Team Fortress 2/Pyro

The Pyro is the best close combat class in the game. The Pyro's flamethrower will set enemies aflame and cause mass chaos. The Pyro is best used in ambushes.
 * Health: 175
 * Speed: 100%
 * Type: [[Image:TF2_achievement_nemesis.jpg||20px]] Offense
 * Special Ability: Can't be set on fire

Weapons
The pyro's loadout makes him suitable for close combat and not much else. One of his unlocks gives him a bit of long range harassing capability, but that's about it.

Flamethrower
The Flamethrower is a very powerful weapon, but has a very short range. The Flamethrower shoots out lots of particles that does tiny damage which racks up due to the amount of particles. The particles lag behind the visible flames rendered in a server. When you hit a player with any one of the particles they will be set on fire and take a further 60 damage over 10 seconds. A common strategy is to set your opponent on fire and run, leaving your enemy to die by the flames. Keep in mind that your chances of succeeding will be much higher if you catch your enemy off guard, if the enemy knows you're coming you will likely fail. Disguised spies will be set on fire if you flame them. A good way to spy-check is to puff some fire into your teammates. If you do set a "teammate" on fire it is a disguised spy, you should proceed to bake him.
 * Ammunition: 200
 * Point Blank Damage: 6.2 per particle (~180 DPS)
 * Medium Range Damage: 3.72 per particle (~125 DPS)
 * Afterburn Damage: 60 over 10 seconds
 * Critical Hit: 11-19 per particle (~500 DPS)

The flamethrower cannot fire underwater, however, holding down your jump key (default spacebar) will allow you to skim across the top and fire into the water.

The flamethrower's alternate fire will let out a burst of compressed air at the cost of 20 ammo. This burst of air can reflect projectiles, extinguish teammates, shift stickies and bounce enemy players around. Airblasted projectiles become critical hits when returned to the enemy. Keep in mind when reflecting projectiles that the airblast isn't simply a mirror: Rockets, grenades, midair stickies and flares will all be redirected to where your crosshair is pointing. You can use it on ubered people too, try and separate the enemy medic from his patient or just bounce both enemies away until the uber wears off. It can also be useful to stop enemies like scouts from running away: Airblast them into the air to buy you some time to get in between them and wherever they're trying to go. Whenever you see a teammate on fire who isn't likely to head back to resupply, put him out with your airblast.

Backburner
The Backburner is the unlockable Flamethrower designed for ambushing. It does more damage and inflicts crits when burning an enemy from behind, but air blasting requires 50 ammo.
 * Ammunition: 200
 * Point Blank Damage: 6.82 per particle (~198 DPS)
 * Medium Range Damage: 4.09 per particle (~132 DPS)
 * Afterburn Damage: 60 over 10 seconds
 * Critical Hit: 12-21 per particle (~550 DPS)

The crits from behind means you get much more with an ambush. While the Flamethrower is good for 1-on-1 confrontations, the Backburner can devestate most of the enemy team if caught by surprise. It's increased damage also makes it better against other Pyros, as you can just outdamage them. Your airblasts cost much more ammo, and can quickly run out, so save it only for emergency situations, and don't directly engage Soldiers.

Degreaser
The Degreaser grants you a faster switch time between weapons, but afterburn damage is reduced.
 * Ammunition: 200
 * Point Blank Damage: 6.2 per particle (~180 DPS)
 * Medium Range Damage: 3.72 per particle (~125 DPS)
 * Afterburn Damage: 45 over 10 seconds
 * Critical Hit: 11-19 per particle (~500 DPS)

The Degreaser isn't as good as your other flamethrowers on it's own, but combined with the right weapons, it can become a deadly tool in your arsenal. Set alight an enemy, airblast if you need to then quickly switch to your Axtinguisher or Flare Gun and you can finish them before they even realize what has happened.

Shotgun
The shotgun is the Pyro's standard ranged weapon. The shotgun is an incredibly useful weapon for the pyro, good for finishing off burning enemies, dealing damage while running away from combat, dealing damage while running towards combat and fighting underwater. You should be using the shotgun almost as much as the flamethrower.
 * Clip Size: 6 - Reserve Ammo: 32
 * Point Blank Damage: 86-90
 * Medium Range Damage: 24-67
 * Long Range Damage: 3-26
 * Critical Hit: 120
 * Hadouken Duration: 3 seconds
 * Hadouken Damage: 500

All your secondary weapons give you the Hadouken taunt kill. The Pyro will cup his hands together then let's out a short burst of energy that will instantly kill any enemy hit by it. The taunt is too slow to be viable as a killing tool, but it can be a good humiliation kill.

Flaregun
The unlockable alternative to the shotgun. While this gun does little direct damage, it sets people on fire, making it perfect for long range harassing. Snipers in particular can't aim properly while on fire, so one of your greatest weaknesses, long range, can be somewhat negated by good use of this gun.
 * Clip Size: 1 - Reserve Ammo: 16
 * Base Damage: 30
 * Afterburn Damage: 60 over 10 seconds
 * Critical Hit: 90
 * Hadouken Duration: 3 seconds
 * Hadouken Damage: 500

In addition, the flaregun scores critical hits on targets that are already on fire, dealing 90 damage. While this doesn't sound like a lot, it is just enough to guarantee that a 125 HP class will die in 2 flares launched one after the other (30 for the first flare + 90 for the second + afterburn damage = 120+). Repeated, accurate hits will quickly whittle away enemy health.

Detonator
The Detonator is pretty much similar to the Flare Gun, except that you can detonate your flares by right-clicking, igniting enemies nearby. The downside to that is that you will only inflict mini-crits to burning enemies, as well as doing more damage to yourself if you're caught in the blast.
 * Clip Size: 1 - Reserve Ammo: 16
 * Base Damage: 30
 * Afterburn Damage: 60 over 10 seconds
 * Detonation Damage: 10-20
 * Flare Explosion: 56
 * Self-Damage: 39-68
 * Critical Hit: 90
 * Hadouken Duration: 3 seconds
 * Hadouken Damage: 500

The strategy for the Detonator is pretty similar with the Flare Gun. It's detonation feature negates the difficulty of aiming the flare. You can also detonate flares at your feet to perform a flare jump, a rather weak counterpart to the rocket jump, which is useful for getting onto ledges just out of reach.

Fire Axe
The Fire Axe is often outperformed by your Flamethrower, as it is much better for close range. It is an alternative weapon when you're underwater. It is also good for flanking, since enemies will usually regard axe hits as merely stray bullets, until you ignite them with the Flamethrower. The Fire Axe is also better against enemy Pyros than the Axtinguisher, since you can't light them on fire.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 65
 * Critical Hit: 195

Axtinguisher
The Axtinguisher is the alternative fireaxe. It does half damage normally, it always crits against flaming enemies. It also doesn't randomly crit. This makes it a superior choice in many situations, but if you take the flaregun and this weapon you will barely be able to fight underwater at all.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 33
 * Critical Hit: 195

This weapon is quite useful for flanking, as enemies usually do not have enough time to return damage if you catch them by surprise. An effective technique is the Puff n'Sting, in which one ignites the enemy, airblasts them into a wall then hit with the axe. This will usually disorient players until the lethal blow.

Homewrecker
The Homewrecker does more damage to buildings and destroys sappers in one hit, but does less damage against other players. It can destroy any buildings at full health in two hits, as well as one-shot Combat Mini Sentry Guns.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Player Damage: 42-55
 * Building Damage: 130
 * Critical Hit: 147

The Homewrecker makes you an even better Spy counter. Staying near an Engineer base can make it almost impossible for Spies to take down. You can easily ignite any disguised Spy and destroy any sappers they placed faster than an Engineer. As for destroying buildings, you should mostly go for unattended Dispensers or Teleporters away from the Engineer or a Sentry Gun. Assuming the Engineer is taken down and you manage to sneak up to a Sentry, you can circle-strafe the sentry gun while whacking it to avoid taking damage.

Powerjack
The Powerjack heals you 75 health after a kill, but makes you more vulnerable to melee attacks. Since you must be in melee range to kill enemies with it, make sure to take enemies by surprise with this, and use the self-heal to restore any health lost in a melee fight.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 65
 * Critical Hit: 195
 * Self Heal: 75

Back Scratcher
The Back Scratcher does more damage and heals more health from health packs. However, the healing rate of Medics and Dispensers on you is decreased.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 81
 * Critical Hit: 244

The Back Scratcher is useful when you rely more on health packs and less on Medics for surviving, which is useful when your team lacks Medics or you fight behind the enemy frontlines. The higher damage also makes it a better alternative close-range option.

Sharpened Volcano Fragment
The Sharpened Volcano Fragment does less damage than the Fire Axe, but ignites enemies upon a hit. Your Flamethrower is a better weapon for close-range ignition, but this weapon makes less noise than the Flamethrower's low burn sound, so it can be a stealthier way of igniting enemies. It is very useful in Medieval Mode, as it is 1 of the only 2 weapons capable of igniting enemies.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 52
 * Afterburn Damage: 60 over 10 seconds
 * Critical Hit: 156

Maul
The Maul has the same attributes as the Homewrecker. Any strategy for it also applies here.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Player Damage: 42-55
 * Building Damage: 130
 * Critical Hit: 195

Saxxy
The Saxxy is similar to the Fire Axe, except killing enemies with it turns them into Australium statues. This effect is purely cosmetic and has no effect on gameplay.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 65
 * Critical Hit: 195

Postal Pummeler
The Postal Pummeler has the same attributes and thus has the same strategies as the Axtinguisher.
 * Attack Interval: 0.8 seconds
 * Normal Damage: 65
 * Critical Hit: 195

Using the Pyro
The Pyro is almost exclusively a short-range class. They can only harass at long range, but their combination of average speed and fair amount of health make them harder to hit than Soldiers or Heavies and tougher than Scouts or Medics, and so able to avoid much hassle from Snipers or Soldiers firing rockets and able to withstand the minuscule damage from a long range minigun. Usually, the Pyro should try to get toe-to-toe with enemies as much as possible, since that's when the flamethrower is most damaging, and ambushing enemies by coming up behind them or dropping off a higher ledge often works very well. Remember though: Don't go point blank with Soldiers or Heavies unless you're certain you can pull it off. Point blank, the minigun rips you to shreds so unless you get a string of crits (backburner is good for this), it's best to light and run.

Two pyros working together do far, far better than combos such as dual demoman. One pyro can light enemies up while the other hits them with the axtinguisher, two pyros with the backburner trapping an enemy in a sea of crits or one pyro can blast an enemy straight into an ambush spot.

Offensively, a Pyro is a very effective anti-Scout class. Heavy/Medic combos can be taken down easily too, if the Pyro hides and then runs straight at the Medic and is careful not to hit the heavy, often the heavy won't notice his medic has died until it is too late.

The afterburn of the Pyro's flames also means that you can set enemies on fire, toast them for a bit, then run off and let the burning finish the job. This works well against low-health classes like Medics, Scouts and Spies (although not that well against Soldiers and Heavies). If you are under threat from enemy Spies, a paranoid Pyro who goes around trying to burn everyone on their team is a good way of rooting out disguised spies, since they catch fire and will continue to burn whilst cloaked, revealing them as an invisible blur surrounded by flames.

Pyros can also deflect incoming rockets, flares, grenades, etc, as well as put out burning teammates with the flame throwers secondary attack.

Pyros are also effective against enemy Pyros. Their flame-retardant suit means that although they can take damage from fire, they don't actually burn, and a skillful Pyro can take out an enemy Pyro with little trouble and shrug the flames off afterwards.

Defeating Pyros
Unless you have another close-range weapon like the rocket launcher or minigun and have a method of healing nearby, close-range assaults against a Pyro will likely result in your death. Staying outside the range of the flamethrower whilst continuing to attack an enemy Pyro works far better, since the range of the flamethrower is very short and many other weapons continue to be effective outside that range.

Good aim as a Sniper also helps; Pyros don't move as quickly as Scouts or Medics but they are still quite fast, but susceptible to Snipers if they can aim well. Soldiers or Heavies grinding them down from a distance also works. Basically, to beat them, stay out of the flames. As outlined before, Scouts and Spies are generally at a disadvantage when it comes to Pyros.