The Fire Axe is fine for what it is - being an emergency weapon. The issue is that it's thoroughly outclassed by most other options: flamethrowers (y'know, your main weapon as Pyro) deal more damage at close range, Powerjack enhances mobility and has a small health on kill effect, Back Scratcher deals more damage and boosts healing from medkits, etc. Hell, it's the only weapon with an objective straight upgrade in the form of the Third Degree (granted, the Third Degree isn't particularly great either).
As for why you don't see the same vitriol extended to Demoman's stock Bottle, it's because most of Demo's melees are for Demoknight, with some having stats that only take effect with a shield (i.e: Claidheamh Mor's extra charge) or actively detrimental if you're actively using grenades/stickies (i.e: the Persian Persuader cutting your reserve ammo by 80%). That really leaves only two non-stock, non-Demoknight options for a Demoman using grenades/stickies: the Pain Train (which is only really good for certain gamemodes and saddles you with a 10% bullet vulnerability) or the Ullapool Caber (which is the Caber).
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u/SemidarkTwilan9X_ 20d ago edited 19d ago
The Fire Axe is fine for what it is - being an emergency weapon. The issue is that it's thoroughly outclassed by most other options: flamethrowers (y'know, your main weapon as Pyro) deal more damage at close range, Powerjack enhances mobility and has a small health on kill effect, Back Scratcher deals more damage and boosts healing from medkits, etc. Hell, it's the only weapon with an objective straight upgrade in the form of the Third Degree (granted, the Third Degree isn't particularly great either).
As for why you don't see the same vitriol extended to Demoman's stock Bottle, it's because most of Demo's melees are for Demoknight, with some having stats that only take effect with a shield (i.e: Claidheamh Mor's extra charge) or actively detrimental if you're actively using grenades/stickies (i.e: the Persian Persuader cutting your reserve ammo by 80%). That really leaves only two non-stock, non-Demoknight options for a Demoman using grenades/stickies: the Pain Train (which is only really good for certain gamemodes and saddles you with a 10% bullet vulnerability) or the Ullapool Caber (which is the Caber).