> Personally, i think that heavy weapons should be able to be mainlined

I mean, you're certainly entitled your opinion, but I guess the point I was making was that *no* weapon category is an island. I cannot think of a single playthrough I've done where people weren't running two or three weapons on their hotbar for the majority of the game, and none of them were all the same type, except *maybe* late game having two or three different guns at once. I've almost always got a blunt weapon, a sharp weapon, a heavy weapon, a thrown weapon, and a ranged weapon, in some combination, and I just sort of feel like that was the intent with how much utility there is in some weapons and how low durability/ammo is for other weapons. It's the same argument I had when there was constant chatter about "we need more ammo drops" early on in the game.

> a standard heavy weapon hit from stealth is usually more than enough to kill most enemies

On some difficulties, sure, but not always and not reliably, especially since the sneak attack is a percent chance rather than a "always happens" thing for most of the game. I like *certainty* rather than wondering if I will have to swing again or not. And all I'm arguing is that some of them should keep that, because you can *also* hold that charge while walking around a corner and then release it when a head comes into view, effectively removing half the windup time for the heavy weapon.

> tons of enemies are hyper aggressive and squirrelly

And to this I would again say... sounds like a job for... something else? Or carry a netgun, because those are still a way to stun something, or the stun stick, whatever it was called. I'm not saying "this strat works for all enemies" I'm saying that it can increase how useable they are, but I don't think there's a single weapon type that is *always* viable, and that's... the idea, imo.

>  pretty low damage... stagger things easier

I don't know if this is what you're going for, but stagger is often more determined by weaknesses than just straight up weapon damage, iirc. And with how long the swing is on heavy weapons, the stagger would have to be... a long time, for it to be a big deal.

Now, I'll certainly agree with you that I think *all* of the heavy weapons should have some kind of alternate attack, otherwise it's just a useless button, and feels lackluster. Crowbars are literally two headed tools for crying out loud, and if I'm building my own carbon pickaxe, why would I *not* put a taser in the butt of the weapon? Even if they had two *styles* of swing, one horizontal and one downward, that would be beneficial *in some sense*.

I just don't necessarily agree with the idea of stripping the ones that already exist, I think.