MAG Guide - Medic

I did not write this, I saw it on the official MAG forum and thought it would be a good idea to have it here as well as sometimes these things tend to disappear over time and I know if it's here it won't go anywhere.

All credit to oHIKARUo and Thagmor for writing/compiling this stuff.

Medic Guide

The ability to resurrect the dead is the most powerful ability in any game. Many times one simple resurrection is the difference between holding and losing an objective or even the entire game.

So, why doesn't everyone use it? Well, I'll get to that after the guide.


A guide to being a successful medic

There is no way you can be a successful medic without commitment and teamwork from both you and your teamates. It really is a two way street. You cannot resurrect people who are halfway across the map or are quick to tap out (hit the x button after death). Finally you will learn that if you have a reputation for being a committed medic, you will inspire teamwork amongst your squad mates.

First a lesson for the team mates of a good medic....

How to Get A Resurrect from a Medic

Stay with your squad or close to the Objective.
Don't tap out immediately.
Use the Headset to ask for a resurrection.

#1 cannot be stressed enough. In competition some teams stress a 10 meter rule. That is, no one in your squad should be 10 meters away from one another or the objective, this way you can always run to a fallen teammate. The other bullet points are self explanatory. If you repeatedly tap out, medics will learn your tag is a burn, and ignore you in future deaths. Nothing pisses a medic off more than running to someone who taps out before there meter runs down. MAG needs a meter reading over corpses so a medic can tell if the trek is too far.

How to Get A Heal from a Medic

Take Cover.
Use the coms and call one by name.
Stay still if possible, or if you need to strafe to stay alive, at least strafe in a tight constricted circle allowing the medic to get a heal on you.

How To Spec for Medic
Someone else has already posted a great guide on how to spec for each class (search for it). In the medic section of his article he wrote a great guide on how to be able to resurrect as soon as possible. I agree with most of it, but I have my own spin on things. Primarily if you are considering being a medic you should take that skill all the way to the top prior to putting points in anything else.

First, Simple Heal Spec
I believe you can take the Medic tree up very short and heal yourself and teammates, but I really don't think you should stop here.
(People who complain about not getting heals should simply just get the ability themselves prior to complaining).

Second, Resurrecting Medic Spec
As I said earlier, resurrection is the most powerful ability in any game. especially instant resurrection with full health. MAG has this, yet so few people use it in what appears to be a game that is meant for team players. That baffles me.

First take the medic tree up as far as you can go. You'll be able to resurrect someone after a few levels. Just keep putting points till you get the ability.
Next you must take the 1000 pt med kit and load it into your load out. Having the skill, doesn't mean you have the equipment.

Third, Time To Arm Your Medic
Here is where I disagree with one popular medic posting. It is popular opinion to get athleticism before arming your Medic. I prefer to skill on assault rifles until I get the second weapon. Without any additions, this gun is sufficient to protect yourself while you keep your teammates alive.

UPDATED **MEDIC USE OF GRENADES**Often I see new medics throwing grenades on their poor patients corpse. Can't send that home to mum now can we? I figured out how to stop this. MAG has a way to move what order your L2 slot is. Go to loadouts and remove your grenade and medic kit, from their slots. Go back into the empty slots and reverse them (in otherwords put the medic kit in the Left slot and the grenade in the right slot). This will make your medic kit be more accessible only requiring one tap on the L2 and the grenade will require two taps. This is much more efficient.

If you really need a great grenade for medics, you should try a smoke grenade. These are so rarely used in pubs (public servers) but yet they are really powerful tools for offense. Put up a wall of smoke around the front line and run around behind the smoke to heal the fallen. The smoke grenades in this game are the best I have ever seen in a game. They are thick, long lasting and super effective.

If you keep your gun sparse of add ons (personally I just use standard sights and save the cash) you can afford to get other things and still keep the 1000 pt Medic Tool.

What I am trying to get to here is that you can have the power to resurrect your teammates and still have a ton of firepower in MAG.

Athleticism
Ok, if you've gone up the assault tree enough to your liking and you are actually able to kill someone now, its time to stay alive even longer. In fact, staying alive is the key to being a good medic. There are a few key things to grab on the Athleticism tree. Definitely take the ability to take more damage and extended sprint (or reduced sprint timer).

Advanced Medic Tactics

Don't Die
Spam Heals Constantly
Fire only when Necessary
Stay near your Squad or Objective
Communicate to your intended patient over voice coms
Kill First, Resurrect Later
Resurrect First, Kill later
Resurrection Priority
Watch for Corpse Grenades

1. Don't die:
Take a round or two and just slow down your game play. Don't rush out when the game starts. Wait 10 seconds and then trail your squad mates. See what they do. Observe what the other team does. Use the overhead map. Look for cover spots. Look for crossfire spots and chokepoints around the objective. Blend in, stay low. Don't fire unless fired upon. Just work on resurrecting and healing. If you are a twitch gamer you may frown on the very thought of this, but understand this. If you already are a ridiculously talented run and gun twitch player, imagine how overall balanced you will be as a player if you can do both stealth, and twitch style game play. Try this for 2 rounds each game session, then go back to your normal play style. You will see that eventually this becomes part of your play style when necessary.

A good medic stays back, takes cover, covers his teammates, heals and raises the fallen. But an excellent medic wipes the remainder of the opposing squad with ridiculous gun skills prior to resurrecting his entire squad on the objective saving them a run back from spawn. The best medics have excellent accuracy and are creative in a pinch.

2. Spam Heals Constantly
As a medic you should always be spamming your heal. As soon as the timer is up, wave it around and it'll fire off at friendlies that are sometimes right next to you or ridiculous distances away. Get off as many heals as you can. I believe its 1pt of XP for 10 pts of healing done to friendlies and possibly more if there is a FRAGO. In BF2 and QW:ET you could throw med kits on the ground. In this game its an injection, so you really have to be quick with the tool when healing. Practice flipping between your heal tool and your Main weapon as quick and often as possible. Mix in prone and crouch while taking cover and heal yourself and team mates. When things get hot, you'll see you can move quickly.

3. Fire only when Necessary.
This is covered under Don't Die. I will expand on this more in #6 & # 7.

4. Stay near your squad or objective
Hanging around objectives is a good way to find a lot of people that need heals. Objectives and FRAGOs can be found on your mini map. Look at where the blue dots are, and hang around them. This will make sure you are near your squad. The light Blue Tags are your platoon. You should be with light blue tags unless otherwise instructed.

 

When you run across the map chasing corpses, you have no idea of the status directly around the corpse you're running towards and probably do not know where his assailant is. In addition you could get picked off running like a fool across the map anyway. Don't chase XP. Let the XP come to you. When you are with the people who are getting killed, you have good situational awareness and can identify all the threats prior to making any moves to heal or rez.

5. Communicate
Let everyone know in the beginning of the round that you are a medic and that they shouldn't tap out immediately if you are in the vicinity. Let a fallen comrade know you are coming for him and he should sit tight. If he is pinned down and you are not going to take out the bad guys first, then warn him he has a hot rez coming. That means, you're gonna rez him under fire and he should get ready to take cover or return fire. This brings me to my last point.

6. Kill First, Resurrect Later
I've actually heard good players say this is a hard and fast rule and that is simply just no the case. People get mad when they die, you resurrect them and they are instantly killed by the same person that killed them the first time. This is a rookie mistake. The medic should clear the area and make sure the corpse isn't being camped. This is where being with your squad comes in handy again.

7. Resurrect First, Kill later
This is actually a viable tactic. Perhaps the assailant is reloading and you see a good opportunity to get a rez in before he's finished. Now you have a 2 v 1 instead of 1 v 1 and after all you may not be packing as much fire power as your opponent. Resurrect someone with a grenade launcher suddenly ups the firepower around you and thus increases your chances of staying alive long enough to heal yourself and resurrect others.

8. Rez Priority
Medics first usually since they can ressurrect others and the amount of team mates getting revived starts to grow exponentially for each medic being raised. The exception to this case may be if you are a medic running with an engineer who is fixing the AA Battery, then the engineer is your priority since you need him to complete the FRAGO

9. Wait for Corpse nades
Its a common tactic for assailants to toss nades on their victims corpses in order to get the medic that comes in for the resurrection. Be patient. Don't just dive on corpses. Point your medic gun and see if you can get a rez from behind cover or around a corner. Sometimes you'd be surprised how far away the gun works, and often thru objects.

So with such a powerful tool, why isn't everyone using it?
 Unfortunately in a public server particularly in a console game you have way less people motivated by teamwork and way more lone wolves.

---