#vaccinator

[the-great-unikitty]

[theanontrain]

" TF2 fans hate the Vaccinator but when I can find a decent team that wants to fight Casual machines I think it's fine."

[physicaly-f2p-medic]

hey dude! what's your favorite medigun to use? you. uh. do have more than just the stock one they give every medic, right?

[tf2workbench]

The Vaccinator reimagined

I wouldn’t say the Vaccinator is a badly-designed weapon; it gives lots of new gameplay opportunities to both its user and its opponents. However, it can also be a little awkward, as it lacks the raw power of a full Ubercharge. This can cause games to stagnate, frustrating the user’s team.

Consider this more of a theory post than a “needs rebalancing” post, though. I want to explore a way to give the Vaccinator a full Ubercharge, inspired a bit by my damage reflection medigun post.

Vaccinator Iteration 2 (*) Press your Reload key to cycle resistances (bullet, blast, and fire) (+) Every 10 seconds of healing generates a consumable shield (up to 3). Press your special-attack key to give your heal target two seconds of 75% resistance to your selected damage type and to corresponding critical damage. (+) While healing, Medic and patient have 10% resistance to the selected damage type (+) +33% Ubercharge rate (+) No lost Ubercharge when switching targets during charge (+/-) Ubercharge grants 50% resistance to all ranged damage [stacks multiplicatively with consumable shields] (-) -66% overheal build rate

This version maintains the choices inherent to the resistance system, but also gives you a proper Ubercharge with blanket protection if you need to break through something.

User interface My first concern is that it gives Medics too much to consider (it has four buttons!) This can be a problem with the base Vaccinator too, as Medics have a lot to keep track of, especially at higher levels of play. This requires playtesting to determine, though, so I’ll leave it at that.

Pocketing One problem that already exists with the base Vaccinator is that it can let a Medic-pocket duo win a bunch of small-scale fights courtesy of the brief Ubercharges and strong resistances. I worry that this would be exacerbated with this version, which has no delay between deploying shields. Unlike the base version, you’d be able to get all three resistances on a target at the same time, letting you handle slightly larger groups of enemies.

On the other hand, note that the shields don’t actually protect you, which can be a serious liability. This means that Vaccinator duos have a clear weak point - the Medic - that may actually make them less troublesome, even for an uncoordinated opposition.

With an uncoordinated team One of the Vaccinator’s big strengths is that, as mentioned, you only need two or three people to make it work. This makes it ideal for when your team just doesn’t seem to be willing to stick with you. As we discussed, this version can’t protect you as effectively, meaning Medics with struggling teams might have a bit more trouble.

This is unfortunate, but I’m trying to strike a balance between designing for the best case and designing for the worst case. If a weapon only shines when your team is unsupportive, it won’t give you a great experience in the opposite situation. In this case, I think having the resistance shields is still a nice boon for when your team is at a disadvantage, meaning that this Vaccinator is still no slouch in uncoordinated groups.

Versus other mediguns I’ve talked about the “Medigun triangle,” which is not really a hard-and-fast rule but works a bit like a triangle anyway. The Kritzkrieg’s Ubercharge can easily break through the Quick-Fix’s, which can outheal the damage of a patient under the stock Ubercharge, which can nullify the Kritzkrieg’s crits. But on the other hand, the Kritzkrieg builds faster than the stock medigun, allowing you to deploy a preemptive strike.

This Vaccinator doesn’t completely beat the Kritzkrieg’s charge, but the combination of crit resistance and damage resistance is very powerful - and it also charges faster than the Kritzkrieg. I’m sure that it isn’t a full denial of the Kritzkrieg, but it’s a significant relationship that we should keep in mind lest it significantly change which mediguns see use.

Conclusion Overall, this turned out remarkably well, with no really glaring issues. More would be revealed in playtesting, of course, but I’m still quite pleased at what we’ve managed to accomplish.

What about you? Do you prefer something about the Vaccinator that I haven’t discussed here? Or would you like the “real Ubercharge” feel of this weapon?

[flock-of-feral-plague-doctors]

Cursed tf2 match of the week:

It was almost 1:30 in the morning, a 4v4 on Nucleus. The enemy team had two hacking Snipers. Looked like aimbots. So I took the only logical route and went Vaccinator Medic and took turns escorting my teammates to the point. We won that match.

At the end of the match, I get an achievement. It was that one where you have to make it to the top of the scoreboard as Medic without dealing any damage. Turns out, not a single one of my teammates got a kill when I wasn't surgically attached to them. I'm pretty proud of this one.

[countdhracula]

#therealstory How often you meet people who don't know how works Vaccinator?

[countdhracula]

Mercy vs Medic