Quick Recommendation: The Bat and the Holy Mackerel are solid, but he Candy Cane has a nice bonus.

The Bat
Known by the loud ‘ping’ it makes as it connects with an enemies skull, the Bat is still a solid choice.

Sandman
The Sandman does the same damage as the bat, and can also launch a baseball at enemies that stuns them on contact, but lowers your max health by 15 when carried. After several updates that reduced the stun power, it’s now hard to get enough use out of the sandman to justify the health penalty. The sandman also give the scout a kill taunt. Can be gained from achievements, and purchased for $0.99.

The Holy Makerel
The cosmetic upgrade to the Bat, the Holy mackerel also announces every successful hit on players. Can be crafted by combining a Sandman with Reclaimed Metal, or purchased for $4.99

The Candy Cane
When carrying the Candy Cane, a small health pack is dropped every time you get a kill, no mater if you used a gun or the Candy Cane to get the kill. Extremely handing for topping up health and putting out fires, but causes you to be 25% more vulnerable to explosive damage. Watch out for soldiers! Can be crafted from a Kritzkrieg and a Pain Train, or purchased for $2.49.

The Boston Basher
A high risk/reward weapon. On hit you do the same damages as you would with the bat, AND the enemy bleeds for 5 seconds. But if you miss, you hit yourself. Good for sneak attacks. In my mind, it will help you kill noobs/newbs even quicker, but be a disadvantage when fighting skilled players. Combine a Sandman and a Tribalman’s Shiv to get one, or purchase for $2.49

Sun-On-A-Stick
The Stun-On-A-Stick is unique as one of the first promotional items that you will also be able to get from crafting. Besides looking awesome, the SoS doesn’t have much going for it. You get a damage bonus vs players who are already on fire, but 5 less base damage vs all others.

Quick Recommendation: Use the Pain Train when you will be capturing or pushing the cart, the Equalizer otherwise.

The Shovel
The soldier’s original melee weapon, now relegated to dust collection. Not that there’s anything wrong with the shovel, but the alternatives are simply too powerful.

The Frying Pan
A promotional item for owners of Left 4 Dead 2, the frying pan is a purely cosmetic upgrade. It deals out exactly the same damage as the shovel, but with a good deal more noise. The Pan can’t be crafted, and is therefore rather expensive to trade for.

The Equalizer
The Equalizer gains strength and boosts speed as you are injured. It’s like gaining superpowers for those last ditch efforts. Be warned that at full health you deal less damage than you would with the shovel. Also, when the Equalizer is in your hand, it prevents you from being healed or urbercharged. Since neither of the above are situations where you should be using your melee weapon, it’s barely a downside. The Equalizer can be purchased for $1.99, but is one of the more common weapons and inexpensive to trade for.

The Pain Train
Extremely useful as it doubles your control point capture rate and the rate at which you push the cart. Be warned that the cost for this is an extra 10% of damage from all bullets. If you’re getting owned by scouts or heavies, this is not the weapon to use. But if you can manage to stay alive long enough to get on the point or to the cart, you can be a huge credit to your team. The Pain Train can be cheaply acquired through trading, and can be crafted by combining a sandman and scrap metal. Or you can be that guy and pay 99 cents for it in the store.

Now we have the opposite problem. In addition to crafting, we now have the option to trade weapons, or to buy them in the Mann store. With the overabundance of options, it’s hard to decide which weapons are worth having, and what is the best way to acquire them. In the coming days, I’ll be reviewing what weapons are available, and giving some advice on TF2 item strategy. Stay tuned!

The Force-A-Nature
+50% faster firing speed
Knockback on the target and shooter
+20% bullets per shot
-10% damage done
-60% clip size

Bonk! Atomic Punch

The Sandman
This bat knocks out a mean stun ball
-15 health on wearer

Soldier

The Direct hit
+25% Damage Done
+80% projectile speed
Mini-crits airborne targets
-70% explosion radius

The buff Banner
Doing damage increases rage
When rage bar is full, you can buff all close teammates with mini-crits

The Equalizer
Damge and move speed increases as the user becomes injured

Pyro

the backburner 100% Critical hits from behind
No Compression blast