where are my fellow medics?

Discussion in 'Combat Medic' started by Kalari, Apr 23, 2017.

  1. Kalari

    just came back to planetside after a 2 year break. and as i take up my carnage and medtool and hit the field i look around and see a very large lack of medics.

    so where did we all go? did something happen while i was in that big nanite pile in the sky?
  2. BrbImAFK

    Everybody rolled HA or bolt-****ter to farm KDR.....
    • Up x 5
  3. TheSunlikeOne


    AR's minimum damage was reduced.
  4. REZistance

    Funny you say that, I hadn't played since 2015 and just reinstalled it a couple of days ago. I play on Connery and there are tons of medics here. So many that I don't feel too guilty by not being a pure reviver/healer and spending some time working on my NS-11 platinum version for the exceptional directive :p

    (I really want that black camo)
  5. Littleman

    This. You're either a medic out of charity or because you're too incompetent to shoot a gun straight and need to get exp somehow.

    The game's been HA or infil or bust since release. Everything else is a flavor variety of cannon fodder for these two.
  6. Eternaloptimist

    They are not that common where I am on EU servers. When I run medic I'm usually the only one around or, if I am lucky, there'll be one other to rezz me when I die. Yet srtangely, when I look at the map I see quite a lot of medic symbols in some other battle..............

    I get more xp as engie and more kills with carbine. I am CQC combat orientated, like when I play medic

    The HA shield is certainly a big draw. I have my LA and engie optimised for CQC with nanoweave, high RoF carbine, laser and SPA but I still get taken down sometimes by an HA with shield and LMG. IIRC LA is the second most played class after HA...........
  7. DemonicTreerat

    First light and heavy assaults are examples of extremely one-dimensional play. You kill things. All your abilities either help you do damage, or stay alive to do damage. Easy to grasp, easy to min-max, and easy to track your "progress" via K/D or some other arbitrary value. Something like that attracts people whose focus is killing "planetmans" or topping the leader boards.

    Medics, engineers, and decent infiltrators have to make a basic choice in every situation. Do you focus on killing the other guy or do you prioritize healing/ repairing/ information gathering? Not just at the start of that life but every singe second of every firefight. That takes a much greater degree of mental gymnastics and an ability to adapt and act in a situation where you may (or likely) won't have all the information you need. Add in that these classes can have their greatest impact on a battle in ways that don't lend themselves to easy stat tracking, and you have the classic "healers problem". Everyone wants one, everyone thinks they can be good at one, everyone thinks they know more about the class than you, but none of these "experts" want to put up with the sheer bullcrap that comes with being one.

    That said I haven't exactly seen a shortage per say. Most large fights on Emerald have plenty of medics, at least on the NC side. In larger fights however there just aren't enough of us to cover every ten meters of the front line, which inevitably means someone doesn't get a revive. Even when there are enough of us someone always fails to note that yes we know you're down, and yes we'll revive you. First however we need to kill the SOB that killed you and is trying to do the same to us so we can't undo their effort.
  8. OldMaster80

    And incredibly there is still people stating we do not have problems with kdr driving people away from objectives.

    The game fails at rewarding people for doing what the faction needs them to do. It's all about kills.
    The only time I've seen Medics population literally take off was a few months ago when there was bug cancelling 1 death counter any time one revived a comrade. Medics just triplicated as everyone was desperately trying to boost the kdr.

    That's ridiculous.
    • Up x 3
  9. Littleman

    Unfortunately, that SOB most likely doesn't have to reload for another 2-3 kills at least and has most of their shielding left still. God forbid if some mixture of my ping, their ping, and the server's being poop makes them appear to be moving faster than normal even with nanomesh active.
    • Up x 1
  10. Eternaloptimist

    But my medic and engie avatars make hugely more in regular cert gain than just killing planetmans would achieve.I don't even have to stop fightinhg to do it, with deployed shield generator, rezz 'nades and ammo packs hardly interrupting my focus on fighting.

    When I first started playing the overshield and the big mag on the LMG were a strong attraction for a noob like me who knew he was going to get killed a lot without some help. I suspect that these benefits, plus the RL, making HA versatile "hard men" are what what make HA popular, rather than the cert gaining potential of just killing enemies.
  11. Musashioni

    This is an issue on console as well and as a medic main (highest revives 1750 rev ribbons approx) it is a growing concern.

    There have always been the medium-assaults aka medics who just self heal but it is growing more abundant. I have better luck with day 1 medics typically than mid BR medics, as they actually try to do their job.

    DBG has a conundrum on their hands. HAs are built to win and the developers know it. Why else would they give full nanoweave to new players for HA from day 1? So many play HA that if they nerf the class again, the pop will drop massively; ergo, we are left with a class thar should have been properly fixed years ago. Streamers lile Camikazee78 had good suggestions but they went an entirely different way.


    To try to keep the game from being solely HAs, they are empowering the LA but this is far from a fix. With the new implants, engis are questionable for necessity and medics, aside from reviving, are not needed for healing. It is only natural that we are seeing medics drop off.


    I don't blame a day 1 player going HA. It is their best chance and the "meta". Resist shield working for headshots is ridiculous but it is what it is and changing it now would cause far too much backlash. The nerf to ARs just finalised the gap and while on paper it isn't substantial, I haven't even touched a carnage and I had to put my favorite (nc1) on the shelf. The tross/reaper were untouched thankfully but the large variety I felt we had is dwindling.

    My biggest gripe is dumbfires/AI mines. If I go max flak, I significantly reduce my odds against HAs without self heal/nano. I'll be happy to see this go as it is very annoying to be the only medic on point and a heavy runs past friendlies and dumbfires you in the back. Of course they then see him and kill him but alas you are left dead and frustrated. Maybe this isn't as common on pc but on the console many low level and even high levels will do this.

    Essentially, if you are medic reading this today and deciding on a weapon you need to ask yourself this before 99% of your decisions: Will this setup help me kill an HA? This is what you are going to be facing and need to build around. Accept it and work with it, if you want to be a medic main. Pray they don't have resist and/or poor aim. If you are really lucky, you'll have a medic with you. 2 medics are very strong but a solo medic doing their job, sadly doesn't have a great life expectancy. I love the class and I refuse to give it up but i cannot in good conscience advise new players to choose this path when there are better options. Even if you cannot aim, medic isn't a great option. You would be better off losing as an HA or LA and improving over time. Being a medic that can fight decently, requires decent accuracy and good hipfire. You need a lot of map awareness. This is far from a new player friendly class.
    • Up x 3
  12. Den

    Simple solution.
    Give jetpacks to Medic and Engineer. Viability and appeal skyrockets, still won't encroach on the Sniperside/Heavyside meta.
  13. Gromwort

    There is a very little reason to play as a medic right now if you can just pick an invisible ninja sniper or i-win shield/easy mode class.Not only ARs has been nerfed, but everyone regenerating health easily now means medics aren't unique in starting every encounter with full health (witch indirectly caused another nerf).

    Having an ability to resurrect others is simply not enough, and how the game is currently played it's not really that important.

    I would say medics needs a complete redesign because they don't fit into this game anymore.
  14. Thaumatos

    You pick a skilled class and ask where the other skilled players are?

    Most of them left once they realized that people had a nub button to win (HA). And yes, that was years ago.

    DBG needs to make HA shields only effect vehicle damage...then we'll see a lot of people come back.
    • Up x 1
  15. Eternaloptimist

    There can be plenty of medics or not enough when I play on EU servers. It seems to depend on multiple factors that I cannot identify or maybe none - just random chance maybe.

    Best place to find (or to be) a medic is the meatgrinder scenarios. Good and reliable examples in my experience are SNA and trying to get out of the spawn room in an enemy held biolab - you know, the one you can access from a neighbouring base you own

    I do like the combat role of the medic but the reason I play it (instead of HA) is for the medic abilities on top of combat. In fact, HA is so boring to me nowadays that I only run one when I want to use the G2A launcher.

    I have not seen implants cause any reduction in my resupply or heal functions. So long as I am up close to where the fighting is I can respond faster than someone waiting for an implant to tick.

    My current formula for staying alive longer, fighting and still making a lot of certs from medic functions is:
    • nanoweave (necessary if up near the fighting)
    • aux armour (every little helps :))
    • shield generator + regen implant or nanite heal ability + battle hardened
    • rezz nade (I'd like more than one but not at the expense of swapping nano for grenade bando)
    • High RoF AR with decent medium range performance as well (Right now it is TORQ9, Carnage, Terminus)
    • for long range plinking I run Blackhand or if there is a sundy/spawn room nearby I may swap primary to burst AR
    I see too many medics taking insane and fatal risks to rezz someone because (I guess) they are too focused on doing that and not enough on what is going on around them. Lack of situational awareness could be one reason why some players are put off due to getting killed so often.
  16. ParakeetLord88

    The simple answer is that people seem to be more interested in farming than in actually progressing the goal of the game. They may well feel it's more fun, so I don't know who to blame for that.

    I do note that it seems reasonably easy to get people to switch to medic so I feel that many of the people who aren't playing medic at any moment are CAPABLE of being medic (and I mean have certed it out some) so it may be some kind of trend atm too.

    Really though, if you're the only medic, it gets frustrating quickly. I often threaten people that I will switch class if someone else doesn't go medic too - they then usually do.
  17. Drunk

    All medics probably are running in closed squads with their good outfits. Because effective squad should have 1/1 ratio between heavies and medics, and they know that very well ;)
  18. Dualice

    I play almost solely medic, when I can get on to play. My internet situation is rather ropy.

    I play in a small outfit on Cobalt where we often "medic ball" - 5 or 6 in a squad so there's almost always someone to res the team if we get swamped. On top of that assault rifles (especially TR ones) are my favourite class of weapon to use.

    Medic for me is a good mix of team support and firepower (and fireworks, a.k.a. C4). I like to get kills, certainly, but never leave a comrade downed as long as rezzing him/her doesn't involve suicide.
  19. MarauderW

    I also love combat medic. Especially since I got the C4. It reminds me very much of the combat medic from Battlefield 2142, and while here the viability of the medic in a combat scenario is less important, I still somehow kill, get certs, and enjoy myself as the first day I picked up my SCAR-11 (BF weapon).
  20. JobiWan

    I've only fairly recently starting playing medic seriously. Medics are definitely unloved. A few nights ago I spent about an hour rezzng and healing team mates in a hectic bio-lab fight.

    Not once did I get rezzed when I died. Most players were just interested in the farm.