As a Medic, I find that Scouts are very hard to kill, as they spin around in circles and shoot me while I'm spinning around trying to keep up with them. How do I deal with them?
How to deal with Scouts as a Medic
team-fortress-2tf2-medic
Related Solutions
Certain classes are better against certain other classes.
In general: Heavy is weak against Spy, Sniper, and Demoman.
Heavy is strong against Scout, Pyro, and Medic.
Heavy is even (more or less) against Soldier.
An Engineer versus Heavy depends entirely on if the Engy has a level 2-3 sentry or not. A mini-sentry or level 1 sentry will almost always see the Heavy win at full health. In this case, the Engineer should flee. If he was building mini-sentries, building them as you flee is an excellent idea, as it will slow the Heavy down to kill it, or make him ignore it to chase you, dealing him damage all the while.
Medic is weak against Scout, Pyro, and Soldier... well, most of the classes in the game, but those three in particular.
Medic is strong against the Spy, simply because a Medic that continually moves will generally outrun or dodge a Spy's backstab.
The thing is... a Scout has the best chance of killing a Medic if he can manage to get behind the Medic, simply because a medic is a 2-shot kill with the standard Scattergun at close range.
Now, the best defense against a Heavy/Medic pair is to work with your own teammates. If you can take out one of the two, the other teammates may be able to take out the other.
If you really do need to combat them alone, Sniper is likely your best bet. As tempting as it is to go after the Medic first, if he keeps moving, he can generally outrun your scope. However, a fully charged headshot will one-shot the Heavy.
If they Uber, run, unless you're an Engineer trying to keep a sentry nest up. In this case, repair repair repair, and hope that they aren't smart enough to have the Medic block the sentry's knockback effect. If you can get a Pyro to help you by airblasting the Medic or Heavy away, even better.
P.S. NEVER go head-to-head versus a Heavy, he will always likely win simply because of how much damage he does.
Hitting airborne targets is hard. There are three main points you need to take into consideration when shooting airborne targets.
- The distance between you and the target.
- The velocity and trajectory of the projectile.
- The velocity and trajectory of the target.
Becoming an expert at those three points and doing all the calculations in your head is a difficult task for experienced players. However, most experienced players do not calculate all three of these points to make a shot - instead, they try to: minimize the impact of a variable to gain an advantage.
Distance between you and the target
Generally speaking, the closer you are to the target, the easier it is to hit them.
Knowing the distance between you and the target is important. Some distances are just too far to accurately hit an opponent in the air.
Some effective methods you can accurately estimate the distance between you and the target are: the size of the target (the smaller it is the further away it is) and landmarks/popular places (ammo/health kits spawn locations and map objectives).
Knowing the distance between yourself and the target mostly comes from experience; there is no hard or fast rule to know the precise distance between you and your target.
Velocity and Trajectory of the Projectile
In general, the faster and straighter a projectile fires, the easier it is to hit a target.
Using weapons like the Direct Hit with its whopping 80% faster than regular rockets and straight line trajectory is probably one of the easiest weapons in the game to hit people in the air with.
A good way to practice with your weapon is to find an object and guess: how long it will take for the weapon to hit the object. Try to make a mental picture of the trajectory it will take. Do this a few times each day for different areas, on different maps, for different distances until you can accurately predict what will happen.
You should get comfortable with your weapon to the point it is second nature. If you know exactly how your weapon will perform, it is one less thing you need to think about.
The velocity and trajectory of the target
The easiest time to hit a player in the air is when they stop moving vertically. Try to time your shot so it hits the player when they are at the apex of their trajectory.
If you launch a player into the air look at how much damage the player received. The amount and location of damage the player took will directly translate to their velocity and trajectory. You can easily practice this against stationary bots.
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Best Answer
As a Medic, you don't have too much of a defense against any class, much less a Scout, by yourself. If confronted by yourself, you have maybe three options:
By yourself, you have no real viable options, especially when a Scout with proficient aim can two-shot you with a Scattergun faster than you can track and pin them down with a Syringe Gun.
The only real weapon you have is your teammates: therefore, you should never fight an enemy by yourself unless you have no other option - instead, help your teammates fight the enemy by healing them.
If you ever find yourself alone and confronted by a Scout, only two of the above options are viable:
If you believe you have sufficient health...
If you can't track the Scout well enough or you don't have too much health...
Whichever option you choose, as @badp mentions in this question's comments: it would be wise to also call for help (the default keybind is C+1).
This related Arqade question comes to mind: the top answer of that question covers this question well (and probably better than I can), so I'll copy and paste it (with some added emphasis):
The second answer to the question is also very informative. I won't copy and paste all of it here, just this one excerpt that is worth mentioning:
In summary: the only real weapon you have against Scouts (and the majority of the other classes) are your teammates. Don't venture too far from your teammates, because if they're any good, they will protect you (and you, as a good Medic, will protect them by healing them).