Weapon tips and tricks:Pyro

Do you notice you're fire retardant but act retarded while playing Pyro?Do you want to kill everyone with more than 2 buttons?Here's a guide on how to use all of your weapons effectively!

Flamethrower

• A versatile, reliable, and trusty Primary, able to deal massive damage and defend yourself from most projectiles
  
  
• The health you get back from extinguishing teammates doesn't stack if you extinguish more than 1 teammate at a time, but it's still better to extinguish multiple teammates at a time than extinguish 1 person at a time just to get a lot of health back
  
  
• If you are trying to knock someone back with airblast, don't spam it at them, if you airblast someone you airblasted off the ground, they can strafe away, if you waited until they touch the ground to then airblast them again, it fully cancels their momentum every time you airblast them, because consecutive airblasts doesn't cancel momentum
  
  
• If you are trying to get rid of an übercharged Medic pair, try to airblast the Medic away from his heal target, far enough to disconnect from his heal target, but trying to airblast the Medic and not both is not easy
  
  
• Because of the glitchy particle effect the Flamethrowers have, avoid making twitchy aiming, that's why you never hit your target when you aim your flamethrower at them

Backburner

• Trusty, reliable, but not very versatile, it does the same damage as the Flamethrower, but does 200% more damage from behind
  
  
• Because the airblast cost is higher, use it wisely, using it too much could drain the ammo you could be using to flame someone down, or extinguish a teammate
  
  
• Pair this with weapons that could get you behind enemies, to take advantage of it's upside

Degreaser

• Versatile, trusty, but not reliable, it turns your Secondary into your Primary, and this weapon acts like a Secondary
  
  
• This shouldn't used for damage as much as the other Primaries, but for airblasting, or lighting someone up really quick to deal critical damage with your Secondary
  
  
• If you have a flare gun, the afterburn penalty doesn't matter, as they do 3 damage/tick to compensate
  
  
• Even though the airblast penalty isn't huge, it can still be devastating to you, for example:If you reflect an entire clip of rockets coming at you, you've already used up half of your flamethrower ammo, and you only have the other half to kill the Soldier, so try to use them wisely

Phlogistinator

• It isn't versatile, but it's a bit too reliable, it's pretty much the opposite of the Degreaser, especially because you have no airblast
  
  
• You can only charge the MMPH meter from fire damage, so afterburn is more important with this weapon, equip a Secondary that can deal fire damage, like a flare gun
  
  
• Try to pop the MMPH meter in a safe area, even though you have übercharge while taunting, you are still put in more danger doing it out in the open, they don't expect a Pyro coming around a random corner with crits
  
  
• While you're taunting, try to interrupt the Pyro's loud battle cry with another voice line, call for a Medic, insult the enemy, or even better, yell out "INCOMING!" before you run them over, they'll still know that there's a Pyro there, but if they hear the battle cry, they know that the Pyro there has popped the MMPH meter

Shotgun

• Reliable, as trusty as a pistol, and very versatile as a stock weapon should be, it's a weapon for close range if you want to save ammo for your Primary
  
  
• This is a great weapon for fighting other Pyros, as you can still deal a big chunk of damage outside of his/her range
  
  
• The best use for this is for finishing off opponents,as flamethrowers deal a lot of damage up close anyways, unless you're using the Degreaser

Now you can go be Teemo

Reserve Shooter

• Another shotgun that can deal huge damage, it's a weapon that could take care of high health enemies easy
  
  
• This is another great Secondary for fighting enemy Pyros, but it's riskier, as you have to get in their range to airblast them
  
  
• Because this is a shotgun and you have to knock them farther away from you, and you deal less damage the farther they are with shotguns, try to trap them in a corner or against a wall to deal the full mini-crit meatshot (This tip sounds familiar, doesn't it?)
  
  
• You don't have to light enemies on fire to mini-crit with this

Panic Attack

• This is versatile, but not very reliable, but when you are dying, this becomes a rapid fire shotgun, ready for your (Probably) failed killer
  
  
• Use this as an emergency, the best situations with this are like this:You get hurt, you reload, he fires another shot at you, you are dying, you fire your 4 shots,he dies|Reload when you are hurt, fire the shots when you are dying
  
  
• This is a shotgun so if you want to deal a lot of damage like the Shotgun, reload, then fire when you're close up, it spreads more when you are dying, so getting really close is riskier than before, shoot the Panic Attack at them if you know they're dying, too, else just use your primary
  
  
• If there's a health pack and you're dying, take it, it's better to get your health back to keep fighting than to stay at low health just to abuse the faster fire rate

You might've noticed I copied this off of the Soldier guide, but using it on Soldier and Pyro is almost the same, but it's little different while using it on Heavy and Engineer

Flare Gun

• It's a great alternative to the Shotgun, and helps with Pyro's short range
  
  
• It's weaker against enemy Pyros, as Pyros can't be lit up, and the last time I checked, 30 damage isn't a lot of damage
  
  
• Keep in mind, the crits don't instantly kill 125 health classes, if you want to kill them very fast, deal a bunch of damage with your Primary, and then finish them off with this (I know that a lot of people know this, but some people don't know)
  
  
• Because it has one shot before the kind-of long reload, make sure the shot kills them, or at least brings them to low health, else you'll have to wait 1 second before firing your next shot
  
  
• The weapon automatically reloads due to the 1 shot clip, even when this weapon isn't active, so waiting for this weapon to reload after you're done with it for now is stupid

Scorch Shot

• The Flare Gun's weird brother, it doesn't deal the huge damage like the Flare Gun, but it's better for spamming down a choke point
  
  
• It deals knockback whether the enemy is on fire or not, but it deals more knockback on burning targets
  
  
• The weapon can be used for jumping, which is very useful but it's not as high as a Detonator jump
  
  
• This weapon can be used to build über for a Medic, which is useful with the Back Scratcher
  
  
• The explosion of the flares can destroy stickybombs, which can allow teammates to enter a secured hallway, or to protect a sentry from a stickybomb assault

Detonator

• It's a flare gun that's not meant for damage or spammability, but for mobility, and for a short ranged class, it could help a lot
  
  
• Even though it's not a big damage dealer, detonating the projectile in someone's face could deal a lot of damage
  
  
• You don't have to detonate the projectile to jump, if you don't detonate the projectile to jump, you don't get launched as high, but you don't lose as much health if you were jumping with a detonation, use that to get to places that are hard to reach, but not that high up, so you get up there, but not lose a lot of health in the process

Manmelter

• The weirdest flare gun out of them all, it's the only flare gun that doesn't deal extra damage to enemies on fire, but it does crit instead of mini-crit
  
  
• It's not a good idea to use this weapon when the other team doesn't have a Pyro
  
  
• It's good to pair with the Degreaser, you can quickly holster it to extinguish someone, and quickly take it back out to shoot someone with that crit you collected
  
  
• The projectile is the fastest projectile in the game, which could actually be a downside if you're so used to the other flare guns' projectile speed

Fire Axe

• Even though this is on a close ranged class with a flamethrower and shotgun, it's still better to have a weapon that can deal a clean 65 damage than to not have a melee weapon at all

This is going to be every stock melee weapon in these guides, there's not a lot to say about them

Third Degree

• It's the only weapon in the game with no negative stats, it has downsides, but not an absolute ton of downsides
  
  
• Just because you have the ability to damage 2 people at once, doesn't mean you have to, Medics usually pocket Heavies, Soldiers, Demomen, and Pyros, so try to sneak up on the Medic, and kill him, you could kill him easier with a flamethrower, but it's better to deal 195 damage to 2 targets than 1 (I say 195 damage because it takes 3 hits to kill a Medic, and this thing crits like crazy )

Axtinguisher

• The 2nd biggest damage dealer in the Pyro's arsenal, it's easy to light someone on fire, and this can deal a nice, bloody, and dirty 131 damage swing, but pulling this thing out is a big risk
  
  
• Because of the slow deploy time, equipping this weapon with the Degreaser will help a lot, it doesn't completely get rid the penalty, but it's enough to puff 'n sting someone
  
  
• Heavies are a nightmare to Pyros, a quick way to take care of them is to sneak up on him, light them up, and then hit him a couple of times, this is dangerous, as it has a slower swing speed, and his Medic might try to kill you, but most of the time, the Heavy is so focused on what's shooting him, and that's in front of him
  
  
• Don't rely on the crits too heavily, you are very vulnerable while pulling this out, and the more you pull this out, the more likely you are to die while in the process of equipping it (I've learned this tip the hard way, when I taught myself about this tip, I've already made this mistake a lot, this tip basically says don't do what I did)

Homewrecker

• For the people who loves team play, a sentry gun is a game-changer, and having someone to secure it's survivability could make your team
  
  
• Despite the fact that it deals twice the amount of damage to buildings, you shouldn't rely on it so heavily, it only works well on sappers, and with über, and even with über, the sentry knocks you back
  
  
• If the Engineer is crouching behind his sentry, whacking his gun with a dispenser behind him (Turtle Engis), he doesn't need your help, you and the rest of your team can kill the Spy, he's constantly smacking his junk (Insert Lenny face here) for the whole round, and only 2 of out of 47< hits could remove the sapper

Powerjack

• A weapon that helps with mobility, it's best use is for getting to the frontline, but it's also good for jumping to a hard-to-reach place without the Detonator or Scorch Shot
  
  
• Don't pull this weapon out while someone is firing at you,as you take 20% more damage, especially in front of Snipers
  
  
• The 25 health on kill won't make up for the extra damage you take, after all it's only 25 health

GO HAM-MER

Sharpened Volcano Fragment

• It doesn't deal the huge 65 damage swing, but there's a chance you can deal 52 damage on top of the 60 afterburn damage
  
  
• This pairs well with a flare gun, if you light them on fire with this, you're already so close, it's almost impossible to miss the shot
  
  
• If you crit someone with this weapon, that doesn't mean the afterburn will crit

Back Scratcher

• A melee that can deal huge damage without crits, and provide a helping passive effect, but also a hurting passive effect
  
  
• It's better to equip another weapon if you are a choke point Pyro on payload
  
  
• To make the most out of this weapon, use it when there's no Medic on your team, as there are no ways you can get healed that isn't a health pack (Dispensers are the exception)
  
  
• If there is a Medic on your team, you can help him build über as you don't get healed as much, which means you stay hurt longer, which means the Medic's faster über bonus on hurt targets lasts longer, just make sure you have a way to hurt yourself if you try to build über

Neon Annihilator

• The biggest damage dealer in the Pyro's melee arsenal, it's the opposite of the Axtinguisher, instead of dealing extra damage against burning players, it deals extra damage to wet players
  
  
• To make the crits on wet players effective, hang out in sewers, lakes, etc., and take out the players crossing through
  
  
• If you are protecting an underwater area, don't use a flare gun, you can't shoot a flare gun underwater, but you can shoot a shotgun underwater
  
  
• If you want to milk all the worth out of this weapon, you can have an Engineer buddy set up in the sewers, and crit wet players, and remove sappers (You can be the pybroshark)

[Eternity_Sword]

can you update this please?

[Frözen]

I forgot this even existed

[Eternity_Sword]

you forgot about thermal thruster

[Synth]

Yeah this drives me crazy too when I see. The main thing is more about hunt Spies than remove a Sapper as a Pybro.

[Frözen]

I knew that already, the thing is most of those tips is about when you use the homewrecker, but still, though, as a pybro main, I hate seeing pybros run for the sapper, while the 125 health engi runs to kill the spy

[Synth]

Quite accurate tips, also remeber Pybros kill the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Spy first than try to remove the Sapper.

[alwayslast]

Ah, I main Pyro, this is a good guide!

[Incluid0]

Love your guides

[SentientToaster]

great guide

[Frözen]

Before anyone says "Well you forgot to mention that the back scratcher's healing penalty doesn't apply to crossbow shots" I count that as a Crossbow tip more than a BS tip, so expect so see that in the Medic guide