In the original Left 4 Dead, killing the tank was a dicey affair. You really needed an auto-shotgun to the job which pretty much determined the team’s weapon choice in a versus match. With Left 4 Dead 2, things have changed quite a bit.

Kotaku has just linked up some home grown research on tank killing and the results are rather surprising. I knew the melee weapons were powerful, but looking at the chart, you can you see the power of each weapon in plain numbers. In short, skillet trumps shotgun every time. Ten hits will take the wanna be baseball player down.

The best weapon on the list appears to be the nightstick, enabling players to take out the tank in a mere six seconds. The chainsaw looks to be a poor melee weapon to use with the fire axe doing even worse.

Left 4 Dead 2′s Frying Pans Kill a Tank 3 Times Faster than Shotguns (kotaku.com <- new window)