Disgruntled Pyros, unite!

[Drew The Pirate]

I was just perusing my TF2 stats page, and I noticed something interesting.

Despite the fact that I have 60 hours clocked as a pyro, almost all of it on eGO servers, I have more kills as a heavy- A class that I've only played for EIGHTEEN hours.

I have 844 kills as with the minigun, and only 821 kills with the flamethrower, despite the fact that my Pyro:Heavy playtime ratio is 3:1.

Similarly, I have 832 rocket kills- another class that I have only 20 hours as.

Often, as a heavy, I have over a five to one kills to deaths ratio, and similar as a soldier. I can barely manage to keep it at 2:1 as a pyro.

And don't get me wrong, I'm a great pyro. It's my favorite class, and I have a ton of playtime invested in it. I earned a 22 kill streak which I was darn proud of, until I started playing heavy and surpassed it easily with a 25 kill streak.

I love playing pyro, but I feel like I could be so much more useful to the team by playing a heavy, soldier or medic.

I just wanted to rant about that a bit. I know a lot of people here LOVE the pyro, and I was just curious as to whether you guys feel the same way, or if I should "learn 2 play"

 

[Noravic]

I love the pyro as well. I generally perform better as pyro than heavy for some reason. It may be because I play pyro on convoy a lot. I'm not sure why, but I play pyro better on convoy than on other servers. Strategywise, pyros can have a difficult time if they try to attack a group head on because the flamethrower's range is limited. Heavies can quickly get kills at a short range as well. I think that a Pyro is more versatile than the Heavy but the heavy is more....well.....concentrated on one particular aspect.

Well, that's my 2 cents.

 

[Underhill]

I like playing pyro also but I mostly it is a quick death since I mostly play warpath. The open area of warpath makes it harder to corner an opponent (except at capture points). However an ubered pyro is a great class to drive the oppenent back on the middle point.

 

[Endiment]

Depends on the map. Pyro fails on offense except on Gravelpit and is okay on defense everywhere except some parts of Dustbowl. Pyro owns everything on Gravelpit.

 

[Arbitrary]

Also, have you been playing heavy more recently? HLStats only tracks the last 28 days of kill, etc.

 

[xanthraphoenix]

Pyro for life =) I'm quite happy with playing the pyro as I'm not much of a competitive freak, I just play for the sake of entertainment. The max amount of kills I've gotten stands at 18. That being said, I tend to do a lot of "run by flaming" and spy checking... it keeps me happy, and the engi's too I suppose.

 

[EyelessHunter]

I love pyro but I'm terrible at it.

 

[Captain Mental]

Pyro is what i play when i'm not medic. So i'm a two class player really

Pyro is the perfect class for people who dont want to aim at nothing. To be good at it, you need to be fearless and burn as many spies as possible. A burned spy will think twice about attacking when he sees you.

But sadly, they die alot, they are the favorite targets of many other classes and therfore, unless you keep hiding most of the game and just be plain sneaky, then your kill/death ratio is always going to be against you.

Pyros should be able to throw molotov cocktails!!!!!

 

[Jippy]

I love the Pyro as well. I really enjoy throwing myself on a big group of people and setting their pants on fire. Or sneaking out and killing a Medic who is charging an uber on a Heavy. Usually I'll die from the Heavy but if the Medic goes down then I feel I've done my job. I enjoy the 'causing mayhem and disruption' aspect of the class opposed to 'domination of the kill stats'.

And really, there's nothing better than the smell of a burnt spy.

 

[NightHawK]

I love being pyro.

Just My 99 Cents

 

[westside]

i love playing pyro but i also find that most of my glorious runs end in a blaze of glory; which often ends before it even begins

 

[Deja]

this is what you get for making me play pyro!


if you were there and have death screenshots from me.. please post! : D

 

[Deja]

Oh, props go out to my entire team too. Machete was my medic during most of this craziness.. plus me eating a TON of M&Ms.. anyhow, yeah, they did extremely well.... And I think I talked about 80% of the time.. hah!

 

[anne]

My main classes are Pyro and Medic. I'm a much better medic, but it just *feels* so much better to light people on fire!

(I have about 118 hours as a pyro, and my score does NOT reflect that).

 

[Dr.Waffles]

All I have to say is

P.S. Who is gonna step up and do a Pyro tips thread along side the other ones? (medic, spy, etc.)

 

[OODA Loop]

pyro's are da bomb!

yeah I know what you mean, I often have a battle within weather to have fun as a pyro or help the team and be productive as a medic/soldier. Now don't get me wrong, a pyro can be extremely useful, but in most cases switching to heavy will benefit the team more.

 

[Robotnik]

I would really like to love the Pyro, but awful hit detection and being underpowered as a combat class stops me from it.

 

[Dr.Waffles]

After thinking it over, it seems to me is they pyro lacks versatility in various situations, where other classes can have, situationally a better chance of overcoming a given obstacle. The pyro shines in close quarters, spy checking, distractions, and to a degree pushing the line. But the margin of error increases heavily outside of the conditions that are tailored to suit the pyro. I feel similar about the spy and versatility (even though I hate those dirty dirty spys ) In conclusion the pryos peak usefulness is to my disappointment somewhat small.

 

[AzzNik]

I love playing pyro. It is a great, great class to me.

I am surprised to hear that several of you think a pyro is so limited. I can admit there are some limitations like getting to sg's on building and such but overall I have very few issues with the pyro's abilities. Hopefully, those that play with/ against me will agree. The pyro is the absolute best class to push, period. A skilled uber pyro instills absolute fear in your opponents. Those that uber heavies, soldiers, or demo's in a situation where you need to push the other team are making a big mistake. No other class can push with the speed of a pyro. Heavies, soldiers, and demo's are great when faced with multiple sg's or elevated sg's but pyro's do just fine for an sg on the ground. When I am teamed up with an experienced medic, I feel I can get to whatever and whomever I need. Anyone that feels pyro's are limited should come play on the Warpath server for a couple nights and watch some of the stuff these guys/ gals do. These players have taught me a ton.

You will die a lot but rarely do I die without taking a few with me. If you are concerned with a high k:d or your amount of deaths hurting your rank, then it is not the class for you. If you want to have insane amounts of fun and relieve stress through burning people, then it is the class for you. Overall, no other class is near as much fun for me as the pyro.

 

[Robotnik]

[quote1211377214=AzzNik]
You will die a lot but rarely do I die without taking a few with me. If you are concerned with a high k:d or your amount of deaths hurting your rank, then it is not the class for you.
[/quote1211377214]

I recall your favorite server is Warpath? It has instant respawn, no? This sentence you wrote right now shows the problem with the class on server with 10-16 seconds respawn - if you die a a lot you are not useful as other combat classes on your team.

I personally think the Pyro's biggest problem is ambush and the afterburn - it's not as great as Valve calls it. Ambush by a Heavy, Soldier, even the Demoman sometimes (2 granades in the face top flamethrower) is far more deadlier. If a Pyro jumps on some player...the chance that that the player will still have the time to kill the Pyro is high. Far too high. Afterburn can be easily put out by picking a medpack or grabing a Medic (few should be on the front lines). Also, we don't have the times now when people freaked out by being burned - right now most experienced players will ignore the flames, target you, kill you and continue playing while you wait in respawn.

Sure, Spy checking and uber pushing are still benefit to the team in some way, but as an assault class Pyro is supposed to kill people and this is what he's bad at. Yes, he can handle Engineers/Snipers/Spies, but those are all support classes. Heck, even those can sometimes kill him before he can do full damage with flames. As for the bigger fishes - most of the time when you try to kill a competent Heavy, Soldier, Demoman (this guy depends on range though) you are the dead one.

I think Pyro against a team which consists of good enough and aware players is almost useless.

I wanted to describe my problems I have with the Pyro on the competitive side. This has nothing to do with the fun side of the game. Sorry if I offended any Pyro lover out there. I kinda play more for winning, because it's the only way I can have fun - goofing around is not what I seek in this game. :]