How to get good with the Dragon's Fury in 2022 (feat. Waylon)

This is an in-depth guide on the Dragon's Fury stats and strategies, it's targeted towards more experienced TF2 players. Also, everything I say and show in this guide doesn't have to be taken strictly or literally, you can do your own thing with the Dragon's Fury if you want to.
This guide is just a combination of data from other sources combined with my personal experience, thoughts, and opinions. And this is also a collaboration between me and Waylon!

Important Note: This guide was published on January 28, 2022. Any changes made to the Dragon's Fury after this date might not be mentioned here.

Waylon's Video

Before we begin with the guide, I wanna thank Youtuber Waylon for collaborating with me on this guide and letting him turn this Steam Guide into a video, go show him some support. And if you wanna hear the full guide in video format, come check out this awesome Youtube video made by him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBiOZEgbWjs

1) Weapon's Stats

First and foremost, the stats of the weapon, including the hidden ones.

The Dragon's Fury In-game stats are shown as such below:

The fireball's properties

The fireball travels at the speed of 3000 hammer units with a range longer than most of Pyro's flamethrowers.
For comparison, the speed of the fireball is just as fast as:



Note that all other flamethrowers will change their range depending on the Pyro's speed. But the fireball will always reach the same distance regardless of movement.

The fireball from the Dragon's Fury counts as a projectile, meaning it can be deleted by the Short Circuit and reflected by an enemy Pyro via airblast. Though, there is no visual indication for either situation.
And for those of you who have been around since Jungle Inferno, the Dragon's Fury's 2 biggest issues, colliding with invisible bounding boxes and colliding with other projectiles like Medic's syringes, were fixed on a November 2021 update.



And even before that, another colliding issue was fixed back in a September 2021 update.


The fireball will be deleted if it touches any surface, unlike flame particles. However, it exists for a short period and can penetrate through multiple players and buildings.

Bonus effect on firing rate and damage

The stats say:


It's semi-correct but in reality what it should say is:


This is because the base damage of the Dragon's Fury is 75, not 25.

The evidence lies with the Engineer's buildings as they always take the base damage of the weapon hitting it and aren't affected by any damage ramp-up or fall-off.

• Firing Rate bonus effect

Normally it takes 0.8 seconds before you can shoot again with the Dragon's Fury, but the bonus decreases it to 0.6 seconds, not 0.4 seconds. However, due to the fireball's traveling speed; the time can average 50%. And you also have a 0.6-second window to shoot again before the bonus effect wears off.

If the target is not burning, you must hit the center of the fireball onto a target's hitbox in order to get the faster firing speed.


But, if the target is burning and the fireball's edge hits the enemy, it still gives you the firing speed bonus but you won't get the damage bonus.

• Afterburn bonus effect

Afterburn on the Dragon's Fury works similar to flame particles in that the longer the enemy makes contact with flame particles, the longer the afterburn. However, this weapon only shoots one fireball and not multiple flame particles. So you need to land at least 3 shots on a burning enemy to reach the max 8 seconds of afterburn.

Quicknote: Most likely to balance out the faster firing and damage bonus, the Dragon's Fury cannot deal random crits.

Other quicknote: Regardless of who caused the afterburn, if you shoot the fireball's center at a burning enemy, you will still get the +300% damage bonus.




Despite it saying "Immune" in reality you can still combo enemy Pyros and Darwin shielded Snipers as the afterburn is active for 0.5 seconds, just barely enough to combo on those two with both the faster firing speed and bonus damage.
However, if you're fighting a Darwin shielded Sniper, it might look like you're dealing less damage even if he still burns for a brief moment. This is probably due to the other upside of the Darwin's Danger Shield.


Also, when the target is already on fire, a knockback effect can occur if you shoot the center of the fireball near their legs, think of it as a weaker airblast. This effect is decreased on Heavies due to their Knockback Resistances.

Airblast

Speaking of airblast, airblast on the Dragon's Fury takes twice as long to recover.
Now with 1.6 seconds of recovery instead of 0.8 seconds. This makes airblasting Demoknights, Über pushes, and projectiles much more punishing as you'll be vulnerable to the enemy team for a longer period.
This also applies when extinguishing teammates, there is no bonus for extinguishing teammates other than the health you gain from it.

Ammunition

The Dragon's Fury uses "Rounds" instead of the usual fuel from the other Flamethrowers, it is decreased from 200 Fuel to 40 Rounds.
A fireball will use 1 Round, but airblasting will use up to 5 Rounds. This limits you to 8 airblast in total.

The Real Stats

After explaining everything, we've modified the original text to make it more consistent with what the weapon actually does.


It may not be 100% accurate but it's better than what we were shown before.

2) The Mindset and The Pyro

Let's get one thing straight, do not think of the Dragon's Fury as just "another random flamethrower". I've explained before that it shoots projectiles rather than flame particles. Therefore, think of it as anything else than a flamethrower.


You need to think you're holding a Grenade Launcher or a Rocket Launcher, but with no blast damage. It's quick, it kills fast, and you're punished for missing shots.

The Dragon's Fury Pyro is more of a subclass than a weapon switch. It changes the core aspects of the class and gives you new pros and cons.

Let's make a comparison with the Flamethrower Pyro versus the Dragon's Fury Pyro.

Flamethrower Pyro

Note: This discusses all the flamethrowers, not just stock. They're all similar to each other so what is said below will be applied to all of them.

Defense

Despite being labeled as an Offensive Class, Pyro is quite the flexible merc.

There's the obvious W+M1 strategy from the early days of TF2, along with airblast which can reflect projectiles, negating cocky Soldiers and Demomen, push away both charging Demoknights and Übered opponents as well as Atomic Punch Scouts, and push players into nearby hazards or pits.
This makes it so that Pyro can negate pushes from the enemy team even if they're well coordinated.

Support

Pyro's constant flurry of flames work best in tight corridors or areas he has to hold off.
The Flamethrower also works as a great Spychecking tool.

Offense

Pyro's Flamethrower works well with secondary weapons, leading to combo potential or as an ambush tool, catching opponents off-guard.

Aiming

Just... move your crosshair onto the target while pressing Mouse 1 and Mouse 2 for the occasional airblast. Also, git gud with the secondary and melee.

Weaknesses

However, the damage from the Flamethrower isn't fast enough to take out an Engineer's nest efficiently nor can it stand up to any of Engie's Sentries. And even with a solo Engineer, the DPS from most of his Shotguns can out-perform the Flamethrower.
Heavy is a similar case, Heavy's Miniguns and health give him the upper hand against Pyros.
Even enemy Pyros are an issue as they're basically an Engineer except afterburn isn't an issue for them.

Also, despite the Pyro's constant flame particles, Scouts run very fast, making it hard to track them with the Flamethrower. A Scout's arsenal can make quick work of Pyros and the Mad Milk can extinguish flames from both him and his team, the same goes for Sniper's Jarate and Sydney Sleeper.
Speaking of Sniper, if he has the Darwin's Danger Shield, you will be at a major disadvantage since the shield counters Pyro hard.


Now let's compare all that to the Dragon's Fury Pyro

Dragon's Fury Pyro

With everything mentioned before, the strategies from the Flamethrower Pyro don't work here.

Defense, Support, Weaknesses

Airblast recovery is double, Spy checking turns into Spy killing, and switching to a secondary weapon won't give you enough time to continue the damage bonus and firing speed bonus from the Dragon's Fury.

Offense

However, Scouts, Heavies, Engineers, and Pyros are much easier fights since you can now out-damage 3 of the aforementioned classes. Heavies are now easy targets due to the size of their hitboxes and slow speed. Plus, destroying Engineer Nest is easier with the Dragon's Fury's base damage on top of the penetrating fireballs that can kill turtling Engies quickly.


The image below shows multiple buildings since they all have the same health. However, Wrangling is not taken into account.
Reminder: You always deal 75 damage to all buildings. No ramp-up nor fall-off is applied.



The image shown below only takes base damage into account, not damage ramp-up, fall-off, or afterburn damage. It also assumes you hit all of your shots with the center of the fireball on a non-overhealed non-burning target.

Aiming

It's W+M1 except you have to git gud.

Conclusion

You need to see that Pyro's main aspects change with the Dragon's Fury, going from a class that can do multiple tasks to finally becoming the offensive powerhouse he was labeled to be.


With the Flamethrower you shoot flame particles, then follow it up with a secondary weapon and deal the finishing blow with a melee weapon, or just the secondary.



The Dragon's Fury does not promote this sort of strategy as it requires the primary to be out at all times when engaging an enemy. You need to do the opposite of the Flamethrower's strategy. You use the secondary as a sort of jab, then finish the opponent with the Dragon's Fury.

3) Weapon Loadouts

With everything we've discussed on the Dragon's Fury, it's time to talk about loadouts.

Loadout 1: The Scorcher

This is the closest to Combo Pyro you can get with the Dragon's Fury as the Scorch Shot's knockback on hit locks enemies in place, which can then be followed up with 3 easy fireballs for a whopping 245 base damage! Even if the enemy is fully overhealed, this can kill 4 out of the 9 classes.

BLU Team with no overheal:

BLU Team with max overheal:

This video made by lister explains quite well how to do the Scorch Shot combo with the Dragon's Fury. He also mentions an additional airblast combo.

Loadout 2: Texan's Worst Nightmare

We've already gone over the Dragon's Fury base damage against buildings. But when combined with the Homewrecker, it can make an Übered Pyro a deadly force against Engineer Nests. After all, one of the Homewrecker's upsides is that it deals +100% damage to Engineer Buildings.

The image below shows multiple buildings since they all have the same health. However, Wrangling is not taken into account.
Note: The Homewrecker will always deal 130 damage to all buildings. No ramp-up nor fall-off is applied.

Loadout 3: Run, Jump, and Burn!

With this loadout, you can become a fast Pyro by utilizing the Detonator's explosive flare to boost yourself into the frontlines, as well as the Powerjack's 15% boost on movement when held. The Detonator can also be used to burn enemies around corners or from far away distances.

Loadout 4: Extinguisher's Payoff

With this loadout, you're taken into more of a supportive role, needing to be near your team to get the benefits of the weapon. The Manmelter can actually benefit here since it replaces the Dragon's Fury's airblast penalty. This way, you can save your airblast for incoming projectiles and leave the extinguishing to the Manmelter. The only issues with the Manmelter is that it's a bit buggy and it requires an enemy Pyro or a Cowmangler Soldier to be on the enemy team in order to be effective.

Check out Waylon's channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqTTEHgPW6um8Pfi_RGtUMQ

[crazyboris]

For pyro duels a shotgun is always nice, for demoknights it can help for when you airblast him (when you airblast the dragon's fury you can shoot 2 panic attack shots and the primary will be ready to use again). For heavies it lets you fight a heavy face to face and win because the panic attack being switched to for the last bit of damage is slighter higher dps than the heavy. For soldiers after airblasting their rocket you can shoot them twice with the panic attack. In fact I highly recommend after airblasting to use your secondary even if it is not a shotgun. The only reason to use this on sniper is if they use the darwins. Lastly, scout. The main reason for why is that slightly higher dps. For when you shoot the scout twice and he is still alive. All you have to do is switch to the panic attack and shoot him.

[crazyboris]

another thing to consider is the shotguns, as they are able to deal consistent damage outside of the dragon's fury range and the panic attack shines quite well as a secondary. It can help you reach breakpoints against heavies to consistently win and helps give you an option to fight pyros, demoknights, heavies, soldiers, snipers, and scouts.

[Kwol-o Tingba #fixtf2]

Big fan of the DF and I honestly think making all flame throwers single shot would benefit the game a lot. Pyro's flamethrower has a lot of issues with it when it comes to PVP interaction and frustration, essentially almost all of that is removed when you make the flamethrower a single fire weapon. I can elaborate later if you want.

Though I do have a bit of a criticism here. I think it's somewhat clear that, despite the fixes, the DF fireball is not entirely reliable. It will go through people, or definitely hit their hitbox, but not do anything. I'm guessing the fireball is much bigger than the projectile hitbox. This make's the DF a lot harder to use in some cases because you basically have to be always aware of this stupid quirk in order to really improve your aim with it. Either that or get very close to an enemy. Or I'm just really bad? But I've definitely seen the fireball go right through people...

[Scary Monsters]

You forgot the Thermal Thruster which Lister also showed off. Let's you be a really effective roamer Pyro. Pair with either Powerjack when you're on the ground or the Back Scratcher to get more from health kits.

[RedTuxEdo]

I guess this weapon deals much more DPS to Buildings

[ArtoMeister]

The Manometer on the Dragon's Fury side is just visual information telling you when your next shot is ready. It doesn't deserve much detail in this guide.

[𝔅𝔦𝔫𝔤]

New guy what does the Manometer do ?

[undercover cop]

just my opinion but the Texan's Worst Nightmare
could use the scorch shot because it does more damege to buildings

[47doodle]

Thanks! The TFTeam honestly needs to rewrite some weapon descriptions better, and I actually know what this weapon does now.

[Jimbob]

The graphics on this guide are superb