Heresy! I love my CM. Wrecking people with ARs, dashing across a killzone to score that crucial rez, blowing up people and vehicles *without* a jetpack - that *is* fun.
Well think about a new player. What would he want to do to have fun? Medic is probably the last thing on his list.
Bad at it because you're limited to the same mobility tools as an HA without the overshield that HA does, requiring you to play a bit more cautiously and also requires better aim to be able to put up with that, since you can't flank and don't have a shield of your own. The only class that gets shafted more in this department is engineer since he doesn't even have an AR. Bad at it because they're placing the medic first and the combat second when it should be the other way around, turning into helpless medtool primary rezbots that accomplish little compared to a medic that'll actively shoot at people and help secure an area in addition to rezzing the dead when need be. This sort of "medtool primary" mindset in particular is what gives the class the bad rep of being the "***** role" and ends up turning people off. If you're good at your job your AR should help defend alongside your teammates, and because of its superior accuracy it allows you to stay back a little and still get plenty of damage off. Once stuff's secure, then you pull out your medtool and do damage control. If you're bad at your job you'll do things like stay behind your allies with your medtool hanging out, not damaging the enemy, frantically trying to revive people when they're all dying right next to you, and accomplish nothing in the end because you didn't help make the area safe to rez people in the first place. If you're bad at your job you'll wander into enemy fire with your medtool out thinking "I'm gonna rez that guy and make everything better!", barely get the rez off, die, and wonder why the guy didn't bother taking a rez into the enemy's line of fire. If you're bad at your job you'll lose to every HA you'll ever meet because you can't headshot people and you can't flank as well as LA or infil. Medic's difficulties come in getting the proper mindset on how to play the class (if you're playing super passive and only ever have your medtool out, you're probably doing something slightly wrong), and in having good enough aim to be able to compete with the average HA in a pinch.
There's a problem in perception because the CM being the only class with an AR should kinda make them the default pick. But when you look at the classes it's like, "ok, I want to run around and shoot people" well of course you are going to pick the HA because he's the run around and shoot *anything* guy. That said, I don't think more people need to play the medic. I don't have a hard time getting a rez. Sure, theoretically it makes sense for the most common weapon you encounter to be an AR, but it also makes sense that the guy who can bring you back to life is a bit less common. My suggestion to get more people to play medic would be to have an option to throw down a heal pack like the engineer. The #1 thing I hear about why eng/CM is that you can farm certs better with an engy
