How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast"

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Are pyros OP?

No, I apologize for whining
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No, I am a bitch
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Total votes: 6
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dmitri ravinoff
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How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast"

Post by dmitri ravinoff » Sun Jun 28, 2015 4:50 pm

This newfangled thing was quite recently added to the game, and it seems like a lot of people are having trouble dealing with it, especially when it is used in light of the "degreaser + flare gun" combination. Well, rest assured, I will help you deal with this novel weapon combination that all of a sudden seems to be the rage.

The pyro, quite surprisingly, has very poor range. The flamethrower (and its "compression blast") cannot hit very far from the pyro. The flare does have pretty good range, but this is offset by the fact that it is slow as shit. Pyro has no practical way of dealing with enemies who stay out of his range. There is very little he can do except for try to approach you. The key to dealing with pyros lies in abusing this flaw. Furthermore, you should choose your battles wisely. Never ever try to fight a pyro in a small room: you will get trapped against a wall and killed. In open ground or larger rooms, you have a huge huge advantage. Do not be afraid to retreat - you are far faster than the pyro and can easily reach healthpacks.

I will now provide a class-by-class breakdown of how to abuse this flaw:

1. Scout. Scouts have perhaps one of the easiest ways of dealing with pyros.The scattergun is monstrously useful. All you need to do is to strafe back and forth (but not predictably!) outside of a pyro's airblast range. His options in this scenario are very poor: he can approach, in which case you backpedal and keep shooting him; he can retreat, in which case you (slowly!) advance and keep shooting him; or he can hope to get lucky and flare you, in which case you keep shooting him. If you get airblasted, you deserve to die and will do so to any competent pyro. Do not be afraid to retreat - you are far faster than the pyro and can easily reach healthpacks.

2. Soldier. Never ever fire rockets straight at a pyro. Always, always abuse splash damage. Imagine a sphere around the pyro, radius roughly equivalent to his height. Always try to shoot rockets such that they land tangential to this circle - they are difficult (but not impossible!) to reflect. Alternatively, just jump away - the pyro cannot catch you. The shotgun is also your best friend in this fight. Direct hit is useful but not an end all.

3. Pyro. Use the reserve shooter and feed off their tears.

4. Demo. Loose cannon can be impossible to reflect back at the enemy if you time it right. Loch n load is also very difficult to reflect. Stickies are extremely useful (when are they not?) for killing at mid-range. Targe makes it extremely difficult for the pyro to land crit flares on you, but never ever use it to go for melee kills. Only use it in conjunction with the loose cannon/loch n load to spam.

5. Heavy. Do not let the pyro abuse corners/windows. They will only kill you if they have a way to pop in and out of sight and shoot flares. Otherwise, you should be able to mow them down.

6. Engy. Minis are very hard for a pyro to kill. They can either be spammed with 4 flares, which takes a significant amount of time, or flamed, which takes a lot of health. Never ever build your sentry where it is near a door/entryway - it is child's play to strafe in circles around the sentry and burn it down. The combined fire of your shotgun + your sentry will wreck the pyro.

7. Medic. Overhealed enemies are difficult for the pyro, who relies very heavily on burst damage. Letting your allies tank the burst damage is a huge help. Also, vaccinator is quite useful.

8. Sniper. The sniper can do very little against a sniper at range, so snipe away. If they get near you, expect to die, however.

9. Spy. Dr. Spycicle is your best friend. It grants you very useful immunity to his tools and makes you much harder to kill. The enforcer, or if your aim is good enough for the amby, can tear the pyro apart before he gets within range of you. Ambassador especially can make short work of the pyro.

Hopefully there will be less petulant whining about puff and sting pyros now that I've given you this far too long rant.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by KoD » Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:21 pm

dmitri ravinoff wrote:Never ever try to fight a pyro in a small room: you will get trapped against a wall and killed.
I paused reading right here because this is the reason pyros are OP. It's not the compression blast or the flare gun or the fire axe. It's the fact that if you do accidentally stumble upon a pyro turning a corner or in a small map then you stand an extremely low chance of survival. Pyros run fast, they deal massive amounts of damage - and residual fire damage that does not /or/ correlates poorly to how long you were being ignited for.

I am a counter-strike player, I like a game that relies heavily on reaction times and accuracy. The pyro is none of those things yet is still a deadly powerhouse. This is why the pyro is such a hated class among people like myself.


EDIT: Good information for TF2 players though. Thanks for the guide.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by dmitri ravinoff » Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:35 pm

KoD wrote:
dmitri ravinoff wrote:Never ever try to fight a pyro in a small room: you will get trapped against a wall and killed.
I paused reading right here because this is the reason pyros are OP. It's not the compression blast or the flare gun or the fire axe. It's the fact that if you do accidentally stumble upon a pyro turning a corner or in a small map then you stand an extremely low chance of survival. Pyros run fast, they deal massive amounts of damage - and residual fire damage that does not /or/ correlates poorly to how long you were being ignited for.

I am a counter-strike player, I like a game that relies heavily on reaction times and accuracy. The pyro is none of those things yet is still a deadly powerhouse. This is why the pyro is such a hated class among people like myself.
It is sort of the nature of TF2 that there are hard counters of sorts. For example, sniper vs. heavy or spy vs. sniper. Pyro vs. people in enclosed spaces is sort of a fact of life, love it or hate it (I for one am not a fan)

I agree with you that it sucks to get in fights that you cannot possibly win and I think that the prevalence of these is an unfortunate side effect of the team oriented balance of the game. The game might as a whole be fair, but there are lots of finer points that really suck, and there's not much to be done about it.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by Tokengekko » Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:24 pm

Great post Dmitri.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by KatanaRama » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:03 pm

You realize how impossible it is to run away from a pyro right? With the power jack (which many pyros use) let's the pyro run almost as fast as a scout. That alone paired with its ridiculous crit chance makes it very difficult run from. Also keep in mind that the pyro needs to just get one airblast before it starts hitting the shitter.

My problem with pyro is that it's such an easy class to play as well as having a high skill cap. Effectively meaning an expert pyro will have no counter. Where as this is not the case with many other classes as they all have natural counters. Honestly the pyro is a class that does not need to be in the game.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by dmitri ravinoff » Sun Jun 28, 2015 7:44 pm

KatanaRama wrote:You realize how impossible it is to run away from a pyro right? With the power jack (which many pyros use) let's the pyro run almost as fast as a scout. That alone paired with its ridiculous crit chance makes it very difficult run from. Also keep in mind that the pyro needs to just get one airblast before it starts hitting the shitter.

My problem with pyro is that it's such an easy class to play as well as having a high skill cap. Effectively meaning an expert pyro will have no counter. Where as this is not the case with many other classes as they all have natural counters. Honestly the pyro is a class that does not need to be in the game.
powerjack only halves the speed difference between pyro and scout. still easy to run away from, so long as you don't hit any walls.

and even expert pyros have counters - an expert scout, sniper, or demo will wreck them. There is a reason that pyros are rarely run in 6s.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by Bash » Sun Jun 28, 2015 9:31 pm

I agree, Because pyro is easy to get good. There are far better pyros in pubs than other classes, meaning they end up top scoring from w+m1ing. Players who can play there class well can way out-perform a pyro in most scenarios. Even medic with his blutsauger, or smart positioning with the bonesaw can kill even skilled pyros.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by I_AM_SQUIRREL » Sun Jun 28, 2015 9:59 pm

Damn it dmitri!! Why do you have to ruin my fun?
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by Cheddars » Sun Jun 28, 2015 10:04 pm

dmitri ravinoff wrote: 8. Sniper. The sniper can do very little against a sniper at range, so snipe away. If they get near you, expect to die, however.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by dmitri ravinoff » Sun Jun 28, 2015 10:13 pm

Cheddars wrote:
dmitri ravinoff wrote: 8. Sniper. The sniper can do very little against a sniper at range, so snipe away. If they get near you, expect to die, however.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by Mastermind1011 » Sun Jun 28, 2015 10:42 pm

Oh jeez, who's complaining that it's hard to kill pyros? Have any of you tried to just shoot them? No? Well, let me aid dmitri here and break down some of their weaknesses:

1. Pyros have some of the worst DPS in the game, even taking their burst damage into account. Every time you die to a Pyro just realize that another class could probably have killed you faster.

2. Pyros have shit for long-range options and their medium-range options are on par or worse compared to other classes. Abuse this.

3. Pyros have good, but not great, mobility. The Powerjack helps them get and out of combat faster but comes with a very punishable "extra damage taken" downside, and the Detonator can help one get around the map but is pretty useless for "in-combat" mobility. If you are a Soldier, Demo, or Scout, abuse this.

Honestly, Pyros have two real strengths compared to all the other classes.

1. Mind games/Versatility. Pyros, unlike most other classes, tend to have quite a few viable strategies available to them at any one time. A smart player can get a lot of mileage out of this.

2. This isn't relevant to most people here, but Pyros are one of two classes that don't have to reload. This pretty helpful when one wants to pubstomp because while a Soldier can kill two or three people simply enough, doing so then makes him worse at killing people until he recovers. Pyros don't have this problem. A good Pyro stays at 100% combat ability pretty much all the time.
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Re: How to deal with the new and baffling "compression-blast

Post by Toxius » Wed Jul 01, 2015 9:44 pm

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