You can do better damage, if you manage to land all of your shots with R99 or Prowler, which is not that easy, unless you are no-lifer with 10+ experience in FPS games.
If you got a good strafe pattern you can dodge most people SMG/AR shots, but even a bad aimer are going to down you with a Mastiff, because of its huge range of its pellets.
Also it has ridiculous big range and big damage on it.
Mastiff require zero skill to be used.
Also have huge 6 bullets mag and on top of that, you need to reload one in order to shot.
Taking people around trying to run from you with a Mastiff is piece of cake. You just ADS with 15cm crosshair and thats it.
While with an SMG/Ar there is a big chance people miss at you, even you know how to run.
I can`t count the million situation where i escape on low HP where people are shooting at me(I`m playing Bangalore) with an SMG/Snipers/AR, because you have to aim, but with Mastiff, because of the range i can`t, because rotating the mouse to dodge bullets its not enough, because of the big spread and you still going to take damage, which is lethal on low hp. :D
Also because of the bad servers/tick rates, no weapon beats Mastif on peak and go back. Its just a must in a closed places.
One shot go cover, repeat. Yeah on paper a lot of weapon can outDPS Mastiff, but as i said DPS in this game is just on paper.
I spend plenty of time watching top players and Mastiff is a must 90% of the time. You need just 1 slot for the ammo, which is a big + as well.
And even the best players barely miss with Mastiff, yet they are missing way more shots with PK and way more with EVA8.
Again no weapon should be able to one shot you with an Evo shield, unless is a sniper headshot or a CP weapon.
Also there is no big difference between the Mastiff and the PK atm. Yeah PK can hit for a bit more, but not much difference, yet Mastiff is a normal weapon.
Can we compare any base sniper(with Mastiff you need only bolt, which you can find quite easy) to Kraber for example ? Or compare R301 or Flatline to Devotion ? Yet there is not much difference between the Mastif and the PK.
Again the main problem is the big damage, the big range, and how easy is to use it.
Let me show you this situation:
https://streamable.com/19eb0g
Dolphin here is mad, and kinda start doing .... and refuse to play serious, because he was taking how the game is full with cheaters, and so on on his stream, and at one point he understand that both of his teammates were cheating. :D They openly admit it and something snap in him. :D
So he was just spamming with the Mastiff and not playing much seriously here.
He was trading with the guy, and actually the Pathfinder did a bit more damage with the primary weapon, than the Dolphin, but the time the Pathfinder switch to secondary, he already eat it 2 Mastiff shots, and was at Panic mode, and his aim was throw off by the shots, and the third one drops him, while he couldn`t land a single shot on his secondary weapon, which was a SMG.
This comes the big difference you need to land this SMG shots, because you got 1cm crosshair, with a Mastiff, you just spam and you deal damage, whether its 28, its 56, you get it, even from such range.
Even in a such distance, its just easy to land your mastiff shots.
I got so much similar situation, where i play R99 and a R301. I outland my opponent with the primary weapon, and i`m in this or even further range, and i lost the battle, because he just spam with the Mastiff and land his shots, and got a superior strafe speed, because of in and out in ADS, and i`m ***** with small and slow strafes(where i eat full damage from the Mastiff, because of big range of its pellets) with the R301. And you can`t hipfire in that distance with success.
Yeah sometimes i get a kill if i straight up laser him, but most of the time i just own him, and even in that SMG/AR range, he beats me, because i play Bangalore, which has quite a hitbox, and he is Wraith for example and when your facing him directly its a PAIN to land an AR shots, and he can`t miss, because your ****** with low ADS speed movement.
And before someone said get gud or improve your AIM, while i`m not a PRO and i`m training my aim/movement every single day with 2+ hours routine and i`m pretty much either top 500(on some are top 100) or 1000 in every Kovaak tracking scenario i do. And i`m doing a crazy ones.