Kritzkrieg Where, When, and Why?

When I am playing in random servers, I do expect a few insults when I use the kritzkrieg, but I have seen what it can do to whole teams of enemies, either with the splash damage of soldiers and demos or the constant stream of death from heavies and pyros.

But, it does fail for me many a time, so, I want to know in peoples opinions, where, when, and why use the kritzkrieg?

It's good in the hands of any good combo, really. The main complaint with it in pub play is that it's hard enough to find a good player of the right class it's worth using it on, but people never do coordinated rushes. When you don't do coordinated rushes and it's just you and your buddy charging in, you're going to get targeted like hell and die before you get to use it much. Much harder to hit you when you have an army flocked around you.

Aside from that, join a dustbowl server on defense and count how many engineers they have.

I've never done competitive play as a medic, but I'd assume it'd have some nice uses.

defense on pubs is often a good time to use it especially on the dustbowl and payload maps. If you find yourself in a scrim or pug as medic on a map like badlands, well, pro granary or any map where there are no setup time gates between you and the enemy time the occasional use of kritzkrieg on the rollout can be like a win button if you have a skilled soldier or demoman to give it to. just don't keep using it if you die with it and the enemy medic escapes with a lot more charge than you or you and your team will suffer for it. http://www.teamfortress2fort.com/forums/t/TFTVEpisode3NowAvailableResultsofCevoPweek11-17006.aspx

this video is on pro granary and the winning team rolled their way through it most of the time with kritzkriegs lower charge time and no set up. a good example in my opinion of it's potential.

any place, any time, for any reason.

The Kreig does no more damage to other people than the Syringe Gun does (in fact, with Crits, the SG is MORE capable of damage than the Kreig)  The thing that pisses people off about you using that is them seeing all the + marks over your head.  They feel "This guy is healing big time off me! GRRRR."  But the thing is, the Kreig's vampire ability isn't really useful in keeping you alive in situations.  In any successful kill, it usually only contributes 30-50HP restoration.  Those who can block out the fact that they see "+" marks over the Medic and just concentrate on getting the kill often will.

My personal use for the Kreig is when playing Arena.  The only thing about that is that you have to make sure that when you get that charge, you USE it first, primarily towards other Medics, because you don't know if they have an Invuln uber that will end up wasting your Kreig uber.  Also, I'll use the Kreig in CP/CTF/PL when I have a player who's a crackshot or if I come into many situations with a lot of enemies.  Soldiers/Heavies/Demos/Pyros often excel here due to the large damage output - you just have to concentrate on keeping yourself alive for the duration - I recommend a long leash!

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I think you might be confused between the Blut (the alternative syringe gun which drains health) and the Kritzkrieg (the alternative medigun which gives 100% crit chance instead of invuln. ubers). It looks like the first paragraph is about the Blut but the 2nd the Kritz?

Ugh.  That I did - good catch Cascade

My head isn't where my mind is at the moment.

I meant Blut, yes.  My bad.  As for Kreigs, the things that let you give 100% crit rates to the patient, for me, they are best used in Arena, on patients who are crack shots, or when you're encountering a lot of resistance in one particular area.

Cascade, you got a beer on ya?  I need some alky-hall.

I find that the Kritzkrieg is really helpful on no-crit servers, as long as another medic with regular uber is already around.  As most of us know, invinciblity is way better than 10 seconds of crits.  However, using both together on a team (not necassarily a patient, but that is really powerful in and of itself) is usually a good option.  On a server with crits enabled, if your team sees combat a lot, both mediguns have their uses.  The regular uber is obviously good for pushing through, where as the kritz krieg is ready faster, and is good for breaking an advance.  But the one area where the kritzkrieg is the most useful, as stated before, is when the only crits are manual crits, such as no-crit servers and just about any competitive play, so long as there is another medic with regular uber.

Kritz is much more difficult to use than uber, but it's also a bit more disposable. The decreased charge time makes it useful in arena, though the invulnerability effect of uber is still more useful. Then again, all kills are final, so crits help a lot there. It's also useful in maps with chokepoints, where you can expect many enemies. Enclosed spaces tend to be good, as fleeing becomes less viable, and dying becomes more probable.

Targetting is much more selective than uber, because kritz has a fixed purpose compared to uber. Ubers can be used to push, take out sentries, and just retreat past impossible odds (saw, saw, saw, saw, RUN). A kritz, however, necessitates a skilled uber partner. Kritz is essentially useless on yourself, and one of its sole personal uses is putting out fires (which I did not know. Thank you, TF2F). Your kritz partner needs strong general combat skills, rather like a player you normally heal. Comparatively, uber partners often need good aiming compensation with all the juggling that occurs, and at least decent aim to prevent failure. Kritz needs survival skills, and aim. Survival skills covers a large area, and differentiates good players from mediocre quite often (nothing againt suicide runs, but if you don't watch your back, that's just useless).
Kritz is best when encountering many enemies in an area without immediate, severe threats (other than the enemies that you can immediately destroy and/or rout). Snipers, spies (rare, but sometimes), and sentries tend to be your worst foes. Of course, a few lucky crits can end a kritzcrieg prematurely, but that's bad luck. Recharge and try again. On nocrit servers, kritzcrieg is even more devastating, being hard to stop, extremely deadly, and unusually damaging. Kritz DOES NOT WORK WELL ON SENTRIES. Sentries seem immune to critical hits (otherwise a crit rocket would drop a level 3). Sentries should be down, or not in the area, if you are using a kritz.

My favorite kritz targets are Heavy, Soldier and Demoman. I find pyros die too easily to be of good use, though with a flank, they will dominate. Heavies require some skill on the part of the target, target prioritization, minimal dodging, and decent aim. However, their effect at long range is sporadic, and mostly wasted. Kritzing heavies at moderate to short range, however, will make short work of almost any target. Heavies have difficulty chasing foes down, however, and so should be used from surprise, in areas with little cover, or when enemies are commited far enough that they cannot take cover. Check ammo levels first. Also, snipers tend to take out kritz heavies quickly.

Soldiers are decent at most ranges, though aware enemies can dodge rockets at long range. Crit rockets tend to simply gib whatever they hit, so most targets will go down with little fight. However, limited ammo (though crit shotgun is still good) reduces the efficiency of soldier kritzcrieg, and good aiming and dodging skills are required by the target.

Demomen are the most potentially devastating class with kritz, as many good runs have testified. Fast (er than most combat classes), most deadly projectiles (330 damage? Yes plz.) and extreme potential damaging range make demoman hypothetically one of my first targets for kritz or uber. I say hypothetically, because demomen that good are really, really hard to find (in my experience). Demomen also are the only class to get cut short from full overheal by crit rocket hits, killing them instantly. The close range disadvantage of the demo tends to be negated by the "Hi, I can kill you if you get within a meter of any of my projectiles", and fleeing enemies are easy for good demomen to predict (as I keep learning. Ow). However, the firepower of the demoman, indirect attacks, and sight of 5 or more enemies turning into puddles every now and then makes skilled demomen at the top of my list for good classes to kritz.

Kritz should be popped early, as soon as a decent number of enemies are in range to eliminate. It should also be used when your ally is nearly at maximum overheal. It's nice for you to be overhealed, but not necessary. Take cover if you can, and remember to watch your back. If no cover is available, make like a medic and run, jump, duck, strafe, and don't stand still. Communication about being flanked is also important. You can't deal well with threats while giving kritz, but your partner certainly can.

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QFT