In the video, I misspelled it. Sorry. I'm currently working on making a pyro hat out of 75 phlogs.
This weapon is, as far as I'm aware, the most stupidly overpowered thing ever to disgrace the good name of pyros. Perhaps the very worst-balanced weapon Valve has ever implemented, direct upgrades included. For those of you who don't know or don't see what all the fuss is about, allow me to pontificate.
First off, we'll go over the disadvantages, almost none of which impact a bad player in any meaningful way:
- No airblast whatsoever. This is the big one. You can't put out teammates (selfish pyros don't anyways). You can't reflect projectiles (unskilled pyros can't anyways). You can't push enemies off cliffs on the few maps that feature them (dumb pyros don't anyways). You can't do that dumb, cheesy reserve shooter combo (the one good thing about this weapon). Compare the former most OP flamer, the backburner's penalty (3x airblast cost)
- 10% damage penalty. Compare the Degreaser's similar penalty (10% damage penalty + 25% afterburn damage penalty.)
- No random crits. We'll see more about crits in advantages.
- Doesn't flame someone close enough to bump into you (as much), so if a scout drops down directly on your head or you're enough of a noob to get outstrafed, you have to switch to melee. This means that in some ways the best way to kill a phlog user is to go Pyro. I mentioned in another thread that the biggest hallmark of being OP is when the best way to counter a class is to become that same class. Not in the same way, but the phlog does make pyros OP.
Let me briefly mention the advantages of the weapons compared above. The backburner gives you mini-crits on flame damage just for getting behind someone (which adds up to a lot of low-damage mini-crits in a few seconds), and is undeniably cheap but takes a small amount of skill. The Degreaser lets you switch weapons way faster, which can be manipulated for crit combos of varying cheapness but requires you to have some skill and timing and work with your enemy as they change ranges.
Phlog advantages:
- Needlessly arcane and unique backend math so it takes more effort to determine exactly how OP it is
- Less damage falloff due to distance compared to regular flamethrower
- Longer range than regular flamethrower
- Particles begin spaced away from actual weapon for no overlap with melee range and a much further max range. Max range of flamer, for Pyros, is pretty much everything and it's surprising enough that they would ever make a weapon that allows you to continuously flame from further away. The limited range is what makes the W+M1 complaints stupid. In this case it's totally justified.
- The Taunt. Filling your "Mmmmphhh" meter requires that you deal 225 damage (two spies/scouts essentially). I don't know if afterburn damage counts. Doesn't really matter either way because look how retardedly OP this is. Taunt to gain superpowers, like it's VSH or some shit. Just standard flamer taunt, like a second and a half at most.
— Instant full health recharge. Say you badly damaged a heavy (225 damage) and are near death yourself, and you both retreated. You taunt behind something and there, you're ready to go again. Full health. But that's (for some reason) not all!
— 75% damage resistance! If you have a medic overhealing you, you can survive a goddamn telefrag! It's almost an uber but with no medic, let alone a full charge! This DR lasts only for the duration of the taunt, and is essentially a way of saying "no, fuck you, that pyro dealt 225 damage and DESERVES both a guaranteed full heal and the fuckery to follow regardless of how much you attack. This taunt activation is just for style, we don't want them to actually have to be vulnerable for a second."
—- 10 second crit buff. Not mini-crit, full crits. Minus the second it takes to taunt, so, 9 seconds of crits with a phlog after the full heal.
No medic, no Kritzkrieg, no charging time. Just 225 damage. Do 50 more damage than you have health and you get a Rambo powerup with no chance of anyone interrupting you going Super Saiyan.
Every 225 damage an invisible medic flies down with a fully-charged medigun to practically uber and fully heal you while you taunt, then switches to a fully charged kritz and gives it to you. Remember, 9 seconds not including the taunt. That's actually longer than a regular 8-second Kritz uber.
Remember to keep your distance from phlog pyros to avoid feeding them, and always, ALWAYS butcher them until they leave the server.