I Am Medic, Hear Me Roar!
We are the ones with the most thankless job. Many is the time I have suggested while playing Pyro, my other favorite class, that we need a Medic and have been coolly refused. We see you low on health and come over to heal you. You don’t even give us any thanks over voice chat. To you, we are no more than expendable furniture. Day after day we try to help you but no one listens.
We are fed up. It has gotten so very, very bad that the people who actually thank you and work with you seem like saviors and gods. Yes, we help you, but when the other team starts making any kind of good attack, you abandon us. You fail to spycheck and we get stabbed. We are burnt to crispy by a Pyro. Why is it that when you have a Medic with you, all rules of defending your teammates suddenly fly out the window?
So… I have personally had it. I call on Medic players everywhere to get angry and DEMAND the respect we mutually deserve. To quote the wonderful Cpt. Spalding, “You’re calling it the bitch seat? Yeah, heard you said it! You think that it’s a noob class? Man, don’t you get it? They call it a support class because I carry your ass! Don’t forget it!” If the other idiots on your team start ignoring you and see you as a mobile dispenser that doesn’t even give ammo, STOP PLAYING. Or better, play your other class.
One Tactic to Make Them Understand that Life Without a Medic is Short, Frustrating, and Hard
Take up space and start talking. When they finally find a new respect for the mighty Medic and how they find the game without one, they’ll repent and start treating you like they should. Better yet, play your other class (if you have one) so no one can complain about how little you’re doing. If they want you to pull the plug, grant their wish. And all you who don’t play Medic, remember this- treat them with respect or the next time you let your Medic get crit-rocketed to death, you may find yourself quickly without one.
Stumble it!
Killa-Ewok responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 6:35 am #
And so, Medics all over the Globe yelled in triumph:
“OKTOBERFEEEST!”
n00bie51 responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 6:36 am #
Criticism: Do we need another rant on how poorly people treat their Medics? I don’t think this was an interesting read. Paragraph indentation or spaces in between paragraphs would also make it much easier to read your next story.
Jeremy responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 6:37 am #
Z-2 is almost natural for me whenever a medic heals me. You guys are the givers of life, and as a semi-sometime medic, I appereicate when people thank me, but its not neccessary. My reward is my team success(and seeing my name in the top 3 ^_^).
clubtheseals responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 6:43 am #
@n00bie51: Apparently it was pasted from word and while I did remove all of it’s formatting (Times New Roman, 12 pt font, etc.) and add breaks back in, it refuses to show them. Not the original author’s fault at all.
eric responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:15 am #
I know what you mean. I swicthed from medic to spy when i was playing at 2fort as the only medic healing a soilder with no one else crossing the bridge. Suddenly 3 bad guys were cpming out and he rocket jumps to the empty battlement (to later die by a sentry and no kills) leaving me to get blown up.
Devenger responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:23 am #
Medics get an exceptional number of points, have an exceptionally powerful primary weapon (especially the Blutsauger variant), have what I’d consider the scarest melee weapon in the game, regenerate health, and can turn invulnerable. Stop moaning that playing Medic is a hardship, and don’t except my rocket-jumping Soldier to stay 2 metres in front of you at all times and pat you on the back for pointing a gun vaguely in my direction, especially when doing so provokes enemy awareness and death by high degree of enemy fire.
I’ll do your healing justice and your assist count favours as I rain rockets from the sky, leaping and drifting gracefully through the blood-covered environment. Alternatively, I’ll do fine without you, tactically flying across the map from healthkit to healthkit, being a one-man force of evil. Not only do you not need me, you dress-wearing health-draining uber-charging sissies, I don’t need you.
SAC responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:28 am #
Which eez why Valve put zee automatic “Thank you!” at zee end heals.
This is not my real name responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:28 am #
As a professional Medic, l know very well what you’re talking about…there is a simple rule to follow: if they start calling for a medic when they don’t need you (and a teammate is burning to death in front of you, waiting to get healed) just don’t heal them.
If they yell at you in the voice chat, send them to hell!
If they call for medic when you just finished healing them, again, ingore them.
But what l really hate are suicidal rushes.
A teammate (usually a pyro) charges through the frontline and into the enemy base, getting slaughtered 99% of the time.
When l see this coming, l leave the poor idiot alone.
I am not going to sacrifice my life for him.
No sir.
Even if l ubered him, if he goes too deep into enemy territory and fails to kill them all, then l run for my life and leave him…believe me, you will get your hard-earned respect this way.
If they keep harassing you, then refuse to heal them (but don’t switch classes) until they stop being asshats.
After 4-5 deaths that could easily be avoided with the help of a Medic they will be at your feet…
This is called aggresive medicking.
On a side note, if they are nice to you be nice to them, mutual respect is the primary element of good teamwork.
This is not my real name responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:32 am #
Also, @ Devenger.
Saying these things is very easy, but l am sure that if you are slowly but inesorably burning to death (rocket jumping here would be suicidal) you will call for the “Sissy” to save your ass eh?
So stop being a smartass, soldiers need medcis as much as any other class does.
Devenger responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:58 am #
I’m sure if you are being surrounded by stickybombs, a one-eyed cyclops foreseeig your demise, you will wish for the by your logic inferior player with the rocket launcher to blow the Demoman up before he does the same to you. So stop being silly, Medics need other classes to survive.
I have 90 hours as Medic – I’ve done my time, I understand the class and its value completely – but as a Soldier I don’t expect a Medic, I don’t plead for one, and I’ll thank them when they actually do something out of the ordinary as I would anyone. I will guard themand help them where practical – I forward-rocketjump to allow them to move at full speed and fast-charge their ubers, I juggle incoming Pyros to keep them clear of Medics – but Medic players need to get off their high horse and recognise all players are team contributors, it’s just Medics provide a more obvious contribution that makes stupid people think they are special.
n00bie51 responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 7:58 am #
@clubtheseals: Then that is forgivable, but the content of the article is still… uninteresting. We don’t need a story on ÜberCharged to know how some players treat Medics.
Misanthrope responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:04 am #
I’ve tried calling people out on this and it doesn’t seem to help. They just brand you a “whiner” and abandon you even more.
Agree with n00bie51; that the majority of gamers are knuckleheads isn’t exactly news.
LatinoGeek responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:23 am #
I AM ZE UBER_MAGE!
This is not my real name responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:26 am #
@ Devenger.
Hmm…l tought that you’re just a dick, but your post made me change my mind..it’s just stupid to call medic “sissies” tought (especially if you have 90 hours as a med)
But l agree on the fact that pressing left click doesen’t make you special..
BUT.Some medics are better than your average player, the medic is definately NOT a n00b class.
As for the contribution part, yes, you have to get off your high horse, that’s for sure (as a medic).
I also agree for that soldier part, but if they rocketjump they can actually go faster than a med and they usually leave them there to rot while they were following them like idiots for the past minute.
And, obviously, most medics are nothing special, they are just players like all the other ones…
SirMax responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 8:57 am #
I’m afraid I have to agree with noobie. Medics get the short end of the stick, thank them, etc etc. We’ve had this enough, and I don’t feel this really had a good angle to make it stick out.
Pretty well written though.
Monchberter responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 9:02 am #
To all you Medics with ungrateful patients, spam the ‘Ubercharge ready!’ command and let your idiotic healee run off to painful death. That’ll learn ‘em!
mew4ever23 responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 9:04 am #
I usually toss a medic who heals me a quick “Thanks” of some sort over voice chat, unless I’m a disguised spy around the other team, in which case, I give them an earfull.
madlep responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 9:43 am #
@n00bie51 – I’ve made a few changes to who has the POWAH behind the scenes. Up until a few days ago I was the only one who could publish posts. Now there are a few others. Just getting the process sorted still
n00bie51 responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 11:58 am #
It’s okay madlep, I still love you despite your dark, evil sin.
Sypheros responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 2:39 pm #
I thank my medics, and I think every good player does.
Knuckleheads dont.
End of Thread.
5yewy5r responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 5:51 pm #
@Devenger
So you’re saying you can kill their entire team single-handedly without the help of a medic? That you can kill that sentry nest guarded by 15 pyros by yourself without uber? (or changing class to demoman, still tough tho’)
Trust me, medics are important to the team, and I think everyone knows that it’s just stupid when some random dude starts yelling at you over the mic while you’re working your ass off.
soylent robot responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 9:47 pm #
this is pretty unrelated, but ive found a way, as Medic, to stop other player’s bad habits. i started it yesterday with this simpe sentance:
“[Player Name Here] gets no more healing because he’s a dirty stinking teleport pusher”
The player in question quickly stopped his teleport stealing antics.
Devenger responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 10:05 pm #
@ 5yewy5r: Medics are important, but everyone else is too. Are you saying as a medic you can kill the 15 pyros guarding the sentry nest? No? Oh dear, it looks like we’ll need to work together then! Or we could fire around left walls with rockets and stickies, lock the enemy down with Snipers, have a Spy sap the sentry for a few seconds as a Heavy rumbles the enemy Pyros, build a forward base with Engineers which we can do because the enemy is stuck around a single point… Medics are USEFUL as anybody else is USEFUL when used in conjunction with the rest of the team.
Trust me, medics are useful to the team (especially teams using the slower moving classes ho suffer more from needing to respawn). But they aren’t precious magicians to be guarded carefully at the sacrifice of moving forward and winning the game. I’d hope medics acknowledge that being a good heal target (in the eyes of a Medic) is a challenging prospect for all players, and that Medics really need to lower their standards. I don’t even get what you mean about the rest of your second paragraph.
Devenger responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 10:10 pm #
Oh, sorry;
@soylent: Medics have a move speed of 107% ( chart: http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Classes ). Unless you are being shunted by a Scout, or in certain situations where the flow of players is so little/the risk of death so high you can’t charge an uber en-route on foot, the teleporter goes to whoever else wants it, because the run takes less time for you. I’m not a hypocrite – I won’t use a teleporter as a Medic unless I’m the only person in a respawn wave/everyone else opts not to.
IndianaJones responded on 01 Nov 2008 at 11:55 pm #
Right, medics are the second fastest class in the game. They shouldn’t be bitching about not getting the teleporter unless they are alone at spawn.
BlueMouse responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 12:19 am #
Why aren’t my picture and caption there???
BlueMouse222 responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 12:38 am #
Muuuuuuch better.
Werewere responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 5:58 am #
I BELEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIVE!
soylent robot responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 7:08 am #
@Devenger
oh, im not using the teleports, i meant ive seen the teleport pushers doing their dirty trick to someone else when i leave the spawn, or im waiting outside the spawn for someone to charge as we run to the combat, and see some unfortunate heavy lose his ticket to the fight.
at least he had some company as he waddled away in disgust.
BGH responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 10:07 am #
Funny how so many people’s fave (or at least most played) classes are Medic and Pyro (me included). Probably because you don’t need good aim.
Fabio Bracht responded on 02 Nov 2008 at 11:04 am #
The problem is doing all of that without sounding all whiny.
SirMax responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 2:49 am #
@BGH: If you had really good aim, you’d be better off playing another FPS, since aim is a conventional FPS skill. Or playing sniper.
imran_maq responded on 03 Nov 2008 at 11:10 pm #
OR, you could just refuse to heal the dicks who leave you out in the open to get killed after you buff their health up, it’s what I do, only heal those who play in team spirit, those who are too busy trying to pimp their own scores without caring about who’s getting killed because of them, well we’ll see how high their scores get without the rest of the team behind them…
Anoonymoose responded on 04 Nov 2008 at 2:21 am #
Surprisingly, I disagree with this post to some extent, and medic is my primary class!!!! Playing the class is relatively simple from what I’ve seen; Heal as much as you can giving priority to those that need it most, i.e. burning and/or severely wounded, buffing those who need it when no wounded are around and fight in the circumstances that call for it, when you are in desperate need to defend yourself, or if you can possibly finish off that wounded heavy unawares.
Personally, I don’t care if someone doesn’t personally thank me for healing them, as the game does that automatically. If you’re at the front lines where there’s a lot of action going on and you’re needing to heal bunches of people at the same time, they need to concentrate more on the fight then on niceties. Also, if that rocket-jumping soldier leaves me behind to go somewhere else, meh, his loss; I’ll just go somewhere else to where there’s teammates who need healing.
Still, if someone were to personally thank me for healing them, that would just make me feel better about healing them and in the future more willing to go out of my way to come to their aid.
General Goose responded on 15 Dec 2008 at 6:33 pm #
I try to thank Medics, even if they are healing me to get up an UberCharge. The only situation in which I don’t think medics is when I’m involved in combat.