Why aren't there more pickaxe upgrades?

[Blazbo Babbins]

There's only 2 for the power attack and I doubt anyone actually chooses anything besides the faster cooldown.

[Mastema]

Why do you want more upgrades? Its just basic tool to mine ore & occasional power slam a bug or two. Weapons are the main dish.

[Blazbo Babbins]

Originally posted by Mastema:

Why do you want more upgrades? Its just basic tool to mine ore & occasional power slam a bug or two. Weapons are the main dish.

Because it could open opportunities for better melee combat rather than just a slow recharging power attack or faster mining.

[JeanneOskoure]

More damage is better against the enemies that matter. Besides, I don't use my power attack every 20s, so the recharge upgrade is useless to me.

Regarding your main topic, Devs don't want the melee combat to be important. It's the same reason why we'll never see a melee primary/secondary weapon.

[BaronVonNapking]

I only choose faster charge rate on scout.

Maybe an upgrade that makes gold 1 hit?

[76561199455560242]

CD is alright but it doesn't really compete with the other 2. You get 33% faster charge, but give up double area or double damage. The chances of you using/needing it right off cooldown is situational, but further diminishes the power the longer you wait.

The AoE effect is actually very good since you can chunk larger groups of enemies such as swarmers, grunts, naedocytes, etc. The extra damage isn't as good IMO, but can be good as a dedicated single-target against larger enemies.

Why it doesn't have more upgrades I can only assume it would change the balance too much. It's good enough as a simple attack with a bit of flavor choices. Maybe they will revisit it one day.

[Winter]

There is sorta a melee build tho, cyro driller w/ quick freeze OC, vampire perk and extra drill damage. Not haz 5 meta, but fun and totally playable.

[BaronVonNapking]

Originally posted by Winter:

There is sorta a melee build tho, cyro driller w/ quick freeze OC, vampire perk and extra drill damage. Not haz 5 meta, but fun and totally playable.

The drills are a viable weapon in haz5 on their own without the cryo gun (as in, they don't need to be build around to be good)...

Example 1. The rock bug event (that I don't remember the name of, it's the one where everyone goes wild with pickaxes)

I never pick up the blue things and actually leave them on the ground for my team mates while I myself go jumping in drills out deleting bugs.

Works real well

Example 2.
Swarmers, jellies, shredders.

Example 3.
Stragglers... after having taken out an entire pod of enemies and there's about 3 left you can use your drills to gain some quick health.

Example 4.
It spreads fear and removes armor.
Meaning you can make things stop looking at you...

Example 5.
I have two buttons on the side of my mouse set to equiping my movement utility tool and quickly go back to the main gun.

So sometimes they're just a neat little tool for getting away or removing a single mactera...

Ergo, we have melee class at home.

[mello]

I enjoy the double damage upgrade, feels good to delete almost half of an Oppressor's HP.

[BaronVonNapking]

Originally posted by mello:

I enjoy the double damage upgrade, feels good to delete almost half of an Oppressor's HP.

Double barrel pickaxe when?

[SCamp]

Only two useful universally ones IMO are more damage (useful for one-shotting guards and slashers) and Quick Charge (more utility, combine with Berserk and/or quick charge beer for a smoother emergency digging, good for Gunner/Scout/Engie).

The AoE one might have been fine for Scout, but Scout finally has enough AoE options in his kit. Really only necessary if you need AoE when using a pure/near pure single-target build.

[Ser Pounce]

Originally posted by Slurpza:

Originally posted by Mastema:

Why do you want more upgrades? Its just basic tool to mine ore & occasional power slam a bug or two. Weapons are the main dish.

Because it could open opportunities for better melee combat rather than just a slow recharging power attack or faster mining.

The devs don't want better melee combat.

[Cursed Hawkins]

Originally posted by Slurpza:

Originally posted by Mastema:

Why do you want more upgrades? Its just basic tool to mine ore & occasional power slam a bug or two. Weapons are the main dish.

Because it could open opportunities for better melee combat rather than just a slow recharging power attack or faster mining.

And discussion ends right here, if you're that fixated on melee combat then DRG probably isn't your cup of tea in this department.

[Strandly]

I pick the +area perk on all of my toons so I can wipe out the ground or electric floater swarms that get in my face.

[Chibbity]

Scout: Cooldown.
Driller+Engi: AOE.
Gunner: Power.

[Blazbo Babbins]

Originally posted by Cursed Hawkins:

Originally posted by Slurpza:

Because it could open opportunities for better melee combat rather than just a slow recharging power attack or faster mining.

And discussion ends right here, if you're that fixated on melee combat then DRG probably isn't your cup of tea in this department.

I bought this game a year ago because VT2 was getting stale