Well... for me sweet talking (=communication) is part of the game and therefore should be part of your "skill" ranking. "Skill" doesn't just mean hand-eye-coordination for me.
But I suppose that's just a different point of view.

Also, it's not that it's always friends or SpA members healing me for example. There are often just some random medics that quickly realize that they're better off healing me than someone else.

EXACTLY!!!

I like to heal everyone who is low on life. I like to think I am a very aware Medic. If I am healing a "good" heavy in battle for example I will always keep him alive but take the time to heal everyone around me I can to keep them alive, esp. if they are burning. Healing different people has the benefit of charging Uber faster as well. I like to think I am a good medic and cannot even be arsed to listen to moaners, one minute there are not enough medic's on a team, the next the medic is shit because while trying to heal the whole team by themselves they accidental let someone die from burning, and then the next they are stat whore's. I mean fuck me, a) it's a frigging game and b) all the bloody moaning....get layed!!

....general morning rant, but hey..it's nearly the weekend

I think the case that you describe where the healing is solely based on friendship and not around skill is very rare.

Feels good to get it off your chest yeah?

My whole point was based on the idea that a goosd player will get a medic and therefore be more of a team player. And disputing the idea that a medic is automatically a good team player.

Your right theres a HUGE difference between a good medic and a bad one and its hard to be a medic for a pyro. My problem is with the medics who ignore you because they're concentrating on 1 person. It may not be reflected in the score sheets wher a bad medic often does really well haging back by activating ubers on one or two people, ignoring everyone else, running from danger and leaving the people the were healing. That kind of behaviour oddly gets them very high up the score sheets (hence the point whores)... Its doesnt on the server stats and theres a reason both you and tpyo are so highly ranked. I'd also be more inclined to rant at you if you were healing me as I very really see you without crits', crits' on a pyro? Nah.

For the record the only time I now get annoyed with medics is if they only heal one person or run with you right up to the enemy and run away when you start taking damage.

I also get that being a medic is often a thankless task to which is why when a medic does heal me I try to say thank you every time.
If they're your friend they probably know how you play better than anyone else and you'll make a more effective pairing together. I still think the best medic for me is Tpyo we've been playing this since the beta and he often knows what I'm going to do.. i'll admit that often its suicidal but he generally knows where I'm headed and who my target will be.

Both of the sides of this are right. Any medic playing would be stupid not heal Demm or Mini as with or without the medic they're an asset to a team. What we're really talking about is how shit players effect a game and how better to reflect in the stats a good team player or a bad one. Everyone will have a very different opinion on this and will have a bais towards their own prefered class.

Oh and yeah Mini you are always with a medic. which only really frustrates me if you play pyro.

I stopped caring about this thread ages ago.

Same with stats.

I've also noticed that medics don't want to use ubers to save people, they would rather let 3 teammates die then use their uber to save them (since they are more likely to get more points if they use the uber to attack rather than defend).

I would say that people quite often do play better whilst they're being healed. aside from it being a case of numbers (they can afford to be more aggressive, they can take more hits giving them a bigger window of opportunity to retreat, etc), it's also a case of, if the medic's any good, he has another player covering his back, watching for spies and being in general communication, and all of that is a bit of a confidence boost. result - person being healed plays better. that's assuming that they don't go and do something stupid, like try to take on half of the opposition while my uber is nowhere near up (looking at you, pyros >_>)............