Step Away From the Dispenser!

[Snidely Whiplash]

I wanted to post this because I will bring it up in play every once in a while and even veteran players will not have known:

If you are being healed by a medic, standing next to a dispenser will make your medic's uber charge much more slowly. This is crucial because as a medic I am trying to build my charges as fast as possible, and a severely injured player will drastically increase the rate at which the medigun charges uber. So if I'm healing a player and he continues to move towards or stand near a dispenser I will switch to a different ally as soon as possible to maximize my medigun's charge rate.

[The Domer]

More specifically, any time a healing target is being healed (whether by a dispenser, another medic, or the payload cart) your healing rate drops to 24 HP per second, which is the lowest possible heal rate and uber build rate. On the flip side, max heal rate is 72 hp per second, for targets who have been out of combat for 15 or more seconds (known as "crit heals").

[M's]

More specifically, any time a healing target is being healed (whether by a dispenser, another medic, or the payload cart) your healing rate drops to 24 HP per second, which is the lowest possible heal rate and uber build rate. On the flip side, max heal rate is 72 hp per second, for targets who have been out of combat for 15 or more seconds (known as "crit heals").

So by this a medic should build their charge on the engie when they fall back. So long as said engie is not camping his/her dispencer.

[Fingolfin]

Does it matter if the target is next to a dispenser if a medic is just overhealing? Thinking of Mlite's engie or a pybro just spychecking by the dispenser. It doesn't seem like it should, as dispensers don't overheal, but I have no idea.

[Plinko]

So by this a medic should build their charge on the engie when they fall back. So long as said engie is not camping his/her dispencer.

Probably not, unless the engie has taken damage a while back and since not healed.

The healing ramp is kinda complicated, most players don't even know its there.

The one important thing about dispensers and medics is that a player heading back from the lines is occasionally going to need ammo as well and will want to drive by the dispenser to pick that up. Your smarter players are going wait to get healed first unless they're fresh out, in which case being prepared to defend is going to take priority, but they should come off after two seconds or so.

The other important thing is that 98% of the medics folks encounter aren't considering their healing ramp and blindly attach themselves to a single player without bothering to heal anyone else unless that player is dead. So, finding the dispenser for heals is the right thing the majority of the time for most players. Changing that behavior is very tough for those rare times they have someone around who does know what they're doing.

A third point, and one that should be univerally applicable is that if you're lit and getting healed, do not go out and take damage until the medic finishes healing you! The moment you take damage, the ramp resets and the heal rate slows down again.

[M's]

This is some good to know stuff. As I was unaware of all of the healing ramp/dispenser stuff.

[OmgOhnoes]

It seems as though there are a lot of medics unaware of this as well. Even during setup it will slow your charge rate, ie everyone sitting on little choo choo and medic healing them will cause them to not have the uber by start.

[The Spanish Inquisition]

It seems as though there are a lot of medics unaware of this as well. Even during setup it will slow your charge rate, ie everyone sitting on little choo choo and medic healing them will cause them to not have the uber by start.

Yes, what was that PLR map on tv7 that got removed? The setup time was close like that.

It would be nice to see a chart of heal rates for all the things that can heal in this game.

[The Domer]

Does it matter if the target is next to a dispenser if a medic is just overhealing? Thinking of Mlite's engie or a pybro just spychecking by the dispenser. It doesn't seem like it should, as dispensers don't overheal, but I have no idea.

There's a second variable at play. In addition to the time since you've taken damage, the amount of health remaining also affects healing rate. Players with less health heal faster and charge uber faster (since uber charge is directly related to the amount of points healed).

It would be nice to see a chart of heal rates for all the things that can heal in this game.

.
Here's an official TF2 blog post explaining the healing ramp. No pretty graph, but clear enough I think.

[YoullNeverWalkAlone]

Al I know is that if I heal Spanish, it goes slow. I don't know about the ramp or anything, I just think my medi-gun is allergic to him.


I didn't know that taking damage reset the rate. Does that also apply if I leave a target and heal someone else? There are times when I've healed one target most of the way and switch off to someone else who is in bad shape, then go back to the initial target who is taking damage. Should I stay with the person being hit?

[OmgOhnoes]

If your goal is to maximize the health of your team then yes, they would both have the same heal rate at that point unless 10 seconds had elapsed on the initial target.

However, on a pub, if your pocket is in need of a top up and is doing a good job protecting you i would always heal that target to overheal before i topped up any other team members who were doing their own thing regardless of heal rate.

[majine3765]

thanks for info Snidely.
I had encountered it many times it is always good for a reminder.

[Fingolfin]

Does it matter if the target is next to a dispenser if a medic is just overhealing? Thinking of Mlite's engie or a pybro just spychecking by the dispenser. It doesn't seem like it should, as dispensers don't overheal, but I have no idea.

There's a second variable at play. In addition to the time since you've taken damage, the amount of health remaining also affects healing rate. Players with less health heal faster and charge uber faster (since uber charge is directly related to the amount of points healed).

It would be nice to see a chart of heal rates for all the things that can heal in this game.

.
Here's an official TF2 blog post explaining the healing ramp. No pretty graph, but clear enough I think.

I knew about the less health/quicker uber, but that post post was all news to me (aside from the stuff in this thread). Thanks, pal.

[The Spanish Inquisition]

(since uber charge is directly related to the amount of points healed).

No. Uber charging rate and heal rate are separate it seems. The uber charge rate drops from 2.5%/sec to 1.25%/sec IFF the target reaches 142% of max overheal OR they are being healed by other means (other medic/dispenser.) So the worst way to build uber is to continually heal someone who is overhealed to the max and pushing the cart or being healed by another medic (.625%/sec)

So I ran a quick spreadsheet earlier for healing a 25hp Heavy up to 450hp overheal. Without waiting 15seconds it takes about 17+ seconds to heal to 450hp, with waiting it takes 3.8 seconds. So you are still waiting 1.8 seconds longer if you decide to heal only after the target has waited 15 seconds. Either way, it doesn't affect the rate at which you charge uber until you are in the 142%-150% overheal range. The optimal time to heal is exactly 10 seconds after their last damage because the heal rate is continually ramping up at 60frames a second (server simulation speed.)

BOTTOMLINES:
Waiting ten seconds to heal people is only good if you have a ton of people to heal at the same time. And then it is best to not overheal them fully so that you cross over the 142% range.

Pomson hits buy you 4-8 seconds of time for the medic to recover uber.

Ubersaw is still the fastest way to charge ubers. Let your medic have a go at stragglers with his ubersaw instead of killing them yourself.

[The Domer]

Ubersaw is still the fastest way to charge ubers. Let your medic have a go at stragglers with his ubersaw instead of killing them yourself.

That's a recipe for dead medics.