I want to play medic, and play it well

[StephenNelson]

Okay, so I have played my fair share of standard, PO, and SO. Other jobs (Like engi) I can play but are not my strong suit. I hear we have a lack of competent medics and I would like to try and fix this.

I have read the wiki and some guides on the forums, but in light of all the recent updates I figured that the best place to get info would be with a post on the forums. I think I get the VERY basics (I can use gauze, Tricord, Burn gel, both advanced kits, splints, and the like easily and I know when to do so,) but I have NEVER used pills before. Or any of the multicolored candyboxes of injectors. Can someone(s) help me out with some quick tips?

Also, even as a standard, I find it hard to believe how many fellow marines try to go up on the dropship for wounds that could have been fixed with a little gauze and tricord...

[solidfury7]

Pack a basic first aid kit full of extra high priority pills. (KELO, BICARD) and high priority injectors. (QC)

Take down two defibs

Plan for 2 hour missions

Inaprov is OP, make use of it for keeping people alive.

Ensure you have peri (stops people dying from organ failure)

Don't be scared to tell marines to fuck off.

Order marines to help extract the wounded. Seriously, this saves so many lives.

It's better to revive someone and treat a critical patient later, then to treat the critical patient and lose the deceased for good.

Try travel with escorts

[Omicega]

A massive part of playing a good medic is sorting your loadout. Ideally, you don't want to be going up to the ship past the first drop - in a lot of rounds, there will be enough wounded to keep all activities medics busy right from the first point of heavy contact, and all the time you'd spend resupplying could easily see a few (or more) marines left to die as the medics still on the ground get overwhelmed. Even the most competent medic in terms of triage, mechanics, positioning etc won't last long if they just bring the default belt or bag.

On that note, the most important thing I'd recommend to a new medic is something you've already done - looking up example loadouts on the forums and trying to emulate them. The only injectors you should be taking are QC, Dex+, and maybe one or two Oxy or Tricord. Everything else should be pills (and lots of them), especially really important chems like Bicaridine, Kelotane, and Tramodol. A Bicard pill bottle takes up the same one space in your bag as a Bicard injector, but the pill bottle holds 100u total and the injector only 10u. The only trade-off is that pills take a few seconds to be given to someone, but it's a small price to pay for the massive increase in staying power.

Aside from that, the tips above my post are all really solid, although telling marines to fuck off if they're not actively pursuing you or stealing your patients is a bit disingenuous. Even if the guy looks lightly injured with only a small burn or something, the damage could be deceptively painful and pushing them alarmingly close to crit. I wouldn't tell anyone to get the fuck out of my face unless they were trampling my crit and dead patients so I could heal their <20 brute damage or something.

[Blackarrow179]

Cry about people pushing you whilst you defib a downed marine. Chase marines when they walk off whilst your still in the process of healing them. Get screamed at to heal a baldies paper cut when your trying to save a life

Should I go on

[Stripetail]

Pack a basic first aid kit full of extra high priority pills. (KELP, BICARD) and high priority injectors. (QC)

Kelp is essential for a marine diet.

There are several resources on the forums for playing medic, check out Miserable Medics sharing tips and that will also give you a major boost.

[mazazon]

It's really not as scary as it seems. The basics of use _____ for _____ type of injury isn't hard.

The hard parts are prioritising and not getting tunnel vision... For me at least.
Figuring out your kit might take a bit initially.

Some simple tips:
Take the lifesaver belt bag and dump the injectors out of it. The thing has a ton of inventory space.

Have a weapon that can be fired one handed (get a gyro attachment if you like), you will be constantly pulling out you're health scanner or dragging wounded, you need an open hand.

Peridexan is a magic drug that heals internal organs, only the medbay has it so you'll need to try and get there before brief or before the drop.

Everything gets a tramadol, hand out that shit like tic-tacs.

That said always scan before handing out pills, we don't want to Over Dose people. Standards are good enough at killing each other without the medics help.

Quick Clot is the only way for a medic to heal internal bleeding. After you use it your patient will start bleeding externally so get the bandages ready.

Keep your spent QC injectors, if you make it back to the ship you can click and drag them back into the dispensers to refill them, same goes for all injectors.

Most drugs are portioned so back to back doses will OD, if you want to be safe, wait till a drug has been metabolised before giving another hit. You can try to learn the OD thresholds if you like but as a basic rule for new medics this should be fine.

Give SLs and specialist roles priority over standards.

Keep in mind that the lower right most inventory slot will be the last thing you put in it. The stuff you use all the time will usually be there.

That's all I got off the top of my head.

[Steelpoint]

Don't crowd another Medics patient. Its a simple mistake but unless the other Medic has no idea what they are doing just let them do their work.

Two medics on one patient is not only a waste of time, but it significantly increases the risk of that person being accidently overdosed with a drug.

[Hulkamania]

The only injectors you should be taking are QC, Dex+, and maybe one or two Oxy or Tricord.

I disagree with the injectors not only because Inaprovaline is a godsend (I take at least one injector) but having a couple injectors on hand is wonderful, especially for one big reason: Self treatment.

If you're injured and you pop yourself with an oxy injector it'll buy yourself time to apply other drugs, but even then taking out a pill takes a little extra time that can sometimes be huge. Much easier to just slap an injector on yourself while you work on other patients. It's also good for when you're overwhelmed with minor injuries, you can inject a bicard or kelotane into a marine and send them along their way while you work with the bad cases. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you should go crazy and load down on injectors, but having one bicard and one kelo can come in handy a surprising amount of the time.

Also don't take all the damn trauma kits from your partner. If you take anything from the vendor, make sure the other medic at least has the option of getting some too. It's extremely frustrating to see all the quick clot, medical pouches or other vital equipment is just gone.

Oh and bring a damn stasis bag. Seriously it takes up almost no inventory space, and if a patient is simply FUBAR but still breathing slap em in a stasis bag. It's great for those guys who you defib and die again shortly after revival. Some of these cases are very treatable, but they take a huge amount of time that could be spent saving other marines, especially if they have to go back up for surgery anyway.

[Omicega]

Inaprovaline is fantastic, yeah - that's why I take a whole bottle of it instead of just a few injectors. I use it on more or less every defibbed patient to preserve charge, assuming I know they haven't died a long time ago and aren't close to timing out.

As for the oxy injectors, I used to be a huge believer in them until I discovered that (at least in my experience) the majority of the time you can continue to function for at least a short while after being injured, which is pretty much always enough time to scarf down a quick Tram pill before finishing off treating yourself. Really, more or less any drug that comes in pill form should be taken in pill form if possible - you get so many more uses out of it that I'd find it hard to justify taking injectors. The only time I ever use Kelo/Inap/Bicard etc injectors is when I'm treating patients in medbay right beside the vendors for infinite restocking. That said, I am a firm believer in packing a couple of Tricord injectors in a syringe case somewhere, since they can be restocked on the Alamo and in other NanoMeds that are scattered around some maps planetside.

[spicemoron]

Bitch at medbay to get you the good drugs.
Bitch at the devs to make pill management less shit.

Maybe ask medbay for a hypospray and a tricord bottle for some pricking action.
The SMG is not great, but it's still better than something that might take two hands to fire. Beg your engie to hack the vends so you can get some AP ammo for it, just treat the damage when you FF someone.

Also beg the engies to hack and relocate the medvend.


Remember to stash a second (or third) health scanner somewhere in case you drop your first one.

You shouldn't deal with other medics' patients but it's going to happen anyway so try to announce when you're going to quickclot someone.

Always have two quick clots in your lifesaver bag so you can kill yourself at a moment's notice. If you're hardcore ask medbay for water and potassium pills then watch them try to make both at the same time.

You probably won't be banned if you use the above on any CO or CMO who restricts medicine. Probably.

I disagree with the injectors not only because Inaprovaline is a godsend (I take at least one injector) but having a couple injectors on hand is wonderful, especially for one big reason: Self treatment.

I prefer to use em in situations where I don't have time to shove pills inside someone. Though the aforementioned tricord/dd hyospray is usually the better option for healing on the go.

[Jackrabbit]

1. Be medic.
2. Try not to cry.
3. Cry.

[ImHereToHelp]

You must acquire more Experience Points before you gain access to new Medic skills and techniques.