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[JoshuaFH]

That's actually a pretty devious trick! I'm reminded of TFC, which would have been better since there you could self-detonate dispensers as impromptu explosives.

I've actually been playing alot of Direct Hit-Gunboats-Escape Plan Solly lately, aka the "Get Gud or Get Out" version of solly. Aiming with the DH is much more difficult since you can't just generally aim at people's feet to get kills anymore, but hitting people directly is very rewarding both in damage and personal gratification. Plus you can score wicked sweet minicrit airshots on people, which range in damage from 150-180~, very frequently insta-killing them.

Reminds me of just yesterday, I was on Koth_lakeside, and a guy that must have been getting frustrated types in chat: "OK I'm goin tryhard now!"

and as I reach mid I see the guy, now a demo, sticky jumping through the air right to the point, and I think "I can probably make that shot." and I fire off a single rocket at what I think his arc is gonna be, and SPLAT as the 152 damage airshot from across the map sends him back to respawn. I was in such disbelief I had to stop to type out an apology to the guy. That was like throwing a 3-pointer within the first few seconds of a basketball game just by grabbing the ball and winging it from the halfway line, and then either dumb luck or divine intervention just guides it into the hoop. It was beautiful.

[Spehss _]

While I've considered the phlog beneath me for a long time, after terrorizing a few pubs though it's terribly fun. I've already gotten several whole servers just apoplectic at me. It feels delicious getting a 20 killstreak just running people over.

I remember when the phlog was just released and still unbalanced and shiny and new. When the mmph taunt granted full health and all damage taken while mmphing was reduced to 10%. So a point blank rocket did 10 damage. I went and got a pocket medic and we were just massacring the other team and capturing Foundry control points disgustingly easily. Medic kept me healed, mmph gave me crits and crazy damage and damage resistance, medic could uber when needed, it was unkillable. It was quite possibly the single most hilarious thing I've done in game. I just couldn't help but laugh at how op it was. Medic loved it. Other team hated it.

Eventually the game ended and I left. I think phlog has been adjusted since then.

[JoshuaFH]

While I've considered the phlog beneath me for a long time, after terrorizing a few pubs though it's terribly fun. I've already gotten several whole servers just apoplectic at me. It feels delicious getting a 20 killstreak just running people over.

I remember when the phlog was just released and still unbalanced and shiny and new. When the mmph taunt granted full health and all damage taken while mmphing was reduced to 10%. So a point blank rocket did 10 damage. I went and got a pocket medic and we were just massacring the other team and capturing Foundry control points disgustingly easily. Medic kept me healed, mmph gave me crits and crazy damage and damage resistance, medic could uber when needed, it was unkillable. It was quite possibly the single most hilarious thing I've done in game. I just couldn't help but laugh at how op it was. Medic loved it. Other team hated it.

Eventually the game ended and I left. I think phlog has been adjusted since then.

It's been lightly nerfed from it's original form: it has -10% base damage, -2 seconds of crit time, and only 75% resistance while MMPHing.

On the flip side, there's both strangifiers and killstreak-ifiers for it, of which I have both. My S. KS. Phlog is sitting pretty at more than a thousand kills with only a few days of use. And my personal record for damage done has been set by phlogging, something I can't help but feel giddy over.

[miauw62]

The phlog is still ridiculous, though. It should just do away with the heal and damage resistance altogheter. Its not like you have to be sneaky to activate it, you can just do it when youre at 1 health and then murder everybody around you.

[Spehss _]

The phlog is still ridiculous, though. It should just do away with the heal and damage resistance altogheter. Its not like you have to be sneaky to activate it, you can just do it when youre at 1 health and then murder everybody around you.

That's exactly what people were doing when it first came out. That's what makes it so good, partly. It's a great panic button.

[JoshuaFH]

The phlog is still ridiculous, though. It should just do away with the heal and damage resistance altogheter. Its not like you have to be sneaky to activate it, you can just do it when youre at 1 health and then murder everybody around you.

That's exactly what people were doing when it first came out. That's what makes it so good, partly. It's a great panic button.

After a bit of firsthand experience, you definitely can't just pop your phlog juice in a crowd of enemies and expect to get away with it, not with just 75% resist. Heck, it just takes one backburner pyro or heavy of any variety and they'll kill you before you finish your taunt. A demoman? Cool taunt bro I'll just put stickies around your feet for when you're done lawl. Catching people off guard is basically a requirement, or you'll get shut down completely.

Having heals helps too, like, alot of heals.

[Spehss _]

After a bit of firsthand experience, you definitely can't just pop your phlog juice in a crowd of enemies and expect to get away with it, not with just 75% resist. Heck, it just takes one backburner pyro or heavy of any variety and they'll kill you before you finish your taunt. A demoman? Cool taunt bro I'll just put stickies around your feet for when you're done lawl. Catching people off guard is basically a requirement, or you'll get shut down completely.

Having heals helps too, like, alot of heals.

Sounds like phlog isn't the insanely powerful "taunt and activate mmph to facetank everything" that it used to be. That's good.

[JoshuaFH]

I've described it on SPUF as a Crutch Weapon for noobs. A crutch because it lets new players do better (the only skill it encourages is W+M1) makes skilled players do worse (a pyro without airblast severely limits his skill potential) and for noobs because it'll only work against noobs. An experienced player will have no trouble singling you out and killing you before you do serious harm.

Terrifying fun regardless. On my first day I ran into a L33T soldier + medic combo who were clearly friends, very good player but also very rude (Would type 'retard *player*" in chat after getting kills). I found it difficult against him, but whenever he'd let his guard down then vroom vroom here comes the Pyro car!

Unrelated: If anyone wants to play, I'm up:

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198029099955/

[EnigmaticHat]

The thing about pyro is, they're a close range class that loses to every other fighter class at close range.  Scout can just straight up run into a flamethrower and bodyshot the pyro twice and kill the pyro them before they take lethal afterburn.  Pyro flamethrower versus heavy is a joke, especially now that the axestinquisher has been nerfed, your only option is the flaregun but that's still a very slow kill.  Any competent demo or soldier will juggle them into the air which given you won't accomplish anything up there is effectively a one shot kill.

The flare gun and variants are cool but if you aren't primarily using the flamethrower you might as well be playing sniper.

The only thing that keeps pyro half decent is the airblast.  It gives them some kind of advantage against soldiers and demos, and it at least allows them to "opt out" of getting shat on heavies by airblasting them away.  It lets them efficiently screen away stickies and counter normal ubers.  And it lets them be a kind of shield for the rest of the team, at least until the enemy breaks out the hitscan classes which any competent team will sadly.

The phlog seems overpowered until the exact moment where you go up against a good soldier.  Then you will die every single time you meet them, crits or no crits.  This was true even before the nerf.  It was a week or whatever of everyone calling it OP and then people learned how to deal with it and it became a weapon for slaughtering people who are less skilled than you.
(ninja'd)

[MrRoboto75]

Phlog was also nerfed for MvM, it charges at least half as fast in that mode.  The only other change it could use is not being able to cap while taunting.

Vacc is also super good at shutting down a phlogger.

Either way I'd take phlog over backburner.  BB's too unreliable, I'll be behind people and just not get crits unless its perfectly behind them.  Meanwhile, all the other "get crits behind people" weapons can hit people on the shoulder and crit.

As a pyro, the reserve shooter is also an option, but everyone will hate you for doing so.

[miauw62]

>backburner doesnt crit unless its perfectly behind them
>trickstabs are a thing
gaben is a fickle god.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yd1YpPZ0XM

Also when I first started playing lobbies I was surprised at the hate against the reserve shooter. I'd been running it on pubs for a while, and I still don't quite get the hate. (I'm a shotgun man, not a big fan of the flare guns :V)

Pyro in highlander is indeed resigned mostly to combo guarding duty. That said, it's probably the only class that can semi-effectively counter stickyspam. Airblast seems to be quite useful in highlander, even. As I said, especially against goddamn stickyspam. You can also be a pretty good bodyguard, once you realize that you're one of the least important classes: I've gotten between a uber and our combo/sentry multiple times.

I agree with EngimaticHat on the phlog: it's basically purely a pubstomping weapon, which makes it pretty annoying if you're caught in somebody else's pubstomping session

[JoshuaFH]

Also when I first started playing lobbies I was surprised at the hate against the reserve shooter. I'd been running it on pubs for a while, and I still don't quite get the hate. (I'm a shotgun man, not a big fan of the flare guns :V)

Because the Reserve Shooter is very much a broken weapon. Airblasted? Pyro gets free crits! Jumping at all in any form? Pyro gets free crits! Standing on a sloped surface or stairway? Pyro gets free crits!

It's all the damage (and more!) of the flaregun without any of that pesky timing, leading, or prediction getting in the way. Just point and click for your crits please.

Plus, if all else fails, it's just the shotgun with 4 shells instead of 6. It's easily tolerated on soldier, but it's considered just plain broken on pyro, and people really resent it.

[MrRoboto75]

I'd say pyro has a bigger impact in HL than spy does.

[EnigmaticHat]

So I just experienced a rare thing: a 1v1 against a random person on a valve server.  It was a CP on Foundry, for some reason the other guy stuck around for an over an hour.

After wrecking him a few times I decided this was no fun and started doing self imposed challenges.  No matter what silliness I did, I still found some way to win.

Shit that I did:
Fight several classes, including sniper as a heavy who wasn't using his primary (at one point not even using a shotgun).
Beat a normal heavy as a shotgun heavy (I backcapped)
Melee battle a demoknight with: a sandman, an atomizer, a knife.  This one made me feel like I was re-enacting the battle from Meet the Scout.
Beat a soldier and then a demo as a medic (not as hard as it sounds, Blutsauger is fucking aggravating as is fighting someone who has regen when you don't)

I'm not saying any of this was impressive, but boy was it fun.  I have no idea why he stuck around but I'm really glad that he did.  He was not quite as pants on head as some of what i've said suggested, he did adapt his strategy and he could aim when I bothered to stand still.  Not GOOD by any stretch of the imagination but I respect that he kept trying to beat me, lord knows I would have rage quit a long time ago.  The sad thing is, someone else came in and joined his team, and THAT GUY quit when I 2v1d as scout.  We might have actually gotten a server going if he hadn't

This does raise the question as to how a server gets resurrected after everyone leaves...

[WealthyRadish]

I think typically servers get repopulated through the quickplay matchmaking (by whoever actually uses that). It's one of the major reasons why servers without random crits and damage spread have spent most of their time empty since quickplay was implemented, due to quickplay not matching people with servers running those settings (but it'll still match them with servers running all those stupid server plugins like RTD and gameME, I think). For servers without random crits, it's often up to regulars to sit around doing nothing for upwards of half an hour before the server gains enough people to draw players through the server browser (or some kind of organization if that server has an independent community).

I recently started playing TF2 again, and wasn't surprised to see every nocrit server in my favorites list either shut down, converted to MGE (or something horrid like Death Run), or perpetually empty (with the server browser faring no better). I've considered hosting a server many times, but it would be so pointless if it'd just stay empty for eternity.