Yup.
Fucked up.
I'm really considering switching back to the normal flamethrower now. Which means I won't be using ANY of the unlockables.
Good job, Valve: You just nerfed the only pyro unlockable of any consistent usefulness.

FINALLY! POS Pyro bitches. The regular flamethrower has always been better with the compression blast.

How the hell do you figure that?

Maybe we're talking a difference in maps here, but in 2Fort I've found the flaregun and fireaxe to be close to useless. Neither help you if you or the enemy is in water, and neither are particularly useful against other pyros. Those two points are why I've opted to stay with the shotgun and normal axe; they're both much more viable in general and don't require a specific environment to be effective.

As for the backburner nerf, I'm an avid ambusher/flanker, as many medics would cringe while admitting, so the guaranteed crit is awesome. But when you're trying to get [b]to[/b] the medic or other specific target, you need to live long enough to get there. The +50 health REALLY helped with this. With that now gone, the only "new" feature that might help is the compression blast to throw off the enemy's aim. And that's why I'm really considering going back to the normal thrower. You don't necessarily need to crit-burn them to death if you can at least scare them enough to prematurely throw up their uber. And you need to get close to do that.

P.S.
As for pyros rushing... they always have. And they've always died. Just like they still do now. If you don't want pyros rushing then you should be against the compression blast more than +50 health. One deflected rocket that *would* have hit them would have done much more than 50 damage.

They should of probably just changed health bonus to 10 instead of getting rid of it completely.

Sorry but that's BS...
As a pyro who took on heavies, you have to sneak up on them at least most of the way, then manage to circle them and avoid fire long enough for them to go down. If the heavy had his back to the wall, you're screwed. If the heavy saw you coming, you're screwed. If the heavy has a medic you're screwed unless he's really preoccupied with someone else. 50 health doesn't mean jack when you're point-blank with a minigun.

I'd say I have about a 50% success ratio rushing heavies, and that's mostly because I'm pretty decent at ambushing mobs that enter my base in 2Fort. And I was doing it just last night, after they took away the health bonus. The only thing I can't do as well now is make it into the middle of mobs when at least one of them will undoubtedly see me coming.

Come into my base as a heavy and I'll show you how "low" it is.

no cry cry.

you had your time as the dominant class.

I play soldier mostly and we had our time at the top during the beta. Since then they have toned the class down a bunch. Lowered ammo, increased self damage, etc.

Its time for you to adapt to the changes or move on to the next class they power up.

end of story.

Valve giveth and Valve taketh away.