Sooo we all want more Combat Medic, but how are we going to make ppl play them, we have to make them somewhat more viable. Of course i like the support they can provide but i love the Assault Rifle aswell. (As for me i always like to play support in any game) So I have been thinking, what would happen if we change Nano-Regen Device to regen shield instead of health. Would it be to op? Maybe infantry are going to be to tanki then, but then again its a gunfight, ppl and games always think about the dmg, but not about the tankiness. I think In a gunfight there is always enought dmg, its a gunfight afterall, and providing more change to survive in my books is always a good thing, right? How i see it it would open up so much for infantry, aswell we would see alot more Combat Medics on the field for sure and to be honest, everythink is made to kill u as infantry, but being one is also extremly fun and providing a stable support that can regen both ur shield and healthy is i think alwayys a + to a good gunfight or just a fight overall.
We've got the shield regen tool (which also regens health IIRC) but it is static and you have to sacrifice the nano health regen ability to carry one. From experience and reading other posts I find the things that most people recognise as drawbacks are: medics seem to be priority targets; reviving dead guys is often a particularly dangerous exercise due to what killed them being still out there (and they don't always accept the heal anyway); the AR and the health regen tool are good but you are not yet a Jedi HA, so the combat part of being a combat medic can be relatively hard; The cert gain is really good but I rack up far more certs as an engineer - when I'm saving up for something (and there is always something for an engie to do even if just scattering ammo boxes or finding ingenious new places to lay mines) I'm really not sure there is an answer if the AR (a frickin' AR, man!) and the auto heal function aren't enough - we would maybe enjoy more toys but would that be enough? The Shield regen and nano auto regen are passive effects once you drop them or press F - not sure if there is much sense of doing something. I don't feel excited about healing shields instead of people tbh. But I'd like it if health and rezz grenades were sticky instead of bounding randomly. As for being the first thing most people want to kill - how about a nice big Red Cross armband you can cert into that automatically puts a bounty on your killer if he kills you while you are wearing it - welcome to my life Bounty-Boy! (jus' jokin') What about dressing packs you can drop - small amount of heals when people who are not max health run past them - like ammo packs from engies? Personally I'd rather carry mines than C4 but that is just because I like mines.
Medic class is SO MUCH profitable, that I am realy shocked people (especially new players) dont use them more often. When I run with the bubble shield, flak armour and rewive grenade, I make about 200-300 certs an hour. You can realy farm your teammates. It also makes you feel very useful and you are. An idea would be that new players can only play medic and engi untill BR5 where they unlock the other classes and give them Flak armour level 3 by deafult, so they dont get frustrated by all the blast damage in this game.
There's already the shield bubble as EternalOptimist said, my idea was to give the revive points when you complete your part, IE when the "circle of life" is complete, regardless of if the revived player accept resurection or not.
The medic is a fine class as-is. It has the 2nd best 1v1ing ability in the game, and the ability to heal and revive people is absolutely invaluable when you want to sustain a push. I wouldn't recommend changing the group heal to a group shield; it would harm the medic more than help it. The great thing about the group heal is that it heals yourself, which makes medkits virtually unnecessary. That enables you to carry C4 for anti-vehicle/anti-MAX capabilities should you need it. Admittedly, I don't make use of this. I use the shield bubble with medic, but even then I can tell you right now that the shield bubble does the shield-regen thing perfectly fine, and we certainly don't need a togglable "shield on demand" when we can place a deployable. There are 2 reasons that medics will not be popular. The first is that they have to play by the same "rules" as heavies: they can't cloak or jumpjet to aggressively flank people, so medics, like heavies, will often have to directly face other people (most namely heavies) in fights. Because they have to play by the same sort of movement rules as heavies and on average, get outdueled by them, it's going to dissuade some people from the class. HOWEVER, the absolute 100% MORE IMPORTANT reason that nobody will play medic is because: it's a support class. Even though assault rifles are great and all, it's the support. People don't want to play support because they automatically associate supporting with boring ***** duty. This isn't the game's flaw; it's the community's flaw, and unless you make medics so overpowered they blot out the sun in their sheer ridiculousness, people aren't going to play medic. That's just how it is and will be til the end of time in virtually any game ever.
The assault rifle is a niche gun. It gets a good rap because most people don't really play the medic, so it's the "greener grass." After a fore-grip and compensator, anything is accurate. But the AR itself doesn't have the hip fire accuracy of the carbines, or the magazine capacity of the LMGs. It can obtain better hip fire via laser, but then it becomes less accurate than an LMG or Carbine with a foregrip, and the carbine is still really competitive in hip fire. Anyone that spends any time with the medic understands ARs are just another gun without anything really going for them. Finally, people play the medic because they like the prospect of supporting their allies with heals and revives, the problem is that if the individual experience of the class is miserable or dull, it isn't worth suffering for the sake of One's allies. Engineers are also support, but they have tactical options, plus the game being a shooter, bullets are ALWAYS in demand. Rezzing the occasional dead guy or keeping an entire group of soldiers firing with a single box of ammo, which do you think brings in more exp over time? This is exacerbated when medics are in a situation where they're swamped with bodies - they're delaying the inevitable, which is being overrun. The medic is literally a stripped HA with the ability to revive people. They have nothing truly unique going for them in the primary reason anyone is really playing Planetside 2 - first person shooting. This is a game with a million ways to kill and die, but the medic is as baseline as they come when it comes to killing. If DGC wants the medic to be more desirable among players, they need to drop the "medic" from the title and embrace the class more towards a "tactical offense" role to contrast where the engineer is a "tactical defense" role. Make the current CM more a commando that keeps the push going and can turn around combat flow with a well made tactical decision. A grenade launcher loaded with flashbangs for example... Or if DGC wants to really cut corners, roll the medical applicator and nanofield/shield generator into the LA, then give either the engi or the LA the AR.
If you want more medic in your life, play TR. Our ARs are so good (our LMGs suffer a little to make up for it) that our Medics are almost as good at fighting as our HAs! But in a serious view, the Medics are just fine. Its just that HA Overshield appeals to pubbies. They have enough healing, and their gunpower is actually also impressive. I just grab my SABR, sit at long distance, and laugh at the enemy HAs that try to fight me as I mow them down. If I was to change Medic, I would bump up their healing capabilities, but swap their ARs to Light Assaults (they are an assault class) to make up for their support boost. This would make Medics actual Medics. Make it so you only need the amount you often see nowadays (although when I play NC there are generally zero, and that isn't enough) to provide the support you need. Their actual healing gun would actually heal reeeeaaaally quickly, instead of having killing them and reviving be quicker. This would also lower the viability of small groups of medics running around, because they can't outgun most enemies without their ARs.
My suggestion is raise the xp for revives- double it. 2) use the infils dart mechanic and give each medic (1 dart per cert rank ) to shoot in an area that pulse heals. The darts can be destroyed by explosives. This way a medic doesn't have to single target heal and can be a better support class. The darts could stack and an ammo pack could replenish them.
I'd argue rather then forcing more support roles on them, they need the ability to keep mobile and provide support without forcing downtime. This is the BIGGEST draw back to the Med gun compared to the Engineer's repair tool, as the Med gun's targets have no resilience. MAXs have decent soaking uptime under fire, allowing continuous use of the Repair tool to show very effective results. Try following a heavy into a fight with a Med Gun, and you'll see very different results. Combat Medics are built very similar Assault/Medic classes in Battlefield games (half of the game's gun play and class structure is based on BF2), but don't operate the same way because the Med gun monopolizes their focus for the majority of their support actions. This is compounded by the game's decided lack of terrain cover, which leads to most deaths occurring out in the open (ie the worst place to get rezed). Compare this to the Engineer's support actions, which allow them to drop a support item and juggle offensive and defensive support roles with minimal effort. Originally I was considering what would happen if the AOE heal was a dropped item like the Ammo box... but I quickly realized it'd be kind of pointless, because healing in this game doesn't flow like it does in another modern shooters. The medic affects too little of an infantryman's effective HP, and the shield being the first 50% of the HP total just outright precludes a Medic's involvement for minor damage. And if they're past 50%, chances are they're under enough fire to kill them. As a thought experiment, I wonder if everything would flow better if Medics followed BF:BC2's design of a dropbox AOE heal and 1-shot ressing, so they can spend more time with their weapon out instead of the med tools.
This is oh-so true. Any time you cross paths a competent HA, which will happen a LOT, you're basically screwed unless said player is hurt or out of ammo. The small magazine capacity is an absolute killer. You're lucky if you can down more than one person without having to reload, which of course leaves you incredibly vulnerable.
Small magazine capacity isn't the thing that separates the HA from the medic in a fight, though. That would be the overshield. ARs aren't super amazing, but they're nice guns. The same goes for LMG; they're not some superfarming hype machines, either. LMGs get large magazine sizes which lets them go for longer periods of time without reloading, but their hipfire CoFs are *** (not to mention their reloads are generally longer. Gauss SAW anyone?). Carbines have tight hipfire CoFs for the most part which makes them strong in CQC and have a bit more controllability than SMGs which allows them to stretch out their range further, but their damage dropoff makes them weaker at range compared to LMGs and ARs. ARs are strong, varied all-rounders with a slight focus on controllability and ease of use (TAR, GR-22, and H-V45 notwithstanding). They're not necessarily more POWERFUL per se, but there's a good AR for virtually every situation you can come across. You don't have good long-range carbines (no, those "long-range" carbines are honestly closer to mid-range, if anything), and you don't have strong hipfiring LMGs (Although the CQC-focused ones with a laser sight make a good try at it). Meanwhile you have ARs for long ranges, ARs for short ranges, ARs for mid ranges, ARs that do all right in most ranges, etc.
Well the "single target heal" mechanic I think is what frustrates a lot of medics and the fact that you spend time for a revive so someone can release. At that point as a medic you've wasted your time and probably in a high risk situation for nothing and probably been killed for it. high risk, no reward. This is why not a lot of people play medic. The classes mechanic needs to be changed to get people "wanting" to play it. I threw out an idea anyone else have a better one to keep it a killing class and doing its job at the same time ? Maybe the max cert on the revive gun is a instant revive or a frontal cone pulse ? Yes they have revive grenades but only so many.. Maybe make them like stickies ?
The ideas and observations laid out by you guys are REALLY interesting to read. It's good to see such different perspectives. Personally, health thresholds versus 'potential' healing is what puts CM's at a disadvantage. (Regarding active-intervention, that is). That being said, I often (I mean OFTEN), play as Medic on -all- factions. Having had a few hundred hours logged total on each faction individually, the biggest problem for CM's isn't so much 'which gun is used,' comparably it's the observation that everyone-and-their-mother plays HA. (I have a personal vendetta against LMG's as a whole. I don't know why they were implemented, when AR's/Carbines are comparably mobile, in exchange for sheer fire-power, which is an AWFUL exchange considering HA's have ROCKET LAUNCHERS. DBG, please axe LMG's). All that being said, the Medi-gun -really- only serves one active purpose. Rezzing. Stream-healing HA's, though an under-used tactic that has more potential than is led to have, is also at a detriment to the tool proper, as it can only heal a single target at a time. Personally, Medi-gun should just be chopped, rev-nade-1 should be a free (or automatic) unlock, and more-so, (as was lightly mentioned earlier), the 'healing field generators' shoudl be popped in as the CM's 'tool.' This would lend to some Medics running shield-gen, and others running heal-field. A powerful interplay that, if stretched correctly, can be a powerful point-defense, as much as a forward-position tactical mechanic. That's my two-cents. I HIGHLY doubt DBG will even look in to these threads, much less seriously consider consumer feedback.
Medic, the class everyone loves but everyone hates to play I love being medic. Wish they were appreciated more though
I think there's an xp cap for heal/revive xp and you have to get some assist/kill xp to reset that cap and get support xp again if that evil cap is still around then removing it might incentivize players to play medic how about changing the healing ability to work more like the shield regen ability where you place a soda-can looking device on the floor
It isn't that medics aren't viable, its just people don't want to play them. No one comes into a game wanting to hug someone's *** if they prove to be unhelpful to the medic, new medics often don't understand the value of each soldier and will often not pay attention. Being a medic is unfun, your entire role revolves around how well other people do when it comes to any sort of medium battle involving vehicles. Light assaults fly and flank, heavies soak more damage and are the bane of everything in the game, infiltrators are turret hacking snipers with cloaking, engineers are defensive mine layers and turret summoners, maxes are big badass tankmen, medics revive people and heal. Out of all of those class summaries what would you say sounds like more fun to play? The medicgame is a hard one, medics are highlighted with very obvious white backpacks and their choice of giant bubble of each color or green lantern field emitting from their body. Being the most sought after target by vets to a new player is harsh, but not to mention you have to make yourself vulnerable to perform your primary role as medic when you whip out your medkit to revive or heal, that feeling of getting killed while doing your job is overwhelmingly annoying or disappointing and with teammates that don't always cover you this can be too unfun to play. Medics are also nearly helpless to vehicles except by c4, but in big battles they are simply farmed. So with all these aspects in mind, medic is a sort of tempo class where you have to time your heals and not trade one for one when healing, not many new players have the patience to play medic in an efficient manner or even understand why medics leave them in the dust when they charge out, further distancing themselves from the class. The medic is simply not fun to new players, it doesn't mean it's bad or good, it just means it's a medic, it doesn't need to be more viable, it just needs players who want to play it.
Hit the nail on the head Mr. LaughingDead. Learning curve. Medics having one of the sharpest curves at that. (Engi's have a slight curve, but learning Engi's 'flows' better). 'Simplifying' CM's, as comparable to the methods I mentioned above, wouldn't be as such a painful process. Imo, most vets shouldn't be 'power-gaming,' (running HA/LA like champs). Admitted that's a personal...conviction, in a term, but that's also part of what makes a community. Inter-personal sensitivity. Even on a professional level. Drill Sergeant ribbons were implemented for a reason. They don't quite work the way they should. (Earning them as a passive result of their peers investments. A bit backwards, imo). Admittedly, there are a few vets out there who intentionally play logistics/Support instead of point-man, and more people could stand to learn from their example. I digress. The 'learning curve' on CM's, I believe, by chopping the tool, and making them more about deployable placements, which in turn would lead directly into one of the most important strategies CM's (and just players in general) will need to learn. Position. Location. Corner-checking. General performance that vet players execute almost abusively. It seems like a win-win from my perspective, but lets be honest, everyone can place relevant input, not just me.
If you're putting yourself in a situation where you are going to probably die for a rez, it was a bad rez to give and the person you're reviving was right to not take it. It's not that it's not fun; it's that everyone THINKS it's unfun because they're either bad at it or conditioned to think of support roles as ***** roles. Being able to properly use your medic gun and turn trades and the tides of battle in your favor is fun if you're good at your job and know what you're doing.
Enjoyment isn't a static perspective, so don't label it as such. Most players just don't have the patience to learn the class. Or the thick-skin to handle the unavoidable whining you'll get in /yell if some scrub doesn't get revived. Although, if you preform well you will be showered with Thanks macros and plenty of certs.
Bad at what? Shooting? Holding left and or right mouse at a corpse? Medic is basically a light assault without the jetpack and a better gun and self heal, it's a class where you help OTHER people have fun, the ironic thing is that it's not fun, it's feeling helpless to vehicles, not able to set up a defensive perimeter, not having a cool shield or rocket launcher, not being able to fly, not able to cloak and ambush people with motion spotters but the ability to make sure other people who can do that are able to continue doing that. That in a nutshell is medic.
