ÜberCharge

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ÜberCharge

A BLU Medic uses his ÜberCharge on a Heavy.

ÜberCharge is an ability of the Medic class. The ÜberCharge is built up by focusing the beam of the Medic's healing gun onto another friendly player, ideally a Medic buddy.

A bar on the HUD, where the ammo icon usually appears, shows how much ÜberCharge is available. Once the bar is 100% full, the Medic has the ability to activate the ÜberCharge, granting the Medic and his target either invincibility for 8 seconds (with the Medigun) or 100% critical hits for 8 seconds (with the Kritzkrieg). With a Medigun ÜberCharge activated, the two players will glow their respective team colors. With a Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge activated, both players will appear normal but their weapons will crackle with electricity of their team color for the duration. When looking at a friendly Medic, a colored box shows up on the HUD displaying the username of the Medic, along with the percent of his ÜberCharge.

Note that while the players are immune to damage with a regular ÜberCharge, they are still affected from the concussive force of weapons such as the Sentry gun and Rocket launcher. This can be useful for breaking an ÜberCharge, because if the Medic is separated from his team-mate, the team-mate's ÜberCharge will be deactivated. Also, it is worth noting that it is possible for the Medic to ÜberCharge several team-mates at once, due to the ÜberCharge remaining active briefly after a medic stops healing one team-mate and starts healing another (this will drain the ÜberCharge meter much faster). Doing so will complete the Second Opinion achievement. It should also be noted that a player can receive an ÜberCharge from a Medic wielding a Medigun and another Medic with a Kritzkrieg at the same time, giving the player the effects of both ÜberCharges and allowing them to cut a devastating swathe through the enemy.

A skilled Spy can trick an enemy Medic into ÜberCharging them while they are Disguised, wasting the charge and allowing him to wreak havoc on the enemy team for its duration. When this happens, to the team the spy is on, he'll appear ubered in his team's color with the enemy medic trailing behind in their own color. To the team of the medic, it'll be the same as their own team color.

Switching weapons from the Medigun to another will continue to drain the ÜberCharge.

Charging the ÜberCharge

The ÜberCharge meter fills at different rates depending on the condition of the Medic's heal target.

• The meter fills at 2.5% / second when the Medic...
  • Heals any team-mate during Setup (even one at max health and buff).
  • Heals injured players in the field.
  • Buffs players beyond the normal health maximum.
• The meter fills at 1.2% / second when the Medic heals an uninjured player who is already buffed outside of Setup time.
• The Kritzkrieg charges at +25% the rate of a medigun.

In general, buffing team-mates and healing the injured builds the ÜberCharge meter twice as fast as healing one player exclusively. A way to build up charge faster without healing injured team-mates is to buff team-mates, let the buff wear off, and then heal them again. Also, a Medic who has completed at least 22 of the 36 Medic achievements and has the Übersaw can charge their ÜberCharge at a rate of 25% per hit on an enemy.

Using the ÜberCharge

If you run out of ammo while you are ÜberCharged, you can deal out more damage by switching weapons rather than reloading

• Delay using the ÜberCharge until the last possible moment, try to wait until your Buddy or yourself have recieved damage before activating the charge. The longer you wait, the better, but don't die.

• You will continue to heal your Buddy and your health will continue to regenerate while you ÜberCharge.

• ÜberCharged players cannot capture control points or hold intelligence or flags. ÜberCharging while healing an intelligence (flag) holder only ÜberCharges the Medic.

• Knock back is your greatest opponent, so let the Medic go first and draw Sentry gun fire. Both the Heavy and the Pyro are more effective close up against Sentry guns.

• Follow the ÜberCharged pair using them as a moving shield. If you follow them onto a control point, you will start capturing it.

• ÜberCharged pairs attract a lot of fire even while charged, as people want to take them down as soon as the charge dissipates. Use this distraction to move onto control points or take out enemies as they look elsewhere.

• If, in response to your ÜberCharge, the opposition activate their own, try to ignore them. Invariably, they've activated in response to your own, so concentrate on removing sentry guns, not ÜberCharged enemies.

• You can use your Medi-Gun to ÜberCharge multiple players at one time by rapidly switching between healing-targets. However, your ÜberCharge meter will drain much more quickly if you switch healing-targets to more than one individual while ÜberCharging due to the April 1, 2008 Patch.

Defense Against ÜberCharge

• The best defense against an ÜberCharge is another ÜberCharge. At least one defending Medic should build an ÜberCharge and save it for when attackers come in with one of theirs. An ÜberCharged pair can body-block another ÜberCharged pair (stand in their way) to waste their ÜberCharge time, then finish them off afterward.

• There are a few ways to combat an ÜberCharged pair because, although you cannot hurt them, they can still be knocked back by Sentry guns, rockets, and either of the Demoman's weapons. Just target the Medic to launch him away from his team-mate, and once he has been blasted far enough away, the ÜberCharge will be interrupted on the team-mate.

• Demomen are good counters to an ÜberCharge. As soon as you see or hear the pair coming, lay a string of Sticky bombs on the ground and wait until the first half of an ÜberCharged pair steps on it, then detonate, sending him flying into the air. Another strategy is to detonate just before the second half crosses it, hoping to send them flying in opposite directions. A third strategy is to try to blast them into a corner where they will be disoriented and waste their uber time regrouping. A fourth strategy is to knock them off bridges or ledges if one is along their path. Note that sticky bombs on walls and ceilings do not affect an ÜberCharged pair, they must be on the ground and in close proximity of each other -- and you need at least two for a noticeable effect, and the enemies must be right on top of them. Different classes have different weight - an ÜberCharged Heavy may take 5 or more stickies to successfully blast away, so it's better to try and blow the lightweight Medic away if possible.

• Soldiers can bounce an ÜberCharged pair around by firing rockets into their feet. Try to push them into corners or off ledges.

• A very good device for dealing with Übercharges is the Pyro's flamethrower. The flamethrower has an alt-fire ability that produces a blast of compressed air that knocks back enemies and can deflect projectiles. This ability can be used in several ways against an Über. First, the Pyro can pop in and out of cover in front of the Übered opponent and constantly knock him back, thus slowing or even completely halting his advance, wasting many precious seconds of ubertime. This tactic should only be used against regular ûbercharges; a charge from a Kritzkrieg is extremely dangerous to face, since a single hit by a rocket or a few hits from a minigun will end the pyro's life very quickly (if you manage to reflect a critical rocket back at a Kritzkrieged Soldier however, it will likely blow away him, his medic or even both!). Another way of using the air blast is to flank the Übered pair. In this scenario, the Pyro targets the medic himself, and blasts him away from his buddy; if he goes far enough, his connection to his mate will actually be severed, ending the Überrush prematurely. This is similar to the juggling effect used by Soldiers and Demomen, but better since it is more reliable and predictable. Alternatively, if the ubered opponent is a Soldier or Demoman, the pyro can simply stand way back in front of them and deflect as many projectiles as he can to minimize the damage caused by the assault. Note that these tactics only work when using the regular flamethrower; if you have the Backburner equipped you lose the compression blast ability. However, your flamethrower will not be completely useless in this case; Pyros can run up behind the pair and stay just behind them while keeping flames in their faces, hoping to confuse them and spoil their aim while not getting hit too badly. This can work if they are not focused on you. If the medic is using a Kritzkrieg, try to run up behind him when he's not looking, and quickly kill him, since a medic using a Kritcharge is not invulnerable, and end the charge completely.

• The most common target for an ÜberCharged pair is a sentry gun. The engineer has two choices: hide behind his gun and frantically whack it with his wrench hoping to repair it faster than it gets destroyed, or flee and be ready to rebuild as soon as possible. If the ÜberCharged pair includes a Heavy, and they are not too close or the ÜberCharge is almost done, the engineer can probably survive if he stays protected behind his gun and has a dispenser behind him to keep healing him and supply him with metal. If they get close, however, it is better to flee. If the ÜberCharged pair includes a Pyro and he gets close, the engineer will certainly die, and the gun a few seconds later if the Pyro has enough ÜberCharge time left. Consider fleeing if they get close. If ÜberCharged pair includes a Demoman, the engineer should stay if the Demoman is firing regular grenades. He may die but he will probably keep his gun alive long enough to survive the ÜberCharge. However if the Demoman gets three sticky bombs under the sentry, the situation is hopeless. The Engineer will die along with everything around him. It may be possible to shoot away the stickies in time with his shotgun, if the demoman is firing them slowly enough or is very inaccurate, but generally after the second bomb lands, the Engineer should flee from the sentry.

• You can also try to slow an ÜberCharged pair down by body-blocking them (standing in their way). Chances are you will die quickly, but your sacrifice could cost them one or two seconds of precious uber time, especially if they are not focused on you. If you keep moving, and/or if you manage to block the Medic and separate him from his buddy, you may even survive.

Kritzkrieg strategies

• During setup time, help a Demoman lay an 8 critical sticky bomb carpet near the enemy spawn. The blast radius should be enough to kill most of the opposition.

• Kritzkrieg a soldier to lay suppressive fire into choke points.

• When defending a point, waiting until the enemy ÜberCharge runs out and activating Kritzkrieg can help clear the point and wipe out the whole enemy assault in seconds.

• The Kritzkrieg isn't generally a great Medic item to use if you tend to rush up ahead with everyone else. Thanks to the quick charge rate, you don't always need to be up with the big guys. Use this to get a charge up, then take a Heavy, Soldier, or Demoman buddy to the front lines and unleash hell on them. If combined with an ÜberCharge from the Medigun, you can get even more done than with Kritzkrieg alone.

• Watch your back! You will be a prime target when you are using a charge, and you will not have the standard invincibility to shrug it off, and classes such as Spies can easily stop the charge abruptly with a backstab.

• On an individual case-by-case basis, the Kritzkrieg's charge isn't as useful on average as the regular Übercharge, but, with the recent August 19, 2008 Patch, its Übermeter now goes up 25% faster than the regular medigun's. This is a terrific and very noticeable advantage, and means that for every fourth Übercharge you would have gotten, you essentially get an extra Kritcharge for free! Because of this you are more likely to Übercharge before dying than the standard medigun.

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