Tl;dr - Hammer is slower, but the sandbox seems better for melee weapons; will it be a good weapon in Infinite?

Infinite's iteration of the Grav Hammer feels incredibly meaty with the sound and visual design and the delay. This sandbox also seems to have some advantages for melee weapons, most notably the introduction of the grapple shot and the absence of the standard one-shot-kill shotgun in favor of the Bulldog.

However, the aforementioned delay feels, frankly, prohibitively slow for a melee weapon. If your first hit doesn't kill the enemy, or if there's another nearby, a competent player will definitely be able to kill you before the second swing comes out. These bots aren't always a great representation of what I'd call competency, so I've gone on sprees with the hammer, but judging based on the speed, I don't think that would work against a real opponent that is actually paying attention to you.

Additionally, there are melee tracking issues, though I don't know if these are bugs and will be patched out. I've lunged at an enemy with the primary fire and ended up behind them and dealt no damage, and promptly got back-smacked before I knew what was happening. I've also had countless times where lunging doesn't work as expected, and since Infinite's hammer seems to deal less splash damage / have a smaller radius, those problems often lead to me not getting a kill.

It's difficult to tell how it'll stand as a power weapon; I've seen it sit to the side ignored for fair portions of the match on Recharge, though it's out of the way location is certainly a factor. Still, I feel like players have proven far more willing to rush for Live Fire's snipers and the rockets on Bazaar, despite the close-quarters nature of Recharge lending itself well to a melee weapon. Personally, I've enjoyed it, but it feels very different than the previous games' hammers and seems to fit a slightly different playstyle now.

What are your thoughts? Do you think the weapon will prove stronger or weaker than in previous games? Do you like the new design, or are you more fond of previous iterations?

Edit: New section and stuff; just went over it again and finalized my thoughts.