Medics

Medics

I've been writing this on and off for a couple weeks, usually whilst bored at work. Thought I'd post it now and get some discussion going. The thread is about the role of the medic in a squad and what other squad members could and should be doing to make the medics life easier, thus making the squad more effective.

Some of this may be incorrect/obvious/not true to real life combat situations etc etc but this is PR and I'm not pretending to be some sort of expert. It is mostly what I have noticed/what I wish would happen from the time I have spent playing medic. Out of all classes, I have probably played medic the most, initially due to a reluctance of other players to take the role, and now because I enjoy it. Feel free to criticise/comment/add your own suggestions Onwards to the delicious, juicy medic tips.

The role of the medic

1. Although the medic has a rifle, it is not an offensive role, it is not about getting kills. IMO the medic is essentially useless for anything other than supression at your usual PR engagement ranges. CQB is a different story, the medic can be useful, but again, is not an offensive role and should not be leading any attacks (unless neccesity dictates it - use your initiative )

2. When a squad is engaged in a firefight, the medic should be doing their best to stay out of combat; their job is to keep the squad up and fighting. If the squad are close enough, the medic can see when a members health drops below 50% and should be trying to move (as safely as possible - PRONE!) to that squadmember to heal them. In most situations it is preferable for the medic to move to the squadmember, unless of course it isn't safe (use your initiative )

3. Prioritising casualties/wounded is important. Generally, you should heal the wounded before reviving casualties. A healthy soldier is much more effective than two wounded ones who can barely see. Unless the casualty's timer is soon to run out (which should rarely occur) in which case they should be revived first. A players class should also be taken into account when reviving; who would be more useful in this situation? HAT down and enemy armour approaching? SL down and need to fall back and rally? etc...

5. When healing a SM, the medic is incredibly vulnerable. Switching from medic bag to rifle takes an age, far too long to save your life. If an enemy rounds the corner, 9.9 times out of 10, you are screwed. Hopefully this wont happen thanks to your awesome SM (see point 8 ), but to increase your chances, make yourself small. Your SM should be crouched, and you should go prone and heal him, trying your best to stay covered from doorways/windows/corners.

6. When not in combat (moving/defending etc) the medic is most useful as a second pair of eyes for the SL. Get your binocs out and keep an eye to the flanks/rear. When moving through cities/urban environments, the medic should not be near the front. Medics are more useful watching the flanks/rear (hopefully other SMs will be doing this as well).

7. MUMBLE! MUMBLE! MUMBLE! Extremely useful for the medic and obviously very beneficial to the whole squad in general. Keeping non essential chat off of in-game squad comms is a good general rule so that everyone can hear contact reports/SL orders/other important stuff. The medic should use the in-game comms to quickly acknowledge any SMs who are down or require healing and mumble should be used for talking to indivdual SMs whilst healing, or providing instructions.

The role of the squadleader

8. If you are being healed, cover your medic!!! I know he is a good looking guy, but you don't need to stare at him while he heals you. If you are being healed, CROUCH, and cover likely points of entry so you don't get surprised by enemy. If you were revived and you go down again, you are dead-dead and your medic will likely die as well.

9. If you are down, call out on in-game comms, *name or class* down, *location* e.g. "capitan/AR down, 2nd floor, NW corner". Call it out ONCE and your medic should acknowledge you. Don't keep spamming in-game comms, it's not only frustrating for the medic, but also for the entire squad, especially mid-firefight. Contrary to popular belief, medics dont just sit around sipping cocktails, they are likely busy and will get to you as soon as possible/viable. You have a relatively long wounded counter and can lie their as long as your patience will allow. If it is too dangerous to get you up, the medic will hopefully let you know. If the medic is having difficulty finding you, try to use mumble to guide them, calling out using the commo rose is not always a good idea. Any close range talk with the medic should be done using mumble as well, unless important to the entire squad.

10. If you take a hit and are not down, get in some cover and use your patch. Let the medic know, same as above. If where you are is not safe for the medic, get your head down, and fall back to a safer location. It is usually unnecessary to go to the medic; they are probably busy/already on their way. Everybody moving to the medic for healing sometimes ends up in a ridiculous situation of everyone in the same square metre. This is bad for many reasons that I am sure I don't need to tell you You can usually stay where you are, bleeding out takes a while and the medic should get to you by then. The worst that can happen is you bleed out, lose a ticket, and the medic revives you when they can.

Disclaimer

This is obviously not the be all and end all of medic-ing and are just general rules to follow. There are obviously exceptions to every rule. Capitan does not guarantee you or your squads safety if you follow these rules and they could all be utter BS

So...yea...thoughts?

cap

hints and tips the speedhound way (LOL)

1 patching a stuck body don't always work, try throwing a smoke grenade at the body (make sure you hit the body) followed by immediate resus pumping, sometimes the body stretches (goes elastic) then 'snaps' out of the scenery at which point you can prick him.

2 if the body is on a slope push them down, first a patch to get them sliding then resus until they reach level ground, 90% effective.

3 be very very careful medic bagging an AR newbie, if he fires prone whilst you are touching him he will involuntary TK you.

4 throw covering smoke between the body and his shooter not on the body itself, if you do that a competent LMG will just shoot at the epicentre of the smoke killing your patient and you.

5 your enemy has to reload at some point, use this time, its good time.

6 TI is defeated by SqLdr smoke, sometimes your smokes just ain't good enough.

7 iron sights just give you the impression your not hitting anything, this is complete myth, shoot whilst minimum deviation and your as good as anyone else, YES even with the blocky M4 sights !!!

8 if you leave a squad ALWAYS remember to DESELECT your med kit from your kit selection menu !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9 some medic rifles have a right click alternative, IDF, US ARMY, HAMAS, Canadian Forces (i think?) - UK and USMC doesn't !!

10 be firm, if someone has died stupidly in the middle of the street in the middle of a firefight TELL them how stupid that was and tell them to enjoy the walk !!

11 if your squad doesn't care you got shot and they fear that you wont give them their SPECIAL kits back if they MED you LEAVE that squad and NEVER go back !!

12 when you are dead you have NO situational awareness, don't presume to know what another squad and 'their' medic is doing or going through, think you have probably died to enemy fire, the smurf medic may well see this fact and only this fact, it is DANGEROUS for him to resus you without all the facts you knew when you died, unless the case is obvious and clearly safe please DO NOT judge smurf medics to harshly for not instantly putting themselves in danger for a non squad mate.

general comment-

if you think the medic kit is beneath you, if you think that your only worthy of special kits, you are probably not a competent PR player and probably NEVER will be, the medic IS project reality because the medic IS teamwork.

speed

capitan wrote:3. Prioritising casualties/wounded is important. Generally, you should heal the wounded before reviving casualties. A healthy soldier is much more effective than two wounded ones who can barely see. Unless the casualty's timer is soon to run out (which should rarely occur) in which case they should be revived first. A players class should also be taken into account when reviving; who would be more useful in this situation? HAT down and enemy armour approaching? SL down and need to fall back and rally? etc...

Urgh. The number of times I've wished my medic would do this and heal people before reviving.

speedhound1-WYD- wrote:

7 iron sights just give you the impression your not hitting anything, this is complete myth, shoot whilst minimum deviation and your as good as anyone else, YES even with the blocky M4 sights !!!

Yeah, iron sights aren't that bad at medium range. Got some of my nicest kills with them.

speedhound1-WYD- wrote:9 some medic rifles have a right click alternative, IDF, US ARMY, HAMAS, Canadian Forces (i think?) - UK and USMC doesn't !!

Doesn't the USMC have a holographic sight on left-click and a red-dot sight on right-click? Not that different, but I prefer the red-dot.

just 1 from me if the person ya trying to re-sus is on a hill and they slide down, it may not be possible to revive them, but if their kits is close stand near the fallen sm and then pick their kits up then pick ya medic kit back up until their kit is on their body again, then try to re-sus, has worked 99% of the time for me. or the alt is to get another sm to drop their kit on the body and then re-sus, hope this is helpful

some helpfull tips here, gonna try and use them :P cheers

@ Dudley sniper,

no the US marines medic is iron sight both right and left click


speed

One thing I always do as a medic is tell people what to do as soon as youreview them, eg crawl 250 keep your head down ect

Crap! knew i forgot something...good point sugnat, it's always annoying reviving someone, only for them to stand up and get shot again.

speedhound1-WYD- wrote:@ Dudley sniper,

no the US marines medic is iron sight both right and left click

speed

Ah, I was wrong about the holographic sight (I think I was thinking of IDF), but I was right about the red dot. I've just checked on Jabal and this M16A4 definitely has a red-dot on it.