Backburner, powerful?

[Mutley]

I'm just wondering, all of the classes upgrades so far have a positive and a negative, e.g. you get criticals for hitting them on fire but -50% normal damage.

Now the Backburner, gives you more health and 100% criticals in the back but you lose the 'push ability' that was never in before the patch and has very limited use.

I feel it's slightly too powerful at this stage, unless they patch it so you can jump with the compressed alt-fire, then I don't see any loss in this unlock, only gain and it is kind of hard killing these extra healthy pyros.

Discuss.

 

[Ennui]

the compressor is very important now though, whenever i use the backburner i always notice that i don't have it and get annoyed due to stickies or whatever. i think it's fine, it just makes the pyro a bit more formidable than before.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

I prefer normal flamethrower, get random crits anyways.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I like the backburner, but without the air compression in defending caps from ubers etc...it's such a loss.

 

[Lobster]

I switch alot, the backburner is great when you are looking for the surprise attack, but otherwise the flamethrower is better, which is good.

 

[xcellerate]

yea, the air blast is really effective. I've stopped many an uber by pushing the medic back while the demo rushes forward!

 

[Headcrab Pie]

At first I was like: "Lose the Air Compression? Big deal! "

Then I was like: "Whaa! I want my compression back! But I want health and back Crits! ;("

 

[kineaesth]

I'm just wondering, all of the classes upgrades so far have a positive and a negative, e.g. you get criticals for hitting them on fire but -50% normal damage.

Now the Backburner, gives you more health and 100% criticals in the back but you lose the 'push ability' that was never in before the patch and has very limited use.

I feel it's slightly too powerful at this stage, unless they patch it so you can jump with the compressed alt-fire, then I don't see any loss in this unlock, only gain and it is kind of hard killing these extra healthy pyros.

Discuss.

I think that what it adds up to is a significant buff for the pyro, regardless of weapon choice. if default pyro can comp blast, then spyro can have health plus crits. It kind of evens out and, all round, makes Pyro a stronger class.

 

[mr.fua]

For a skilled person, it might even out. But for a standard player, the backburner is much much better.

In my case, most of the time I can't make the air compression work well, it is very hard to do while moving, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't , it is very anoying... Plus when you do it you have like 2-3 seconds you can shoot the flamethrower, I often get killed that way.

Compare that to the backburner. 'Oldschool' pyro style with extra health and extra crits. Add to that that also the 'back' detection is not very well done and you might get crits from the front anyway.

 

[bbson john]

Compression blast is useful when I inadvertently go into a 1 on 1 battle with enemy soldier. I can carefully blast off the soldier's rocket while I am running away. Also, it is useful in defending the third capture point in gravelpit. I can blow enemy pyro, uber'd enemy or even ordinary opponent away from the top of the tower. They receive sufficient impact damage when they hit the ground.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Compression blast is very useful, even before I got the flare gun I managed to deflect some of the enemies flares (which got me a percentage of the 100 flare shots achievement)

I nearly killed a soldier with a crit rocket, but I didn't line up properly

I'm guessing 2forts is the best place for the 'force 10 enemies to dive into water' achievement

 

[Shamrock]

Compression blast is very useful, even before I got the flare gun I managed to deflect some of the enemies flares (which got me a percentage of the 100 flare shots achievement)

I nearly killed a soldier with a crit rocket, but I didn't line up properly

I'm guessing 2forts is the best place for the 'force 10 enemies to dive into water' achievement

You don't really have to force them. You just have to light them on fire and then hope they jump in the water, but to make sure you get the 10 enemies, you can force them.

 

[Druckles]

I got the backburner far too fast to really get used to the compressed air properly.

 

[Jintor]

I'm trying to force myself to learn how to use compression blast properly. It's working... ok.

 

[alehm]

The backburner requires a pyro to get point blank always. The back crits and +50 health give him the upper hand almost over all other classes. Overpowered? I don't think so.

Take Soldier vs Pyro. Pre-update the soldier had the upper hand over a pyro in long, medium, and short range.

Post-Update the soldier has the upper hand over a pyro in long, and medium range, the playing field is leveled short range.

The way I look at it is the backburner helps make the pyro short range what the sniper is to long range. Nobody complains the sniper gun is overpowered. As a matter of fact, most people want the quick switch exploit back in the game so they can shoot even faster.

 

[average_d]

I thought he was over powered at first but now I just realise I have to treat charging pyros with more respect, rather that just killing them with two easy rockets. Also I love the standoff you get into with a old-fashioned pyro waiting to blow rockets back at out and you waiting for something to distract him. Good times.

 

[Lizardizzle]

i think with the pyro's compression blast, he's more of an engi friend. Not only can he easily undisquise spys and kill them, but he can get rid of all of the demos bombs AND deflect the soldier's rockets, which i did this morning. it was cool.

And a compression blast jump would be chillin' as well.

 

[saratos]

Yeah. I am more of a lone wolf, so I use the Backburner, but when my team is failing at keeping points, I switch to flaregun/compression flamer and protect the point (especially on Badlands). The Pyro update is incredibly balanced.

 

[Qonfused]

I rather like the compression blast more than back-criticals. After using both for some time, the compression blast is a lot more useful for me than the Backburner. The flare gun is utterly useless for anything other than pissing snipers off. The new axe is amazing, however. I absolutely love touching someone with a little flame then going in for the kill. Plus, the model screams awesome.

 

[Para]

Just occured to me while I was playing on one of those crappy custom servers, I think Backburner has a major design flaw which comes from the fact that it's a flamethrower:

First, seems like it uses spy's backside hitbox detection which apparently somewhat works now. That's not a problem really, the more Valve can tune that detection the more they can now benefit both classes.

Second and this is the real issue, flamethrower is basically a particle emitter in terms of 3D engine. What this means that each bit of flame travels from point A to point B in given time. Flames don't really travel through people but the particle itself has a hit radius which means that if the particle just passes someone from really close, that someone will get burnt anyway. What this also means is that one particle can hit the same person from front and back at the same time hence causing the overpoweredness of Backburner because you don't really have to be on the backside to hit the enemy's back.

As for the flare gun, the pyro is clearly overconfident. If you've ever fired one you'd know that you treat the thing like a bazooka: Make sure there's nothing behind the gun itself since when those things malfunction, they spit the hot phosphorus backwards.

Also I have a deep hatred towards custom servers now. I wish I could shove the business end of Backburner to the peoples asses who made those crappy mods.

 

[Omnomnick]

I much prefer backcritz to Air blast. Yesterday I was shooting guy, he doesnt know where I am coming from, I just circle-strafed him, he turned too slow and I got loads of criticals, killed him.

And the air blast was kind of just brought in to give the backburner a disadvantage.

 

[Mahalis]

In maps like Dustbowl and Goldrush, the Backburner's almost useless on offense unless you're really good at sneaking past people (great on defense, though, for obvious reasons), and the compression blast is incredibly useful for clearing stickies off of things (offense) and separating ubers (defense). In the symmetrical maps, it really depends on what kind of role you feel like playing.

 

[Adabiviak]

I'm only playing pyro to get the flare gun (which is very very fun to shoot people with in my opinion), but I find that the compression blast makes the character quite fun to play... I'll step up to soldiers and try to kill them with their own rockets. Sticky grenades don't dominate areas of the map anymore, you can break ubers (or just knock people off ledges - so fun!) ... I'm actually surprised that they didn't make it an achievement-based weapon. Now a pyro is a full-blown engineer buddy. Not only can he keep spies off the engies equipment, but ubers and sticky grenades require a lot more skill to defeat this team. We'd set up a couple of sentries outside of the opponents battlements in 2Fort, and they were almost invulnerable. Stickies were blown away, spies were burnt, ubers were separated, other people were just puffed into the water below (if the sentry didn't waste them)... it took a LOT of cooperation from the other team to break this (rare on public servers).

For the record, can you or can't you reflect sticky grenades out of the air? It sure seems like you can't, but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

 

[Direwolf]

I think as people get better with the compression blast it'll seem more and more useful.

 

[Mahalis]

For the record, can you or can't you reflect sticky grenades out of the air? It sure seems like you can't, but maybe I'm doing it wrong.

I'm pretty sure you can reflect any kind of projectile, but I've never done it m'self so I can't really be certain.

 

[Jintor]

You need to time it properly, is all.

 

[Sheepo]

I don't know if it's overpowered or I'm just a very good pyro, but I go on 10 kill rampages all the time now.

 

[Shamrock]

I don't know if it's overpowered or I'm just a very good pyro, but I go on 10 kill rampages all the time now.

I think it's actually perfect now. Honestly, I loved playing the Pyro before, but there was nothing to it as in you could easily get owned by other classes, but you could do some damage.

Now, it feels more like the offensive class it should be.

 

[Druckles]

Psht, I personally find him to be slightly overpowered. I've been beaten in far too many one-on-ones by pyros as either a soldier or a demoman, simply because they can run at me with their extra 50hp flaming away. Most of the time I end up blowing up myself leaving them perfectly happy. Generally the only time I do kill them it's with a single crit-shot.

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I really have to be careful when moving around them now, turning your back for a second results in instant death. It's really annoying as loads of Pyros are now hiding and ambushing like the Pyro was originally intended for, so one slip up and there no time to make up for it.

 

[Shamrock]

Psht, I personally find him to be slightly overpowered. I've been beaten in far too many one-on-ones by pyros as either a soldier or a demoman, simply because they can run at me with their extra 50hp flaming away. Most of the time I end up blowing up myself leaving them perfectly happy. Generally the only time I do kill them it's with a single crit-shot.

Compared to before when they were easy as pie to kill.

 

[Jintor]

Yeah, I used to regard pyros as like a zero threat, now they're one of the first classes I target.

 

[Druckles]

Compared to before when they were easy as pie to kill.

But they're pyros! They're not supposed to be Kamikaze flaming fighters! Well, they might be, but they're supposed to die when they do it!

 

[PimpinPenguin]

I actually don't use the Backburner cause i find it too powerfull. The problem is It can still get regular crits on top of back crits. There is no skill involved in it now. Just charge at a Soldier or Demo and watch them blow themselves up. The back crits are to powerful, since the Pyro is a relatively quick class he can run rings around most classes and crit them in the back. I stuck with the regular Flamethower cause i find it requires skill since your not counting on instant kill and more health. The Backburner is boring to play with, it's a noob weapon.

 

[Jintor]

Removing normal crits would be a good start for the backburner, me thinks.

Or at least severely lowering their normal chances.

On the other hand, I think it's fine as it is, so nyeh.

 

[Mikademius]

I'm pretty sure you can reflect any kind of projectile, but I've never done it m'self so I can't really be certain.

Oh, I'd love to reflect a sniper bullet That would be a shocker!

All Right, pyromate. I got you in my snipersight now..dumdidum *trigger squeze* PANG. Ouch, wtf! My bullet got my own eye.

 

[Druckles]

It's the 50 extra health which bugs me. Even if I'm rarely ever going to be behind my enemy, I get an a whole extra 50 health!

 

[Jintor]

...which means you can survive a normal direct rocket hit. That's all.

Pyros need that health to run the **** away because they can't reflect the bloody rockets.

 

[f_combineftw]

They cant reflect it when they have the backburner of course. But when i come up against a soldier with the back burner (close, medium and long range) i jest dodge the rockets and use my flare gun to set them on fire so then they have to fall back and heal themselves. In close range its much harder to dodge the rockets, so in that case i know that is i run away hes probably jest going to kill me while my back is turned, so i circumdance (run around him in a circle) and usually kill him that way or i die and he dies a few seconds later.

 

[Druckles]

Pyros need that health to run the **** away because they can't reflect the bloody rockets.

Why would you bother running away? You have a whole extra 50 health and hundred percent crits if you get behind him or the system bugs up. Just charge him and circle-strafe him.