Deep breath Ares, stay calm. I am worried you are going to have a heart attack. We really do need to see all this new stuff in action, before we can comment.

As a career Pyro ( ), I think most of the time when I am flying in the air that a solly is over-powered. When I am ripped apart, a heavy is over-powered. When I am blown apart, a demo is over-powered.

When I burn them to death, I am over-powered.

Depends more on the skill of the player than the class powers I reckon most of the time.

The fact that the pyro is going to get new powers from his weapons, means that other classes are going to have to change their tactics against him. Which means that more variety is coming into the game to stop it becoming stale.

No matter what class, and what powers they may or may not have. A good player, a well practiced player will get the upper hand in the end.

You do realise the pyro is going to have more HP than a soldier with the new flamethrower?

With the old flamethrower he can keep the soldier at range with the knockback and incinerate him with the flare gun/have a shotgun duel with a soldier that possibly is at around 150 health from the knockback (4 "with"s in 1 sentence, wow..).

Like Ares said, making the pyro stronger is not the way to deal with the soldier being "OP". He needs a buff but guaranteed crits with 2 weapons AND more health? I dont know about that.

But yeah, will have to see what its like in an actual game.

Agreed about the HP, but I really do not think that the knockback of the rocket is going to be as easy as it sounds on paper. A player is probably going to be very accurate to get it right, and we know that Valve will change things if it becomes too unbalanced.

Remember we don't know yet how much the blowback is actually going to be. I can't see Valve giving the Pyro a gamebreaking uber hairdryer that deflects everything miles away!

I trust that Valve have always had balance at heart for this game.

I think you guys are being a bit hysterical about this. A lot of this new stuff will only work under ideal circumstances or with great skill

Flares: Wait or avoid, pyro only carries 4 afaik. Pyro should be much weaker than a demoman using stickies

Axetinguisher: Should already know where the pyro is and have plenty of time to fire or evade by the time hes switched and ready to swing

Backburner: TURN AROUND and be aware. You shouldnt get ambushed by a pyro too often if youre good enough. Remember he cant cloak lol. Extra hp badly needed. On a side note ive never found crit flames much good against soldier or demo, you always get knocked back

Compressed air blast: More than likely is a short burst with a cool down. Almost impossible to sustain under heavy fire. Wont be used offensively generally imo

I dont disagree that its a big power boost for pyro but i think you have to accept that he's on a par with soldier and demo now

I don't think its too much at all, demos and soldiers have been overpowered for a long time. Pyros deserve to and should beat soldiers at point blank range. A soldier can still rocket jump or pull the shotgun out even then. Shaking up the game like this is exactly whats needed to stop it getting stagnant.

Also pyros really were underpowered before, they were the weakest class. The only class it could beat on even skill level was the second weakest class, the spy. And thats hardly worth playing him for.

Hallejuah for this update.

Hence "Pilot Light" (great name...) me thinks.

Although I shall look forward to this buffing of the Pyro to give him more variety, I cannot wholly agree that he was the weakest class for overall performance. I really do not think you could say there is any weak class, more a player not suited to the class.

Without blowing my own trumpet, I have frequently ended a game top three, playing purely Pyro. This is because it is my best class, not because the Pyro is either strong or weak. A skilled player of any class can be devastating, whether he is overpowered or not.

JSut for those of you who dont realise the blow back thing fires the rocket back in the opposite direction at the solly, so he will ahve to shotty the pyro and a demo is screwed as both his weapnos can be blown back.

And how any fo you can say solly or demo si voerpwoered.
You go try hit someone with god dman pieps then tell me demo is overpowered.

nah ares you will have to angle your blast dead on to get it to go straight back - very difficult. Enough with the scaremongering!