Credit where due: Valve patches the Pyro

Thank you Valve.

After ranting about the changes on the last patch, I can appreciate that you’re trying to tweak the Pyro class before the Engineer update destroys the gameplay balance in favour of machines, more machines, and scouts with dispensers placed here (*Here possibly being some form of structurally superfluous new one*).

The most recent tweak did resolve a couple of problems

Flamethrower changes

Increased base damage 10% (yes, but still down 10%)
Afterburn duration increased (from 6 to 10) (back to normal)
Flares that hit a burning player at mid-to-long range will crit (oh hell yes)
Reduced Backburner damage bonus from 20% to 15% (down 5%, but acceptable)

The Flare Gun is starting to have a distinctive gameplay flavour – this is a longer range support weapon for pyro pairs – a close range flame with a mid-to-long range critical should make things interesting for sniper clearing, support plays, and downing those blasted scouts with the intel. Given the stated intent of the tweaking is “to increase the degree to which skill can make a difference between two Pyro players” I think that Valve are getting closer to the target, and I really appreciate that they’ve monitored the player data to see the effect of their changes. I guess the big question is whether the modifications they make puts the pyro into the league team’s go-to support classes.

I spent the evening running around 2Fort and Badlands playing a mix of scout, pyro and soldier (with a light dusting of heavy). The pyro feels a lot more useful, and feels like a midfield utility class again – particularly with the burning damage fallout being dangerous for the opponent to leave unchecked. Plus, the airblast changes have encourage me to make more effort to reflect incoming fire with the result of my first live reflected rocket kill