Team Fortress 2: Medic Guide Up to date as of the Polycount Update

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The Medic, an essential part of any team, no matter what map. While you may not realize it, that unlucky individual who chose to be the Medic for your team is doing one of the hardest and most thankless jobs in the game - making your team victorious. Sure, he might have healed you and you still died, or ran off in your time to need to help a Heavy or Demoman plow through a sentry nest, but when you think about it... he helped that Heavy or Demoman plow through a sentry nest, which was probably in a choke point restricting your ability to move to the next capture point or grab the intelligence. Sure, there's a fair share of "bad" Medics. Guys that run off and do whatever or heal a Sniper while there's people who need help on the front lines, but most Medics that people believe are "bad" are just doing job: keeping the entire team alive and not looking after just one person.As a carry over from the days of Team Fortress Classic, the Medic has two playstyles, the typical team healer Medic, and the Battle Medic (In my personal opinion, it's possible to play a hybrid of both). We'll look at the weapons selection from a standpoint on either side.~ Vanilla Medic ~The Vanilla Medic has some of the most underrated weapons in the game, if not THE most underrated. His primary weapon deals lackluster damage and his melee weapon doesn't seem to have much going for it, but closer examination reveals quite a few perks to these otherwise low-ranking weapons.- The Syringe Gun: A fully automatic gun that fires a barrel of syringes. Its reload animation seems to suggest that the ammunition carried isn't so much the syringes themselves, but cans of what can only be assumed to be compressed air. The syringes are without a doubt heavy and aerodynamically challenged, so unlike bullets they travel in a parabolic pattern, making this gun require a lot of planning and know how to be used effectively. Each needle deals relatively low damage, but they fire fast and make contact quickly, so that low damage can add up easily, especially if you pull critical hits out with them. While it's not so much a bonus of this weapon and more a bonus of being the Medic, while using this syringe gun, the Medic heals an average of 4.5 health per second. Medics who aren't so capable with their primary weapon or prefer to rely on others to defend them tend to carry this syringe gun over its alternative because of this healing ability which almost guarantees you will not die by afterburn. - The MediGun: A basic healing "weapon". It gains Ubercharge by healing teammates, whether injured or not, though it gains Ubercharge faster by healing injured teammates. It provides what is known as an "overheal" to any teammate who it heals that is not injured, buffing their HP up to a temporary 150% of their normal health (the Medic once was the only class that can do this, but Pyros can now do it to themselves). After your Ubercharge meter has hit 100%, pressing Mouse 2 will make both you and your heal target 100% invincible to everything except knockback/slowdown. This is great for taking out Engineer camps, clearing away enemies, and overall generating fear. The use of this particular medigun is relatively evenly divided amongst both Medic playstyles, but is possibly more often used by battle Medics.- The Bonesaw: A typical, brutal looking bonesaw. It is a fairly basic Melee weapon with no real upsides or downsides, aside from the fact that according to fan speculation, it has a high critical hit rate. It is more commonly used by defensive Medics for its faster rate of fire in the event of an emergency forcing them to defend themselves. ~ The Medic Update ~- The Blutsauger: Literally, "The Vampire" or "The Bloodsucker", the Blutsauger is a replacement for the Syringe Gun, mostly used by battle oriented Medics. It has the same damage output as the Syringe Gun, but makes the Medic gain on average 2 less health through his own inherent health gain. In exchange for not gaining health as fast, shots that hit with the Blutsauger give you 3 hp per needle, making it one of the fastest ways to gain health in the game, if you know what you're doing. It's a good way to reveal a Spy, too, since shooting a disguised Spy will still reward you with 3 health per hit.- The Kritzkrieg: A different Medigun that charges twice as fast as the normal Medigun, but does not provide invincibility. Instead, it grants 8 seconds of 100% critical hits on both the Medic and the heal target, but giving them to the Medic is a moot point since they won't carry over to other weapons if the Medic puts away the Kritzkrieg (If it did, it's a very safe bet that a battle Medic would be more fond of it). While the normal Medigun is extremely useful for making a Heavy or possibly a Demoman invulnerable, the Kritz is best used on a Soldier for 100% crit rocket output. - The Ubersaw: Another weapon more preferred by battle Medics, the Ubersaw grants 25% ubercharge per successful hit, and as you suspect, it does indeed give full Ubercharge in only four hits. The tradeoff for this obvious benefit is that it does not swing very fast, so timing your hits is extremely important. It doesn't sacrifice the allegedly godly amount of random criticals the normal bonesaw has, so if you're feeling lucky, this is the weapon for you. ~ The Polycount Update ~The Medic, unlike the five other classes that received a Polycount pack, only received one item:- The VitaSaw: A different kind of bonesaw. Instead of doing anything special for your Ubercharge like the Ubersaw did, the VitaSaw gives you 20% ubercharge on respawn, effectively speeding up the process a tad bit. On the downside, it takes away 10 health from the wearer, making the Medic's max HP an odd 140. This is a weapon that finds its home most comfortably in the hands of unsuccessful battle medics.