The Combat Medic fills a very different role from most Medics. This playstyle bridges the gap between the passive Team Player Medic and the hyper-aggressive Battle Medic. These Medics have the patience to stay with the team for a time to heal and build Ubercharge, knowing that keeping the team alive and having Uber is the primary role of any Medic, but also has the skills to separate from the team and engage the enemy effectively.

The Combat Medic requires a very special mindset, supporting as a normal Medic, maneuvering like a Flanking Scout, targeting like a Spy, and fighting like a Sniper. Basically, there is a lot of skill in properly handling a Medic, but done right, the Medic loses the frailness that he usually has, becoming a very formidable opponent.

The Medic is a supporting class that, similarly to the Scout, is a glass cannon, with low health, but high kill potential. This potential is much more subtle than other classes, and is generally pronounced by the game-changing effects of Ubercharge, and the ability to farm assists from pockets. He’s the second fastest in the game, but only barely faster than other classes, so keep that in mind. Keep fancy footwork to make it harder to aim at you. Also, the Medic has a natural regeneration, so use this to your advantage. If you need to back away from a fight to regenerate, don’t be afraid to do so.

Generally, the Medic's role is simple: keep the team alive. The Medic isn't built to hold the frontline, so he tends to rely more heavily on his teammates. Most Medics will keep their Medigun active for most of the game, which is expected of most Medics. As a supporting and healing class, the Medic must ensure that he can keep the health of the team higher than the enemy. This expectation is what most Medics stick to, producing what I call the 'Team Player' Medic, who is more focused on keeping the team alive and building Uber than actively participating in combat. For most Combat Medics, it is good to have a basis in playing as the ‘Team Player’, as this playstyle focuses on coordination and survival.

As a healer, it is important to keep the health of your team as high as possible, but there is a priority of who gets heals first. At the most basic level, it follows that the injured get healed, then the healed get buffed. Then, there is the class priority- first going with the obvious offensive classes: Soldier, Demoman, and Heavy. Then, there is the Pyro, followed by Snipers and, lastly, Scouts. Engineers and Spies can usually be ignored except in desperate moments, as Spies should easily escape to a health kit, and Engineers should have dispensers. Medics have regeneration, so healing them is situational, but it is recommended to heal them, as their Uber is valuable. Another thing to take note of, is that you heal faster the longer the patient has gone from being damaged. So, if you let the retreating classes spamming their ‘E’ key wait a moment while they retreat back and you heal your pocket, when you get to them, you can heal them much, much faster.

Overheal is important for the team, as having that extra bit of health can provide a serious advantage to your team. A fully overhealed Sniper can take a headshot and return fire, for example. So, when playing Medic, always be sure that your nearby teammates have Overheal. In most situations, the Overhealing priority is the opposite of the healing priority, as an Overheal means the lesser health classes won’t be trying to pull your attention from the frontline classes as quickly.

Uber of any kind is a game-changer, and good Medics now to build Uber, build it quickly, and use it right. While keeping the team alive is one of your top priorities, don’t feel bad to retreat and abandon your patients if you feel that you’re going to die- staying alive with any percentage of Uber is more helpful than making a last stand. Each Uber has its own effect and the strategy of each will be discussed in a later chapter.

Pocketing is a popular Medic strategy that essentially revolves around a Medic focusing attention on a single class. While these ‘combos’ can be powerful, this distracts the Medic from the rest of the team, and slows Uber rates as the patient will not likely be under Overheal for quite some time. The benefit is, however, that a single class is given tremendous support from a Medic, and able to take insane amounts of punishment, allowing that class to push in ways most could not. Good combos can handle entire teams. While any class can be pocketed, the strategy is most effective with a Soldier, Demoman, or Heavy. A Pyro, Sniper or fellow Medic can also work fairly well. Scouts and Spies are not recommended, but are not infeasible- just, very, very difficult and impractical for both classes. Engineers may need a temporary pocket to escort them to the battlefield to place a needed Sentry or Teleporter, but that is generally unnecessary.

Finally, combat. Medics don’t have many options when it comes to combat, and they seem frail because of that. However, Medics have been gifted with Gaben’s gift of Random Crits. The chances of getting crits actually increases as you heal your team, so a solid ‘Team Player’ has a reasonable defense in the case of attack. Medics tend to avoid direct combat, and should never look take on more than a single opponent- while it is possible to win, it is unlikely. In most cases, Medics will be targeted by Spies, Scouts, and Pyros. Generally, you can rely on your patient to defend you, but sometimes they will hang you out to dry, or simply cannot handle the onslaught. So, when it comes down to making your saw and syringes do the dirty work, it’s best to use your syringe gun of choice to distance the opponent and hopefully cut them down at range, but expect to close in and use your melee. But, remember, your goal is to survive with Uber, not to raise your KDR. Kill if you can, but if not, just try to discourage them while getting out of the area. And, a warning to all Medics- never, NEVER turn your back and run. Backpedal, and face the enemy and attack. While this is sage advice for all classes, Medics in particular suffer a gruesome fate by ignoring this simple rule.

The Medigun. For any playstyle of Medic, healing will be a primary task, and therefore this weapon is something of a primary consideration. But, for the most part, the only distinction between these weapons is their Uber effect. There are four options, disregarding Stock Medigun reskins:

- Stock Medigun
-Kritzkrieg
-Quick-Fix
-Vaccinator

The Stock Medigun is the most versatile of the four, providing the standard healing, and 150% Overheal, as well as the godly power of the regular Uber. While this gun has the slowest Uber rate, it’s application is universal. Turning completely invincible for eight seconds is a game changer, and is the best for dealing with Sentry Nests, as well as any player dumb enough to stick around when that godly glowing duo arrives. However, use it wisely, and make sure your patient has enough health to survive once your eight seconds of God-Mode fades.

The Kritzkrieg is the Anti-Stock Medigun, with a much faster, 25% increase Uber rate that allows you to to rain 100% crits down on the enemy in a shower of ‘GTFO’ as its Ubercharge. It’s the ‘Go Back To Spawn’ gun. However, the crits are only good if the combo can live long enough to use them. So, while it makes your guns into gods, your flesh is still paper. So, the Kritzkrieg is much more situational, and is definitely not the counter to Sentries, being more suited to taking on clusters of opponents, such as the BLU team pushing the cart in Payload. Healing-wise, it’s identical to the Stock.

The Quick-Fix is exactly what its name implies- a fast healer. It heals 40% faster, and gains Uber 10% faster, as well as makes you mirror rocket jumps and shield charges to keep up with your patient. It’s Ubercharge makes your healing three times stronger, and reflect that healing back on yourself as well, and tops it off by negating all knockback and airblasts. This is great for negating a lot of damage or getting a patient back into the fight. Essentially, the Quick-Fix’s Uber is life saver, not a dominator like the Stock or Kritzkrieg. While this is all fine and dandy, it’s still not invincibility, so don’t try taking on Sentry Nests with it, or think you can take on a Stock of Kritzkrieg Uber. It’s biggest downside, however, is the Overheal is halved, reducing the buffer you can put on teammates, meaning you’ll need to heal more people a lot sooner- but, this is almost negated by the healing speed of the Quick-Fix, if you’re willing to overlook that you’ll never be able to have a good pocket. The Quick-Fix is the ultimate ‘Team Player’ Medigun, as it discourages pocketing in favor of zipping around the battlefield trying to heal people before they can smash that ‘E’ key.

And, finally, the Vaccinator. This gun gets a bad rap, mostly because of the high learning curve it requires to be effective. This weapon is entirely defensive, meant to provide elemental resistances to either bullets, bombs, or burns. It builds Uber 67% faster on wounded patients, but 33% slower on Overhealed ones, as well as Overhealing 66% slower. On the plus side, the Uber is split into four, 2.5 second resitance bubbles that provide resistace bubbles that quarter damage and NEGATE CRITS. Essentialy, on Ubercharge, a fully charged headshot from a Sniper, would never crit, and do a pathetic job at scratching your coat. Like the Quick-Fix, the Vaccinator is not a good pocket weapon, meant to spread heals around, but also provides the same healing and Overheal as the Stock and Kritzkrieg, abeit slower. The resistances are somewhat situational, as most teams provide every form of damage, and the is no melee resistance for the Vaccinator, but it can be properly handled for one-on-one encounters, and makes a great getaway weapon when you find yourself cornered. Many Battle Medics use this as it gives them a good quick-assist for teammates while giving them defensive options in their bloodthirsty quests to saw through some bones.

The Syringe Guns are the staple of the Medic, and is often used as a source of ridicule for Medics. After all, it doesn’t seem all that impressive… at least, not to the untrained eye. There are three different syringe guns, and each of them have a different style to them.

-Stock Syringe Gun
-Blutsauger
-Overdose
-Crusader’s Crossbow

The Syringe Gun is essentially the SMG firing tiny Huntsman arrows- basically, it sprays a bunch of hard-to-aim projectiles. These syringes have an arc, less pronounced than the Huntsman’s, but still affected by gravity. In addition, they are affected quite visibly by bullet spread. While the spread is not as bad as the Heavy’s Minigun, or even the Sniper’s SMG, it’s just another obstacle to aiming the thing. Like most weapons, it has damage falloff at range, but holds with a base damage of 10, and a crit of 30. The fire rate is quick, making it deadly at mid to close range, where it is much easier to aim and mow down enemies with rapid shots of whatever the Medic puts in those needles. Probably heroin, or something.

The Blutsauger is almost identical to the Syringe Gun, except for how it effects regeneration. Your passive regeneration is lowered by 2 hp/sec, but each hit with the Blutsauger gives you 3 hp. If your accurate, you can almost nullify damage, allowing for much more aggressive maneuvering and combat, but the lowered regeneration can be detrimental if you’re trying to make a getaway. If you take damage, you can use this to recover, and the regen makes you much harder to kill against smaller classes like Scout, Pyro, and Spy. Still, high DPS classes and burst damage classes should be avoided. Essentially, don't think you can kill a Soldier, Demo, or Heavy with this unless there is some serious advantage you have.

The Overdose is the red-headed stepchild of Medic primaries. Essentially, it's biggest fault is that the benefit it provides isn't passive. That effect, of course, is the speed boost as Ubercharge builds- 2% speed for every 10% Uber. In addition, it holds a 15% damage penalty, which, when you do the math, isn't much, reducing each needles damage by 1. This adds up, though, and makes the Overdose take more shots to kill than other primaries, which increases the probability of missing, leaves you vulnerable longer, and chews through ammo. Still, despite the shame most see it to be, it can be useful, though situational. It can act as a sort of Escape Plan for the Medic. The speed boost with Uber makes a backpedal escape much easier once your pocket is down, and paired with the Vita-Saw, can be extremely useful in returning to the frontlines from respawn. Essentially, the Overdose makes itself much more useful as a tool than a weapon.

All of the above syringe guns fire projectiles that move similarly. For beginners, these weapons may seem unwieldy and difficult to master, but here are some simple tips to increase your accuracy, and therefore, your deadliness. The syringe guns fire arcing projectiles with a slight spread. These needles are most accurate at mid to close range. Aiming at mid-range to moderately close range requires keeping a lead on the opponent's movements. At point blank, aiming is quite effortless, so aim for central body mass. If their moving towards you, aim slightly above them and keep the stream trained on their movements. If they are moving to the side of you, keep your stream firing just ahead of them, so that they are forced to run into your needles. The best case scenario is a straight moving opponent, so try to lead them into a corridor or other tight area. If you're in the open, thy will likely strafe to dodge. The simply counter is to strafe in the opposite direction, where your conflicting paths will have convergence points that will guarantee hits. At close range, it is best to circle-strafe opponents. In most situations, it is suggested to try to backpedal towards your team. The syringe guns can get kills, but what the Medic can do, your mates can do faster and better.

And, finally, the Crusader’s Crossbow. These puppy is perfect for people who can handle the Hunstman, or simply just want to stay as far from the enemy as possible. This single-shot, giant syringe has reverse damage falloff, doing more damage the farther it goes, for a total of 127 damage, or a one-hit KO for a Scout, and on a crit, will wipe the floor with almost anyone. In addition, this baby can heal teammates on a hit, the healing following the same pattern as the damage, and allows for a good sniping Medic to keep tabs on mates out of the reach of his Medigun. It’s downfall is in the single-shot. You have one, slow, arcing shot to rely on, and a long reload to boot. In addition, if you get ambushed, the Crossbow does little at close range, meaning you have to pray for a steady aim with your saw and a godsend-crit. It can still be used to take about a 40 HP chunk out of the opponent, but it would be much wiser to bonesaw your way out. Using the Crossbow takes a lot of practice for proper aim. It arcs just less than the Huntsman, so Sniper players can likely get a better hang on the Crossbow. The best advice is simply to practice.

We all know that Gaben has a soft spot for Medics, and that soft spot is the enemy flesh against the edge of a bonesaw. Medic melee weapons crit like Jesus, giving the Medic some real combat viability. There’s quite a few melees to consider, and each have their own crit-ridden style.

-Bonesaw
-Ubersaw
-Amputator
-Vita-Saw
-Solemn Vow

The Bonesaw is the basic saw. There’s not much to it- it’s fairly close range, it’s fast, and it will give you crits faster than Taco Bell causes bad diahrrea. Nothing fancy, but it’s a go-to weapon that will get the job done.

The Ubersaw is what some would call a direct Bonesaw upgrade. That’s because of the 25% Uber it bestows upon you when you hit with it. However, this Uber-farming power comes with a price- the saw swings 20% slower. This means that it requires more deliberation to use, and accuracy is a must. The Ubersaw also comes with the Spinal Tap taunt-kill, which, if done correctly, bestows full Uber. This weapon is a go-to choice for Uberchaining, as two Ubersaw Medics can run an infinite cycle of Uber, or a single Medic can prolong Uber by switching back and forth from the Medigun to the saw, causing a self-Uberchain.

The Amputator is another ‘direct Bonesaw upgrade’. It provides 3 hp regeneration boost, making the Medic much more survivable, but at the cost of being 20% less damaging with the Amputator. This saw is generally used as passive item to buff the Medic, and doesn’t see much direct use as the damage penalty is rather hefty. This tool also comes with a useful taunt, the Medicating Melody, which heals a bunch of nearby teammates for a few seconds at the same rate as the Stock Medigun. Still, being a taunt, it’s more of a liability than a practical strategy.

The Vita-Saw is powerful tool to any game. It cuts 10 hp from the Medic, making the frail guy even more of a vulnerable soul, but allows the Medic to keep up to 20% of his Uber upon death, granting you the ability to come back fully charged quicker than the other Medic who starts with nothing each time. It’s a playing field leveler, because it will likely force the other Medic to use it, too, if he's aware, to keep up with your Ubercharge factory. This plays directly opposite to the Ubersaw, which rewards taking strategic risk. The Vita-Saw allows reckless abandon, instilling a fearlessness in the Medic- after all, your most valuable contribution is always protected, meaning a Medic can have no fear. This goes well with almost any Medigun, but especially well with the Quick-Fix or Kritzkrieg, as these combinations will dump out Ubercharges faster than Uber Medic, allowing an effective to team to prevent the enemy from ever recieving an Uber.

And, finally, the coward-maker itself, the Solemn Vow. This statue does 10% less damage, but allows you to see enemy health. And, while tactically, it’d seem like a good thing, to know who you can take on, it’s also a bit of crutch. It forces Medics to hesitate to think ‘Can I take him?’, where other Medics would go balls to the wall, saws ready to grind some bone. The Solemn Vow can be informative, and you can use it to help and direct the team, but the Medic himself is debilitated by forced assessment of ‘risk vs reward’. This is more of a supporting tool for a secondary Medic in my opinion, and the ability to see health and report on the enemy is best kept to the Spy.

So, you've read this guide through, and looked at each item that you want, and decided your loadout- now you want to show the world that your Medic can rack up kills with the rest of the team, while still doing your duty. You're ready to shed the 'Team Player' boredom and the 'Battle Medic' shame. You're ready to be a Combat Medic.

The playstyle varies with the loadout, focusing more on the primaries than anything else, but there are a few different styles of Combat Medic to be, so here's a little list of each kind. You may stray from these roles, and that's fine and dandy- TF2 is about making your character your own. And having nice hats.

Uberchain Medic:
Primary: Any (Blutsauger not Recommended for Self-Uberchaining)
Secondary: Stock
Melee: Ubersaw

These Medics love Uber, and want to stay in Godmode as long as possible. They may travel in pairs, and usually do so, but they can chain alone if need be. Their sole goal is to get Uber, then see how long they can make their Ubersaw break the eight-second boundary. Uberchain Medics will stick around the team while they get Uber, but will try to get together in pairs once charged. The goal for the pair is to charge one Medic, who uses the Ubersaw to kill, and get full Uber. Near the end of the charge, that Medic switches and pops Uber on the other, who also uses the saw to gain Uber. Generally, you'll get maybe 2-4 cycles before the enemy is gone and Uber inevitably runs dry, if it's done right. This is a powerful method, but has it's limits. Specifically, knockback. The Medic takes knockback like your mother takes a gangbang- really hard. A single sentry or skilled Pyro can bounce away your Uber and leave you at their mercy, which they won't have.

Bonk! Medic:
Primary: Any
Secondary: Stock
Melee: Any

This is purely a beginning of the match strategy. After you die, go back to a more team-focused strategy. This also helps if you have a Bonk Scout to help you. This Medic usually starts on the pushing team (BLU) and builds up Uber from the start. They are sure to Overheal as much as possible before the start, because that health is their parting gift to their team. When the match starts, the Bonk Medic Ubers his way past everything, ignoring everyone and pushing deep into enemy territory, serving to harrass and harm respawned opponents trying to get back to the main battle. Done right, this becomes a beginning-of-the-match tactic that works to delay and annoy the enemy more than anything else. It helps if you have a Bonk Scout push with you, that way you can tag-team and be more effective. Otherwise, it's a solo strategy, and while it may get some kills, your team will be hurting without you.

Sniper Medic:
Primary: Crusader's Crossbow
Secondary: Any
Melee: Amputator

This Medic prefers to keep things at a distance. His Amputator increases his regen like a Cozy Camper on a Huntsman Sniper, which is exacly how this Medic will be. Keep a distance, and keep tabs on everyone. If anyone passes you, buff/heal them with your Medigun, then send them on your way. If need be, rejoin your team for a time to heal and deploy Uber, then back away to continue trying to be Ana from Overwatch.

Ambush Medic:
Primary: Blutsauger
Secondary: Any
Melee: Bonesaw

Array Seven's preferred Medic loadout. This Medic flanks like a Scout, sneaks like a Spy, and destroys enemies like nothing else. It's all about the element of surprise. Take the back routes on maps, travel with flank classes like Pyros and Scouts, and try to pick off stragglers and loners.

Survivalist
Primary: Blutsauger
Secondary: Any (Vaccinator Suggested)
Melee: Amputator

This Medic is built to keep their health high. Whether it's the extra from the saw, or the blood leeched from the needles you used to make a pincushion of the other guy- your health isn't going anywhere. This Medic can be somewhat tanky, and knows how to avoid and survive damage. Fancy footwork, selective targeting, etc.