If anyone watching this feels disconnected or doesn't relate to the tips being provided here, it just means you are a different kind of Medic. Some enjoy it as an intense numbers game, and some just wanna help the team. At the end of the day, it's whatever *you* think is going to improve your own style of gameplay. Worrying about what to practice and how and why etc. can become really overwhelming if ya let it take over you. Best to luck to everyone on their medicinal journeys.
I felt the disconnect when it came to the skill tree. Something like knowing the maps inside and out feels more like an experience thing; knowing where all the medipacs are and points would be too much to demand from a new player who just started playing casually. I also have a hard time understanding what “meta” is. It sounds like it’s just knowing how the game works but it also sounds much more technical since it sounds like you have to know EVERYTHING about how the game works and that sound very intimidating. I don’t have time to research that sorta stuff, I got classes to take and responsibilities outside of TF2! I’d rather stick to playing casual, but I still want to be good enough to unlock the items and “progress” so I can catch up to everyone else who’ve already played this game for years.
@@diddylieutenant9146 Map knowledge will come to you, it's one of those things you just have to sleep on. Just play whatever you think is fun, you don't have to study maps to learn 'em. Meta is short for metagame, which literally means "the game outside the game," or in TF2's case just means: The strategies and weapon choices that - over years of play and analysis - have come to be accepted as the best things to do to give yourself the competitive edge. You don't have to play the meta to have fun, playing in one way ignores all of the dynamic options available to you, but most would tell you it's important knowledge to have. You'll have just as much fun is you remain ignorant to it all, so again, just play however you think is fun. TF2's progression system is modeled around the player. There's no battle pass or missions (unless you count the Contracker, which is optional), the focus is instead centered entirely around your indefinite self improvement. There's a ridiculous amount of educational video content on this game, so don't stress about learning everything there is, just keep a good pace and learn whatever it is you want to learn as the questions you have present themselves. As for unlocks, the TF2 Wiki will list every Achievement Item and what achievements unlock them. There's a lot of individual things to get good at, but the smaller things compounded together are the make-up of your overall "game sense" and it all just comes with time. Every player, even the best, starts out by just having a good time. So make that your first mission. Good luck out there.
@@davisdf3064 I almost want to take up the challenge, but not for *that* long. I'm a Medic Main, but I have been known to sometimes play my NES with a Power Glove, so there's that.
I really, really love your guides. Not only are they really well made and edited, but they also give a ton of helpful information that completely changed my view on medic. Before watching your videos, Medic was my least played class, but now it is gradually becoming one of my most played. The gameplay that Medic provides is so, so much more intense than any other class that I have played before, and it definitely is the reason on why I started loving playing medic. I was already a support main from other shooters, but had never given Medic a shot, however, now I am really coming to appreciate how fun he can be. And how rewarding it is to become better and better with him.
Hell yeah, dude. I absolutely love the feeling of making the correct choices and executing them well on medic. I know what you're talking about with intensity. Other classes often have ways out of a bad situation, or they can always just out DM your opponent. Playing medic is like walking a tightrope where you walk to have as much output as possible, but the slightest mistake or overstep will get you killed most of the time.
@@Theory-Y Yes! I never really had this same experience of "If I walk just a little bit further I will be dead instantly" when playing TF2, and the intensity of having to make all those kind of decisions is what makes me choose medic in a game, even if my team is getting their asses kicked. And after your videos and constantly practicing with medic, I was even turning the tide of some battles, which felt so, so rewarding. The Vacc is still difficult for me to use, but I am slowly learning when and how to use it correctly.
@@Theory-Y The feeling of going "ANNIHILATE THEM" to your pocket and then watching your pocket annihilate them as Medic is something I can't really replicate with another class, hah. Especially when it's such an intense class.
I'm actually sharing this video with a friend of mine because weirdly enough a lot of the tips in the first half of the video can also translate well into getting better at art
“The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” - Stephen McCranie I’m sorry that quote is too good for me to just sit here and let you take credit for it
Cool guide! Although I will never get your hype for the vacc, for me it's just too much thinking for a class that already requires a lot of brain usage
I used to feel the same way, but evemtually you get good enough that the other medi guns become sort of mindless and thats when the vac gets really fun as it becomes its own minigame, its like playing wario ware
It's got immutable tactical value. It's overpowered and frankly nightmarish to play against with sufficient skill, like Sniper. Of course it does very much weaken Sniper. Takes one to know one, I guess. The sheer amount of tactical strength it provides is only something the Quick-Fix can really replicate, and its Uber just doesn't cut it.
Also take a note here that to improve as a medic is do not stay on really bad habits too , bad habits like pocketing 24/7 without leaving the medibean to someone , or bad habits like panic popping way too often or dropping uber , or overagression with your ubersaw and solemn vow , those habits can actually impact the medic gameplay and expirience in a bad way
@@Theory-Y also , this medic tip is actually really good , you manage to explain how to improve so well and provide steps and information , props to you
I love your content, ever since I came across your videos I've been using the vac/medic in as many situations as I can to limit test what I can and can't get away with and even getting more knowledge on how to fight the vac through the use of how it functions. I've even gone as far as limit testing in other modes like pass time and MVM, specifically in MVM where there are a lot of not well known mechanics that were put into play for the vac. your content has allowed me and probably a lot others get better at playing medic and using vac effectively. Just a little side note for MVM, increasing healing mastery slightly increases how much base revive you can give someone after popping uber. Example, popping a bubble on a dead heavy will not instantly bring him back, you'll need to keep healing him for roughly another second before you bring him back. upgrading healing master to max drastically shortens the amount of time after popping that he'll be back. Something funny you can do between rounds when players kill bind is to insta-revive them if they're a light-mid health class, no matter how fast they are, they can not cancel the revive. There are some even cooler mechanics that I'm surprised that were in the game to begin with. If you get the shield as medic and use the vac, popping a bubble to revive someone actually just gives you a chunk of energy to use your shield, you can have a buddy kill bind so you can bring him back. not only does he get full ammo again because the way revive works, but you also get 80-90% of your shield back for almost constant uptime. There is just so much love and thought that was first put into the game that people are still finding these things out. Ok, last thing, has to do with people still finding things out. You can survive a sentry buster. Sentry buster does EXACTLY 4x your current health, overheal included. Similar to how spy works, it will always to a set amount of damage, however, it does blast damage. Maxing out blast resistance will give you 75% to explosion type damage, meaning a sentry buster will now do exactly your health in damage. Now all you need is anything else that can increase your resistances, IE battalions, fist of steel, or the vac (there might be more but these are the ones that I know of). The more you can stack on the better, but as a medic all you need is at least one point in blast res and a blast bubble to survive a buster (you'll be left with low health, but you can) TLDR, vac has many tricks and powers up its sleeve when played correctly
As I've gotten better and better at Medic, I often find myself reaching for the Quick-Fix more and more. I've found that an overall healthy team is far more effective than one that has an uber push every now and then. Yes, fighting against a Medic that always has an Uber ready to shove up their pocketed Soldier or Heavy's ass is undeniably strong. But if you don't have a partner on voice comms to constantly support you, the strength of Ubercharges fades rapidly. The Quick Fix is the answer here. I don't need the support of a teammate for it to work, I can instead rely on the might of the whole team. It forces you to change your focus from your target to your team. If your team is healthier than theirs, you're probably gonna win any teamfight. Save that Quick-Fix heal for when multiple people are in the red, or when YOU are. No more wasted Uber pops you can't properly capitalize on! A Quick-Fix Uber is just as effective if you're saving yourself as anyone else! Pick the Quick-Fix, pick your team.
Agreed! And a follow up, a good quick-fix uber can completely stop an enemy push. And they build up so quickly that you can almost lock the enemy team down! And they work great in tandem with other medics! If they pop an uber right after you pop quick fix your over-healed team now has an invincible ally to rally behind and it crushes any team that try’s to fight!! Works great on defence and offence! (And not to mention that with a soldier or demos help you can fly)
@@hi-rez-legend4870 Ah yes, the upside of flying behind your explosive-jumping teammates ... fairly powerful when you're ready for it! But um, it's definitely gotten me killed more times than it's ever helped me. I swear that line in the description should be in red!
This medic process works.. but it takes some real good game sense. The strategy I started with was laying back a bit more, focusing on the beam and then taking high percentage crossbow shots. Like, a sniper standing still, or someone predictably going to a dispenser, or when there's a group on the cart. From there, I worked in more enterprising crossbow shots. Especially at heavies. From there, it was boarding house rules, "Everybody gets firsts before anyone gets seconds." Basically spreading the heals out as best I could, from front to back. By then, you start to get into that flow state and know who needs what when. It doesn't always work, but when it does, you're a freakin' hero.
With stock, how many Uber charges go to waste in your experience? 60% of my ubers are panic ubers, ubers that get no kills, or ubers that get dropped because I die with full. I was wondering just to see where I need to be, and we’ll it’s kinda a dilemma; I could stay back and get more ubers but not being on the frontlines will hinder the team’s ability to make an impact, but if I go in I’m more likely to be abandoned/drop the Uber .
Same, I have suicidal tendencies whenever I see a large group off people I can thermal thruster into with the back burner, what can I say? Hearing that high damage crit noise it quite satisfying
It takes around 40 seconds to build uber(sometimes less when considering ubersaw hits, crit heals, different build rates for different mediguns, etc.). You have to look at the round timer and take a mental note whenever the enemy medic pops(or respawns) You can assume after 40 seconds, the enemy medic will have uber.
In pubs? You genereally don't bother cause it's a casual pub and there are mostly multiple medics... In comp you do that... the commebt above explained how.
Good guide, but I am really not in the competitive mindset at all, I just play and get better over the course of a longer time... if at all. I also watch youtube while playing :p Idk I just find it strange when people play competitivley in a casual server (it's called casual after all, but you do you man)... But if I ever decide to get competitive I will remember this ^-^
For some reason i am at 32 hours on medic and can get to the upper part of the leaderboard easily, with some effort i can get to top 3. My situation awareness, healing priorities, etc... are all good, not perfect but good. But one thing i struggle at horribly, is uber timing. Either it is too late and i fail to pop it, or too early and half of it is wasted. I guess i used the Quick-Fix a bit way too much. Any tips on changing that?
5:00 This mindset is how I also play as well, In general I make a decision and then reflect on if it was a good decision or not. Sometimes though you are going to be put in a situation where you can't apply knowledge from a similar scenario, in these situations I personally choose the decision that benefits me most. Sure I could have saved a few teammates here and there or I could have taken less damage but these situations are still new to me, I just apply prior knowledge and what I do and don't know about the game and make a decision. 6:00 There is a Veritasium video that talks exactly about this part, it goes generally like this. There are two people inside your head, drew and gun. Drew is really good at analyzing a really tough problem, while Gun is great at assessing the easy problems. For example, In tf2 if I ever need to aim a quick crossbow shot at a standing still teammate or do a small surf out of a dangerous situation, Gun handles it. I have been in scenarios like that hundreds if not thousands of times so letting a majority of my mental bandwidth be taken by menial tasks like these will not help me improve. But whenever I need to focus on landing a airshot or dodging a scout point blank I leave these tasks to Drew. I can use my Mental Bandwidth for focusing on lets say the scouts movement and where he is aiming to dodge. These scenarios are few times but if done right(Or done wrong) it can lead to a drastic outcome. The ultimate goal of the mindset is to eventually pass everything down to Gun so Drew can focus on the Gameplay. (If you ever feel like you are struggling with a task which you use to not struggle with, It might be time to give it back to Drew) 6:30 Something here I actually disagree with you. People don't Understand how Necessary movement is to Tf2. It is literally built off of Quake, TF2 IS A QUAKE-LIKE. Im not just talking about rocket jumping(Which is really important) WASD Movement is extremely vital to growth. Many players get into a loop of "Why do I keep dying, It can't be my movement Im not walking in a straight line." People really need to prioritize movement more. Personally In General for Tf2 I see 3 groups of main skills: AIM, MOVEMENT and GAMESENSE. All three are equal and can help with every single class. They also work together. (One thing to note the movement thing here is more general but still applicable) 7:30 Other than this Anecdote I really love your chart. Resources like these are why I love the tf2 community. 12:44 I do these flicks aswell. They are stupid but are funny af when you pull them off 13:52 I actually would say the kritzkrieg should be higher than medigun on the right side of graph (Only a little bit), Ubercharge gives a sense of security to the medic but kritz is the only Invuln that doesnt benefit the medic whatsoever, so at higher levels you are weakening yourself meaning even during the pop you require to have your positioning/movement/gamesense top notch. 14:37 I have, and it has been really fun I just gotta say, I love videos like these. I honestly love watching medic Tutorial videos or just medic videos in general. Whenever I don't play tf2 there is a good chance I watch videos of medics playing and take notes on how they play (Demo Reviews). Its important to watch good players and not so good players to see: What the former does right, and what the latter does wrong. I honestly cant get enough medic so watching videos like these makes my brain light up. Unfortunately I have a lot of personal things so I cant always play team fortress 2 but whenever I do I make sure I pump in as many hours as I can on medic (Yes I try to avoid playing other classes lmao). I'm currently at 840 hours on med and I hope to get 1000 before the new year(wishful thinking). Thanks for posting videos like these and I hope you post more, Time to actually study now.
Yeah, your videos are pretty much what forged me, all the other tips are just, don't get in line of fire, know when to uber, etc. etc., not actually what to do. I honestly learn more from your Crusader crossbow gaming you edit in than the actual video, it's inspiring.
i ain't medic main nor do i intend to be and i always though it was weird that other medics didn't use the crossbow nearly as much as i did but i am glad you pointed out it is more effective also to do with the vac, i don't use it out of trying to be fair for example i don't use the diamondback because that shit is broken, or the machina because it is a straight upgrade to already strong class, or the scorch shot because it is very annoying to go against with out much thought from the pyros end, nor do i sticky spam 24/7 because again it is annoying to go against so i restrict myself from these weapons which are a straight upgrade to the point there they need sometype of rework or just is annoying
He just gave us the Golden rule about the game and the life in 1 video of 15mins along with show us how to play giving us the overall the tips about not for the medick specific, but even for every class in the game. He not only gave the GOLDEN RULE about the life. He will help you in the life and he even said it. I mean i depressed and i really need someone to give something i have forgot about! Thank you for time, words and in general everything. Respect +. I will be happy to see meet you 1 day in person and have a conversation with you :)
I found how to become better at Medic. If someone does something wrong, get back. Don't do the same mistake. Let him die because of his mistake, you need to survive. This made me play so much better.
Question: in "rapid hindsight" section, HOW THE HELL does one play medic while simultaneously remembering and examining previous decisions? Doesn't that make you lose focus on the current fight and elevates the risks of someone killing you while you're not paying full attention? Not sarcasm, genuine question.
4:05i approve when you just want to do 1 thing you will do it good but I can only be good when am forced to much on 1 thing give me 7things and I will do nothing wich it what mostly happen when you have to worry about everything every second
I'm not close to your skill on landing those arrows that greatly. But I hit many, and still think it's worth it. Especially to keep a Heavy alive. Or giving a suicidal pushing teammate (especially Pyros, Knights and Trolldiers) a last health boost that will give them a few extra seconds of carnage or the ability to survive without getting myself out of the main dight. But maybe you're right, even though Medic is just my 7th most played class, I have almost 200 hours on it, and 3000 hours total. Most of the Medic's core is about game sense, and anyone who played the game enough should be a good Medic It is in fact about "feeling" the best move, who to cure, where to go and when to get out.
i feel that a better way of explaining the skill set graph would have been to make the 3 major categories their own graphs so that they are the only ones shown at a time to keep the focus, even zooming in has a bit of an issues with you having already seen the rest of the stuff beforehand and maybe stop listening to what is being said due to thinking on the rest of the graph
Yo Array, what program did you use to make that mental map? Was it all done in paint/by hand or did you use something else? I think it'd be great for some of my university projects as I really need to show off some things in that way, and all my mental maps up until now look like ass.
everyone: omg how can u play heavy and medic they are sooo boring me playing demoman with 2 pocket gibusvisions: me tryharding heavy and making enemies call me rageheavy me as a medic getting my ass whopped by the enemies while my teammates play scout: me playing spy with cl_interp 5: wait a minute im so go- *crocket*
your videos are so good and informative that i want to main medic, and since i can’t aim on any class and can aim projectiles like a lucksmen, time to spam vaccinator
Can you please stop blurring the background when you have text on the screen? It really hurts my eyes, maybe dim the background if you are hellbent on not letting me watch the gameplay?
