4421

I turned on that noise and damage in Advanced Options. Sure is lovely to know when and how much damage I am doing. That way I know if I am burning them more or it just looks like it.

It has made a huge difference in Pyro play.

4422

Aye, there’s the rub. I think that’s exactly the issue with the Pyro.

4423

You must play with a lot of n00bs. Most classes can either escape before you burn them to death or have the health to shoot you down while you try and flame them. The pyro’s bread and butter combo is Ignite -> Airblast -> Axtinguish.

The Postal Pummeler is just a reskin of the Axtinguisher, not a new weapon.

4424

i like being a defense pyro: spycheck, put teammates out on fire, and unsapping with my building loving hammer. the only part i hate is uber airblasting, i almost never survive those.

but aside from reflection shots, my best kill was airblasting a sniper out a window and into a friendly sentry’s line of sight. sure it might have saved ammo to keep burning him, but sometimes kills need a little style.

4425

Agreed, the Pyro is almost certainly the most effective class at close-range combat when played properly. However, this relies heavily on being able to surprise your opponents, e.g. by dropping down on them from above, etc. Veteran Pyro players will even manage to escape afterwards, a skill the W+M1 crowd hasn’t learned yet.

4426

Escaping is always secondary for me. I usually assume I’m going to die, and just try to take out as many of the bastards as I can first, since I’m usually trying to get behind their front line to get them from behind to begin with. Fortunately, her footspeed is quick enough to make this only moderately inconvenient.

I haven’t played around with many of the newer weapons, but I feel the biggest learning curve for Pyro is basically when not to use the flamethrower. Being able to quickly switch to axe or shotgun for the kill is more fundamental than it is for most other classes.

4427

I never meant to say that a pyro is useless. They’re handy for spychecking/airblast denials and as an engineer buddy. They’re good at catching a group unawares and sowing chaos and confusion; however if the pyro sticks around even a little bit and the enemy group is experienced/organized, it’s almost certain death for the pyro. I’d argue that a soldier/heavy/demo in place of the pyro can do more damage anyway.

One on one against the other classes, you’re either reliant on the shotgun, the flare or the axetinguisher to win the day. If you catch them from the back if you have a pretty good chance of winning; but that’s also true for most classes. On a face to face matchup (from mid to close range):

vs Scout: If you’re in the open you’re pretty much screwed. It’s your shotgun/flaregun vs his speed, scatter and pistol. Indoors, you might be able to blast him against a wall, but getting in close to the scatter gun range is pretty risky as well.

vs Medic: They might not be able to kill you, but they’re faster than the pyro and practically immune to afterburn.

vs Soldier: Sure the pyro has an airblast, but that’s a reactive measure; the soldier still gets to decide whether to risk the airblast with a rocket or shotgun battle. Usually this match goes like this for me (as either the solder or pyro): 1) If the pyro is not staring at you, the reflect will likely miss anyway, so fire off a rocket or two to see if he’s any good. 2) Usually he’s dead or popped in the air by now, but if he manages to reflect it, it’s usually harmlessly off to the side. Time for shotguns. It’s a little bit more health vs a little bit more speed.

vs Demo: Pretty fair match usually, air stickies at midrange is pretty deadly, and at closer ranges it all boils down to whether the demo can connect the pipes.

vs Heavy: dead.

vs Sniper: well, the sniper loses to everyone.

vs Engy: shotgun battle with a health advantage. He can heckle you better with the pistol, whereas you need to close. Plus the pyro is useless against sentries unless ubered or favored by terrain.

vs Spy: A good spy can decimate a pyro at mid range with the revolver. At close range a pyro does have an advantage, but a dead ringer spy will lead you on a merry chase.

To summarize, a pyro is good at some miscellaneous duties (airblast/spycheck) but is a poor to middling combatant at best. They do have the best hats though.

4428

Here’s the key to the Pyro for me. Disengage. I learned this by dying a LOT in MNC. I started to consider how I was dying. It was because I was being too aggressive.

So now, when playing the Pyro, specifically, I instead, run away. Yeah, that’s right, I said it. If I turn a corner and there are three or four guys, or any situation where I should not be there, I just turn back around, find a corner, see if anyone follows me. Because so many other people playing overly aggressive also, usually at least one or two will follow me…and be burnt to a crisp.

If I win a battle, I make sure to get healed up with one of the MANY health stops throughout all the maps before I engage again. Even if that means retreating back to a safer spot in the map. Or often enough, I will hunt around the big health pickups. Get someone, heal myself, go back and get another.That’s another big thing. Pick where you fight. Sure, you are usually going against different points on a regular basis, around each of those points are better places to fight than others. Maybe you know your Sniper is watching this area too. Maybe there is a big health on two sides of it. Maybe there are lot of step out of line of sight places. Etc.

If every time I battle someone, it’s on my terms, I am more likely to win. And with the Pyro, that’s doubly important. So instead of trying to get to people that are to far away from me, I instead try to goad (people just hate being hit with that flare gun) them into fighting me on my terms.

Been working pretty well. I used to be a mediocre to bad Pyro player, now I am almost always the best Pyro on the server and usually in the top three overall. Yeah, because of free to play, there are a lot of noobs out there. But it’s not just against them theory is working.

I learned by watching other fantastic Pyro players. Who I used to the same thing with, follow them in dark corridors. It’s hard to resist following someone when you see them turn tail…

4429

Against specific classes:
Sniper: Don’t engage them where they are looking. This applies to all classes against a sniper. Circle around if you can, or hit them with a flare and step back out of sight. Heading directly at a Sniper is always a lose situation.
Soldier: Stay away unless you can get close range. At close range, burn and circle.
Heavy: Same. Heavy takes awhile to kill, so make sure the entire time you are burning him, you are circling him. If he starts pumping you with lead, you are dead.
Demo: If does not have stickies out and ready, he should die to me most every time I can get into range with him.
Engie: If they have built of up sentry in a good spot, wait for backup. You have no chance.
Spy: Light him up with a flare. Spies HATE being seen. That throws them into a tizzy. He will most likely run away. If he does not, or is at close range, he will burn to death in literal two seconds of fire. Also, because of these jackasses, constantly be doing spy checks. Near any friendly people? Burn them. Near a friendly sentry? Burn it. In a corridor? Fire it up from time to time. Burn things a lot basically.
Scout: My least favorite. They are very crispy if you can catch them, but because they are so fast, they have to be distracted or chasing you.
Other Pyro: backpedal. Your flame goes further, while they chase you. If they are trying to shotgun you, step out of the line of sight, flee to health, then turn around and burn.

Overall, be aware of your limitations. Make people fight on your terms or flare and retreat. People really hate being lit on fire. They proceed to make dumb decisions. Like charging the girl in the fireproof suit with the rather large flame thrower…

4430

As pyro, I liked attacking sentries in poor locations where I can just hit the building with the flame, but it isn’t able to target me.

The advice of running away is good. I played medic a lot and I’d make sure that the person I would uber charge or kritz and myself had an escape route ready to go. When the charge is running low I’d remind the healing buddy and start making for the way I’ve got plotted to get out (if needed) and have that person follow. I wasn’t a prick about it though, all dependant on how things were playing out. Though I didn’t really uber too many pyros admittedly.

4431

The Unofficial Official Uber Rules

  • Ubering a Pyro is useful if you know you’re attacking a spot with lots of enemies crammed in one space and not a lot of sentries to bounce you around. Say, the end of Goldrush stage 1. If the cart is a few feet from the finish and Red has 4 or 5 people standing right on it, the pyro and medic can stage in the attic, drop down, and clear that spot out long enough for others to rush in and cap. Spies like to hang out there as well, so the pyro is a bonus.

  • Ubering a Demo is optimal when you have a bunch of sentry guns you’re having trouble taking out, like at the end of Badwater Basin, the end of Goldrush stage 2, or the first point of Dustbowl stage 3, where Red will set up a gun in the window. Uber the demo, run in, chuck in some grenades, then 3 or 4 stickies, and the SG nest is toast.

  • Ubering a Heavy is good for just about any cluster of enemies at close to medium range. They’re not as good at taking out sentry guns as the demoman, but they’re a good all-purpose alternative.

  • Controversial Opinion: While ubering a Soldier isn’t necessarily a waste, there is no single situation where ubering a Soldier is the optimal course of action. They fire too slow and are too hit-or-miss. Name any situation, and there’s probably at least one other class the uber would be better spent on.

  • If a Medic ubers a Scout, Spy or Sniper, 99 times out of 100, it’s a wasted uber.

  • If a Medic ubers another Medic, it’s probably a waste as well, unless they’re two really good battle Medics using the Ubersaw, which builds your Ubercharge 25% for each melee hit. If they get 4 melee hits per Ubercharge, they can basically trade Ubercharges back and forth indefinitely and totally destroy a game.

  • If you die with an undeployed uber, you have failed. Period. Spies are everywhere and deadly spam can come from any direction, so when it’s ready, use it and start building the next one. Ubercharges are gamebreakers and there’s no bigger fail in TF2 than medics who hold on to ubers forever and die without using them.

  • When you receive an uber from a medic, ATTACK. You cannot capture a point or push a cart while ubered, so as the saying goes, when you glow, you GO. Do not stand there like a dumbass.

  • In 9 out of 10 situations, the default Invincibility is vastly preferable to the Kritzkrieg. If you match up a pair of players with Invincibilty vs a pair with Crits, Invincibilty wins every time. There are some situations where it’s handy, but the Kritzkrieg is not an optimal default healing gun.

  • The Quick-Fix is awful. Don’t use it. Ever.

4432

matt, that’s far too little use of secondary and melee weapons. pyro has enough health to charge anything that’s not a heavy and win in convincing fashion.

against a scout, sniper, engineer, or medic it’s as simple as burning them for a second and then using the axtinguisher to cut them down (instant kill) or your secondary outside of that range. your shotgun and flares are just as good as any of their weapons.

against a soldier, keep enough distance to comfortably airblast their rockets. if they switch to shotgun, treat them like anything else. you have the edge if you airblasted well.

pyro absolutely dominates demoman. airblast pipes back in their face, airblast stickies underneath their own feet, and airblast them backwards if they try to charge you. when you’re not making them your bitch, burn them and chop them down.

if you can’t get the drop on a heavy then you simply won’t win. even if you do manage to get behind you have to be very quick to get your two axtinguisher hits (everyone else is one) to kill them. if they’re using the tomislav you should abandon all hope.

it comes down to luck against another pyro. if you’re using the backburner you can try to outflame them otherwise you’ve got to shotgun them dead first.

never use the flamethrower, the backburner and degreaser are far superior. the only pyro melee worth a damn is the axtinguisher. unless you’re a crack shot with the flare gun, don’t use it. if you do use the flare gun, no one should run away from you and live. AIRBLAST FIRE OFF OF YOUR TEAM. airblasting sentry rockets is a great way to destroy a sentry nest (you’ll rarely live through it though).

to add to those uber rules, run in front of whoever you’ve got ubered if you’re rushing a sentry. uber more than one person, it takes a second or two for uber to disappear without the beam. always uber soldiers and demos and pyros ahead of heavies.

4433

I have to say sluggo, those rules are all well and good, but it doesn’t hurt to be creative. 300 hours plus as pub server medic taught me that.

My rules as medic are:

  1. Always look and evaluate what is happening. Standing idly by is how to make medic boring, and to be less effective for the team.

Yes, the number of times I’d go racing into a heavy firefight to heal up a guy trying to run away from multiple attackers and saving him/her are countless. Being able to keep a team alive is pivotal in territory control.

  1. Learn how to dodge. Which really fits in with rule number 1.

As far as the kritz goes, it is an absolute killer when defending, and questionable use when attacking. If I were in a clan match I probably wouldn’t use it however. But give a krit to a soldier or demo when the other team are funnelling into a chokepoint and you’ll see them run in the opposite direction, or their giblets are littering the ground. I’ve even used krit on both a scout and a pyro before. It is highly effective because no one expects it. The other trick at the beginning of the game is to not use the krit straight away, but to hold it.

4434

I had crafted one for squeaks and giggles and I believe it is a great for a backup medic when the primary medic is stuck on one guy. The Quick-Fix must not stick to one player, and stay in a group constantly healing different people. Save the Uber to use during a push when the rest of the players are following the actual Uber. Situations where two Ubers are difficult to coordinate or you’re short on time come to mind.

4435

I think the issue with the kritz is that when it’s good it’s great, but it’s incredibly situational. The same can be said about an uber except that uber is almost always useful in every situation.

My biggest issue with defensive kritz is that it does jack-all to stop an uber push, whereas having a defensive uber to counter their offensive uber you can usually cancel them out.

4436

the quik fix is for when the team sucks since 1) as medic you can’t survive to uber, and 2) they suck and are always injured so overheal is rarely used. in the first round i use the uber.

kritz can be used to kill a sloppy offense medic if they rush out of spawn before hitting the uber. those guys are usually newbies though.

4437

I hardly ever use any melee weapon for any of the classes in TF2… Don’t really like them. I know they do a lot of damage, but it seems very rarely am I ever fighting someone one on one.

4438

This.

4439

Are others noticing the Quick Fix healing faster? It actually feels slower to me. Is it maybe not receiving the bonus healing on teammates that have not been damaged recently?

4440

Yesterday, I was in a 16v16 match attacking Gold Rush stage 2. We had three medics: two with Kritzkriegs, one with a normal uber.

The first medic, with a normal uber ready to go, is linked to a Heavy. The match starts, the pair starts moving forward, a Sniper headshots the Heavy, and THEN the Medic blows the Uber, leaving him standing there by himself looking for someone else to uber.

Red sees the Uber and counter with an Uber of their own and charge into Blue’s spawn area. Blue’s other two medics blow their Kritzkrieg charges, which do nothing against the Uber and both medics get chewed up.

Now Red is fortifying their position on the front of the map. They’ve got sentries everywhere, heavies and demos spamming the exits, and snipers in the rear looking to pick people off.

Still, the medics don’t get it. The two of them stick with Kritzkriegs, which give zero survivability against the spam and aren’t going to do anything against the sentries anyway. They build charges, try to move out into the action, and die in a fraction of a second.

The one medic with the ubercharge hangs back, heals people up, gets his charge ready. I’m a demo now and he links with me, and we head down the side left alley, hoping we might be able to get an angle on some of the sentries while ubered. We run out and I wait for the uber, which doesn’t come.

We make it down the alley and I’ll have a clear shot at a giant SG nest inside the house… once I’m ubered. Which still doesn’t come. Now heavies see me and are firing my way. Still no uber. I retreat back into the alley, just in time to watch the medic get backstabbed, never using his uber.

Annoyed, I switch to Medic and start charging an uber. I’m find a demo who’s got a decent score and hope he knows what to do when I give him the uber. We run through the main exit … and he stops on the cart. He’s just standing there, firing grenades at random Red scampering around, missing most of them, but more importantly, making no effort to seek and destroy any sentry guns. The uber runs out and we’re dead .001 seconds later.

Eventually, the match ends, and the cart finishes the round in exactly the same position as where it started, because not a single person on this team has even a lick of common sense.