Team Fortress 2 Medic Weapons Update

[Tonnica]

Shacknews has an article covering info trickled from Valve about the upcoming unlockable Medic weapons, tentatively scheduled to be released this Sunday.

Here's a description of the three unlockables, as taken from the article:

The Blutsaugher
For players that earn one third of the 36 new medic achievements, they will be given a new syringe gun. Called "The Blutsaugher," this new weapon no longer has the ability to score critical hits against an opponent. Instead it will draw health from enemies each time a syringe hits. Especially useful as a weapon to retreat away from the fight while staying alive.

The Critzcrieg
Once a medic has earned two thirds of the achievements, they will be granted "The Critzcrieg." This new medigun uses its ubercharge not for invulnerability, but to give its recipient 100% chance to fire critical ordinance. Medics and the player they are charging need to be careful though, because as much fun as it is to fire critical rockets as fast as you can, the other team will see what you're up to and try to put a quick stop to your plan.

The Ubersaw
For the determined medic that has earned all 36 of the new achievements, they will find themselves the proud owner of "The Ubersaw," which will take damage done in melee attacks and convert it directly to ubercharge. Four hits with this new weapon will fully charge whatever medigun the medic has equpped.

Initial impressions from my Steam group agree that the Ubersaw is a game-breaking piece of hardware. Doubly so with Friendly Fire turned on. The rumours going around suggest this update is mostly a test to see how it goes over. If they continue to release new weapon sets for the rest of the classes they may or may not be released only as unlockables.

If Valve releases on time, prepare for a Medic flood on all servers on Sunday. (and one lone person running around the pub servers learning to Spy. All those exposed Medic backs, primed and ready for backstabbingdfsjkadflkj *drool*)

[Lazybones]

Ya, it will be hard to find a server not flooded with Medics trying to unlock the new stuff.

[Melbosa]

More on the updates coming: http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/38100/Team-Fortress-2-Weapon-Achievement-Map-Update-Out-Next-Week

Coming to a Valve update server near you next week: Thirty-six Medic achievements, three Medic weapons, a deployment menu upgrade, and a new VIP-Escort map.

New Goldrush Escort Map

    The map is divided into three stages, and the goal in each is for Blu to deliver the cart to the capture point at the end of the stage. There's only a limited amount of time for Blu to do so, but if they can advance the cart to certain checkpoints additional time is added to the countdown. If Blue can deliver the cart to the first capture point, the stage ends and the next one begins. The ultimate goal is to move the cart all the way to the third Red capture point, which destroys the Red base.

    This cart dynamic creates all sorts of interesting challenges and strategies. Does Blu try to congregate around the cart? How does red set up defenses? This mode is designed so that each class can be useful. Snipers can have fun picking off anyone trying to stand near the cart, medics can help keep those pushing the cart alive, demomen and pyros can be incredibly deadly when the cart travels through narrow passages and buildilngs, and so on.

New Medic Weapons

    The Blutsaugher

    For players that earn one third of the 36 new medic achievements, they will be given a new syringe gun. Called "The Blutsaugher," this new weapon no longer has the ability to score critical hits against an opponent. Instead it will draw health from enemies each time a syringe hits. Especially useful as a weapon to retreat away from the fight while staying alive.

    The Critzcrieg

    Once a medic has earned two thirds of the achievements, they will be granted "The Critzcrieg." This new medigun uses its ubercharge not for invulnerability, but to give its recipient 100% chance to fire critical ordinance. Medics and the player they are charging need to be careful though, because as much fun as it is to fire critical rockets as fast as you can, the other team will see what you're up to and try to put a quick stop to your plan.

    The Ubersaw

    For the determined medic that has earned all 36 of the new achievements, they will find themselves the proud owner of "The Ubersaw," which will take damage done in melee attacks and convert it directly to ubercharge. Four hits with this new weapon will fully charge whatever medigun the medic has equpped.

New Medic Achievements

   First Do No Harm: Play a full round without killing any enemies and score the highest on a team of 6 or more players.
   Quadruple Bypass: Heal a teammate who's taking fire from 4 enemies at once.
   Group Health: Work with 2 other Medics to deploy 3 simultaneous Uber-Charges.
   Surgical Prep: Have an Uber-Charge ready before the Setup phase ends.
   Trauma Queen: Deploy 3 Uber-Charges in less than 5 minutes, and assist in 5 kills during that time.
   Double Blind Trial: Deploy an Uber-Charge within 8 seconds of a nearby enemy Medic deploying his.
   Play Doctor: In a team with no Medics, be the first person to switch to Medic after a teammate calls for "Medic!", and then heal 500 health.
   Triage: Deploy an uber-charge on a teammate less than a second before they're hit by a critical explosive.
   Preventive Medicine: Block the enemy from capturing a control point with an Uber-Charged teammate.
   Consultation: Assist a fellow Medic in killing 5 enemies in a single life.
   Does It Hurt When I Do This?: Kill 50 Scouts with your syringe gun.
   Peer Review: Kill 50 Medics with your bone saw.
   Big Pharma: Assist a Heavy in killing 30 enemies, where neither of you die.
   You'll Feel a Little Prick: Assist in killing 4 enemies with a single Uber-Charge on a Scout.
   Autoclave: Assist in burning 8 enemies with a single Uber-Charge on a Pyro.
   Blast Assist: Assist in exploding 5 enemies with a single Uber-Charge on a Soldier.
   Blunt Trauma: Assist in punching out 4 enemies with a single Uber-Charge on a Heavy.
   Medical Breakthrough: Assist in destroying 8 enemy Engineer buildings with a single Uber-Charge on a Demoman.
   Midwife Crisis: Heal an Engineer as he repairs his Sentrygun while it's under enemy fire.
   Ubi concordia, ibi victoria: Assist in killing 5 enemies on an enemy control point, in a single life.
   Grand Rounds: Heal 200 teammates after they've called for "Medic!".
   Infernal Medicine: Extinguish 100 burning teammates.
   Doctor Assisted Homicide: Assist in killing 20 nemeses.
   Placebo Effect: Kill 5 enemies in a single life, while having your Uber-Charge ready, but undeployed.
   Sawbones: Hit enemies with your bonesaw 10 times in a row without dying or missing.
   Intern: Accumulate 7000 heal points in a single life.
   Specialist: Accumulate 10000 heal points health in a single life.
   Chief Of Staff: Accumulate 10 million total heal points.
   Hypocritical Oath: Kill an enemy Spy that you have been healing.
   Medical Intervention: Save a falling teammate from dying on impact.
   Second Opinion: Uber-Charge 2 teammates at once.
   Autopsy Report: Provide an enemy with a freezecam shot of you taunting above their ragdoll.
   FYI I Am A Medic: Use your bonesaw to kill 5 enemy Spies who have been calling for "Medic!".
   Family Practice: Uber-charge ten of your Steam Community Friends.
   House Call: Join a game that one of your friends is in and then deploy an Uber-Charge on him.
   Bedside Manner: Be healing a teammate as he achieves an achievement of his own.

[Lazybones]

some of those sound really hard to do on a public server. Uber one second before a  crit hit?

[Tonnica]

I've Ubered one second before a crit hit only once before and it was pure, blind luck. There are two enemy classes I could see as making Triage not impossible to achieve:

Soldier: Crit rockets are easy to see and hear coming if you've got enough distance between yourself and the Soldier.
Pyro: Crit flamethrower is possible to see coming thanks to the CRIT HIT text that shows up if the Pyro is running down your offensive line. That gives you a number of chances equal to the number of team mates around you (mnius one for the first one hit).

A lot of these like Bedside Manner and Family Practice will require lots of co-ordination and participation to get. On the positive side, it'll force-train more Medics to be better at what they do and emphasize the team in Team Fortress. On the negative side, some of these achievements are near-unattainable for some people unless they get crackin' or people set up servers just to help others get the achievements.

Which I can understand. Some people are blase about the updates, but others like me are chomping at the bit. I don't want the Ubersaw. I need the Ubersaw.

I'm really looking forward to Gold Rush. It'll be like some kind of wonderous RED Demoman and Pyro jambaroo. And that means great practice for BLU Medics and Spies.