Right now, Pipe Wrench is a mid-point between Spanner and Mallet, not especially good at or bad at fixing broken or damaged guns. This makes it a decent gunner tool, but mostly worthless to an engineer who will just take Spanner/Mallet most of the time (unless they're a buff engineer). I don't want to really make it any better for the engineer, but I do think it could be more interesting, and better for the Gunner at the same time. Most of the time, I've seen gunners ignore this in favor of Spanner for the better rebuild power. Below are three variations of the same idea (numbers are more for example purposes rather than any sort of real balance) that I think could make this a more appealing option over spanner. Discuss!
Pipe Wrench 1: 100 HP (down from 120), 5 sec cd, 4 rebuild, gains 10 HP per second for 5 seconds, total healed: 150 (up from 120)
Pros: Slightly more healing than current Pipe Wrench in the long run, potentially could help while on the gun since you will be healing while you can be firing.
Cons: Still not really very impressive, and slightly lower burst healing than production.
Gunner vs Engineer: An engineer will always be able to do better than this with Mallet/Spanner, so they have no reason to take this. The regen is "nice", but not nice enough to warrant taking it.
Pipe Wrench 2: 80 HP (down from 120), 4 sec cd (down from 5), 4 rebuild, gains 5 HP per second for 10 seconds (Can stack up to twice for 10 per second, refreshes duration when used), total healed: 130-180 (up from 120)
Pros: Slightly better cd means the burst can happen a bit more often, but with the reduction in burst, it's not as useful. The heal itself is slightly better than option 1, and noticeably better than production. Other Pros are similar to Option 1.
Cons: This version requires using the Pipe Wrench twice within 10 seconds to maximize the healing potential. Not hard, but it's still better if you're more dedicated to one or two guns instead of just any gun. Other Cons are similar to Option 1.
Gunner vs Engineer: In this case, the reason to not take it as an Engineer is even stronger. You probably won't be by the same gun twice in 10 seconds when you're busy chem spraying and repairing everything else. As a gunner usually stays by one or two guns ANYWAY, this is perfect for them.
Pipe Wrench 3: 70 HP (down from 120), 4 sec cd (down from 5), 4 rebuild, gains 5 HP per second for 10 seconds (can stack up to four times for 20 per second, refreshes duration when used), total healed: 120-170-220-270
Pros: This heals significantly more the normal Pipe Wrench - if you fully stack it. Other pros are similar to the other options.
Cons: You obviously need to fully stack it to really get the maximum benefit. Until you get at least 2 stacks, this option is clearly inferior to production Pipe Wrench. At 4 stacks, it's comparable to a Mallet, but with how long it takes for that heal to happen, it will be more like just keeping the gun alive, and you have to remember to occasionally hop off to keep the buff up. If you miss the timing, you'll have to start over with a significantly weaker HP per 5.
Gunner vs Engineer: See option 2.
