So I tried Mag-Scatter Sidearm....

Even for stalker is sucks - the NS revolvers have the same stopping power but also have much bigger range.

The only use for mag-scatter is when your mag hits 0 in your primary weapon at CQC range and you can quickly dish out the mag-scatter to finish off an opponent, every side-arm can do that but if you're bad at aiming you can at least hope that a portion of the pellet hits.

Besides that there's no real advantage... if you assume that the above is an advantage to start with.

you might as well just keep the magshot...200 damage pers shot...much bigger chance of killing with that then the mag-scatter

The mag-scat is hilariously bad. Honestly, I have no idea why they bothered to put a shotgun pistol into the game. They OBVIOUSLY couldn't make it a 1 hit kill or give it a TTK similar to the auto or semi shotties. That would be unarguably OP. The problem is that anything less than that is pretty much garbage. The mag scat is just a little worse than using a carbine within slapping range, which means most anything outclasses you that close. It only works as an ambush weapon, which isn't saying much since any weapon can work for an ambush.

If it had maybe 3 more rounds in the mag and an increased fire rate, it might be worth something.

Also, VS, you have my sympathies with the Spiker, but it isn't like you don't have access to good sidearms. There's the NS revolvers, the Cerberus, and the Crossbow.

Btw off topic,
What is the original Youtube clip of that gif?

Only used this a pretty limited amount of time, but was pretty happy with the results. Maybe I only hit damaged players, but it felt like two solid hits at close range was a kill.

As for the other stuff, yeah Phoenix is lackluster (though fun), EM1 has never thrilled me but also hasn't felt all that bad.

Dunno

The major use for the Mag-scatter is to combo with the knife for an effective insta-kill. It's the same combo that makes the crossbow viable, but the Magscatter's faster rechamber time (twice as fast, in fact) lets you more effectively ambush multiple targets and lets you recover after a miss. It's also a much more effective weapon than the crossbow out to about 8m. On the downside, you can't pseudo-snipe with it, like you can with the crossbow. All in all, it's a weapon with a valid niche, although it's clearly not for every class or every player.

Needs a few more rounds in the mag. It's pretty situational.

Phoenix is broken and IMO should be changed to a wire guided missile like the Raven so we can get away from the whole "you can shoot me from safety" arguement.(which is pretty bs to begin with because hitting from safety only can occur if all the stars align perfectly for you and you have 2-3 other people shooting with you)

EM1 is just garbage. I will never choose it over any other NC LMG. The EM6 does everything it does better. (Coming from someone with the EM1 purple medal)

As a stalker player I would recommend going for a silenced weapon (2x headshots with silenced 250 dmg pistol is my fav, or 1x + emp). In that case crossbow + knife is much easier to pull off in a crowded place. If you play as a stalker infil and 'ambush multiple targets' with a sidearm that does a big BAM and puts you on the map then you're playing a very risky game that maybe suits a SMG/EMP hunter infil, but is not advisable for a stalker which excels at taking down targets one at a time without alerting teammates.Thus, I wouldn't advise the mag-scatter for the shot-knife combo as a stalker for the sake of survival and consistency.

I like to find sparsely populated bases and overload a generator then sit on top of it cloaked. When they start stabilizing it, BAM BAM dead. Not effective use of time but good for laughs. I've got a fair amount of footage doing this - with the Candy Cannon as well. That and waiting after they cap a base and come to repair the gennies is always good for a laugh.

It's not a bad weapon; it's just slightly below the Commissioner in usefulness. It's definitely a close range Stalker weapon; not a typical side-arm. My Stalker is the only toon who carries a Mag Scatter.