Pyro

[trentman]

Is pyro viable since 2.0, and if so how is it for pve/pvp. Mostly pvp.

[mandoforlife]

For PvP, not really. Arsenal is superior both in burst and survivability.

[Gyronamics]

For PVE kinda sorta but in an 8m you might be the only possible armour debuffer.

 

Problem with that is without an armour debuff Pyro isn't competitive with Arsenal so if you're the only one who can debuff you need to be Arsenal.

 

Arsenal has 3 passive damage absorbing/reducing skills that work on everything plus a fast CD on shield and 2% more healing received.

 

Pyro has 2% more dodge chance on melee/ranged (5% to 7%) and 30% less DoT damage after you cleanse the DoT (ahahaha...)

 

Basically Pyro is a sack of useless vaguely PVP talents which are less useful than the all round and flat out better in both PVE and PVP talents in Arsenal.

 

Back to PVP again Pyro has the enourmous disadvantage of being a caster which can be crippled at both ends.

 

The self-buffing and Railshot targeting DoT can be cleansed and the PS cast can be easily interrupted with very very few alternatives to use when the cast is locked, none of which really bother or threaten anyone (ooooh a rocket punch with no root). Arsenal has a reputation for Tracer spamming but its not true anymore, it switches very frequently to HSM, Unload and RS and the debuff for RS cannot be cleansed.

 

Pyro has no advantage whatsoever over Arsenal and the only reason to play Pyro is "just because".

Edited May 17, 2013 by Gyronamics

[Macroeconomics]

In 1.7 Pyro was superior to Arsenal for PvP purposes. A few players (myself included) still used it. The only one who did use it were high skill veterans. So the meta averages for Pyro were quite high. Ergo it got nerfed. Meanwhile, no one was using Arsenal. So BW finally figured out it needed help. Fast forward to 2.0 - Pyro is now basically unused. Which means that in 3-4 months of continued non-use, BW may notice and buff it. But for now, it is clearly the worst subclass in the game.