Medic (Long War)

Medic

The Medic is similar to a Field Medic specialized Support in vanilla XCOM. Their signature ability is Field Medic, which grants one free use of a medikit per mission and allows additional Medikit items to be used two times per battle instead of one.

Primary Weapon: Carbines, Assault Rifles, Battle Rifles, SMGs, Shotguns.

Secondary Weapon: Pistols, Machine pistols, Sawed-off shotgun.

Class-Limited items: None.

Abilities

Rank	Ability
Specialist	Field Medic For soldiers, grants one free use of a medikit per mission and allows additional medikit items to be used two times per battle instead of one. Also allows Restorative Mist items to be used three times per battle instead of once.
	+1 Mobility.
Lance Corporal	Suppression Fire a barrage that pins down a target, granting Opportunist reaction fire against it if it moves. Imposes a -30 penalty to aim and reduces range of many area-of-effect attacks, including grenades. Also negates overwatch from the target while suppression is active. Lastly, enemy AI prioritizes breaking the suppression by shooting the suppressor, so it functions as a mini-taunt. Not possible with shotguns, sniper rifles, or strike rifles.	Steadfast Never panic as a result of getting wounded, allies panicking, allies getting wounded or killed, or the intimidation ability.	Field Surgeon Reduces (or, for 1 HP flesh wounds, eliminates) Wounded timer on soldiers who sustained HP damage but were not Critically Wounded. Does not affect wound sustained by sending fatigued soldier on a mission.
	No other bonuses.	+5 Will.	No other bonuses.
Corporal	Rapid Reaction If on Overwatch, confers a bonus reaction shot (to a maximum three shots total) for every reaction shot that is a hit.	Smoke & Mirrors Allows one additional use of all support grenades during each mission. It also increases charges from Smoke Grenade and Battlescanner perks by 1.	Revive Allows Medikits to revive critically wounded Soldiers at 33% of maximum health instead of just stabilizing them.
	+3 Aim.	No other bonuses.	+2 Will.
Sergeant	Ready for Anything If the unit fires without taking any other costly action, it automatically enters overwatch at the end of its turn.	Smoke Grenade Deploy a smoke grenade once per mission. The smoke confers +20 defense and prevents flanking for all enemy and allied units. Lasts 2 turns. Taking the perk on level up also allows an additional action after deploying a smoke grenade.	Paramedic Once per turn, this unit may use a medikit without spending an action.
	+3 Will.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Tech Sergeant	Opportunist Eliminates the Aim penalty on reaction shots, and allows reaction shots to cause critical hits.	Dense Smoke Increases the defense bonus from smoke grenade from 20 to 40.	Combat Drugs Smoke grenades confer +20 Will and +20% critical chance in addition to the original 20 defense. The area of effect is also increased by 25%.
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Gunnery Sergeant	Lock N' Load Primary weapons receive one additional shot or burst before a reload is required, and you may reload your primary weapon as the first action of your turn without ending the turn.	Bombard Throw or launch grenades over exceptionally long distances (+50%).	Sprinter Grants +4 mobility (roughly 3 tiles movement).
	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.
Master Sergeant	Extra Conditioning Confers 1-4 bonus health based on which type of armor is equipped. Heavier armor increases the bonus.	Packmaster Limited-use small items (including those from perks) receive 1 additional use.	Savior Provides 2 item-free medikit charges and +4 healing bonus to medikits. Restorative Mist units restore three more health per use.
	+4 Aim, +4 Will, +1 Mobility.	No other bonuses.	No other bonuses.

Stat Progression

Rank	/level	total	/level	total	/level*	total*
Specialist	1	1	3	3	6(7)	6(7)
Lance Corporal	0	1	2	5	6(7)	12(14)
Corporal	0	1	3	8	4(5)	16(19)
Sergeant	1	2	2	10	3(4)	19(23)
Tech Sergeant	0	2	3	13	3(4)	22(27)
Gunnery Sergeant	0	2	2	15	3(4)	25(31)
Master Sergeant	1	3	3	18	3(4)	28(35)

• Note that, even without Hidden Potential turned on, there is a chance of gaining 1 extra will per level (shown in parentheses above). Psionic soldiers can also gain 1-6 extra will per psi level (1 + rand(6)).

Tactical Advice

Medics are a diverse class focused on healing and supporting their squad. Each medic lends a hand in a different way but all of them are good healers and have ways to deny the enemy good shots on your team. How you build your Medic is up to you but they generally focus on three main support types: Field Medic healing squad, Tactical Support providing cover and defense or the Battle Medic providing fire support. If you choose to be a purist in a role or a jack of all trades it's up to you.

Sample Builds

Field Medic

These medics are support units and are geared towards defensive roles. Their titular Field Medic perk, makes them invaluable during longer operations, such as the Alien Base Assault or Battleship UFO missions. They offer the best healing in XCOM and can even help soldier recover faster from combat wounds.

LCPL: Suppression or Steadfast. Suppression provides utility and control on a class that doesn't otherwise have much offensive potential. Steadfast gives a will boost that is very useful to Officers and Psychic troopers. Field Surgeon is possibly the worst perk in the game.

CPL: Revive. If your soldiers fall and are lucky enough to be critically wounded instead of outright killed, this will allow them to get up and keep fighting. However, you will have a very wounded soldier to babysit for the rest of the mission, making this perk overall one of the least useful in the game.

SGT: Paramedic. Many handy uses - run to a wounded teammate, heal and then run to better cover, or heal and then shoot or suppress.

TSGT: Opportunist. As you haven't taken the Smoke Grenade perk, this has the most use, unless you plan to put a grenade in your item slot every mission.

GSGT: Sprinter or Lock n' Load. Sprinter is incredible for extra mobility, getting to a wounder teammate or flanking an enemy. Lock n' Load will allow your Medic to Suppress continually.

MSGT: Savior. 2 free Medkits, and 4 more HP healed per medkit makes the Medic a walking immortality machine for the rest of your squad. With medkits in one item slot and the upgraded medkit, this soldier will bring 50hp worth of healing.

If you are debating if Savior or Packmaster is a worthwhile final choice:

• Basic medic gets 1 free use without a medkit item, and 3 with the item
• With Packmaster, they'll get 2 itemless uses, and 5 with the item-- as well as additional uses of any other consumables (grenades, Battle Scanners, Arc Throwers, ect)
• With Savior, 3 itemless uses, and 5 when carrying the medkit

Or if Training Roulette puts Packmaster in another rank, and you decide to get both it and Savior; you get 4 free item-less uses, and a whopping 7 uses with Savior, Packmaster, and the Medkit item together: hopefully, mission survival won't call on you to need that many heal charges-- a Guardian MEC unit would be a more efficient healer if damage is spread out amongst your team, or you may want to rethink your strategies in the first place, if you do need this many on a Medic being used as a dedicated attendant to, say, a Goliath MEC unit.

Tactical Support

Here medics are more than healing units, focusing on defensive support items. Smoke and Mirrors, Dense Smoke and Packmaster make them great at creating cover for advancing friendly troops and keeping them from getting hit, with Combat Drugs available to put an offensive twist on smoke grenades. Due to their defensive support perks, it is highly advised to them keep away from the front lines, working best when they can do reaction shots or lay down covering smoke.

LCPL: Suppression or Steadfast. Suppression provides utility and control on a class that doesn't otherwise have much offensive potential. Steadfast gives a will boost that is very useful to Officers and Psychic troopers. Field Surgeon is possibly the worst perk in the game.

CPL: Smoke & Mirrors. Gives you extra support grenades, doubling this soldier's usefulness.

SGT: Smoke Grenade. Key defensive tool, especially in combination with Suppression. This support grenade can be useful in basically every mission. With the vastly expanded range of small items in Long War you will often find yourselves starved on item slots. A perk that removes the need to sacrifice an item slot for a specific grenade is a welcome addition to any squad. With this perk your soldier can take an action after throwing a smoke grenade which greatly increases the flexibility of that soldier. Later in the campaign, with Smoke & Mirrors, Packmaster and Dense Smoke/Combat Drugs, you can carry enough Smoke Grenades to cover your squad in almost every engagement in a mission.

TSGT: Dense Smoke or Combat Drugs. The increased defense of the smoke grenade allows your soldiers to survive situations that would otherwise spiral out of control, such as being caught in the open by a bad activation or unfortunate cover destruction. Dense Smoke gives almost the same defense as High Cover and reduces their chance to be crit. Combat Drugs is a perk unique to this class, increasing the damage (via crit) and will of the squad. Allows the Psi Medic to perform the unique combination of Combat Drugs Smoke Grenade to boost their own will, and then using a Psi Power that same turn.

GST: Bombard or Sprinter. Bombard keeps your Medic safe, allowing them to lob support grenades without risking running Overwatch or getting in range of enemy fire. Sprinter is a universally useful perk that is always an excellent choice.

MSGT: Packmaster or Savior. Packmaster really increases the support grenade role, while Savior turns the soldier into a one-person hospital. Both excellent choices, depending on your needs.

Battle Medic

These Medics focus on using accurate guns to punish enemies for anything they try. With Rapid Reaction, Ready for Anything, and Opportunist, they are death machines capable of attacking and overwatching the same turn. Although not required, Suppression can also be used for more fire options and Lock N' Load to overwatch indefinitely (reload then overwatch every turn). This build unfortunately does not become powerful until TSGT, when they can pick up Opportunist.

In Long War, Medics have poor aim progression making them not ideal combatants. The Battle Medic overcomes this by going on the left side of the perk tree, gaining bonus aim at Rapid Reaction. This puts them on par with the Infantry class (21 at max rank Vs Infantry 21) while still being able to heal. They make excellent overwatches that can shoot three times without penalty. The Battle Medic is better suited for missions where you are lacking fire support, as he/she prevents the enemy from advancing, while still capable of healing squadmates. Due to this appropriate items are Scope for the aim bonus to his shots and the normal Medikit to still fulfill his medical role.

Without the Deadeye perk of Infantry, however, can only be reliably against earthbound foes.

LCPL: Suppression. Suppression is an excellent choice for a front line troop with Lock n' Load, although it goes against the Battle Medic's purpose of maintaining Overwatch.

CPL: Rapid Reaction. An incredibly powerful perk that unfortunately will not be reliable until TSGT.

SGT: Ready for Anything. A situationally useful multishot perk. Paramedic is also viable for a hybrid build if Savior chosen at MSGT.

TSGT: Opportunist. Activates the build. Any overwatch build without Opportunist is crippled.

GSGT: Lock n' Load. With Rapid Reaction and Suppression chewing through ammo, this allows the build to stay active and firing every turn.

MSGT: Extra Conditioning. Crucial for a front line soldier for both the accuracy and extra HP. Savior is a viable choice for a hybrid build.

Mechanics

Field Surgeon A surgeon removes 1 HP worth of damage taken in combat at the end of the mission for every wounded soldier before the fatigue/hospital calculation takes place. Wound times are calculated according to the soldier's lowest HP at any point in the mission; deeper wounds lead (linearly) to larger Wounded timers (before Fatigue time is added on). Thus, with Field Surgeon, a soldier who only sustained 1 HP of health (not armor) damage will not require any hospital time. For soldiers with "deeper wounds" (more than 1 HP lost), Field Surgeon will calculate Wounded timers as if the maximum damage sustained on the mission were 1 less.

See also

Long War: Soldiers
	Soldiers Assault Infantry Rocketeer Gunner Sniper Scout Medic Engineer
	MEC Troopers Marauder Valkyrie Archer Goliath Jaeger Pathfinder Guardian Shogun
	Officers Psionics Gene Mods S.H.I.V.s