I've been healing allies and giving out free revives like Christmas came early ever since this game came out. I feel I know pretty much everything there is to know about how to be a good medic, but one frequently occurring situation has always given me pause... Is it better to revive a recently downed teammate or kill the player who just shot him/her dead? I almost always opt for reviving my buddy. My thinking here is that I'll have a friend to help me kill the enemy who's still alive, and that my main priority as this class is to revive and heal my teammates. Plus, I know I've got the best heal-gun possible so I could have another friendly player alive next to me faster than most players can reload. On the flip-side, as short as that revive process may be with a top-tier heal-gun, I'm still vulnerable. And I want to emphasize that this predicament usually happens in a situation where an enemy is right in my face. They're not shooting at me actively (if they are, I shoot back on instinct) but that's only because they haven't given me their undivided attention yet. I'm gambling my life and the success of a revive on the premise that the enemy that just downed my teammate will be looking in another direction or reloading or distracted by something else other than me and by big green glow of revitalization. So, what do you do in this situation? Is it worth it to prioritize a revive in the middle of an intense firefight? Or should you make sure the coast is clear first?
My idea of it is this: If I can put cover between myself and the enemy, can still revive my friend without going out of said cover, AND the enemy is in a position where he will be unable to get to me before I have finished reviving my friend and have my assault rifle out, I will go with the revive. If I am in a position where there is no cover between myself and the enemy, I cannot revive my friend without being shot, AND/OR the enemy is able to shoot me before reviving my teammate and having my assault rifle out, I will opt for shooting my enemy first, especially if I know I can win the engagement and my friend will still be there afterwards. So basically, if the enemy is able to reach me in less than 5 seconds, I will shoot him before reviving my friend, while if it will take longer than 6 seconds for the enemy to reach me, I will opt for reviving more often than not. Of course, every situation is different, and this is assuming there is only one enemy and one friend that needs reviving. If there are multiple enemies and multiple friends, then suddenly the formula gets a bit more complicated (especially if one of those friends is a medic who can later revive me if I die). (Btw, first post on these forums. )
I tend to use the poor sod as a distraction. 9/10 times I get the guy who shot the friendly(assuming the enemy is still there) before he/she can get the kill again. Seem people see it as a free kill and forget there is actually a medic there too. If is an intense fight then I often use a ress grenade(using the AE heal to get the friendly to full) even if it is just one friendly as it is important to keep the momentum of a push/counter-push. Ever since I got the grenade bandolier on my medic I've never looked back. I miss NW5 at times but the ress 'nades allow me to fill my role as support more effectively than without. Indeed, NW5 is a crutch that saves you in situations you never should be in to begin with. If you are in a situation where you need more killing power you're better off spawning as a HA/LA/INF with the appropriate loadout. These days I do view all the infantry classes as one class, and do not identify myself with a paricular class, more like "changing specs" to borrow a term from MMORPGs.
Shoot back, countless times have I killed a medic that was busy reviving his buddy I just gunned down seconds earlier.
Well depends on your playstyle I guess.. My medic holds AR 80% most of the time, and I only pull my heal gun out if there is no enemy around and there is no friendly medic around I am the COMBAT medic
To paraphrase someone else: "In such case, use the medic tool in the '1' slot first". You wouldn't believe the amount of times I got a little too focused on the dead dudes and got gunned down in an absolutely stupid fashion.
Kill the baddie first. If you don't then all you're doing is feeding your enemy kills. Are there exceptions to this rule? Well, yes, but I've found that killing first is the better way to go in about 98.2% of the situations you can find yourself in. Better yet, cert revive grenades. Huck a grenade at your buddy's corpse, then gun down the baddie.
Always go for killing the guy first before you revive, because even though it takes you about half a second to revive, it's half a second not spent trying to kill the guy who just got your buddy, and giving them about a second window to kill you, as you have to revive, pull out your rifle and get reoriented to your surroundings. Unless, well, you have Revive Grenades. Like the guy above, just throw a nade at your buddy and fight. Going for the baddy usually gives you a good chance of bringing the enemy down and giving you a safe area to revive in, instead of being shot down during your revive and your ally immediately being spawn killed, if the revive even gets to complete.
Indeed, I have had the same thing happen when I get fixated on the rez. Keep yourself alive first, but there ARE those split second descision times that happen where rezzing, rather than shooting, might be more beneficial for the greater good, keeping a point, etc. I wouldn't attempt that with anything less than a maxed out heal gun though.
Depends. If I can revive the downed player while being behind cover then I might use said player as a distraction, but most of the time I will try to clear the area. One noteable exception is when I see a downed MAX. I will often revive them first if at all possible and as long as there aren't any obvious enemies in the area waiting for the res.
No easy answer here and no response is to be used 100% of the time. So the situation laid out in the original post was when the enemy is righti n your face; lets say < 10m. If I already have my tool out and they are litterally RIGHT on me... knife every time. You don't have time to even switch to your pistol and I know that's almost instantly but it's too late; only the knife will land a critical hit in this amount of time. If I already have my rifle out... shoot the enemy. In this situation you don't have time to switch anything else and take another action. Enemy is RIGHT on you; kill or be killed. Solid advise but only if you have some distance. The OP specifically pointed out the enemy is right in his face; I'm assuming < 10 meters. I'm not saying you're wrong... this is a great way to analyze the situation and react but only if you have > 10 meters to play with. In these situations (say in a room that's like 20-30 meters and we are at opposite sides around some cover) and I have my tool out I'll switch to my commisioner. That switch is almost instant and the stopping of the commi in this range is potent. If I already had my rifle in this range I would likel make the same assesement Thompson explained... it's a tough call.
Kinfe the enemy - and HIS buddy. Then, rez your buddy - and knife him for not knifing the enemy. Then, knife something else. WITH A KNIFE!
Knife the enemy first - then knife HIS buddy. Then, rez you buddy - and knife him for not knifing the enemy. Then, knife something else. WITH A KNIFE!1
Speaking from personal experience, both as a Combat medic in-game and served as in real life. Your safety is priority number one, if you're down, your team is many times less effective. Now Safety doesn't mean your feet up, hiding behind everyone having a drink. As other people have stated, if the enemy is fast approaching (within 25m) and closing in, you shoot to kill, because that's your job first, a soldier. If you have ample cover, (A corner hes about to turn does not count) and anything to break line of sight for even just a moment, then you revive your friend. In situations where you know you can get the Revive but can't pull your Assault rifle safely in time, don't. Pull your hand gun. I rock the TX2 Emperor as TR, and it's an effective little tool. It pulls faster than your assault rifle does, does similar damage in close quarters, and often catches the opponent off guard. Add in the friendly you just revived and you'll be fine 9/10 in my experience. Any kind of immediate threat to you, or your squad (the people you're responsible for) dies before you do your reviving, so you can do it safely. An immediate threat is not the Mana turret around the corner waiting for you, it is not the group of guys shooting at your tanks from 200m, or the squad having a fire fight with the guys across the road. If it's within 25 meters and aiming at you, or the guy right next to you. It dies first.
Typically you should put the "combat" in combat medic, or they'd call you a doctor. PS sorry for the ridiculous name my little brother has been snooping around my games hehe
Since you're NC, you should always prioritize rezzing. Preferably while you're standing out in the open.
I'm new to this game, but I'll add some classic military info: The varmint 5.56x45mm (.223) round was chosen over larger rounds for a single purpose: to wound rather than kill the enemy. The logic of it is simple, too. By wounding rather than killing an enemy, you could draw out the enemies comrades when they came out to help him, and then you could wound them and/or toss a grenade. In other words, kill first, then revive.
Depends on the situation. If one of your buddies got shot down by a sniper, revive him while strafing. If someone got shot down on close to medium range, kill the enemy first or he'll kill you.
