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TL;DR – Here is the damned video, but you should really read the thing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tkCgWyDgjM&feature=plcp

Hello dear members of European Team Fortress 2 League and welcome here newcomers!
I am here to share a piece of my wisdom to other players that want to get slightly better at competitive pyro.

I am going to divide this into 2 sections: General defensive/supportive play and offensive play.

Support/defensive pyro

While it is fun crushing a public game roaming with the degreaser + [Insert melee weapon here] it is mainly used as a defensive resource for the team. The pyro airblast pushes back enemies and sends back all projectiles, including jarate, mad milk and arrows, except for medic needles. And has a relatively strong area denial with the flamethrower/degreaser/backburner by using the airblast to push enemies back and make sure no spy dares to get close to the heavy-medic combo.

This is how your setup should look like while defending:

Degreaser/flamethrower – Flamethrower has stronger afterburn, useful in maps with few medkits and let scouts and spies burn to death. Degreaser is the most all-round as it lets you multitask easier. Don’t use backburner, relying on only 4 airblasts is not enough most of the times.

Shotgun/flare-type weapons – Flaregun gives you the ability to harass enemy snipers, as well for 90dmg bursting already burning enemies, detonator gives you a nice roof-control on foundry but I feel most confident with shotgun as it lets me quickly kill scouts jumping our medic.

Homewrecker
– Unsap sentries pretty quick. A good team will coordinate a push swiftly when a spy saps a sentry.

WHEN DEFENDING ], your prio 1 job is defending the medic and the sentry if possible. Backblast ullapool-jumpers, rocket-hopping and twitchy scouts away. Trust that your team will kill the threats but if the combo is occupied with something important, finish/scare the enemy off and focus back on your prio1. When defending (or playing pyro in general) You must understand that you MUST defend your medic-heavy combo and/or sentry. If the medic goes down to a soldier (for example) because you were chasing a spy instead of airblasting back rockets, it is your fault! You must be prepared to everything that comes at you.

DEF pyro, part 2:
If the enemy is attempting an uber push, call to the engineer and medic that they need to watch their backs as you now need to be prepared to push the uber-oush back. Stay close to the corner and do jack-in-the-box airblasts, i.e airblasting away enemies and immediately hide behind a corner and pop out again + airblast, etc.

If they are going to break trough, tell your medic to run away while you are holding chasing enemies in the air until you die. Remember that IF you can run away AND be sure your medic is alive, you should run with him as well. Less people that dies, the better.

Offensive pyro

Read first Defensive pyro because you are still going to be protecting the combo, even on offense.

Loadout:

Degreaser (flamethrower works good offensively in a whole lot of maps, like koth maps, where the medic is already stressed by keeping everyone healthy and medkits are few)

Shotgun/flaregun/reserve shooter (If your aim is trusty, you will airblast + 2shot wit the RS many enemies, like scouts)

Axetinguisher (although you will not simply walk into point-blank range into a heavy, it is good to have just in case…)

OFFENSIVE/ AGGRESSIVE play
As you still need to perform your airblasts to clear spam and do spychecks, there is a few moments which gives you time to contribute with some more fire power. You can go aggressive more or less depending on how good your medic is at looking his back. If your medic has a keen eye and looks constantly around him, you can move more aggressive in front of the combo but normally you have to stay close with your medic at almost all times.

If the enemy spy is 100% dead, you can stop spychecking and put more aggressive play on the very frontline, beware of flanking soldier and scout, you still need to keep an eye on the flanks and in the sky. Damned rocket hoppers can swoop down any second.
If these are also dead, go and burn some things! (but be back when they spawn)

I usually think what consequences my actions have. For example: “If I chase the spy, can the heavy manage to kill an eventual scout attack”? “I just tell my scout that the spy is burning in that position and trust him in finishing my job” That sort of things.

And here you go, a short video of me in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tkCgWyDgjM&feature=plcp

Last edited by Swedish Santa, 12 years ago

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