Why Pyro Is a Good Class, by egg.
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hello tf2g it has come to my attention that you are all too shit at the game to play pyro so i thought i'd write a thesis on why pyro is in the top 3 classes in the game. this isn't some bullshit copypasta about pyro taking skill or not, it's about objective facts that spell out his viability to even the gaming illiterate
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Section 1 - Innate class abilities.
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Durability - Pyro has 175 health and immunity to afterburn. His airblast ability is able to reflect projectiles away from himself, which can greatly reduce burst damage taken. It can also disrupt hitscan aim on unsuspecting enemies and be used extinguish allies for a free 20 health. Pyro is arguably between Soldier & Heavy in the survivability department.

Mobility - Pyro has 100% base speed and no form of advanced mobility by default, except for chance situations. The Detonator & Scorch Shot may be used to perform blast jumps, though using either means giving up most of your burst damage, and both can be costly to health. Pyro is a very light class, more or less like Scout. This, paired with his large health pool can allow him to safely and reliably use enemy blast damage to propel him toward the enemy. The Powerjack boosts Pyro's speed to 115% when held, the second highest base speed one can achieve right out of spawn with no special conditions required.

Damage - Flamethrowers will deal 115-161 damage per second. Flame particles are much like Medic's syringes in that they correlate with player movement, and can be timed to strike in even more rapid succession than their stats suggest, especially when burning in advance as you turn a corner. Because of this, the Flamethrower's true DPS is hard to gauge. Flames ignite enemies for 10 seconds of afterburn, which deals an additional 3 damage every 500 milliseconds until it runs out, is extinguished, or kills the enemy. Reflected projectiles will deal 135% of their normal damage to any enemy they hit, which is a very good source of burst damage and, as already pointed out a great way to keep yourself alive. The Flamethrower's main advantage over other primary weapons is that it has a very large ammo reserve and no need to reload, so if given the opportunity you have enough ammo to burn down everything in your immediate range. I do mean everything, since flame particles have infinite penetration and will hit multiple adjacent enemies at once. These two functions give the flamethrower the best multi-target damage of any weapon, even more so than explosives since splash damage typically faces outward from impact and is not all-encompassing.

If you get the jump on any number of players, you'll probably win. If they see you coming, their combined burst damage will probably kill you before your short ranged weapon can hit them enough to do anything worthwhile. This is where the assertion that Pyro is a flank / ambush class comes from. Like Demoman, if you don't take out the pyro quick, there's going to be a problem. Unlike Demoman, Pyro won't blow himself up in close range, so he doesn't have to be as cautious about pursuing enemies or engaging them at an optimal distance.

--In short, Pyro has the best mix of speed, damage and durability in the game.--

Utility - Airblast is a very powerful tool. It can push players off of cliffs. It can stall fast moving classes enough for them to sperg out about how any minor hindrance to their mobility is broken. It can be used to set up a perfect meatshot with your shotgun. It can save your teammate's ass if they're burning or a rocket is about to hit them. It can deny a roaming soldier's ability to take out a nest. It can completely negate an enemy medic's über push. It can get people off of the control point so you and your team can cap / defend it easier. It does everything.

Aside from that, you can babysit allied Engineers with the Homewrecker but if you literally only play Pyro to do that instead of actually fragging I suggest you metaphorically kill yourself for being useless and not just being the second Engineer. You are not built to be a support class, have more confidence in your ability to burn shit.

Team Interactions - Pyro is the single greatest Übercharge target if a sentry isn't your main threat, and one of the best pockets in general. Since Pyro's damage is more sustained than burst oriented, a pocketed Pyro is significantly stronger than a roaming one since he'll live long enough to burn down everything. For reference, if you're a pocketed soldier, four rockets probably won't be enough to take down a pocketed pyro, let alone a group of enemies intent on killing you. On the flipside, that pyro has a near bottomless fuel tank and has already burned you and your medic down as you reload. Not to mention that even if he just reflects a single one of your rockets, even if it doesn't hit you, you're beyond fucked. Shotgun won't do much to help in this situation either since 1. the pyro also has a shotgun, and 2. overheal negates burst damage. Also as already mentioned, you can be a (((Pybro))) for your team's Engineer but that's boring and not utilizing the class' potential. Equipping the Homewrecker and assisting him every now and then is perfectly acceptable, but staying by his side the entire game is not.
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Section 2 - Weapons
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Flamethrower is pretty reliable all round and has already been discussed. This is the typical primary of choice for pybros as it can reflect more rockets and the full strength afterburn is at the very least a deterrent for spies.

Degreaser is very strong and should be used if you're intent on playing aggressively. It gives you enough burst damage to kill scouts before they kill you & doesn't make you choose between reflecting and attacking which is incredibly useful against soldiers and demomen.

Backburner capitalizes on Pyro's ambush aspect, but gives up a very large portion of his self defense. Definitely viable on maps with lots of alternate routes, and of course payload, but not reliable elsewhere.

Phlogistinator is a meme but it's great if the enemy team is retarded.

Shotgun is good and puts you on level ground with everything for single target damage. It lets pyro choose between a damage hose and a burst damage weapon, or both simultaneously if used with the Degreaser. Both your flamethrower and your shotgun could be considered primary weapons due to how well they compliment each other, rather than the shotgun being used as a last resort weapon (like on Heavy), or a situational alternative (like on Soldier).

Reserve Shooter is admittedly very, very strong and deletes light classes even faster than the shotgun. If you choose to run stock or Backburner I suggest picking it up just for the increased switch speed, but the reduced clip size and situational crits do force into secondary weapon status so it won't be able to be used as an alternative to your primary. You have to commit to a very linear play style to make full use of it, and there are some situations where airblasting the enemy further away from you just isn't a good idea (namely if they are already retreating).

Panic Attack is simply not good on Pyro. It completely ruins his weapon synergy and should be avoided like the plague unless you use the Phlog, in which case it's okay I guess. Pyro already has a rapid fire weapon. He needs burst damage. He doesn't have time to wait and load shots, then wait for them all the fire off before he can switch weapons again.

Flaregun is a decent choice and it deals good burst damage at a range, but it is not reliable for the playstyle you should be aiming for, which is to get in and kill everything. It is the best choice if you are not confident in your hitscan aim, forget to reload often, or if your connection is just shit. I will say that it is fun.

Detonator is your only real option for advanced mobility, but at this point it's just too much cost for too little reward. It has decent harassment potential but the detonation radius is a little too wonky to be reliable. You're better off picking anything else and surfing projectiles when they come your way, because for some reason even that deals less damage to you and propels you forward more. Pyro has no real need for vertical movement except to reach a vantage point for flanking, so if you choose to use this weapon pair it with the Backburner and be ambush guy.

Scorch Shot is very good for harassment and neuters snipers. It deals decent damage, ignites everything and can stall enemies, but most of the time the normal flaregun is better for single target damage. The self push force it provides is negligible, but there are occasional situations where it lets you reach an area you normally could not. One downside of this weapon is that its projectile may also juggle you around in addition to the enemy, which doesn't pair very well with a class who has to chase people to kill them.

Manmelter is really only ever useful if an enemy pyro wants to feed you 20 extinguishes a second or if you can snipe a roamer out of the air with it. Other than that it sucks. Literally. Okay with Phlog.

Powerjack is good because it lets you go fast.

Backscratcher is good because it gives you even more long term durability if you don't have a medic / your medic is bad, and you can delete scouts with it. Ideal for use with Detonator, Scorch Shot & Manmelter as its damage bonus can be used as a substitute for meatshots or flarepunches.

Homewrecker is good for supporting your team's Engineer and killing enemy buildings as they're being redeployed, but aside from that its damage bonus has no real application.

Every other melee is shit except maybe Third Degree but that's redundant because Pyro can ready hit both the medic and the heal target at once.

Tip: If you have the Degreaser equipped, burning a scout for like a fifth of a second and then hitting him with your shotgun, flaregun or backscratcher will kill him before he can kill you. You can add an airblast too at no extra charge, but if he starts retreating don't. You should almost always win this encounter if you pay attention and have a decent team. Even if the combo isn't an option in that moment, deathmatch him with your shotgun. Just doing that will work because your gun will kill him in 2 hits more reliably than vice versa due to your larger health pool.

Pyro's strength lies in his ability to adapt to different situations and always have a tool suited for the situation at hand. Sure, other classes may have easier to applicate burst damage. Sure, other classes may have damage hoses. Sure, other classes may have support attributes. They don't get all three at once though.
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Section 3 - Peripheral benefits
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Since Pyro's flamethrower is the fastest firing weapon in the game and relies on you keeping your mouse on the target at all times and never getting circle strafed, feel free to up your sensitivity as much as you like. Your aim doesn't need to be perfect for particles, you just need to lock your crosshair on the target always until they die. Making your sensitivity super fucking high as Pyro will help your effective reaction time and has pretty much no drawbacks since even players with bizarre movement can be corrected with airblast before shooting them with your secondary. I personally am using 2.3cm / 360 right now and it works fine, even for other classes. The highest I ever used was 1.6cm / 360 but that was a little too high to be consistent with hitscan. Aside from sensitivity, you can use a special script for drawing your melee weapon as long as the designated key is held, and have it switch back to your primary the second you release it. This, paired with limiting your quickswitch key to slot1 and slot2 helps with using the Powerjack to its full potential and not stumbling over your keys or switching to the wrong weapon.
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Section 4 - Every other class is shit, especially Soldier.
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So now that we've gone over Pyro's statistics, basic functionality and strong points, let's see how he compares to the other classes. Stock weapons will be used for reference unless the given class has unlocks widely accepted as more viable.

Scout - 125 max health, 133% base speed. Can double jump. Captures points twice as fast. Light like Pyro and will be pushed around by damage easily, but will not sustain hits. Has easy access to highground and flanking areas, and is hard to hit with projectile weapons provided he maintains erratic movement.

Scattergun deals 60 base damage which scales up to 105 at point blank. It fires once every 625 milliseconds and has a damage per second of 168 in absolutely perfect conditions. Its strength lies in burst damage stemming from high ramp-up, but anywhere past close range it is nearly indistinguishable from the shotgun. Due to Scout's speed, he is able to achieve full ramp up with relative ease, though occasionally pellets will register oddly and negate a large amount of this. Said occurrence is rare and usually won't affect good scouts, but it should still be noted.

At absolute point blank the Scattergun will out damage the Flamethrower. Past absolute point blank, the Flamethower will beat it provided the scout is still able to be hit. If the scout runs beyond this point​, he won't be dealing consistent damage to you and is a non-issue. The answer to scouts in your face is the shotgun, which deals 90 damage at point blank, has a firing rate of 625 ms and a DPS of 144. It is enough to win. If you are able to lure a scout around a corner, your flames by themselves will usually kill him faster than he can even get a shot, let alone two off.

The Scattergun does not have any multi-target damage. It does not set people on fire. It has no capacity to land multiple hits at once by prefiring around corners and alcoves. It is just a marginally better shotgun. You point and click with it and it works, but it is not objectively more viable than the flamethrower by any means, and Pyro already gets a shotgun himself.

Scout is a great class for flanking due to his speed, but Flamethrower is the best weapon for flanking because of how many intricacies it has that reward such a playstyle.

Mentioning the pistol is redundant for this encounter because it's a vastly inferior damage hose compared to any flamethrower and its range means jack shit when the bullet spread goes on vacation sometimes. Scout's best bet against a pyro is to jump in and shoot him twice with his scattergun, not pussyfoot around at a range where the Pyro can very well kill him.

Soldier - 200 max health, 80% base speed. Is a relatively heavy class that won't be pushed around much by damage, except from his own explosives. His main advantage over other classes is the 'Rocket Jump' ability. This lets him move around the map incredibly fast and even reach heights other classes could not at the cost of health. Equipping Gunboats further increases this mobility at the cost of reliable hitscan damage.

Rocket Launcher deals 90 base damage and up to 112 at point blank. It fires once every 800 milliseconds and has a DPS of 140. Its projectile travels slowly at a rate of 1100 hammer units per second. It has splash damage which allows it to hit grounded targets easier and hit multiple targets at once at the cost of reduced damage. Shooting the ground beneath an enemy's feet may pop them into the air, allowing the next shot to land easier and deal full damage. It causes hefty self damage at point blank if the blast hits both you and an enemy, and it only carries 4 shots which reload slowly and can be dodged or reflected. It deals negligible​ damage past mid range and splash damage can reduce the damage of the blast by half, sometimes requiring a full three rockets to kill a light class if they juke well, even at close range.

In short, it fucking sucks but has decent burst, disruption and area denial + rocket jumps which kinda redeem it.

Soldier can switch to and fire the Shotgun immediately after hitting a rocket for extremely high burst damage at close range. This combination in itself places him in a good spot for combat capability, but also means giving up a hefty portion of your mobility. Also if you want to jump around the map at unparalleled speed and get picks even more reliably, just play demoman with the sticky jumper.

Soldier is a completely unnecessary class. The only reason people main him is because they force themselves to or are too dopey to play anything else. They scour the earth for a scenario where Soldier is viable and make a metagame around it, a meta where not playing​ Soldier is a sin (6v6). It's kinda like what's happening with 7v7s and Engineers right now.
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That's all I've got for now. With all this being said, Pyro is not perfect and there are many refinements to be made to his functionality and consistency. But even in his current incarnation, even after immeasurable unjustified nerfs, he is still viable. I have empirically proven pyro is better than your main unless you main demo, in which case I see you as an equal.

And if ANY of you faggots EVER say Pyro is shit again I WILL yiff you until you get good.