[Suggestion] Make Medic more appealing

Discussion in 'Combat Medic' started by Halkesh, Aug 30, 2017.

  1. Halkesh

    I think medic should have more interesting equipment so more people will play as medic. Which mean less heavy and more heal/revive for everyone.
    Currently, you only want a medic ally near you when no sundy is available or when you want a high KDR, but everyone expect the other one to take medic.
    Also, in infantry against vehicle scenario, medic aren't fun to play since all they can do is hide in a corner and wait for ally to die so they can revive them.

    So, that's what I'm suggesting to improve medic gameplay.

    Improve medic AV capability by giving them the AV grenade
    As i said earlier, medic need something to be more useless when fighting vehicle. AV grenade is a great tool to defend themselves against close-mid range vehicle without being too OP : even with 4 AV grenade, you'll need ally to finish the vehicle.

    Buff healing grenade
    This buff will make it a strong tool to breach a well defended position.
    -Now is a sticky grenade
    -Heal 100 HP per sec (unchanged)
    -Heal 75 Shield Point when the health is full
    -Give 35 overshield when the shield is full
    -Overshield have a 300 cap and can last up to 20 sec.
    -Now cost 75 nanite (from 25)

    Buff triage
    Triage is a good way to heal MAX, now it also replace your regeneration implant. You're a medic after all.
    -Unchanged while inside a vehicle.
    -When outside a vehicle and not taking health damage for 6 sec, start triage regeneration for the medic only.

    Buff medic ability
    Medic ability all receive a buff so they fit their role better, there are new medic ability to fit other roles.

    Nano-Regen Device "Self-heal" (combat)
    It's the best choice for combat-focused medic since you keep your weapon in the hands while supporting allies (or yourself). Shield regeneration allow to fight enemy more often.
    -Heal 70 hp per sec (unchanged)
    -Heal 50 shield per sec when target's health is full

    Shield Regeneration Device (resilient support)
    This beacon is massively buffed when out of combat to work as it's original concept : regenerate the shield so you'll fight more often. Due to the use resilience improvement, it's a best tool if you like to use cover a lot.
    -Heal 250 shield per sec when not taking damage for 2 sec
    -Heal 50 shield per sec while in combat (unchanged)

    New medic ability
    Bastion device (resistance support)
    This beacon create a strongpoint by giving a noticeable resistance bonus against small weapons and prevent from being instant killed.
    -Create a beacon with the same radius as SRD
    -Allies within the area get a 25% damage reduction from small weapons. (stack is multiplicative with other resistance source, HA overshield and Healing grenade overshield
    -Allies within the area are granted the Shield Gate passive : everytime their shield drop to 0, the excess damage are reduced by 80%, the damage reduction last for 0,1sec. Shield Gate is on CD until shield is full.

    Example : two C4 deal 2500dmg, infantry have 500 sp and 500 hp, shield gate reduce damage by 80%.
    C4 deal 550 dmg to shield who drop to 0, then the excess damage are reduced by 80% (2500-500=2000; 2000*0.2=400). Infantry still has 100 hp left after being hit by 2 C4.


    Attrition grenade (assault / harass support)
    This tool is great to prepare to assault a strong point by weakening enemy and destroying deployable or shoting on their back while they're trying to destroy the grenade.
    -Throw a grenade that last until destroyed (same HP as the SRD).
    -Infinite ammo with a 10-20 sec cooldown, limited to 1 active grenade at the same time
    -It have the same radius as the SRD, enemy deployables, dropable items, mana turrets and infantry personal shields in the area take 100 damage per sec (can't damage enemy health, don't damage ally at all).



    Do you think all these suggestion can improve medic gameplay and will make it more appealing ?
  2. ElricVIII

    Medic is already a powerful class, so a lot of these changes could make it overpowered. What needs to be done it to make the transition between support and offense smoother. Taking out your healing tool means that you are defenseless for quite some time. The medic's utility and tool need to be reworked such that revive is an activated ability that can be used while you still have your weapon out.That's what kills the class for me the most. I pretty much play it as a "medium assault" with the nano regen and only revive when there are no threats left.


    The Medical Applicator tool needs to become an ability that you can use with your weapon out and have a resource bar that depletes fully after each use. It would still require 1-2 seconds to take effect, just like the tool does now, but it would trade defenselessness for a cooldown on use. You can make two versions where on lets the cert upgrades increase recharge rate and the other decreases time to revive.

    Once you do that, you have 2 simple options to change the abilities:
    - Combine the Nano-Regen Device with the Shield Regeneration Field as a single deployable tool that regenerated health and shield after X time without having taken damage.

    - Make Shield Regeneration Field a tool, but otherwise leave it unchanged. Then allow the medic to drop Health Packs that function like the engineer's ammo packs, but disappear after a few uses.
    • Up x 1
  3. Halkesh

    Revive ability is the only thing that make medic powerful. I don't think a way for non Nanite-Regen Device user to heal themselves without relying on an implant or improving medic non-revive support ability will make them OP.

    IMO being able to revive in combat while killing enemy at the same time is what will make the medic OP, unless it come at a high cost. I'm fine with the cooldown since it mean a combat focused medic won't be able to revive a full platoon by himself.
    About the removing of the medical tool, it's not a good idea : some people want to play combat medic as a medic and don't see them as a medium assault. Don't spoil them from their support part.

    What about adding more tool so you'll have choice between combat (focused on reviving faster or not being defenseless) or support (more heal/revive potential but at the cost of having the tool in the hands while doing the job) ?

    Note : MA stand for Medical Applicator. 100% rate is what offer the current rank 1 MA.

    Helmet Incorporated Medical Applicator
    Press 3 key to activate like an ability. (basically what you said, but in tool slot)
    Revive one target within 2m at 100-165% rate.
    Heal 100-150% rate to one target within 2m.
    Nanite beam break if the medic and it's target are at more than 2 meter or if the medic die. (current MA have a 4m range)
    Have a 10/9/8/7/6/5 sec cooldown.

    Combat Medical Applicator

    A hybrid between combat and support. Basically the current MA with the ability to switch weapon faster.
    Revive at 100-165% rate
    Heal at 100-150% rate
    Have a 0 sec equip time (most weapon have a +0.25 sec unequip time so it won't be totally instant)
    Have a -0.25 unequip time (this allow to switch instantly to sidearm and faster to primary)

    Guardian Medical Applicator
    A support MA focused on keeping ally alive at the cost of equip/unequip time and revive ability.
    Revive at 80-100% rate
    Heal at 200-300% rate, heal the shield when the health is full
    Target get damage resistance as long as he's healed. (enough to prevent instant kill, not enough to make it invincible combined to the heal)
  4. OldMaster80

    Imo the problem why Medics are unpopular is because the game's stats system is fully around kills and KDR. No surprise support roles are not the preferred ones: why wasting time healing when you can just shoot, carry a bigger gun and a rocket launcher?

    We need to get rid of the deaths counter, change directives so that XP count instead of Kills, we need XP to be clearly displayed splitted into the different categories.
    • Up x 3
  5. Halkesh

    It's indeed a problem that people just want to look at their KDR, but I still think it's not the only problem.
    Heavy have a ton of choice for their rocket launcher and on PTS devs are trying to make them more different each other. IMO, medic too need more choice on their tools / ability.

    I hope one day they'll realize having auraxium and directives based on kill instead on xp was a bad idea. It took them only 2 years to realize infantry needed xp for ground vehicle deterrence.
    • Up x 2
  6. TR5L4Y3R

    just reposting what i said in another "make medic more appeling thread":

    allow dualwielding healingpistol with primary or secondary .. that way medics can still defend themselfes with hipfiring and heal/revive but at a reduced rate, can't ads but won't need line of sight for the healpistol ... prioritises revive over healing when near allies..

    add AV grenadelauncher as a primaryoption as that would allow medics to participate in armored battles at the cost of their assaultrifle which does jack against armor anyway ...

    change shieldrechargegenerators to have a additional painfieldfieldfunction against opponents to help medics defend chokepoints better
  7. Halkesh

    Isn't allowing medic to use Archer a better idea ?

    About dualwielding, I've proposed the Helmet Integrated Medical Applicator.
    Basically, it's a standard Medical Applicator that allow you to fight at 100% capacity even when you're using it. The drawback are half range and a cooldown between each use.
  8. OldMaster80

    They already know: Wrel made a video about it like 2 years ago.
    • Up x 2
  9. Halkesh

    Knowing about a problem and resolving it are 2 things far different, alas.:(
    • Up x 1
  10. Ximinetto

    My suggestion is to make the health regen and ress tool to do DoT damage an enemy, but at small distance and small damage,not like your melee. Just on a situations where u are ressing someone and the enemy appears and u have no time to change to ur primary.
  11. [K29C] Gwennec

    Personally I think the class is fine the way it is, but then it is my favourite class.
    I don't think it's a case of having to make the class more appealing, I mean they already have some of the best guns in Planetside. I think it's more of a case of people need to change the way they're playing.

    Medics were a popular class in smaller, more organised/coordinated squads and outfits where having to respawn back at a sunderer would have been a huge hindrance and counter productive for the team. If more squads were to bring back this style of objective squad play then you'd probably see a lot more medics around.

    Currently, most (not all) squads seem to follow the main bulk of the force and don't seem to move away to follow their own objective. That way they always have a mobile spawn nearby and the need for medics is reduced. Give your team an objective away from the main bulk of the force however and get them to stick together and you'll find an awful lot of value in your medics.
    • Up x 2
  12. Jac70

    Medic is already a great class. Only change I would make is that if you get killed but then revived, you don't have a death recorded on your stats. It used to be the case that even if you got revived a death was still recorded on your overall figures. Only the score screen took into account the fact that you got picked up.

    This means that people near spawn rooms or Sunderers just ignore revives because they are not really revives. It's more like you have re-spawned where you fell only with no new kit.
  13. [K29C] Gwennec

    Huh?

    Only recursion adds a death to your stats when you've been revived. Your official Planetside stats will remove the death from your stats after being revived.
    • Up x 1
  14. SupaFlea

    The problem in my opinion is the game design has changed drastically from PS1 and is closer to that of BF,
    In BF people chose medic because it was only class that had access to the LMG's, in PS2 they offer up a class inbetween HA and LA with its Assault Rifles. The rate of XP gained for healing and reviving tapers off quite drastically in later levels and unless you like a support class their really isnt any reason to do either.

    In PS1 you had limited Cert points so you couldnt be everything at once and there was a 8 hours cooldown when you reset your Certs if you felt you didnt want a particular skill/equipment. So if you got a Medic or Engy you NEW you were getting a dedicated one. Squads always looking for such teammates, now the game is more fixated on killing or anything people find fun and acomplishing.

    Also just consider how long it took them to update LA and fill their Tool slot, adjusting a class this late probably seems pointless to them now. Adding new functions etc to a class etc has to tested and changed a lot usually due to how people use/exploit classes/equipment rather than how they intended. They never imagined HA to be so vastly used and its shields be used as a panic button or LA to be a roof top camper or Infil to be soley Snipers.

    If the XP for healing and reviving i think it would make a more appealing class for even casual players but the grind is to long for those people.
  15. JDC038

    I like making heal nade sticky, then you could throw it on teamates as they run in.
    Otherwise though medic is pretty good as is, and great for cert farming.
    • Up x 3
  16. DarkStarAnubis

    For players who aren't CQC gods or do not farm infantry using vehicles, the Medic class is the best class to farm certs: just join a big biolab battle and you can rez/heal (and be rezzed/healed) forever.

    From that perspective Medic is already a good choice, especially for casual/not-so-experienced players who need to acquire a lot of certs to equip themselves properly.

    Coupled with the fact the default assault rifles are very good weapons, I would say the Medic class is already an appealing one.

    The problem is another: if you are a KDR freak (99.9% of the playerbase?) Medic is not appealing per se.
    • Up x 1
  17. Dualice

    Indeed - even if you are a CQC god, medic should still be appealing. The arsenal of assault rifles are, on the whole, pretty fearsome (VS not so much, but that's just my opinion).
    • Up x 1
  18. Anantidaephobia

    Medics are fine as they are.
    • They can revive anyone as many times as they like
    • They have more HP than anyone with their AOE healing equipment
    • They can repeatedly heal a teammate to help them mitigate damage quite effectively
    If one doesn't like it, maybe it's just not their play style. Stick to other classes.
  19. Blam320

    Nerf personal medkits. 'Nuff said.
  20. brutes359

    Ironically the medic class is by far one of the best cert grinders in the game. Getting even more XP than actual kills, guaranteed sources of certs and reducing chance of death by keeping numbers up around you. I'm surprised I don't see them more often. I personally blame it on the LA and HA meta right now. Most people right now are just all about "Kill Kill Kill" and not actually considering their tactical awareness. I play it once in while myself for certs. but more often then not I don't participate directly in base capping. Me and the rest of my friends focus instead on tank hunting out in the fields and AA work with MAX's
    • Up x 1