If you happened to stumble across my guide, welcome and I hope that you enjoy the content.

Note that the title of the guide here says that "How to SURVIVE" instead of "How to FIGHT". As a medic, you are the weakest class in terms of combative skills. I can assure you that if you decided to fight against those classes head-on, you will die 99% of the time. This is why I will tell you how you can survive these encounters, and benefit your team with more healing support.

My name is Punish, a former jumper soldier main that currently mains medic. I have about 400 hours on the class at the time I wrote this, and I have a decent amount of experience in both casual and RGL competitive 6 vs. 6. Recently when I was playing casual, I see a lot of new medics that are completely stock, and the team would put their hatred on these new medics because these medics die a lot. Therefore, I have decided to make this guide to help newer medics to know more about the interactions against the other classes, and what you, as a medic, can do in those encounters.

• Before I begin, I must say that this guide is entirely based on my point of view, thus the opinions about the encounters are limited. I must also say that there are plenty of medic mains out there that are better than me, so that they may handle these encounters differently than I would. If you have other thing you would like to add to this guide, don't hesitate to leave a comment.
  
  
• These tips can be applied to both casual and competitive (Both 6 vs. 6 and Highlander), but I strongly recommend you to practice these in casual first before attempting competitive to polish your game sense.
  
  
• Throughout this guide, I will only use ONE medic loadout: Crusader's Crossbow, Stock Medi Gun, and Übersaw. I will not talk about the other medic loudouts as they would affect your medic playstyle overall.

Here are 4 tips I can give you to increase your overall survival rate:

• NEVER BE ALONE. If you are just wandering around the map by yourself, you will die 100% of the time if you get spotted, especially when you somehow ended up in the enemy territory. To prevent yourself from getting caught out, always stick by a teammate while maintaining a certain distance from them. This way, your patient will protect you to the best of his ability, and you can bail out if you know that your patient is going to die.
  
  
• ALWAYS BE AWARE. I cannot stress enough how important it is to be aware of your surroundings. When you are healing, you should always keep these questions in mind:
  
  
  • Will I get spotted by a sniper?
    
  • Will a spy backstab me right now if I don't turn around?
    
  • Will I get jumped by an enemy soldier/demoman soon? In which possible angle will the enemy soldier/demoman jump from?
  
  Always think about those questions and position yourself correctly, they will help you avoid most of the unnecessary deaths.
  
  
• IT IS OK TO BAIL ON YOUR PATIENT. As a medic, your life is way more valuable than the other classes. Because the longer you stay alive, the more healing you can do, and the longer your teammates can stay in the fight. Sometimes your patient would just forget everything, and go deep into the enemy territory. We call this "overextending", which is not a good thing to do since they entire enemy team can quickly kill both of you in a short period of time. If you realize that your patient is overextending, bail out and return to where your team is. Your pocket may dislike you doing that but you will be loved by the rest of your team.
  
  
• POP IT DON'T DROP IT. What it means is that when you have stock über ready, don't hesitate to activate it if you feel like your life is threatened. That means when you feel like a sniper can one shot you, or if you see your health decreased a lot in a short period of time. In those cases, use the über to escape and get back to your team. You can always rebuild another über, but if you die without deploying the über, you will give your team a huge disadvantage because now your team neither have heals, nor über to push/counter the enemy team. For starters, you should always abide by this tip. When you become more experienced, you can use your judgement to determine the best time to use your über.
  
  Eventrually, everything will become an instinct. Like this.[clips.twitch.tv]

Now, let's get into the meat of this guide: THE INTERACTION WITH THE OTHER CLASSES.

If you get caught by a scout, there is no way you can escape, since the scout's speed can quickly close the distance between you two. So if you decide to turn around and run away, he will chase you and kill you easily with 2-3 meatshots.

In this case, there are 2 things you can do:

• COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR TEAM. You can use the built-in voice chat in TF2 and inform your team that there is a scout focusing you. After that, the only thing you can do is to pray that your team can kill the scout before the scout kills you. I know this is stupid, but medic strongly depends on the skill of his teammates. And if you have some teammates around you, the scout will die pretty quickly.
  
  
• USE YOUR MOVEMENT. If your team is slightly further away from you, you should put the strafe keys to your advantage. Try to waste as many scattergun clips as possible, doing so not only increases the time it takes for the scout to take you down, but it also buys time for your more mobile teammates to get to where you are and deal with the scout.

Here is a competitive clip to demonstrate what to do.[streamable.com]

The case here is a bit extreme. In this clip, the enemy team counter-übered me right after my über faded away, and they decided to solo über a scout. At that point, I knew that I am definitely going to die. So I decided to lead the scout-medic combo deep into OUR side of the map and communicated to my team to get ready for post-über. Since the enemy combo is exclusively trying to take me down, they are not paying much attention to my teammates. So that when I die, my team can quickly focus them down after their über fades away. (Effective communication)

The next thing on my mind was that if I die too quickly, the enemy combo would immediately start to target my teammates and take them down, giving us a potentially big player disadvantage. Therefore, I decided to try my best and make the enemy scout miss as many shots as possible, which I did successfully. I died in the end, but my team quickly took down their overextending combo. (Using my movement)

To be fair, that might not be the smartest play, but I traded my life with the enemy medic and their combo scout. So I see this as an absolute win.

Soldier is another class that can quickly take you down with 2 rockets if he gets to you. But unlike scouts, the soldier can only effectively close in the distance between you two with rocket jumps, which is not that threatening compared to scouts. This also means that we can get away from soldiers if we play our cards right.

So, how can we get away from soldiers when they are trying to take you down?


This is where the awareness comes in handy. As a medic, you should always pay attention to the whereabouts of the enemy soldier. This can be done by looking UP occasionally, because soldier bombs are only effective when you are NOT paying attention to their presence. If you know that the soldier is jumping towards you, you can use his rocket to get away from him, thus increasing the distance once again, which will force the soldier either waste another rocket and health to get to you or get back to his team to replenish his health and ammo.

There are two types of surfs that you can do:

Surf type I: when you can see the rockets.[www.twitch.tv]

When you can see the enemy rockets, the rockets will most likely be aiming beside your feet. Try to estimate when the rocket is going to explode, and time a crouch-jump to surf the explosive, which is what I did in this clip.

Also, right after my surf, the enemy soldier decides to rocket jump at me to close the distance, but it's ineffective because he's out of clips (Black Box) and I'm already close to my spawn.

Surf type II: when you can't see the rockets.[www.twitch.tv]

When you see a soldier jumping you, you usually can't see his rockets. But we know that he will try his best to take you down, which means that the rockets are either going to be aimed towards you, or beside you. Try to estimate when the soldier will shoot the rocket, and time a crouch-jump to surf his explosive, which is what I did in this clip.

Note that after I have surfed, the soldier was surrounded by my team, which means that there was no getting out for him.

Remember, good soldiers will ALWAYS attempt to airshot you. When you are airborne, try to
do the following:

• Decrease your vertical airborne time as much as possible, because the longer you stay in the air, the more predictable you become, which makes the soldiers easier to hit you with a rocket.
  
  
• Utilize your strafe keys to dodge rockets as much as possible. If you have your übercharge ready, get ready to pop the second you feel like his rocket will hit you.
  
  A good way practice dodging is to get a soldier friend, and both of you join a MGE server and go to the endif arena. You play as a medic, and surf the rockets while he shoots at you. This can greatly help your timing of the surf, and how to dodge the rockets when you are airborne.
  
  
• Pay attention to your environment and your health. When surfing, your remaining health can help you make judgement calls, especially at judging if you can survive the fall damage or not. If not, check if there are any health pack or a high ground where you can land on.

Here's a clip that demonstrates the points above.[clips.twitch.tv]

In this clip, I got bombed by a soldier and I did not pay attention at all. Luckily, I picked up a banana and survived his second rocket while using it to surf away. While I was airborne, I saw that I only had 2 HP. At that moment, I was convinced that I would defnitely die regardless of where I land on. Then, I spotted a water puddle. Realizing that I would not take any damage if I fall into the water, I chose my landing location to be there. I also did some strafing in mid air just in case the soldier shot a rocket at me (which he did not because our heavy killed him right after I surfed).

Pyro is effective at protecting the team from explosive spams and spies, but at the same time the range of his weapon is limited. Therefore, surviving their attacks is easier than the previous classes if you keep the following things in mind:

• KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. As long as you stay out of the range of his flamethrower, he cannot deal any bodily harm towards you. If the enemy pyro get close to you, immediately communicate to your team and hope that they will take him down before you burn to death.
  
  Note: since the flame thrower deals consistent damage and damage over time (after-burn), you still have a good chance of surviving. Once you get out of the pyro’s effective range after he ignited you, look for health packs, dispensers, or ask a heavy to feed you a sandvich/banana.
  
  
• STAY AWAY FROM CLIFFS. I hate to say it, but cliffs automatically become a death zone when the enemy team has a pyro. If you are nearby a cliff, the enemy pyro will not hesitate to use their airblast and send you off the horizon, even if it cost his life. Therefore, stay close to your team and away from the cliffs, unless the pyro is dead.

Demoman is by far the most powerful class in the game because he is capable of dealing a huge amount of damage in a short period of time. There are three things you can do:

• PAY ATTENTION TO CHOKES. Chokepoints are where demoman shines the most, since he can just unleash all of his explosives in a tight space and effectively kill people within it. If you see grenade pipes or stickybombs flying out around a choke point, a demoman would most likely be there, ready to blow you up. Try stay out of their line of sight, and avoid contesting the chokes unless you have your übercharge ready.
  
  
• TRY TO SURF THEIR EXPLOSIVES. Just like soldiers, you can surf the demo’s explosives. If the enemy demo is using stickies, try to estimate when they will detonate the stickies, and surf out.
  
  Here's an example of surfing stickies.[clips.twitch.tv]
  
  Grenades are harder to surf since demos would usually aim their grenades at your torso instead of your feet, but it's easy to surf the rollers. With enough practice, you will know the timing of when the rollers explode after certain time. Use that knowledge to time your crouch-jump and surf out.
  
  
• USE YOUR MOVEMENT. Grenade launcher projectiles are really easy to dodge, so use your strafe key to avoid the grenades from hitting you. If you managed to waste all 4 grenades, the demo will either back up and reload their pipes, or rely on their stickies, which you can use to surf away from him.

There's nothing major needed to explain this encounter. If you get close to a heavy and he's revved, you are dead. When you see a heavy and he isn't revved up, just run, get as far away from him as possible. Usually you can survive the encounter if the heavy isn't revved, because heavy's slow speed cripples him from chasing his target.

But what if the heavy is revved? Well, there are two things you can do:

• START BUNNY HOPPING WHILE RUNNING AWAY. The reason to bunny hop is that you can use his bullets to your advantage, since the bullet will give you a "knock" every time you are in the air. This helps you get away from the heavy faster, and his gun is less effective the further away you get.
  
  
• UTILIZE THE CORNERS. Once a heavy is revved, his movement speed decreases drastically. This also cripples him from maneuvering around corners. If you see him, try to use the corners around him and get out of his line of sight. This way, by the time he turned around the corners you would be already back to safety.

Here's a clip to demonstrate what I've said.[clips.twitch.tv]

In this clip, I saw the muzzle flash of a heavy on the upper left of my screen, so I mentally prepared myself to get out when I have to. Unsurprisingly, the enemy heavy turns the corner and immediately started shooting me. I know that If I stay in the tunnel any longer, I will die since the heavy is using the tomislav which gives him an advantage on mid-range targets. Therefore, I turned around and started bunny hopping, and I rode his bullet knockback and used the corner to get out of his line of sight. After my escape, I saw that I am surrounded by my teammates and a friendly medic gave me the overheal, so I knew that I was back to safety again.

Heavy's POV[clips.twitch.tv]

This match-up rarely comes up because an engineer is usually behind his team playing single player mode with his buildings. Engineer serves as a "backup" for his team since he creates a fort where his team can fall back to when they are in trouble. My best advice for you against an engineer is that never approach his sentry gun unless you have your übercharge ready to conduct a push. Don't contest mini-sentries either, wait for your team to take it down, then you can advance with your team.

What if the engineer somehow got close to you? Well, he is basically a scout but slow, and it should be easier for your team to deal with. You can use the tips in the "Against Scouts" section to survive against him.

A few more thing that you can do is that you can use his shotgun bullets knock back to increase the distance between you two. You should also turn around periodically to keep him in sight while pester him with the crossbow. Shotguns deal less damage the further away you are, and landing your crossbow shots will most likely force the enemy engineer to retreat back to his team.

Just like the engineer, the enemy medic would usually be behind the enemy team while keeping them in the fight. Therefore, this scenario is very unlikely to happen. However, if you somehow ended up in a medic face-off, it all boils down to who has a better crossbow aim.

Try not to engage in a melee fight against the enemy medic, because there is a large chance of him landing a crit on you (in causal servers). Maintain a distance against the enemy medic and pester him with the crossbow while dodging his crossbow at the same time. This way, you can back up if you are losing, and you can deal more damage if you can land your shots.

Sniper exists to make your life hell, because a good sniper can instantly delete you at any range. If you find a sniper looking at you, find a cover and HIDE, don't ever show your face again unless:

• The sniper is dead.
  
  
• He's off to peek somewhere else.

Here's a clip showing why you should never be in a sniper sightline.[clips.twitch.tv]

In this clip, I was building an übercharge behind a cover, getting ready to push into the last point. But at that time, I did not hear the sound of a sniper rifle shooting at my teammates, or the sniper dot on the wall behind me. After having my über ready, I walked out of the cover and ready to deploy it on our demoman, and I got dropped by the enemy sniper with a fully charged bodyshot. It was entirely my fault for not paying attention, which is exactly why you should NEVER get into a sniper sight-line.

Keep in mind that good snipers will always try to get you killed by any means necessary. What that means is that if they see you getting out of your cover, they will not hesitate to shoot you with a fully charged bodyshot, which is exactly the damage it needs to take you down assuming you are not overhealed. This really shows how important the medic is, and why you should value your life above your teammates'.

Here's another example.[clips.twitch.tv]

In this clip, I had my übercharge ready, and I was saving it so that I can counter-über if the enemy team uses their übercharge on us. Unfortunately, I got jarated and got down to 60 HP immediately, so I was forced to use my über and conducted a mini push with my patient. During my übercharge, I was prioritizing healing and flashing über on my teammates so that they can fall back. This decision lead to me ignoring the enemy sniper who retreated behind the rocks and positioned himself near the left spawn door, which gives him a clear sight-line to where I was standing. When the über faded away, I assumed that the enemy sniper was at the right side of their spawn since our sniper was looking that way. Which leads to me getting killed by a headshot that sent my ragdoll flying.

Effective communication can help you hide from snipers as well. Listen for your team’s callouts on where the enemy sniper is, and chose your hiding spots accordingly. When your teammate died to the sniper, always ask them where the sniper killed them from. Good snipers will always be on the move, which means that they will never snipe people over and over again in the same spot. Use this knowledge and try to predict where the sniper will move to next, and change your hiding spot based on that information.

On a side note, if you do manage to catch a sniper hard scoping without paying attention to his surroundings. Well, what can I say except for *FREE 50% ÜBERCHARGE*.

To be fair, spy shouldn't be that much of a bother to you. A good spy will only try to stab you when you are not paying attention to your surroundings, especially your back. Therefore, always turn around once in a while, and if you see something suspicious, communicate to your team about a possible Spy inbound, and he will be easily deleted by your teammates.

If you are in a face-off against a spy, try not to go for melees. Good spies will always attempt to trickstab you if you get close. Instead, try to get a certain disatance away from him and shoot your crossbow. This limits the spy to use his revolver, which can either be dodged if you utilize your movement, or be used as a way to surf out using the knockback.

Here I tried to melee a spy and I got trickstabbed.[www.twitch.tv]

On another note,
only go for melees if you know all the possible trickstabs and how to counter them.[www.twitch.tv]

Even in the clip above the second spy could've stabbed me if he didn't pull out his gun.

Thank you for taking your time to go through this guide. I hope this guide gave you some insights on what to do as a medic when you are interacting with each class in TF2.

Here's a bonus clip of my medic career highlight.[streamable.com]

In fact, the clip above made it in a NISLT video. You can check out the video here.