Pyro In Clan

Opinions of Pyro in clan matches? I really have no idea, which is why I'm asking.

Pyro + clan = Find another class

Pyro's are too easily taken down by soldier, so typically a pyro won't be used unless it's highlander (9v9 with one of each class). If a pyro player was better then a soldier (consistently) then the pyro may have a better chance of playing, but since I have yet to see a pyro do that, give up unless your clan plays highlander.

BTW, even in highlander the pyro is still at the mercy of a soldier. Still trying to find a way around that blasted soldier, and anyway most pyros are just other players who can play it alright, since the pyro is usually on defense doing nothing...

Currently, in clans, pyro's are useless. This is fact.

Basically, anything that a pyro can do a soldier or heavy can do better, and then some. A big part of pyro is confusion and ambush, which works on unorganized pubs, but a lot less so against people who practice together and who are on voice. Also, afterburn is pretty much useless since no self respecting clan medic will let a teammate burn to death.
    

Where are the usual people saying that Pyro is perfectly balanced as-is ?

They don't exist because the pyro has a huge issue that valve hasn't fixed, which is the hit detection of the flame. You can flame people for hours and they just don't catch.

Even if the flame worked properly I'm pretty cynical about the pyro's place in clan games. Unless it was buffed with better damage or more hp afterburn I still think it'd get rocked by soldiers.

The pyro is useless in clans because he's not actually the best close-range fighter. He's also not the best ambush fighter.

Once you're within the pyro's burn range, you're also within the "Can't dodge rockets" range. And rockets deal more DPS than flame does. So do Grenades, Miniguns, and (possibly) the scattergun.

The Soldier, Demo, and Scout all can get to places that the Pyro can't get to, meaning that they're able to ambush from more locations. You can also ambush "faster" with the soldier or demo, since projectiles travel faster than people.

If you lie in wait to ambush, you may as well be a demo. If you circle around and hit them from the back, you might as well be spy.

The power of the pyro is that he can do ALL of those jobs, and can switch instantly between them. Which in a giant 20+ man scrim full of disorganized pubbers means that there's always something to burn.

If burn damage was longer and stronger, And hit detection meant that you could run through a group of enemies and actually catch them on fire. Because you could actually perform hit and run operations, sowing a lot of confusion, slowing down attackers by forcing them to wait and be put out by the team medic, or forcing them to attack recklessly so that they don't burn to death.

The flames need to also have an actual IMPACT (lowered damage, increased weapon spread, something), as opposed to being distracting by being "visually noisy". I don't know about you, but I stopped actually paying attention to the flames of being on fire a long time ago.

You know what, your right. In the same respect the pyro is left out of everything, and playing it has become pointless since everyone else can do the same thing. I might as well give up on the pyro and go learn a different class that's more useful and stronger then the pyro right?

Quote:

On one hand, no other class has a fireaxe.

On the other, learning another class isn't a bad idea. It's what I did and I haven't regretted it - it made me a better player.

Haaa...

All of us Pyro players KNOW that the Pyro is useless in a straight up clan match, but we all play it for a reason, and mine is because...

I like to burn things.

It's that, plain and simple.  If you wanted to go deeper, I would say that I like Pyro because it is one of the most difficult classes to play.  Reason being: Play Most Difficult Class ergo Be a Better Player.  The Pyro uses unique tactics, but if you apply some of them to the other classes, you can do much better with other classes.  FOR EXAMPLE:  One thing that all this Pyroin' around has taught me is how to flank quickly, and effectively.  Apply it to when I'm playing Demoman, and I can flank easier, faster than I ever could before. 

But mostly, I play Pyro for the one, simple reason I have stated above.