[Suggestion] Medics and Engineers Should Wield Sidearms with Tools Change My Mind

Medics and Engineers should have the ability to defend themselves with their tool equipped without switching to another slot.
Equip the tool and sidearm akimbo and allow people to tap their secondary key to pull up or drop the sidearm slot when their tool is in hand, in case players don't want their sidearm out.
For continuity with how the animation works now, force the sidearm to disarm when the tool is engaged to heal / rez or repair.
Change my mind...

I would even bind it to a hotkey so the player can keep holding their primary weapon without having to switch. Maybe not for Engineers, but at least for Medics.

We don't have to change your mind, you are not in-charge.

Medics could heal each other while firing.

medic should definetively be able to carry primary/secondary with heal/rezpistol BUT at the cost of no ads .. maybe also decrease the heal/rezrate ..

i agree with the OP here as i too am a medic and engineer(TR CONNERY) so that would be a pretty nice defence, especially when someone wants to run up to u with an overshield thinking 'nah i got this, he cant switch in time before i knife him'

Perhaps having a special version of each tool that replaces the secondary fire (Rez for Medics, disarming explosives for Engineer) with a pistol-esque firing mode, more-or-less identical stats-wise to your factions' default sidearm, and with a primary healing/repair speed slightly inferior to that of the original tool (90% or so).

This way, you sacrifice some of your supportive power for a method of defending yourself.

It would be cool if medics/engies could heal/rep while firing their weapon even if it is not their primary. Not only is it fun, but they are not gonna be vulnerable and utterly helpless while executing their support role.

Dont we already have such an option for medic?
https://planetside.fandom.com/wiki/Nano-Regen_Device

Then theres the Mending Field implant:
(Kinda niche, but still an option)

• Allies who are below 300 health passively heal for 15 health per second while you are within 7 meters. Your deployed Shield Recharging Fields now also carry this effect.

And for engi it costs nanites for such an ability:
https://planetside.fandom.com/wiki/Nano-Repair_Grenade

And the Electrotec implant
(also very niche)

• When your shield breaks, it releases a pulse of repairing nanites that heal allied mechanical objects within 10m for 300 health over 4 seconds, and destroys enemy deployables within range of the pulse

Game already has options for healing / repairing whilst shooting, dont think we need to go full retar COD on it.
Currently theres a tradeoff involved, or nanite cost, a limiting factor in other words. Remove that and theres absolutely no reason to not have everyone shooting and healing at all times.

I would actually disagree with you here. I would rather have a limit of what a player can carry and the option to swap out a sidearm for a repair tool - but increase what the repair tool can do other than just repairing. I think making the repair and healing tools more viable and then making it a choice between the tool or a sidearm would be better. Some people just plain prefer to be support and not have to combat and I think a better tool in trade for their sidearm would be a wonderful and accepting choice for those people. If they DO choose to keep their sidearm, they can still have abilities to help out like the healing wave and ammo box while mainly focusing on combat, but having an alternative to needing to fight would be nice.

or you could you know both lower the efficiency of combat, healing/rezing and repairing while dual wielding ..

yea not gonna happen as the repair and healpistol are a "tool"slotoption .. not a sidearm .. also any sidearmoption is generally accesible to any non-maxclass .. .. ... ... at best any additional toolslotoption for either engineer or medic may disable the sidearmslot ..
but what else would these tools then be capable of to warrant a sidearmslot-disablement (this is a word right?)

yea that would be another option ..

Your one to talk...well i guess its a good thing that your not either...I guess i got my laugh for the day!

You forgot the Heal Grenate

Otherwise why shouldn't the Medic or Repair-guns be able to do damage to the enemy?

It would be very broken for Medics/ Engineers to heal/rep with their gun while simultaniously dealing damage...

...because what this game really needs is a bunch of medics doing conga lines while healing themselves nonstop -and- using slug shotties (sic: commie pistol) all the time. Yeah...no, thanks.

matter of the repair/healrate .. the point of this is self defense ..
grenades cost nanites, engineer repairwave requires the engineer to take damage ..

also mendingfield and electrotec cost a hell of a lot to unlock

Because they are healing and repairing tools, not guns.

OP requested 'akimbo' style with pistol and repair / heal tool in either hand.
Like the Call of Duty perk 'akimbo' that enabled wielding of 2 weapons simultaneously.

I still think there should be choices in the game; do i heal or shoot?
Is now good time to hop out my vehicle to repair?
Can i revive that max before that LA on the radar gets to us?
Do i throw a heal / revive grenade or use my tool?

If the answer to every question is simply, 'it doesnt matter i can still shoot anyway' youve just dumbed the game down imo.
This game has always rewarded thought and planning just as much as aiming skill, i like that part of the game and id rather not see it diminished further.

A good medic or engineer only gets his or her tool out when they know it's safe to use. Try doing that instead.
The bots players running around with medic tool in hand all the time should learn this.

Wouldnt that defeat the point though?
Id rather spend half the time getting a friend back to full so they can be more useful, than being able to wield a pistol while healing / reviving.

TBH i think theyre already too powerful.
I think reviving / repairing speed should be nerfed, why is it faster to revive some1 than heal them?
And i think both should be given an ammo count, although the engi ammo pack would destroy the repair ammo purpose.
Eeh, those are discussions for another thread.

... but .. but .. they constalntly screaming and shouting and coursing on me to rez them .. :/