...So the Backburner is now worthless?

With the hit detection being terrible, its rearcrits were never that reliable, and its airblasts are more expensive than the flamethrower's. The damage boost was needed to bring it above vanilla, and with that gone, there's no real reason to use it.

I'm glad that there's actually a point to using the vanilla flamethrower now, but the Backburner needs something new. I agree that a damage buff is sort of an unimaginative solution, but its main draw - the rearcrits - don't work when they should most of the time.

Pyro Reserve Shooter is a cool idea though. Do you think it'll just become multiclass like the Pain Train, or will they make a pyro-themed equivalent? Because the Reserve Shooter does not really fit, thematically, with the Pyro's other equips.

It isn't cross compatible, but if you ever do manage to get back into the PC/Laptop gaming scene TF2 is free on Steam.

They removed the damage boost at the same time that they gave the base flamethrower an equal damage boost. So, since the Backburner works off of the Flamethrower as a base, it's exactly the same as it was, it's just that the base flamethrower is stronger now.. Though if the rearcrits don't work when they should I suppose that's bad.

I have no idea where your rearcrit problems are coming from.

I think it fits more with the airblast ability in general. Better yet, the Reserve Shooter fits in with a combo Pyro, upgrading the skill requirement immensely for this close combat warrior.

They are coming from basic problems with TF2's hit detection. It's the same reason facestabs and things like this happen. It has something to do with the way hits are handled - I forget how it works exactly.

But a lot of the time someone will be running toward me as I'm backing away and my flames won't ignite them despite visibly moving through the opponent; likewise, I won't get crits on somebody that I'm very obviously behind until they've turned a certain angle away from me. It's been the difference between life and death many, many times for me, but until now the damage boost it awards over the regular Flamethrower has made me choose it when I don't feel like using the Degreaser.

EDIT: And Jagos, I don't think you get what I mean.

Thematically, it doesn't fit.

Like, you know how the Demoman gets a bunch of Scotland-themed weapons?

And the Sniper gets outdoorsy-type weapons, and some general Australian flavor?

And you know how the Reserve Shooter is very strongly designed after American military stuff?

The Pyro has nothing to do with American military stuff. His/her stuff is mostly makeshift weaponry and burning items.

What I'm wondering is if they'll give the Pyro the straight-up Reserve Shooter (which makes no sense with his/her theme) or if they'll make an item that works exactly the same, but looks and is named differently.

They may as well. It would tick off people who got Reserve Shooters solely in preparation for the patch going through, but it's not like they haven't done duplicate weapons before (Homewrecker/Maul, Boston Basher/Three Rune Blade). It's just that they were usually for the same class, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I've never had the problem of flames not igniting someone. Might just be latency.

Yeah, unless your ping is within ten milliseconds then you have to consider your flame as shorter than it looks. Although if your ping is high enough you can just put the flame on them once, walk away to burn someone else and then a moment later you'll hear the damage bell from the first guy being on fire.

http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Lag_compensation

Long story short: This has no effect on Pyros, provided they actually have a low ping. Also, the effect apparently goes both ways—I've tailed an Engie before as a Spy once and executed a perfect backstab, sound effects and everything... only to not even deal normal damage to him, because as far as the server itself was concerned, I wasn't near enough to hit him.