What's all this machete stuff?

I admit it, swinging a machete is freakin' awesome, but why do I seem to see a lot of people using it? The machete gets mentions in all kinds of threads, not least of all the "UberSniper" poem, and everyone seems to act like it's a star among melee weapons, right after the Bonesaw.

Are machete-swinging Snipers really all that common? I mean, you've got pretty low health, and you've got a perfectly good machine gun.

Well it always counts for the AWESOME factor, as the fire axe does. And you can feel like 1337.

That machine gun is pretty far from "perfectly good." You'll have a hard time killing anyone with it if they're not already at low health. With the machete, you've always got a reasonable chance at pulling off a one-hit KO on most classes.

If the bonesaw and machete are star melee weapons, it's not likely because they're any better than the rest, but more because the classes that use them can't count on their other weapons to be of much help in a close range fight.

I'm also under the impression these classes have a higher crit chance with their melee weapon, I know I get more crits with machete and bonesaw than with other melee weapons.

When you're on the 2fort battlements and a scout is running across the roof at you--imagine you are a bad shot like the rest of us--then how are you going to defend yourself? He double jumps over onto the same side as you are, and you whip out your machete. If you stand just right, you can deny him access to the battlements, but now you can also swat him away (and it feels wonderful) like a fly. When it crits, it is much more satisfying =)

Because melee weapons are fun.

Because the machete is made entirely of distilled awesome.

Also it helps you when you're a spy/pyro/ambusher I find. You have to learn to sneak around because the sniper has low health, low speed and no shotty to help him out. He tends to be a high priority target too as he often makes a lot of enemies. It's also a really fun way to screw around and have fun on 2fort (or other maps, but I always seem to end up screwing around on 2fort).

I thought I read somewhere that the bonesaw has a slightly higher crit chance. Is it the same with the machete? 

I thought a test someone did showed that the machete did, on average, 10 or more points of damage than other weapons.

And bonesaw is, yes, the supposed crit chance.

Quote:

It has the same damage range as the other melee weapons (except for the knife and bat) and is 6th in the list of average damage from Steam. That test probably isn't the most accurate.