Sad assessment of recent pyro nerf
Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2014 4:29 pm
My latest assessment of Valve’s June TF2 pyro nerf is depressing. The nerf mainly consists of changing the damage done by the axtinguisher and postal pummeler. Formerly, both weapons would deal critical hits to any burning foe – from any direction. The June 2014 nerf changed this. Now, critical hits on flaming opponents only happen from the back. Otherwise, mini-crits.
I tried this out. The results are not happy.
History. I stopped playing flanker / ambush pyro only after a few hours of my early pyro career. I did this because the degreaser / axtinguisher combo made that play-style a less necessary option. With the degreaser and the original axtinguisher, pyros had greater chances of killing high-health opponents during sudden close encounters in tunnels or rooms. Puff and sting was a very powerful action against soldiers (one or two whacks), and heavies (two or three whacks). The axtinguisher significantly aided the pyro’s survival chances, and gave the pyro an offensive capability that EVERYBODY feared. It also provided the essential incentive to use the degreaser. The degreaser’s only benefit is the quick weapon switch – which is highly useful when switching to melee weapons – like the axtinguisher. Otherwise, the degreaser’s flame is 10% weaker and its afterburn effect is 25% weaker than a stock flamethrower. In short, the only reason to use the degreaser is to have quick access to the axtinguisher.
Well, I guess everybody feared the degreaser / axtinguisher combo so much and complained so bitterly that Valve nerfed the axtinguisher (and the postal pummeler).
Keep in mind that encounters are binary in TF2. You either survive the encounter or you die. The contest is making your opponent reach zero health before he makes you reach zero health. If your weapons loadout means you are dropping down to zero health faster than your opponents, then change your loadout and / or change your play-style.
So I tried alternate play-styles and alternate loadouts. I tried using the nerfed postal pummeler / axtinguisher. I found that on Dustbowl (where I usually play), there are very few opportunities to ambush players from behind. As I recall, this situation was the main reason I stopped using the backburner years ago – very limited backburning opportunities. Not worth the loss of airblast capacity. The backburner does not have any overall advantage on such maps. (NOTE: stage 3 Dustbowl is an exception.) So, on most encounters, the mini-crits from the axtingusher were just not doing it on flaming foes. I was dying on those encounters more and more. So, the axtingusher / pummeler suddenly became very weak melee weapons and were getting me killed when I tried to use them.
As an alternate, I tried the backscratcher. It had good melee damage on burning and non-burning foes but it wasn’t any better than just keeping the flame on from the degreaser. In addition the heal rate was intolerably slow. I asked myself what the point of such a weapon was.
I tried the powerjack. No real benefit over the standard fire axe. It did allow me to move faster over terrain when deployed. But in order to take advantage of this feature, I have to give up my thorough spy-checking. Anyone who has played with me knows I have this obsessive-compulsive bit with my flamethrower. I let out mini-puffs everywhere I go – constantly checking for spies. Spies know me and despair when I oppose them. So, I was left with another choice. Do I give up spy-checking in favor of faster transit speeds? I tried it out for a time and found that spy-checking was a more important feature – which rendered the “advantage” of the powerjack useless.
So, given that melee was no longer going to work to my benefit, I reassessed my use of the degreaser. As a flamethrower, it is the weakest of the lot. So, I discarded my strange killstreak degreaser and started to use the stock flamethrower. I found that its killing properties were much more powerful than the degreaser. And this is what makes me really sad…
I have been reduced to some sucky W+M1 pyro. Forget about melee. You’re gonna die. Just keep the flame on like any 13-year-old-first-timer-free-to-play newb and you’ll be OK. Well, I’m not OK with that. I’m about to go up to my room and bite my pillow.
Pyro used to require sophisticated coordination and agility, tactics and execution. Even with the full-powered axtinguisher, we pyros die a lot. Still, good pyroing used to earn some measure of respect. Now, it’s relegated to the back of the pack checking for spies, reflecting a few rockets, airblasting ubers (and dying), and maybe homewrecking sappers). The best way for me to play pyro is anathema – W+M1. I am now highly conflicted about it.
Sure, I don’t have to play pyro. But playing pyro was the funnest of all the classes I have played. Now, it’s an inglorious grind… where did I put that stupid homewrecker? SHEESH!
I tried this out. The results are not happy.
History. I stopped playing flanker / ambush pyro only after a few hours of my early pyro career. I did this because the degreaser / axtinguisher combo made that play-style a less necessary option. With the degreaser and the original axtinguisher, pyros had greater chances of killing high-health opponents during sudden close encounters in tunnels or rooms. Puff and sting was a very powerful action against soldiers (one or two whacks), and heavies (two or three whacks). The axtinguisher significantly aided the pyro’s survival chances, and gave the pyro an offensive capability that EVERYBODY feared. It also provided the essential incentive to use the degreaser. The degreaser’s only benefit is the quick weapon switch – which is highly useful when switching to melee weapons – like the axtinguisher. Otherwise, the degreaser’s flame is 10% weaker and its afterburn effect is 25% weaker than a stock flamethrower. In short, the only reason to use the degreaser is to have quick access to the axtinguisher.
Well, I guess everybody feared the degreaser / axtinguisher combo so much and complained so bitterly that Valve nerfed the axtinguisher (and the postal pummeler).
Keep in mind that encounters are binary in TF2. You either survive the encounter or you die. The contest is making your opponent reach zero health before he makes you reach zero health. If your weapons loadout means you are dropping down to zero health faster than your opponents, then change your loadout and / or change your play-style.
So I tried alternate play-styles and alternate loadouts. I tried using the nerfed postal pummeler / axtinguisher. I found that on Dustbowl (where I usually play), there are very few opportunities to ambush players from behind. As I recall, this situation was the main reason I stopped using the backburner years ago – very limited backburning opportunities. Not worth the loss of airblast capacity. The backburner does not have any overall advantage on such maps. (NOTE: stage 3 Dustbowl is an exception.) So, on most encounters, the mini-crits from the axtingusher were just not doing it on flaming foes. I was dying on those encounters more and more. So, the axtingusher / pummeler suddenly became very weak melee weapons and were getting me killed when I tried to use them.
As an alternate, I tried the backscratcher. It had good melee damage on burning and non-burning foes but it wasn’t any better than just keeping the flame on from the degreaser. In addition the heal rate was intolerably slow. I asked myself what the point of such a weapon was.
I tried the powerjack. No real benefit over the standard fire axe. It did allow me to move faster over terrain when deployed. But in order to take advantage of this feature, I have to give up my thorough spy-checking. Anyone who has played with me knows I have this obsessive-compulsive bit with my flamethrower. I let out mini-puffs everywhere I go – constantly checking for spies. Spies know me and despair when I oppose them. So, I was left with another choice. Do I give up spy-checking in favor of faster transit speeds? I tried it out for a time and found that spy-checking was a more important feature – which rendered the “advantage” of the powerjack useless.
So, given that melee was no longer going to work to my benefit, I reassessed my use of the degreaser. As a flamethrower, it is the weakest of the lot. So, I discarded my strange killstreak degreaser and started to use the stock flamethrower. I found that its killing properties were much more powerful than the degreaser. And this is what makes me really sad…
I have been reduced to some sucky W+M1 pyro. Forget about melee. You’re gonna die. Just keep the flame on like any 13-year-old-first-timer-free-to-play newb and you’ll be OK. Well, I’m not OK with that. I’m about to go up to my room and bite my pillow.
Pyro used to require sophisticated coordination and agility, tactics and execution. Even with the full-powered axtinguisher, we pyros die a lot. Still, good pyroing used to earn some measure of respect. Now, it’s relegated to the back of the pack checking for spies, reflecting a few rockets, airblasting ubers (and dying), and maybe homewrecking sappers). The best way for me to play pyro is anathema – W+M1. I am now highly conflicted about it.
Sure, I don’t have to play pyro. But playing pyro was the funnest of all the classes I have played. Now, it’s an inglorious grind… where did I put that stupid homewrecker? SHEESH!