I’ll start off with a pretty big statement that might upset a lot of people, and so here it is…

**The Scorch Shot and Detonator are basically the same weapon.**

Yes, I said it. The former deals knockback, while the latter lets you detonate manually (which is huge) and gives better flare jumps. Both deal mini-crits.

And here’s what’s funny… Pyro already has this super useful thing on almost all their flamethrowers called **airblast,** which lets you knock enemies back in any direction you want. So why is Scorch Shot’s knockback suddenly game-breaking and super-annoying to deal with?

For a bit of context, I started in 2014, and back then the annoying combo was Degreaser + Flare Gun + Axtinguisher because of the fast switch speed because you could delete enemies. The Scorch Shot NEVER came up in conversation, and I even personally considered it *the worst* flare gun to equip as Pyro.

Fast forward to today, I get better results with the Detonator. 

I mainly use Degreaser for reflects and Pyro duels, so I need consistent afterburn from range against other classes. Manual detonation gives me a big margin for error. Scorch Shot doesn’t, because it’s like using a rocket launcher, where you have to hit the splash just right.

It’s just less consistent for me.

So, again, where’s all this hate for the Scorch Shot coming from? It’s not even that reliable in practice, and you’ve got better utility with the Detonator anyway.

The Scorch Shot Hate Isn’t Justified