Why the Quick Fix Medic* is Now Viable in MvM

*And other healing-centric loadouts

The Two Cities update has vastly improved the medic’s abilities in MvM. Gone is the “kritz machine” of old, now you can do exactly what the medic should be doing in the first place, and be an integral part of the team. And it’s just as fun as anything else.

For reference, there are two major abilities the medic received in this update that attribute to this: revives and the shield.

First off, revives:

Revives allow you to bring teammates back from the dead. When someone dies, a small maker appears with their class appearing as a hologram. This lets you bring back teammates much quicker than if they respawn, or even buyback, as it negates the walking times from base to the front lines. The rate of revival appears to depend on the max health of the class., but can be boosted by activating an uber. Teammates are revived in their previous location, with full health. and your healing beam automatically connects to them (which is a very nice thing).

This is a great change as it gives you a second chance to get your top classes back into the fight after an unlucky crocket or such. It makes your role much more active as well, as you are now encouraged to save your teammates, rather than just retreat after a death. It encourages frontline medics, rather than the passive standard ones. I recommend getting a few points into resistances to help you survive revival dives. It is also very helpful for engineers, to get them back up for their buildings after being backstabbed.

 

 

Second, the shield. Or as I like to call it, “DAS WALL.”

DAS WALL is probably one of my favorite things to ever hit TF2. No, really. Walls are a good thing in general (I’m amazed how few games with a support class lack something similar, it is a great strategic mechanic), but DAS WALL is the king of walls. Lets see here:

• Stops projectiles: Check.
• Stops bullets: Check.
• Stops pipebombs: Check.
• Vaporizes Scouts: Check.

What are MvM’s favorite things to throw at you on later waves? Critboosted giant soldiers? 20 Scout rushes? Rapid Fire Demomen? DAS WALL don’t care. It’ll block all that, all day every day. Because DAS WALL is a badass.

Really though, it is a huge help to your team. It is essentially a one directional uber on a shorter cooldown. Which is even better, considering that most damage in MvM is only coming from one direction. It’s got crazy DPS, so it literally melts scout waves, and most other classes as well.

My favorite uses are to pair up with a heavy, and go to town as a mobile, invincible sentry. It is also great to stand next to a sentry and protect that.

 

“But wait, what about the quick-fix?” You may ask. Well, frankly, it is the best medigun to pair with the new medic, on a few accounts.

1: Increased uber build rate. Ignoring the effectiveness of the QF uber, remember that revives are much faster when an uber is active (and by faster, I mean almost instant). Having a charge ready quicker and more often is great. With the shield, I find myself hardly needing or using it for actual survivability.

2: Increased shield energy build speed. The lack of good overheal on the QF encourages you to not stick with one target when healing, making sure that everyone’s health is “topped off.” The shield charge gets a boost when you heal a new team mate, so there is good synergy here.

3: Finally, knockback reduction. If there is one drawback to DAS WALL, it is that it only extends downwards to a foot past your feet. That means if you are even slightly off the ground, it becomes much less effective. The latter waves of Mannhattan, for instance, like to throw a wave of FaN scouts at you. I got clipped by one, and was tossed into the air, and promptly killed along with my heavy. The next wave, I re-certed into the QF, and we passed that section with no problems.

 

I hope this has been helpful, now get out their and heal! (get a point in DAS WALL in the first wave, its the best upgrade hands down.)