Is the Amputator taunt useful?

Question

I recently crafted the Amputator, mainly for the set bonus. I've tested the taunt and it certainly seems to heal people, but is it really useful when you have unlimited healing with the medi-gun?

Answer 1

Yes you can use the medi-gun to heal people individually and get your uber charge up, but you can save a lot of people's lives if for example a pyro charges at the group that your healing one-by-one and burns a lot of them, you might not be able to extinguish everyone before they die, the amputator will help quickly extinguish all your teammates at once leaving no one behind.

I personally love the amputator because it helps a lot of people especially when there are a lot of needy people who want you all to themself. Using the amputator taunt you can share the love.

Using the amputator and the crossbow gives you a set bonus (+1 health regenerated per second on wearer) which really helps you incase an enemy attacks you while you are taunting.

You can read more about the taunt here.

Here's a quick comparison of healing methods:

                   Heals*  Healee  Duration  Charges**
Oktoberfest         11       Self      4  s     0
Medicating Melody   25       Team      4.2s     0
                    (if in sight and range)

Medigun             24/s   Target        -   2.5 %/s
Kritzkrieg          24/s   Target        -   3.13%/s
QuickFix (beta)     36/s   Target        -   3.75%/s

*  300% for targets that haven't received damage in the last 3 seconds
**  50% for targets that are at 142.5% health or higher

Answer 2

It allows you to heal multiple people at once.

Of course, the drawback is that you're open to attack when you do it.

The main benefit is on cp_degrootkeep, where you're not allowed to use your medi-guns.