So yea, basically, which is better for in your face pwnage? Which would you choose? The VX6-7 Carbine, or a CQC shotgun, and if the shotgun which one, and also what set up do you run with?
I use both, it's situational. If i know im going to be clearing rooms, as in bio labs, or taking objectives, i grab a shot gun, everything else I either use the VX6-7 or the Solstice SF for the underbarrel grenade launcher. I use the shotgun with 8 rounds, i dont remember the name.
i use Serpent (almost identical to VX6-7), compare to shotgun, they are ok at picking up individual at mid range, this is useful when u like to fly and scout around, attack from above. If u find yourself always rush in and fight indoor area/rooms/terran with lots of obstacles & buildings and meet enemy at the face , go for the shotgun.
I variously use the Pandora (auto shotgun), Nova (semi-auto 8 round shotgun) with slugs and 3.4x scope and the Serpent SF with underbarrel grenade launcher. Like Cochise said, it's situational. For indoors base work it's hard to beat a shotgun. 'course, they're sod all use at range (unless you use slugs, but that wasn't what you asked about). I haven't tried the VX6-7 but I'd be fairly confident betting on a shotgun for "in your face pwnage". It comes down more to the question of whether you're able to stick to places that keeps potential enemies within effective shotgun range. If you're not sure what to expect go with a carbine. Since I've already said I'm using it it might be superfluous but I can add my recommendation to the Serpent SF, the grenade launcher is amazing. You only get two shots and it has a very small splash radius but a body shot kills most (any? I'm not sure about HAs with shield up) infantry and the grenade rounds are resupplied like ammo (i.e. they refill automatically on ammo packs and resupply at consoles and don't cost any infantry resources).
If you can't buy both buy the carbine. At the end of the day a shotgun is a very situational weapon and you won't be running with it 100% of the time while the carbine is effective at everything but long range.
Agreed. I have 3 setups with my LA. The Default is a VX6-7 with a Flash Suppressor, Soft Point, an Advanced Laser Sight and a 1x Reflex sight. The second is a Nova with extended mags, and optionally slugs if I want to snipe with it. The Third is a Silenced Solstice SF with an GL attachment.
Maybe you should. I have the VX6-7 as well with advanced laser sight, supressor and reflex sight and I have been using it couple weeks now. Yesterday I started looking for a shotgun and ended up buying the Nova. I took extended mag to it, NV scope and slug ammo. Now using it for a day all I can is that I wont be using the VX6-7 much anymore. Its not a bad carbine but I think the Nova beats it in every other than remaining stealth. With one 12 shot clip I can kill 3-4 guys where with the VX6-7 its usually one guy per clip and sometimes 2 if Iam lucky. Up close the killing speed is about the same on both but I find the Nova more powerfull when the range increases with slugs. It wont work for long range, but neither does the VX, but Nova works surprisingly well for quite far away. Why did I took the Nova over other shotties? I tested the pandora earlier and even tho it was extremely deadly close range it also chew the clip empty very quickly and usually I ended up using one clip per kill. Since I have the grenade belt it means I ran out of ammo very quickly too. Nova has the most amount of ammo and its slower fire rate works better for me. The third shotgun I didn't ever test, but it seemed to be pretty similiar than pandora.
since i got shotgun, never looked back on carbine, its not situational at all 99% of time, but it changes your play style, you start playing like free runner(similar to scout in TF2), opposed to rooftop monkey, and just feels more effective and fun. You asked CQC, nothing beats SG in CQC except other SG. CQC carbines are like lesser shotgun, with some extedned range, but with them you wont get long range kills unless you wont to spend bunch of ammo on one guy who cant take cover.
The shotgun (with extended mags, but who doesn't use that with them?) will let you kill more than one guy before reloading. The fast fire rate advanced laser sight guns will still let you kill very fast up close and at medium ranges that a shogtun will struggle at, but you'll generally have to reload after each kill. 2 kills a reload if you're accurate/lucky. LA has the best tools for getting into shotgun range, so the range weakness won't be as big a deal as it is on other classes if you navigate the map effectively.
I prefer my VX6-7, personally. It's just a little more flexible than the shotgun. The only time I really pull out the shotgun is if I know there will be a lot of very close quarters combat, such as a Bio Lab. The VX is not very good at any type of range but it's a lot better than a shotgun. It can at least scare people off a bit while you duck behind cover and try to flank them or get closer. My only issue with it is that it chews through ammo like there's no tomorrow and I find myself running out of ammo on extended kill streaks For upgrades, I currently go with Soft Point Ammo, 1x Reflex, Suppressor, and the Forward Grip. I know Lasers are generally considered better but I almost never hip fire so they would really serve no purpose at all for me.
Trust me you are wrong in that bolded sentence. As I explained above I thought exactly the same before I ended up testing a shottie with slug ammo. I only trialed them before and of course when you trial something you cant get any upgrades so you are stuck with the buckshot ammo and it really gives the wrong impression of how effective they can be from range. From medium to longish range you can scare people off with the VX6-7 but with a shotgun loaded up on slug ammo you can actually kill them! The Nova is currently the only weapon which I ended up taking the 3,4x scope to be able to aim better at bit longer distances. Also the shotgun (with slug) seems to do about the same damage pretty far away than what it does close by. Three shots to the body and you get a kill. Even if you only manage to land just one or two hits they sure damage the enemy more than you can do with a full clip from far with VX6-7 especially since you are using soft point ammo.
Pellet Shotguns murder anything at under 10m, but their spread makes them pretty much worthless beyond that. Slug Shotguns are essentially mid-range, no-shaking versions of the infiltrator's semi-auto sniper rifles, but the small clip and no spread means they are terrible in CQC without aiming down sights. Good luck doing that effectively at short range with a 3.4x scope. ...and while the VX6-7 is beaten by the pellet shogun at close range, and the slug shotgun at mid, but preforms better than almost any other carbine in CQC without sacrficing too much effectivness at range.
Nova has 12 shots in a clip (with the mag upgrade ofc) which is plenty even if you miss some at close range. And shooting from the hip works well enough up to 10 meters even with slugs and further than that I need to aim down sights. Sure buckshot is better under 5 meter range, but slug ain't bad either in that scenario. Of course I wont be using the 3,4x scope indoors or if there is a high change of close range battle. I have the 1x holo sight and NV sights for that. I just uploaded couple videos where I try some sniping with the Nova. Too bad I just ended up having the wrong scope both times and cant really see what Iam aiming, but you'll see how well it works even at that distance where the VX6-7 is pretty much useless. Especially if you happen to have the soft point ammo.
So a shotgun and do really up close and personal and long ranges? Which shotgun is considered the best for this atm?
Thats a hard question. Pandora especially with buckshot is definately the best weapon in very close range when it comes to the killing speed against one target. But I think its also its weakness. It shoots so fast that you easily run out of ammo after killing one enemy and without ammo belt you run out of ammo completely quite fast. At distance with slugs I really cant say is it good or not. I would imagine it being similiar to the Nova with the exception that its harder to control your firing speed in order to keep your aim at the enemy. Haven't tryed the Thanatos but I ended up taking Nova since the biggest clip helps when shooting at a distance and it has the highest amount of ammo overall which helps since Iam not using the ammo belt. Also being semi-automatic its easier to control your shots and being able to kill multiple targets with one clip.
I use thanathos, its good, it can kill in 1 or 2 shots, it has fastest reload, and tightest pellet spread, meaning it has longest effective range with buckshot. On my TR guy, i have nighthawk, and most of the time i am using controlled fire(so it ends up like gimped 6 shot semi), and very rarely full auto, its an ammo hog, not only because of widest pellet spread, but lots of times you make few unnecessary extra shots due to high ROF. Only time I intentionaly use full auto TBH is when i am hugging MAXes But i think 8 shot semis are best due to their versatility, as 8 shot is solid number of shots per mag. With other SG extended mags are mandatory.
It is worth keeping in mid that the "default" shotguns of each faction (the nighthawk, mauler and nova) are more accurate when scoped while moving (0.9 cone of fire instead of 1.2, a carbine has about 0.3 btw so they are both terrible anyway). This advantage is obviously worthless when using buckshot as you should never be scoped, but if you are considering slugs then it is probably a good idea to go with that one if you are really undecided. For all 3 factions I use the same thing Loadout 1 - "1v1" The most lethal CQC carbine + 2xlaser, NV scope, Silencer. GD-7F, Lynx, VX-67 (I would have picked the serpent had it came out sooner). 1 v 1 meaning that I expect to encounter enemies one at a time repeatedly, say when trying to get to a shield generator. Loadout 2 - "1 v Many" The automatic shotgun + ext mag. Nighthawk, Pandora, Piston. 1 v Many meaning that I expect to have to sweep a building by myself and need to be able to put down 3+ people with one mag (bring flashbangs). Extremely fun. Loadout 3 "Many v Many" The Grenade launching carbine + compensator, HV ammo, 3.4/4x scope depending on which I like for that faction. Many v Many meaning that the fight is so large that I cannot make any meaningful impression by either flanking around and diving in with a shotgun or by picking people off one at a time with a silenced weapon. Hence I need to find a rooftop near the fight and rain down hell, preferably onto the medics. If I could only pick one gun? I would take the auto shotgun, vanu already have accurate default weapons and the shotgun is usable by 4 classes. However if you are only really playing LA with occasional vehicles then the VX-67 for both engi and LA might be enough. I tell all of my friends when they get this game, spend £4 on triple cash and buy a 2nd MAX anti inf gun and the auto shotgun. Purely because those 2 purchases offer up the maximum amount of different play styles for all non-infiltrator classes. So as I said, I would take the shotgun.
So basically, the strong point of each shotgun is this: Nova -Largest Ammo Supply -Best scoped accuracy on the move Pandora -Automatic -2nd best Reload Speed Thanatos -Best Reload Speed -Tightest Spread Did I miss anything?
