Minecraft Forums

Yeah, about that, I dont use axes anymore. I use a efficiency 4 shovel for taking down logs, is as fast as a efficiency 2 diamond axe and only costs 1 diamond instead of 3!

I rarely use a shovel. I you a pickaxe for almost anything and a ax for trees. Both the pickaxe and ax are enchanted. I don't thing I will ever use a shovel when mining just because its one more tool to carry. I will use a block of dirt or cobblestone on dirt and gravel if I need to before using a shovel.

It is almost pointless to enchant an axe. I prefer a shovel with Effiency IV.

I think it depends on how you want to define "efficiency." I don't think it should mean mining speed alone. If you can carry a single tool that will do the job of all three nearly as well as all three can do their individual jobs (i.e. the enchanted pickaxe), then that's really being efficient. It also saves me two slots in my inventory (and in my one-chest challenge world that is really important). Bottomline, I quite like the way it is now.

Who cares what tool we use and how fast it mines anything
If my pic can chop a tree down Then its an Axe If it can dig dirt and sand Then its a shovel
If your lucky with your enchanting then you have a all-in-one Tool

There are already certain enchantments that cause you to carry certain tools.

What if you had to carry:

Diamond pickaxe with unbreaking enchantment for Obsidian
Iron Pickaxe with fortune enchantment for diamonds
Iron Pickaxe for gold
stone pickaxe for Iron, Redstone, Lapulzi, stone
Shovel for gravel and dirt

All this goes with
A sword
Bow
Arrows
Map
Water Bucket (which I don't carry, but I think lots of people do)
Bread
Dirt Pile
Cobblestone Pile
Torches

That's 14 our of 36 slots to hold stuff already

Then in a short time you may end up with
Dirt
Cobblestone
Gravel
Coal
Flint

The cobblestone will build up faster than anything and now more than half your holdings is taken up
I would rather limit what I have to take down

Sword, bow, arrow, map, torches, Diamond unbreaking pickaxe, Iron fortune pickaxe, Efficiency diamond pickaxe, Bread, and a few cobblestone pickaxes since they will break soon enough anyways.

There's a way to mine dirt/clay/grass/etc with an efficiency 4 faster with a Diamond Shovel. What I've done is start mining against a piece of stone or something a Shovel wouldn't normally break as fast, then move your sight toward the dirt pile. Swinging it across a pile of dirt or w/e, it'll mine much faster than anything else. However, I do believe they should make it so that the efficiency doesn't mine blocks as fast if it isn't the correct tool. Because honestly the Axe is useless when you can use a shovel or it to shop trees down.