Team Fortress 2/Pyro

Health: 175
Type: Offense
Special Ability: Can't be set on fire
Description: The Pyro is without question, 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.

• Primary Weapon: Flamethrower - Max Ammo: 200 - No reloading needed

The Flamethrower is a very powerful weapon, but has a very short range. When you hit a player with the flamethrower they will be set on fire and take damage over time. A common strategy would be 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. The Flamethrower will obviously not work underwater. 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, and you should proceed to bake him.

• Secondary Weapon: Shotgun - Max Ammo: 32 - Max Clip: 6 - Reloaded one at a time

The standard shotgun is the Pyro's only ranged weapon. You will rely on the shotgun to deal with fleeing enemies, deal some damage from a distance, or to deal damage while you are running away.

• Melee Weapon: Fire Axe

The Flamethrower is a superior close combat weapon, except underwater. The Fire Axe is great for humiliating people, but can also be useful against other Pyros if you manage to score a critical hit.

Using the Pyro

The Pyro is almost exclusively a short-range class. They are practically harmless at long range, but their combination of average speed and fair amount of health make them harder to hit than Soldiers or Heavies, and so able to avoid much hassle from Snipers or Soldiers firing rockets. 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. Offensively, a Pyro is a very effective anti-Scout class. If you hide behind corners, the Pyro can work well defensively by setting alight enemy attackers who run past without noticing. Heavy/Medic combos can be taken down easily too, if the Pyro hides and then runs straight at the Medic whilst spewing them with flames.

The stacking nature 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 (assuming friendly fire is off) 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.

They are also effective against enemy Pyros too - their flame-retardent suit means that whereas they can take damage from fire, they don't actually burn, and a skilful Pyro can take out an enemy Pyro with little trouble and shrug the flames off afterwards.

Defeating Pyros

Unless you have good aim with another close-range weapon like the rocket launcher or scattergun 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 - even the Medic's syringe gun.

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.