Powering up the pyro.

Now, I'm pretty much on the "the pyro is fine the way he is" side of the fence. I think a lot of the primary pyros who play on TF2F (Me, Rizzillio, Trump, Vegeta, Ninja Dude) have shown that pyro is a viable class. It's too bad the demo of me & Rizzillio completely owning with DUAL PYRO POWER on a PUG a few months back doesn't work ...

But! I think a few tweaks to the pyro would be a boon to less experienced players and to competitive players alike. Not because pyro is underpowered, but because the pyro doesn't bring anything special to the table.

(Hit detection needs to be fixed so that scouts with a 30+ ping aren't fireproof, and personally I'd like it if having an enemy at point blank and in your front 120 degrees was a hit, you can't exactly stand that close to FLAMES and not get burned, after all, but that's a different matter)

What does the pyro do? He set's things on fire, hudda hudda hudda and all that goodness. What's the problem? Well, being on fire just isn't that big a deal. So I propose it be made a bigger deal. Specifically:

Make being on fire a debuff, the same way having a medic healing you is a buff.

So simple! Being on fire makes you less effective as a fighter!

1. While on fire you can't shoot crits (unless it's the kritzkreig)
2. While on fire you can't get heals (the flames have to be OUT for a healbeam or medpack to heal you, otherwise they just put you out)
3. While on fire you move 10% slower
4. While on fire you fire/reload slower (can't decide which).

This makes the pyro an actual "ambush" class. In the mustache-twirling "hoo hoo ha ha" evil cackle way.
"Damn, why did our whole attacking force get thrown back?"
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because YOU WERE ALL ON FIRE!?"

Total QFT...every class has something that they can do which no other class can do except the pyro...if pyro's flames as above function it would be my fav class hands down lol

You should be able to get heals but it just doesn't put out the flames.

Love it. But doubt it would be implemented this late in the game.

I think I posted up an idea like this in a another thread,
I posted that the target should lose any medibuffs, and have extinguishing independent from healing...
So it's good that I'm on the same wavelength of a good Pyro player.

Good concepts to help out the Pyro, but then again the altering the speed and fire rate of other players falls into the whole restriction that Robin Walker did not want to have this type of thing in the game. I think the most viable one is that fire could be made harder to extinguish, i.e. Medics will take longer to put out fire and the fire effect on your screen could be much more convincing; make people actually care that they've been set on fire.

Oh no, not another one! PLEASE, NO MORE! I CAN'T TAKE IT!

But I will not complain if valve does decide to give pyros any kind of fun new weapon for me to play with, as any achievements that I have to get to unlock these weapons will either be already done, or can be done in no time at all.

I only say the pyro is fine because I do very well the way he is right now. Any kind of 'buff' will just make me more of an annoyance

You have to remember that just because youve set me on fire doesnt mean I should lose the battle. Im not saying your suggestions would remove my chance, Im just reminding you that it should be a fair fight (which it isnt atm, out of favor of the pyro).

The way it is now though, being on fire isn't that big of a deal, especially when you know where the nearest medkit is, or if there's a nearby medic.

You shouldn't lose the battle when you're on fire but it should be big enough of a deal that not being on fire needs to be priority #1. Otherwise there is very little advantage to ignite-and-run tactics, which IMO is the way Pyro should be played.

Pyro is very much a hit-and-run class, along with the scout and spy. The spy can OHKO and the scout doesn't need to be at point-blank range to do real punishment. The pyro needs an ability that encourages him to hit, then run.

I do think the pyro is mildly underpowered. I play him because he's just so much fun to play. <3.

I'm not into the OP's ideas but I agree in principle.  I'd actually suggest making the the flame effects more noisy and disorienting for the engulfed.  Oh, and for an alternate weapon, I'd like to be able to switch out the shotgun for a pistol (the scout's, to be specific).  That's pretty much it.

I mean, there's so much more that could be done, but that's all I'd need to be totally happy.