Pyro Guide

[Katotsu]

w+m1 has been over since the Degreaser came into existence.

I think that's all you have to do to airblast someone up, never needed to since I don't like the Reserve Shooter.

[somedude]

If you want to roll the Degreaser into your lineup, and keep the RS/Homewrecker, that's a respectable match. Basically, your most lethal attack will be to airblast the enemy and quick-switch to the RS, then shoot them out of the air, switch back to degreaser, repeat. Helps if you puff them before airblasting the first time as well, to get the trickle damage from the flames while you skeet shoot them. Practice practice practice your shotgun aim. The accelerated weapon-switch from the degreaser is very helpful for combo attacks like these. Style points if you can puff somebody high enough (or off a ledge) so you can get two shots in before they hit ground.

So your saying the days of w+m1 are over? I'm going to have to develop some skill to play pyro now. Any advice for getting the airblast to be effective? I usually just rush in blasting and back the uber into a wall and juggle them. It seems that I need to get someone airborne on the first blast and shotgun them while in the air. Aim high with the airblast?

I like degreaser + shotgun + postal/axtinguisher

I tried the reserve shooter but found myself forcing the situation more and being less effective than I was with the standard shotty, and using up FT ammo in the process. Also, those 3 extra shells do make a difference for me.

W +M1 is still as effective as your enemy allows it to be. Not sure what you meant by "going to have to develop skill to play pyro now" ? Maybe a bit of trolling there? Any class in TF2 can be played with or without skill. Anyhow, as far as AB goes, there are many ways to be effective with it: blowing back ubers, blowing away stickies, blowing away a spy who is about to back stab a team mate, blowing away an enemy who is about to hit you or a team mate with melee, defusing a demo man's targe charge, holding back a bonk scout, extinguishing team mates and of course deflecting projectiles to turn your enemies weapons against them or to protect your team mates or SG gear. Just remember to keep an eye on your ammo cause AB is not cheap to do.

[Boss Llama]

Indeed that's a bit of a troll, as the insipid W+M1 cry has always been. Pyro is a finesse class, and has required more than average dedication to be effective for as long as it's existed. It's been nerfed in to the dust because of countless whiners who've never played the class to realize quite how tough it is, and who are dumb enough not to realize that the burst damage on most classes' weapons is several times more powerful than the complete burn of a pyro. As I always tell folks - you try running to within 6 feet of your enemy before using your weapon, and see how much fun it is. Now imagine that with your damage reduced and bad hit detection. /rant

Like somedude, I prefer the degreaser, shotgun, axtinguisher combo myself - the sting is still our most powerful weapon, and a full shotgun is very useful. Still, if you're playing watchdog for the engies, the RS/homewrecker loadout has its merits.

[TTHREAZ]

I run Stock Flamethrower, Reserve Shooter and Homewrecker/Maul. I don't want to give up the ability to destroy sappers so the puff/sting combo has to come via the Reserve Shooter. Not only can I usually get 2 shots into them when I airblast them but I don't have to worry about getting too close to them. Spacing is key with Pyro and if someone is trying to stay just out of melee range for fear of an Axetinguisher attack, they end up getting pumped full of a couple of mini crit shotgun blasts instead.

A lot of it is psychological.

[Boss Llama]

A lot of it is psychological.

This is entirely correct.

That's why Pyros are almost unheard of in competition, and get whined about constantly on the forums. Good players know enough not to be worried, while the masses cry and cower for no reason.

A large part of a Pyro's job can be summed up as "Take advantage of peoples' unwarranted fear of you."

[TTHREAZ]

A large part of a Pyro's job can be summed up as "Take advantage of peoples' unwarranted fear of you."

Exactly. If I can make the other team worry about where I am, I've done my job. Heck, somedude is great at this because the #1 concern of people on the other team is "where is somedude?"

The same can be said for Scout play. If people are looking over their shoulders, you're doing your job correctly.

Uh, and spies, too.

[One_Medic_Army]

On warpath pyros make much more of a difference, what with the necessity of ubers to take out Sentry Guns.
One pyro can derail a single or double uber push quite easily, and set the attacking team back a couple minutes.

[THE Flying chihuahua]

For me, pyro is all about chaos. One of my main set-ups play to this.

Backburner- Why am I being critted?

Detonator- Where did that pyro go? Then see above.

Third degree- Why did my medic just die?

[Zork Nemesis]

Backburner and Detonator is scary in the hands of someone who knows the map layout, as it opens many ambush routes for the Pyro who has a weapon with guarenteed crits on targets that are unaware. Though I prefer to keep my hammer equipped for anti-spy tactics. Third Degree is definetly nice, especially since it clearly has no disadvantages, but a homewrecker/maul carrying pyro can be a gamesaver in some cases and is just generally all around helpful when the engy is killed prior to the unsapping of his stuff.

Detonator gets too little credit. The quick-switch tactics that can be employed with the Flare Gun can be used with the Detonator, but because the mini-crits do less than half damage than critical flares, many people take Flares over Detonators, especially Degreaser wielders and especially after the weapon switch critical bug was patched (prior to one of the december patches, hitting a target with a Detonator flare if the Detonator wasn't the active weapon would result in a full crit; it's why I have so many Detonator kills logged). It's strength is in it's utility with the jumping, the ability to light several targets at a distance (great for Phlogostinator users who want a Manmelter alternative), and the ability to destroy multiple sticky bombs in one flare explosion.

In my case, and I feel like a prick for saying this, but I carry my Genuine Maul more than anything as a vanity item, since it's one of the rarest promo weapons in the game (3rd most obscure weapon with around 500 confirmed in existence, behind Vintage Fan o War and Vintage Concheror which both have less than 200). I use it and kill people with it, but if it wasn't something to show off i'd probably have Third Degree equipped more often.

[Zork Nemesis]

A large part of a Pyro's job can be summed up as "Take advantage of peoples' unwarranted fear of you."

This fear is quite prevailent with the Phlogostinator, as even without critting I managed to push back the entire attacking team on Dustbowl to the first cap in stage 3, plus every time I turned a corner with the crits running, all their medics burned their ubers simutaneously.

[Boss Llama]

I use my G. Maul as a vanity item too, but only during melee-only I call it the "Brobdingnagian Can-Opener" because seriously... that's what it looks like.

[somedude]

the insipid W+M1 cry has always been. Pyro is a finesse class, and has required more than average dedication to be effective for as long as it's existed. It's been nerfed in to the dust because of countless whiners who've never played the class to realize quite how tough it is, and who are dumb enough not to realize that the burst damage on most classes' weapons is several times more powerful than the complete burn of a pyro. As I always tell folks - you try running to within 6 feet of your enemy before using your weapon, and see how much fun it is. Now imagine that with your damage reduced and bad hit detection. /rant

Very well said. I always found the w +m1 complaint frustrating because somehow it got enough momentum behind it to actually inspire valve to apply nerfs to the class. A class as you pointed out aside from the spy requires the shortest proximity to use their primary weapon, but no stealth or speed advantage to compensate for it. Meanwhile unskilled soldiers and particularly demo's can blindly shoot projectiles at a maximum distance to keep themselves out of harms way and end up with a respectable KPD creating the illusion of "skill". All the while doing equal or in the case of a crit, much greater damage than w +m1 which is in itself quite ineffective against players of just moderate skill, and does not work at all against highly skilled players.

I still do not understand why valve gave the demo and now other classes flame/burn resistance while there is no equal type of resistance given to other classes for any other type of damage short of maybe the gunboats?

[One_Medic_Army]

*nerf stickies*

*ducks thrown objects*

Seriously though the only issues I have with pyros is when playing medic, as a demo or a soldier or a heavy they're more an annoyance than a threat. This needs to be changed.

[YoullNeverWalkAlone]

If you want to roll the Degreaser into your lineup, and keep the RS/Homewrecker, that's a respectable match. Basically, your most lethal attack will be to airblast the enemy and quick-switch to the RS, then shoot them out of the air, switch back to degreaser, repeat. Helps if you puff them before airblasting the first time as well, to get the trickle damage from the flames while you skeet shoot them. Practice practice practice your shotgun aim. The accelerated weapon-switch from the degreaser is very helpful for combo attacks like these. Style points if you can puff somebody high enough (or off a ledge) so you can get two shots in before they hit ground.

So your saying the days of w+m1 are over? I'm going to have to develop some skill to play pyro now. Any advice for getting the airblast to be effective? I usually just rush in blasting and back the uber into a wall and juggle them. It seems that I need to get someone airborne on the first blast and shotgun them while in the air. Aim high with the airblast?

I like degreaser + shotgun + postal/axtinguisher

I tried the reserve shooter but found myself forcing the situation more and being less effective than I was with the standard shotty, and using up FT ammo in the process. Also, those 3 extra shells do make a difference for me.

W +M1 is still as effective as your enemy allows it to be. Not sure what you meant by "going to have to develop skill to play pyro now" ? Maybe a bit of trolling there? Any class in TF2 can be played with or without skill. Anyhow, as far as AB goes, there are many ways to be effective with it: blowing back ubers, blowing away stickies, blowing away a spy who is about to back stab a team mate, blowing away an enemy who is about to hit you or a team mate with melee, defusing a demo man's targe charge, holding back a bonk scout, extinguishing team mates and of course deflecting projectiles to turn your enemies weapons against them or to protect your team mates or SG gear. Just remember to keep an eye on your ammo cause AB is not cheap to do.

I really wasn't trolling, more of a comment on my lack of skill as a pyro. It is probably my perception that I die a ton as a pyro because I play either reckless or just engi defense/spy checker. I don't think I am particularly adept at pyro, but outside of airblasting ubers back,and putting burning people out I wasn't real sure HOW to be a skilled pyro.

Mostly I play pyro when my team needs it, I can't be a medic (my preferred class) or we don't need an engi. Pyro is my default "helpful to team in someway because I'm fairly useless in some of the other classes" class.

As for inspiring fear in the other team, well, that doesn't seem to happen for me much.

[Boss Llama]

I'll let you in on one of our trade secrets YNWA - all pyros die constantly. Pyro's have one of the shortest life expectancies in the game - 37 seconds, last I saw the numbers (only Scouts die faster). The nature of the assignment is to charge towards people who have superior weapons in order to reach a place where your f/t will work, to charge towards uber charges where your weapon cannot possibly work, and to put yourself between incoming projectiles and their squishy targets as often as possible.

To really play the class offensively (regardless of which team you're on), you need to think and move like a spy, but without the benefit of invisibility or long-range secondary. Take their routes, trying to remain unseen, and imagine your approach like it's an uncloak - if they spot you, you're going to get fragged painfully without doing anything useful.

Relying on your f/t for damage in most cases will be a questionable to bad option - it's great for chaos and superb for airblast, but it really doesn't do much against decent players. Instead, use it to prep the victims for your follow-ups with secondary and/or melee. A good Backburner flank is an exception, but the trade-off for airblast cost is nowhere near worth it, in my opinion.

As Pyros, we're great at buying time for other people to get out of Dodge, but we're not good at surviving ourselves. That's fine - the team can afford to lose us much more readily than a medic or engy, so protect them with your life - it's a worthwhile trade. Diving headlong at your foe in a hopeless situation, airblasting them and puffing flame, might only get you one or two seconds, but that's long enough for somebody else to either get out or show up, and that helps the team.

Pyro does have one huge glowing positive, and that's ubers. We are the ultimate in uber blocking, and situationally the best uber patient as well. When blocking ubers, we're likely to die, but it's either us or a whole swath of more valuable people/things. Look for doorways, chokepoints, and ledges, and use them to airblast the hell out of incoming ubers, either forcing them back through a door that blocks their fire, or off a ledge so they lose time. Separate medics from patients to break the connection, or if they get close to a sentry gun, airblast the patient straight up, and the gun will sky-walk them (lift them to the top of the skybox) in a heartbeat. The inverse of this is that Pyros are one of the strongest Uber attackers there is. For defense a heavy can be better, and for something up on a ledge a Demo has the advantage, but on the flat against players or SGs, a Pyro will get more done than anybody else.

Anyway, I'm typing a lot more than I meant to, and most is probably already covered earlier in this thread. What it comes down to though is stealth, thinking really fast, switching weapons even faster, and not worrying one iota about KDR.