Pyro Update Review

Compressed-air blast:
1. It’s quite useful against your average über rush as you can remove the medic from the equation, or if that proves too difficult (as I found) it’s quite easy to hound your attacker with multiple air blasts putting off his aim and ruining the ubër.
2. We’d all be used to seeing the usual cluster of sticky bombs on a control point or doorway, but with a Pyro on the frontline you can clear it out enough to push on.
3. Rockets, Grenades, Stickys, and our new found friend The Flare, can all be redirected quite effectively. I’ve yet to damage a Solider with his own rocket but it’s quite plausible and even an achievement.

The Flare Gun:
I managed to score myself the little Flare gun over the weekend, this thing is quite fun for setting unaware snipers on fire. Why not give it a go in 2Fort, as you run into the enemy base just lob a Flare at one of those persistent snipers and listen to him run about looking for health. It’s also fun as a Pyro to finally have a long range weapon, but with that said it seems to come in handy much less frequently then the shotgun would.

The Backburner:
I haven’t acquired this beast yet, but god I want one. The amount of times over the weekend that I got completely owned by some basted Pyro wielding the Backburner and his +50 health was enough to drive me into trying for the achievements. I think the +50 health is enough to ask for on it’s own, as getting in nice and close is the name of the game and extra HP wouldn’t go astray, ever.

The Axtinguisher:
I didn’t see this one come into play much over the weekend at all. However I have a distinctive memory of my corpse floating in a sewer and a Pyro disappearing around the corner with a giant, rusty, bloody, barbed-wire axe raised above his head. I have a feeling that if a Pyro player has legitimately earned this weapon, that’s about all you’d really see of him anyway. I do however wonder how much impact this weapon would have in the leagues that play with no Crits.

The Achievements:
Valve often say they do their best to listen to the gamers, and I think they have with the Pyro achievements. Most of the criticism I’ve heard about the Medic achievements was that they were mostly rather random and not very achievable by a good/dedicated Medic in normal game play. Just looking at the Pyro achievements goes to show they do listen, most are centered around normal game play and only a few like “Got A Light?” seem too random to ever achieve without a useful friend in game.

[Dear Valve: It would be very nice to see more then one weapons pack released at the same time so we can avoid games made up of 90% 1 class. Maybe spread the mayhem a little, the day the Solider pack is released is going to cause absolute chaos.]

For more info check out:
Official Pyro Update & The Official Team fortress Blog