I seem to have terrible timing when trying to reflect rockets, pipes, and arrows. What is the timing that I need to use to reliably reflect these? Is it right before they hit me, or is it further out? Does the distance the projectile is from me matter? Or is the determining factor the amount of time it takes to hit me? (Since DH rockets and arrows are faster than standard rockets, there's a difference between time and distance.) Does lag compensation affect this?
Team Fortress 2 Pyro – How to Reflect Rockets, Arrows, and Grenades Reliably
team-fortress-2tf2-pyro
Related Solutions
You can reflect:
Soldier Rockets (all types)
Pyro Flares (all types)
Demoman Grenades (all types)
Demoman Sticky Bombs (Sticky Bomb Launcher/Scottish Resistance)†
Huntsman arrows (which can headshot enemies) 
Sandman Baseballs- Wrap Assassin Ornaments
- Crusader's Crossbow arrows
- Rescue Ranger bolts (will damage opposing buildings but not repair friendly ones)
- Mad Milk
- Jarate
- Level 3 Sentry Gun Rockets
When you reflect projectiles they are promoted to minicrits (if they weren't), change sides with your team and ownership to you (with the exception (†) of stickies). This means, however, that they will still do splash damage to you should they explode too close. As for stickies You can still push those off points and doors, however, or even push them below the demoman's feet.
You cannot reflect:
- Hitscan shots — anything which is a “bullet” and appears as streaks rather than projectiles
- Syringe Gun needles
- Bison and Pomson projectiles (you can reflect Cow Mangler beams, however.)
I've not heard of W+1 specifically, but the more common W+M1 refers to holding W and the primary mouse button (typically with the primary weapon) to run forward spewing fire. They seem to mean the same thing according to the photo notes on #79 and #87, on the W+1 speech bubbles.
It's a common offensive strategy effective with ÜberCharges, but also one that's stereotypically associated with new/bad players (or players new to the Pyro).
You may hear W+M1 in other FPS games too.
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Best Answer
The compression blast range appears to be slightly shorter than the range of your actual flamethrower, from personal experience. You can compression them anywhere within that range and you'll reflect. The angle that it gets reflected back at is dependent on where your cross-hairs are aimed when you hit the compression blast.
Additionally, for grenades, there appears to be some determining factor with return velocity depending on your distance from them. I can't find a lot of info about that though.
Rockets will travel indefinitely until they hit an object. Arrows seem to function similarly to grenades, but less noticeably so due to their natural high speed and lack of "bounce".
In regards to lag compensation, the compression blast is NOT lag compensated. You're going to have a harder time reflecting rockets / grenades / arrows if your lag is higher, especially when dealing with the higher velocity ones like the Direct Hit rockets and arrows.
Edit: As per the link in the comments, edited the above to indicate that the compression blast is NOT lag compensated.
It's hard to say "when" you should compression blast. It's a function of distance and velocity, rather than time from fire. With any projectile, it's nearly impossible to reflect at short range without some sort of luck / godly reaction speed. At longer distances, the Direct Hit and arrows can still be relatively difficult to reflect. Again, it's about the distance, not the time before it hits. The best way to get a feel for it is to play it and learn it intrinsically, not go by a paradigm that there's a hard rule for timing it based on seconds.