So who am I you might ask, and where do I get off telling you I know better than you about how to Medic? Well to start, I have roughly 1200 hours in the original Killing Floor, at a 98% completion rate achievement wise.


Therefore one could say that I am a Killing Floor enthusiast. I would say that's about right. And as of my writing this, I've already hit rank 25 in the old practitioner of health.

Therefore, I'd like to say I have some authority on the subject of both teamwork in Killing Floor, and the class specified. And without further pretension, I think it's time to cut to business.

The Holy Seven Commandments

I. Thou Shalt Heal and Heal All
II. Thou Shalt Not Put thyself in extreme peril
III. Thou Shalt Not Act Dumb
IV. Thou Shalt Give Money To Team Mates
V. Thou Shalt Not Suffer A Crawler to Live
VI. Thou Shalt Use Gas to Harm Scrakes and Fleshpounds
VII. Thou Shalt Ensure Thine Own Survival So That Others May Live




The Six Deadly Sins

I. Going Medic When There Is Already A Medic
II. Raging Scrakes Un-Assisted
III. Using "Laceration" Skill
IV. Kiting Alone or Going Alone
V. Not Healing the Team
VI. Not Changing if a Higher Level Medic Wants to Fill the position

First we must begin with a term that will be very important to understand.

Philosophy of Use: How a item, class or weapon was built based upon a specificly intended role or inherent purpose.

Each weapon and class has it's own philosphy of use, and while deviation from this can sometimes yield interesting results, to fight it often proves disasterous. It's like trying to a take a 2 wheel drive sports car up a mountain, or trying to race in a Jeep.

The same is true of the classes. Each of the classes have pronounced differences that make them unique and serve a distinct and purposeful function that is nessisary to both it's own and others survival. To disrupt this flow, will ripple outward unto the other classes and will likely cause disaster and/or death.

This brings us to Medic. What is a Medic? It seems like a silly question, but in this day and age of of modern shooters the extent of what a medic might mean to some may be pulling out a defibrillator and bringing someone back to life, or perhaps handing them a bottle of pills.

This is not a Medic. Medics do aid & heal, but it is not something casually done and then dismissed. The job runs full time and requires attention to detail and more than a handful of guts.

To be a Medic correctly means that what you do will often go un-noticed right, and at times can be a thankless job without much appreciation. Conversely, a bad medic will be at the ass end of a boot kicking from his team-mates if he has failed in his duties. This is natural, right, and true to the nature of gamers for two reasons:

1) As a medic, you are a wasted combat slot.
2) As such, to fail in your compensation for this [Healing], is the ultimate failure.

A Medics first and only true duty, is to ensure the survival and health of the team, and himself. All other priorities are secondary. Those that forsake this sacred duty of medical prowess in favor of combat ability, will ensure that he shall have NEITHER.

WOE I SAY, UNTO THE TEAM THAT HAS MEDICS WHO FIGHT WITHOUT HEALING! WOE I SAY!

The Medic who ensures the health of his team mates above all else shall in fact have both the ability of free movement and the ability to give light to moderate combative support to the team.

In order to get good at KF2, you need skills. Skills come in increments of five all the way to 25, and range from good, terrible and virtually nothing in-between. For each increment of five, you must choose one of two skills. For medic, the divide between the two was whether the player wants to be a Team Medic (left side perks) or Combat Medic (right side perks), with the former doing more medical work, and the latter dishing out more damage.

At first glance, one might see the merits of some of these perks, particularly the right side, which when presented on paper, seem fairly superior. This is also completely the opposite, and we will take it tier by tier.

Skill Level 5: Healing Surge or Enforcer?



This skill tier is the perhaps the only one in which variation may be applicable, as some prefer the extra magazines for latter rounds and trash clearing. I however, prefer the 20% more health as medic is under constant strain and usually will not have time to heal himself; and this skill stacks up well with a latter perk of Regeneration. The merits of more health is the potential to survive cluster-♥♥♥♥♥ and ♥♥♥♥-storms and scrap through situations which others would not be able too. The buffer this add's can also be essential when the combat classes are pre-occupied, and therefore gives you some breathing room.

Choose wisely.

Skill Level 10: Combatant or Armament?



On paper, the idea of repairing 2% of Armor sounds great, but in practice, this skill is fairly poor for medics below the level of 20. The primary reason is money; as the medic can act as a bank for other players and use his improved armor as a tanking device now for much less cost than his allies. The reduced healing percentage does also not help things for the low level medics either, as setting themselves back a level each time can be pretty brutal at rank 10. For this reason I recommend Combatant in the early stages.

However this perk does shine in the late game for medics, and this will be elaborated on in the section A Deadly Combination.

Skill Level 15: Regeneration or Lacerate?



Lacerates damage has been so minimal it goes virtually undetected on even the weakest of Cysts, and numerous threads on the forums asking about it's damage have gone un-answered since launch. Laceration has no redeeming DPS qualities that even merit a second thought. Regeneration on the other hand is almost essential. As medic, nobody has time to heal you; and when your at level 15 you are barely going to have time to heal yourself. Having a passive effect of 2 Health every 5 seconds also stacks well with the extra health of tier one, and ensures that you are in a permanent state of recovery even if you can't juice yourself immediately.

Skill Level 20: Vaccination or Acidic Compound



Acidic compound had me quite excited to try it out; my buddies and I were eager for a way to buy time with the power ZED's and beleived the panic and posion would do well for such a feat after seeing the effect of the gas grenades. Unfortunately, panic is rare for Scrakes and Fleshpounds, and doesn't even last long enough to qualify as a mili-second. One could easily mistake the flash of their arms into the sky, only to immediately recover into normal stance as a glitch rather than a feature. All and all, posion does not do very much damage so much as the needle itself, and constantly spamming needles limits your own ability to heal team mates.

Vaccination on the other hand adds a temporary buff of armor (that does stack with each needle) as well as immunization to bile; a bonus that can also be applied via grenades and self-injection. A severely injured teammate can experience a huge surge as he is granted 7 armor a needle (or 7 per second in a heal grenade, or BOTH) buffed armor and immunity to bile and can really turn things around by saving them virtually 300 Dosh.

Skill Level 25: Airborn Agent or Sedative



Now this final tier is for ZED Time only, and both of these perks are very good.

Airborn can be great for healing a cluster of people and doing it fast and can create life saving situations if you are short on needles. However, I myself prefer Sedation for a number of reasons.

The ability to put Scrakes & Fleshpounds into a stun can be game changing for the team; it allows people to regroup and hold, or for the team to gang up and destroy the enemy with no recorse. Combined with a good Commando extending ZED time a medic can put an entire army to sleep, especially with it working passively through grenades and needles. For me, this is one instance where the risk-to-reward is worthy of a skill point, as sedation is the ultimate form of prevention and team aid.

If you are so fortunate to get ZED time during the Final Boss, you can even Sedate Hanz himself.

Go Ahead...Mix 'Em.



As previously stated in the section Skills: Selfish of Selfless, I promised I would elaborate more on a certain use for Armament in this section for in depth explanation of why it shines in the late game.

Authors Note: This advice is aimed specifically at those who are level 20 plus and is tested with a level 25 Medic.

The Clean Slate
The true power of these two skills is only really understood with the power of a grenade. A grenade heals people every second they stay in that cloud, and since it counts as a heal for each second, each time they clock up a tick so does their armor. For the sake of this demonstration, the Medic will always be at 30 health for the start of every grenade; the only thing changed will be the skills.


Armament Only
Starting at 30 health and zero armor, we should examine first the results of the Armament skill. The result of a grenade in which the character stands in for the entirety of the duration is that of approximately 40 armor and 90 health. Not too shabby, but it's important to remember that 2% of 175 is a lot more than 2% of 100, and that the effects on the medic will be more pronounced than on his teammates.





Vaccination Only
Starting at 30 health and zero armor, the effects of a single grenade now with Vaccination seem far more pronounced than it's younger brother, clocking in at an impressive 70 armor and 100 health (not to mention the extreme bile resistance bonus).





Combination
Now when putting both the Armament and the Vaccination skill on we can see that the final tally is a whopping 110 armor and 90 health. This dispels the originally accepted hypothesis that while in a Medic grenade that armor to health ratio was based on healing potency. If this were the case we would not have seen a straight addition of the 40 and 70 Armor from both perks alongside the reduced health of 90.



Conclusion and Interpretation

With this knowledge we know that Armament in combination with Vaccination can create what I have come to refer to as the second wind effect, i.e. when a teammate is severely injured and below 40% health, a single grenade in combination with needle spam from the Assault Rifle can restore virtually 100% armor to him alongside full health.

As I have stated earlier, the Combatant Skill should be used as a way of saving money until Level 20, and I still stand by that statement (but do understand why others would not). 2% armor alone is not worth setting your heal potency back that far until you hit this stride and that penalty becomes virtually irrelevant. In fact, the 10% less healing penalty at those higher levels actually helps you, as now you can heal them for even more armor. At level 20+, Armament and Vaccination can do far more for the general good in terms of survival, efficiency and cost savings than Combatant ever could. Therefore, when one hit's level 20 I have no reason to believe or say that a Medic should not be using both of these perks at the same time, since it benefits everyone substantially.




Pro-Tip for the Boss: Don't forget to use this when Hanz heals. My favorite thing to do so far has been to have my one of my pals go level 25 Berserker and circle strafe him till he gets down to red. When Hanz does his heal animation this is the perfect opportunity to regenerate the players armor and health by throwing a Medic grenade at his feet and then spamming the darts from the Assault Rifle into the trapped player. It's virtually guaranteed 100% armor in addition to poisoning Hanz. If you do this correctly, Supports can save their AA12 spam for when he hits his final heal and finish the job almost instantly.

Scalpel



If you don't know what this is, we are going to have problems. Use with discretion and caution, and in the words of a great philosopher; DON'T ACT DUMB.

The HMTech-101 Pistol



This Pistol comes standard should you spawn as medic, and packs a wallop compared to the other starting weapons and it's brother the 9mm. 1 shot can headshot most low level trash like Clot Variations, Gores, Stalkers and Crawlers. It's even quite effective with all headshots against higher leveled trash like Husk (though it cannot kill in one magazine). The pistols advantage comes with its damage output, large ammo reserve and relatively good needle recharge rate; often being able to pump out 2 emergency shots of healing into a team mate. This weapon should accompany you the entirety of the game.

The HMTech-201 SMG



The SMG will more than likely be your first upgrade, and it's a good one. With a relatively high ammo count and large magazine, the SMG can deal with trash at an alarming rate with excellent accuracy. Husks will become no match for well placed shots to the head and significant damage can be done to sirens as well. The SMG also boasts a fair syringe recharge rate. It's main advantages are lack of weight, allowing you to carry more stuff to sell at the trader and high ammo capacity with large reserve.

The HMTech-301 Shotgun



The next tiered power weapon comes in at a cool 1100 Dosh. The medical shotgun has 60 rounds of high semi-auto power, but it comes with extreme disadvantages. Ammunition goes fast and when I say fast I mean REAL fast. Shots are only truly effective when they are all hitting in the face. Therefore you aren't killing trash with this thing, you are saving it for high DPS on emergency situations like pitching in on a Scrake or FP. Even then it is not that effective and likely not worth diverting health from the team in this moment. Other uses include punching holes through a wall of ZEDs for escape. It is also heavier than the SMG and while it can be paired with the Assault Rifle, there will be no weight left for other weapons to trade. The syringe recharge rate is okay, but it does not justify all the disadvantages it brings. The only time you should use this weapon would be if trash is simply not an issue or for the Final Boss round.

HMTech-401 Assault Rifle



The final upgrade of the medics arsenal lays here in the 401 AR. This gun has relatively no downsides, with a large magazine, powerful ammunition that can kill even the toughest of trash in a mag...not to mention aid in FP's and SC's alike. The gold star however goes to it's extreme needle recharge rate allowing one to fire roughly 4 needles consecutively, and then keep firing consistently under stress. The HMTech-401 is a absolute must.

Closing Words
I suppose now that I have presented general fact's I should leave you with a few words. Medic is not a extremely difficult class to be good at, but requires absolute attention and significant dedication to be good at. Therefore, do all that you can to be best at what you do, so when you do it no one can say that their defeat was on your hands. Just remember to get out their and hit it with your best shot and don't sell yourself short; you are literally the life saver.

As for general advice, here's a few:

Shoot Trash: primarily crawlers and dump of few shots into other ZED's for assists; this is the fastest way to level up as healing does virtually nothing for XP.

Save Money, Sell Weapons: Cut costs wherever you can and be the bank of the team. Scout for weapons and use your extra speed to zip around the map scaveging.

Gotta Go Fast: You move like the Flash; your increased speed is a gift so don't forget to use it.

Understand you can't save them all: Some times there's just nothing you can do; don't beat yourself up about it too much. Do all that you can but if that's all you can do, that's all you can do.

If someone kills the team, kill them: Is there a level 8 Support who would rather use bigger ammo capacity rather than the supplier skill? A Bezerker Kiting from the team and letting members die? A Commando with Nightvision? Let natural selection take it's course.

Words on User Feedback:

I've never claimed to know it all and never will, so if you have advice or words on how the article/guide can be improved go ahead and leave some feedback and I'll do the testing to see if it's worthy of being put in the guide. If I turn out to be wrong on something or new information comes to light I will also do my best to keep the guide updated and accurate so that it is as effective and relevant to the present day Medic of KF2 as possible.

Thank you for reading; good luck and good fight.