Pyro in MvM

In Mann vs. Machine, the Pyro is very versitile class, which is often a part of most teams. On higher difficulty missions, the class requires a large amout of knowledge to be played well. The Pyro can offer his melting powers from his flamethrower, the ability to take down a Tank on his own makes him a very strong contibutor to his team.

Introduction

The Pyro is often taken as a very powerful and strong class if played right, but weak and vulnerable if played wrong. This class is primarily based around dealing a large amout of damage.
In fact a good Pyro is likely to outdamage every other class out there, with a rare exception being a very talented Sniper.

Despite what many people think, the Pyro is a very hard class to master and his damage isn't everything. His ability to support the team by controlling the bomb is where the class excels. I will touch upon the airblasting mechanics later on because it is often neglected by players, who might think the damage is the only way.

Roles in MvM

Keep an eye on incoming Giants and Tanks as they're your main priority. You will make most out of your primary. However as you dish out damage on the front, don't forget about guarding the bomb.
Before attemting the harder waves, try to learn how aggressive your should be or else you will stun upon a Giant Heavy with no backup whatsoever.
Operate near your Engineer's Dispenser, behind cover or near health / ammo packs. Be mobile and aware of the situation. If you see Über Medics coming, prepare your Gas Passer and take them out.

Main Roles

• Giant Damage
  
• Crowd Damage
  
• Tank Busting

Secondary Roles

• Medic Picking
  
• Body Blocking
  
• Spychecking
  
• Keeping the bomb in check

★ Primary Weapons

Flame Thrower

The stock Flame Thrower is the good option for general playing. It doesn't offer crits like Phlogistinator does but nonetheless, airblasting back away can save your team's position.
Its DPS is very solid and gets the job done.

Phlogistinator

• Doing damage charges the MMMPH meter which, after activating, rewards you with free critical hits.
  
• Can't airblast

This primary is the weapon of choice as it allows you for your main job which is dealing damage deal even more damage per second. Consider equipping Phlogistinator against Tanks. Be careful however, the Phlog can't airblast so you will be stuck without a way, how to get rid of the incoming spam of projectiles.

Backburner

• Deals critical damage from behind.
  
• Airblast costs 50 ammo.

The Backburner truly shines against Giants or waves full of small, grouped robots. Your back crits won't affect the Tank so don't hurt yourself trying to deal critical damage with Backburner on Tank. Don't forget that you can airblast only 4 times before searching for the ammo pack so be effective and use your airblast only in needed situations.

Dragon's Fury

• Launches a fast-moving fireballs that briefly ignites enemies.
  
• Hit a burning enemy for a bonus damage and quicker firing speed.
  
• Longer interval between airblasts.

The Dragon's Fury is a very effective all-around primary which I heavily recommend. It can take out multiple Giants in a short time and melt down Tanks just as fast. Offers a solid crowd control, damage and Tank busting - in another words: It offers all Pyro's main roles.

Degreaser

• Increases holster speed.
  
• Deals lower afterburn damage.

In Mann vs. Machine, the Degreaser is just a slightly weaker stock. You won't lose much by equipping it since afterburn isn't your main source of damage. But still, you're trading a damage for an unnessessary holster speed.

★ Secondary Weapons

Gas Passer

• EXPLOSIVE GAS: Allows you to drop Medics and other small robots in an instant.
  
• Do not use it without explosive upgrade.

The Gas Passer is horrible option without the one specific upgrade - Explode on hit.
The ability to wipe out the entire group of robots is enormously good. Use the Gas Passer to take down Über Medics.

Scorch Shot, Detonator, Flare Gun

• For supportive purposes.
  
• Usable in early waves.

The Scorch Shot can assist you in manipulating with Giants when it's too dangerous to get close enough to blast them away. The Detonator can help with igniting a large group of robots or it can help to jump on some obstacle. Generally speaking, use these on early waves where you won't be upgrading Gas Passer for 400 credits.

Shotguns, Thermal Thruster & Manmelter

• Very little use (if any)
  
• Massivly overshadowed by the Gas Passer

I don't recommend using secondaries like Shotguns or Rocket Packs because they serves one, relatively small thing which doesn't even come to play often enough to be effective. You'd be better just equipping upgraded Gas Passer.

★ Melee Weapons

Homewrecker, Powerjack, Third Degree

• For supportive purposes
  
• Attack with primary instead.

These three are only viable melees in MvM you can have as Pyro, mostly because of their supportive capabilities. Homewrecker can help when a cheeky Spy saps a building.
The Powerjack is here mainly for the ability to increase movement speed and the Third Degree can be used in conjunction with the Kritzkrieg to get rid of the Über Medics.

Other Melees

• Literally no use

There is not a single good reason why you should use other melees instead of those listed above. Other Pyro melees fills the last resort role in case your primary will run out of ammo which shouldn't happen and if it does, it means your Engineer isn't good enough or you have bad upgrades or you are playing wrong in general.

Ideal loadouts

With Phlogistinator, you can dish out the maximum damage possible, and while damage is the key in MvM. You'd be better using this.



Upgraded Gas Passer is a huge help later on as it can wipe out groups of robots. The explosion deals 350 damage so you can count on your Gas Passer when throwing it at any garbage.



Since you have a Gas Passer, the Third Degree isn't needed. Instead for quick repositioning, equip the Powerjack.

High Priority Upgrades

As you encounter with powerful and deadlier robots, you'll need more DPS for your Flamethrower. However, having upgraded only this upgrade will make you fail. You won't be able to do your job as the damage dealer without other very useful upgrades.









After you've upgraded your damage, your Flame Thrower will need more ammo than stock 200.
Upgrade Ammo Capacity as for one point, you'll get +100 to your total capacity stacking to 500.










Health on Kill will generally keep you alive in action. If your Medic is doing well, there's no point buying this upgrade. However, if you don't have a Medic on your team, consider buying it.

















Consider upgrading Explode on Ignite once you'll have a little bit more money. It's not the best idea to come into the fight with only one upgrade. Especially if it's based on recharge. Keep in mind that after dousing a group of robots, you need to damage only one robot in order to vaporize others for 350 damage. You'll make most of the Gas Passer when you throw it at Über Medics.

Medium Priority Upgrades

If you master airblasting in MvM, you're going to need stronger force because your stock airblast will just shake a little bit with the Giant. However if you uprade Airblast Force enough, you can literally control with the bomb and giants. Upgrade this only if you have some credits left.















For those who doesn't know, the Gas Passer recharges trough time or trough damage done. However, with Recharge Rate upgrade, after throwing a Gas Passer, you will have another one in an instant. This upgrade, along side with classic damage dealing, can really increase the destructive force.

Self Upgrades

Definitely go for Critical Resistances. You will be up close to the action and you must be able to take several shots. However, one or two crits and you're dead meat. It depends on wave but it is ideal to have this maxed out.










This, along side with Bullet Resistance should be the very next you should upgrade, it also depends on which types of robots you will be facing.











Upgrade this when facing Heavies with miniguns, Scouts with scatterguns or force-a-natures. Good idea is upgrading this along side with Blast Resistance.











The Movement Speed is not for getting to the front faster, you have Teleporters. It is about repositioning. When you're in fight, you will thank this upgrade when facing Giant Demomen as you can, with maxed speed, easily strafe around them without getting shot.

Canteens

There are 3 canteens you should consider buying.

Crit Canteen (100$)


Use this when you have to deal with multiple Giants, Tanks or when you need more DPS in general.



Übercharge Canteen (75$)

Use this when holding ground or when you're overwhelmed by robots. This canteen helps you against powerful attacks as you're the one, who must be close to the danger.



Ammo Refill Canteen (25$)


Use this when you can't rely on the Dispenser or you don't have Engineer in general.

Pyro's Targets

In the middle of the wave, you will happen to have multiple targets to focus on. You want to follow this list which is based around your main roles.



You are a HUGE damage candidate towards Tanks, if not the biggest one if you're using the Phlogistinator. As a Pyro, you can melt down a Tank on your own without any help from your team whatsoever.

Use Phlogistinator for better performance as your crits will triple your upgraded damage.
The Dragon's Fury is also very efficient against Tanks, combined with critical hits.
Using the stock Flame Thrower is also the valid option. Tanks doesn't have any resistances against fire.

When the Announcer alerts you that the Tank has entered the area, you should get to work and start melting the Tank as it's your main priority.



















Despite your damage resistances and ability to vaporize things to a crisp, nobody can get even a little cocky around these giant robots because of how much damage they themselves put out and that they have quite a humongous chunk of health to take your damage. Just remember to keep calm, get an Über Canteen, use your movement and you should be just fine with cooking this robot menace.

Dragon's Fury and Phlogistinator are the best option for taking Giants down by damage. However, the stock Flame Thrower has a pretty strong ability to airblast. Push the Giant robots to the bottomless pits or off the ledge to drive the giant back.

We will talk about Airblast later. For now, use your damage weapons to melt down Giant threats to a scrap.













Killing groups of small robots is easy because those punier robots are basically food for your Phlog. Outside of MvM, you need to deal 300 points of fire damage to fill your Mmmph meter. In MvM, you need to deal 1,200 points of damage to regular robots to fill it, and if you're chewing on a tank, you need to do a whopping 3,000 points of fire damage to fill your Mmmph meter. So just get the tiny robots out of the way before moving on to bigger projects, that way you'll be more prepared.

Obviously not only the Phlogistinator, but mainly Dragon's Fury and stock Flame Thrower are viable options too. To quickly remove group of dangerous (perhaps crit boosted) robots, use the explosive Gas Passer instead.













You're going to be burning everything else. But assuming you don't have anything better to do, go off and kill spies, or go on and kill spies while you're doing the things you're doing in order to knock out 2 birds with one stone.
The Announcer will help you with the presence of any Spies.

Compression Blast

Many players might think that airblasting in Mann vs. Machine is a bad idea and it shouldn't be ever used. However I assume these players have seen only bad and inexperienced Pyros trying to delay Sentry Busters. The good sight of Pyro's compression blast is for some players totally unfammiliar and forgotten.
The ability to manipulate with the bomb if often much more rewarding than killing the bomb carrier on sight. The airblast recives so much hate from players mainly because it mess with everyone's aim, it doesn't deal precious damage or even that airblasting prevents you from using Phlogistinator.

To be honest, the airblast can really hurt your team if it's in hands of inexperienced Pyro. However, if it's in a good hands, you have basically nothing to worry about. I will now present you a few examples when to use / or not to use airblast.

• Do not use airblast if your team has a Sniper or a Spy.
  
• Do not airblast Sentry Busters, this only wastes Engineer's time.
  
• Let the robots go trough your Demoman's sticky traps.
  
• Consider using Phlogistinator on Tank waves.

• Use airblast against Giants to push them into bottomless pit.
  
• Airblast Super Scouts back for your team to destroy.
  
• Reset / drive the bomb.
  
• Reflect incoming projectiles such as crit-boosted rockets or grenades.
  
• Use airblast if all above isn't the case.

If you've ever played as Pyro with compression blast, you may notice that controlling the bomb and giants is pretty damn powerful. If you ever want to play with airblast, let me give you a piece of advice:


It may seem obvious but once you stop dealing damage, your Health on Kill upgrade will stop working so you're much more vulnerable. Use airblast with caution and think first about what you'll cause by pressing Mouse 2.

Tips and Tactics

Just so you know, playing as Pyro absolutely sucks if your team is horrible or consists of cowards. The main way to stay alive as Pyro is having your teammates take the aggro of the bots away from you and attacking them while they're distracted. If your team is always way in the back or hiding, the bots will most definitely aggro on you immediately and you won't have a fun time. Pyro works best when there is Heavy & Medic on the team, just so that the Heavy can take the aggro.

Dodge and Move

Your Movement speed upgrades will help you dodge projectiles in the battle. The golden Crit Resistance upgrade will allow you to surf a critical splash damage and therefore, help you to escape.

Use Dispensers

To ensure you always keep a good amout of ammo and health, stay close to your Engineer's Dispenser. Typically a good Engineer will upgrade the Dispenser range right from the start, however if they don't. Simply ask them to.

Body Blocking

To preform a body block, simply stand somewhere you predict one of the giant robots will go. After the Giant run at you, he'll get stucked. However the Giant robot will start focusing you at this point so make sure you'll handle whatever they're going to throw at you when you do this.

Tank Busting

To dish out maximum amout of Tank damage, equip upgraded Phlogistinator and simply get close to the Tank. However to be more effective, aim a little bit higher. If you've ever wondered if the Tank as a weaker spot, try this unknown feature.

End

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you learnt something new here. Don't forget to rate this guide and write a comment, I read all of them and they really cheer me up.

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[Pandora]

real

[Uncle Ben]

forgot to mention a downside to the gas passer being that you get cyberbullied for using it

[braindamaged]

pyro gaming

[SonicMaster519]

This is a great guide, it has helped a lot!

[JPM岩]

The Thruster is honestly a good choice, as it can AoE stun, which can stall very easily. I'd say it's nearly on par with the GP.
Neon is a niche, but very strong choice, since key bots will usually be milked or jarated. Plus, it can still break sappers.

[Goofy Batmann Sniper]

This is a well constructed guide which made me learn to play Pyro in mvm (and made me discover that the shotguns are useless)

[zak.mp3]

Thanks for the guide , i really dintd know how to play pyro as much effectively

[FIREGUY]

This guide is really helpfull, you helped so many pyros, one more today :D

[SSEnderBlast]

This guide is great

[gergez]

i want thx author for creating guide that bring pyros to my game so i kick animals on last and improve kick counter. appreciate thx