Firebug only viable option?

[Waryn]

I noticed for several days now that on every server I join if I don't go firebug, especially now as level 5, almost always everyone dies on 1st wave but surely in the next 3-4 waves.

Also I can rarely see any other firebugs at all, I guess people were disinterested after they saw they burn themselves.

I would really like to play commando now because of the slow-downs but it is really hard if you always have to play as firebug to keep everyone alive.

It is silly that you can't carry bullpup as firebug, that way I could switch to kill stalkers.

P.S.
I bought the Team Fortress 2 so I can have the Pyro costume, what a scam..

 

[Spoony]

I noticed for several days now that on every server I join if I don't go firebug, especially now as level 5, almost always everyone dies on 1st wave but surely in the next 3-4 waves.

Also I can rarely see any other firebugs at all, I guess people were disinterested after they saw they burn themselves.

I would really like to play commando now because of the slow-downs but it is really hard if you always have to play as firebug to keep everyone alive.

It is silly that you can't carry bullpup as firebug, that way I could switch to kill stalkers.

P.S.
I bought the Team Fortress 2 so I can have the Pyro costume, what a scam..

Most people who doesn't play firebug knows tht the flame blinds sharpshooters and make them hard to xbow bigger targets...And try easy-normal if your team keeps dying...

 

[C_Gibby]

What a bad post.

The Pyro playermodel is hardly a scam. YOU bought it. You didn't HAVE to. Even though you don't play TF2, why did you want a TF2 Pyro playermodel so badly? This was talked about in another thread you posted in, complaining about the "scam." The price for TF2 isn't that much compared to other games. It's a popular game, anyway.

Firebug hardly keeps everyone alive. You need to play with a better team. I've played and won many games with no firebug whatsoever. Firebug shouldn't be tailored to use a commando weapon, i.e. the bullpup. If you wanna use a bullpup, play as a commando, which is the perk the weapon is assigned to. If you use unperked weapons, they nearly always suck aside from a couple of exceptions. Tell me why the concept of not being able to use a weapon that doesn't fit for your current class is silly.

People can't be disinterested in burning themselves. You have to be playing pretty poorly as firebug if you keep burning yourself all the time. Keep your distance from the ZEDs as much as you can.

I'll assume by "slow-downs" you mean "ZED-time."

 

[Waryn]

Most people who don't play firebug know that the flame blinds sharpshooters and make them hard to xbow bigger targets...And try easy-normal if your team keeps dying...

Actually, the only difficulty I played so far is hard, from the very beginning. I'm really not interested in playing below that, I always choose second hardest difficulty in any game from the beginning.

And what you say is not true at all, if anything firebug makes shooting easier for other players because a lot of areas on every map are dark and I shoot short puffs, not continuous bursts.

You have to be playing pretty poorly as firebug if you keep burning yourself all the time.

Reading comprehension? I said that might be the reason why there are not many firebugs, referring obviously to other people not me.

 

[C_Gibby]

Actually, the only difficulty I played so far is hard, from the very beginning. I'm really not interested in playing below that, I always choose second hardest difficulty in any game from the beginning.

And what you say is not true at all, if anything firebug makes shooting easier for other players because a lot of areas on every map are dark.

You have a lot to learn.

Just because you're good at other games doesn't make you good at KF at all, aside from maybe shooting, but then again, if you can click a desktop icon, you can get a headshot.

Go and play normal, at least. You could also take a look at the community guide made in co-operation of many other experienced players right here.

Reading comprehension? I said that might be the reason why there are not many firebugs, referring obviously to other people not me.

If your first identified negative point of the firebug is "burning yourself" It's obvious that you have no idea of the real advantages and disadvantages of playing firebug. It kinda implies that you burn yourself a lot.

 

[Spicy]

The fire only blinds sharpshooters if you're standing right next to them and holding down mouse1. Just tap mouse1 - pause - tap - pause - tap - pause. You'll conserve your ammo and not interfere with the visibility of other players.

 

[Waryn]

Also bullpup is of the same size as MAC-10 so there is that...

 

[noupperlobeman]

I noticed for several days now that on every server I join if I don't go firebug, especially now as level 5, almost always everyone dies on 1st wave but surely in the next 3-4 waves.

Also I can rarely see any other firebugs at all, I guess people were disinterested after they saw they burn themselves.

I would really like to play commando now because of the slow-downs but it is really hard if you always have to play as firebug to keep everyone alive.

It is silly that you can't carry bullpup as firebug, that way I could switch to kill stalkers.

P.S.
I bought the Team Fortress 2 so I can have the Pyro costume, what a scam..

Thats what happens to me if I don't play medic. The team usually gets destroyed.

Funny thing happens when I play firebug though. 9/10 times its pretty obvious that someone has looked at the scoreboard, and realized that I have roughly double everyone else's kills (I know thats not a good indicator in this game, but they dont ) and they decide they are going to roll with a flamethrower too.

Its usually a sharpshooter or a medic. Seconds into the wave they end up getting surrounded and set themselves on fire, and burned alive. I chuckle into the mic and tell them if they want to use a flamethrower to switch to firebug.

 

[Waryn]

here.

That's all common sense, you might wanna direct that to people who have problems with logic and critical thinking, not me.

 

[C_Gibby]

Also bullpup is of the same size as MAC-10 so there is that...

What do you mean by "size?"

The MAC-10 itself is a machinepistol that can be held in one hand and the bullpup is an assault rifle; they both function in completely different ways.

You gotta understand game balance. There's a reason why the MAC-10 weighs 1Kg less compared to the bullpup, the main one being that the bullpup is better to handle, it's more accurate and controllable and plainly more versatile.

That's all common sense, you might wanna direct that to people who have problems with logic and critical thinking, not me.

I laugh in your face. Look at the way you post on this forum. You obviously didn't read the whole thing through, anyway.

 

[Waryn]

Seconds into the wave they end up getting surrounded and set themselves on fire, and burned alive. I chuckle into the mic and tell them if they want to use a flamethrower to switch to firebug.

LOL, I saw that couple of times, I usually have more kills than all the players combined, so I would see other classes get flamers and being a total ineffectual nuisance.
Actually, I'm seeing a lot of people using weapons outside their class. Maybe they just miss the class icons or something, it takes getting used to.

 

[C_Gibby]

LOL, I saw that couple of times, I usually have more kills than all the players combined, so I would see other classes get flamers and being a total ineffectual nuisance.
Actually, I'm seeing a lot of people using weapons outside their class. Maybe they just miss the class icons or something, it takes getting used to.

I'd suggest getting into a clan or playing with buddies to get away from all that rubbish.

 

[Waryn]

I think I would have to do that. Today was especially bad, server after server wiped out after scrakes show up, firebug can kill most of the stuff and even scrakes with full auto MAC-10 in the head, but me switching to MAC-10 to kill scrakes means no more crowd control and everything then fails.

 

[Gartley]

This thread has me at a complete loss, either Waryn is trolling (most likly) or one of the more clueless players around at the moment. Heck maybe even both.

But on a more constructive note;
I find it hard to believe that 'every' server is like that, ok with the influx of new players on the harder servers makes for a more 'intersting' game. I have been on plenty of servers where we have completed the game (often long hard) without much in the way of problems.

As a sharpshooter I find the flames of the FB an absolute pain, even the demo's smoke clouds don't bother me nearly as much as the flames do. But that's just me.

 

[Undedd Jester]

...

Sorry I'm just gonna have to take a second... I never thought I'd see "Firebug" and "Only Option" in the same sentence

...

Anyway now that I've recovered formt eh shock, the problem is now everyone likes taking on the big guns. I myself see nothing but Support Spec, Demo's and Sharpshooters nowadays because these are the most effective at dealing with Scrakes and Pounds.

The problem with this mentality is that the other classes are needed to mop up the small stuff. The role of the Commando is to eliminate threats that other classes won't see that may wreak havoc with their defences, such as clots, gorefasts, stalkers and crawlers.You need to cover your teams back as a Commando. Firebug is used to slow down foes and weaken/beat back the horde when there is a large pool of foes. He is best served beating back mobs and weakening foes from afar.

A good team needs a Commando or a Firebug to hold the smaller foes at bay, the Firebug just doesn't need to aim as precisely at the cost of taking longer to kill enemies without requiring more ammo.

Practise with the Commando, his large stockpile of ammuntion and rapid fire makes him very adept at holding back mobs the same as the Firebug. Being a Firebug myself I'd say the FB takes less skill, but requires you to think more, whereas Commando doesn't need as much thought, but you do have to aim more carefully.

 

[Darkwave]

Wanna play firebug? Pause , select perk , Firebug
Wanna play Commando? Pause , select perk , Commando

And if people doesn't play firebug , what do you care? It's their choice , not yours.

 

[-[SiN]-bswearer]

using firebug on hard+ before you've earned the perk bonus that makes you immune to fire damage would be ill-advised. i believe you get that at level3??? anyway, once you hit level5 and spawn with a flamethrower, and even better once you hit 6 and spawn w/armor and Mac10, the perk is a good one to start matches with. you can rack up decent kills and cash in the opening waves and if you are a good player, as a level6 you can keep your armor at full for the first 3-4 waves if you switch perks. that's what i'll do since zerker no longer spawns with armor in suicidal or HoE.....take firebug, full armor at the start, kill some with the Mac10 on the first wave, get a flamethrower for 2 and 3, then switch to a better perk.

can the firebug be effective in later waves? yes. on most maps, is it more effective at mopup than commandos/supports? no. is the perk vital to team success? by all means NO. the worst thing you can do in maps where your team is using the camping/funneling strategy is using a perk like firebug or demo and blind your teammates with fire and smoke. if SS can't see husks, FP/Scrakes, and the others can't see anything at all, they're just shooting in the dark.

 

[noupperlobeman]

One thing people seem to be missunderstanding:

He is saying that it seems like any time he is not a firebug the team doesn't do as well as when he is. These are his observations. You can't call someones personal experiences false unless they present them as fact, which he does not.

Except for the one part. NVM...

 

[Salad Snake]

I think a lot of you are misreading OP's post. What OP means is that the team always wipes when he plays something other then Firebug, and only survives when he chooses Firebug. He wants to play Commando (apparently for the Zed-time extensions) but is forced to play Firebug because he doesn't want the team to wipe. Basically, it's the Medic Conundrum, only with Firebug (of all perks... ).


All I have to say is that Firebug has long been the most superfluous perk in the game, to have it be "essential" for a team in any player's opinion is a triumph of the balance changes (the ones before beta) and a testament to how useful Firebug has become with the inclusion of the Mac-10. Not that the flamethrower is not also extremely useful, but I think the reason the Mac-10 has made Firebug so powerful is that not only can they do much more point-damage now, but also that they no longer have the ammo scarcity problems they used to. Add the ability to light zeds at infinite range and you have quite the useful class indeed.



Also, I find fire to be much less blinding then Demo smoke...it's much more transparent after all.

 

[Waryn]

I think a lot of you are misreading OP's post. What OP means is that the team always wipes when he plays something other then Firebug, and only survives when he chooses Firebug. He wants to play Commando (apparently for the Zed-time extensions) but is forced to play Firebug because he doesn't want the team to wipe. Basically, it's the Medic Conundrum, only with Firebug (of all perks... ).

It happened 4 times already again since I posted this.

Me not firebug=team wiped out, often on wave 1
Me firebug=team win