question for pump-action users!

when facing an HA in CQC the refire time makes this weapon actually worse than a long range LMG, should I ignore that 1.5 HS damage multiplier and try to go for the head?

bonus question: in order to deal with medium distance encouters, what TR pistol would you suggest to finish off people who just ate a rocket? (yes I play HA)

I don't quite understand that first question, are you asking if a pump action is worth it instead of a LMG, or if you should go for headshots with the pump action.

For medium distance encounters, I would go for the underboss or if you need a TR specific weapon the Emperor.

It's a FPS. There's no circumstance where you shouldn't be going for headshots.

Emperor. None. A pistol won't finish off a max and you shouldn't be using rockets against infantry. Pistols are for four situations.

1. Your primary is out of ammo.
2. You need darklight, but don't want to put it on your primary.
3. You have a sniper rifle and need a close range option.
4. Your primary's magazine ran out and switching to pistol is faster than reloading.

urr, the second one.

yeah that's true for most weapons, but there are some other weapon type (shotguns and mcg, dunno others) that deal 1.5X damage on the head, instead of 2X, and have a fixed CoF that makes your bullets go pretty much everywhere inside that circle.

for shotguns for example, a point inside that circle will be chosen when you fire, and then the pellets will spread around that point. so even if you place the circle perfectly on the enemy's head it's not guaranteeed that all the pellets will hit, it is pretty much a lot unlikely actually.

I have not enough experience with PA shotguns (pmuch 2k kills) to estimate if a partial headshot will do more damage than a full chest shot on an overshielded HA, that's why I am asking to more experienced users.

this is not wut I asked, but thanks for the bump I guess. I'll obviously use my rocket launcher if I'm caught in medium distance combat wielding a pump action shotgun that would require me like 25 seconds and three quarters of my entire ammo pool to win, if my opponent can't aim. It is something I should not be caught into, I know, but it's not like I'll drop my weapon and accept death, lol


BTW emperor better than inquisitor? that inquisitor optic is so sexy and the gun has pmuch no recoil, what's its purpose then?

So in the directives, for heavies, when it says get x number of launcher kills, it really means maxes? There's a reason that every single heavy has a rocket launcher at all times, and it's not for the uncommon occasion of going toe to toe with a max. It's for area-of-denial, and for dealing some alpha damage on one or more unsuspecting enemies.

If launchers wen't designed with at least some anti-personnel purposes in mind, then it wouldn't have splash damage. I can count on one hand the number of times I've finished a max off with splash damage from a launcher vs if I landed a direct hit. Splash damage against maxes is almost useless, and it's literally useless against vehicles. The only thing splash is good for is finishing off weakened infantry or softening a group of them up prior to engagement.

One should always go for headshots really. But, if that actually harms your performance with the shotgun, well then you have to either practice it and become good at it to a point of it increasing performance or go for more stable bodyshots to maintain your current level.
Personally I think the pump action is more suited for LA as a hard hitting flanking tool, that loses a lot of its power once it is used for head on frontations.

Pump action headshots: Never or only when using slugs. If you play HA you will have enough shield time to afford another 1-2 shots in a direct confrontation and don't need the alpha damage as much.

All shotguns have a forced spread of a certain amount of degrees. For pumps it ranges between 3 and 3.5 degrees. Bloom shouldn't affect you that much for pump actions. At super close ranges, you will hit most of your shots and it will be fine to HS. At normal operating ranges (under 10m) you will want to aim for body shots 95% of the time.

No those count, Though Maxs and Vehicle kills count a little more. At least in terms of the Weapons Auraxium now.

If that handy little point and click circle covers only the head, by all means point the shotgun right in their face. If it is larger, then aim center mass.

Use the Emperor for mid range stuff out of range of your shotgun. It is 167 dmg out to 15 M and has a large enough magazine to put some rounds down range.

Also, don't treat this as a HA problem. Gen 1 PA shotguns do 1300 damage if all pellets hit. If one pellet misses any class wearing nanoweave will require you to deal with the refire time and at close range AR's and Carbines have much deadlier weapons with better hipfire CoF and higher DPS.

yeah I think that one clear point-blank full-hit from a heavy pump action shotgun should kill an HA even with overshield, but I think that's a gen 2 shotgun problem rather than an HA one. right now there is really little reasons to use blackjack over the uppercut.

Why not?

Because it makes you rocket-primary scrub and is something generally frowned upon by player base. Yet SOE encouraged this behavior by making stupid rocket kills directive.

Yeah, I was afraid this would be the response, I just wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he had a truly legitimate reason for his statement.

As for yours, sorry, I don't play by your rules.

Well if an AV rocket hit me even with armor ill die.

Because they're easy to dodge and if you miss you die because of reload speed. Even if you don't miss sometimes they live and then you die anyway. It's a suicidal weapon vs infantry. It'll only help you kill people if you're a 0.2 KDR scrub who literally can't get kills any other way. Otherwise the occasional lucky 1-shot isn't nearly enough to make up for how often it'll get you killed.

I do. Maybe you should judge me based on me instead of some random third party's reply.

This is a reasonable answer. Thank you.

Never, ever aim center mass. Ever. Period. If the weapon has spread like a shotgun you aim the top of the spread at their head, which means aiming for the upper chest usually. You should never be trying to give someone a second belly button.

I forgot to mention they only work 1 vs 1 too, which is rare in this game. Even if you kill one guy the other dude will get you. The splash isn't nearly big enough or damaging enough to reliably kill more than one person.

With shotguns you usually end up using hipfire which means you have that handy white circle that represents your CoF. You want to make sure that area is filled with nothing but the enemy. The best place to do that is aiming just above the bottom of the sternum as it is the widest part on characters.

Aiming for the bottom of the neck (like you do with full auto weapons if you aren't actually going for head shots) is not what you should do with shotguns because you essentially roll the dice on whether or not you will get the kill based on how the CoF randomness handles your shot.

The circle does not represent the area that will be filled with pellets, they will probably be outside that circle too, depending how far the center of the cone will fall from the center of the circle.
If it falls on the edge of the circle you will have more than 50% of the pellets outside the circle :O

And btw I don't want to reload after firing a rocket launcher at an infantry enemy, that's why I need a good medium distance pistol

The solution, my dear xMaxdamage, is quite simple.
You'll always want to land solid shots at solid ranges to begin with. If you aren't managing to get that down be sure you do, it's critical! This is rather feasible though just practice a little more at it and you'll be good enough. In the case one well landed shot is not enough to decimate your opponent you must immediately switch to your pistol. The pistol you should be using is your fraction's fastest firing weapon as to ensure you can just spam out a clip and kill them.

For example, on TR I'd drop some lead from a Blackjack onto an opposing Heavy, but alas, his shield protected him! So now I must pull out my AMP pistol and unload the majority of a clip fairly quickly onto him. Considering I'm still in an optimal range he is now a dead man.

See, simple!