Pyro (No Gas Passer): A Brief MvM Guide for Beginners

This is a brief guide on how to play Pyro in Mann vs Machine without the Gas Passer. It is generalized and doesn't go into depth on different strategies you can try out. A lot of it is based on the Two Cities tour since that is where most of my experience comes from.

Loadout

Primary

The almost free crits come into play a lot since you can deal lots of damage in short amounts of time in Mann vs Machine to build up the mmmph a lot. It drastically increases damage output and can make for a very quick killing of normal and Giant robots alike. No airblast doesn't matter much because of something I'll cover later.



While the process for getting crits is simpler and often easier, I believe the Phlog is a better option most of the time. In my experience the bots tend to turn around rather quickly on all the maps except for Mannhattan, which makes this less of a threat than the Phlog. It's still good but bots can be fenneky. The hitbox I find best to get the crits off is more to the left part of the back than the center of it. Keep in mind attacking tanks from behind doesn't grant critical damage.



I'd only recommend it for waves with Giant Barrage Soldiers (usually accompanied with crits). You can reflect like 10 rockets at once and it deals insane damage while also keeping their damage from touching you and your team. Works especially well on Wave 4 of Metro Malice. Otherwise, it's DPS isn't as good as the previous two options since it doesn't have a crit mechanic. It's something to consider but the other two trump it 90% of the time in my opinion.



It was overpowered for a few days after Jungle Inferno, but it's since been patched. Now I honestly have no idea. It's not good for the Stock playstyle because you can't use airblast nearly as frequently. Then again, I feel like it has potential for pure DPS because of the faster reloads feature from consecutive shots. Especially on Giant robots. I'll have to play with it a lot more before I can really say. For now, it's a wild card. Only reason I'm bringing it up at all is to avoid comments asking about it. Probably doesn't compare to the Phlog's capabilites anyways.



Your primary is always your primary source of damage for the style of Pyro I'm encouraging in this guide. Faster deploy and holster times aren't especially important since you won't be comboing it with the Flare Gun's critical abilities in Mann vs Machine. It's a worse stock in my opinion for the gamemode.

Secondary

A reliable jump tool. With Jump Height, it's just like a rocket jump which is crazy. Very helpful for switching between areas quickly (main and 2nd level on Mannhattan).



Same as the Detonator just I haven't learned to use it. Another reliable way to gain height for switching areas.



Combos well with Phlog for putting out teammates. That's all; don't bother firing it as a weapon.



The purpose of this guide is how to play without this crutch. Nuff' said.



Annoying for your team all around. It can mess with your Demoman's sticky traps. Pushing them may adjust aggro onto teammates that rely on stealth (Damage Scout, Backburner Pyro, Spy, etc.) and get them killed. It makes aiming for most of your team tricky and for Snipers downright impossible. Annoying troll weapon. Only use for it is pitting which I don't encourage either.

Melee

Helpful for getting to places quickly. Damage vulnerability is only while active so it's not that big of a deal.



Helpful if your Engineer is dead and his buildings are sapped. If he's not dead and his buildings are sapped, just kill the spies and let him remove the sappers. Straight upgrade to the Neon Annhilator because most MvM maps don't have any water and it only takes 1 hit to remove sappers.

Upgrade Path

This is the general order for how your upgrades should be purchased:

1. 1 Healh on Kill
   
2. 4 (Full) Damage
   
3. 1 Ammo Capacity
   
4. Resistances that apply to the wave
   
5. More Ammo Capacity
   
6. Movement Speed
   
7. Any extra cash can be spent on more Health on Kill, Jump Height, Uber Canteens, or even Health Regeneration since Pyro is so much cheaper to upgrade than most classes.

Ammo Capacity is overrated for early waves in my opinion. 1 tick is more than enough most of the time. With a good dispenser spot, more damage and resistances will help much more.

Movement Speed should come earlier in the order if using the Backburner so you can circle-strafe. Essentially, circle-strafing is going around a bot in circles to cheat its hitbox and hit it where you do the most damage. It's much easier to do with Movement Speed upgrades. Maybe less resistances to make room for this.

Jump Height actually affects how high you can get by jumping with the Detonator and Scorch Shot. It can be very useful for going between areas quickly if you're not the best at flare jumping.

Crit Canteens aren't the best on Pyro since he has a cheap crit mechanic already with the Phlogistinator and Backburner's perks.

Fire Resistance can be good even if there isn't any fire in the wave since it reduces the damage you take from Detonator and Scorch Shot jumping. I'd only use it for that reason in later waves.

Don't get Airblast Force. Pyro is a damage class, not a support. Unless you're seriously getting destroyed by Super Scouts, would not recommend.

Don't get upgrades for your secondary ever. The Detonator is my recommended secondary and it reloads when not active. You shouldn't usually need to use it more than once at a time anyways. It's a simple jumping tool.

How to Play

Follow tanks. While they don't take afterburn damage, the fire itself is very good at tank-busting. Especially with crits (Phlogistinator is most cost-effective tank buster in the game). Keep in mind the Backburner doesn't gain crits from the back of them. Also aim up at them to deal more DPS. See this

Since most primary options provide a lot of crits, Pyro is very good at single-target DPS (Giants). The Backburner can melt bosses very quickly. Time your MMMPH with the Phlog though to taunt before they're vulnerable rather than as soon as they become vulnerable.

You're decent at crowd control since fire does splash damage, but the radius is rather small and in my opinion you're better off on Giants. Crowds are lower priority for Pyro.

Since Pyro is a close-range class and is especially vulnerable, attack from behind even if not using the Backburner. Pyro is a flank class and if you don't play him like one you'll find yourself dying quite a bit. Make sure you balance your time between flanking and getting ammo from the dispenser early on.

Don't shoot Uber Medics until your Demoman/Sniper takes them out or else they'll pop their Uber and you and your team will have to wait until the Uber wears off to attack again, which is super annoying. They charge super quickly so it's not like they're "wasting their Uber" (actual excuse I've heard for popping them) by using it as soon they take enough damage.

Don't take out Snipers. It's not your job; you're a short range class. Let your Soldier, Scout, or Engineer take care of it or tell them to.

Don't take out lone bots that are capturing the gate if you're not close by. Same case as with Snipers. They're too far away for you. Let your team get them instead.

Spy-check when they're on the field before they get a chance to stab your back line classes.

Backburner Pyro is one of the better classes for taking out Giant Medics before they pop their Quick-Fix Uber. They rarely ever turn around unless someone else pulls their aggro around.

There's a trick you can do with Phlog where if you have full MMMPH and you jump on a bot's head and spam m2 on them, it'll cancel the taunt animation. You keep the Uber for a couple seconds and actually gain a little bit of crit time. Technically it's an exploit but whatever. Works great with Jump Height upgrades.

Why Airblast is usually Bad

Essentially, dealing damage to the bots is more effective than pushing them back. It'll just allow more to spawn while nothing is actually being killed and then you'll get pushed back from a stronger force. It's delaying the inevitable.

The reasons for the Scorch Shot being bad also apply. Messes with your Demoman's sticky traps. Hard for your team to adjust aim, especially for a Sniper. Adjusts aggro onto stealthy classes and gets them killed.

Only use for reflecting Giant Barrage Soldier's rockets. In that case, it's a very strong weapon that deals a ♥♥♥♥ ton of damage.

Also can also be fun to pit Sir Nukesalot on Wave 6 of Hamlet Hostility, but this guide isn't about fun. It's about the serious art of killing robots.

Conclusion

Follow tanks. Crit power has serious potential for Giants. Don't try to take out far away targets. Gas Passer is gay. Pyro is a pretty one-dimensional class really, yet it's still definitely one of the harder classes to get adjusted to playing in MvM. This is guide is pretty generalized so a lot of stuff is left out purposely rather than forgotten. However, maybe I did miss something. If so, lemme know. Cheers

Changelog

5/10/2020

Added "Also aim up at them to deal more DPS. See this" to the How to Play section. It's long overdue.

[Weyl']

Tacobot losers

[Diacute]

While I’m not like super against the gas passer, I wish that thing got nerfed because the degeneration of Pyro as a class pretty much makes it difficult to play it as someone who mains him. To the point where I play Expert more because I 2City sweats start dry heaving when I use him wave 1 or flat out leave the game because they assume I’ll just be Air blast spammed 276. Now even though it can clear out waves of small bots with ease, It leaves you at such a disadvantage in other aspects. No range, no movement options, not even a way of getting some petty mmph meter from afar. Yeah you get 350 damage with your brain turned off but you basically become the last kid in dodgeball after that thing is thrown and charging.

[Diacute]

The thermal thruster is completely slept on. On very open ended maps like, it can save rounds from ending early, especially with super scouts. The stun on landing tick is more useful than people give it credit for. It pairs well with the phlog because you can stomp a robot’s head, phlog cancel and then clean up the stun robots and have anyone around them and back out before your Uber invinc runs out. It also makes phlog canceling on top of tanks easier.
Problem is that TT is reliant on knowing how to weave thru waves of bots efficiently so if you tend to die from stray hits or is getting really unlucky, you might as well use the flare.

[Diacute]

IMO Pyro excels at clearing small bots. The flame throws are essentially a piecing minigun so if you know how to use movement buttons other than W, you can keep the battlefield clean. Though I honestly think he’s better on expert than 2Shitties because the ass spam you have to deal with and if you’re on Empire Escalation, you’ll probably just get accused of being afk because you’re not the medic’s rabid dog mowing down the giants.

[Diacute]

I might as well add something.
Dragons Fury: As of now I think it occupies a reliable niche. If you can actually hit your shots, it’s a really reliable giant killer and has the added benefit of not popping a quick fix medic like a fucking moron. You can eventually reach damage where you can also kill Uber meds on the second hit, albeit a bit risky. It’s pretty good for tanks as well and while I’m sure I’m gunna get people screaming about how the phlog is objectively better, if your team has DPS to burn a tank (I usually play on expert so this isn’t that hard to achieve since the maps are very Chokey) you can go ahead and do a number on giants after taking down the tank.

[Dio]

Gas Passer on top.

[present day, present time!]

cry

[Wuewue Gumi]

Bootcamp players: LOL, Imma do it anyways :P

[Softshine798]

Use Phlog to take down the medic yourself.

[On Hit: Bleed for 8 seconds]

If my team cant take down giant medics in Two Cities tour. Should i airblast them into pit or disconnect their beam from other giants so he cant pop his uber?