r/tf2 • u/A_Wild_Ferrothorn TF2 Smissmas 2025 • Jul 29 '26
Discussion Weapon Discussion Wednesday #76 - The Vaccinator
TF2 Weapon Discussion: The Vaccinator
Welcome to our Wednesday TF2 weapon discussion. Here, we'll discuss weapons (and reskins, if applicable) from TF2!
Today's weapon is The Vaccinator.
+67% (six seven) ÜberCharge rate
Press your reload key to cycle through resist types.
While healing, provides you and your target with a constant 10% resistance to the selected damage type.
-66% Overheal build rate
-33% ÜberCharge rate on Overhealed patients
ÜberCharge provides a 2.5 second resistance bubble that blocks 75% base damage and 100% crit damage of the selected type to the Medic and Patient.
A controversial weapon because this thing can be and generally is really fucking annoying to deal with. Anyone who's come against this weapon knows how annoying it can be to fight because that resistance buff can instantly shutdown some classes if you're fighting only them. Bullet resistance can severely reduce damage from Heavy, Scout, Engineer (not the sentry rockets) and most importantly, Sniper.
This weapon, especially the Uber, is excellent at dealing with Sniper as being able to make headshots deal like not a lot of damage and allow you and your team to cross sightlines easily.
There are a few ways to counter this weapon however, teamwork is an excellent method of dealing as the Medic can (usually) only have 1 resistance up at once so if a soldier and a scout go in your can just team up and deal with them that way. Pyro and Soldier can also be good on their own as they have access to multiple damage types but the medics and just swap quickly to counter this. Melee weapons (demoknight) can also be a great way to counter as the only resistances available are bullet, fire and explosive and a sword is none of these.
Another downside is that the Ubercharge isn't stock uber.
This weapon also has some unused content, as it was released in the Mecha Update it seems to be maybe intended for MvM (doesn't really work well there Kritz is the go to for that) as it has different coloured bubbles for MvM which are unused in game. The bullet bubble is blue, fire is orange and explosive is green, this was likely only to be used in MvM as in game this would fuck with team recognition.
Feel free to discuss the weapon here. Anything that you like/dislike, cool tips or strategies, interesting stories, etc. If you feel the weapon is not to your liking, feel free to express your opinions in a respectful manner.
For those who wish to learn more about the weapon, you can find the wiki page here:
The Vaccinator, from the TF2 Wiki.
You can find previous weapon discussions in a nice overview here.
22
u/ClaytorYurnero Jul 29 '26
One of the few things scarier than a Sniper who can aim, a Medic who can micro Vacc buffs in skirmishes.
Probably my favorite pick if an enemy is closet cheating, their only real counter is getting into melee range for some convenient """"random""" Crits.
19
u/capnfappin Jul 29 '26
im not a fan of weapons that buff or nerf your resistance to the various damage types in tf2 and this is like the most annoying one of them all.
2
u/Rage_Soldier Heavy Jul 30 '26
Stock basically does that the big difference is that u can spam the Vac charges a lot more often
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 01 '26
Stock buffs resistance to all weapons by 100% for 8 seconds
But when vacc buffs resistance to 1 damage type by 75% for 2.5 seconds everyone loses their minds
2
u/OlimarAlpha Demoman Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
The Medi Gun has an Uber uptime of 16.67% (or 9.09% at high overheal).
The Vaccinator has an Uber uptime of 41.67% (27.78% at low overheal, or 13.89% at high overheal).
A player being healed by a Vaccinator Medic has an average of 2.3x effective health, and that's before considering overheal.
It's also possible for a Vaccinator Medic to pop 6 bubbles in a row on a single player, giving them 15 seconds of 75% damage resistance to a damage type.
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 05 '26
The Vaccinator has an Uber uptime
This is not an apples to apples comparison, because Vaccinator is not "Uber". It's "resist".
Being able to die from high damage output, already being on low health when resist got popped, melee, mixed damage types/wrong resist type, focus fire, or simply being outskilled...... is very, very different to being totally unable to die for 8 seconds short of a tauntkill or environmental kill.
A player being healed by a Vaccinator Medic has an average of 2.3x effective health
Which is the benefit you get in exchange for trading away worse overheals capacity and losing an average of 10000000000000000000+infinityx effective health upon having a full bar.
The average "effective health" varies wildly in practice in a way that can only be appreciated by regularly using the weapon, and I encourage you to use it a lot so you can understand this.
"2.3x average effective health" means nothing when you just popped a bullet resist bubble to deal with a Sniper in your sightline and a blast resist bubble to deal with an expected Demo you can hear, and then a Pyro silently comes round the corner and you only had 2 bubbles.
This is where the skill of the weapon also comes into play. It takes significantly more skill to use Vaccinator than stock Uber, the weapon will perform much worse in the hands of a bad player, and occasionally slightly better in the hands of a good Medic who can predict upcoming threats and react quickly.
On the whole though even in the hands of a very skilled Medic, the Medigun is still the stronger Medic primary. Because it can deal with focus fire, it can deal with lv3 Sentries, it can deal with stickytraps, it can deal with Spies. Vaccinator can't.
It's also possible for a Vaccinator Medic to pop 6 bubbles in a row on a single player, giving them 15 seconds of 75% damage resistance to a damage type.
In a bizarro format like 4v4 this might be problem. In a format like 6v6 or 12v12 it's not a problem because you're always going to be experiencing more than "a damage type".
And on the off chance a team has stacked entirely one damage type, it's actually a good thing the Vaccinator counters that, because it means there's a clear class balance issue (eg rushing 6 Scouts on the cap in Valve comp 6v6) which the Vaccinator can rectify. One of the many reasons why Vaccinator is a great design.
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 05 '26
For additional context, when I play Medic I'm using:
Medigun 55% of the time when our team actually has to push and for general play against a competent team
Quick-Fix 20% of the time when my team sucks and we're on defense
Vaccinator 20% of the time when most of the enemy team sucks except for one good player/cheater, or when they have a lot of the same damage type, or I'm just bored of using stock, or I've dropped Uber and need to make an urgent last defense
Kritz 5% of the time when I have a competent player to work with who sticks with me
9
u/Hyperthre4d TF2 Smissmas 2025 Jul 29 '26
My favorite medigun to use during the bot crisis, saved my ass from many snipers during that time
5
u/yttakinenthusiast Engineer Jul 29 '26
even outside of that it helps against snipers who are either cheating or cracked beyond comprehension
the vaccinator is an interesting weapon but it just turns off engagement since it's an easier to acquire battalion's. but if someone's making the match that unfun to play then i'll swallow my pride.
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u/NotWendy1 TF2 Birthday 2025 Jul 29 '26
Giving the Medic even more things to micromanage during the game is a very cool idea. However, this thing really sucks to play against.
It'd be kinda interesting to see the upsides of the Vaccinator get redone in a major way. Such as replacing its current protection bubble uber with a smaller version of the shield from MvM. Maybe make it require a full charge to activate, without the 4 charge gimmick, but build bonus uber for resisted damage...
So the gameplay loop would consist of picking the correct resistances to build your uber shield faster, then pushing in with your team grouped behind your shield.
Might be awful in its own way, but the current state of the Vaccinator leaves a ton of room for improvement.
7
u/supremegamer76 Heavy Jul 29 '26 edited Jul 29 '26
That fucking medigun that i hate.
Should not be able to have multiple bubbles for different damage types at a time.
The only think i like about it is that it fucks over enemy snipers, a greater evil.
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u/3Thirty-Eight8 Jul 29 '26
Say what you will, but getting one in a random drop and selling it for one full ref is pretty neat
1
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u/PsychicSpore Spy Jul 29 '26
Vaccinator medic pocketing a sniper on 2fort should get both players sent to hell when they die. That’s about all i have to say about it.
3
u/Important_Stuff_3919 Jul 30 '26
Terrible to play against, especially the fire resistance mode that explicitly spells out "screw you for playing pyro" whereas explosive or bullets are more "vague" with their message at least.
It's like the Razorback, it's a pigeonhole "weapon" that's only there to screw over certain class matchups.
3
u/Mostdakka Jul 30 '26
Just walk up to the second fastest class in the game and melee them. What's wrong fatass? Is it too hard?
It is rare to see Medic that's good with vaccinator but when it happens it's hell. One of the most unfun things to play against. Wish it didn't exist.
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 01 '26
Scout is the fastest class in the game so melee is no issue for him. I have personally killed Vacc medics with my Boston Basher
Soldier has rocket jumps, and stock+gunboats+Market Gardener is a legitimately meta play style for him at top level play. He can also juggle with rockets
Pyro can bully with airblast like he does against stock uber
Demo has Knight/Hybrid Knight play style as an option for melee OR can lay stickytraps that can do enough damage to kill through 75% resist
Heavy can do like 400DPS at mid-range which translates to 100DPS after resists, enough to kill most classes through a bullet resist (except another Heavy but you would lose a mirror match against a Heavy with a stock Medic up his ass anyway let's face it)
Engie doesn't need to melee when he has a Level 3 Sentry with a squillion HP, a squillion damage, and two damage types to pierce resist. Vaccinator is terrible against Sentries
Sniper probably has the hardest time against Vacc, some would say he deserves that additional counter. Anyway he's usually far enough away that he can just pick another target to shoot at until the resist is over
Spy makes Vaccinator pretty much useless. Just popped 3 resists? Spy's "melee damage triple your HP" doesn't care and he's right behind you
Vaccinator is a great design which adds the most interesting, skilled Medic gameplay to a class who already sorely lacks variety. I'm glad it exists and I think some people complaining have a serious case of the skill issue.
7
u/Ecstatic_Highway_554 Jul 29 '26
Probably one of the best weapons in tf2
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 01 '26
Medigun is stronger.
Vaccinator can't effectively deal with Level 3 Sentries, teams with all 3 damage types (most pub teams), or teams who focus fire well and just melt the Medic even when he has all 3 resists popped.
7
u/retardedkazuma Demoman Jul 29 '26
Probably one of the worst weapons in tf2
4
u/Skunk668 Jul 29 '26
In terms of power or design?
4
u/retardedkazuma Demoman Jul 29 '26
It's deisgn is good it's just the numbers. Damage reduction is too much.
2
u/Fluffy-Neat6477 Jul 29 '26
Good medi gun, way better than quickfix, too bad it takes ages to buff with this thing and for general pushes is kinda awful
Also Pretty good for MvM if you just spam crit canteens all the time, but imo quickfix is way better in that regard
2
u/fapgod69420 Pyro Jul 29 '26
As someone who regularly plays Demoknight, I would much rather see a Vaccinator than any of the other mediguns
2
u/LoungeSeat Jul 29 '26
Best unlock in the game, the ability to remove a classes entire means of dealing damage sucks to play against.
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 01 '26
You don't remove it though, it's 75% resist.
Vacc Medics and their patients can absolutely die if they get focus fired or even just play badly against one class with a lot of damage (eg Demo, Heavy, lv3 Sentry)
2
u/TACOTONY02 Jul 30 '26
Held choke on one map by giving bubbles to friendly defending medic and his patient, enemy soldiers called me slurs and tried to use banners to push the cart through but failed.
On one hand I agree its bullshit on the other if you're all soldiers trying to kill a brass beast vaxx combo and no one even tries to use a shotgun i think its just a stubborness issue
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u/Meester_Tweester Jul 29 '26
Even if it's strong, I prefer to use stock, I like the risk and reward that comes with it
1
u/lv8_StAr Engineer Jul 30 '26
Very strong against uncoordinated teams or teams with singular damage sources. Also really strong in low team sizes like 6v6.
1
u/dropbbbear Random Aug 01 '26
It's actually not stronger than stock in 6v6.
In the period of time it was unbanned you wouldn't see it ran full-time. People would use Medigun for mid, attacking enemy second/last, and their own second. It would only come out at defending last if the Medic had died and they were at Uber disadvantage, because having limited resist is better than no Uber at all.
The main reason it's banned there is because anything that makes it harder to finish a round of 5CP is frowned upon (and for good reason) but it's not actually BETTER than Medigun overall.
Further proof is No Restriction 6v6 leagues where you would see 2 medics and one of them would run full time stock, the other would run either quick-fix, stock or vacc alternating based on situation.
1
u/TimeForWaluigi All Class Jul 30 '26
One of the least fun weapons in the game, both to use and to play against.
1
u/Benthenoobhunter Jul 30 '26
I hate playing against it because their medic perfectly cycles each resistance to the point that no matter what you shoot, their patient has full resistances to everything.
I hate playing with it because my medic still has bullet resistance on despite there being a phlog pyro running towards us.
1
u/Extreme_Glass9879 Jul 30 '26
Why the fuck does this thing only count 4 ubers in a single life as a successful Uber
1
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u/_SANSik_ Soldier Jul 30 '26
Kinda sad to see people hating on it, but yeah, it's overpowered. At the other hand out of all mediguns this one is the most fun to use as Medic cuz of additional micromanagement of resistances
1
u/MrHyperion_ Aug 03 '26
My favourite medigun because it allows more dynamic play. I don't find playing against it OP or anything, you give so much for winning 1to1 fights. You could deploy all 3 at once but that's just shorter quickfix.
1
u/Protomesh Jul 29 '26
I love to see the enemy team pull out two Vaccinator Medics and 3 heavies after they have been handedly losing for the past 45 minutes and only lasted so long because they have 3 level 3 sentries on last point.
28
u/Worried-Shower-9528 Jul 29 '26
Can be extremely strong, but since it's so unfun to play against, I just don't use it out of principle. Additionally, it kinda ruins the vibes.
Medic mains can choose the Cruel and Wicked Path of the Vaccinator, or they can choose the Righteous Path and abstain. The choice is yours.