"To the Popemobile!" - Mediger Guide

Hey look, Suguri's making guides for bots he'll never have again. ;_;

When Mediger first came out, I really liked what I saw. Having a ranged single-target burst heal available to mechas for once was huge to me, but alas gara refuses to give me one ;_; But I figure, if we have a Melfi guide we should have one for her brother-in-arms, Mediger, too.

Overview

If you're just looking at this bot stock at lv0, you're probably going to be very unimpressed. He's actually chock full of hidden treasures though. Despite name/appearances, he's actually M-size, meaning he's not crippled on weapon selection; Bazooka, Gravity Gun, Chain Vulcan, and Mega Beam Gun Mod are all available to him depending on what you want to do. He's the only M-SUP with Short Boost + Quick Boost + Broad Radar, meaning he can quite viably be built fly-based with no issues (which is pretty huge; run speed for SUP is pretty sad). He also has access to Boost Run and Sway though, if those are more your thing. Maybe more importantly though, is his cost. Mediger's cost is pretty low even full-tuned, capping out at 1070, and he has plenty of capacity to pull good stats with that. As a side note he also has nice core tgh, so he won't easily be stunned out of Baculus charge.

Core aside, he has fantastic part selection; though the stats contradict each other, so you don't want to mix them on the same bot. His BS is one of the very few Support BSes that's actually good, and the ONLY one that's above average for L-SUP. His HD has very beneficial stats for fly-based AIR/SUP, and looks pretty spiffy. His legs are top tier for wlk-based bots that need more tgh.

But the key point of interest...

The main draw to Mediger however, is the Baculus. Baculus is a healing staff very similar to Melfi's heal arrows, with a few differences:

-Unless you got one when they initially came out and tuned it without unequipping it, it can't be weapon tuned.
-Baculus has twice the ammo of an untuned Melfi bow
-Baculus heals for 60 HP; Melfi arrows heal for 100
-Baculus is affected by Hypershot, allowing it to fire two shots (120 HP heal)
-Baculus has a short charge time (I believe it's ~0.6 seconds like Alba HD, but I've never timed it)
-Baculus has no AoE

All other similarities apply, including the ability to heal powerspots. Note that, ignoring AoE applications, Baculus has more total healing than Melfi's bow. Note also that you can dual-wield Baculus and use an HD or core weapon (dual-wielding = 70 cost for 20 more ammo; compare to 90 cost for 3x g.supply (+5 arrows) on Melfi).

Note that while Baculus is locked, Mediger AM2 isn't (and is M-Size). Most people remove it and stick it on a different support core; common choices being Bugsycait, Lucheer, Geminion, Elme S., Pulsardio, Sigma Clocks. Mediger himself is also an effective and overlooked option.

So how do I build this?

An understandable question. You have to make some sacrifice to fit a Baculus into a build, either offensively or defensively. Baculus builds will probably never have a shield of any sort, but this is true for Melfi too - and unlike Melfi, you get weapon selection.

How often you'll actually be attacking and what core you're using matters a lot. L-Size bots should probably invariably run Baz or L-Baz with it. M-Size, as previously stated, gets a lot of options; if you run it with Gravity Gun, I'd highly recommend an Elme or Elme Sary HD so you have some form of damaging weapon (both are fine for farming ammo on any build). If you use Geminion core for slow instead, you could also run Acid Laser to ammo drain slowed targets, some sort of paralyzer to cripple them further, Handy Bazooka for anti-air, Swing Gun/Wide Beam Gun (Mod) for anti-lnd, or even the Geminion breaker arm if you don't plan to attack often and want more range. There's a lot of variety in what you can do, since any support with unlocked arms can use it.

Wlk or Fly should be your primary stat of interest. Hop carts/float dash, broad radar, and stun regain/guards are always useful. Accele Roll is heavily recommended if not mandatory for fly builds. Tec can come second, but it won't affect your heal strength, and you aren't geared to be a combat bot anyway. HP could also be prioritized over tec to make sure you'll be around for your team.

I'll probably add example builds later for Mediger (wlk and fly versions), Bugsycait, Geminion, and maybe another bot or two. For now I'll just dump a (rough) fly-based Mediger concept build:

fly-based Mediger (Gravity Gun+Sary HD):

Playstyle

This again varies depending on the core you went with and what weapons you stuck on, but as a general rule of thumb you'll want to be around the PS unless your wonder bit's charged (I forgot to mention this previously; use Burst Fire Bit for on-the-go double heals, and to work as a portable PS for your team). Don't play too far forward as you're a fairly vulnerable target, but at the same time you should be far enough forward that teammates don't need to leave combat to get healed. Using the ** Repairing! ** command is a good way to alert your team as to your location.

Alternatively, you can do what Medics in TF2 do and be a "pocket" medic for one specific player. One good player receiving constant heals can easily steamroll the enemy team, and constantly being around said player is usually a good way to stay safe yourself as they can readily protect you. That's not to say you should exclusively heal that one player; pitch heals to teammates that need them if they're in range, but your priority should be your pocket. Pulling a pocket playstyle requires a competent heal target and teamwork, so unless you're stacking with a friend or something you're probably better off just being a general healer.

(have to leave for now, I'll finish it up later)

Another character that you can probably use that's more defensive rather than offensive is Medi Aid.
She gets plenty of capacity to work with as well, comes with nice base mobility stats and tgh, has great cartridges to choose from (especially the exclusive Growing Wonder cartridge), and pretty tiny.

The problem with her is that she won't be doing tons of damage, but she can still farm the trees effectively in the back lines while providing near constant healing.

Spoiler:

Could probably change up the stats so that medi aide can be more offensively built (tuning high tec, changing weapons etc.) But her growing wonder combined with baculus can provide quick health.

I fo

"Full time medic":

Spoiler:

"Combat medic"

Spoiler:

Forgot about breakpoints, but I'm pretty sure you apes can fix that.

Felt like bumping this since Shock Bazooka seems like a great weapon for him now. Curious as to how a build with it and mediger am2 would work.

Time to heal some bitches.

Trill wrote:

Felt like bumping this since Shock Bazooka seems like a great weapon for him now. Curious as to how a build with it and mediger am2 would work.

I slapped that onto my medi aide. Replaced bugsycait am with a medi aide am and then equipped a shock bazooka. I now have a more reliable way of dealing with melee, but i lose out on farming. The shock bazooka is probably left better for characters that can have something like an Elme Sary hd to farm items.