The Heavy/Medic combination is considered one of the greatest ones on the TF2 game, offering up devestating destructive capabilities which leave most of your opponents withered and dead. The mere presence of a Heavy and a Medic working together is often enough to make people withdraw or at least avoid that location.
Yet there will be and are times when the Heavy is incapable of acquiring a Medic, either due to the Medic being dead or busy or not even played by anyone on the team. In those moments a lot of Heavy players become flustered and uncertain as to what to do, as they have more time playing with a Medic than without.
- Surviving Without A Medic -
The single greatest problem most Heavy players will have when they no longer have a Medic is that people will look at them and go "Easy target". A Pyro can, and probably will, ambush you and kill you at the drop of a hat. Snipers will rip your head to shreds with ease. Soldiers and Demomen will blow you up with minimal fuss, keeping at mid-range and thus away from your miniguns optimal damage area.
In order to survive without a Medic you need to first understand that the Heavy is easily defeated in combat. Pick any class, and I guarantee that properly played that class can crush a solitary Heavy. As such, you should be sticking to close-range situations, which favor the Heavy. This is easiest by using side routes, acting more like a Spy than a Heavy, aiming to ambush and catch your opponent off guard.
Heights are a major advantage to the Heavy. Most people when playing the game will be looking straight on, and will not be looking up and to the sides and behind and up some more and then forward. This allows for the Heavy to drop and crush the opponent. Wait for them to get roughly equal to where you are, and then drop down as they continue along their path. If you're not revving your minigun while dropping then you're doing it wrong. Kill them, you win. Retreat to a safe zone.
Another tactic is the Med Pack abuse. Fight near major med packs, the ones that heal significant amounts of HP, and you can take more abuse than most. The fact that ammo packs tend to spawn near med packs helps as well. If you time it right you can actually catch a full healing med pack in the middle of a fight, causing your opponent to go "Oh crap I'm screwed". Because it's fun to make them do that.
- The Minigun Sucks? -
The Minigun is a great weapon, but it's inherently a weakness. Decreased mobility, your more aware opponents can hear it...all in all it's going to get you killed eventually. The Shotgun, however, doesn't have a unique sound compared to other secondary shotguns, and yet still has stopping power. If you get the hang of using the Shotgun you can and will get significant quantities of shotgun kills.
If you have not read the Heavy v. Heavy thread yet, then you probably should as well. Solo Heavy's often find themselves facing off against Heavy+Medic combinations. This is where your Minigun proves useful, as properly timed you can clear the Heavy out even with a Medic on his butt. Sometimes you can even kill the Medic, although you'll often need to switch to the Shotgun if they're too far away.
Another advantage the Shotgun gives is mobility. Being able to move, strafe, leap, dodge, all proves extremely useful in a fight. Most people are accustomed to slow moving ground-attached Heavy's that can't do much beyond spray bullets toward them. A Heavy that's doing flips off of a balcony while plugging them full of shotgun shells is something unusual and strange.
Don't be afraid to go it alone, without a Medic. You aren't going to suck. Except if you do suck.
Then you're just going to suck no matter what.
But it's okay.
We all suck.
