Medic

TF2Wiki

It's midway through an arena round. Half of your team is gone, as well as theirs. Everybody is rushing back to spawn, with half of their health whittled away. At this point, Medics are crucial. They form the backbone of an offensive in a CP push map, keep the cart moving in payload, and stop people from dying in Arena. It isn't difficult to play medic, but it's one of the most important classes for every playtipe.

GENERAL STRATEGY

The way a Medic stays alive is through having a team around him. Even though you may be paired up with a Heavy, merely having one teammate around you will leave you exposed. It is often smart to abandon a rambo-style player for the rest of your team, even if that rambo is a "traditional" medic partner, i.e. a Heavy or Soldier. Doing so will keep the majority of your team fueled with health, and will keep you alive longer.

If you are hanging around with a Heavy or Soldier, try to keep them within your line of sight without being in the line of sight of the other team. This will also keep you alive. Communication is key. If neither of you have microphones, use the voice commands (brought up ingame by pressing c or x) to communicate. This is crucial when your Ubercharge meter fills, as only the combat half of the team knows when he needs it.

The Ubercharge is the ultimate goal for a medic. The ten seconds of invulnerability (or of critical hits with the Kritzkrieg) can swing the momentum of a round on its head, giving you an advantage. Therefore, tell your team if you're nearing one so they can protect you more. If you do get 100%, the loud "I am fully charged!" should let them know to get a class able to commence a good Ubercharge attack over.

Speaking of which, the Heavy is not good for Ubercharges. The large spray and the stop-and-go movement involved with that class makes most attacks fail. The best class for Ubercharges is the Pyro. He can constantly put out damage with the flamethrower, and can turn wildly to damage an entire team. He can also destroy buildings easily with the constant damage he puts out. His speed also makes most attacks effective, leaving a wake of fire wherever he goes during the 10 seconds.

UNLOCKS

Blutsauger (First unlock, replaces the Syringe Gun) - Largely considered to be the most upgrade-ish of the unlocks in the game. This roughly means that the downside (no crits) is unbalanced compared to the upside (+3 health for every hit). Therefore, if you have it, equip it. It will give you the health boost that you need to survive a firefight. If you land an entire clip on someone, that's +150 health, which is a huge boost in a round.

Kritzkrieg (Second unlock, replaces the Medigun) - An extremely balanced support gun. Acts similarly to the medigun (except your Uber recharges 25% faster), but, when the charge is released, the recieving player gets crits for 10 seconds instead of invulnerability. This is a situational weapon: it's extremely good for defense when a team seems to be rushing, as it will kill a ton of players very quickly. However, despite how it may seem, it's not very good against sentry nests. You can die while recieving the charge, and therefore you have little time to let the crit blasts go.

Ubersaw (Third unlock, replaces the Bonesaw) - Again, a powerful upgrade. Gives you 33% Ubercharge per hit, which can also turn the tide of a round by giving you an Ubercharge quickly. I'd upgrade to this, even if the downsides (slower fire rate) make you wary.