Subu Weapons And Tactics (my medic thoughts)

I don't know the best way to be a medic. What I do know is one way that works well, which is what I can share with you. If you are struggling, or just want to see how somebody else does it, some of these methods might help you.


FIRST THINGS FIRST

If you use Shooter Mode, DON'T. You will never be able to heal anybody with any effectiveness in Shooter Mode, and you also won't be able to hit the enemy effectively. Shooter Mode can be fun and cool but it is the exact opposite of what you want to be doing in PVP or STFs, especially as a medic.

Hardware matters. If you don't have mkX purple kits, mx11 blue weapons or better, mk11 blue Energy Dampening armor or better, and mk11 blue shields or better, either buy them yourself on the exchange or ask the fleet to craft, buy, give, or help you run missions to acquire what you need.

Eventually you will probably be wanting Omega set armor and shields, but those are often very hard to acquire and we can't really help you get those except by doing STFs with you. If you already have MACO, don't feel bad, it's a very viable alternative and you don't need to switch unless you want to try something new. Omega is slightly preferred because its 10 second damage resist power and dodge chance complements your innate tankyness better than the MACO shield regen and resistance, and the exposes it generates will help make up for your otherwise low dps.

Unless you are kiting or chasing somebody, you should never be firing without aiming. If you don't need to move, or can't move, crouch.


SPEC

My primary medic skills are Medic and Willpower. Medic makes my heals stronger, and Willpower keeps me up and healing instead of getting knocked on my butt. My secondary medic skills are PS Generator and Combat Armor, because I cannot heal if I am dead.

Non-medic skills are still important, though. Weapon Proficiency is always important for any character, Scientist is important for any Science character for your debuffs, and Physiology, Probability Logistics, and Particle Physics can all be useful if you want to run other kits than Medic effectively. I have six ranks in Scientist and four in Probability Logistics, but I am primarily medic specced.


HUD

This is my most important suggestion for medics.

I keep my powers tray (powers bar 1 and 2) directly below the team members icon bar on the left of the screen. This allows me to look in a single place and see all the information I need for healing: my health bar, the health bars of all my teammates, and the cooldowns on all my healing powers (as well as other powers).

I also keep my map up in small form, on the right of my screen, under the minimap, over the mission information. Closing and opening the map (M key by default) refreshes it to my position, and the score isn't really something I need to be concerned with constantly, but can check occasionally, whereas the map has information that I need all the time: where the good guys and bad guys are on the level.


BINDS

No matter what my kit or class, I like everything to be available without leaving my main hand position. For me, this is one hand on WASD and one hand on the mouse. Your comfortable keys may be different from mine because of hand size or keyboard configuration, but I'll list mine for completeness. I use F1-F4 for consumables and activated passives or set bonuses, 1 and 2 for primary and secondary fire, 4 and 5 or F for Scan and Evil Nanites, 6 or T for Triage, mouse buttons 3-5 (out of 5 buttons total) for Medical Tricorder, Vascular Regenerator, and Blue Nanites, and numpad Enter (because it is close to the mouse) for Diffraction Field. Less immediately needed things, like CPR, Tribble, and Scientific Aptitude, occupy Ctrl+number buttons on power tray 2. I trigger them with the mouse if I need them.

The mouse button binds plus T for the heals is the biggest blessing for me as a healer. It enables me to use the mouse to select the person who is at low health or who needs heal-over-time or resistance boosting with a left click from the teammates tray, which I find much more intuitive than using a key for it, because it means clicking the very indicator that shows that they need healing. Once I have clicked that, I just hit one of my mouse buttons or T, depending on what is needed and off cooldown. To heal myself, click anywhere on the screen that isn't an ally, then trigger heals.

This dramatically speeds up the healing process.



THINKING LIKE A MEDIC

These principals govern my actions.

I can't heal if I'm dead.
I can't heal my team if I'm healing myself.
I can't heal if I don't have LOS to every member of the team.
I can't keep LOS if I don't tell my team members that I'm losing LOS.
The ideal game isn't the one in which I do the most damage, the most kills, or even the most healing; it's one in which none of my team mates get killed.



TIPS AND TRICKS
I always like to keep nanites running on at least one person, preferably a tac. A spare set of nanites can go on another person, but it can also be useful for a clutch heal. My cooldowns allow one active and one ready at all times, or two and one with tactical initiative.

Heals grant damage resistance and can save someone from a oneshot. I throw a heal at an ally about to take an orbital bombardment or an ambushed tactical officer's shot to keep him alive if I have one to spare, then a second heal to heal him up afterwards.

The best place to stand is where you can see all your allies but the enemy can't see you.

You can put evil nanites and dampening fields on anything you can shoot, and they will spread to any nearby enemy. Cover shields and support drones make great targets for evil nanites and dampening fields if players are out of sight.

Powers take one second to activate. Activate one power, wait a beat, activate the next. Mashing all your powers makes none of them trigger.



GEAR

Kit: Medic mk X purple.

Armor: Energy Dampening with a hitpoints, regen, physical defense, and/or HPP boost. Replace this with MACO or OMEGA when you get them. Alternative: Jem Hadar (only if you have another piece of Jem Hadar set).

Shield: Capx2 or Capx3 until you get MACO or OMEGA. Alternative: Jem Hadar (only if you have another piece).


Primary Weapon: Splitbeam. Multi-targeting exploit weapons are a great way to support my front line fighters and their Exposing pulsewaves. Alternative: Federation Type 3.


Secondary Weapon: Depending on the situation, I use one of the following:

Stun pistol. Slow, stun, and expose enemies, pairs great with Type 3.

Pulsewave. For chaotic close in fighting, nothing beats it. Useful against cloakers who like to try to oneshot you or hectic fights through tight corners.

Ghostbuster. This is more of a front line weapon, but sometimes the front line is right around the corner. I can cycle to this in a corner standoff, where I'll have the range to use it when people poke their heads out, while still not getting focused down.

Jem Hadar rifle. This isn't really great as a weapon, but the Shroud set bonus with the Jem Hadar armor is nice for a medic. Turning invisible while the enemy is trying to focus me down has saved my life. Consider using this and the Jem Hadar armor if you don't have a MACO or OMEGA set yet.

Hypos. Hypos are like underwear. You should never go out in public without some covering your ass. Use these for breaking holds or for emergency heals. Devidian Cain got me floating off my feet? Pop a hypo, go into aim mode, and pulsewave that animation locked enemy in the back of the head. Engineer fuse my armor and dropping an orbital bombardment on me? Hypo and roll away. Heals needed to keep the team up, but my own health is dropping? Hypo and keep the heals flowing.

Shield Charges. Useful for clearing exposes or as an emergency health buffer if all my heals and hypo are on cooldown and I'm getting focused down. I generally prefer to take cover and wait out the expose while healing my allies, when I can.

Power Cells. Useful for breaking Weapon Malfunction or focusing down a single target quickly. I seldom use these because they share a timer with hypos and shield charges, both of which are more important. I don't need a functioning gun to heal and debuff, and I can't shoot if I'm dead.

Triolic Tribble (or other Damage Resistance tribble). I can't heal if I'm dead. My fuzzy little friend knows this and helps keep me from getting that way.

Great post by the way, I read it a couple of times and got a few nice things from it.