THIS UNOFFICIAL GUIDE IS PROVIDED BY NECRO [SWF2]. ON BEHALF OF TRILOGY.HK, I THANK HIM FOR HIS CONTRIBUTION.

Alright, due to certain influences of a certain admin, I have decided to write an advanced pub Pyro guide. I’m going to skip over all the bullcrap about health and movement, since it /is/ an advanced guide after all.

Before we get to the juicy bits, I’m going to take a moment to say this is a subjective guide. Pyro is nothing about objectivity, it’s all about personal feelings and a connection to the game above all else. Because of this, it’s very different compared to other classes.

Firstly, the most important thing to master is the not the airblast, it’s the game sense. Airblasting is all very well, but the thin line that separates good Pyros to better ones are their game sense. Just because you’re using the classic puff and sting combo does /not/ mean you do it on every single target ever. For example, prime classes for not stinging are scouts. I see too many ‘pro’ Pyros puff and sting scouts and assume they’re good. You really aren’t. Flaming them, even with the Degreaser, is good enough, especially since you’ll still have your primary out and ready to deal with any other projectiles that may decide that you look like an interesting target. Some more notes to remember is that it is not always the best course of action to airblast a Heavy, particularly a reved-up one. The airtime you give the heavy will allow him to spin up/aim and shred you to pieces. It is more prudent to lick him with a flame particle or two and immediately swipe him with two strikes with the axtingusher or more if you’re using any other melee.

Okay, second thing, airblasting. I won’t talk about long-range airblasts since I’m sure most of you who’re reading this already know how to do it. Hell, even arrows are easy to airblast at long range, particularly Huntsman ones. The Crusader’s Crossbow ones are difficult though. I’m going to talk about twitch airblasting. This is the hardest part to write about, since it is about your subconscious, the same voice at the back of your head that warns you about a spy about to backstab you. It’s all about training. It’s hard to talk about so I’m the only thing I can really give tips on are tiny visual cues. I’ll split this up into the few commonly seen projectile classes: Soldiers, Demomen and Snipers (Huntsman and Jarate).

Soldiers:

When engaging one, take a look at their reload animation. Time their rockets. Remember the delay between rockets and time your airblasts accordingly. If you’re paying attention to their reload animation, you’ll have a better chance. Keep in mind these are for the average soldier or the soldier caught off guard, where they will fire immediately after reloading. Better ones will do a fake before firing. The point where the soldier is ready to fire by the reload animation is the moment the Soldier shoves a rocket into his launcher. At that point he is ready to fire.

Interesting point of note is that reflecting a charged Cow Mangler laser shot makes it crit instead of minicrit.

Demomen:

It’s pretty similar to the Soldier, but only on pipes. If he has the stickies out, there are only a few options you can take.

For pipes, the moment he is ready to fire one is the moment the Demoman shoves one into his launcher and about to bring it to bear. Time it.

For stickies, you can either go offensive (more than 75% HP) or defensive (anything below that). For offensive, charge directly at him, circling around if needed to avoid any stickies he might throw at your feet. If you can, avoid airblasting to him the as it will only airblast them forward, blocking your route. If you can, airblast them to the left or right. When you get in their face, their only option is to crit you in the face with a pipe or melee. (Which is incredibly possible so watch out.) For defensive (which is basically retreating and waiting for another possibility to ambush him again), backpedal to your teammates, taking care to airblast the stickies forward as he may be able to lay stickies behind you.

Snipers:

Two parts. Huntsman and Jarate.

Huntsman:

All about prediction at this point. If you airblast him while he’s already charge, he will probably fire the moment he touches the ground. Time it properly. The moment he pulls back the arrow, he is ready to fire.

Jarate:

In my opinion, one of the easier projectiles to reflect. Treat it as a slower pipe bomb. Same goes for the Mad Milk. If you manage to reflect it, press the advantage. If not, bug out.

Alrightly, third part. The loadouts. In my opinion, the Backburner is the best weapon to use for pyros-in-training. It forces you to learn how to ambush as well as manage your ammo efficiently, especially without the weapon switch clutch the Degreaser supplies you with. I’m not even going to talk about the Phlog. Just treat it as a pre-airblast Backburner.

Secondaries are arguably the most important weapon to the Pyro, making or breaking his playstyle on this. The Pyro is all about synergizing your weapons together and unleashing a devastating fusion attack.

Shotgun is a standard weapon. No need to talk about this. Flare is one of the sidegrades for the Pyro, giving him a long range option as well as a short range flare punch for a devastating, usually decisive 90 damage. Detontator is the flare with the alt fire being a detonate. It’s a downgraded flare, but it’s used more for mobility. Usually seen with the Backburner. The Scorch Shot is another downgraded Detnoator, but allows bouncing shots and detonator jumps for less HP, though to get the same airtime you need perfect timing. Manmelter is pretty useless, in my opinion.

Melee, another important thing to take a look. I’ll talk about the 3 melees usually seen: Axtinguisher, Backscratcher and Powerjack. Homewrecker is usually used against spies and mini-sentries so it’s not needed to be talked here.

Axti is the classic go-to weapon for pyros, therefore not really needing an explanation past the reminder that you need to time when to use it. Sometimes continuous fire is a more prudent choice.

Backscratcher is a good sidegrade, giving you more damage and more solo abilities at the expense of being worse at teamplay. A crit with this is usually decisive.

Powerjack is basically an upgrade to the default Axe. It used to have a higher damage output, but it was nerfed, and it /still is/ a viable sidegrade, giving more health on kill. This weapon can usually be used like the Axti, but you need even better timing to time when your flames did enough damage for a decisive hit. Or you could gamble for a crit. That works too.

I would /love/ to talk about high level play, but I personally don’t have much pyro scrim or high level play experience. I’ll just say that it’s usually the Degreaser/Shotgun/Axti setup, with some switching around with the Flare for a flare punch to deal with medics.

Good luck, and have fun. It is a game after all. Remember the creed of the pyro: keep the flamethrower close to your heart, and your enemies will feel the wrath of hell itself.

Necro out.