When Medics go Bad

It actually just started as a typical day on Dustbowl… Our team was pushing forward, the obligatory nest of sentries were guarding the point with a horribly predictable hail of gunfire, and a lot of people were dying. It was this last point that was keeping me playing as a Medic, bringing people back from the brink of death and often trying to lead the push forward with an uber. One Heavy was constantly bleating for healing, even though he ran stupidly into the warzone and sentry fire where my healing goodness was worthless every single time, but I shrugged that off. I was being awesome and having a good time, after all! Well, I was, until…

This message arrived. It was from the person playing the Heavy, with the name removed to protect the idiotic. He was annoyed because I wasn’t on his back all the time and was healing others, so basically he was annoyed because I was playing the class correctly. Yet you’ve heard this all before… You should try and heal everyone as a Medic, prioritize targets when they’re friendly and say thanks, and generally be a good all-rounder that doesn’t stick to one person like mad unless they really need it. It was my goal to keep everyone alive, right? I should keep doing it regardless of idiots, right? Well, yeah, but I took that goal…

And I defied it.

That Heavy constantly calling for a Medic? The one who was trash talking and whining because things weren’t going his way? My goal actually transformed into ensuring I never healed him. Ever. Even if there was a situation whereupon healing him could have won the entire game, I wouldn’t of healed him. I watched him die over and over again, picturing in my mind how frustrated he was getting as I just stared and waited for his untimely demise. The sense of power, knowing that I could control who lives and who dies by my actions, was overwhelming me at that very point. If you annoyed me, you died. If you didn’t, you lived. It was a simple rule, but an effective one. A maniacal smile played upon my lips as the weak fell by the wayside and the strong ones grew under my care… Sorry, am I scaring you yet? Anyway…

I had become an evil Medic, one that chose who was going to have fun and who was going to spend lots of time taking trips to the respawn room. Is this the right way to play the class? Absolutely not. It’s practically the opposite. But is this a fun way of playing the class? I’m ashamed to say that it was. I’d never make it a definitive practise of mine, but I now know that if someone doesn’t treat my medical skills in the right way, I can make them suffer. But its not something limited just to me – You yourself can make the whole game fall into the palm of your hands! Try it some time, if you dare, but be wary with the knowledge that such power could corrupt you in a way that you’ll never turn back…

Cheers to Herpers for the pic!

42 Responses to “When Medics go Bad”

  1. Paper Shadow responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 8:25 am #

    I wish people thank me for pictures… :S

  2. n00bie51 responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 8:45 am #

    You didn’t need to block out the player’s name. After all, madlep wasn’t afraid to expose a certain clan for griefing players on their server or mention the name of an obnoxious team killer in Left 4 Dead, even going so far as to look ‘em up on the Internets.

    http://www.ubercharged.net/2008/02/19/badlands-is-a-magnet-for-exploiters-griefers-and-dumb-asses/

    http://boomercharged.net/2008/11/22/left-4-grief/

  3. Himmelstoss responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:01 am #

    I took the liberty of fixing your spelling mistakes, because “could of” is just not the same as “could have”.

  4. CrabGuy responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:10 am #

    Short but sweet, just the way I like ‘em

  5. Captain Muffins responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:20 am #

    Good choice bro. I can relate. I never heal people with eGO tags.

  6. Jynx responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:32 am #

    that’s not evil, it’s merely grumpy. evil is when you coax him out into a withering hailstorm of bullets and rockets before abandoning him.

    or better yet, ubering him, sending him out, and then switching your uber target.

    that is evil.

  7. Sanns responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:45 am #

    Well THERE’S your problem–you’re playing on the xbox version.

    Seriously, though, there are plenty of who take a bit of damage, duck behind a corner while harping on & on for a medic, wait for a medic to start healing them…and then lunge back into battle while still at half-health, expecting their medic to just keep healing them indefinately. Meanwhile, the line of teammates waiting just to be topped off grows and grows. This “tactic” greatly annoys me. If it’s a solid player, I’ll usually let it slide, but I find often the BEST thing you can do in this situation is NOT heal the maniac trying to hog all your attention. The delusions of Rambo-ism usually fade after the first few deaths, and then he’ll adjust his playstyle accordingly. Not sure why exactly your heavy buddy didn’t.

  8. Cloud responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 10:13 am #

    Well playing on the 360 version, in general any console, is likely to attract these sorts of players. When I play Heavy I do this occaisionally actually… but it usually tends to be if a medic is healing me, I tell him I’m going to rush in to a point to take out the people in there, and he RUNS OFF, ubering his friend, or some random other person. Incredibly annoying, when they know you’re going to do it, you give em warning, and yet they still don’t heal you at the critical moment. Sure, by all means go off with someone else when I’m not about to get shot at, but not while walking onto a point….

    I wish medics paid more attention sometimes… though usually they do :D

  9. cardboard responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 10:40 am #

    The xbox actually has a lot of good players, and as of late we’ve been seeing less and less of the useless classes (pessimistic engy is still a problem though). You just got rather unlucky with that kid.

  10. Sarda responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 10:44 am #

    Well, I say that about 5 weeks after the last class update, we may actually see servers completely clear of people who A: have no clue how to play(not new people, but n00bs, to use the slang) or B: would rather nobody was able to play.

  11. Neuromante responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 10:51 am #

    Well played, Doc.
    I myself found lot of times playing the “Evil Medic”, watching how stupid players died over and over again just because they think I have to stick to their butts and forgot of the rest of the team.

    Fortunately, that kind of behavior it’s almost worn off public servers, and players use to be a little more educated with their fellow medics. And I’m glad of it.

  12. Deepsmeg responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 11:15 am #

    “I had become an evil Medic, one that chose who was going to have fun and who was going to spend lots of time taking trips to the respawn room.”

    Surely they’d be having very quick trips to respawn?

  13. sheepshifter responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 12:36 pm #

    NO, SONIC!

    Quickly, someone splash holy water on him!

  14. Grell responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 1:35 pm #

    I sometimes do this to people who are rude to their teammates. The underlying hope is that they (like your heavy) will get so frustrated they’ll disconnect.

  15. Anonymous responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 1:59 pm #

    Usually, I’m in the top 3 when I play a whole round as medic so I hardly ever get complaints about my medic-ing. If anybody complains, it would be me when I’m 15 points ahead of the rest of the team.

  16. Superlooper5 responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 2:20 pm #

    I play medic on the 360 and Im one of the better medics out there for the 360 I don’t heal people if their rude or in general just annoy me im talking to you 10 year olds

  17. ASD responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 2:29 pm #

    Pretend to uber someone and back away once your target rushes into hell. Works every time.

  18. DrDevious responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 4:11 pm #

    that’s my mentality
    ;D you did well doctor!
    I enjoy seeing the week become canon fodder
    it lightens the mood whenever things have gone horribly wrong.

    Also
    I HATE medic leechers.
    It’s terrible!
    I quickly heal/ buff, leave, then it’s like a newborn baby.. ><

  19. gelugon2105 responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 7:40 pm #

    Fortunately, in the part of the world where I live in and the servers that I play in, there are few such people, or I have yet to encounter one.

    However, there are people who will scold Medics if they ignore a team-mate who is burning to death, or even worse, spy-check them even though the color of the fires dancing around them is the same color as his gloves. In my opinion, such Medics are lousy and deserve verbal abuse. Especially more so for those who ignored friendly medics on fire.

  20. soylent robot responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 8:23 pm #

    heheheheh XD i do this all the time
    push me off a teleport, or (worse) i see you pushing a heavy off one? no healing for you
    constantly insult me n other players for not being to your crazy standard? no healing for you
    spam the medic button when youre at full health? damn right i wont heal you
    (the worse offence) both of us are burning to death, and yet you still grab a medkit when im healing you? i note down your name and you never get healed again EVER
    okay, i might be a little zealous when it comes to this, but god help me if you piss me off im gonna bonesaw taunt while you run around me screaming about the burning

  21. Nonomu198 responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:17 pm #

    As a Medic, it is not your role to choose who to heal and who not to heal. Only horrible people do selective healing, and you shouldn’t encourage it.

    And while the Heavy might be a stupid jerk, you are not the best Medic either. Medics do need to pick someone to push with, they are not dispensers. You shouldn’t be a so called, “Medic Whore”, or a “Portable Dispenser”, healing everybody all the time. It is usually a good tactic to follow some guy around and push with him.

  22. Nonomu198 responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 9:21 pm #

    Himmelstoss, I’d like to join you in your grammar and spelling crusade, and mention that it still says “wouldn’t of healed”.

  23. Sinister Minister responded on 27 Mar 2009 at 11:08 pm #

    All these people saying “lol the problem is ur playing the 360 version”? I applaud your stupidity. Every version has its share of idiots, and if you say otherwise, you’re one of them.

  24. GanGGoRiLLa responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 12:00 am #

    I can relate I hate when stupid Xbox players send me messages trying to trash talk. Honestly, you’re just pissing the people off and if they’re host then they’ll just kick you after the games over. In my opinion just respect all your teammates, and if you’re pissed at your teammates just try talking it over with them.

  25. Nessmk2 responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 1:55 am #

    I think you were justified. THe first time I went ‘evil medic’ was when I ubered a soldier to push with and… he just started taunting. With his rocket launcher no less. I switched targets, but half my precious uber was wasted (I wasn’t watching when he started taunting, so I couldn’t switch right away. I had assumed he was reloading or stuck on a corner until I looked.)

    Needless to say the SOB didn’t get a drop of healing from me for the rest of the game. Guy came up, burning, health red, about to die, crying medic, and…

    I taunted.

    God it felt good.

  26. Pyrit responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 5:03 am #

    I hate Medics who give you the false impression that they’re going to uber you, so you get ready, charge in, they Uber, then suddenly they go “actually, on second thoughts…” and stop ubering you whilst you run out into a nest of Sentries…

  27. sam responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 5:42 am #

    I generally don’t heal people who are mashing the shit out of their ‘e’-key while at (near) full health. But I don’t consider myself to be evil, I’m just giving them a lesson. Or maybe that’s just my twisted logic.

  28. Teridax responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 5:49 am #

    Someone get an old priest and a young priest. altogether now:

    THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU

    THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU

    For the ones who haven’t seen the Exorcist, that’s where the joke’s from.

    Anyway, I should take your advice. I hate it when a Scout goes right into an enemy cluster and thinks that you can heal him more by pressing M1 harder. Or heal him at all. You also forgot one evil Medic protip:

    If you see an enemy disguised Spy, heal him. Like this, when he kills your team you get an assist point!

  29. Secret Agent Clank! responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 6:31 am #

    Good to see people being put in their place, especially those who don’t even gramer rihgt. *thumbs up*

    There was this one time (I’m sure I’ve mentioned this somewhere before) with this Heavy that I’m sure had a script to call for Medic every few seconds. Seriously, he would not stop yelling; during setup, during fights, when he was still in spawn, when I was in spawn and he was by a dispenser, when he was being ubered… even during humiliation.

    BUT! He was a great Heavy. Netted a few kills for every death, even without ubers/kritzes. If every Medic spammer was like this, I wouldn’t mind so much.

  30. Killa-Ewok responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 7:10 am #

    “I have become Medic, annoyer of fags.”

  31. Dan responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 7:20 am #

    I recall once doing nothing while a previously rude, burning teammate danced around me, apologetically asking for healing. It felt a bit good.

  32. ExAstris responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 7:34 am #

    My policy has always been that if you’re being obnoxious to me or one of my friends, I will not show you preferential treatment. In the case of being a medic, that means that after one incident I won’t follow you into battle to heal you. After two, I won’t heal you entirely. I don’t care if you’re the only heavy on the team or if you can tap e 40 times in every simultaneous millisecond, I won’t help you if you’re being an asshole. If you don’t like it, switch teams and let someone else come play – or better yet, find some delicious sandvitches. If you do not have a delicious sandvitch, then you are a baby anyway.

  33. Sarda responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 7:53 am #

    I’d rather the uber tempting stays where it is absolutely sure the person on the receiving end deserves it. I feel like this has been spilling over onto the people who have done nothing wrong, because too many times have I seen good players who haven’t been abusing their medics go running out to do something important, and then their medic just sits there while they run out of range.

    Too many times has this happened to me also, and it’s extremely annoying where I play normally because the server has 100% crits(at 2X rather than 3X damage), so if you were expecting an uber, you die even faster than in normal servers.

  34. sssssssqqq responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 8:24 am #

    I love you Sinister Mister

  35. Sehnheiser responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 11:12 am #

    I wish I would just leave rude players to burn to the ground, but then I would feel guilty. Darn.

    @ Nonomu198: I agree with you, but I wonder if being a “Portable Dispenser” is actually wrong when you’re part of a team with very few Medics. Perhaps, in that case, running around healing everybody would be a better tactic.

  36. Arsenal IV responded on 28 Mar 2009 at 7:50 pm #

    I think I know who that was. I’ve seen that Gamer pic before. Got the same message too. I wrote back and told him, “I’m god here, I decide who lives and who dies. Too bad it wasn’t your time to live huh?”. I bet he gave me bad player rep.

  37. BathrobeAssassin responded on 31 Mar 2009 at 4:34 am #

    I really don’t understand the mindset of Medics who get frustrated over people calling for healing when they don’t need it.

    No, really. I am an above average Medic and I wasn’t even aware for the longest time that it was even an issue.

    But then, people find an excuse to sob wretchedly about anything that upsets them, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

    So what next? You going to whine for a patch that only allows players to call for a medic when they have low health?

    You people.

  38. Dark Master responded on 31 Mar 2009 at 4:58 am #

    supremesonic, you arn’t scaring me, you’re making me smile. You are no longer the benevolant hero doctor, you are the one who makes tactical choises to who lives, so that those on your side do, and those who arn’t, don’t. Your are quickly on your way to becoming the tyranical overlord archtype.

  39. Notger responded on 31 Mar 2009 at 7:46 pm #

    supremesonic, that is the CORRECT way to play medic: Make them fear and revere you, for thou hast the power to give live and time. :)

  40. Niphrendil responded on 31 Mar 2009 at 11:48 pm #

    Hahaha…great story!

    I basically learned to play tf2 as a medic and I made a medic policy long ago that if a person insulted me for no good reason as a medic they could kiss any heals or ubers good-bye. Medic is my best class and I know I am not a crap medic so I figure if they are saying things of that nature then they are not all that good and would be a waste of my time to heal them. The power is gratifying. It is the only class where you can demand your teammates respect you or else.

  41. ?????? ??????????? responded on 26 May 2009 at 1:45 am #

    ?? ?????? ???????? ??????????, ??? ?? ????, ?????????? ????? ??? ??? ??? ??????????

  42. ?a???a? responded on 23 Aug 2009 at 4:46 pm #

    +1 ? ??????????? ???????? :)

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