Guide: Medic

Introduction

OvD has pretty specific expectations when it comes to the duties expected of your class choice. Unfortunately, much of this information is stuff that you can’t possibly know unless someone takes the time to tell you. This series aims to provide comprehensive class-by-class information in a permanent and easily-accessible format.

First step is to buy the recommended items. Please note that you will have to set up your class in Public1, and log out of the game once you are set-up in order to save your changes going forward. Otherwise you will have to buy all of this again every time that you enter the OvD arena.

Items

Needler
Medic Beamer
Teleport Summoner
CMP4 Combat Armor
EMP Generator
Suit SuperCharger
Teleport Disruptor
Medikit
Deluxe Medikit

EMP Generator is a fairly late addition to CTFPL. It doesn’t provide very amazing protection, and you certainly aren’t immune to shotgun damage as you would be with IDF generator. (IDF Generator, no matter the class, literally makes you IMMUNE to shotgun damage unless the generator is turned off by reaching 0 energy.) HOWEVER, EMP Generator costs 5 kj/s less (energy per second) to maintain than PF or IDF, meaning you regain energy faster while using EMP Generator than any other armor generator. It gives mild protection against explosive damage while at high energy.

Some medics like to carry Stunner. I don’t like the amount of energy that stunner drains just to shoot it, and in my opinion there’s really no reason to carry it, the delay between tranq shots is very low already, and defensive players will drop a virtually unlimited supply of tranqs for you. In addition, it adds another load in your queue, and load time = time you aren’t healing, EB’ing, or loading your important healkits/summoner. All that being said, it is generally accepted for a medic to carry stunner if you choose.

~Ammo buy macro, to be used every time you visit the dropship~

?buy tranq:10,energizer:2,stim pack:2,frag grenade:4,teleport beacon:2,repulsor coil:3
I keep 2 stim packs in my buy macro in desperate hopes that CTFX will someday make a return.

job description

The medic in an OvD is the “anchor”. This means that the medic is in charge of ensuring there is always a safe player for respawning teammates to attach to (95% of the time, the medic themselves must be the safe player to attach to). This, above everything else is their most important role. Secondly, they provide heals, energy drain, and tranq stuns for the defense. Prioritize heals to the D infs, giving them more effective hp is the best way to slow the game down to your team’s benefit.

The Best Gun in the Game

Electron Beamer has been re-colored and renamed for each class, but it is the exact same gun, otherwise. Electron Beamer, in this case Medic Beamer, is the best gun in the OvD/CTFPL world. Not only does it have superior energy drain, but it actually prevents energy from being recovered for a split second every time it lands, which increases the actual amount drained, and period of vulnerability the target endures much higher. In addition, it can turn all of your target’s utility slots off, including PF/IDF generators if they reach zero energy. Using EB is almost always better than using a tranq during normal combat. Landed EB equals increased incidental damage from your team’s turrets, grenades, assault rifles, heavy weapons’ fire, and even shotgun on p6 infs. If your team doesn’t need heals, and your Medikits are loaded, you should be using your Medic Beamer. Throw in an occasional aimed tranq to elevate your play, but focus on drain support and healing, along with anchoring.

Medikit vs Deluxe Medikit

Medikit for 1 tsolvy is more efficient than Deluxe Medikit. Deluxe Medikit costs 5 tsolvy, for a quick, large heal, and should be used in emergency situations. In many cases, if your intended infantry heal target is going to take more than the 30hp that your Medikit would heal, (60 then 90 because you can keep spamming it pretty quickly) especially if they are low energy and out of repulsors, they were going to die anyways. Spamming Medikit provides the most stable healing for your defense. Use it before your team even takes damage, as soon as you see bullets that will damage your team, hit Medikit, because it is healing over time, and will heal your guys as they take the damage, all for 1 tsolvy a pop.

Loads, energy, and ammo

As stated, playing medic is primarily about always being in the right place. A large part of enabling yourself to live long enough to perform this job is managing your loads, energy, and ammo. The important ammo is repulsors, energizers, and teleport beacons. Your medikits and teleport summoner have long load times, and if you use any other weapon or utility while you have one of those things on “load”, it resets their load timers and you will be stuck unable to use them for a longer period of time. This can cost your defense the game, getting stuck unable to heal. Every item besides tranq that you will use costs energy, and running out of energy will also cost your team some bad deaths. To avoid these problems, you can do the following things:

– Don’t use anything at all after summoning a player until Teleport Summoner is loaded
– Don’t use anything at all after using Medikit until Medikit is loaded
– Turn your EMP Generator off when you aren’t under direct fire
– Turn your TD off when they have no chance of being within the flag room in the next 5 seconds, AND their SL is not currently within your TD range.
– Save 1 energizer so that you can place a Teleport Beacon in a safe spot, energize to recover the 300 energy, go to the dropship to use your buy macro, and Teleport Beacon back to the safe spot. This sequence should take no more than 2 seconds. You’ll be back with full repulsors, energizers, and teleport beacons quickly.

Teleport Beacon Flanking

The last, and most advanced technique to be mastered is the Teleport Beacon Flank. Performing this maneuver at the wrong time will result in the defense potentially being cleared. At the correct time, your defense will clear them, and give your engineer valuable time to go mining for titanium oxide.

As mentioned many times before, your primary job will be to anchor for the defense. So when you do decide to make a big, aggressive move like a TB flank, you have to make sure that there is someone that will remain relatively safe to act as anchor while you put yourself at extreme risk. Designating this person, and communicating this designation to your team is the first, and arguably most important step. It can be the engineer, if the turrets are in good shape and they are present at the base and don’t imminently need to leave to mine. Defensive Heavy is also a good choice. Last choice would be a responsive D inf.

Never TB unless your team has superior numbers, and offense has suffered at LEAST two deaths. The warp is the easy part; causing all of the enemy to die with this bold move is another. First thing to do when you warp is to tranq the Squad Leader. If you are in danger, you need to be dodging and tranqing, if you aren’t taking direct and heavy fire, you can be shooting Medic Beamer at the Squad Leader to ensure his quick death as your team pushes with the numbers advantage that they have. Tranq and Medic Beamer are the only two things you need to clear a Squad Leader generally, because you have timed your blink so that your defensive fighters will push up to you shortly to finish him off. Fragging the SL is the last resort, as it is easily countered by a repulsor, or tk’s you at face2nade range.

Some medics carry the fast-firing SMG, to drain and damage/kill SL’s during TB flanks. This is also a viable option, but I prefer to EB, the drain is better and it can shut their generator off, resulting in their death from 2-3 assault rifle bullets as the d infs catch up to you. Point being, if you TB and end up in a situation where you MUST deal damage to the SL to clear him, then you probably TB’d too early and without enough support forthcoming.

~ A7 Positions ~

TB Flank location (and expected Squad Leader positions)
https://imgur.com/a/wA7ivvb

First Position:
https://imgur.com/a/kIUeptL

Second Position:
https://imgur.com/a/texMWSZ

Third Position:
https://imgur.com/a/1MKOfjB

Flag Room:
https://imgur.com/a/NTFAHT9

~ D7 Positions ~

TB Flank location (and expected Squad Leader positions)
https://imgur.com/a/yO7bFpb

First Position:
https://imgur.com/a/04wjw0F

Second Position:
https://imgur.com/a/gjGoBKn

Third Position:
https://imgur.com/a/9gWzOFz

Flag Room:
https://imgur.com/a/Ea9x4x0