Afterburn is an essential part of the pyro
if you are bad enough to get in range of it then that's your fault
There are weapons other than flamethrowers that apply afterburn.
I don't see how it's easy to run into a string of enemies and avoid getting shot either, if that's the case the enemy team is doing something seriously wrong. It's much harder to get into close range to deal damage than it is to fire from a further distance like the rest of the classes do. Hence why it's a weak class in competitive.
Yes. the class is weaker in competitive, because the pyro really helps with distorting players. Classes that rely on direct aim more are more hurt by afterburn than others. Specifically, snipers. Trying to snipe while on fire turns the game into DDR. Not to mention that competitive will have a medic that's dedicated to keeping the team healed, something that cannot be guaranteed in most games.
Only a bad soldier dies or gets screwed by a pyro airblasting, it's easy to deny them access. Firing at walls and floors does this since they can't airblast and walking into them deals a lot of splash.
At the point where rockets start dealing good amounts of splash, the pyro's airblast hitbox can hit the projectile. Pyro's dancing for space at this point. If the pyro's too close up to the soldier, he's going to have a tough time airblasting. But at medium ranges, the pyro's playstyle adapts. Pyro doesn't need to hit soldier with the flamethrower. Pyro just needs to deny the soldier to deal damage, while either damaging the soldier some other way (flare gun, shotgun, et cetera). The pyro has more base speed than the soldier here and thus has more power to decide the course of action in that fight. The soldier could rocketjump for increased mobility, but then there's a trade-off. He loses at least one ammo in his launcher, he's airborne (which means, his path is more predictable), and he loses health to the jump.
It's an effective strategy, dying isn't fun yet we don't hear people asking for rockets to be nerfed because they die. You not liking being hit by afterburn and having to heal does not mean it should be nerfed or changed.
This isn't a matter of me not liking to heal up. This is a matter of me not liking that the game essentially has to be frozen for me until I've healed up. Earlier I've already stated that being on fire and trying to aim is basically a rhythm game; press the mouse button while you're coming down from the fire knockback. Also, losing half my health from a stray scorch shot flare is a mechanic I'm just not comfortable with.
Me not liking being hit by afterburn isn't a reason for changing it, that's true. But if there are enough people who think the same way as I am thinking, maybe there are grounds for at least considering an alternative.
Pyro is a weak class, trying to weaken it further by reducing afterburn and making it an enabler will just kill the class.
But why is he a weak class?
Objectively ?
Do you have some factual analysis of this ?
1.
Straight from the tf2stats website. There's about a 6% gap in owners equip, that's right. But it'd be fair to also take in account how many dead new accounts linger, accounts that only /have/ stock, thus can only /have/ stock equipped.
2.
A poll, submitted to the TF2 subreddit. We can assume that people who participate in those kinds of communities are at least competent at the game and give a decent representation of the playerbase. The degreaser beats stock in terms of equips, with 58% to 28%.
I'm convinced more experienced players use the degreaser instead of the flamethrower.
I don't see the issue with this strategy, can you elaborate ?
Pyro's rarely kill even a mid skilled soldier, airblasting alone does nothing unless you can return to the target which is rare.
Mostly ease-of-use. The airblast still resets and sets momentum of airblasted players. It's not additive momentum, which makes getting caught up in it all the more frustrating. It doesn't instakill since the changes made to the degreaser, which is nice, but it still deals a TON of damage in a fell swoop. Damage that eventually leads to the victim's death, unless he manages to 1. Deal with the pyro, either through killing or escaping and 2. find some way to extinguish the fire.
It could be argued that staying out of harm's way is a possibility here, but rarely is the answer "should've played around it". Some maps simply do not allow for this kind of playstyle, and sometimes you cannot anticipate what's around a corner.
You keep on making out this ability to airblast projectiles, which only really works on soldiers as a very powerful defensive weapon, which it isn't.
Here's where the team play aspect comes in. Critstickies to your team can be returned, engie nest can be protected. Stickies, pipes and rockets are usually the cause of death of an engie nest, and the pyro is, besides the short circuit, a class that can very well deal with these projectiles.
Overall the class is one of the weaker ones in the game, that's why it's rare to see a pro pyro. Even mid skilled soldiers can easily deal with all but the best of pyro's, the best ones wouldn't even try go for a close kill with airblasts either but use the flareguns superior range to whittle down the soldiers HP.
I won't argue that the class is weak. That's why eventually the fight was between "Who needs an update? Pyro or heavy?". However, I think the pyro's weak is because he fits too many roles, and doesn't execute one specific role well enough.