Pyro

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Flamethrowers have had many issues over the years, but fast forward to the present day well past the last balance patch in Blue Moon, and they’ve all become, well... abundantly clear as to why Pyro is the arguable weakest class in the game. It lags behind other primary weapons power-wise, and just one go-through on its dedicated page on the TF2 wiki will show how janky and unreliable they still are, from tons of RNG involved with flame particles to dysfunctional ramp-up systems. There's A LOT to be done, but Pyro deserves it.

Reasons For Changes

"What you see is what you get! ...For real this time!" Besides removing the annoyance of having the ammo for extinguishing being listed as an upside on every flamethrower capable of it, these changes aim to make the flamethrower the one thing it has never been - consistent. Random spread, random speed, random life time, two ramp-up systems that both go horribly wrong... these have all been removed and replaced with more sensical versions. The afterburn ramp-up in particular allows the flamethrower much, much more leniency, while also allowing for flamethrower combos with certain weapons coming up later. As for the secondary flame particles, these RNG-based particles are there to allow certain techniques (i.e. getting a Flare Gun crit on an enemy Pyro) that are only possible using lingering flames to still be possible and maintaining their feel. I also removed the inability to use the weapon while submerged as this mechanic unreasonably nerfs Pyro in the water (and it's not like it's meant to follow logic when plenty other weapons that shouldn't work underwater do anyway) and added a refund to the ammo cost to extinguishing teammates so that there is no longer any reason for any Pyro to avoid extinguishing a teammate - to them, it's just free health! Lastly, building damage is now fixed to allow Pyro to do more damage to buildings as he currently struggles with dealing with them without use from the Dragon's Fury, which feels rather unfair.

Don't worry, I didn't forget - it also just has a higher base damage to better compete with other primaries. Neat!

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Backburner is one of those (+) stat, (-) stat weapons that feels too much like stock. Heck, it's not just that - the current stat makeup doesn't enforce any sort of playstyle change. Sure, the only upside comes into play when you're behind someone, but the downside is so trivial and only comes into play when you spam airblast like an idiot, and you'll more often get behind somone and crit them at random than you will run out of ammo due to the increased airblast cost. Let’s try to make its gimmick stand out a little more.

Reasons For Changes

Giving a higher incentive to get behind enemies with the Backburner only makes sense, and giving health packs for achieving it would accomplish just that. I also removed the airblast cost penalty and replaced it for a 15% direct flame penalty from the front. This penalty will still give the Pyro the ability to use their flamethrower for frontal burning purposes, but not at the same level as stock, which will better encourage Pyros using it to at least try to play different and use the weapon to its advantages.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Similarly to the Backburner, the Degreaser suffers from the “too similar to stock” syndrome, except that it completely opens up the concept of combo Pyro to the point of being a near-straight upgrade to it. It may have lower afterburn damage, but as long as you plan to use any of your other weapons besides just your flamethrower, that downside is pretty inconsequential. I mean, even just the deploy speed alone allows you freedom of use on your other weapons while being able to whip out an airblast in record time should a stray projectile come your way. It certainly needs more drawbacks with that kind of power.

Reasons For Changes

A damage penalty for this weapon has been a long time coming, considering that direct flames have had practically no impact on the combo Pyro loadout that the Degreaser encourages. Going along with this idea is the reduced max afterburn time - this makes the maximum damage obtainable from direct flames even less due to having less ramp-up from afterburn time. With these proper downsides added in, I removed the old ones and gave the holster speed a small increase as compensation.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Okay, besides this weapon being a beast of a description to read, it does have its uses. It can be particularly helpful against more stationary targets like Heavies and can be stronger against enemy Pyros if you can aim well and they don't airblast the shots back. However, it falls almost completely apart when fighting anything else. Due to the jarring discrepancy on the fire rate based on when you hit a shot or not, it can be very difficult to predict how to aim and dodge it, and this is further compounded by the Blue Moon nerf that requires it to land the projectile dead-center to even get the bonus damage it so heavily relies on. Oh, and don't get me started on the airblast. It's practically unusable!

Reasons For Changes

Let's tackle this set of changes one at a time. Firstly, the +50% repressurization rate on hit had to go - it makes aiming and dodging this weapon a nightmare. With this out of the way, it now needs buffed, and what way to do that but to re-introduce the afterburn ramp-up that the flamethrowers got! Since the Dragon's Fury only has a max of 3 seconds of afterburn, I increased it to match flamethrowers at 5 seconds. This will let you build up to a higher base damage of 100 rather than 75 on a burning target, or 120 at point blank range! This, combined with no longer needing to hit dead center on a projectile-only weapon, should allow it to be a lot more consistent and pair with more options in Pyro's arsenal. Lastly, the removal of underwater dysfunction is the same as the stock flamethrower - it nerfs Pyro in water for no real reason, especially considering that water already immediately extinguishes flames.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Oh boy, the Phlogistonator. There is not a good soul in the world that thinks this was a good weapon design. Obviously, this one’s going to need a major rehaul if it’s to remain in the game.

IDEA #1 - Keep MMMPH With A Different Effect

Reasons For Changes (Idea #1)

Balancing around the extreme circumstances of full-blown crits at the cost of no airblast is close to impossible, so I changed the effect of MMMPH to be not as overwhelming and made airblast at least capable of defending against rockets and the like. In addition, charging MMMPH with other weapons has been greatly reduced to discourage passive play.

Reasons For Changes (Idea #2)

For some, the idea of a "super meter" that makes the weapon incredibly strong for a short period at the cost of a weaker weapon otherwise is just not a good design. In the case of the Phlogistinator, this is especially true, so this idea takes a drastically different approach to a Pyro primary. This design works by essentially coating nonburning enemies in a flammable substance known to all as "phlogiston" before using the fire-based airblast to do a large amount of damage all in one go. Used properly, it can deal great damage! Used improperly, and you'll deal zero damage and might as well have done nothing! Alternatively, you can also apply only a small amount of the primary fire before igniting them and treat the weapon as a normal flamethrower, but this basically takes away the upside while forcing all the downsides.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Flare Gun has always been a reliable burst-damage secondary for the combo Pyro with good aim. However, outside of needing to address a few things to make it in-line with the changes to afterburn, it's... generally weaker to have than a shotgun. Even if it's capable of matching the shotgun's max damage of 90 with a crit, it has a significantly slower firing speed, wherein the shotgun fires a little more than three times the pace. I think it's deserving of a few solid buffs in its direction.

Oh, also isn't it rather weird that this weapon has not one, not two, but three other unlocks that use it as a base, despite being an unlockable weapon? I think there's a neat way to better accommodate that lineup...

Reasons For Changes

The Flare Gun shouldn't be causing the Scorch debuff simply by hitting a flare, so it gets reduced afterburn time in trade for a little more flat damage and the ability to utilize outside crits with its bonus damage + the usual buff to allow it and its counterparts to work underwater like the primary weapons. I also greatly improved its damage to buildings to allow Pyros to have a decent option to harass out of place buildings, being as Pyro is a bit weak against them right now. As for the decision to make it a stock item alongside the shotgun, it fits all of the criteria to make a stock item - it has a simple name, fits Pyros role well, is simple in function, and has multiple unlocks that base their stats directly off of it. Making it a stock item will also allow players who might get their hands on a different flare gun besides this one get a better grasp of the stats they're dealing with.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The current Detonator is a bit of a mess as it stands. With competition seeking from the Scorch Shot and the Thermal Thruster at the same time, it doesn't really have much of a unique purpose besides being subpar versions of both in most situations. When its claim to fame is the ability to ignite someone on a rooftop... yeah, it's pretty clear why it's rarely used.

Reasons For Changes

This version encourages aggressive play to use the detonation to propel yourself near the enemy and then switch to your next weapon (such as your flamethrower) to deal with them, in addition to still being a helpful tool for general map navigation-slash-flanking without the annoyance of nearly a third of your health as a cost. This also makes it have a separate use from the Thruster which would be more effective for escapes and making giant leaps. As a downside, however, it doesn’t deal mini-crits vs burning players anymore and has relatively low damage and time for its afterburn, so it’s a better idea to run the other flare guns if you want to harass enemies with afterburn damage.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Detonator at least provides SOMETHING for the Pyro to use besides their primary of choice, but the Gas Passer doesn’t even do that. Instead, it forces the Pyro using it to go around and try to get in a massive 750 damage or wait 60 seconds to use it and for an unbelievably underwhelming effect that any other flare gun can do at any time while also being still an actual weapon. This one’s going to need quite a good degree of buffs to be usable alongside other secondaries or even amongst debuff throwables.

Reasons For Changes

By making the Gas Passer function very similarly to the other throwable debuff weapons (Mad Milk and Jarate), the Gas Passer will feel more at home in the game, in addition to allowing more room for the gas effect to be stronger. Well... maybe not in the traditional way. See, since afterburn over 5 seconds means getting the Scorch debuff (see Afterburn in the General page), being subject to the Gas Passer is a BIG deal! This, combined with a much reduced damage requirement to charge and flamethrowers dealing larger damage to enemies with longer afterburn times, should make this can of gas much more fearsome and worth sacrificing your secondary for a short time.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Manmelter is cool, but rather pointless. The only weapon it pairs with is the Phlogistonator by allowing you to extinguish teammates and rarely the Backburner to save on ammo. So… what do you get for going out of your way and equipping this weapon to extinguish people? A free crit for your flare gun? Please. The Flare Gun already exists. Let’s try to make something that at least isn't Flare Gun with extra steps.

Reasons For Changes

This version gets rid of the reliance on its Alt-Fire gimmick which needed the enemy Pyro to ignite your teammates to get any effects and replaces it for a different specialty: long range damage. This tool is now designed for getting enemies at longer ranges to potentially want to begin to engage you at closer ranges to mitigate the extra damage of the Manmelter, which can play straight into your hands.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Back in the days where TF2 used to get real updates, people ignored the Scorch Shot for the most part because its damage was awful, but those days are long gone. In fact, we've had the current iteration of the Scorch Shot since Gun Mettle, which is longer than all of the time TF2 existed before that update! ...Man, that makes anyone who played back then feel old, myself included. Ahem, getting off of that tangent, the Scorch Shot is notorious as the multipurpose Flare Gun for ANYTHING that isn’t combo Pyro. It inflicts knockback and the slow debuff on a direct hit that, when combined, effectively stuns you in place and causes it to almost always hit twice on non-burning players. It manages to be easier to hit with the explosion on contact with walls/floors. It deals a decent enough amount of damage to charge the Phlogistonator. The list goes on and on! This needs to change.

Reasons For Changes

As one might figure, for a weapon called the Scorch Shot, it inheriting the new Scorch debuff from longer afterburn times only makes sense as a new feature for it to have in place of all of the other stuff that needs to go (the knockback, instant explosions on surfaces, etc.). However, to prevent it from being able to Scorch any enemy you see fit, I have now made it shoot encased flares that always bounce regardless of what it hits, and made the explosion be the cause, in addition to a reload speed penalty. This means spamming it at groups will serve as moderate area denial, but won't be a consistent source of Scorching, and for 1v1 situations, it can made traps via hitting the flare where you don't want the other player to go, otherwise they risk taking much more flamethrower damage via the Scorch.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Surprisingly enough, the jetpack for Pyro ended up being extremely balanced… for the most part. The massive amount of mobility is great and fair, but some of the gimmicks are less than desirable and often aren't enough of a substitute to not have a secondary weapon.

Reasons For Changes

These changes make the weapon’s ability to jump to higher places or engage in bombing missions much more reliable and improve the weapon’s functions, which might make it worth equipping over a damaging secondary. +25 max health makes this dream more realistic by being yet another feather in the weapon's cap to be viable to other secondaries. As for removing the Mantreads falling damage stat and extinguishing teammates... when have you used either of these features? Only when the weapon came out? Yeah, let's be simple and take away the fluff to make room for what's more important.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

I can't even begin to really begin to explain how bad the stock Fire Axe is. It doesn't do enough damage to switch off the flamethrower for, it doesn't have any bonus to work towards, and above all else, literally every single other Pyro melee (outside of the Sharpened Volcano Fragment) is undeniably better than it in every situation - some by a significant margin.

Reasons For Changes

Considering that every single Pyro melee is either utility or is about getting a combo kill, stock needs to standardize one of these things, so I decided that making the Axtinguisher's speed on kill the new central figure, in addition to a well-deserved damage increase.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Though a bit stat-heavy, the Axtinguisher has finally reached a point in its lifetime where it stands balanced, outside of being a stock upgrade. Luckily, that last part is easy to address now, but I also need to take into account the afterburn changes made earlier. Sigh.

Reasons For Changes

Turns out this was simple enough to do, and it made things easier to understand in the process. This should keep the damage still comparable to what it was before despite afterburn times being generally lower than before, while giving stock the room to compete with less max damage but having a 5 second speed boost while the Axtinguisher no longer does.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Back Scratcher is a good tool for the independent Pyro who doesn’t need to rely on the team’s Medics or Engineers to heal him up. …Oh, and it has a damage bonus. Good idea to help make it more viable, but not extending this courtesy to the stock Fire Axe will continue to baffle me to the end of my days. Luckily, here in Balance Land, stock got the damage increase and this weapon no longer needs it.

Reasons For Changes

The Back Scratcher has proven that having extra damage on a Pyro melee makes it valid enough as a finisher, hence why stock has this already baked into its design. So with that old stat removed, I also decided to further cater towards its health pack upside by making it drop a small health pack when killing with it instead of stock's speed bonus. That way, both stock and the Back Scratcher are about even!

Thoughts On Current Weapon

Pybros already greatly reduce the chances Spy has when it comes to tackling enemy Engineer nests, and the Homewrecker further reduces that “really low chance” to “completely impossible”. Even with the Spy-Cicle, all the Spy can do is just stab the Engineer and get out of there, since the Homewrecker makes his sappers useless. If I were given the chance, I'd probably ramble for another two paragraphs about how much this single weapon breaks Spy as a consequence of allowing Engineer to mostly ignore sappers, but honestly I'd rather just get the inevitable full rework for it over with. Though it may be hard to give up to some Pyros, this design cannot stay in the game with good conscience.

Reasons For Changes

Since this weapon needed to start from scratch, that means making a melee weapon that doesn’t do what the other Pyro weapons do, and eventually it came to providing defense. This design essentially allows you to get the usual melee kill and gain a large damage resistance in trade for the speed boost, though it holsters slower and makes you move slower when deployed to make this arguably better reward harder to get and slower follow up with your other weapons during the buff. I believe this will prove to be a valuable asset to Pyros who want an option that greater survivability after getting a kill and don't mind having a less versatile melee combo in trade.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

This weapon was added as a joke, but unlike the Holy Mackerel before it, the joke didn't really land, likely as a result of it being its own unique weapon - and one that just sucks. Even used as a meme, the Hot Hand just can't do anything right. Let’s at least make it capable of achieving something.

Reasons For Changes

The Hot Hand, as the name suggests, only makes sense to boost your all around speed, and what else to penalize passive speed than with passive health? It also doesn't overlap the Powerjack since it's an entirely passive choice rather than an active one.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

For the same reasons as the Homewrecker, sapper removal on classes besides the Engineer is distasteful. In addition, the weapon is a little lackluster as it stands, being useful only in a very niche scenario that can't even happen in over 95% of all TF2 maps... that any shotgun in the secondary slot can also be good in. This weapon, like many other Pyro melees, needs something new.

Reasons For Changes

"Ranged melee? Isn't that what the flamethrower does?" Normally, yes. However, these electric arcs travel further than the flamethrower, fire quite fast, and don't need to reload at any point like a flare gun would have you do. This will allow for Pyro to still have a quick and repeated option at a longer range and still do combos in water while having to sacrifice melee effectiveness.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Powerjack was originally the direct upgrade to the stock axe with “No random crits” and nothing else apparently making for a fair and balanced downside. Then came along the Gas Jockey set that gave increased mobility for having all the set items! ...And then set bonuses were removed. However, some of the weapons included in the sets retained a fragment of the abilities from the set. As we stand now, the Powerjack is extremely useful and is basically the go-to for a standard Pyro since the downside is easily outclassed by the speed bonus.

Reasons For Changes

The health restored on kill is a remnant of the first ever Powerjack and no longer needs to be in the weapon, and the damage vulnerability is rather lackluster at stopping the weapon from being a great escape tool. Borrowing the Escape Plan's downside should hopefully keep it valid as the Escape Plan has proven to be, but still more in-line with other Pyro weapons.

Thoughts On Current Weapon

The Sharpened Volcano Fragment and the Sun-On-A-Stick weren't originally unique weapons. They were going to be reskins, with this one specifically being an Axtinguisher reskin. However, for whatever odd reason, Valve decided against this and quickly fabricated some stats and shipped them out without giving any actual thought in their balance. Considering Pyro has this thing called a flamethrower, the Volcano Fragement is completely useless outside Medieval mode, and even there, it’s only a side-grade to stock... while the Back Scratcher is already leagues ahead. Let's finally make it helpful.

Reasons For Changes

The Sharpened Volcano Fragment is an axe made of literal lava, and so it being based around dealing more fire damage makes a great deal of sense. It would make for a reverse Combo Pyro who first swings their melee when the opportunity presents itself and then uses their flamethrower and/or their flare gun of choice to finish the job. In addition, the Scorch debuff also busts through those pesky resistances and makes fighting the Chargin’ Targe, Battalion's Soldiers, etc. a lot easier. Hopefully, this gives the lava-spewing volcano fragment a spot alongside other Pyro melees.

Tl;dr - SVF is now a reverse Axtinguisher that penetrates resistances. Cool!

Thoughts On Current Weapon

This weapon is thought to be unworkable by many. It stands right now as the definition of “straight upgrade” with the upside of Medigun beam damage transfer and ZERO downsides, and yet remains as the third worst Pyro melee, only beaten by stock and the Sharpened Volcano Fragment. However, I do have a major rework idea that could help it fit better into the Moonman set while still being useful with other weapons. Here goes nothing...

Reasons For Changes

Hoo boy, was this weapon quite the toughie to make a new design for. It's still a weapon designed to be used with the Phlogistonator and its new MMMPH effect, though it can still be used with other weapons. I believe the changes speak for themselves, but in case they don’t, this redesign is a fast-swinging melee that takes three hits to build up a meter to get guaranteed mini-crits, but deals less damage overall and costs primary ammo for every swing, be it a hit or a miss.