Post by xlanadenx
Meh. I don't particularly care for the new flamethrower.
New flamethrower?
The Phlogistinator.
Lack of compression blast = NO!
Post by Interest
Meh. I don't particularly care for the new flamethrower.
New flamethrower?
The Phlogistinator.
Lack of compression blast = NO!
Indeed....Might be fun to mess with anyways if you're not fighting Soldier/Demoman.
Post by Monday
Meh. I don't particularly care for the new flamethrower.
New flamethrower?
The Phlogistinator.
Lack of compression blast = NO!
^
That's the main reason I don't use it.
Post by xlanadenx
I found airblast overrated. Two main uses are reflecting projectiles and stopping Ubers, both are questionable.
1) Reflecting projectiles: If you do it to protect yourself, you are fast enough to dodge. If you do it to hit Soldier/Demo/Huntsman Sniper, if they are good enough to dodge it. Blowing stickies even stupider, if Demo pays attention, you in fact will blow them into the room you supposed to charge in, so you have to keep blowing to till you run out of ammo, and good Demo should make sure you don't know about stickies. It's not about dodging to keep yourself alive. You're thinking with a single-player mentality. Remember that this is
Team Fortress. Everything you do should be about helping your team, not topping the scoreboard. Those rockets coming at you? You may dodge them but your medic may not be as wary. It's not about sending them back to the soldier it's about keeping them away from your team. Especially if you're on Blu crowding around the cart, splash damage hurts everyone and a crocket can change the tide of the game.
The Demo's stickies? You're not trying to make him detonate them on himself, you're trying to get them out of an area where they are most effective. Spreading out the stickies makes them a lot less effective and clearing a choke point allows for your team to maneuver the map easily.
On top of that, backblasted projectiles become mini-crits 100% of the time but you don't need to direct them at the offender, you can direct them to another unwary opponent. Mini-crits hurt.
2) Ubers. Standard receivers are Heavy, Demo, Soldier and maybe Pyro. For Demo and Soldier also check above, but in general, you have to make it close enough to couple to blew them off, and Heavy and Pyro will obliterate you on that range. Simply airblasting them is not enough, you have break it in limited amount of time (assuming you are not fighting morons). The only way is to use terrain, but it only works (from top of my head) on Dustbowl (before the last cap, blow Medic off the bridge) and Upward, that turn before Carts start going up.
Again, keep the team aspect in mind. What does it mean most of the time when an uber pops? It means they're making a push through an area that is being denied to them. What's keeping them from there? Most likely a well-placed level 3 sentry complete with a nest. You are very important at this critical moment. Chances are that a heavy is being ubered and trying to take down the sentry. They have the highest dps and with a short window this is very important to taking down a sentry.
The thing about Heavy is that it's very hard to keep him away using pushback from projectiles. A Demo and Soldier can be pushed back a lot more easily. You need to keep him away from the sentry at any cost and most of the time this means sacrificing yourself. When a Heavy is revved, he's slow. Pushing him back is costly to the team as he either has to stop revving and run back up or he has to keep going but slowly. On top of that, forcing a heavy into the air but still in line of sentry fire means game over.
You know what I mean, you've probably seen a jumpy scout try to Bonk past a sentry only to see him fly away. This applies to all classes. Once your feet leave the ground, the force of the sentry takes you into the sky and away. The uber push definitely fails.
The only use, extinguishing teammates went to
Manmelter, which gives an incentive to do so. But, health restoration and crits are fine trade off for me, especially since almost no Pyros use airblast much.
This is a nice weapon but keep in mind that the only way to crit with it is to extinguish a teammate. Most teammates have Jarate or Madmilk on hand and those who don't will be extinguished by those who do. Water/Med kits are also an option and probably the first to enter their minds.
Failing that, a medic could be around and I always find it better to let the medic heal them up as it helps him build Uber faster.