http://www.gamerheadlines.com/2014/11/whats-bad-playing-medi

With Team Fortress 2’s End of the Line Update drawing ever closer, I thought I’d do a little bit of reminiscing to maybe inspire people to play my favourite class in the game.

I’m not a veteran Team Fortress 2 player by any means. I’ve never claimed to be because, well, I’m not. I started playing TF2 a couple of years ago after it went Free To Play. I’d heard about the style of game that it was, with class based team objective gameplay, and a unique visual style. In short, it looked cool. However, I was hit with a bit of a problem.

I was used to objective based gameplay from my years of Battlefield and Halo, but I was also used to actually having an effective weapon. Be it a sniper or an assault rifle, whatever weapon I used was tailored to my specific style in Battlefield, and in Halo there was always a BR or sniper just a corner away. I didn’t work with what the game had so much as the game worked with what I wanted. That’s why TF2 was so foreign to me to begin with. Whether I liked it or not, I was using what was made available to me. I panicked, and so I gravitated straight towards the class which felt the most familiar to me. Yes, of course the modern FPS player chose to play Sniper…

I then proceeded to stick tightly to the Sniper class for almost every game I played for a long time, at least a few months of sporadic gameplay, five minutes here, five minutes there. While I loved the style and I enjoyed playing as the Sniper, I just didn’t see enough in TF2 to bring me back. I didn’t have any good hats, none of my loot drops were for the Sniper, and I just didn’t seem to play well in the other ‘traditional’ classes.

Fast forward several months later, I decide to return to TF2 to check out its latest update. I then proceeded to try having a bash at Medic for the first time. The first thing I noticed was the severe lack of Medics overall within the game. Snipers and Spies were saturated with players, but Medics were often rare to see. It was because of this that I initially assumed that the class was just crap and so nobody wanted to play it.

I was so, so wrong.

Medic is not only my favourite class to play, but arguably the most important class in the game. You are the guy who helps the blue team break out of their base in payload. You are the guy who cleans up the mess left behind by an enemy Pyro. Out of all the classes in the game, none are more active, more requested or more crucial than the Medic.

Those three points are admittedly pretty big statements, and so its only fair that I back them up with my experience of the game.

More active:
Don't always Ubercharge the heavy!

Don’t always Ubercharge the heavy!

The Medic has one core role within the team: Heal people. If there is one thing to gather from a day of TF2, it is that there is never any shortage of players needing medical assistance. You will always be ducking and diving around the battlefield, healing from behind a wall or making a last desperate attempt to save a player who could potentially win the game for your team. The Medic is never left with nothing to do.

More requested:
Credit: Kavalenko

Credit: Kavalenko

Out of all the various voice commands available within TF2, which one is mapped to the E key? Exactly. Medic is hands down the most commonly used voice command in the game, because people will always, at some point or another, need a Medic there to help them. Yes, it can be and is often abused by spammers, or players who don’t appreciate that two calls for Medic is more than enough, but that’s ok. At least people will actually give you an indicator of where you need to be at any given time.

More crucial:
Kavalenko

Uber at work

Simply put, the Medic can be a game winner. Whilst not always the man behind the cart as it bursts into oblivion, or the one stopping it from doing just that, you can still greatly influence the outcome of a match. Teams with a good Medic are more than likely going to fare slightly better than teams without one. Players will stay alive longer and enemy chokepoints on maps can be cleared by the smart use of an Ubercharge. Some games really are won and lost because of either having or lacking a Medic.

If I was to advise any player to do anything on TF2, new or old, it would be to give that Medic class a try. It might even be the thing that wins you over into the ridiculous world of Team Fortress 2.

Happy hat hunting.

What are your thoughts on the Medic class, and TF2 as a whole?

Good or bad, sound off in the comments below!

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