Shotguns
What is with the excessive nerfing of shotguns? This is coming from someone who rarely uses assault class. 99 damage three times today at close range with the pump semi auto is now almost unusable...
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I don't consider shotguns to be underpowered. The fact that you're hitting a value that's near 100 is not an issue, it's an expected behavior of a gun where you can miss pellets or when you're shooting at a range where damage drop off is an issue. It's no different from shooting a 25 damage gun at a range where the damage drop off puts it at 24 damage, meaning you'd shoot 4 bullets for 96 damage. There could be other issues at play such as netcode, but that's a separate issue from shotgun balance. As long as your pellets hit, you can drop people just fine.
I'll agree with you that they are inconsistent, but that's just how they work. I'll also agree with you that not understanding how they work is not the issue. However, you can at least partially mitigate the issue as you can make choices that'll increase consistency. The way I see it, that's also part of the discussion of whether a gun is balanced.
ghostflux If I’m in proper shotgun range with a clean, centered hit and still getting 93–99, that’s not “expected behavior.” You even admit they’re inconsistent and that’s the whole issue. That inconsistency can be tuned. Full, clean shots shouldn’t feel like coin flips. If a shotgun does everything right and still gives 93–99, that’s not “how they work,” that’s just bad balance.
These values, spreads, pellet counts and drop-off curves can all be adjusted so that “you did everything right” moments are actually rewarded without turning shotguns into long-range laser beams. Too many good plays get turned into coin flips. Saying “you can mitigate it” doesn’t fix that and players shouldn’t have to fight both the enemy and the RNG of their own gun just to get the result the weapon is designed for.
Nobody’s asking for brainless one-shots everywhere. The ask is simple: if you take the risk, close the gap and land a proper shotgun shot, it should be consistently rewarding, not like you rolled a 97 and lost to an SMG pre-firing a doorway. That’s why many of us think they’re underpowered in practice even if the spreadsheet claims they’re “working as intended.”
And it happens consistently with Headshots using snipers. It just shouldn't happen.
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