How to Attract Medics and Influence People

As a Medic main, I’ve had a lot of experience with people who want me to heal and Uber them, and people who I want to heal/Uber but they don’t seem to notice. In this day and age of loadout versatility, it’s no longer enough to be playing the correct class in a situation; you need to have the correct weapons equipped before Medics are going to start considering you a viable Uber target.

Here are some tips for those wishing Medics would consider Ubering them more often. These are listed by class, and only cover classes that are considered regular Uber targets. Note that I am speaking about the Medigun and Kritzkrieg Ubercharges; I don’t use the other mediguns and their playstyles don’t condone themselves to caring about quality Ubers as much as the aforementioned ones.

1. Soldier

Let’s get the obvious out of the way; I’m not Ubering Trolldiers. I’m probably not even bothering to heal them unless they save my life gloriously or are landing every single Market Gardener.

But there are several other rocket launchers which cause me to mentally lump you with the scouts and Engineers in attractiveness. Mainly, the Black Box and Direct Hit. The former only has three rockets and is often paired with harmless secondaries like Gunboats, not to mention the upside is completely useless when being healed by a Medic. In contrast, the Direct Hit looks great on paper, but in practice the Soldiers who use it never seem capable of actually hitting anything and my Ubers are wasted more often than not. Neither are attractive targets for the Ubercharge I’ve spent 30+ harrowing seconds building.

Your secondary matters almost as much as your rocket launcher. Ubers are supposed to involve 8 seconds of glorious death and destruction, and I don’t want someone who can only fire a few rockets and then call it a day. Gunboats, Mantreads, no. I’ll Uber the soldier packing 6 deadly buckshots or 4 penetrating space lasers first. However, the banners are paradoxically even more attractive for an Ubercharge, for a different reason. 8 seconds of invulnerability/crits should be more than enough time for you to build up that charge, and the real reason I’m Ubering you is so that once it expires, you can toot that bugle and give everyone on the team a second push immediately following the one caused by my Uber.

2. Demoman

The quintessential Ubercharge patient in high-level play, the most attractive Demoman in the world is an allstock one. No bells or whistles, just 12 devastating explosive rounds before even having to reload and a deadly presence at short, medium, and long ranges.

It is incredibly annoying as a Medic to even have to factor Demoknights into the equation. They barely count. 4 grenades (or even worse, 2 Loch-n-Load grenades) is not nearly the same thing as 4 grenades and 8 stickies, and it’s teeth-grating whenever your team is so bereft of combat classes that you’re having to consider gracing a Demoknight with the undeserved glory of an Ubercharge.

Even as a regular Demoman, most of his other explosive options aren’t as attractive. Loch-n-Load is even worse than the Direct Hit, capable of dealing zero damage if the Demoman can’t aim. The Scottish Resistance’s lessened firing speed makes it unlikely the Demoman will be able to get all 14 shots off before the Uber runs out, not to mention he’s gotta be staring at each one before he can detonate it. The Loose Cannon is all right I guess, but it really needs those reliable stock stickies to back it up or else half of your charge will be spent aiming and cooking cannonballs.

3. Heavy

The quintessential Ubercharge patient in low-level play, Heavy has the opposite situation from Demoman where none of the unlocks are going to ruin the Uber, but they still aren’t going to shine nor do I look forward to finding heavies wielding them. Tomislav and Natascha have damage penalties that lessen the effect my Uber can have, Brass Beast slows the Heavy down making a mobile push slower, and Huo-Long Heater heavies seem to be perpetually low on ammo. If I have to choose between a heavy with an unlock or a Heavy with stock Minigun, I’m going to pick the latter.

Secondary really should be Sandvich, and if you don’t have a Sandvich I’m going to frown at you like this: >:C

4. Pyro

No offense Pyros, but when it comes to Standard Ubercharge Patients you’re definitely last in the pecking order. You’re a great close-range class, but that means you’re far more attractive to overheal, let you rush in and do your close-range thing, then Uber one of the above three classes to follow and mop up the survivors. That being said, you can still kick some serious ass if I’ve no other options (or if you’ve proven to be a proficient Pyro throughout the round).

And here’s the other good news: it really doesn’t matter what you have equipped! Strictly speaking, Flamethrower, Backburner and Phlogistinator are all great options for spreading as much damage as possible during the Uber, as is the shotgun and maybe even Homewrecker if we’re targeting sentries. But the weapons that don’t translate to an optimal Uber (Degreaser, Flare Gun, Powerjack) are the ones used by the best Pyros, which will attract Medics because you’re more likely to know what you’re doing. Also, Ubercharges are one of the times where W+M1 with the flamethrower is widely considered the optimal strategy for spewing maximum destruction in the 8 seconds you’ve got. So if you’ve reached the point that Medics are Ubering you and you’re killing people, it doesn’t matter how you do it. You’ve already done it.

No other class should really be playing with the goal in mind of getting Ubercharged, so I don’t see any reason to recommend loadouts with that in mind. Though if you really want to worry about that, it’s hard to go wrong with stock weapons. You’ll notice that for each class I just covered, allstock is among the recommended loadouts. That wasn’t a coincidence. Unlocks tend to follow a trend of lessening firepower in exchange for utility or specialization, meaning that more often than not the first thing to go is the emphasis on teamwork.