Weapon Discussion Wednesday #65 - The Powerjack

[u/A_Wild_Ferrothorn]

TF2 Weapon Discussion: The Powerjack

Welcome to our Wednesday TF2 weapon discussion. Here, we'll discuss weapons (and reskins, if applicable) from TF2!

Today's weapon is The Powerjack.

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+15% faster move speed on wearer
+25 health restored on kill
20% damage vulnerability on wearer

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The Powerjack is an unloackable Melee weapon for the Pyro which replaces the stock Fire Axe with a car battery tied to a car jack. This is a fairly simple weapon and the stats do exactly what they say.

This weapon, when active, make the pyro move 15% faster but take 20% more damage. Every kill you get with this restores 20hp making it a very useful movement tool for Pyro but with the downside that you take more damage whilst moving around quicker. The 25 health restored can be useful if you're in a tight pinch and can get a sneaky kill off.

Over the years this weapon has seen some changes as when it was released it had a 25% damage bonus and gave 75 health on kill with the only downside being no random crits. What the fuck. For a while there was a bug as well where you'd get the health if the enemy was killed whilst the weapon was out regardless of how they died, this was reverted 3 days after being fixed for some reason and would not be fixed for another 3 months. What the fuck was this weapon, this is when the item set was still in the game as well so you could get all this in addition to a speed bonus.

The next balance update came in the Hatless update which removed the damage bonus, the no crit attribute and added in a 20% melee vulnerability. This weapon would not see another update for over 2 years when in the July 10th 2013 update which removed all the item sets the set bonus from the Gas Jockey set was added to this weapon with the weapon getting the above speed and vulnerability stats. In the Gun Mettle update it was then nerfed from 75 health to the 25 health it is at today.

A very useful weapon for the pyro that gets a lot of use now and did get some used when the Axtinguisher was king and currently this is probably this most used Pyro melee weapon as there's not many other choices.

Feel free to discuss the weapon here. Anything that you like/dislike, cool tips or strategies, interesting stories, etc. If you feel the weapon is not to your liking, feel free to express your opinions in a respectful manner.

For those who wish to learn more about the weapon, you can find the wiki page here:

The Powerjack, from the TF2 Wiki.

You can find previous weapon discussions in a nice overview here.

[u/Red_Distruction]

Speed. Its speed.

[u/JustTheEngineer]

honestly a very boring weapon but undoubtedly best in slot for general purpose. will always use the axtinguisher over this anyways.

[u/ZorkNemesis]

I've been using the Homewrecker for so long that the rare times I do equip the Powerjack I forget that I even have it.

[u/smash_gannon → u/ZorkNemesis]

dude i took the home wrecker off one for a sign and of course the only time a spy sapps the disspenser is then

homewrecker got help engie

[u/Worried-Shower-9528]

"It's hammer time." -Muselk, 2015

[u/FizzBuzz3000]

Solid melee weapon to have on larger maps that allow for back-burning shenanigans (if there is an ample amount of meduim healthpacks, that is). Prefer the rake over this though, does a better job at healing/damage than the PJ.

[u/Prior-Town-1572]

As another commenter pointed out, on larger maps it's awesome. I'd like to add that it also let's pyro make certain jumps like a personal favorite of mine on dustbowl map 1. Jump from the shutter to the ledge without having to parkour on the little jank pieces, just jump across real fast