Was the pyro actually meant to be the way he is now?

They said pyro was supposed to be the best class at close-range.  But all the tips say things like finishing them off with your shotgun, or retreating once they're on fire.  This seems to imply that the pyro was originally meant to just make people retreat, or weaken them for the rest of the team.  Apparently people didn't understand the whole flamethrower then shotgun thing, so of course the pyro gets a buff.  But now the pyro is so strong that he can simply overpower opponents, and doesn't even require self-preservation to get too many kills.  This doesn't seem right, I thought pyro was supposed to be hit and run or weaken, not rush in holding left mouse, get a few kills, and die, like so, so many pyros do now.  It seems like people just didn't get the class (comments going around about how to play pyro claiming he has "low health," and is "slow?"), and instead of just making him better at what he's supposed to do, he's just ended up as a class where suicide rushing can be just as viable, if not more practical and effective, than setting people on fire and backing up.  Doesn't seem like his original purpose.

First off I do not think the pyro is overpowered at all.  Unless you let the pyro get behind you and backburner you, it takes prolonged contact with the freakin muzzle of the flamethower to drop you.  If you have let a pyro get behind you then he should be rewarded for positioning himself to flank you.  If you see a pyro suicide rushing you head on either kill him or let a class that can do it while you retreat.  I would be more than happy to take on pyros all day that only knew how to suicide rush.

The pyro is the best close-quarters character imo.  A pyro in a small room is a terrible force to be reckoned with as more often than not, killing the pyro usually results in your own death from self damage.

I always felt the pyro had a couple roles to fulfill.  The first being a close-quarters fighter since the main offensive classes do self damage in tight areas.  The pyro creates chaos by setting everyone on fire and letting the afterburn do its work.  The pyro is also a stealth fighter relying on flanking and prediction to take out large groups of enemies.  Since the backburners health got nerfed the suicide rush pyro has pretty much become inneffective imo.  Without the health boost the pyro is much more fragile.

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I know Valve said that they wanted the pyro to be the ultimate close-quarters class but that never really was the case. Before the update the pyro's role was mainly ambush/hit-and-run. Now it seems that Valve wants the class to be more offense/defense. At least in my opinion.

Also, suicide rushing has never been an effective tactic for playing pyro. Sure the player may get a kill but he won't be doing much for his team.

In anything other than the pub the Pyro is supposed to be a fast-ambush attack class. They are giving a weapon that can fire at a steady stream while giving the player full mobility, meaning he can pursue and continue to chase classes he has attacked until either A. they die or B. he runs away or dies. They are also decent at killing sentries very quickly while ubered and then pursuing the enemy team as they try to get away.

He is not meant to be a full combat class, where he can fire from a corner and retreat to safety. He lacks the range or indirect fire to do so.

A lot of times the Pyro is meant to act as a decoy or a meat shield, they run in the fray and are immediately followed by his teammates, while the enemy team is distracted by the Pyro, whose weapons are visually noisy and obviously are made high priority since he can do lots of damage very quickly. Most of the time, he will die without even getting a kill.

But the golden part of this is: while the Pyro martyrs himself to distract the enemy it gives way for his teammates to bust them wide open. Normally a Pyro just has to aim for the medics or circle strafe the Heavy enough to put a dent in him. That way all the combat classes have to do is plug a rocket or a few pipes into them and they're toast. It's a wonderful thing.... If you're looking at it from a perspective of teamwork.

In pubs, a Pyro can lurk and take out combat classes quickly, and then run back to a medkit. The axtinguisher does ridonculous amounts of damage and can kill 8 out of the 9 classes with one swing.

As I've been writing my guide to the Pyro (still a work in progress), I came to this question myself; IMO you can sum up the Pyro's role as Disruption, and to a lesser extent Crown Control. You can't really call the Pyro just an Ambush class as much as you can't just call him a CQC class, you take mixtures of numerous elements to make the Pyro the best at disrupting large groups and make the enemy drop everything that they're doing in order to deal with the Pyro. As NEKPED stated, a Pyro can do a lot of damage very quickly if not attended to right away; it's not as much as say a heavy with a minigun or an explosive-wielding demo, but the Pyro can do pretty significant damage at a fast rate without any preparation beforehand (no rev time or delay for laying stickies/detonating them). There's also the matter of the compression blast, which when used properly can really ruin an attacking team's plans; whether it be containing an uber or deflecting back spam to take out key members.

I still wish valve would really highlight his deception role by making the pyro's afterburn effects really send the player's HUD to hell.

Since the 50+ health thing was taken away, the Pyro has become a less cheap opponent. Before, the Pyro had just enough health to come and kill you insanley quickly. Now the Pyro does not have enough time to kill you even with the afterburn.


my 2 cents...

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qft

I swear by the flamethrower, the B.B.'s crit rate is unreliable and I found the +50 HP was a unfair advantage.

Anywho my two cents: The Pyro Sucide tatic is the worst thing you can do. I have gone by the rule of "More useful to your team alive." You can take points, intel and bring the Cart along as well as anyone else, your speed will be helpful to get to your targets, and your hp and better gear will help you take these things alot better then ones greater then your speed. Also, A hit and run tatic would be viable, of setting people ablaze, not to kill them, but let your fire do it's damage. If a medic or a health pack is around, it slows the foes down because they want to have much health as they can get for a attack. If the foes have no health packs or medic's near by, their combat effectivness has been reducded greatly from the damage. Most of your points will come from assists, your allies mopping up the mess you left. Also try to think like a spy, the moment your seen before you can make your attack, you will most likely die when you do damage. Use paths not commonly used, keep a eye on your foe, and get around to attack their back and sides, never directly. Start your run when you know your close enough, keep your finger off the triger until you know your in range.

Yeah..and I am still alive and around..just lurking about.

Idk why but I keep hearing everyone bitch about the BB's critrate + hitbox, but every time I use it all I seem to get with it is crits.