The Shield Basher medic is a Medic that will exploit the power of his shield to his maximum, and use it to deal damages to the robots. But to know how to exploit the shield, we must know first how it works.

The Energy Shield is an upgrade added in the Two Cities update only available for the Medic's mediguns. Each level of the shield cost 300$ and can have up to 2 levels. When bought, an "Energy" meter will appear above the Medic's Uberchage meter, and fills by healing players. However, compared to the Ubercharge meter, the Energy meter only charge when the healing target recover health or overheal : the faster you heal, the more energy you get, but you won't get energy from a fully overhealed teammate. However, your energy bar will charge if your healing target deal damages to the bots, but not as fast as you healing this actual target most of the time.

Once the Energy meter is filled, after healing for 600hp (number need confirmations), the Medic can deploy his shield (Mouse3 by default, I highly suggest you change this in the option menu). The shield block any projectiles and bullets, and deal damages to any robot that get close to the shield or even touch it. The shield last 15 seconds, and the energy meter will be empty again after use.

A Shield Basher medic will try to use the shield as much as possible, and to use this shield as much as possible, the Medic will need to charge his energy meter faster, and the energy meter is filled when your healing target recover health. Conclusion : a Shield Basher medic will need to heal more to use his Shield more.

A normal Medic would use his shield whenever he see a Giant, a group of crits robots, to protect himself while he revive an ally, and in so much more many cases. But the goal is the same : to keep his team alive, and help his allies a bit with the crowd control. A Shield Basher Medic will increase this ability, and keep his teammates alive longer. And the longer your team is alive, the more damages they can deal. And in the case your team can't deal damages, well YOU can do it for them by shoving your shield on the robots faces.


Mannworks, Expert mission.

As you can see in this screenshot (click on the picture if this is too small for you), not only I managed to deal 40k damages as a Medic, but the Heavy's damages is extremely high. This is because, when I activate my shield, I go face-to-face with the robots and deal damages to them. Meanwhile, the Heavy got closer to the robots (he is protected by the Shield, so he can move around freely), negate the damage falloff of his minigun, and so deal more damages.

Also, since a Shield Basher Medic have to increase his healing abilities to spam his Shield, his team profit from it. Which means, without your shield on, you can be useful by simply healing your teammates, reviving them, but way better than a Medic focused on charging his Kritzgrieg. Instead of increasing your team's damage output by giving them crits, you increase their damage output by keeping them alive.

A normal Medic would go Kritzgrieg to increase his allies damages. A Shield Basher Medic will try to increase his healing abilities to get as much energy as possible and spam his Shield. So a good medigun would be a medigun that increase his healing done. The solution? The Quick-Fix

The Quick-Fix is pretty impressive in term of pure healing, as it heals 40% faster and the Ubercharge charge 25% faster. However, the power of the overheal is divided by 2. But what makes this medigun interesting is the Ubercharge : while active, all healing are multiplied by 3 AND you heal yourself at the same rate. Using the Ubercharge of this weapon is a guarantee of having a Shield available right now and to save yourself and/or your healing target from sticky situations. The Ubercharge also makes you and your patient immune to knockback, which helps with mobility, or to just bodyblock a Super Scout with getting pushed away.

I haven't tested this tactic with other mediguns, but I wouldn't be surprised if it works no matter what. You can heal and get shield with any medigun, but the Quick-fix gives you shield faster.

It doesn't matter if you usually play as a Medic, I'll teach you how. A Shield Basher Medic doesn't play THAT differently from a normal Medic, but there's some tips and tricks to remember, and some tactics to learn. It's not complicated, let me show you :

You just need to fill 2 conditions to know when to use the shield : if your energy bar is full, and if there's robots on the battlefield. Of course, if there's just a lone Scout bot and your Engie have his sentry up or similar cases, don't waste your shield on that. Use your shield when there's a minimum of a threat.

This is more of a Quick-Fix specific case I'll speak there. If you are using something like the Kritzgrieg, use the Ubercharge normally, maybe even more than before.

Anyway, the Quick-Fix Ubercharge heals, and overheal, you and your target 3 time faster than your normal healing speed. The increased healing speed means getting a shield faster (if not instantaneously). Your shield just went off but you really needs it because there's a Giant, a horde of crits robots, a horde of Giants, or a horde of Giants crits robots? Use your Uber and get a shield immediately.

Other situation : all your teammates, or most of them, are dead or at low health. Use Uber, revive them all in seconds, and give them full overheal. Because yes, the Ubercharge also increase how fast you give your teammates overheal.

And finally, YOU are at low health. The Quick-fix Ubercharge also heals and overheals you in an instant. So if you are at low health, pop it, don't drop it.

If you are in one or more of these situations, use your Ubercharge. The Quick-fix get Ubercharges pretty quickly so don't hesitate to spam it.

When your shield disappear, you have to fill your energy bar to get it back via healing. But the question is : who do you heal?

This mostly depends on the situation, but here is a general priority guideline on who to heal :

• Ally under fire. Your ally takes damages, you heal those damages, get energy, and get shield. He also deals damages (generally), so you also get energy from that.
  
• Ally with low health. The less health they have, the more health you can make them recover, and the more energy you will get.
  
• Not fully overhealed high health pool classes. Heavies, Soldiers, Pyros and Demomens. They have a pretty large health pool and are often at the front. The more health they have, the more overheal they can get. And of course, the more overheal you give, the more energy you get. Heck, it's not even hard to fully fill your energy bar from a single Heavy.
  
• Not fully overhealed low health pool classes. Scouts, Engies, Snipers and Spies. It doesn't take long to overheal them and can help you get this little bit of energy you need to have a shield ready.

Important note : while you are healing, try to find cover. Robots will aim for you first if they see you. And without your shield on, you are pretty vulnerable.


At first, it will be hard for you to judge how close you have to from the robots. Because, if you get too close, the robots will go on YOUR side of the shield and kill you. The perfect distance between you and the robots is where you can damage them while stopping their bullets and rockets with your shield.

The best way to find this distance is by activating hitsounds and see how close the robots have to be to get damaged by your shield, and try to keep this distance. The screenshot here is an example of a good distance between you and the robots

Only 2 kinds of weapons can ignore your shield : the Righteous Bison, or Flamethrowers. Bisons aren't really a problem in official Valve missions, but Flamethrowers Pyros tends to be really common. And to add to the fun, a Flamethrower will kill you in seconds at close range.

All you can do against these robots is, or to let your teammates take them out and use your shield for an other situation, or buy Fire resistances and take a risk.

I don't like to give a strict upgrade path in my guide, but I will still give you a general idea of what you should buy and in which order. The upgrade path might change depending on which medigun you will be using, but it is generally close to the Quick-Fix one.

If you don't have those, you'll have a problem.

Projectile shield
Price : 300$ per point, 2 points max.
Allow to use the Projectile Shield.

Well it's pretty obvious : how do you want to Shield bash without a Shield? And remember, the first point in this upgrade gives you a shield, the second one makes the shield larger on the sides and double the shield damages (2 damages per tick, instead of 1 damages per tick) allowing for more protection and more damages to robots.

Overheal Expert
Price : 250$ per point, 4 points max.
+25% more overheal. Overheal last 50% longer.

By increasing your overhealing abilities, you will virtually increase your allies health pool, and so increase how much energy you can get from them. This is even more important for the Quick-fix since it's base overheal is cut in half, reducing your healing abilities. About the Quick-Fix, the Ubercharge will also overheal you ! Which means, when Overheal Expert is fully upgraded, you'll end up with 325 hp ! And this self-healing will also fill your energy meter. Not bad don't you think? This is what make the Quick-fix so powerful when you go Shield basher.

After maxing out your Shield and Overheal Expert, there is no "fixed" upgrade path. However, some upgrades are still more important than some others.

Healing Mastery
Price : 250$ per point, 4 points max.
Healing, revive rate, and auto-healing increased by 25%

More healing means more energy. Since reviving your allies can take some time without your Ubercharge, this upgrade will help for this too. Also helps with your energy meter since reviving your allies is considered healing.The self healing will help for your own survival.

Mad Milk Syringes
Price : 200$
Primary weapon upgrade. On hit : apply Mad Milk on your target. Additional shots will increase the Mad Milk duration, for a maximum of 4 seconds. Not available for the Crusuader's Crossbow.

This is mostly useful if your team don't have a Mad Milk Scout nor a Concheror Soldier. When dealing damages with your shield on a target with Mad Milk, you will recover health. Really useful for your own survival. But this isn't the most important, as you won't be the only one getting a benefit of it, your allies too will profit from it. Just shoot a Giant with your primary and shove your shield on him.

Related note : 4 seconds tends to be the average time needed to take out a Giant on a good team.

Fire resistance
Price : 150$ per point, 3 points max.
+25% resistance against fire and afterburn.

This is a special case scenario upgrade. Want to meet those Pyrobots face to face? Well you HAVE TO buy this upgrade if you want to survive against their shield-ignoring Flamethrowers. One point is enough to make their afterburn useless, but 2 or 3 points are needed for their direct attacks.

Crit resistance
Price : 150$ per point, 3 points max.
+30% resistance against critical attacks.

This is also a special case upgrade, and is also a general must-get upgrade for every classes. Got crits bots that can one-shot you at any moment? Max this out.

These upgrades are more situational, and more or less related to your own playstyle. But this doesn't stop them from being useful. I tend to buy a bit of each of these upgrades during the later waves. Avoid buying these during the early waves.

Bullet/Blast Resistance
Price : 300$ per point, 3 points max.
+25% resistance against bullets/explosions.

Having your shield on doesn't make you invincible. Sometimes bots will get pass it and shoot you. And when your shield isn't on, you will also take damages. One of the way to help you survive is resistances. Pretty expensive and situational (only stop one category of damages) but pretty good. Most of the time, one point in those 2 upgrades is enough, but 3 can turn you into a healing tank. Just don't buy blast resistance when the next wave is full of Heavybots (use your brain a minimum)

Health regeneration
Price : 200$ per point, 5 points max.
Recover 2hp per seconds.

A simple, cheap, and good in any situation upgrade to help you survive. Even if your health regenerate as a Medic, it won't be useful when you mostly need it : after taking damages, your self-healing will be reduced, even with Healing Mastery to the max. However, the health regeneration you will have from this upgrade will always be the same. But keep in mind that you will need more than one point in this upgrade to really make it effective.

Movement speed
Price : 200$ per point, 3 points max.
Increase movement speed by 10%.

The last method to increase your survival is speed. Speed allows you to dodge faster, to get behind cover faster, and to get in and out with your shield faster. Just be careful as a change in your speed might mess your positioning with your shield at first.

Ubercharge rate
Price : 300$ per point, 4 points max (3 points max for the Quick-fix).
Increase the Ubercharge charge rate by 25%.

With the Quick-fix, you'll get an Ubercharge ready in no time. But having more Ubercharge isn't really a problem. The more Ubers you can get means the more you can get out of sticky situations.

Most of the time, you won't get enough money to buy these upgrades. But if you are in a mission with a lot of money, this might help you a bit.

Uber duration
Price : 250$ per point, 3 points max.
Increase Ubercharge duration by 2 seconds.

This more useful for the Kritzgrieg, as the Quick-fix will most of the time need one Ubercharge to get a shield ready, and even maxed out, an Ubercharge won't last as long as a Shield. However, the longer the Ubercharge last, the more useful it can be.

Canteen Specialist
Price : 200$ per point, 3 points max.
On canteen use : share your canteen with your patient. Each point increase the canteen's duration by 1 second and reduce the canteen's price by 10$ (cannot be under 5$)

For the Medic that loves to share his canteens. Keep in mind that a crit canteen will NOT give crits to your shield.

Firing Speed
Price : 200$ per point, 4 points max.
Primary weapon upgrade : increase firing speed by 10%.

For the Medic that actively use the Mad Milk syringes. So you can apply your 4 seconds Mad Milk faster.

• Don't be afraid to spam your shield :
  As I keep saying in this guide, you will heal a lot and get a lot of energy. Don't hesitate to use your shield whenever you got the occasion.
  
  
• Increase your damages with mini-crits :
  Your shield won't be affected by crits. However, it will be affected by mini-crits. Normally, you do 2 damages per tick with your shield (when fully upgraded), but with mini-crits, this number is increased to 3. This looks like nothing, but it will dramatically increase your whole damage output, and tear down smaller robots in seconds.
  
  
• Increase your Tank damage with a Soldier :
  The problem with a Tank is that it won't deal damages to your allies, as it doesn't shoot. Which means you can't make your allies recover health they did not lose. However, you can ask a Soldier (or a Grenade Demoman) to stick his face in front of the Tank and damage himself while your shield isn't on. That way, you can heal his health lost, get energy, and use your Shield on the Tank. The damages you will get isn't really impressive, but it's better than nothing. Just make sure the Soldier don't die like an idiot by damaging himself too much.
  
  
• Keep your shield between you and the robots :
  I have a bad habit, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. When I have my shield on and I see I'm not healing anyone, I look behind me, start healing someone, and put my eyes back on the robots. Don't do that. The time you take to turn around is more than enough for the robots to kill you and everyone trusting you behind your shield. When your shield is on, keep it on the robots, stop their bullets and damage them.
  
  
• Stop Medicbots from healing with your shield :
  Your shield can, not only stop bullets and rockets, but also Medigun's heal beam ! This means you can put your shield between the Medicbot and his patient, and he won't be able to heal him or Ubercharge him ! However, be extremely careful with this : this tactic is extremely dangerous, and you might trigger an Ubermedic's Ubercharge, doing more harm than good... Just do this when the Medicbot actually used his Ubercharge, and let your team deal with the Medics normally in any other case.
  
  
• Avoid healing your teammates while your shield is on :
  This might sound silly, but consider this : you don't get energy when your shield is on. So you can keep these heal points when you need it, avoid healing your teammates while your shield is on. However, don't be a f**ktard, and heal the guys that are about to die.
  
  
• Top scoring? That's normal !
  You won't be always able to top damage as a Shield basher medic, but you might be top scoring. Why? Simply because, not only you will deal more damages than a standard medic, but you will also heal more than him. The combo of damage and heal is a really powerful tool... for the MVM scoreboard. Most of the time, you will score twice more than a normal Medic.
  
  
• Use your Uber before the wave start :
  Just like giving free kritz stickies to a Demo, you can give yourself a nice overheal boost before the wave start. You can overheal yourself using your Ubercharge and recover it before getting ready, so you start the wave with 325 hp. This is, however, a bit useless if you don't have any point in Overheal Expert.
  
  
• Need Shield and teammate is about to deal a burst of damages ? Heal him :
  You get energy when your pocket deal damages. If you see a Demo about to detonate a crit stickies trap, a Soldier about to mow down a group of bots with a banner on, or even a Sniper about to pick some Uber medics and go on a focus headshot spree, heal them. This will give you a shield ready for almost no healing. And yes, this is how you will mostly charge your shield as a Kritzgrieg Medic.

A huge thanks to Talon_Card for sharing this playstyle.

If anyone have some feedback of this playstyle with other mediguns, feel free to comment about it.

If you have any question, and criticism, or suggestions, feel free to comment about it.

Don't forget to check my other guide if you are interested (if you are not, well why do I care? I ain't your mom)

http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=519202127
http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386948630
http://steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=340356042

FAQ

• Can I use an other medigun than the Quick-fix and apply this playstyle?
  As I said, you can use any Medigun you want. The Quick-fix is more efficient here since it deals more healing thanks to his attributes and Ubercharge. Here is some tips if you want to use an other Medigun :
  
  • Using the stock Medigun : What will change here is how you will use your Ubercharge : you should know it's a bit pointless to have both your Ubercharge and your shield activated at the same time, as they both offer you and your team protection. Just, when your Ubercharge is active, be sure to apply it on the teammate that is the closer to the robots because your energy bar fills if you or your target get shot at while Ubercharged ! This means you can use your shield, then use your Ubercharge, and have an other shield ready.
    
    
  • Using the Kritzgrieg : Your energy bar fills when your pocket deal damages. It's not impressive normally, but when your patient is under Kritz's Ubercharge, you can get a shield ready pretty fast. Just be sure to use your Ubercharge on a class that deals damages : Soldier, Pyro, Demo, or Heavy.
    
    
  • Using the Vaccinator : I wouldn't advice using the Vaccinator, as the overheal builds really slowly on your teammates. But if you are using this medigun, don't upgrade Overheal Expert, as it would be worthless to you. Remember that your Ubercharge can revive an ally pretty quickly, but it won't charge your energy bar in any other case.