It feels better IMHO. More range, better handeling. Overall an improvement, still won't take it over a proper LMG tough.
IMHO, the JH should be automatic and poewrful like the piston is now, while all automatic shotguns across factions receive a hefty damage nerf. For one, LA spamming autoshotties is as bad as infiltrators with them in beta and for the other, what would be the point of pump action they wanna introduce. On the other hand, they could increase the clip on them. The total damage per shot shotties should do is like this: Automatic - 450 total damage per shot - a 2-shot for default health Inf, 3 shot on everything else. Because the RoF is insane. Still ideal for LAs. Semiauto - 650 total damage per shot - 2 shots everything. Moderate RoF. Jack-of-all-trades shottie. Pump action - 950 total damage per shot - gibs default infils or anyone slightly injured, 2 shot on anything else (perhaps this can two shot even a shielded heavy?), rips into Maxes. Click-Click slow RoF. Stopping power for Medics and Engies. Jackhammer in this is automatic, with semiauto-ish damage output. Truly an NC special.
The Jackhammer now is MUCH better than it was before. To give you an idea of my experience, I had 1000 kills with the JH before the update and have earned ~300 after the update. As stated by a dev, it does 90 dmg at range compared to the 60 done by standard shotguns. The large damage falloff extension truly makes it effective beyond what you would expect from a shotgun. I have gotten plenty of medium-ish range kills with it. The point of the JH in PS2 is, seemingly, that it's a shotgun which, inherently, is lethal in CQC but it has the special capability of extending beyond that range fairly well. While I still stand by that it could do with a larger mag (~15+, 16 would be perfect) and more ammunition for a heavy weapon, the new changes have definitely made it a unique weapon that is truly effective. All in all, I really like the changes.
Futuristic shotguns seem so gimped when my RL Shotgun can hold a 30 rd mag... anyways, Jackhammer is better... but i'll still stick with my 100 rd sniper-rifle-Guass-saw
Only people bad at math would take the pump-action then. The majority of your targets will take two shots (at least, with lag etc). So the TTK will be vastly higher on the pump action, likely high enough to get you killed.
I trialed the Jackhammer after the patch and bought it. I do really like it. It's just as lethal as the others in CQC; the extra damage that the other shotguns deal is overkill, except maybe vs. a heavy with shields. Where it really shines is medium range. You can gun someone down with this thing from halfway across a biolab (ie, from just inside the shield to just outside the SCU). Seriously, the thing's damage range is so good that you actually need to lead sprinting targets sometimes. It does take slightly more time to kill than the Gauss saw at this range, though. At long range I've taken to sniping people with the Shrike, which is a lot of fun. Of course carrying the annihilator is still superior, I imagine, but I hate that thing so much as a tank driver or pilot that I really don't want to buy it. The magazine size is still kind of small for something with a big box magazine, but it does have a rather large barrel, so I just assume it fires absurdly large shells. And strangely, the thing reloads so quickly that it doesn't need more than the 10 shots you get with the extended mag. The one area that still needs a buff is the number of total shells you can carry. You can only carry 36, which is not much.
I don't think this thing does as well as it should for being a Faction HA Weapon. I don't mind the lesser damage at close range to keep it fair but the damage fall off and accuracy still doesn't warrant carrying the JH over any other LMG. Even with the update it's still too situational, imo. I'd still like to see them redesign it to have a triple barrel so it looks menacing. Right now its just a blue tube with a trigger. Adjust accuracy, damage, rof, blah, blah, blah to the point where its comparable to an LMG at close to medium range. Its a HA weapon for ***** sake.. Give it a 24 round clip and up the ammo count to 100. I shouldn't have to carry ammo like a LA just because its a shottie. Change it to a full-auto and maybe slow the RoF to compensate. In PS1 you had to learn how to time your shots with the JH and thats what made the gun more fun.. My dreams of running with the JH again like in PS1 are slowly fading.
With the extended mag it has 10 shells. Put it on 3-shot burst, you can kill 3 players up close and it leaves one shell for fast reload, which is VERY fast at 2 seconds. The long reload (when the mag is empty) is 3.7 seconds. Also, while ADS gives you benefits the animation is not much different then hipfire, no iron sights etc. The gun is cool imo. NC HA suffers from underpar CQC LMGs so the new Jackhammer with improved range and acuracy might be just what the CQC doctor ordered.
Needs more ammo per magazine, 15 or so rounds. Also need to be able to carry more reserve ammo for it. Buff up the triplejack speed and hey-presto, we have a real JH, not the current (undeniably better now) cheap chinese knock-off.
Never liked the ammo capacity for JH, 10 rounds with extended mag, and semi-automatic system is not what JH used to be. I dunno, but i would not call this weapon a JH, maybe a baby version? The JH was a representative of smashing automatic power, now the baby version has absolutely different mechanics. IMHO.
If handheld shotguns gets 15 shots/magazine then maxes are gonna feel jealous. If maxes gets their shotgun magazines increased people will go apesh*t.
Well, consider the fact that OHK guns are frowned upon, so 950 damage si pretty much pushing it. And this is assuming the shot interval would be not ridiculously huge and the COF would be not very high, as is standard with pump action shotguns. Pump shotties also tend to have range advantage in games (here who knows), so I went with this for my math. And as I said, this shottie would be useful for Medics especialy, since they are usualy in rooms where enemies alredy received some damage. My main point was that right now autoshotties are ridiculous, Hackymax ridiculous if you ask me. The only thing preventing them from being massively OP is that they are wielded by soft targets.
The secondary fire mode is worse than single shot. It would not be unfair to triple shot like in PS1. We need to be able to carry more ammo. Lacks the "staying power" of the other weapons because you run out of ammo way to easily. Giving up range for CQC power is a big trade off for a slow moving heavy, but not being able to carry comparable amounts of ammo (in terms of staying power, not actual shots) to the LMG's is really a huge con with no pro to balance it out. Overall this weapon is worse than the default LMG. The small advantage you get in CQC is not worth the low amount of carried ammo, and poor combination of slow moving + close range weapon. People talking about range being "great" are either naive or wrong, damage drops terribly quickly, even indoors.
