Take This Buff and Heal, and Call Me In the Morning

by: Taea

Gone are the days of the quiet MASH units, when doctors waited for the wounded to be brought in. These days the AFS healers are in the thick of battle, racking up their own kill counts. The strength of a Medic lies in their buffs and debuffs, and their versatile offensive weapons. A big asset to squads, and an able-bodied soloer, the Tabula Rasa Medic answers the call to fight the Bane menace.

How to Become a Medic: A Medic begins as a recruit in boot camp. At the end of level 4 you will train as a Specialist in Alia Das, and continue working toward level 15. Head to Twin Pillars base in Wilderness or Foreas Base in Divide, and train as a Biotechnician. At level 30 you will find the final tier trainers inside Foreas Base in Divide and higher level zones. After training as a Medic, you will receive the following abilities:

Signature Ability: Regeneration Wave: The Signature
Ability of the Medic is Regeneration Wave, a 2 minute radial buff that
increases health and power regen. When cast, yourself and any allies within
25 meters will receive 4x the normal health and power regeneration. The
benefits of this ability are obvious, and anyone will appreciate the extra
boost this gives when fighting a large crowd of Bane, or hard to kill Boss
mob. The ability requires 100% Adrenaline, so check your orange bar before
trying to use. Regeneration Wave requires Logos: Vortex, Enhance, Heal and
Around.

Disease: Debuff is the best way to describe this
ability, and boy do we love the debuff. This is by far the best and most
often used ability on the Medic's ability bar. Each pump debuffs a different
enemy attribute.

• Pump 1 Apathy, 30% Spirit debuff
• Pump 2 Weakness, 30% Body debuff. Weakness is the base level to train
  this ability, as the change to Body essentially divides an enemy's health by
  a 3rd. Our experimentation with this ability found that Juggernaughts,
  Stalkers and Boss mobs were reduced to mere mortals.
• Pump 3 Confusion, 30% Mind debuff
• Pump 4 Deterioration, stops all health and power regeneration
• Pump 5 Infirmity, prevents all healing of the target

Each cast of Disease takes 20 power up to pump 3, 30 power at pump 4, and
50 power at pump 5. The ability also requires 10 Standard Pharmaceuticals.
That's right - Standard - so be sure to pick some up at your vendor, and
don't mistakenly sell them off. Although not marked in the ability
description, the range is 20 meters: definitely not for long distance
fights. Disease requires Logos: Damage, Enemy, Through and Weak.

Mind Control: This ability has a lot of potential, but
in its current state it seems to be useless. With a longer duration on the
effects, Mind Control could see some utility.

• Pump 1 Frighten will cause the target to flee in a random direction
  for 15 seconds, from 20 meters away.
• Pump 2 Confusion (yep, same as the Disease pump 3 ability) has a range
  of 30 meters and causes the target to attack friends and/or enemies - that
  means you or your squad mates. Avoid pump 2 altogether.
• Pump 3 Subversion has a range of 40 meters, and is supposed to make the
  target attack its own allies. However in our testing, the Subverted target
  always came back to us to kill. The ironic part of this ability is it makes
  your target immune to any damage from you during those 15 seconds; nothing
  more fun than getting pummeled while you can't fight back!
• Pump 4 Enslavement has a range of 50 meters and makes the target your
  ally, causing it to attack anything that is attacking you.
• The final level Infectious has a range of 60 meters, and gives a 50%
  chance for your enslaved target to pass the effect on to the other enemy
  mobs it attacks. The potential for having multiple enemies turned to your
  side is great, but the duration of 15 seconds limits it.

Mind Control requires Logos: Control, Enemy, Mind and Spirit.

Viral Conversion: Conversion takes all Viral damage you
would normally inflict and converts it to a different Damage type. This is a
self buff that lasts 30 seconds and requires 60 Power and 3 Programmable Micromech per
cast.

At level 1 you can change your Viral to Physical Damage. The next step
up is Sonic, then Ice, Fire and finally EMP. Use this ability with your
Viral Injector Gun, and bypass the armor with different damage types hitting
the health of your targets. If you're a fan of using injector guns
exclusively, you will appreciate gaining Physical, Sonic and EMP Injectors.
We find the most potential in this ability at the final EMP pump, so save
your points to build up this skill when you can. Viral Conversion requires
Logos: Transform, True, Life and Damage.

Resistance: Here is another great buff skill that will
really perform for the Medic and her allies. Resistance gives 30 second
protection from different damage types, based on the pump level. Virulent
Resistance starts at Pump 1 with Sonic following behind at Pump 2. Electric
is next, with Ice and Physical rounding out the skill. The amount of resistance begins at 20%, and increases up to 100% if pumped to 5.

In our testing, the Sonic resistance was incredibly useful against the pesky Howlers, especially
with the large packs in Mires. Physical at Pump 5 is the most fun when
standing toe to toe with giant Kael, and they not being able to touch you.
With only a small power cost to cast, Resistance is a strong ability that
should be used often. Resistance requires Logos: Self, Defend, Damage and
Effect.

Older skills you still use: Everyone plays differently,
but these abilities from your Biotechnician and Specialist days are still
useful as a Medic.

Reconstruction: Group heal that also damages nearby
enemies. Pump 1 at a minimum, while Pump 5 gives the maximum damage to enemies.

Injection Guns: The primary offensive weapon you will
use. Injectors give you a nice range of 50 meters, and do an impressive
amount of targeted damage. Take this one to at least Pump 3, where you first
start to get some armor penetration bonus.

Bio Armor: This is the primary armor that will be used
throughout your life as a Medic. Pump 1 should be sufficient, unless you have extra points to spend.

Bio Augmentation: Great for soloing, and helpful in
squads, this ability gives a 4 minute buff of Health, Power, Body, Mind then
Spirit, depending on pump level. Pump to 3 for the Body bonus.

Tools: Again, pumping to 3 will allow you to use a
direct healing disc to raise the dead, keep armor repaired, and help you use
those cipher tools on the sneaky locked crates. A direct repair tool should
stay on your weapon tray at all times, and will be your most used item,
behind your weapons.