Any tips/servers on improving Pyro/Sniper?

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

Basically the bane of my existence in TF2, these two classes are the ones I found hardest to play for some odd reason. How do you improve these two classes, and what kind of servers should I join to improve?

Right now, I suffer from the timing of airblasts as pyro as well as puff n'flare/sting. (I use degreaser, flare gun, and axtinguisher.) I've tried dodgeball, but since it's so hard to airblast the rockets back at insane speeds, I don't think it's helping me.

 

For sniper, I often get too nervous when I try to aim, and if the target's moving around rapidly, I can't even shoot them. Quickscoping is good in a way, but I'd like to train charged up shots that are accurate too. (I use the Machina, Jarate, and Bushwacka.)

 

So any tips/servers?

[erts]

I find running reserve shooter is easier than flaregun, as you're generally fucked if you run into another pyro while running flare. Airblasting isn't too terribly hard if you can get some distance from the attacker so it's not as hard to predict when you need to m2- It also decreases the damage if you get hit anyways, thanks to damage falloff.

 

For sniper, try turning off mouse acceleration if you haven't already. Just bodyshot them if that doesn't work. Sniper is the bane of existance for pretty much everyone, so if they're running Darwin's Danger Shield or being pocketed by a vaccinator medic, don't bother counter-sniping.

[N!K]

This is going to sound stupid, but for sniping. Try training on trade servers with trade_plaza,

Sniper being one of my main classes, I found trade plaza very useful for practicing.

You may get abused for using the machina, but it doesn't matter. Each to their own.

[Jakey-Boo]

Easiest way to get better at pyro; Hold down W and M1 at the same time.

[Infernal]

As sniper I prefer to use low sensetivity(1.8). Also just like N!K said, Trade_plaza could actually be usefull(at least at the start). 

Also if it helps somehow if you see someone that is jumping just put your bounce up a bit your crosshair.

As pyro I can't really give any tips since I suck at it.

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

Easiest way to get better at pyro; Hold down W and M1 at the same time.

Please be serious for this.

[Randomystick]

You basically identified your problem for sniper: you panic and lose accuracy. The most important thing about sniping is to keep calm. Think of it this way: you only need to hit one shot to the head. Just once.

Mentality aside, always try to aim slightly ahead of your target. If a soldier is walking leftwards, just aim at the spot just slightly to the left of his head. There's lag between aiming and actually firing (human reaction time, latency etc) so compensating is important for headshots.

[ver]

TF2 Center is great for improving drastically as long as you are not afraid of people calling you a scrub and can take A LOT of criticism.

[Metric]

You can try House of Pancakes.

 

A beautifully modified achievement_idle4life map with a huge built-in sniper dueling room. Pyros can airblast and land mini-crits. Plus a bunch of other neat stuff to make everything more enjoyable.

 

Hope to see you there!

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

Thank you all for the awesome tips

[cares]

Right now, I suffer from the timing of airblasts as pyro as well as puff n'flare/sting. (I use degreaser, flare gun, and axtinguisher.) I've tried dodgeball, but since it's so hard to airblast the rockets back at insane speeds, I don't think it's helping me.

 

Axtinguisher is really bad right now, just use the Powerjack. It can get random crits (often) which makes it better than the Axtinguisher 95% of the time.

 

When stinging people, keep the m1 button held down when switching to the flare gun. The flare will come out faster this way and you can crit other pyros close range.

 

You can also play with an alternative loadout such as Degreaser/Shotgun or Flame Thrower/Shotgun. You'll be surprised how good the shotgun is, and the flame thrower isn't all that bad. Mid players think w+m1 is bad or something and flare gun is the way to go when it's really not in a lot of cases.

 

For sniper, I often get too nervous when I try to aim, and if the target's moving around rapidly, I can't even shoot them. Quickscoping is good in a way, but I'd like to train charged up shots that are accurate too. (I use the Machina, Jarate, and Bushwacka.)

 

Take your time to aim and predict where their head is going to be. Machina isn't that great, use the stock.

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

 

 

Axtinguisher is really bad right now, just use the Powerjack. It can get random crits (often) which makes it better than the Axtinguisher 95% of the time.

 

When stinging people, keep the m1 button held down when switching to the flare gun. The flare will come out faster this way and you can crit other pyros close range.

 

You can also play with an alternative loadout such as Degreaser/Shotgun or Flame Thrower/Shotgun. You'll be surprised how good the shotgun is, and the flame thrower isn't all that bad. Mid players think w+m1 is bad or something and flare gun is the way to go when it's really not in a lot of cases.

 

 

 

Take your time to aim and predict where their head is going to be. Machina isn't that great, use the stock.

 

The only bad thing is that I've been used to playing with the Machina (I tried using AWP a while back then, and to my surprise I kill more with machina than any other rifle I got.)

 

For pyro, I use axtinguisher because of how I tend to sneak up on people, causing the axtinguisher to do better. Also, it's certainly a great follow up to a burning enemy after the flare gun, as the flare gun takes a while to reload c:

[Inner Arts]

Lmao

 

Playing sniper on trade servers is ABSOLUTELY USELESS. I wasted 100 hours of my playtime on trade servers playing sniper, it didn't teach me jack shit. Puny pubs taught me more about tracking, flicking, longscoping fakescoping etc

 

Pubs is the best practice for sniper, or just play lobbies

 

Same for pyro although the class is utter shit outside of close-range

[Inner Arts]

I find running reserve shooter is easier than flaregun, as you're generally fucked if you run into another pyro while running flare. Airblasting isn't too terribly hard if you can get some distance from the attacker so it's not as hard to predict when you need to m2- It also decreases the damage if you get hit anyways, thanks to damage falloff.

 

For sniper, try turning off mouse acceleration if you haven't already. Just bodyshot them if that doesn't work. Sniper is the bane of existance for pretty much everyone, so if they're running Darwin's Danger Shield or being pocketed by a vaccinator medic, don't bother counter-sniping.

DDS sniper is easy countersniping brah

[cares]

For pyro, I use axtinguisher because of how I tend to sneak up on people, causing the axtinguisher to do better. Also, it's certainly a great follow up to a burning enemy after the flare gun, as the flare gun takes a while to reload c:

 

Axtinguisher is only good when you get behind someone and their reaction time is bad, otherwise Powerjack is always better. You don't want to get in someone's face as pyro, the safe range the flame thrower gives you is essential. W+M1 easily does 1.3x as much damage as running in with the Axtinguisher. If you're just going for back attacks, use the Backburner.

[Inner Arts]

Axtinguisher is only good when you get behind someone and their reaction time is bad, otherwise Powerjack is always better. You don't want to get in someone's face as pyro, the safe range the flame thrower gives you is essential. W+M1 easily does 1.3x as much damage as running in with the Axtinguisher. If you're just going for back attacks, use the Backburner.

 

You can just set the enemy on fire and instantly switch to the axtinguisher, still very reliable if you can sneak from behind, but yeah, PJ is better overall post-lw nerf

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

Axtinguisher is only good when you get behind someone and their reaction time is bad, otherwise Powerjack is always better. You don't want to get in someone's face as pyro, the safe range the flame thrower gives you is essential. W+M1 easily does 1.3x as much damage as running in with the Axtinguisher. If you're just going for back attacks, use the Backburner.

Another embarrassing reason why I used the axtinguisher is because I got its strange version of it, while I don't for the powerjack.

 

One of my dream loadouts is having pyro using all strange weapons.

[Senpai Absol~]

Pyro main here

I use stock/flare gun/ Powerjack

Never really seen the point in using the degreaser, though I do use it once in a while when i'm only going for flare gun shots

Pyro is quite easy with the flaregun, air blast somebody and shoot them with the flare gun (Make sure you light them first)

its quite easy to rank up kills

[Scott Bakula]

One of my dream loadouts is having pyro using all strange weapons.

 

That's not a very big dream. To give a pyro access to every weapon in strange (not counting reskins) would only set a person back about 3 keys.

[SilverSpeed]

Mess around with your sensitivity a bit, if  you find yourself overshooting you might want to lower a little, if you're undershooting you'd want to raise it up.

In terms of servers, for improving as any class (Though I find this works the best for Sniper) find any instant respawn server, map doesn't really matter but I recommend doing this on regular objective servers over trade ones, with the instant respawn turned on you'll find a lot more heads to click and you won't need to wait to respawn after you've died.

Try playing music that would normally be calm and soothing for you when playing Sniper if your problem is getting a little panicky, as keeping a calm head and steady aim is quite important (Needless to say.)

Don't get discouraged if your games start to go south, but if you find yourself getting very agitated just stop playing all together, as your frustration will only continue to pile up after that point.

 

Pyro a little easier to learn in my own opinion, the timing of the airblast is something you'll learn only through experience so there isn't much I can say in regards to improving on that. 

When it comes to puff and sting you'll always want to keep your cursor moving with your target so as not to suddenly flick up when you airblast them and miss entirely (Something I have a problem with after not playing Pyro for a long time.)

While I largely dislike the gamemode, I find that CTF_Turbine is a good map for working on DM as well as PLR_Hightower, as both of these open wide open spaces for practicing  your shots both as a Sniper and a Pyro.

 

If you're wanting to practice basically anything and you don't really want to deal with real people spamming the chat with how much better they are I would recommend spending some time on the map "Tr_walkway" I don't remember the current version but I'm sure you'll find it. 

I use tr_walkway myself when I'm looking to do a little practice for aim, but I will also quickly note that tr_walkway is not recommended for headshot practice as the bots there have the hitboxes of idle players, rather than moving ones which doesn't offer much help in that regard.

 

Good luck.

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

That's not a very big dream. To give a pyro access to every weapon in strange (not counting reskins) would only set a person back about 3 keys.

It's just a silly minor goal of mines really.

[Noot ♥]

A word from a pyro main, don't reflect too much. Some players reflect way too much as getting themselves killed in the process. I was playing spy one day and a "pro" pyro keep airblasting me, locking in a corner. He died after a few revolver shots, sometimes m1w is a better option.

[CecilyLovesYou<3™]

A word from a pyro main, don't reflect too much. Some players reflect way too much as getting themselves killed in the process. I was playing spy one day and a "pro" pyro keep airblasting me, locking in a corner. He died after a few revolver shots, sometimes m1w is a better option.

Been reflected too many times that I'm starting to wonder if airblasting= some skill. But really, I swear I saw pro pyros out there killing me a dozen times due to their insane airblasts.

[Taconinja]

Mess around with your sensitivity a bit, if you find yourself overshooting you might want to lower a little, if you're undershooting you'd want to raise it up.

In terms of servers, for improving as any class (Though I find this works the best for Sniper) find any instant respawn server, map doesn't really matter but I recommend doing this on regular objective servers over trade ones, with the instant respawn turned on you'll find a lot more heads to click and you won't need to wait to respawn after you've died.

Try playing music that would normally be calm and soothing for you when playing Sniper if your problem is getting a little panicky, as keeping a calm head and steady aim is quite important (Needless to say.)

Don't get discouraged if your games start to go south, but if you find yourself getting very agitated just stop playing all together, as your frustration will only continue to pile up after that point.

 

Pyro a little easier to learn in my own opinion, the timing of the airblast is something you'll learn only through experience so there isn't much I can say in regards to improving on that.

When it comes to puff and sting you'll always want to keep your cursor moving with your target so as not to suddenly flick up when you airblast them and miss entirely (Something I have a problem with after not playing Pyro for a long time.)

While I largely dislike the gamemode, I find that CTF_Turbine is a good map for working on DM as well as PLR_Hightower, as both of these open wide open spaces for practicing your shots both as a Sniper and a Pyro.

 

If you're wanting to practice basically anything and you don't really want to deal with real people spamming the chat with how much better they are I would recommend spending some time on the map "Tr_walkway" I don't remember the current version but I'm sure you'll find it.

I use tr_walkway myself when I'm looking to do a little practice for aim, but I will also quickly note that tr_walkway is not recommended for headshot practice as the bots there have the hitboxes of idle players, rather than moving ones which doesn't offer much help in that regard.

 

Good luck.

Theres also tr_aim

[A Modest Espeon]

Mfw im a sniper main

 

 

One nice place to practice after you get a little better is ctf_2fort

 

So much random crap comes at you, you have to learn to adapt. Theres counter snipers, shpees, demospammers.and sollies shooting all the way across the map

 

I practice twitch aiming, which involves moving from one direction to the next super phast, liek sanic

 

If you add me, I can give you some tips, but dont expect much, getting 10 killstreak is hard for me :/

 

 

Mouse acceleration, turn it off

Sensitivity, set it to where you are comfortable

Bodyshotting is fine, I won a tf2 center game using the freaking sydney sleeper kek

 

But I swear, use any sort.of crutch against me and I will cri everytiem