How to play TFC. Part 5 - The medic

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Feel free to disagree with the tips herein - you have been wrong before, and it is your right to be so again if you so choose.

This tip is rewritten, not because much has changed post 1.5, but because the origional one was too short :)

The medic. What can be said about this little bundle of fun.
Starting with a basic rundown -
Middling health, low armour, though more than a scout. Moves fastest of anything barring the scout.
Oh, middling health - but you regenerate it over time...
Weaponry? You've got a supershotgun, a *super* nailgun, normal grenades, conc grenades, and a medkit.

Ok, the supernailgun. In case you played the medic a lot, pre 1.5, let me just say this.
It fires like you are on a ping of 100, and isn't hitscan.
Ok? For SLPB - it is NOT as good a weapon as it used to be, for HPW it is better.

Right. It fires at the same rate as a scouts nailgun, but uses 2 ammo per shot, and does more damage per nail.
This doesn't make much sense, it ought to just fire nails twice as rapidly - but that would be lots of flying things, and lots more lag.
So, you can't hose down targets with it - you'll run out of ammo.

The supershotgun is hitscan, if the enemy is nearby, and in your sights, blow them away.

Right, concjumping. Despite much whining (and possibly BECAUSE there was much whining) concjumping in 1.5 is still possible.
Drop the conc, and you can do 90% of all the conc jumps you want to.
Medics recover from concs quicker than anyone else because of their regeneration ability.
However, it's damn hard to hit somone with nails while conced, so consider running in and using your concs on the enemy.

Medic has some hard choices to make while on attack - you've got the weaponry to have a good chance of taking out defenders -
but they also have a good chance of taking you out. Worse, you don't quite have the speed to just dodge away without them getting
a good few shots at you. Your best chance is to try and fool them, make them think you're making a break for it when you are actually fighting
and make hem think you want to stand and fight when ou're actually making a break for it.
And *do* use your grenades. Especially the concs. Though be careful to not conc your teammates.

The medkit. This is the thing that makes a medic a medic.
Special key switches to medkit. USE THIS. You don't want to have the kedkit out EXCEPT when you're actually using it.
The way it works. One whack with the medkit to a friend will heal them right back to full. Whacks beyond that will slowly push them up to 150% of normal.
One whack on an nme does damage, and infects them. (They will then infect anyone nearby)
Further whacks just does damage. You can't infect a medic.

Now - with client side hit prediction - no longer is it possible to be sure from the grunting sounds that you have infected someone.
WAIT until you hear the second grunt if you need to be sure. Or turn off clientside hit prediction (cl_lw 0)

Medics on defence. NOT usually a good idea. *usually* some other class will provide more support by killing the enemy before they harm your defence.
But, a medic can cure halluciantions, fires, tranq, infections, AND boost the health back up.
They are also fast enouh to effectiovely pursue other medics and scouts (and can keep up with their concjumps)
This is of most use where theres a LOT of ground to cover, for example rock2...

However, if you are on attack, DON'T be afraid to whack a defender with your medkit as you pass them, you might as well, and it might infect a spy :)

*DO* refrain from midfielding. Or be SURE it's what you want to do. You'll proabbly weaken yourself, certainly delay your attack, probably not kill anything your defence couldn't have dealt with, and possibly actively get in the defences way.
Which reminds me, don't heal someone mid firefight, you'll get in their way, and mess up their dodge, and probably get both of you killed.

So, medics on ofence, where most would say you belong.
Three main roles for you here.
First, prior support.
Heal up your other attackers before you go in. They may have been wounded corossing no mans land, or the boost of health may tip the balance in their favour.
A bunch of 150% health medics is a lot harder to defend against than a bunch of 90% ones.

Secondly, flag carrier.
Well, you're fast, you don't die from a toothpick to the toe, you can get past a single defender handily, and you can concjump. Get the flag, get it out, cap it, don't let anything slow you down.
Advancing the flag is often preferable to surviving.

Thirdly, support / full attack.
Infect the front line defenders. They *will* die of it, unless they have a defensive medic. Kill them, kock them about, do whatever you can to stop them stopping your other attackers.
Kill sentry guns (super nailgun is good, if there is no engineer about) Kill engineers, INFECT the rear line defence - no passing offence medic will help these people - so they WILL die
One shot kill? Niiiicee... though you don't have much control over WHEN they suicide.
Enough of you keep this kind of confusion up, and one of you will get the chance to become the flag carrier.
Target priority:
Defensive engineer.
Other defender.
Engineers dispenser.
Engineers sentry gun.

Take them out in that order, aand it will take them the maximum time to rebuild - which gives YOU time to get that flag out of there.

Switch weapons frquently - none of your weapons is best in all situations - but between the SNG and SSG you ought to get most things out of your hair.
Remember many of the scout tips apply here - though you're not QUITE so fast, you only need a small window to slip past, and you DON'T need or even want to kill everything.

And USE YOUR GRENADES. Lots and lots. The enemy will - and the defenders have less than you - because you respawn more often.

Medic vs scout.
Supershotgun. Grenades. Usually ignore though, but might as well SSG them.
Not REALLY worth infecting, unless they mess around a lot, a scout can lap the level several times before dying of an infection.

Medic vs sniper
Nails at range, it only takes a few, and charged up they can't dodge so hot.
Close up, SSG and grenades. Concing them messes hteir aim for awhile.
Just dodging past tends to work better. Infections is funny, their teammates often can't help passing nearby.

Medic vs soldier
Try to dodge their rockets, try to conc them, try to infect them when you've done that.
Alternately grenade them, and SSG them, having waited for them to be out of rockets.
Doge in to force thm to fire a rocket, then dodge away.
When they are out, infect them, or run away. if they won't run out, keep a blastin.

Medic vs demon
Dodge their pipes, don't get mirv'd (though if you time it right you can dodge through the mirv blasts, time it wrong and you are sushi)
You aren't really fast enough to fake out their pipefield - but you can probably help this by concing them.
If they are far from their pipes you really need to call in fire support. (I'm thinking rock2 yard here)
If there are multiple attackers, one of you should just charge in to force him to det them.
Killing the demon works fine too - he's pretty hard to kill, though he has a fairly hard time killing YOU - but he can tie you up to let other defneders do it.
And, if he's behind his pipes, at a choke (say 2fort spiral) you're in real trouble.

Medic vs medic
Both fire 4 nails, dodge LEFT and run past each other.
If he INSISTS on fighting you, use a grenade and SSG blast to mke sure he thinks again.

Medic vs HWG
Do NOT begin the fight at range.
Use cover, sneak up behind him, and infect him. He will die.
You do NOT have the weaponry to kill him any other way - though SSG and grenades work if he's wounded.
And dancing around him nailing him (or nails from an unexpected direction) can kill a wounded or unskilled HWG.
concs work reasonably well, though using them to skip past works better.
(Skipping face to face with a HWG is bad though)

Medic vs Pyro
His flamethrower has a longer range than your medkit. So it's probably not worth trying.
SSG because nailing him through the firescreen is hard, and grenades are good too.
Probably best just to accept a small amount of damage and run on.

Medic vs Spy.
They really don't like being 'healed' by you. RECOGNISE the spy, SSG blasts kill them nicely.
Grenades are probably wasteful.

Medic vs Engineer.
You *did* throw your spare ammo, right? Then EMP shouldn't hurt you too much.
He has the same armour as you, the same health as you, practically the same speed, the same SSG (at range you have the advantage, sine nails move faster than pooty green bolts)
He has the advantage of a sentry gun though.
There's no 'great way to kill an engineer'
Wounding his sentry gun will often force him to move back to protect it, you can use that.
and detonating his dispenser for him hurts him...
Use a grenade, don't let him kamikaze you, don't pick up his backpack, and bounce grenades / SNG from afar to kill his sentrygun
If he *is* going to kil you (in many situations you can tell) then you can give up on subtlety, round the coner, unload nails or a SSG into the SG, and drop grenades.
It will die, though you will too.

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