The pyro mentality

you are not a god

You vs. The soldier / demo

You vs. the flank

Summary

Although I touched on this briefly in the last section, I would like to take this time to just talk about what should go through your head when you play pyro.yes you are important, and yes, you can be the factor to change the tide of battle, but you are not the god of all that is TF2. You are actually one of the more vulnerable classes, a single soldier rocket or demo pipe can practically kill you, two well placed scatter gun shots will bring you to your knees, and at a distance, you are virtually a flopping dildo just begging to be picked by a sniper. The way you counter act these shortcomings is by playing safe, and knowing how to airblast. In other words, don't mindlessly charge some one if you know they can kill you. Fire is intimidating sure, but not so intimidating when a moron w+m1's (the terminology of holding down the W key and mouse 1) his way across the battlefield toward you, it just makes you look stupid.This is where it gets complicated, yes you can reflect a rocket and do considerable damage to a soldier, but if he lands just two of his rockets, he has practically killed you. Same goes for you, if you land two reflects, then you have practically killed him. So now the question arises, how do I garuantee that I will be the one to kill him? Other than just raw reaction, you need to play mind games with him. For example, If you charge him with your flames going, his first instinct is to fire immediatley, to kill as fast as possible so he doesn't take any damage, if you can reflect his rocket right out of ending your spray, then you will have most likely landed the reflect, and you will now have the upperhand. There is a lot more to the mind games, but it all boils down to reading your opponent and acting before he can read you. It is also important to keep in mind that at a certain range, your airblasts can only be 100% reactional, in other words, you will have to predict when he will fire the rocket, instead of waiting for him to fire first.By flank i mean classes like the scout, the sniper, or even the spy. A good scout will try and bait you into his team, a good spy will simply try and put as much distance between you and him so he can land significant damage with his revolver, and the sniper will just flat out try to headshot you. This is where playing like an ambush comes in handy. If you can catch any of these three of guard, and put them into a corner with either your airblasts, or with your movement, then you can finish them off easily. 2 of these 3 classes rely on movement to escape you, and all 3 require range to actually kill you. So, reduce range, and stop their movement, and you have just earned yourself a pick.TL:DR: Don't be an idiot, and play smarter than the classes you are working against. Play it safe and with your team, and your team will back you up.