Problem #1 is occurrence. If you play enough, you'll see a shotgun every single looting area.
Problem #2 is reload speed. You can kill someone with any shotgun, (not counting the mozambique, that is still a joke) while missing 2 shots against a player who has not the best tracking skills.
Problem #3 is movement speed in the game. You can jump on the enemy, covering 50-100 meters in seconds. Switching the engagement from mid range to close range in that time. Take these facts and the dps that any shotgun can do with a blue bolt, and there you have it.
Yes, you can melt a shotgun player with an r-99, but that requires at least 1 purple item,which is pretty specific, and spawns far less than a shotgun and a bolt. And then you still need above average tracking skills, plus purple armor at least. This is how you can defeat an average shotgun player. I think these requirements are not really in balance.
I get that running on the enemy's face and blasting with a shotgun is fun, I do it occasionally, but this is too much. Feels like the game is forcing shotguns on people. From a balance perspective this is not good.
Changing my playstyle when the final ring is around is not something that's doable...
Landing with another squad and getting literally any other weapon than a shotgun against a shotgun is also something that is hard to dodge. Yes, I know that luck has a role in this game, but placing that many shotguns somehow makes it unfair for people who don't like to use them.
So nerf idea is to remove bolts and reduce "stock" fire rate at least to half of the current ones. Make it require skill to be good with a shotgun.
Well making it equally hard to use in close combat would not demolish the purpose. It would require the same amount of skill to land the shots and use these effectively, making it a choice to use, not a necessity to come out of fights as a winner. Making weapons useless is what happened to the prowler or the triple take, or what is happening to snipers now. Snipers should work good from long range. Now beyond 200 meters they are pretty much useless due to the slow projectile speed. Requiring pure luck to hit your target. That is what useless, not what would happen to shotguns if they halved the reload speed. Right now you just can't do anything about someone with an EVA8 and a purple bolt unless they are blind and drunk at the very same time. They can miss 2-3 shots, while you don't have that luxury with a 99 or a 301, or even with a havoc. And let's face it, the havoc barely have more effective range than a shotgun. And that is with the turbocharger. I see a huge bias from everyone, since it's much easier to melt someone with a shotgun from close range than really having the tracking and aiming skill. That would be fine in a PVE game, but this is a competitive game. Balance SHOULD exist and not only for using one type of weapon.
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