The much-talked about Pyro update for Team Fortress 2 goes live in a mere hour and a half. In preparation for the patch, Valve has divulged exactly what the upgrade will bring to the table.
First of all, Valve has included two user-created maps in this update. Namely, CTF_Turbine and CP_Fastlane. You may have already played these maps as they’ve been available on custom servers for some time but now Valve is making them available to all TF2 players. Here are Valve’s official descriptions for both of the maps:
CP_Fastlane: "A control point map with five points, in the style of Badlands. Its symmetrical layout provides for high-speed and well balanced gameplay, while the multiple indoor routes, connected to larger outdoor arenas, provide a wide set of interesting and varied combat spaces. The arena-style control points require solid teamwork to capture and hold."
CTF_Turbine: "A CTF map inside a large industrial compound. It’s clean and straightforward, making it easy to learn, but its well balanced layout ensures there are still a wide variety of strategic choices for teams to make, and for individual classes to shine. Competitive teams and players have already popularized this one."
Of course, what you’re all probably wondering is what new weapons and abilities the Pyro class gets. The other day, I said that the Pyro is becoming less viable as a class. Well Valve seems to be resolving this problem as the Pyro has been given one huge buff.
The Pyro now has the ability to blow compressed air out of his flamethrower (simply right-click while the flamethrower is out) in order to push enemies and projectiles away. This is extremely useful for a variety of reasons. You can reflect enemy soldier’s rockets, seperate an ubercharger from its uberchargee, push enemies away from your control points, push away an enemy who’s hot on your trail, and probably many other things I haven’t thought of.
Obviously this will definitely add to Pyro’s play and with this one change, many, many new strategies will be developed.
As with the Medic patch before it, this update adds three new weapons to the Pyro’s arsenal. The first is the Flare Gun which replaces the Shotgun and allows you to set enemies aflame from afar. The second is the Backburner and it replaces the standard Flamethrower.
The Backburner removes the awesome air compression ability but it adds 50 health to the Pyro’s stock 175 health. It also gives you a 100% critical hit chance if you are able to hit your enemy from the back. The last one is the Axtinguisher and it replaces your normal Axe. Normally, it’s weaker than the Axe but it gives you a 100% chance of critical hits if you hit your enemy with it while they are on fire.
The new weapons are pretty cool (especially the Flare Gun) but I think the Backburner is kind of stupid. Removing the most important buff for two weaker ones seems pretty counter-productive.
Last but not least, this update adds 35 new Pyro-specific achievements for you to… achieve. Like the Medic update, you will need to unlock some of these to obtain the new weapons. However, unlike the Medic update, you do not need to unlock every single achievement. Only 25 are needed to unlock all of the Pyro’s weapons so that means you can pick and choose your achievements at your leisure.
That’s about it. The Pyro update goes live very, very soon. The changes are exciting and I can’t wait to see the new strategies developed from the air compression ability. I hope to see some of you online!
[Via Steam]
