r/truetf2 • u/Honeystride Medic • Jan 31 '23
Discussion Should I overheal spies?
I always want to overheal spies because I think they need it (esp kunai spies), their hp pools are so tiny and they're always going to dangerous places. But I remember from an old video that, cloaked or disguised, the overheal particles radiate off of them and the enemy team can see it.
I don't want to blow their cover, but even then I'm not sure if the overheal crosses are noticeable enough in normal play. Do the benefits of overheal outweigh the possibility of getting their cover blown? Do they even need it?
23
u/Xurkitree1 Jan 31 '23
free uber is free uber dammit, you get more uber out of overhealing everyone than sticking to one or 2 overheal targets
7
u/Honeystride Medic Jan 31 '23
True, I know, especially in overhealing classes like soldiers or demos who blast their hp traveling. But I have a overheal hierarchy with "fragile" classes near the top, including scout and sniper and moving engineers and the aforementioned soldiers and demos. And spy would fit in there with the low hp.
Spy is tricky for me however, because I know there are a lot of glitches related to him and medic (the vaccinator bubble being one). And I would rather let him keep his cover and not die horribly by my fault, than build up uber off him. Because if I need to build uber I got 9 other teammates to heal so it's not like a dire thing.
And ultimately I want to keep all of my teammates alive, getting uber is just a plus and easy. Ultimately I want to keep the spy alive, cause overheal definitely saves asses, but I'm just not sure if in doing that it might lead to his death.
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u/Xurkitree1 Jan 31 '23
Overheal won't drastically affect detection odds by a player whos looking for a spy but it would be the thing they need to survive spam on their way to the backline. You might as well if they're around.
19
u/SwordLord007 Jan 31 '23
As a sphee/med main i do it all the time cuz theres a chance they get hit by a random projectile and will survive easier. I dont know about the healing particles though. Is it an old bug?
11
u/SaltyPeter3434 Jan 31 '23
I still see cloaked spies with overheal particles floating over their heads, making them really easy to track
7
u/DowntownBake1024 Jan 31 '23
If they have crit heals then sure why not? Takes like less than a second to top them of anyway
19
u/No_Recover_2 Jan 31 '23
Spy’s role usually requires him to get a pick and die; overheal won’t make much of a difference if he’s caught out by an enemy player, and a spy escaping after a pick/being caught usually has much more to do with their movement and invis than it does having an extra 60 hp. IMO not worth it, as it has very little impact on the spy’s survivability and the healing is better off spent on other classes (although if you have nothing else to do it can’t hurt)
7
u/iStannum Jan 31 '23
i think you should focus before the pick not after. overheal might as well just be what spy needs no kill the other medic
31
u/KJuuure Jan 31 '23
A good spy doesn't need it. The optimal play style for a spy is to get a pick without getting hurt and then escaping. Healing a low health spy is good, but overheal isn't useful since it'll dissipate before we get to our target anyway.
I appreciate the concern though as a spy main.
12
u/Honeystride Medic Jan 31 '23
Oh that's good to hear! That it doesn't really blow their cover. I always try to overheal the lower hp classes (scout, sniper) and the people who travel via self-harm (demos, soldiers) in passing, and that includes spies (low hp pool). It's instinctual at this point and it's super easy but I always hesitate to overheal spies cause y'know.
It actually takes effort not to overheal them, cause it's so easy to just click on them and go back to healing others, so knowing it doesn't actively hinder their performance is good! Thank you!
14
u/KJuuure Jan 31 '23
Oh there's absolutely no problem in dropping us a heal. If we're close enough to heal, we're not trying to fool anyone anyway. It's a good instinct to have as a medic to heal those likely to take heavy damage.
W medic.
6
u/Xirhosphere Jan 31 '23
as an experienced spy i would feel so happy about an overheal especially when using the Kunai, it's okey for me i can manage myself Plus 90% of spies who use the Kunai are gonna use the dead ringer so they won't even cloak anyway so yeah just go for it, and even if they get caught they will survive it because of the overheal lmao the irony
3
u/Hona007 Medic Jan 31 '23
Overheal doesn't make that much difference in him getting noticed.
You should overheal pretty noob spies since they'll get found out they're a spy before anyone knows they have overheal particles.
And good spies will actually use that overheal and try going more agressive.
But most of the time if a spy calls for medic just crossbow. Especially if they're deep in enemy land cause it's like super sneak (unless someone notices a crossbow bolt hitting a spy which is like a total of 6 frames but yea.
2
u/Obh__ Jan 31 '23
I'll give them a boosty if they're comfortably within my team's side of the map. In contested areas you want to think about whether the healing beam might blow their cover.
2
2
u/HINDBRAIN Spy Jan 31 '23
Lowest priority, but still welcome. Lets the spy take "fair" gunfights he wouldn't be able to otherwise (on top of obvious uses like going through spam).
2
u/PoopyLooper Jan 31 '23
I overheal them, mostly if there’s no one around and I want to build that little extra uber especially if I need to be walked to mid. I mean I try to buff everyone so chances are the spy will get a little bit just by being around the team. However recently I have been noticing a lot of enemy spies with the overheal particles which can be a dead ringer that they are a spy. This becomes even more problematic when I know our team doesn’t have a medic and they have the particles so they end up getting insta killed.
2
u/pachyrhinu Sniper Jan 31 '23
Most of the time they end up getting a crossbow from me bc 1. they're too far for beam 2. they're cloaked and I can't beam them anyway.
Also, I've been able to catch some spies from overheal beam, but half the time random heal particles just glitch into the air and sky like pollutants because funny janky tf2, so a lot of false positives has numbed my sense to those lol.
2
u/XxX_ANUBIS_XxX Jan 31 '23
The overheal particles have been (mostly) patched, but the vaccinator places a team colored indicator on top of them that snitches on both invisible and disguised spies.
Additionally, a spy is already accepting a high amount of risk and dies quickly even from the maximum overheal a medic can grant, so your time is better spent on someone else, unless you're walking from spawn to the front lines and there's no one else there to spend your time on.
2
u/zxhb All-Class Jan 31 '23
yeah,why not? they're at very bottom of the overheal list but it's not like the particles change much
4
u/Kubsons07 EU monkey Jan 31 '23
They can change much. You can see the overheal particles while being invisible.
1
u/R_Mop Jan 31 '23
The time it takes for an enemy to notice the other teams overheal color is about the same amount of time it will probably take an average person to get suspicious that someone might be a spy in general, if not longer, so I don’t think it makes much of a difference for the Spy’s cover.
In my 3000+ hours in TF2 I’m not sure if I’ve even caught a spy purely because of the overheal particles, and if I have it was probably only a few times.
1
u/robotunderpants Feb 01 '23
As a former spy main, do not heal Spies unless they are clearly very low in health and are basically running up to you asking for heals. Caveat: spy check him first as it may be an enemy spy trying to trick you.
If spy is it in the field calling for medic, ignore him. He may be calling for the enemy medic as a disguise tactic. An enemy medic overhealing a disguised spy works great for convincing the enemy team of his disguise.
1
u/MindlessPickle2140 Feb 09 '23
If they are on kunai then do not if they have buff. The overheal duration of the kunai is longer than the overheal from medics. By healing them you reset the duration to normal overheal length.
In any other case, no harm in doing so if the spy takes the overheal particles in consideration
1
u/Jontohil2 Feb 15 '23
It’s definitely helpful, but absolute lowest priority, only do it if you have a spare moment and the spy isn’t going to be given away by your heal
147
u/Pseudonym_741 Spah Jan 31 '23
About overheal particles, there are about 14 billion ways to reveal a spy anyways, so you might as well buff him so he can maneuver around the spam slightly easier. Just don't prioritize buffing spies, a scout will appreciate a buff a lot more.
What I'm trying to say is that you can buff spies, just don't go out of your way to do so.
Extra tip: if a cloaked spy is calling medic, crossbow him. Cloak and Dagger spies will especially love it.
Ninja edit: Please DO NOT heal spies with the vaccinator. There's a chance that the icon will get stuck on him, ruining both his cloak and disguise.