Usually it's advised not to aim down sights with shotguns without slug ammo, and to hip fire only. However, saying that shotguns get no benefit from aiming down sights would be lying. All shotguns have: Hip Stand Move CoF: 2.0 degrees ADS Stand Move CoF: 0.9 ADS Stand Still CoF: 0.1 CoF Bloom is the same for ADSing and hipfiring, equals 0.5 degrees. So for the first two couple of shots you will be more accurate if you ADS. As demonstrated on the animated picture above, pellets land within a circle, called Pellet Spread. Center of this circle has a random location within the CoF for each shot, so the tighter the CoF, the higher the chance that center of the Pellet Spread will be near your crosshair, which subsequently increases the chance that most of the pellets will land where your crosshair is. Different shotguns have different Pellet Spreads, and the tighter the pellet spread, the more benefit you get from aiming down sights. If you can afford to stand still while firing, your CoF will become much tighter, and you will be able to squeeze out a few additional meters out of your shotgun. Total cone where your pellets can land is calculated easily, and equal to CoF + Spread. So hip firing Baron while moving, your first shot will have total spread of 2 + 2.5 = 4.5 degrees, while if you were to stand still and ADS, you would have total spread of 2.6 degrees. Huge difference. To have something to compare to: angular size of an upper body + head target is 1.5 degrees at 10m. All shotguns have exactly same CoF stats, but the Jackhammer - NC HA only shotgun - is an interesting exception to this rule, and it has a very accurate CoF on the move, as well as - similarly to the Baron - range-friendly damage model, so the Jackhammer is the most ADS-friendly shotgun, especially considering its damage model. Considering that effectiveness at range is the biggest shortcoming of the shortguns (see what I did there? ), ADSing with them may be not such a bad idea after all. Remember that shotguns have 0.75x ADS movespeed multiplier. If you're under fire or afraid of snipers and MUST move while firing, you can always try to move while crouching, the CoF will bump up only to 0.35. Another note - shotguns' hip fire crosshairs do not seem to reflect the actual state of the cone of fire: 1) hip fire CoF is different for moving and standing, but the crosshair doesn't change, it's always the same for moving and standing still. 2) hip fire crosshair only starts to expand after 2nd or 3rd consecutive shot, while in reality it increases with each shot. What do you think? Have I convinced you to at least occasionally ADS with a shotgun?
No, but then I always use slugs whenever I pull a shottie so I already ADS with them a lot. No convincing needed. Good post tho. I already knew this but it's good info to share w/ the masses nonetheless. I really dig the .gif showing how CoF and pellet spread differ and how they interact.
When I clicked, I thought you were going to talk about like pressing adadadadadadad as ADsing. Because that is definitely the jackhammer meta, spent an hour cleaning house at sungrey west gate this morning, with the jackhammer.
Baron got a buff in this regard with the last patch Improved accuracy when running while in iron sights Accuracy improved from 0.9 to 0.7 Even more reason to ADS with it.
I don't understand that patch note. It says "iron sights". So if you have iron sights instead of reflex sights (or God forbid, HS/NV), you will get better accuracy? Does it apply regardless of ADS'ing, or does it mean you get better accuracy while running instead of walking, crouching or standing? Surely it's a mistake and it should read you get improved accuracy when walking while ADS'ing, instead of crouching or standing. You can't run while ADS'ing.
I have been ADS'ing since the big shotgun nerf patch from a year ago. Always felt that my aim was better and spread was tighter, now science and Iridar51 backs me up Broscience4Life EDIT: yes and also one of those IR/HV types
