Team Fortress 2. No.. really.

[Cantatus]

Originally Posted by Digits

I really liked the ideas of alternative weapons when I first heard about it, but with the pyro set I'm just turned off to the whole idea. I love achievements, and they have them down to be a part of natural gameplay with the pyros, but I'm very unhappy with the poor balance of the alternative weapons. Blut/uber saw are complete upgrades, but only mildly and situationally. The medic doesnt' turn into an offensive powerhouse with the lifetap gun and uber charge, but they are much more versatile and well balanced with those weapons in their line up. The backburner though can go fuck itself. It turns the pyro into a skill-less tank of death. The 50 extra hp has to fucking go. Pyros getting back crits while skill walking towards me in a straight line and anyone I'm healing cannot take them down quickly because they have the 2nd most hp in the fucking game. Anymore I play a demoman just so I can lay sticky bombs for pyros. If I can't kill them I'll just explode myself and deny them any points. Fuck them.

I think the pitfall with the pyro's weapons is the fact that they weren't just adding new weapons (like the medic got), but adding new weapons while retuning the class. While it likely makes sense that they killed two birds with one stone, it also looks like they overcomplicated things by approaching it this way.

I can see the pyro getting the health boost (although it's a little strange that it's attached to a weapon designed around ambushing, something health shouldn't matter as much with), but the 50hp is fairly extreme. I think half that probably would've been a more fair adjustment, and this is coming from someone who has pyro as one of his top played classes.

Playing a medic, I used to be able to defend myself from a pyro and even kill them on occasion. If I come across one with a backburner, I'm pretty much done for. I can't kill them with the brutsauger because of the hp boost and turning around to run is pretty much sudden death (medic's run faster than pyros, but not significantly so). To be fair, it is rare that I'm running around by myself as a medic, but every other class I have a decent chance of getting away from. A pyro with backburner, however, just mows me down.

[Manatra]

Originally Posted by cdyhybrid

I'm sure this is a tongue-in-cheek post, but people never stand still long enough to Hadouken them, which makes it pretty hard to do

I agree, though snipers are probably your best bet. Especially on 2fort.

[Amzin]

After hours with the Backburner, I still prefer the base gun over it, the Air compressor is more reliable. The back crits are nice when they happen, but I win way more fights using the compressor.

[ChewieTobbacca]

hadouken is definitely hilarious, once had a medic charge me with a saw and i killed him with the taunt

The +50hp is what pushes the backburner for me over the compressed air. Compressed air can't stop scout or sniper rounds or heavies or turrets for that matter. And that's the big thing on both offense and defense, especially in maps like Dustbowl. There are too many nades and rockets flying everywhere to make the compressed air of any use and the +50hp is just too important when you have to take out a turret before it gets upgraded or if you need to take out a heavy about to shoot you.

I can see the air being key in open maps like 2fort or well where fire isn't as concentrated into chokepoints, but if you're a Dustbowler like me, then backburner is absolutely $.

I feel bad for spies that get snuck up from behind with a backburner. It wasn't fair to begin with, but now its just sad.

[Talineth]

I just wish they'd release the achievements/unlocks for the rest of the classes simultaneously. The massive amount of pyro stacking still going on in most servers gets old after a while.

[Cybsled]

The heavy update will be funny. I'm def going sniper when that goes through...nice, easy targets <3

[meStevo]

Ugh. they patched today and so far I've only been able to connect to one server, and everything transparent has rendered as a wireframe. Client keeps crashing too. Time for another Tf2 break.

[Hatorade]

Originally Posted by Cybsled

The heavy update will be funny. I'm def going sniper when that goes through...nice, easy targets <3

I was thinking scout and spy updates will be the greatest battles of all time.

[Cybsled]

Spy will be hilarious. I think I will disguise myself as a pyro from MY team just to make all the enemy spies paranoid ;P

[mewkus]

the pyro updates have been great imo. clever players can do amazing things with compressed air so as a heavy i've had to adapt to take this into account, if nothing else this makes it a great update.

i play a lot of pyro too and the backburner 50hp is great because it really evens the playing field between pyros and soldiers. it makes it easier to withstand the rocket to the face a melee range class regularly eats, and gives you the extra second to switch weapons and range.

pyros also have a bit better survivability against heavies but any heavy who doesn't have his head up his ass should still utterly dominate pyros, especially those who fulfil their function of securing chokepoints instead of pointlessly blazing away at distant targets. i have noticed the strafe skills of pyros have improved considerably, many more level 3 sentries go down to pyros and i've had a lot more close calls than usual, but that might also be because there's always 3 or 4 of them consistently charging the front lines.

the crit angle on the backburner is really tight and it can still take a few seconds to take a heavy down so the enemy only has to turn slightly before you are left with a a standard flamethrower. you should be on the axe by then though and letting rip in crowded rooms now is awesome.

i seriously cannot wait for the heavy update but i have to say i'm already happy with the class as is. i'd like a bit more long range utility but the heavy is a defensive class so it's not really necessary, i can't see myself ever sacrificing sasha for any form of slow fire weapon.

[Malakie Torsade]

The power of flamethrower and backburner are pretty close, but I mostly choose the backburner. It absolutely DESTROYS offensive pushes if you catch them off guard. The extra HP also makes it far easier to kill senties. Furthermore, you can own other Pyros with it as well.

Flamethrower + Axtenguisher is great if you go that route. Quick burst of flame + 1 axe hit is good enough to kill most classes. And lets face it; bouncing rockets back is endless fun. If they make the expansion "Reflect Rockets Fortress" I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

I really am not crazy about the flare gun. While it's nice situationally, I find the shotgun far more useful overall.

[TwiNCannoN]

Originally Posted by Amzin

After hours with the Backburner, I still prefer the base gun over it, the Air compressor is more reliable. The back crits are nice when they happen, but I win way more fights using the compressor.

The crits mean nothing (well, not nothing). It could just be an icon of a piece of armor or something and simply give you +50 hp and it'd still be OP as shit. I mean, really. A pyro with 225 hp - more than a soldier - running around as fast as engies, spies, snipers etc, and having the second most powerful close range weapon and a shotgun. Just... what?

Oftentimes lately I seriously just roll with shotty out. I mean the flamethrower is still awesome but good players know how to stay just outside of the range of it, and 1-1.5 seconds of missing them due to them being slightly out of range can mean death, whereas with the shotgun it can mean victory.

The shitty thing about the pyro getting the upgrade at the same time as his weapons means the heat compression was never fully explored. It's probably amazing in theory and in strategy but neither are visible in a pub game. I still need to use it just once and camp by a sentry near the 2nd objective 2nd CP in dustbowl and laugh as the sentries will never die.

I have to agree with Digits, and I still do like the idea of the new weapons being unlockables, but they really need to be balanced better. They're pretty balanced right now but they're all just a little off making choices obvious. Critzkrieg should either give a longer charge, or make the charged pair take a little less damage while it's going; right now 80% of the critz me and friends try to do are ended almost as soon as they begin because charging in means death - the places where ubers were designed to be used are, of course, designed for ubercharge. Critzkrieg just doesn't last long enough to use it in normal here-and-there skirmishing, and a medic/whatever combo is usually good enough to take out stragglers anyway, thus the gun is basically totally useless. Also crit shots not doing anything to sentries doesn't help at all, maybe make the critzkrieg alter that. Ubersaw and blaut are necessary (blaut is really nasty for spy detection also)... backburner is necessary, flaregun 100% useless (why no splash damage? would make an awesome incendiary cannon replacement - also the +50 hp would be better on the flaregun than the backburner tbh, and bring it down to +25 or something), axtinguisher 100% useless.

[Hatorade]

1 demo 2 medics one with uber one with crit. I am usually the demo and organize this on gold rush. 2-3 sticky bombs per sentry then BOOOM! everything dead. Incomming pyros and whatever else for the cap.

If I am the medic I find a ubercharge person and then crituber them. I find a lot of people do the same.

[TwiNCannoN]

Yeah double invul/crit uber is pretty hilarious.

Ugh reminds me of a pub the other night, we ended up double-ubering a heavy by accident and 1 second into the ubers we hear "click click click click click click click" and I just facepalm so hard.

[Malakie Torsade]

One thing they could do for Kritz is, while it is active, the Medic's heals all crit, healing 2x as much per tic, including double the medic self-heal rate while firing. This would allow more quick in-and-out action as well as making it easier to keep the both parties alive when they are focused on.

I definitely would not call Axtenguisher useless. It's great for when you have the person on fire and they are running away from you (facing you or if you have the normal flamethrower.) Thanks to the shitty melee detection range + Pyro's fast speed, it's very easy to off someone with one swing that way. Admittedly, it's more useful for those who choose to use the flamethrower as opposed to the backburner, but it is far from useless.

So, any guesses on Heavy achievements? Mine are :

Hard Headed - Live through 5 headshots
Kill 50 enemies players while standing on a capture point
Big Daddy - Kill 30 enemy players who are attacking a Medic who is currently healing you
Receive 3/5 uber charges in a single life
The Million Dollar Man - Fire 3,000 rounds in a single life (totally abuseable, but possibly change it to "Bullets that strike an enemy")
My God Damned Sandwich - Kill 10 Scouts with your fists
Heavy Hitter - Kill 5/7 enemies with your fists without dying
Perform all 3 taunts while holding the enemy flag
Clear the Room - Destroy 3 sentries without dying (this might be better for Demo)
Equal Opportunity - Kill 1 enemy player of ever class without dying (probably better for Sniper)