Crazzee said:
I very much disagree with you there. I play a lot of CTF, and you wouldn't believe how useful it is for making people drop the intel. You have to make sure you know where they're coming from, hide, pop out and crit them to death before they get away. I don't always play Pyro, but when I do I am sure to use the backburner for that reason.
Thing is, the flamethrower does that about a million times better. The only real advantage the BB has is the back crits. Unless you're fighting a train of heavies, they're completely irrelevant, as the flamethrower already has the second highest DPS of any weapon in close range (first being the miniguns). If you catch someone from behind and they don't die, you have failed as a Pyro. The BB doesn't give the good Pyro anything he didn't have before, but does take away something invaluable he did have, the airblast. Not only can you use the airblast for it's "normal" task of reflecting projectiles (which makes you about 80% rocket and grenade proof), but you can even use it to slow down people (immensely useful for a class that relies on very-close range for it's big damage), to send people airborne for a guaranteed flare hit (particularly useful if you already set them on fire for the mini-crit afterburn. Puff + airblast + Flare will insta-kill a scout if he's not very close to an healthpack), to put team mate's fires out so they don't die (particularly useful to save medics) AND to push people away if you need to make run for it. And you're trading all of that for something you didn't need to begin with back crits.
Speaking of which:
Crazzee said:
And I must ask, how is the Force-a-Nature a so-called "Noob" weapon? I see reasons for the backburner and the huntsman, but what's so "noobish" about higher damage with knock back and less ammo? It's a pretty damned good tradeoff if you ask me.
The FaN is the same thing. It facilitates something a good Scout doesn't need help with at all (close range kills) as a trade off for something he does (adaptability). A good Scout with the scattergun already wrecks your shit at close range. That's what Scouts do. The 5% or 10% or so extra damage from the FaN is meaningless to a good Scout that will take down individual targets at that range very fast anyways. As a trade off the FaN can only cause that 2-shot spike damage before it forces you to reload, and has a much bigger spread. In fights against multiple opponents, your best bet is for them to suck and not hit you. A FaN Scout with half decent aim will need to run up to an enemy, two shot them quickly, and he's out for the reload. A good scattergun Scout will be able to two-shot the same enemy from a bit further away and still have 3 rounds left before needing to reload.
That's not even accounting for enemies the FaN can't two-shot, like heavies, or overhealed "assault" classes, or even any class from slightly further away, but the scattergun CAN kill before needing to reload.
BB and the FaN are essentially the same thing: They give you something competent players in that class don't need to begin with, as a trade off for things only good players can make use of.