healthy is important so you can let them run around and do their thing. You won’t usually stick to healing a demoman exclusively, unless he’s the only other class near you to push forward with or if you’re helping him face off with enemy demomen. The demoman is a good medic companion, but he’s not your best option either. When I say this, I mean that you will prefer having a heavy or soldier as a buddy to protect you while pushing the front line forward. You can also heal/overheal for sticky-jumps so he will stay at full health when he lands at his destination.

Also, ubering a demoman with a fully loaded stcky launcher can be a great solution to breaking particular defenses. By laying down 3-5 stickies by one enemy SG, and placing 3-5 stickies in other locations, you can at least take one SG in one uber rush before running to safety, if not two or three. Demoman also also great for pushing down corridor-like environments.}

VS. Heavy

The only chance you have at killing these guys is at very close range. You can circle-strafe around him while needling him, or just end up bonesawing him as fast as possible. He will overpower you at mid range, and of course, you will be powerless at far ranges.

{Traditionally, the Heavy is considered the best traditional “medic buddy”, even though the other medic combos are still powerful AND viable. Most players will tell you that the Heavy is your best bud, not only because the heavy/medic combo is powerful, but because the Heavy class is made to compliment you and also because it’s the best class for protecting you as a medic.

Heavys get the most HP’s out of your overheal, so having them run around with 450 HP’s makes them into a powerful tank, as if to say he can soak the most incoming enemy damage without dying. The Heavy model is also large, so it’s possible to run directly behind him, crouch down, and push up against him while he’s firing his minigun. By doing this, he will take all frontal damage for the both of you while you heal him. The Heavy provides the best cover fire, and he is able to pull off a fast 180 degree turn and mow down enemies that are gunning for you as well.

As for ubers, the Heavy is the best candidate for close range standing power when moving into a heavily defended room or enclosed area. While firing his minigun, it is very unlikely that he will be getting pushed around anywhere. He will be able to focus his minigun fire, destroying one target at a time. He will also be able to transition between targets much easier than any other class while ubered and getting shot from several enemies and SG's at once. Heavys make for a great uber when there's a heavily defended room just around a corner or at the top of a stiarway, and all of the targets in that enclosed area are within mid-range.}

VS. Engineer

You’re an even fight for an engineer, just use both of your weapons and avoid fighting him from far ranges. As for dealing with him when he’s next to his SG, the only chance you have is edging around the corner and aiming your needle gun upwards so your needles will rain down upon the very edge of the SG’s hitbox. Still, a ready engineer will be able to heal through whatever damage you throw at it. This is all for the sake for balance though, because besides having a sniper pick off the engineer from a distance or having a demoman breathe down his neck, the medic’s uber ability is a nightmare for any defending engineer.

By ubering a soldier, pyro, demoman, or heavy, you can both run in and overpower the engineer’s SG faster than he can repair the damage being done. Sometimes you will be able to destroy an SG by healing a soldier or demoman that's poping in and out of cover, firing at the SG with either rockets or stickies. A heavy will be able to overpower a level 1 or level 2 SG with just healing, but will have to be extra careful with level 3’s and try to use some cover to block himself or edge around without getting in the SG’s line of sight. 

{Besides healing a wounded engineer to full, you should only heal an engineer that’s under heavy siege defending his SG. Your healing will help him overcome any splash damage he gets hit by, along with his dispenser’s healing as well.}

VS. Other Medics

This match-up usually comes down to who’s a better needle gunner or whoever gets a lucky bonesaw crit. Just try your best while dodging his needles.

{You should ALWAYS heal your fellow medics first. If your medics are alive, you will increase your chances of keeping everyone alive. Sometimes having one medic on healing isn’t enough to keep up with incoming damage, so by having two healthy medics around, or even three in extreme cases, you will be able to keep up with the damage being done.}

VS. Sniper

The best thing you can against a sniper is not fight back. What you do instead is make his life as miserable as possible while he tries to snipe you. Snipers will salivate at the chance of picking you off first, so move in weird unpredictable directions and jump some while you move forward or do your thing. If you can trail them at close range with your needle gun, finish them off fast. The bonesaw makes for a great sniper killer as well, so flank them and cut them to pieces!

VS. Spy

If you find a spy and face off, it will be a race to see who can kill who with either the revolver or the needle gun. The bonesaw will also overpower the knife if the medic always faces the spy at all times. This is very doable considering the medic is slightly faster than the spy in the first place. As always, being aware of what’s going on all around you at all times is crucial to apprehending a spy. Is it a very good thing for you, because medics are the best of being aware of their surroundings at all times, hands down.

Closing Thoughts

The medic is awesome and even though I’m a player that plays all classes equally, it’s probably my favorite class. Valve did a great job of making the healing class fun and rewarding to play. You should always have at least one medic on your team. Two medics will greatly increase a large offensive force’s effectiveness, and three medics is probably the maximum you should have considering how much healing power that is, even for a full 32 player game.

I highly suggest any player that’s new to TF2 play as a medic for a good period of time. It will allow them to see how the game works and a variety of different situations happening around them, all while contributing to the team by healing his friends. Of course, this doesn’t mean that advanced players shouldn’t play them. A good medic can do a hell of a lot for his team, and pairing a great medic together with a great offensive player is quite possibly the most powerful force in the entire game, right up there next to the demoman/scout, double sniper, and double engineer combos.

Advanced Section

This section of the guide is for players that have already played the medic class for a long period of time. I will talk about the class in a more critical fashion while assuming you already know a lot about the class. I'll also talk about the new weapons in detail.

Mastering the Medic - The Three P's

So you've healed a lot of guys and you might be thinking "Well how can I improve on my medic game now?" There are three words that come to my mind when playing an excellent medic. You'll have to understand the three P's in order to fully master the medic class. What are those three P's you may ask? They are Proximity, Positioning and Perception. I'll start by talking about the last one first, because it's probably the most important of them all.

Perception

How do you perceive your environment? How well do you assess nearby threats and identify with danger? Do you keep your cool out there when you're healing your heart out?  These are the questions you gotta be asking yourself and they all deal with how you perceive the world around you.

Some of you may be saying "Asfast! What the hell are you going on about!? I'm playing a medic, and TF2 isn't just one big philosophy class!" Well let me put it for you in simple terms. Your job is to heal everyone around you and save lives while saving your own ass at the same time. Sure, you push and hold a button down to heal and you walk around with those WASD keys, but to master this class, you need to be fully aware of your surroundings. You, and yes, ONLY YOU, will know when it's best to use your uber. YOU know who you must heal first and HOW much you should heal them for. YOU know when it's best to run and get the hell of a bad situation. Oh yes, and I'll remind you that YOU are the best class to check the team's six at all times.

You can heal others while turning and looking around in all directions. You should know all 360 degrees of the situation your in. The guy you're healing is concerned with what's in front of him and dealing with how to kill the nasty bad guys that are against you both. What you're concerned with is holding down that healing button. You're also concerned with moving around to stay within healing range, dodging enemy fire AND also spotting threats as they come your way.

A medic that doesn't know how to perceive all of his environment and doesn't understand what all of his options are will most likely get gutted and thrown back to the respawn room You should be paranoid and stare behind you while moving forwards with your team in order to defend yourself from spies or ambushers. Your class is faster than 7 of the other 9 classes in this game, and you should take advantage of this by running ahead of your healing target to scope out the situation ahead of you. You can also use that speed to stay far behind your target to watch out for attacks from the rear or from the sides. Learning to perceive your environment isn't something that is learned, it is simply trained over a period of time. Stay alert and honing your reflexes will take time, practice and effort. Keep this in mind and you'll always be able to improve on how you seethe big picture.

Oh yes, there's one more thing before we move on. If you go into a fight while ubering someone, don't feel guilty retreating and leaving your healing target to die in the middle of a mass of enemies. If your attempt to break them fails, and they still outnumber you considerably, just fall back. It's a lot better that you survive while he dies, than having both of you die in a hopeless battle.

Proximity

Where you currently are and where your enemies are important things to thing about. Let's say a pyro is charging you from 3 o clock, a soldier is far above and ahead of you on a ledge at 12 o clock,and your healing target is at 9 o clock. What do you do? How do you react?

Well timing yourself is key to mastering the medic class. How you move, where you move and having accurate depth perception are all very important. You know how fast a soldier's rocket travels and you can see where it's traveling after the soldier fires it. You know that if a pyro is breathing down your neck, his flames will waft outwards and burn you down. You know who your healing target is, how far away from you he is and also what destruction he's capable of.

By using your mind's eye, you can take in and observe yourself, your enemies and your teammates, all while predicting where they will move and where they will shoot. You can predict when and where their projectiles will strike or land on their targets. If you fully understand where that soldier's rockets are going and if you understand how fast the pyro is and how his flamethrower is used, you can effectively move the hell of out danger's way. By saving your own butt, you keep yourself alive, all while healing your buddy the entire time.

The bottom line is that you need to learn how to make movements on the fly by predicting where that rocket is gonna land and moving to another direction. Perhaps the best thing to do in a situation like that is to turn around and face 7 o clock, run in that direction while jumping/dodging the rockets as they land. You can then place yourself next to or behind your healing target. By turning around and running in one direction, that pyro won't be able to catch up, nor will his flamethrower hit you. Your healing target can dispatch both the pyro and the soldier on his own.

Positioning

When is it best to crouch and hide behind your target? When is it best to jump around in random directions like a crazy rabbit? Is it best to jump onto higher ground and heal someone that's below you? Or  is it smarter to hide behind cover while healing someone above you or someone that's out in the open? Would it be smart to run ahead of your target or stay behind him? Where should you move while your uber is activated? These are all questions you should ask yourself when analyzing the positions of your teammates and yours as well.

If you can perceive your enviroment very well, and understand what threats are nearby and their proximity to you, you can then decide on the perfect positioning to heal others from. All of the positons I mentioned above can be excellent places to heal from at different times and in different situations. Learning how to move and thinking out of the box is crucial to a medic's survival. And of course, always remmeber that being close to a target is always dangerous when playing against good players. They won't hesitate to pull out their melee weapon and whack you over the head with them.

New Weapons

The additional items that the medic adds to his arsenal via achievement are pretty awesome. I'll talk about each of them and then talk about different weapon setups in this final portion of the guide.

The Blutsauger

The vamp gun is the first unlockable weapon the medic gets after getting 10 acheivements (10, 16 ,22.) It's basically the same as the Syringe Gun, except it cannot crit and it heals you for 3 hp's for every needle that lands on the target. Since both guns fire up to 10 needles a second for a full 4 seconds (40 needles), you can essentially heal yourself for 120 health in 4 seconds of needling enemies. Now of course, the only thing that could possibly survive that onslaught is an enemy heavy that's being overhealed to 450, but that's besides the point. Having the power to heal yourself for 120 in that amount of time is VERY NICE. That's 80% of your health alone, not counting the natural regeneration you have as a medic.

The fact of the matter is that the vamp gun is your first unlock, but quite possibly your best unlock. Having the ability to keep yourself alive longer while dealing damage simply beats out the normal Syringe Gun in every situation.  Some will argue that the medic has a naturally high crit rate that he can take advantage of by using the Syringe Gun. A medic's crit rate is also affected by the damage his healing targets are dealing. If your healing buddy is dealing great damage, your own crit rate will go up, allowing you to crit more often with the Syringe gun or your Bone Saw. Still, the vampire gun is the more practical choice. Both needle guns do the same damage and your job as a medic is to heal and not depend on your needle gun 24/7. The ability to steal life and keep yourself alive all of the time is better than the off chance of sparking a crit with your needle gun some of the time.

The Kritzkreig

Instead of making you and your teammates invunerable with an ubercharge, the Kritzkrieg gives your healing target 100% crits for a good 10 seconds. This ability sounds awesome on paper and it is pretty fun and awesome in-game as well.

In typical TF2 unlockable weapons' fashion, the new unlockable weapons are typically countered by their older counterparts while giving you additional abilities. Valve wants the needle gun to beat out the vamp gun with crits. Valve wants the uber gun to beat out a medic combo that isn't invincible. Valve also wants the Bone Saw to beat out the Uber Saw because it swings slightly faster. I can't say that the trade-offs are reasonable for the other two pairings, but I can safely say that the uber gun is more useful overall than the Kritzkrieg.

The Kritzkrieg shines in skirmish scenarios. Not necessarily defense situations or offensive situations, but mostly in the area between both. You're able to mop up a handful of enemies efficiently by dealing constant critical damage. The Kritskrieg also charges its uber slightly faster than the Ubergun does, so in a race it may beat the ubergun to the punch by critting another medic combo to death. Still, with all things considered, being invincible on a point that your defending is priceless. Having the ability  to turn invincible when sieging sentry guns and defenders on offense is also priceless. The Kritskireg has its moments, but at the same time, the Ubergun is consistently great in every situation.

Uber Saw

This weapon is grand. Everytime you hit an enemy with it, you get 25% ubercharge. That means after 4 hits, you can immediately bring out your healing gun and uber right off the bat. The Uber Saw has a slightly slower attack speed than the Bone Saw, but there's no reason not to have it. It deals the same damage and it's not like you are a class that deals damage at short range. Being able get ubercharge when hitting an enemy (every once in a while when you catch him off guard) is a great option to have.

Offensive Weapon Setup:

• Blutslauger
• Medigun
• Ubersaw

The Blutsauger is a shoein and so is the ubersaw. As for the healing gun, it's generally more useful to have the invincibility uber at your disposal when cracking a heavy defense. You also give your other offensive teammates the chance to deal damage while you get the enemy's attention and absorb some sentry gun damage.

Defensive Weapon Setup:

• Blutsauger
• Medigun
• Ubersaw

Surprised? Don't be. Having the ability to make yourself and another teammates invincible on a crucial capture point you're defending is a VERY POWERFUL ability to have. You can essentially block and prevent an entire enemy offensive from taking the point for a full 10 seconds. Quite frankly, there's very little they can do about that. The only thing they can do is shoot a lot of stickies by your feet and blow them up in unison in hopes of flinging you off the point, but doing that takes time and loaded ammo. Giving your team a 10 second long grace period to respawn and hustle back to the point is HUGE considering one medic  on his own can make it happen.

Still, I will say that the Kritskrieg still shines on defense, even though you can't do what I described above. Having the ability to do insane critical damage for 10 seconds can and will allow you to sucker punch the enemy offensive line and push them further back and away from your control point. Don't underestimate the power of a Kritzkrieg-powered pro player, but at the same time, don't underestimate the Medigun's potential either.

Combat Medic Setup:

• Blutsauger
• Kritskrieg
• Ubersaw

If you want a free flowing combat medic type of setup, then the Kritzkrieg shines and it shines very bright! By relying on your vamp gun to go 1 on 1 with any enemy, and by hacking guys with your ubersaw to create fast crit ubers, you can contribute to your team's damage considerably as a middle-of-the-road combat medic.

That concludes the advanced section. Now go out there and be the Ubermensch!{mos_fb_discuss:30}