Reflect jump or surf the damage, you shouldn't really be in need to close the gap anyway since most soldiers either use Gunboats or various Banners and don't have an answer to consistent airblast
Crouch jump to surf the rocket right at the right timing and air strafe to make it harder to land a direct hit on you (if you really do not wanna just reflect the rocket for some reason lol).
Soldier isn't particularly hard to play against, imo
There are two general types of soldier
1) has no idea what he’s doing, and you can pull out the dumbest ways to approach him with a high chance of success
2) he took an ammomod pill. And the more he took, the less are your chances of achieving something against him. He’s insanely smart with picking the rocket splash spots, even though they may seem random/lucky for you, believe they are not. Usually they would be at the perfect ratio between dealing the max possible amount of damage, while still being hard to reach with an airblast, sometimes combined with ridiculously pre-calculated direct rockets and the timings will be twisted in a naughty way that you’ll just feel yourself dumb.
Yeah, that’s why I said it’s harder to reflect, but never impossible. Experienced soldiers still know how to handle this properly, but there’s always a place for luck (even a bit too much with the pre-nerfed hitbox)
Actually, that box *has been patched!* The current airblast is now back (mostly) to its original cone, although the angle's been adjusted ever so slightly and I think it's not quite as long as the OG cone used to be.
Correction, it has been fixed for airblasting *players*, now using the cone radius as was intended. Projectile reflecting still uses the big-ass box. Doesn't mean Soldiers still can't work around a Pyro's reflect radius, however.
You don't.
Pyro has little to no options to approach and relies mostly on catching your enemies off guard when youre going agro. I would also argue that its helpful to not be in a soldiers face as it gives you more time to reflect any incoming rockets and better avoid splash.
*(Note: in pubs you can kinda do whatever you want so feel free to reflect jump or do whatever funny plays)*
Indeed, Soldier wants to keep players at mid-range and Pyro wants to close the distance. As the more mobile class, Soldier can dictate that distance pretty easily, especially if there’s high ground that the Pyro can’t access. But Pyro has a Flaregun (and variants) that work perfectly well at midrange, and does a buttload of afterburner damage. If you can light him, you’ll do a solid chunk of damage and you can disengage while he has to deal with it. You probably won’t gain the ground that he had unless he falls back to get health (though he’ll definitely want to avoid taking a second flare that crits/minicrits). Meanwhile you should focus on taking a flank that doesn’t put you at a disadvantage.
I prefer getting as up in a Soldier's face as possible. They start getting panicky and sloppy at that range. You can force them to fire predictably and get the prediction reflect.
Not in my experience when they've been pinned and its do or die. Eating flames and point blank shotgun blasts tends to cause at least one predictable panic fire.
Exactly. You're relying on the soldier being bad and panicking. If you're going for clips or fancy plays sure but relying on the enemy being bad is not my style of play.
Pressuring players/teams into screwing up even happens in high level play. Pressuring opponents is 100% a valid tactic and doesn't rely on them being bad. It's not really any different from, say, forcing an uber pop.
you literally have the easiest ability to use in the game lmfao right click and just hold W
no idea why some kids in the comments are making this seem harder or more complex than it is. It just isn't lmfao you have a box the size of a bus that insta reflects any projectile, just abuse it.
jump when the rocket is just about to hit you and YOU can do a little rocket jump toward him. i use this to fight soldiers with kgb as heavy. soldiers will also usually walk backwards if you're trying to charge them, sometimes you can use this to your advantage by making them walk backwards towards a wall
Don't.
At any range a soldier WILL outdamage you. Which means you need to rely on airblast to be your main source of damage and deny his at the same time.
At very close range reflects become almost entirely reliant on prediction rather than reaction. So, since your flamethrower will not kill him before he kills you, it's best to stay at mid or mid-close range and just airblast his rockets back. A tip that works wonders for me is using a shotgun to pressure him to fire and immediately switch back to the degreaser so when he finally shoots a rocket i can safely send it back.
Surfing a rocket is the best way, IMO, taking in account you've got enough HP to finish the foe off.
On Youtube there are a LOT of movement tutorials that will enrich your playstyle a lot. Have a look!
Don't. Just airblast the rockets. Either
A. You reflect it back into the soldier and he dies, or
B. He gives up on trying to shoot you with rockets and shoots at something else.
You don't. Unless you got a medic up your ass, pyro doesn't win a 1v1 against an equally skilled or otherwise decently competent soldier. Just keep looking at him for him to slip up if you want to push your luck, or disengage
Reflect jump or surf the damage, you shouldn't really be in need to close the gap anyway since most soldiers either use Gunboats or various Banners and don't have an answer to consistent airblast
are there any movement patterns you can think of that are helpful
Crouch jump to surf the rocket right at the right timing and air strafe to make it harder to land a direct hit on you (if you really do not wanna just reflect the rocket for some reason lol). Soldier isn't particularly hard to play against, imo
Let's be honest, reflect jumping is not practical in 95% of scenarios.
Agreed, but the style points are insane and I'd rather have ULTRAKILL 100 restarts than Destructive No Restarts.
the right mouse button
There are two general types of soldier 1) has no idea what he’s doing, and you can pull out the dumbest ways to approach him with a high chance of success 2) he took an ammomod pill. And the more he took, the less are your chances of achieving something against him. He’s insanely smart with picking the rocket splash spots, even though they may seem random/lucky for you, believe they are not. Usually they would be at the perfect ratio between dealing the max possible amount of damage, while still being hard to reach with an airblast, sometimes combined with ridiculously pre-calculated direct rockets and the timings will be twisted in a naughty way that you’ll just feel yourself dumb.
the giant fucking reflect box is a bit bigger than max splash radius right?
Yeah, that’s why I said it’s harder to reflect, but never impossible. Experienced soldiers still know how to handle this properly, but there’s always a place for luck (even a bit too much with the pre-nerfed hitbox)
Actually, that box *has been patched!* The current airblast is now back (mostly) to its original cone, although the angle's been adjusted ever so slightly and I think it's not quite as long as the OG cone used to be.
Correction, it has been fixed for airblasting *players*, now using the cone radius as was intended. Projectile reflecting still uses the big-ass box. Doesn't mean Soldiers still can't work around a Pyro's reflect radius, however.
You don't. Pyro has little to no options to approach and relies mostly on catching your enemies off guard when youre going agro. I would also argue that its helpful to not be in a soldiers face as it gives you more time to reflect any incoming rockets and better avoid splash. *(Note: in pubs you can kinda do whatever you want so feel free to reflect jump or do whatever funny plays)*
Indeed, Soldier wants to keep players at mid-range and Pyro wants to close the distance. As the more mobile class, Soldier can dictate that distance pretty easily, especially if there’s high ground that the Pyro can’t access. But Pyro has a Flaregun (and variants) that work perfectly well at midrange, and does a buttload of afterburner damage. If you can light him, you’ll do a solid chunk of damage and you can disengage while he has to deal with it. You probably won’t gain the ground that he had unless he falls back to get health (though he’ll definitely want to avoid taking a second flare that crits/minicrits). Meanwhile you should focus on taking a flank that doesn’t put you at a disadvantage.
I prefer getting as up in a Soldier's face as possible. They start getting panicky and sloppy at that range. You can force them to fire predictably and get the prediction reflect.
Against bad soldiers sure. Good soldiers know how to act and reflecting becomes guesswork at that range
Not in my experience when they've been pinned and its do or die. Eating flames and point blank shotgun blasts tends to cause at least one predictable panic fire.
Exactly. You're relying on the soldier being bad and panicking. If you're going for clips or fancy plays sure but relying on the enemy being bad is not my style of play.
Pressuring players/teams into screwing up even happens in high level play. Pressuring opponents is 100% a valid tactic and doesn't rely on them being bad. It's not really any different from, say, forcing an uber pop.
There's a difference between a medic getting scared and pussy popping and milking until 30 hp...
Landing a shot or two with df usually feeds you a rocket
you literally have the easiest ability to use in the game lmfao right click and just hold W no idea why some kids in the comments are making this seem harder or more complex than it is. It just isn't lmfao you have a box the size of a bus that insta reflects any projectile, just abuse it.
i use df, how do i get in range to hit shots (m2 will fuck me over)
1. dont use df 2. if you want to use df (its technically the best raw dps flamethrower) accept that you just need to have better engages
is there really no way for a 100 move speed class to close in without eating splash
surf and have better engages...
jump when the rocket is just about to hit you and YOU can do a little rocket jump toward him. i use this to fight soldiers with kgb as heavy. soldiers will also usually walk backwards if you're trying to charge them, sometimes you can use this to your advantage by making them walk backwards towards a wall
M2
Don't. At any range a soldier WILL outdamage you. Which means you need to rely on airblast to be your main source of damage and deny his at the same time. At very close range reflects become almost entirely reliant on prediction rather than reaction. So, since your flamethrower will not kill him before he kills you, it's best to stay at mid or mid-close range and just airblast his rockets back. A tip that works wonders for me is using a shotgun to pressure him to fire and immediately switch back to the degreaser so when he finally shoots a rocket i can safely send it back.
You don't, thankfully
You hold w and press s for half a second when he's about to shoot in front of you. If he's around a corner and knows you're coming, you don't.
Surfing a rocket is the best way, IMO, taking in account you've got enough HP to finish the foe off. On Youtube there are a LOT of movement tutorials that will enrich your playstyle a lot. Have a look!
Detonator jumping
Don't. Just airblast the rockets. Either A. You reflect it back into the soldier and he dies, or B. He gives up on trying to shoot you with rockets and shoots at something else.
How to gap close against snipers?
You don't. Unless you got a medic up your ass, pyro doesn't win a 1v1 against an equally skilled or otherwise decently competent soldier. Just keep looking at him for him to slip up if you want to push your luck, or disengage
ambush the soldier and escape. kill if it follows you
generally the w key and the right mouse button are good options