My favorite way to break someone's firing pattern, especially if they're cautious of you in the ol' spray a little fire and immediately reflect. Soldier brain: If he's shooting fire he can't reflect.
great, detailed video! Here are some additional tips: 1. if you are getting kritzkrieged all projectiles you reflect will also turn into crits. 2. because the airblast hitbox is so big you can actually reflect projectiles even if you are standing right behind people. surprise nearby enemies that are shooting away from you! 3. you can still get the bonus damage agaist burning enemies from enemy pyro's flares and dragon's fury fireballs. this is a pretty good way to deal with dragon's fury pyros since they otherwise have more damage than other flamethrowers. 4. if you airblast down when you are in the air right above an enemy's head it will actually boost you up (although this is very finicky and practically useless, but try it out i guess) 5. you can cancel enemy taunts with airblast, you can stop eureka effect engies that are trying to teleport away or heavies from eating (although it might be safer to let them eat and burn them during it) also i got fragged in this video and I don't like it
Getting up close and personal against an enemy Pyro trying to shoot a flare is basically a guaranteed crit/minicrit for you if the airblast is successful.
one tip that i have is try not to combo soldier and demos, the amount of times i could have simply just reflected a projectile but instead chose to combo and died because of it is bonkers
Love the close range reflect tips.its the most fun when you meet someone who can use un predictable firing patterns. you can bait a rocket being fired by pretending to retreat or turning a corner to see how they react and then pick a situation in which you know how they’ll act. whether you succeed or fail you can be happy that you where even able to think this stuff during such a short interaction. Love pyro not only because of the huge skill ceiling but because his base gameplay is kinda mindless you can focus on other things that you couldnt with other classes.
Its really cool to see well formatted and informational guides for pyro in 2021, I think a lot of new players find pyro really easy to use, and seeing more advanced techniques explained in depth by advanced players is always a treat!
I have been playing Pyro for over 1000 hours, and I gotta say I'm impressed with this guide. Reflect jumping is something I wanted to learn more about and your tips have really given me some good food for thought, thank you
Cheers, exactly what I was going for with this guide, comprehensive for new players but also useful for experienced pyros too! Got a Combo Pyro guide coming out tomorrow as well 👍
It's important not to lose your cool. If you go in hotheaded (pun not intended) and keep going for prediction airblasts, the opposing player, let's say, Soldier, will catch on. They will wait for you to fail a prediction airblast and immediately punish with a rocket while your airblast is on cooldown. A common tactic for players against airblasting Pyros is to close the gap between them, intimidating the Pyro into a premature airblast. One option for Pyro against these aware players are to bait them into thinking that it is safe to punish without waiting for your airblast by quickly switching from your flamethrower to your secondary and back. Otherwise, just flame them down and hope that you can see the projectile through the flames.
Reflected pipes erroneously deal critical self-damage to you. As a result, they can send you flying across the whole map. However, if you don't time the jump properly, it will instantly kill you.
@@Viking_C0wboyhoovy is a friendly heavy subclass consisting of the killing gloves of boxing or holiday punch, and any lunchbox item like the dakolohs, steak, banana and sandvich. Basically as a hoovy you crouch walk constantly and give your lunchbox item to anyone who needs the health, teammate or not.
8:35 That's new. I always perfome worse when moving bacwards for some reason, so i usually move to the sides when reflecting scary things like arrows I would actually add one more tip. Fight. Its extremely easy to forget that u can actually deal damage without reflects, and fighting a pyro who passively waits for projectiles is not that hard. Use the flamethrower and try to keep the pressure. Sometimes it's even more reliable to just kill someone instead of trying to reflect (damages players for example)
I can't tell you how much i've been waiting for someone to make a video about airblast for pyro, i love doing it so much but i used to kinda suck at it But i kept practicing and now i can do it more consistently, altough i still struggle with huntsman snipers or loch and load demos sometimes. Nice video and very well edited, i hope someone someday makes a mao that let's you fight or practice against loch and load demos, direct hit soldiers, or huntsman snipers
10:28 I dont know why, but when I was new at the game (200 hours and no cfg) I was so good reflecting near soldier rockets, like 2 meters away, now I cant do that anymore idk why
Same happened to me. There was a time where i could reflect no problem any projectile, but then after a while i forgot how to consistently do that and now i'm shit at airblast
you probably got used to actually reacting to the rocket instead of feeling out when they're gonna shoot at you, you should find a balance between the 2
Fantastic video! Airblasting has been a bit fuzzy for me and I'm glad that I now know a lot more about the topic. I hope to see more of these types of videos from you!
For me, airblast is one of the best parts of playing pyro. The fact that you can reflect and hit enemies with just a click it's pretty fun and entertaining. When fighting a skilled player, prediction is essential, like when playing spy, you have to think like the enemy so you can predict their movements and attacks. Airblast is also something indispensable when trying to combo. For example, I usually combo with the panic attack and flare gun, and I always airblast just before switching weapons to ensure my survivability, so I can attack with my secondary.
I saw a lot of good pyros that I eliminated or baited with fake rockets (just randomly shooting a rocket in random direction), but this guy is a whole new level of Pyro.
I’ve been playing TF2 and Pyro for about half a year so I knew a lot of these tips but the ones that helped me out the most are the airblast hitbox which was much larger than I thought and reflect jumps, which I didn’t even know existed. So thanks my dude.
I can easily say this guide definitely helped me get better at airblasting. I mainly watched the video for the "Kill with reflected projectiles" mission on the pyro contract. Up until watching this I had 1 kill for that objective, a lucky deflected pipe, after that I got another reflected kill from a new pyro not noticing the pipe I deflected. But just today I finally used the advice in this video, and got the last 2 kills. Both on soldiers, the first I got a direct hit and would've killed another soldier but he had too much health, then I reflected 2 rockets at a soldier on a 2v2 harvest and managed to land the second rocket, all thanks to this video.
11:54 I got a heart attack when I turned around. ( yes that was me, being stupid with the beggars because i was bored), but over-all great video, learnt a lot of tips and tricks, since I use the panic attack + stock flamethrower, it works well for me. keep up with the great content Pirateer.
Gonna add some additional tips to the chapters: Ch. 3: All projectiles in the game have a very slight aim assist. Reflected projectiles do not (except for map geometry). Practice more with other classes than you think to compensate for this. Ch. 4 - Airblast jumping with a rocket usually sends you farther than standard rocket jumping. Adjust accordingly. 7. Remember that, while you’re faster than a Soldier or Demoman, you go about 10% slower walking backwards. Finally, if you’re having trouble aiming flares at erratically moving enemies, try tr_aim. You can practice against non-hostile bots to improve your flare aim. It’s made by the same dev as tr_walkway too! (You might need the allow point command in the map too though.)
I'm a pyromain and this video was pretty useful for me. Especially the part with air jumps, since they can't work for me ( Airblast can also be used to save the team's backs from the spy. And after each of their failures, they called me W + M2 :D p.s thanks for the Russian subtitles!
*opens video in hope to find tips for the situation i struggle the most with airblast, point blank reflects against experienced enemy player* Video: yea just learn how to predict it lol Actual tips i got for that are: If you get a predict wrong, the soldier will fire as soon as he realizes, so if he's slow enough you can reflect again to save your butt. In any matchup, if you turn away from the enemy, he will shoot you. Knowing that you can try and flick your crosshair to reflect the projectile after baiting him to fire, altrough you have to get used to flick at the correct time Nice video btw
Cheers, you're right and I'll add these tips in an upcoming video and credit you! I should have added them to this but I guess in my head I didn't really think of these as beginner tips since you rely on flicking towards the target, requires a lot of muscle memory/reactions/game experience, but definitely should have added that good soldiers tend to fire after you miss a reflect 👍👍
This is really good advice for both newer folk and more experienced folk. I've mained Pyro for a few years and this helped me out a bit (I kind of suck at airblasts tbh). I love how comprehensive it is. Thank you for a very good guide
As a bit of a new player, having around 120 hours in the game (~90 of which are on pyro), I’ve never really been interested in getting better at the game. My focus has always been on just having fun, so I’ve never really looked up any tutorials or done any practicing, but this showed up in my recommended and I thought I might as well give it a watch since air blasts and their timing are something I struggle with. I never knew you could reflect jars, cleavers, or arrows, and while I knew air blast jumping was a thing, I didn’t know how it was pulled off. I still doubt my ability to ever pull off the more impressive feats like doing anything useful with an air blast jump, ever reflecting a jar or cleaver, or killing with a reflected cleaver or arrow, but I definitely feel confident that I’ll be able to learn air blast jumps and get better with reflect timing. I have hope one day I’ll even be able to take a direct hit soldier head on and actually survive.
Oh wow, thanks, this is a really good guide! I remember earlier on I tried to look for anything regarding pyro's airblast but I barely found anything, but this is exactly what I was looking for, so thank you!
Nice video man, you're a pretty good editor (and pyro). I'll def look into these practice maps since I haven't actually used them before. Thanks for putting them in a clear and consice format.
Opening with a reflect kill on Loveclop. You knew what you were doing when you edited this you crafty bastard. Very well presented info though. Great effort and job.
For close range reflect, try to think as if you were shooting rockets, and the best moment to trick the airblasting pyro. Also remember to throw some flames in there so they dies at some point if you can’t reflect.
Fantastic video, both in terms of quality of production and of the content itself! I'm so happy to see some fresh educational TF2 content, the last instance of this kind would probably be the now mostly outdated Nate Fox's guides. Keep it up!!
Cheers, definitely trying to reach the quality of people like Nate Fox, Toofty, Uncle Dane, etc! New video on Combo Pyro coming out some time today which (I hope) is one of my best vids yet 👍
5:31 Hey, I remember that song, it was from Need For Madness, cant remember which map specifically, but I thank you for linking it in the description below
@@Pirateer5 I grew up with Need For Madness when it was still very active, I remember using one of the hacked accounts (Platinum or Berudagon) for multiplayer and saw alot of people named platinum with different capitals. Very fun and I enjoyed the game. Too bad both accounts got taken down and I cant access multiplayer anymore
Oh my god, you were that one guy in Uncletopia Thank you for suggesting some maps for me! I really like the concept of airblast and this should be really helpful
thanks for the guide man i am trying to get better at pyro and i didnt know you could air blast jump or you could aim rockets with your crosshair so thx man
Huh, never really thought to pay attention to learning firing patterns of each reflectable projectiles. I think that tip helps with each class all together
i said out loud to my wife while deciding i was getting back into the game and gonna choose Pyro this time "I really hope i can find a Pyro main with like 5k subcribers that makes really good guides now because airblast is the shit" Here's to getting you closer to 5k
Loved the usage of AA's soundtrack. I've noticed that a lot of TF2 youtubers seem to use it as well, such as LazyPurple and... Funke, I think? In any case, it's definitely a curious fandom intersection.
ever since my old pc broke I can't play tf2 anymore, but I'm saving up the get a new one and I like to watch these videos to keep me refreshed on how to play the game. And they have really helped so thanks! (also I've never really been that good at tf2 so it also help in that regard to)
2:09 I've actually done the opposite, not focusing on aiming the projectiles at all and only getting used to reacting to it coming at me since trying to aim it would only make my brain overheat from focusing on both aiming and reacting, thus ending up with me getting blown up. Now that I've gotten decent at reacting to the projectiles coming at me I'll start focusing on aiming aswell. Very good video btw, your videos get straight to the point and are easy to follow :)
As an old main spy, i only hated pyros and w+m1 shit, but i started playing as pyro and it's more complicated than i thought, and looking all the things you can do with only airblast, is amazing 😮
Man I can't believe I use to do this stuff when I was younger when I played. Getting back into TF2 again and it's as fun as when I first started. Thx for the guide
Good vid, But remember that most players prefer to track and hold down the fire button over flicking or shooting when they think they can actually hit the shot, so it can be pretty easy to predict their rocket or grenade firing pattern. Also remember to strafe back and forth with the A and D keys when jumping with an enemy's explosive, people know how to aim an airshot in most servers.
What helps with learning to 1v1 projectile classes is learning to constantly m1 them and when they fire then airblast. It's hard to learn and get used to. Pyros usually just spam m2 or don't use m1 at all and then they get killed. Always hold that m1 and just wait for that projectile and then m2 as fast as you can. Good way to train this is to go into tr_walkway and set projectile class to shoot randomly. Also use mindgames to make the soldier shoot. They usually won't fire when they see you have your flamethrower out so switch to your flare and quickly switch back. I get a LOT of kills doing this.
A very sensible gwyd turned out to be on the pyro. And thank you for recommending some cards for training. It's obvious that you tried. Subscribed to your channel.
The pyro hate train is on a whole other world of stupid. Blindly running into the enemy team is a terrible tactic that only works on brain-dead players who can't shoot a pyro running in a straight line. People who keep bitching about W+M1 need to get good and stop blaming their failures on everyone and everything but themselves.
@@DilophosaurusStudios Unless you're a spy. Yeah, you can trickstab them sometimes. But all they have to do is flail their mouse around to make it harder.
Thanks for the guide I never liked playing pyro because of his lack of mid to long range options (excluding flares of course) I mainly just use pyro as a shotgun soldier that can reflect lol
7:36 I feel like a really big point to add here is that faster projectiles seem to have really deceptive hitreg altogether, as I often find I have to airblast a bit earlier than I'd expect from visuals to actually reflect successfully.
