It's been 24 hours. Shotguns nerfed, buffed, or just different?

Now that the shotgun changes are live what's your take on the new shotgun mechanics?

Love it? Hate it? Still won't use shotguns over an SMG?

for their intended cqc role they've been nerfed, 2 shot kills are less likely than before due to requiring more pellets to land.
and as most people know, when you're forced to a 3 shot kill you have a slower TTK than most other infantry weapons, even LMGs.

though they do have the "potential" to kill at longer range now.

imho its not a great change,
people wanting more range should just stop using shotguns,
if i'm using a shotgun i'll expect to be king of cqc and suck at range,
this change makes it more likely that you'll lose a cqc fight than before.

You miss 2 pellets with a semi and you automatically need to 4 shot a resist heavy with a semi.

The idea was you got a more consistent gun, you got a consistently disappointing gun.

The pump action I have been using is taking 2 or 3 more shells at point blank range. At a range I was getting 3 shot kills, now the full magazine is taking the shield only down to around 5%. A mine 10 feet away and I can't hit it.

Did they nerf multiple things at once? Like pellet count, damage, cof? That is what it feels like. Someone needs to be fired, and it won't come soon enough.

'Someone' should have never been hired in the first place.......

I don't know what to think of them.

They said it's to reward people for aiming better but I'm still wondering what that even mean by such.

I haven't played too much in the past day or so, but I was the only player with a shotgun that I saw.

I was using slugs.

Don't use a shotgun over an SMG. Frankly if they wanted to reward players with better accuracy then they should've made a better choke option and 2x headshot multipliers instead of 1.5x, SMGs and CQ variant weapons generally have a shorter TTK in shotguns optimal ranges. It really doesn't make sense to use shotguns competitively anymore.

Requiring more pellets to hit in order to kill, and given greater opportunity for more pellets to hit via a built-in Smart-Choke... stop forgetting this fact. They require skill now, you aim you do better, you don't you do worse. Aiming is massively important now for that massive alpha damage advantage.

You also seem to not understand that each shotgun is far more defined now, there is an actual reason to use one over another for it's advantages and disadvantages they each now have.

RNG is still RNG, unless the pelletspread is perfectly inside the hitbox of all characters and you can always land all pellets in center then it's not worth it, since your weapon cannot be improved in (you either bodyshot or not) then you simply play a different weapon since you are vulnerable to nanoweave.

That RNG factor on shotguns is reduced significantly while in ADS now.

But it's still there and since the margin of error is incredibly low you have ridiculous TTKs if you aren't the most accurate bastard in CQ, for example if you miss two pellets on a resist shield heavy then your shots go from 3 to 4, you have to be either dead on or point blank, nanoweave target? You miss one you automatically need a 3 shot kill, miss 3 on a regular joe and it's also a 3 shot, but TTKs on other weapons not only are far better than shotguns at 10 meters, they can be improved farther than the shotgun itself can in its optimal range. Shotgun usage will drop dramatically.

Aren't shotguns ment for people who can't aim better?

I'm actually getting more consistent CQC results with a Gauss SAW so please explain how this aiming part works with shotguns as of 1/12 because it really is looking like that hotpatch was rushed.

Now they are.

it is worth noting (i discovered this on PTS when testing the first nerf but forgot about it again!)

Slugs completely negate the CQC nerf since they haven't been changed,
they retain their 2 shot kill out to 10m
imho you should always be using slugs now on the semi-autos.

From what I can tell, (atleast for Semis and Pumps), there is next to no difference in TTK. Effective range is very slightly longer.

Now that makes me facepalm, laugh and be disappointed all at the same time.
I facepalm because someone couldnt be bothered to look at slug damage.
I laugh because the devs let that slip throught.
And I'm disappointed because it seems not much thought was put into the changes.

its funny to me because we now will use slugs (the thing that were supposed to sacrifice cqc for a little range)
in order to negate the cqc nerf XD
slugs are the way to go now

by using slugs you make this patch simply an all around buff since the pellet count and damage nerfs won't effect you!
shame i can't use slugs on my baby Brawler, but i still have unnerfed UBSG there too!

I do not see much difference with the auto shotgun (barrage).
Regarding the pump action I don't see why on earth should anyone use it. Any smg / carbine / lmg / assault rifle with good hipfire accuracy will do a better job with less effort at that range.
Only good for LA ambushing but when you are unnoticed and attack from behind any weapon is effective.

Pump slug still 1HK out to 10m with a HS?