Pyro Guide (1 of 3): Basics & weapon break down

Though I know I don't have many readers, I am still going to explain this. I am still working on the battletoads videos, but I have encountered bandwidth issues, so no video uploading for this month.

I have spoken of the pyro of Team Fortress 2 several times, but this time I am going to actually be helpful. I am an excellent pyro who would like to see more people play the pyro well. What prompted me to write this was that VALVE HAS ALMOST PROMISED THEY ARE FINALLY RELEASING THE MEET THE PYRO VIDEO!!!!!!!!! (REJOICE!!). They haven't promised this in words, but a picture on the website all but guarantees that it is so.

The evidence

The Basics:

So you want to play as Pyro? Well, good for you. A skilled Pyro can do so much good for their team. The Pyro has more team functions than any other class except for the engineer. Beyond that, the Pyro is absolutely devastating as a fighter in close range. Given the right circumstances, the Pyro can kill anything in a one on one, even a sentry gun. So how can you dominate as a flame wielding mad women? Well, you are gonna have to know what the Pyro can do. To start, lets go over the pyros weapon slots (the specific weapons will come later).

1. Primary Weapon (Flamethrower): The primary weapon for the pyro is always a flamethrower. This is the weapon the defines the pyro and will be the one you use the most. Most of the flamethrowers come with a secondary air blast, which I will go into later; trust me, it's useful. Fire is a devastating weapon. It ignites enemies, making them take more damage for at most 10 seconds. It passes through enemies, allowing the fire to ignite multiple people and go right through a sentry gun. The flamethrower does not require reloading, so keep up the fire. The only real drawback to this weapon is the range. All the fire cones are deceptively short and force the pyro near the enemy. 
2. Secondary Weapon (Shotgun or Flare gun): The secondary slot for the pyro tries to compensate for the range of the flamethrower. Shotguns are good at close range and medium range, but the flamethrower is already dominating at close range, so the shotguns will be used mostly for harassing at medium range or finishing a combo. Flare guns are the opposite; really long range with slow rate of fire, they are the only way for the pyro to attack at long range. They mostly distract at long range, but can effectively kill at medium range and are also good for a combo finisher. 
3. Melee Weapon (Axes and Hammers): The pyro gets much less use out of her melee weapons then other classes. She has some of the better melee weapons, but her flamethrower is so much more efficient at close range. These will almost always be used for their ability or in a combo attack and rarely will they ever be pulled out to get a kill by themselves. But never use the standard ax once you get an upgrade, they all provide advantages over the stock one. 

So, now that you know what to expect from your weapons, I can describe ways of generally using them. And I have to start with the skill that separates the good from the noobs as Pyro.

Airblast:

The airblast is the single most useful skill the pyro has. By right clicking with most of the flamethrowers, the pyro releases a burst of air that can do all sorts of useful stuff. It can extinguish burning team mates. It can push enemy players around. It can REFLECT PROJECTILES!!!!! With this skill, you can turn all the soldier's rockets back on him and clear out sticky bomb traps. This move is so incredibly handy. You can re-position enemies for a combo finisher or knock them into a death pit. Medic Uber charges can be completely shut down. I can't stress enough how important this is. Practice this, and everyone will be terrified of your flammey deathness. I will list all the reflectable projectiles in the vs. class section next post. 

Flame and Forget:
Fire damage gives the pyro a valuable option. Afterburn damage will do 60 damage for most of the flamethrowers, and this is on top of the contact damage of the igniting flame. A quick attack and most of the low health classes will be dead if they don't put the fire out. This allows the pyro to set people on fire and then just walk away. Most smart players will not follow you but will instead seek medical attention. Even the tougher classes will often retreat rather than go into battle with half health. This doesn't earn you a lot of kills, but it is really useful to your team. If you see a big enemy push coming, it is often worth it to suicide just so you can set them all on fire and cause confusion long enough for your team to counter attack. 

Surprise:
The pyro, like the scout, relies on catching the enemy unaware. You can attack head on with your team, but solo attacks should never be seen coming. Most classes can severely damage you before you get into fire range, but that is only if they see you coming. Wide open areas are bad, but if there is lots of cover you can make it work with good movement. Areas with long sight lines are death to you, mostly from sniper fire. Side paths are your friends, they allow you to flank the enemy and are usually cramped. Cramped hallways with lots of corners are were you dominate.

Spy Checking:
Fire is the single best way of flushing out enemy spies. When on fire, a spies cloak and disguise become useless. Your team relies on you to check for spies and you don't want to disappoint them. Give everyone you pass a quick puff of flame just to check. Spray some fire in corners where a spy might be cloaked (it may be worth playing as spy so you can learn where they like to hide). You could actively search for them, but spies will go to great lengths to stay out of your way so you won't find many this way. If you do happen upon a spy, the hunt is on. Stay on that bastard until he is dead. Spies have very little chance of surviving a concentrated pyro attack.

Weapons
Now I will go over each of the Pyro's weapons individually.
Flamethrowers: note that all flamethrowers are useless under water (duh).

1. The Flamethrower: The basic of basics. All other flamethrowers will be compared to this. It does good contact damage and inflicts 60 afterburn damage over 10 seconds. 200 ammo with airblasts costing 20 ammo. Critical hits from this will devastate anything really fast. Good in most situations.
2. The Backburner: The stats for this have change a lot, so this is where it is at this writing. Does 10% more fire damage (not afterburn, contact fire). It will always critical hit people from behind. What constitutes "behind" is a sort of 90 degree cone coming out of the players back. Takes some getting used to, but not that hard to land. The drawback: Airblasts cost 50 ammo instead of 20. This is better than the old no airblast, but it makes the pyro much less flexible. Pyros rarely worry about ammo, but any airblasts from the backburner will quickly go through your stock. Better for flanking maneuvers.
3. The Degreaser: The degreaser is widely considered the best flamethrower. It does same contact damage as flamethrower, but only inflicts 45 afterburn damage over 10 seconds. This means it does less damage in combat, but not much less. The advantage to using this is it lets you switch between weapons 65% faster. This is really fast and makes pyro kill combos so much easier to perform. Not the best for defense, but the best choice in most situations. 
4. The Phlogistinator: The newest flamethrower is also the most extreme. Damage stats are standard. It has no airblast. After inflicting enough fire damage, you can activate "MMPH!" by secondary attacking. This will activate a 2 second taunt. It will fully heal you and greatly reduce damage taken while taunting. You will then have several seconds of guaranteed critical hits. Of note is also that this weapon gets no random critical hits, so MMPH! is the only way to get crits. This weapon suffers greatly from no airblast. If you can build up the charge and then flank attack it can be very deadly, but it is still a very situational and iffy weapon.

Shotguns and Flare guns. Flare guns are similarly useless underwater. If you taunt with any of the secondary weapons equipped, the pyro will use the Hadouken taunt, which makes the pyro do a Hadouken. It instant kills anyone it hits, but has very short range and a long animation. Good for a laugh.

1. The Shotgun: This is the standard shotgun that plenty of classes carry. Carries six shells and reloads pretty slow. Good at medium at short range. This is one of your best weapons to use against other Pyros since it doesn't rely on fire damage. It is also the best weapon to use underwater. 
2. The Flare Gun: The flare gun is long range ignition. The flares do 30 damage on contact and ignite the target for standard after burn damage. The flares will also always critical hit people who are already on fire (90 damage). This makes the flare gun devastating to use on fleeing enemies looking to be extinguished. Carries 16 flares and has to reload after each shot. Reloads slow, but its longer range makes it less of an issue. Good for harassing snipers, since their aim is screwed up if they are burning. The crit ability makes the flare gun good for combos. Light them up with the flamethrower, then air blast them. While they are disoriented, pull out the flare gun and BAM! crit flare. Will kill most low health classes.
3. The Detonator: The detonator is very similar to the flare gun. Same damage and ammo stats. The flares make a loud wizing noise that draws attention. A launched flare can be remote detonated with the secondary fire button. The explosion isn't very big but makes igniting people at long range easier. The detonator only minicrits flaming targets, so it has less kill power. The flare explosion also does 25% more damage to you than it does to enemies. The explosion can be used for a flare jump, which I will cover later. Better for harassment, but less kill power.
4. The Reserve Shooter: Originally a soldier weapon, this shotgun is a great choice for the pyro. It has the same damage stats as the shotgun, but can only load 3 shells instead of 6. Carrying this weapon makes your weapon switch 15% faster, which if paired with the degreaser is blazing fast. After switching to the Reserve Shooter, you will mini-crit airborne targets for 3 seconds. This also makes for an excellent combo with airblasting, since you can knock the enemy into the air with the airblast. Take note that the Reserve Shooter has a very distinctive bang sound that draws attention more than the standard shotgun does.
5. The Manmelter: The manmelter is a flare gun that uses no ammo. It recharges instead, so it fires slower than the other flare guns. Does not do any extra damage to flaming targets. The energy ball travels faster than standard flares, so adjust your aim. Gets no random crits, but can build up guaranteed crits. Secondary fire activates a vacuum that puts out flaming team mates. Each team mate put out builds a guaranteed crit. Pairs well with the Phlogistinator since you can still extinguish team mates, but overall not the best choice because of the fire rate. 

Axes and Sledge Hammers

1. The Fire Ax: The standard melee weapon. Does 65 damage and swings at an ok pace. Useless in combat usually since the flamethrower is a close range weapon. Does have random critical hits, but almost all the other melee weapons are superior to this. 
2. The Axtinguisher: This is the killer app for the pyro. It does 50% less damage to not burning players, but will always critical hit burning players. A critical from this baby does 195 damage; combined with the fire damage and this will kill everything but a Heavy in one swing. A skilled pyro can absolutely mow down everyone with this weapon. Paired with the degreaser's weapon switch time and this weapon is absolutely terrifying. The ax you will carry around the most, and something you should definitely get used to using.
3. The Homewrecker: The homewrecker is a sledge hammer designed for taking out buildings. It does 25% less damage to people, but does double damage to buildings. I know that sounds tempting, but you shouldn't use this on sentries; the flamethrower is a better choice for sentries. The main use of this weapon is removing sappers. This will remove an enemy sapper from a friendly building in one swing, making you into an engineers best friend. Good for defense, but pretty situational. 
4. The Powerjack: A mallet for the health conscious. Does standard melee damage and does get random crits. If you kill someone with this, you immediately get 75 health. This health bonus is quite nice and can overheal you above your maximum health. The drawback is that you will take 20% more melee damage while the weapon is active. The health bonus is nice and can save your life, but this is a better weapon to have if you are going solo behind enemy lines.
5. The Backscratcher: A rake. Not a hammer. *SIGH*. Well, this is still a good weapon. It does 25% more damage than the base ax (82 damage). You will gain 50% more health from health packs while carrying this (it doesn't have to be active, just in the melee weapon slot). The draw back is that medics and dispensers will give you 75% less health. Should only be used when going solo behind enemy line, medics won't like you if you are carrying this near them. It is actually the best weapon to take on a solo mission because health packs will be your only source of health.
6. The Sharpened Volcano Fragment: This weapon looks epic, but is not very useful. It does 20% less damage than the ax, but will ignite anyone you hit with it. This is not very useful since the flamethrower does that to and does more damage. The only time this is useful is in a melee only match, like medieval mode or sudden death rounds. In these situations, this ax is a beast. Never use it outside of melee only.
7. The Third Degree: This ax has the same damage stats as the fire ax. What it does is the damage will travel through medic heal beams hitting everyone connected to the chain. This sounds cool, but you won't often find a situation where this is useful. Flamethrowers already let you hit multiple targets. Better than the fire ax, but nothing special.
8. The Postal Pummeler: The same as the Axtinguisher, just looks different.
9. The Mauler: The same as the Homewrecker, just looks COOLER!!

The Gas Jockey Gear: If you carry the Degreaser, the Powerjack and wear the Attendant hat, you get a stat bonus. These three together make the pyro move 10% faster and take 10% more bullet damage. The extra speed makes you a bit faster than the medic, but still way slower than the scout. It makes some map specific jumps possible as well. The bullet vulnerability is a bit of handicap. Most classes have some bullet weapons and your worst enemies, scouts and heavy, will now be more deadly. The weapon pairing of Degreaser and Powerjack isn't the best either. Sometimes useful, its usually not worth it to wear the full set. But it is worth a lot of bragging rights if you have all the necessary items.

Well, that was part 1. Look out for part 2 rather soon.