Keep in mind though, I'm a fairly aggressive medic and tend to only get one or two ubers per life.
So mentlegen...shall we?
First and foremost, do not discriminate in who you heal. If someone needs healed - heal them. It builds your uber faster than healing the same person and keeping them overhealed. If you're healing someone specific for some reason, you can still do that, but take the time to heal the pyro yelling for a medic. Unless you're healing a scout, you'll catch up to your friend. Unless they're unobservant, they'll turn around when they realize you've stopped healing them.
Stay a medium distance away from your healing target. Too close and you will fall victim to whatever crits come their way. Too far away and you risk breaking your healing stream when they turn a corner.
Turn your automatic healing for medigun on in your options.
Keep your healing target between you and incoming damage. This will save your life.
Know the habits of the class you’re healing and adjust accordingly. Soldiers sidestep a lot. Pyros like to just run and flame when you uber them. Snipers tend to freak out, pull out their pocket knife, start swinging randomly and then yell at you after you uber them.
Popping your uber and wasting it is preferable to dying. If you're lucky the person you're healing will kill the person attacking you.
Medics are prime targets for spies. This is hard, but get in the habit of turning around about once every 30 seconds and look for spies. If you see someone running towards you be sure to check them.
Also, when not under fire, move unpredictably, don't just sidestep. It's easy to backstab a sidestepping medic, but one who's running around in circles or spinning around is a lot harder.
The ubersaw is an amazing weapon. Two hit kills for spies most of the time. If you suspect a spy, pull out your saw and give him a good swipe. Most people don't expect a medic to attack, either.
Use your ubers tactically. Know when a demoman would be the best, or a pyro or soldier. Don't be afraid to ask who to take, too.
At the start of payload maps, it usually a contest to see who can hold their uber the longest. If you don't uber right away you might get sniped or hit by a crocket. If you uber right out of the gate, you might find yourself facing off against an enemy medic and their target who ubered after you did. Chose your poison.
Heavies are generally bad ubers when it comes to taking out a sentry nest. The engineer can keep up with the minigun's damage output. Pyros or demos are the ideal choice, but a soldier can do it if he kills the engie. It is entirely possible, however, for an engineer to repair a level 3 through 4 rockets due to the rate of fire of the rocket launcher. I am unsure about the direct hit.
Know when to pull back when your uber is fading unless you're doing a suicide run.
Healing someone else's healing target is just bad form. Not only is it annoying, it makes both ubers charge slower. Carts and dispensers also slow uber charging times.
There is a small window of time after you stop healing someone during an uber that they will remain ubered. This makes it entirely possible to uber two people at once, given that they are close enough together. Click on one then click on the other. Repeat.
Uber heavy + buff banner = win
It is a proven fact that medics with 100% uber charge attract stray crockets and other crits like a magnet. It has even been speculated by some scientists that 100% uber GIVES the opposite team more crits, or even spontaneously spawns crockets out of thin air. Use it or lose it. Only hold it if you're coordinating multiple ubers, which is always a good idea. Also, 100% uber medics are the most awesome backstab targets. Watch out.
Healing enemy spies, while amusing, is not appreciated by your team.
Someone else needs to contribute for Kritz, because I'm pretty bad at it.
EDIT
[quote="Cpt._Keyes";p="221544"]
Keyes' Kritz guide:
Get Kritz charge
Find Nick
????
Profit
[/quote]
Sorry Keys, while your comment was entertaining, I am strongly against selective healing, and brings up a good point. While what I initially meant was for ignoring classes, but only healing/ubering one person is also frustrating for the rest of the team. If there's two other medics and plenty of healing to go around, that's one thing, but when we lose because the medic insists on using their charge on the same person, or I die because a medic only heals one person is infuriating. I will note that I've never seen any villains do this, and I'm not accusing you of doing it, but I did want to throw that out there.
Useful contributions
Corgasm adds comments about the blautsauger/syringe gun
[quote="Corgasm";p="221695"]
As an avid medic player I agree with all of the things you've stated in this thread.
But I was surprised to see little to no strategies for the blautsauger/syringe gun as I find these to be VERY important in the role of being a defensive (and sometimes offensive) medic, I dare to say that they are indeed more useful than the ubersaw - in most circumstances atleast.
Tips for the blautsauger/syringe gun:
1. ALWAYS aim where the enemy is going to be. I know this seems obvious, but some medics let their aim wander, and your needles end up in the dust, instead of in the enemy. (This becomes more obvious when an enemy strafes, and instead of aiming ahead of the strafer, the medic tends to aim at them).
2. Another simple one: Keep moving, not only in the sense of shooting and dodging, but in falling back, or pushing forward. You should be trying to find a place of refuge and another person to heal. ~ Unless you are certain that pushing forward lone wolf style will be in the interest of the team that is.
3. Aim a bit higher than what feels natural, as a lot of your needles tend to fall short (even more so when you're moving backwards), this also gives you the opportunity while on the attack to hit a retreating enemy (such as a pyro, who has realised that their weapons cannot reach you).
4.If you're in desperate need of health (and are on the offensive with a buddy), don't be afraid to peek out from around the corner and quickly ark some needles, take cover, heal your friend and repeat. This can give you some much needed health, especially if you need to cap but don't have an uber yet.
5. The Needle gun against spies is a much more useful weapon than the ubersaw, because if you're accurate with it you can kill the spy almost as quickly as with the ubersaw, but with the added bonus of more health. ~ This is more useful when you are on the offensive, as the ubersaw will most likely end with you taking damage (unless you're an expert at melee-ing).
6. USE COVER! Duck behind things! If you're stuck too far back to heal your teamates, and a pesky sniper is nipping at your heels, crouch down behind some conveniently placed cover and ark your needles over the top. This will send the enemy running for cover; as deadly needles rain from the sky, and they don't know where from. Use this confusion to reach your team and aid in it's victory.
[/quote]
Soltan adds his opinion of the benefits of the syringe gun, which I, personally, agree with and the most important thing to keep in mind when playing the medic.
[quote="Soltan";p="221731"]
I guess I'm in the minority when it comes to the medic's weapons. After spending about the first 400 hours in the class focused on using needles (mostly blutsauger but have since switched back to syringe gun) I changed my focus to the ubersaw and never looked back (about 1200 hrs focusing on ubersaw as primary non-healing option). It's certainly not for everyone (definitely not beginners as you'll get killed too often) but is far more useful than most people give it credit for.
A note on needles: the faster regeneration rate of the syringe gun eclipses the blutsauger's +3 hp/hit in regular combat as you are generally healing someone and not shooting needles at the guy trying to kill you. While I'll likely never win a medic needle duel w/ needles (a rare occurrence anyway, plus the ubersaw is still handy in those situations), I've been saved from burning to death countless times by the SG's faster regen rate.
The medic, as with most other classes, is suited for a variety of play styles and his weapons are well suited for them (I tend to play a more ninja style that is well-suited to the ubersaw).
The key for medic enjoyment is to forget about KPD and focus on helping the team win.
[/quote]
Guardian elaborates on when to use an uber
[quote="Guardian";p="221563"]
-A good point I want to elaborate on is popping at the last second on the beginning of payload map, this pretty much can apply to any time both medics on each team each have an uber, it just more noticeable at the beginning of a payload map. So ideally you want to hold an uber to the last second. However you always want to pop it before you get instantly killed (from headshots, crockets, etc) so basically pop the uber before you get into trouble.
-Also don't be afraid to pop an uber when you’re about to die from like... a suicide rushing scout. Also don't blame yourself for ubering when you’re about to die, that's really good. If anyone is to blame it's your teammates for not protecting you from the scout.
[/quote]
Greyed steps up to fill in my knowledge gaps and gives his tips on when to go Kritz and when to go Uber
[quote="Greyed";p="221638"]
For krtiz vs. uber I always go uber on offense, kritz on defense unless there are 2 other medics in which case I flip.
This is because on Defense one doesn't need the uber to push forward. The kritz builds faster and with a demo, heavy or soldier to project death it clears the opposing team well enough to re-establish our defenses. My only problem lately has been having demo, soldiers and heavies that were too shy in pushing to a good uber position.
Conversely on offense ubers are needed to push through multi-gun choke points effectively.
As for flipping if there are 2 other medics it is simply to provide more tools for the team. However it is rare to get 2 medics in 12v12, let alone 3.
Because of this about 2/3rds of the time I'm running Uber and 1/3rd Kritz. This is because CP/CTF maps are Offense no matter which side you're on.
[/quote]
Noah also fills in for my lack of knowledge on Kritz and offers some good Kritz advice that I didn't know about along with his own opinions
[quote="NoahTheBoa";p="221546"]
I don't like the auto medigun option, I prefer to hold down the mouse button.
The Ubersaw is great for spies, but I prefer the Blutsauger for everyday use. I only use the ubersaw when I'm already in melee range.
Also, the syringe gun gives you +3 hp per second. So if you are primarily using the ubersaw, equip the syringe gun.
As far as kritz goes, it's very situational.
I mostly use it if we have a lot of soldiers on our team and another medic with uber and if I'm on defense or there are lots of chokepoints.
Kritz medics need to hang back farther than they would with a normal uber since they don't have invulnerability. No when to leave your kritz target and save yourself.
Heal from around corners whenever possible so you stay out of the line of fire.
Bob and weave to avoid snipers and incessantly check for spies.
Don't die. The less you die the more useful you are to the team.
[/quote]
Bronze fox brings up a good point about being healed.
[quote="Bronze Fox";p="221680"]
[quote="Plinko";p="221674"]People don't call medic nearly often enough. One of the most frustrating thing for me is to spawn alone and have to run around looking for people to heal/protect me.
Scouts that call for medic while running around jumping are incredibly annoying HOLD STILL SO I CAN TARGET YOU WITH THE MEDI-GUN![/quote]
There is an option to make a little health symbol appear above players who need a medic.
Options -> Multiplayer -> Advanced -> MEDIC: Injured teammates automatically call out
I've also learned to stay still for the Medics to heal me, and once a Medic thanked me for not moving.
[/quote]
On that same note, there are few things as frustrating to a medic than ubering a soldier to have them pull out their equalizer after exhausting their rocket launcher. Soldiers, take note; DO NOT DO THIS. Medics, try to remind your soldier not to do this.
