CondoMSerotoneI'd love to hear what other prem and invite medics think, maybe I'm just a special needs corssbow enthusiast and can't speak for anyone else.
See my opinion at the start of the thread and page 2
Arrows are a terrific and fun concept, however valve game balance is absolute trash and the current state of arrows do far more harm than good.
I do recognise that using arrows effectively is a skill you've practiced and developed, and outright removing that aspect of the class would make it very unappealing to you. But there is just so much more to medic than switching to arrows mid fight, which currently is far too powerful.
This is correct. Arrows are a very fun weapon and the crossbow heal mechanic does have a place in the game, just not in its current state.
The idea of banning the crossbow should definitely be tried. There's several advantages to banning the crossbow:
1. You can actually capitalise off just doing damage to the other team in chokepoints. Doing 250 damage to the pocket in choke is a 10 second window of advantage without crossbow, as it takes 10 seconds for the medic to heal 240 HP.
2. Because you just can't instantly heal up any damage your team takes, it would make uber exchanges viable again. If you push with 300 HP against a team that has recently taken a lot of damage in choke, you would know that they were weak enough to force a lot of flashing for the other team.
3. There's no longer an inherent uncertainty that can't be accounted for when counting ubers, since there would be no arrow building.
4. The uber exchange meta takes more skill than the sac meta. There's a lot more factors involved, it's more interesting to watch and it's most likely faster paced, as smaller mistakes can be capitalised on.
Definitely ban the crossbow. It is far too overpowered, even if it makes medic more fun to play. Needles do require skill to use, so it wouldn't really lower the skill ceiling of medic, especially a main calling one.