Active Combat Heal Prioritization

In Lower Divisions

*Note:

Now that the flow of the game has shifted to active combat, you need to decide which classes live and which classes die. Note that there is no true "Heal Order" because healing is a reactive skill. Depending on the situation, or even which classes have ammunition loaded, you may choose to heal certain classes over others. For example, healing a demoman several seconds into a fight when he has nothing left loaded is essentially wasted healing and he should retreat to load. It is also important to note that during combat healing, classes who are actively fighting always take priority over classes that are not, potentially even when they have crit heals (with the exception of the scout because you can crit heal him almost instantly and he can get in and out of fights with ease). That being said, what I have here is just a general heal priority for the majority of cases in combat. Demoman: The demoman should get about 20-30% of your total heals in an average game. Simply put, other than you they are the most valuable class and capable of dealing the most damage at range in the shortest amount of time. The longer the demo lives, the more damage the enemy team takes and subsequently the higher your chances of winning. The only exception is in prolonged fights when the demoman has spent his ammo and is forced to take forever to reload. Scout: A lot of the time you won't normally see much of the scout as they mainly get their sustainability from health packs around the map and particularly at the enemies flank. Nevertheless, the scout is the dueling class, it's his job to annoy the crap out of the enemy team and be a preemptive line of defense against the enemy flank. This means that if you get the opportunity to give your scout an excessive amount of buffs, they can do a lot of work for your team. You should never underestimate the amount of work a good scout can get done if he is healed properly due to his ability to provide consistant hitscan damage and high mobility. You should heal them while you can. This is especially true when you use an offensive uber. In that scenario you want your scout to be with you and your demo in order to take out the enemy medic or to generally get some good meat-shots in. If the enemy pyro is dead you can even solo uber a scout in since pyros normally counter scout ubers with airblast. Soldier: You might as well sharpie your soldier with "to medic, from medic, with love." He is your indirect contact with the enemy medic and as such, the more health he has, the better chance he has to kill the enemy medic with his suicide bombs. If the enemy medic has uber advantage, the soldier is high priority for buffs and heals as can force a pop or maybe even drop the medic. Being able to take advantage of high mobility with burst damage is important in a fight and why keeping your soldier healed in offensive situations under the demoman and scout is a great idea. Keep in mind though that the soldiers' rockets can be spent fairly quickly and your heals may be better used elsewhere if your soldier has nothing loaded. Heavy: People often mistake the heavy as this unstoppable force that the medic should dump all of his heals into, but his mobility weakness makes him far less appealing in some fights, mainly offense. Don't get me wrong, heavies will still have about 20% of your heals just out of simple necessity because he should always be with you, but their worth is more of a defensive turret protecting you from close range enemies, spies and bombers than an offensive pusher. It is because of this that in active fights, the scout and a fully loaded soldier are higher on the heal priority. Pyro: The pyro is your best friend. He/she? is your last line of defense against literally anything that could kill you. Demospam? Airblast. Soldier bombing? Potentially hilarious airblast. Sniper? Hard to aim while flared. Spy? Pyro is a direct counter for a reason. The only potential issue defensively is with scouts as they have better mobility and can chase down or out-range your pyro, but that's what the heavy is for. Offensively simply put other classes have more killing potential, so that is why he/she is farther down on the combat heal priority. Nevertheless if you are in trouble, your pyro is the best bet to get you out of most situations alive. Be predictive with your pyro heals as well. If you expect the enemy soldier to bomb you or you expect an uber push, make sure your pyro has a full buff to deny either Sniper: A buffed sniper can be the single largest asset to a team. I personally love to give my snipers as much love as I can. Healing a sniper is a little different than other classes, however. They effectively have 2 health situations: Above 150 and below 150. The main enemy of your sniper is the other sniper, and most of the deaths of each sniper are usually attributed to the other sniper unless the flank needs to help. A quick-scope headshot deals 150 damage which means it doesn't matter if your sniper has 149 or 1 health, he is going to die without the darwin's danger shield. Above 150 means the other sniper cannot quick-scope your sniper which generally results with the other sniper's death if he doesn't kill your sniper in one shot. If the other sniper is up, keep your sniper above 150. Engineer: The only times I really pay attention to the engineer is when the enemy team is pushing on his level 3 sentry or he is playing more of a flanking role and being aggressive. In the situation where his level 3 is being pushed, it is important to get him buffed (preferably before the push if you see it coming), so you don't have to flash him during the push and he can still manage his sentry. Good players attack the engineer first rather than the sentry, so a fully buff will go far. For when the engineer plays with the flank, buff him when able but don't make a habit of prioritizing him over the above classes. Spy: If you get to this point, everyone else is dead.I cannot stress enough how situationally dependant this combat heal order is, but you also need to take into account your division as well. For example, A scout in silverr will end up doing a lot more work proportionally for his team than a scout in steel simply because of the difference in mechanical skill, so in that situation a scout in iron would be lower on the priority list. In addition to division, individual player skill level is a huge factor in heal priority at lower divisions. I have tried to tailor this guide to the higher divisions with more of an emphasis on the assumption that all teammmates would be of equal skill level, but In lower divisions (especially steel) is that your team will have its obvious best players which will inevitably get the majority of your heals as long as they are a combat class. An example of some changes that would probably occur at lower divisions is the Heavy would be a higher priority and probably be second to the demoman, the scout would be lower while the soldier and then pyro would take his place. This is just an emphasis on the fact that classes with lower skill ceilings and classes that directly protect you become higher on the list.