Before I start this, this is based off of what most competetive pyros use in both 4's, 6;s, but primarily UGC.


This is actually not a terrible choice, the reason being, there are no setbacks. And I feel like I should say this now since it applies to almost every class. DEFAULT IS ALMOST ALWAYS BETTER. Most flashy weapons will have some bonuses that look appealing at first, but come with penalties that almost always preform as a detriement to your role on the team. Anyways, the defualt provides a steady stream of damage, and when you are rocking the defualt, you should primarily rely on this as your primary damage output. This will work to your favor until you come head to head with another pyro, in which case, if he is rocking the defualt, you two are at a dead tie, and will pretty much result in both of you dying.
















This is the big cheese for a lot of pyros. The degreaser comes with a damage set back, but you have to keep this in mind, if you can provide a steady stream of fire on your oponent, that small damage loss isn't going to make much of a difference. So where does the degreaser gain its superiority? The weapon switch speed. Valve originially intended pyro to be an ambush class, but as the game developed this role changed. The pyro became what I like to call an omni-tool class. I'll get into this more a little later. But with the degreaser you can quickly switch out to your secondary, and your melee, giving you a quick chance to put out double the damage in about half the time.
















I tend to see a lot of new players gravitate towards this flame thrower mostly because of the damage buff it does to the backside of the opposing player. Again, this goes against the pyros main function on competetive and even pub play. The backburner increases the cost of airblasting, which is already expensive enough as it is, and gives you an advantage where you will very seldomly use it. Pyros cant really sneak up on enemy players, most of the time you will be spotted before you have a chance to get enough damage off, and if you do get close enough, if its a soldier, or a heavy, or even a good scout, they will kill you and Maybe burnout. I do not recommend this weapon at all. And neither would any other competetive pyro.


















Nope, Nope, Nope, and even more Nope. This flamethrower encourages some of the worst mentality of the game, it completely removes the airblast function, and in its place it offers a "mmph" meter, which is basically, charge up your "mmmph", pop it, and then get retardo critz for the next 5 seconds. Half the time, a good spy, or a decent heavy will destroy you the moment you are out of the pop animation. Do not use this weapon, ever.

This is going to be pretty brief, since there are really only 3 viable options to use as secondaries


You've already got it, and its a very capable secondary, effective against pyros primarily since fire damage is almost negated against a pyro. The shotgun can also land really effective "meat" shots, or a shot where more than 60% of the pellets hit the target, doing a wopping 70+ damage.




















Another very popular, and effective secondary, the flaregun is primarily used against flank classes to deal a "one and done" kill method. The flare gun will do crit damage to any target that is already on fire, normally it does 30 damage, but when the target is lit, it will do an incredible 90 damage, this is enough to one shot meds, scouts, snipers, spies, and engies. However the flare gun is not so distinguished against other pyros, pyros cannot be "burnt out", meaning they do not stay on fire after being hit by either the flame thrower or the flare gun.



















essentially another flare gun, it does have a damage de-buff, however, the strength of this flare gun falls in the ability to "flare jump", similar to how a soldier can rocket jump, a pyro can use the detonator to flare jump to hard to reach spots, and can even be used in sticky situations to get out of tight corners, though this does require practice, it can change up your team's strat on some competetive maps.




















as of the moment of publication of this guide, the reserve shotter is banned from Highlander, 6's, and 4's for being a "cheesy" flare gun. The reserve shooter automatically applies mini crits to any target that is airborne for a split second. In other words, it is basically a flare gun with 4 shots instead of 1, and still has the functionality of shotguns against pyros. I personally stay away from this shotgun, seeing as it is banned, and I would like to improve with a loadout that is actually accepted by UGC standards.

as of this moment there are only two viable options for melee:


This weapon is useful in one regard, the movement speed, which also makes it a banned weapon in 6's . With buffed movement speed you can get to the point quicker, than most classes, and the pyro being the second fastest class, with a movement buff is incredibly useful in gaining the flank or the the point first. This weapon does come with the drawback of inceased damage take when it is pulled out, but again, if you play it safe, this will not hinder your play style. I personally prefer this as my melee weapon.




















This weapon gais its strenght in being able to remove sappers from engineer equipment, and the the lesser strenght of doing crit damage to wet targest. However it comes at the cost of no random critical hits (which isnt really a downside considering the fact random crits are removed in competetive play) and a 20% damage penalty vs. players (again, not that bad, considering the fact that you will not be relying on your melee for frags anyways)



















another viable choice as the pyro melee, this weapin excels in the aspect that like the neon annihilator, can remove sappers from engineer equipment. Your team may often ask you to switch out to this or the neon when it comes time to defend last point, and you need to keep the engineer setup alive. This weapon comes at a damage penalty to players however, at a 25% loss.


















These three melee weapons make up the majority of pyro load outs at high levels


I am aware of the axtinguisher, and at one point I did use it as my melee weapon, but this was before the nerf. Before, the axtinguisher did random crit damage to any burning player and its only debuffs: you could no longer land random crits on non burning targets, and a 50% damage loss vs. non burning players. In the competitive scene, this made the axtinguisher the first choice by any pyro. After the nerf the axtinguisher only does crit damage from behhind, and mini crit damage from the front. Although this is still a decent amount of damage, you will not get as many picks with it as you would in the past. This makes the axtinguisher less favorable, considering that the other three main melee weapons will provide more for your team, in terms of defence and utility.

I mentioned this slightly a bit earlier, but now is the time to prove an in-depth explanation. Upon release, valve intended for the pyro to dominate an "ambush" role, surprise the enemy team, and deal large amounts of damage as the team pushed. However, as the game progressed into its later years, the pyro meta moved away from ambush, to omni-tool. When using the correct load out, a pyro can airblast rockets, huntsman arrows, crusader crosbow bolts, jarate, mad milk, the bonk, pipes, stickies, and the flying guillotine. Basically if it isnt a bullet, you can reflect it. Pyros can also reflect ubers, pushing them away fromt the cap point, or stopping an uber's advance, which can ultimately deny the other team any real capability of pushing. Airblasting can also be used to keep a flank class (scout or spy) in the corner, for either your pleasure, or for your team to deal with. Finally , airblasting can be used to extinguish team members if they are on fire. because of this the pyro can take one of two roles:


This is the most prefered pyro play style, your job is to defend the pocket (heavy medic combo) from soldiers, demos, and spies. You can also be designated to playing with the engineer, defending his sentry set up from the same exact threats. In both cases, you are playing a more defensive offense. Your job is to not just dish out damage, but to preform damage control on your team. If your med is being bombed by a soldier, it is your job to reflect the rockets away from the med, not even back at the soldier, but just away from the med, same goes for demo pipes and stickies. If any one is on fire, put them out! A living team member is better than a dead one. The biggest thing to this play style is to stay alive. If you put yourself into these incredibly one sided situations, then you are leaving the rest of the team up to flank classes, or letting your heavy med combo succumb to raw spam, in other words, if you die, your team's hold, or push could crumble. Hence, dont die. Stick with your team and push with them, not by yourself. A pocket pyro can be the element to make, or break a team.


A high risk high reward playstyle, the roamer pyro focuses entirely on picks (kills).You run around by yourself and cause as much damage as possible, you are a nuisance, the tac in their behind. It is very seldom that your team will want you to roam as a pyro, seeing as this primarily the job of the soldier.However, your team may ask this of you if they need some time for the engie to set up, or for the med to build uber. I would not recommend this play style, as you will more than likely end up dying than you will actually causing damage.

Although I touched on this briefly in the last section, I would like to take this time to just talk about what should go through your head when you play pyro.


yes you are important, and yes, you can be the factor to change the tide of battle, but you are not the god of all that is TF2. You are actually one of the more vulnerable classes, a single soldier rocket or demo pipe can practically kill you, two well placed scatter gun shots will bring you to your knees, and at a distance, you are virtually a flopping dildo just begging to be picked by a sniper. The way you counter act these shortcomings is by playing safe, and knowing how to airblast. In other words, don't mindlessly charge some one if you know they can kill you. Fire is intimidating sure, but not so intimidating when a moron w+m1's (the terminology of holding down the W key and mouse 1) his way across the battlefield toward you, it just makes you look stupid.



This is where it gets complicated, yes you can reflect a rocket and do considerable damage to a soldier, but if he lands just two of his rockets, he has practically killed you. Same goes for you, if you land two reflects, then you have practically killed him. So now the question arises, how do I garuantee that I will be the one to kill him? Other than just raw reaction, you need to play mind games with him. For example, If you charge him with your flames going, his first instinct is to fire immediatley, to kill as fast as possible so he doesn't take any damage, if you can reflect his rocket right out of ending your spray, then you will have most likely landed the reflect, and you will now have the upperhand. There is a lot more to the mind games, but it all boils down to reading your opponent and acting before he can read you. It is also important to keep in mind that at a certain range, your airblasts can only be 100% reactional, in other words, you will have to predict when he will fire the rocket, instead of waiting for him to fire first.


By flank i mean classes like the scout, the sniper, or even the spy. A good scout will try and bait you into his team, a good spy will simply try and put as much distance between you and him so he can land significant damage with his revolver, and the sniper will just flat out try to headshot you. This is where playing like an ambush comes in handy. If you can catch any of these three of guard, and put them into a corner with either your airblasts, or with your movement, then you can finish them off easily. 2 of these 3 classes rely on movement to escape you, and all 3 require range to actually kill you. So, reduce range, and stop their movement, and you have just earned yourself a pick.


TL:DR: Don't be an idiot, and play smarter than the classes you are working against. Play it safe and with your team, and your team will back you up.

I would reccomend this map to practice your airblasting, to install it
just download the zip, there will be a folder called tr_new_bots there will be two files, a .txt and a .bsp
just place the .bsp in

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf\maps

and then when you start up tf2 there will be a little plus button next to the servers option on the main menu, click that and then set the map to tr_new_bots, join blue team and your good to go.
http://tf2.gamebanana.com/maps/120297