by James W. McKinley

Created on: August 09, 2010

Often painted with a stigma by players playing the class poorly. The Pyro is typically thought of a class that just blindly wades into battle with their flame thrower ablaze only to meet their doom. But, with a little skill a Pyro can sow chaos and death among the opposing team.

At its most basic state, the Pyro can be viewed as an assault class. But, all too often players assume that this means that they can wade into battle with their Flamethrower on, burning everything insight to death. However, it doesn't work out quite that way. While the Pyro can take several of the classes directly, there are a few which will rip a Pyro to shreds. The most dangerous would be a Heavy who knows you're coming. To counter this a Pyro has to borrow some tactics from the Spy to be truly effective. A hidden Pyro who uses alternate routes to get behind enemy lines is far more effective than one that charges a group of enemies hoping for the best. Watch the path that the enemies are taking. If you notice everyone going in one direction, attempt to slip behind them via another route. While a Pyro isn't helpless if detected, they are far more dangerous when unseen.

But, sometimes the battlefield doesn't work out and you will face others directly. A Pryo with the knowledge of how to deal with each class can usually survive these encounters. From the humble Medic to the angry Heavy.

The easiest encounters you can face on the battlefield would be when you're matched up against Medics, Spies, or Scouts. Usually, these classes will start running once set ablaze. A quick puff with the Flamethrower or a shot with the Flare Gun is usually enough to take care of these classes. Otherwise, they pose little risk.

Things gets a little more interesting when facing down a Soldier. Most Soldiers will attempt to kill you with their rocket launcher. However, if you redirect their rocket with a well timed compression blast, you may kill them. If not, you will almost certainly greatly injury them if your aim was true. Faced with a Pyro who just bounced their rocket back into their face, most Soldiers will either retreat due to the damage they just received, switch to their Shotgun, or shoot near you with rockets in an attempt to kill you with splash damage and prevent you from bouncing another rocket back. All these options will give you plenty of time to catch them to finish the job.

Demomen can be dealt with similarly to Soldiers with the exception that they may attempt to lure you into a sticky

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