XsT is really quite old

In conjunction with the poll, this is what some of our members looked like long, long time ago.

Half-Life 2: Full-Life

Has anyone thought of the logic that Half-Life 2 is actually Full-Life because it's 2 X HL. Then the sequel to HL2 would be Second-Life? Anyway, Gordon Freeman's brother, twice as powerful as Half-Life. Contributed by Stupendous, thanks for the laughs dude.

The Heavy Update Is A Joke

With so many Heavies eating their sandwiches, even I might play Sniper.

Don't be Insane, its his birthday!

Happy Birthday Insanity-|XsT|!

Many thanks for all the years of contribution, sacrifice and gaming "mate-ship" that you have given us.

Thanks for being by us all along, helping to turn XsT from a "CCA-like" team, into a fully fledge clan. We look forward to many, many, many more years of gaming with you.

Best Wishes for the Bdae Boy/Pyro!

- Sick-|XsT|

This is it. The Heavy Update.

We've been talking about it over the chat for months now and this is it. A ridiculously huge update with a new gameplay modes is slated for release as soon as next week. New updates EVERY DAY FROM TODAY.

"A complex Attack/Defense control point map, with some unique gameplay. Unlike most TF2 maps, capturing a control point modifies the layout of the map, opening and closing routes for each team. As a result, the offensive team has a wide variety of tactical choices around how they'd like to assault the final point. Should they use Scouts and Soldiers to rush the final point with only the routes they start with? Should they go for the side control points and open up more routes to the final? Should they capture extra points to shut down the defender's routes? The many choices keep the map interesting for a long time, providing a wide variety of experiences in a game."

Source: Steam - A Heavy Update, planethalflife

Crowd Control - Pyro Air

Taking a break from work to finish this article I started writing last weekend when I was almost completely plastered.

Okay as you all probably know, being the rather impatient medic, I'm absolutely obsessed with using the Kritzkrieg. No question there guys. To my scrim teammates, I'd like to take this opportunity to make known that while I love to see my kritz-buddy crush 8 enemies senseless, I am also fully aware of the inherent limitations of not being invulnerable.

[ICP]Null, "LOL WUTS THIS? PHAILGUN (kritzkrieg) GOT CANCELLED BY WINRAR (regular ubercharge)??"

Having said this, I'd like to talk about my renewed obsession, the Pyro. Here's a little bit of theorycraft on the strengths and maneuvers employable since the new patch. Personally, I feel the compressed air blast is really under-rated from what I've observed and practiced. Here's a short article broken into three sections on how I've been using the airblast. Constructive input is more than welcome.

Section 1. Execution, Range-Switch.

I'll be referencing a generic scenario of a pyro as a aggressive-support class. Much of this engagement has got to do with the compressed airblast and how it is used. I'll explain my perceptions in 3 simple rules of engagement:

1. Flame (Left Click) then Air (Right Click) = No Weapon Cooldown
2. Air (Right Click) then Flame (Left Click) then = Flamer Cooldown
3. Quickswitch (Default "Q") Shotgun = No Cooldown (Usual weapon draw time)

The strategy of approach I commonly employ is Flame, Blow and Shotgun to death. Before you guys start flaming (lol pun) me saying that this is not always the most effective, allow me to defend myself in saying that this is just a suggested strat. It's very often an equally matched strat to maintain a successive stream of flame followed by your axe or shotgun, skipping airblast completely.

The ideal environment of which my suggestion is applied to is in medium to large environments with several corners and a relatively high skybox. Examples include, Granary (Middle Cap), Dustbowl (First Stage, Second Cap) and Fastlane (Middle and Subsequent Caps).

You probably think that these environments provide superb conditions for any class which is able to flank. However, these classes are outweighed by the ONLY CROWD CONTROL in the game, contesting even the regular ubercharge.

Consider this;

Flaming (50-70 fuel) + Airblast (25 fuel) = 95 Fuel

The logic here is time survival. Flaming and keeping your opponent airborne increases the time for your fire to damage over time (DoT). 25 Fuel is a small price to pay because if you successfully attain the kill, your ammunition is instantly replenished. Keeping your opponent airborne also allows for the quickswitch to a shotgun to knock down his health enough for him to eventually burn to death, the best part is, the frag is usually yours to keep because that medic who was healing you probably thought you were too noob to finish off the guy you were shooting.

General perspective (the shotgun shots are taken at greater distances, explained in greater detail below);

Scouts, Medics, Spies, Engineers - 1 Sec Flame, Air, 1 x Shotgun, Dead (or die from DoT)
Soldiers, Demos - 1.5 Sec Flame, Air, 3 x Shotgun, Dead (or die from DoT)
Heavies (See video by Daedalus) - 1 Sec Flame, Air, 1 Sec Flame, Rinse-Repeat

You'll notice against heavies, I do not list a shotgun. The logic here is to keep as much fire burning the heavy for as long as possible. The heavy has considerable amount of health, not withstanding the tremendous firepower at close range. In the words, of Stupendous when we were in Arena back in the WoW days as a BM Huntard and Enhance Shammy, "Just give me 2 seconds with him." This holds true for the heavy. Sustained fire will be his demise.

The key here is the blowback. My suggestion for this method of pyroing is to constantly change the range of combat between you and your target. You begin in close-quarters and then very quickly change it to mid-long range. YOU are in the control of this range switch and most of the time your opponents are at the mercy of your airblast.

For the standard flamer (not backburner) it's approx 15dps per 1 ammo - 200dps sustained fire and then 5dps DoT for 10 seconds. This is not considering the insane 400dps critical hits with no reload. The reason we switch to a shotgun is because, combining the motion, flame + air could possibly result in target being thrown beyond reach of the flamer/axe. The flamer's range is 6ft in game. A direct airblast can hurl your opponent more than 9ft in open terrain. What I observe most pyros doing is they chase their airborne target and attempt to further burn them. This appears to be ineffective as the natural reaction from your enemy will be to back away, increasing the distance between them and your flamer. Furthermore, the per-second cooldown of the flamer function after using an airblast is far too time costly.

At 18ft (three times flamer range), a shotgun round deals approx. 15 damage. Typically, against non-heavies you would have done 90 - 110dps with the purely with the flamer. The blowback adds about a DoT tick or 2 of about 10 damage. A few potshots will then potentially add 30 damage easily. The target is either already dead or left burning.

My recommendation is to BACK AWAY after blasting air and take 1 or 2 shotty potshots, yes, even if a medic emerges to heal your target - assuming no healthpack is within reach your target WILL LIKELY die as the damage your target has taken might already have been too much for the medic to top up.

You'll notice I didn't detail techniques versus a pyro or a sniper. Personally, I am having trouble with these classes myself. It seems that against other pyros it's a touch-and-go sorta thing. Whoever has the other dude in the crosshair longer while their mousefinger is holding down the fire button wins. The tactic I employ against pyros is to keep them at range all the time and back away, taking potshots and always trying to maintain or increase an 8ft distance (watch omfgninja's spy video on "Running Efficiently").

Snipers at range are the bane of my pyro/medic life. I can only say take cover and get up close because this pyro build is not meant for sustained long-ranged combat.

Section 2. Guess & Shield.

It's not always that you can make a reflect (rockets, pills or whatever). However, you can make a very very calculated guess on when the soldier or demoman is going to pull his trigger on your face - more so in soldiers than demos as their pills are extremely high velocity. The video below demonstrates the arc of deflection for the pyro against a soldier.

http://www.wegame.com/watch/Compression_Blast_Overpowered_against_soldiers/

Of course, both origin and recipient of the rocket are completely stationary. It is likely, in a real situation you'll be trying to burn his ass while he's trying to blow your face up. That aside, logically if you run closer to the target to begin "the guess", naturally the arc of deflection would be significantly larger, creating a momentary shield of sorts.

At this point, your target soldier would have taken damage from his own rocket (and since they nerfed soldiers damage reduction from rockets, you are going to have an instant upper-hand). A splash from a deflected rocket at 3-6ft will inflict 30-60 damage to the soldier depending on where the deflected rocket lands.

Here's the catch. As most of you know, I like a gamble. The cooldown for the airblast is LONGER than the cooldown for a rocket, if you do not successfully shield yourself from the first rocket, I suggest you do not attempt to deflect further. The soldier will fire a second rocket at you and you will most likely be hit by it if you attempt to employ the close range shielding I just mentioned. The cooldown and ammunition consumption of an unsuccessful airblast is far too costly to risk a second one. Remember, what I am suggesting here is survival and not slaying.

I won't go too into detail about using the compressed air for deflection, there are tonnes of better videos out there such as the Pyro Compression Blast and the guide to using the compression blast on youtube. I'm sure Insanity can compile a more detailed one when he gets his face off D2 (wtf blast from the past) and back into TF.

Section 3. Fire Safety.

When you use this pyro build, you will have weaknesses. Plenty of weaknesses.

First of all this method of pyroing does not ensure survival against clever scouts (then again what does?) However, it does improve your chances of fending off these rodents with the airblast. Again the key here is changing the range to your advantage. A scout typically attempt to take potshots at you and close the range hoping for an opportunity to flank. It's ironic, because both of your largest weapons lie in short-range, with the pyro's flamer being effectively shorter than the scattergun.

I like to use abit of psychology to mess up scouts. Setting them ablaze for less than a second and then airblasting them away with a quick successive shotgun. They seem to think that they are not taking enough damage for them to retreat and find a healthpack. So they come back for another round, this time more reckless and desperate to land scattergun shells in your face. Repeating the same move will ultimately lead to the scount's timely demise. Do note that I'm considering the general populace of players and not the exceptional individuals who've already perfected the bastard art of scouting.

The next issue is overcoming water obstacles. As I've stressed several times already, the key here is the blower. The longer the target is airborne, the more time you let the DoT do it's work and the more time you keep your target out and away of remedy. In desperation, I like to pull out the next most devastating weapon at your disposal the axtinguisher.

Appendix: Video

Okay that's enough theoryshit from me. Here's a video of me using some of these techniques in game, in case all the info above here is too much logic to stomach during the heat of combat. Hope it'll give you some ideas on how to better use the airblast. Peace.

I'm using Blogger video to host this version. If you'd like to comment the video is now up on youtube over here.

Mr T.

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