This question has been asked several times before, and each time the answer is: "TiC v2 has no best tool."
I'm not buying it.
Sure, there are different tastes, priorities and different circumstances in different modpacks, but that is true for TiC v1 too.
I believe, that if a bunch of TiC enthusiast stick their heads together in a discussion thread, they will be able to figure out the best way to optimize a TiC gear set-up.
What is lacking, is a willingness to discuss this. Compared to the past.
This is not the first time you have made that statement, and it is just as incorrect now as it was the last few times. Try actually having a discussion on the mod instead of a discussion of why no one discusses the mod if you want a discussion on the mod, eh?
For example:
I'm pretty sure most would agree that, once you have enough access to iron, an iron pick-head is superior to a flint pick-head.
And once you have that, most would agree that Fortifying the pick with obsidian and upgrading the tool rod with knightslime is pretty much a no-brainer. And also that you should use a stone tool binding on it for as long as you don't need the extra modifier slots.
Yet a shovel tool rod should stick to wood instead, because it is used less often and thus benifits more from the slow auto repair. It also doesn't need the extra speed. Though impregnated wood from IE is a strictly better tool rod material than vanilla wood.
Sure, some might prefer the speed of cobalt over the magnetism of iron, while others prefer the magnetism. But that just means the answer to the OP's question needs to a bit more complex than it would be in the TiC v1 discussion thread.
No. And here's why:
The hammer I suggested, and the hammer Triaxx suggested, for example, are two entirely different hammers for two entirely different ideas and two entirely different playstyles. But more importantly is that you are missing the point.
There are many potential types of 'best' tool, depending on what you plan on using it for. For example, Triaxx suggested a hammer with Fortune and some high-end materials for the head, and a copper tool rod. I suggested one with a slime head, despite the fact that you'd probably consider slime to be 'inferior' to iron/signalum. So... objectively, which one is better?
The answer, and WHY I say that there is no 'best' tool, is that they are both better for different purposes.
Triaxx's hammer can be used to clear-cut through the lower levels, with Fortune 3 and okay-ish speed, clearing out a 3x3 tunnel as it does so.
My hammer can be used to clear-cut through the lower levels, but makes a 5x5 hole (with rounded corners), more easily repairable, and explicitly cannot mine redstone and diamond because you can get better returns in the DW20 pack (which is what the OP is using) from processing those ores through other mods than from Fortune3.
They have different purposes, and different reasons for existing.
An other example of a possible answer OP's question:
It is possible to construct a Shuriken such that it has infinite ammo, so it can be spammed with impunity. (Seen it in MischiefOfMice TiC spotlight video) It also doesn't take up a second slot for its ammo, since it is its own ammo.
Not without having almost no damage output and defeating the purpose of having it in your inventory, since it would need to be primarily constructed of paper to do that.
@ShneekeyTheLost,
So basically, what you are saying is; The best Tinkers Construct tool is the Actually additions drill!
Great, allow me to chime in...
:
Q: What is the best augment for the Thermal Expansion Pulverizer?
A: The Crusher from Mechanism!
Q: What is the most interesting place in the Twilight Forrest?
A: The swamp in the Betweenlands!
Q: What is the most difficult boss mob in Botania?
A: The Chaos dragon from Draconic Evolution!
Q: What is the best builders wand to use?
A: MCedit.
Q: The most powerful resource generator?
A: Cheat mode in JEI.
Ad absurdo reductum is simply a way of saying "I have no argument, so I want to say something that sounds like it is arguing your point, when in fact I simply can't dispute it", so thank you for agreeing with me.
More seriously, however, you are missing the point entirely. No mod is an island, not in these days of modpacks. And the DW20 pack has the most overpowered mining tool in existence (in many ways, even more powerful than the Draconic Evolution ones), which is the Actually Additions drill. If you want the best mining tool, that mining tool is going to be the AA Drill, hands down, and will absolutely be definitively and explicitly better in every measurable way to anything TiCon can manage. This tool replaces the conventional uses of the Hammer and the Excavator, simultaneously, with additional functionality on top. Therefore, with this in mind, I suggest tools that will supplement this tool that, since the user cares only about power (since he just asked for the 'best' not the 'most useful'), is a given that he will use. As a result, suggesting a hammer which duplicates, to a lesser extent, this drill is entirely pointless and a waste of time.
You see, there's this thing called 'user environment', it's relevant to a discussion on 'what should I use as a tool'. And if you have mods which are geared to a far higher end of power, such as Actually Additions, then mods whose power level is lower, such as TiCon, often become unused.
Identifying key components of a modpack and how a given mod fits into the modpack is going to return more relevant results to the individual who is asking for advice. But hey, thanks for trying to play, we have a lovely consolation prize waiting for you in the lobby.
