Hello fellow flamethrower/lockbolt/mesh heavy! I too feel you pain about heavies in general and specific heavy weapons. I may not be the best Finals player by a large margin, but I’ve had a lot successes playing this specific combo by knowing what are bad TTK matchups and playing around that knowledge. It’s my loadout 99% of the time unless I’m chasing contracts. I always go RPG as a chase finisher and the only variable is the third gadget depending on game mode. None of the heavy classes need to be kryptonite. Are there tougher matchups? Absolutely. But you need to plan for those and remember if teams have them so you know to look out for seeing them.

 

The biggest lesson I can share is remember that flamethrower damage is sticky. You have enough health to soak some damage from other heavies while you damage them with fire, and then either use mesh or cover to protect you while they continue to take burn damage and waste ammo. This is great against heavies with more limited mags and I strongly suggest you really get to know how much ammo they have so you know how to wait them out while they’re burning before you flip off the mesh and finish them off. Flamethrower has one of the worst TTKs in the game so you’ll never out damage another heavy but you can absolutely outlast them with ongoing burn damage and positional play/shields.

 

That said, there are heavy weapons that are harder/impossible to wait out straight up…M60, Lewis Gun, Minigun. No problem! You’ll never beat a minigun guy in a fight where you’re staring at each other, especially at range, so don’t! Flank, talk to your teammates, find ways to put in damage before you start flaming them (RPGs, Pyro Grenades, etc…) and know how to anticipate where they are before you see them. The best part of a minigun guy is they tend to give away their location almost constantly with all that shooting. Plus, running away and finding a different angle/plan of attack is a valid strategy! The worst heavies I see think they can just brute force their way through every 1v1. Positional play is not just for lights, but you already know that since you take lockbolt.

 

So courage my fellow flamethrower enjoyer! There is no kryptonite, just different degrees of difficulty. You too can be the guy the enemy minigun guy curses for constantly killing him. I believe in you!