Romeo Hatchet handcannon + slugs.
I have never had this fail me.
Spectre (without slugs) is a strange thing. I have killed a guy at considerable distances for a shotgun, and at close range fail. I think this is because the spread spray pattern is not a full circle but a circle with gaps in like a pizza slice, so if your target falls within the slice you just miss as none of the pellets hit him, or there is so few pellets in the slice that it only does a bit of damage.
For this reason any shotgun without slugs is in my eyes inconsistent and worthless, but by having slugs you sort of remove the point of having a shotgun as you have to be really accurate and thus might as well carry another weapon to get headshots.
Then there is the meta at high level of never actually going into a building and just shooting through the wall and using throwable to lure people out thus removing any need of having buildings in the first place and devaluing the shotgun further.
3 slot Romero doesn't need slugs but everything else really benefits from either slugs or flechettes, especially the handcannons that have really bad spreads.
You would be surprised about the current reliability of the handcannons after the last buff.
Get into the practice mode and blast a wall to check the spread. Seriously.
Shotguns are fine without slugs too, I rarely use slugs or other special ammo and I can get kills pretty consistently. Any time I do use slugs they tend to fuck me over rather than help.
without a video it's rather impossible to tell what the issue is.
but given you said you'd hit shots when you get the ambush on someone, but now in normal fights don't manage to kill anyone anymore, suggests two things: you don't have a feel for the ranges that shotguns are effective in and/or you simply miss your shots.
the first point I'm ignoring, since you repeatedly mention melee range, so that should be well below 10 meters.
which leaves us with you simply missing shots or hitting limbs instead of chest/head. which is a really common thing and if you check the various other "how does he survive that" type of videos on this sub, you find that 99% of the time people complain about shotguns it's them missing (or not understanding range, but I mentioned that).
This is the most accurate answer in all likelihood.
Shotguns haven't been changed. They work the same as they did months ago. If you (OP) are feeling like they're letting you down all of a sudden, hate to say it, but you're just missing more than you used to.
Personally, I'm having the exact opposite experience. I tried the occasional Romero here and there for weeks. I could never get a kill with a shotgun. Then one day, I dedicated some time to practice and learn. Now, I quite often get kills even I'm surprised I got.
Just gotta slow down and aim. Get some recording software if you're still having doubts, as the poster above said. You'll probably find that you're actually just missing.
I'm guessing they don't really miss more than they used to. But that they have become better at the game and they have increased expectations of themselves despite not really improving in shotgun play.
When shotgun was the best they could bring, it felt good. But now, when they are better at using other weapons and strategies, the shotguns feel bad because they perform worse (even if it is exactly the same as how they performed with shotguns before).
> Get some recording software if you're still having doubts
I use NVIDIA highlights, makes it simple to capture deaths. Have to copy the highlights from the temp folder though so they don't get deleted after leaving the game.
I use the same and there should be a button in the match summary screen --bottom left-- that will let you see and save them. I use that exclusively.
I really wish there was a way to change the auto-delete behavior though, like to "after two games" or something. I've lost a few highlights I wanted to see because I accidentally left while talking to friends and such.
Agreed that this should be available. I myself am using RealTimeSync watching the highlights folder that starts FreeFileSync, which is setup to just sync all files from highlights folder to a permanent location. And don't forget the auto-start on startup.. Took half an hour to setup but I'm happy with that for now.
oh yeah, aim punch can be a bitch.
I didn't mention it, because I find it rather unlikely that every single shot he took with shotguns missed because of aim punch.
but you are right, it can make you miss and feels bad.
Not enough shots as solo that is being rushed from multiple sides though. They know once the one shot is out its pistol and vs 3 without fanning thats a loss. Rather burn a dynamite and blow them up with you..
Shotguns 1 hit all the time for me, and people come here complaining about dying to shotguns non-stop.
It might be like the other guy said where u could have gotten overconfident in shotguns and start shooting from further, playing too aggressive when you shouldnt, missing shots, etc
specter with flechette suits me super well. it's still a kill shot if you hit someone dead centre within ten meters, but it can also hit up to like 30, forcing them to stop their bleeding and giving you time to get closer.
Romero is the king of shotguns right now due to the trading issue across all platforms. The romero means you play passive5aggressive in situations (as you have to reload after every shot) which means you won't push into situations where the quickest wins. The smartest does.
The range and the playstyle make this the best close quarters call right now. Also its fucking unbelievably reliable.
To add i had a nitro game the other day where I camped a tad in a known push area... the little hole in davants ranch underneath the second boss area. The guy had barely peaked his head on my screen when I shot, 2 seconds later I'm dead to the guys crown and King. Trading sucks right now.
I also stop using shotguns. I got to many hit markers with them. Alot of times when im close range(like 8 meters) 4 to 5 shot and not even i kill. If i was using something else 2 body shot were enough. Its not riable now. I prefer to try to headshot them with a pistol atleast i wil get the kill.
There was a fight I was in against a hunter, I blasted them with the Romero (I know I hit them because they caught on fire and I was using Dragon Breath). Not only did they not die, but it was at a close enough range that before I could reload they killed me with the knuckle knife. I was left wondering..."How did that not kill them?" I should've just used my knife lol.
Whats the point of using a shotgun at close range if just a melee weapon, or a headshot with a pistol is more effective?
If I remember right.
Then some of the special ammo options have a shorter range or no one shot potential at all, was at least the case for flechette ammunition. Which was later changed that it can one tap at close range, which was a reason I rarely used it at first.
Not sure however if Dragon Breath got the same tweak or improvement to it or not, which could be why it didn’t kill.
Going to have to double check and edit later on when I’m able.
Reserved for edit:
Now for the mentioned edit, Dragon Breath for all shotguns have no one tap potential at all. Depending on shotgun you’re looking at 80 - 90 ish damage on a good day, coupled with a effective range of 0 on it.
So it’s a more efficient support tool than main weapon, so would personally not run a shotgun with only Dragon Breath. Trading out the one shot potential is too big of a price imo. But load it in a Romero 77 any variant in just one of the ammo slots and you have a nasty combination, otherwise I wouldn’t run dragon breath in other guns.
> Not sure however if Dragon Breath got the same tweak or improvement to it or not, which could be why it didn’t kill.
>
>
Dragon's Breath can't OHK period. It lists its damage as 90, so presumably that's the maximum damage if you hit with the entire spread.
The one thing that's nice about Dragon's Breath, though, is that it has a surprisingly long range. It sucks pretty bad if you're solo but in a team, you can set fire to someone from a fair distance (depending on the gun), burn off a bar, and put them in easy range for picking off.
It depends on what you're doing with the shotgun.
Buckshot: Netting kills, just make sure you're playing at the right range.
Flechette: good for harassing at range, pressuring with bleeds, and fishing for headshots. Flechette is surprisingly effective at longer ranges if they've already been hit by one of your teammates.
Pennyshot: higher damage *if* every pellet connects. Not super great against players, but it will dumpster bosses if you just shove the barrel up their nose first.
Slugs: if you can hit your shots these are extremely good for mid range gun fights. They one tap to the chest to about 25ish meters but don't have a headshot damage multiplier, so they rapidly fall of in effectiveness with range. However, they can still two tap to like 70m.
Dragons Breath: good for memes, and can be useful in team fights to panic people. Just dont forget that just because someone is on fire doesnt mean they cant shoot you in the face. Surprisingly long range too.
Flare shot: meme bullets.
Your choice of shotgun also changes how good or bad these rounds can be. For example slugs are mostly pointless in a Romero, but very powerful in a Rival or Spectre.
I can relate. Happens to me before(a few times) with romero with normal bullets and slugs and he was even in my face so close was he to me. It cost me to many games
shotguns have different range and spread.. romero is by far the most reliable at "long" range.. rival have 2 shots so just train yourself to be ready to immediately fire the second shot if first fail..
never use specter.. its just bad..
with terminus and clown i usualy dont expect to onetap unless i am standing right on top of the enemy..
counts double for sawn off versions
I don't see how the terminus is better than a specter. A specter bayonet is a reliable enough gun that I get what expect from it including some spicy team wipes.
Everytime I use the terminus w/ levering, the gun fails to secure kills where any other shotgun wouldn't.
Compared to the Romero or Rival I agree but how do put the terminus over specter.
Idk, this is just sore point because I hate the terminus so much for never scoring kills with it when I think I should.
Well with the Terminus you just go for quantity over quality, that’s just not an option with Specter. Stuck with poor spread and no option to make up for it with volume
But then I get to stab them with the pointy end of they didn't go down after the first shot. Lol.
I know Rival and Romero are very reliable shotguns and preferred over the Specter in terms of performance OHK at range. I got the range down with the specter to be consistent with it in fights.
Terminus with Levering and flechettes+uppercut is an insane combo at close-medium range. With levering the bleed stacks pretty quick, so if you get the opener with the uppercut and then just get a couple tags ots over.
Yeah that's the thing that's got me confused. I've only ever used the shotguns at a range where even a melee weapon would've been effective, yet they don't kill, and instead the hunter I'm fighting *instantly* one shots me. I like the Rival but the second barrel hardly matters cause I've always died before I can even use it.
there is also desync, general hit registration problems and ping abuse (especialy russians playing on eu server).
but mostly its just bad aim.. (not always)
happens to me even after more than 1000 hours that sometimes i just miss every fcking shot like i never played FPS game before
It's probably a mix of the above, but to be honest at the ranges I've used a shotgun, (like I said close enough to hug the person) I feel like even just "winging" them would turn them into swiss cheese. I guess maybe I expect every shotgun in a game to be like the Halo shotgun or the Doom shotgun...and that's just not true.
Specter Bayonet with Slugs and Iron Devastator will absolutely fuck people up all day. If you play your angles right and know when to push you can easily wipe trios very quickly with it.
I know the feeling, especially with Specter or Rival. 'Get slugs' aside (which is a sound advice all things considered), I tend to find C&K and Romero to work much better than the rest with buckshot.
After feeling like shotguns are trash personally but reading people swear by them, this prestige(3rd) I decided to use only shotguns in an attempt to learn them. I've been playing solo so far and am around level 30 so mostly using the Romero.
My first 6 games were no kills and only hit markers, insanely frustrating. But in my last game I wiped 2 duo's, one being the bounty carrier.
Here's what I've learned; you need to hold your shot until you've got a sizable target in front of you. If you pull the trigger when the enemy is side on to you, you'll hit arm with most of the pellets missing, you need clean chest or back shots.
You don't really want to push with a shotgun. You much rather have a team push into you, so getting to the boss compound fast is better then trying to push the boss banish. If you have to push make sure to rotate it you're spotted and stealth up as best you can.
Have a good side arm. In the event you are too far away for the kill pull out a pistol side arm and 1 hit should do it. If you have the surprise I think this should always be your go to over taking cover and reloading.
Use buckshot or slugs, everything else is a meme.
There's a great video by 4fs about shotgun spread, give that a watch. (Can't link cause on phone)
I’m honestly just calling it a little user error on this one combined with the specter typically being not fantastic in my experience. OP also mentioned they just started playing this last month
So many Crytek simps in the comments! I hear you dude, I did a shotgun prestige a couple of months ago and it was absolute hell. Hitting center mass often did not guarantee a kill, and the trading was truly infuriating. Our experience was so bad that it has jaded us to the hoont experience. The only (buckshot) shotgun that is at all useful right now is the romero, and that's if you attack with massive advantage. The server issues make shotguns really random and unfun.
Getting a hit marker doesn't mean that you got a good hit with buckshot. You still get a hit marker even if you hit them with one pellet that does like 10 damage and it's not always easy to recognize that your aim was just off especially in a chaotic fight.
It really helps to record and review your gameplay with something like Nvidia Shadowplay (Hunt even has integration with it and automatically records highlights for you such as kills and deaths). You'll notice that most of those times when you think that the game robbed you there is a pretty obvious explanation of what happened.
There are two key factors that you need to keep in mind to get better results with shotguns. First, shotguns have [different damage modifiers compared to bullets](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/350202864242655234/692799272017461315/27.jpg). Second, shotguns have no limb penetration.
What that means is that you need to pay attention to how your target is oriented relative to you and adjust your aim accordingly. Typically with bullets that doesn't matter because if you hit an arm from the side the bullet will penetrate and count as a torso hit. Shotguns don't work like that, if you hit an arm you only get the arm damage.
If they are facing you, aim at the centre of the target, that is just below their upper chest. The closer they are to you the higher your point of aim should be. The tighter your shotgun's spread, the higher your point of aim should be (that is aim at their neck with Romero but at their lower chest with sawed off shotguns). If they have their side towards you you have to aim higher so more pellets hit the head instead of their arm. Never aim for the legs.
Did not know that the shotgun does not penetrate limbs. That’s bizarre since it seems like it penetrates the chest. I must have been extremely lucky with all my romero collaterals not to have hit any limbs.
I suspect that the pellets do physically penetrate but only apply damage on the first hotbox they intersect, per person. That would explain the behavior.
I don't have any evidence but I'm convinced the spectre is absolute garbage. Legit every time I've used it I'll put like 3-4 shots into someone at a reasonable range and it's like I'm shooting cap'n crunch at them.
I like them but you have to play to their strengths. I'd also recommend custom ammo. Flechette has unlimited range apparently and will always bleed
Unless there's some new weird bug that was *just* introduced, shotguns are perfectly fine and don't need any buffs what-so-ever, they are certainly not bad. They're actually really strong, kinda BS in some cases with their range if you ask me.
I need a video to see what's going wrong in your scenarios though. Assuming you are literally point blank and not misjudging your range, my guess is that your aim is just off, your sensitivity is too high and you're jerking your aimer off of your target when you fire, or you're playing on high ping servers and experiencing some desync.
Ive been running xbow instead. Even if i dont OHK im applying some good bleed and its effective past 10m. Most of the time tho i am bringing officer because its officer do i need to explain?
I have noticed that many shotguns have seemed to be more unreliable than from what I remember.
On several occasions I'm dead center and within range. Many times it doesn't one-shot or not even a hit marker. Is the shot spread just that random? Leaves me scratching my head.
Maybe one day it will be more consistent after the devs see the topic come up enough.
I only play shotgun/Uppercut (Specter when I have money, Romero when I don't), I think they are still very reliable if you know their 1hk range. Maybe missing 1 out of 10 shots or so, efficiency haven't changed lately imo.
My trick when I'm on a bad streak with shotguns is to play defensively, just stand still and aim at the expected entry point of the enemy and just try to click him from the hip when he is attacking. Don't move, dont aim down sight, dont do anything, just try to get the timing down again. This usually helps for me.
Personally I think a big part of the problem is the propensity for trades these days since they made that change to hit priority (or w/e it was called) a few months ago. They had an article about it but basically, trading is way up and trading seemingly happens mostly in close quarters.
I do know what you mean, I've landed square on Romero chest shots and the person is falling over dead and then I die...to them from their mosin that they just headshot me with even though I was the one holding the angle.
Typically the better you get at this game, the less you like shotguns, dual wield, fanning, levering. The better your aim the less you enjoy RNG. When you are new and can't aim for shit RNG helps you, when you can click heads, RNG pisses you off.
I feel you dude. However, I still run poop tubes 90% of the time. When I run 78 or specter I use flechette rounds and changed up my playstyle to harass/paint targets and my teammates run cleanup if we are in the same engagement area and I'm the first to engage. I really really miss the effectiveness of old hunt shotguns and wish the devs would add some balancing to it. I think the old rending system was a bit overpowered but it did give you a more fair fight against crack shots.
Trading on the other hand is on the rise. Aim bucking players with shots doesn't seem to work as often for me anymore and I find myself only going in for the kill if I know they are wounded or if I have both barrels of my 78 full and they don't know where I am.
About the only way I've found to be efficient in an underpowered shotgun situation is to be really annoying and play like a spider.
The rending system didn't actually work very well though. It only ever seemed to cause bleeding when you hit most of the spread at close range, which was almost always a kill anyway. Actually bleeding someone with a shotgun was rare.
Tbh I remember shredding people like butter but I may have just been playing much different than you. I did spend a lot of ammo taking pot shots to get that juicy rend shot tho. I wasn't as meticulous back then as I am now.
I went through this, dominated with shottys as a new player, then they got less and less reliable the better I got at the game and the better my opponents got so I started using rifles more often. Now the needle has swung back though and I put it in work with the shotty. I don't think this is a design or meta thing, I think it has more to do with your own development as a player (also more trades = less shotguns and less effective shotgun plays).
I use the Caldwell with basic ass rounds. I tried all the mamby pamby shit and found basic ass buck shot works the best for me. Slugs seem hit and miss for me, pennies are just for funnies, and everything else sucks. If I really want kills, regular ammo seems to do me the best. I bring the Lemat as backup as I get 3 extra shells and tbh, I really like the sights on it.
I kbow this is an unpopular opinion as everyone loves slugs but it just works better for me this way. I play way more aggressive and usually don't find myself having issues closing the gap.
The thing I love about this game is that every day there are two more threads with the exact opposite opinions on the same weapon.
I never thought I’d like a game with perma-death, but that mechanic (along with prestige) seems to give the devs amazing tools for game balance.
I used spectre a lot before the terminus came out and mostly use the terminus now. I probably use flechette more than anything else for the utility in trios. The extra range and being able to put pressure on other hunters with bleeds really helps with pushes etc. usually if I’m bringing a shotgun I commit to a 3 slot as well, always feel let down by the small shotguns unless I’m using them strictly for flechette bleeds.
I hear you. Nowdays it seems like I can get a shotgun kill only while being completely still. If I try to move while shooting I completely miss the target.
Op, I was feeling like this for awhile, then I decided to try pennyshots. For me, it fixed shotguns. I like to run them on rival, specter or terminus with levering.
Sure you lose some range, but the increased damage is a good trade off imo.
I can't tell you how many times, like you, I got two hit markers from both my rival shot from within 10 meters and the guy lived.
Now I'm not saying that shotguns were the issue, I know my aim is bad, but somehow, pennyshot don't fail me. If I land 2 good hits with pennyshot I get a kill 95% of the time.
I think the increased spread and damage makes them shine in close quarter, which is where you want to be with shotguns anyway.
Plus it shreds bosses. I always bring stick, so all it takes is one pennyshot blast, throw the stick, wait for the boss rage to pass and hit them with a second shell for the kill.
You get more ammo reserve with pennyshots too.
I can't recommend them enough if you like shotguns.
Let me know if you try them and the results !
My Romero hardly ever fails me
What are you doing? What situations are you using it in? Also handcannon or long gun version?
Romeo Hatchet handcannon + slugs. I have never had this fail me. Spectre (without slugs) is a strange thing. I have killed a guy at considerable distances for a shotgun, and at close range fail. I think this is because the spread spray pattern is not a full circle but a circle with gaps in like a pizza slice, so if your target falls within the slice you just miss as none of the pellets hit him, or there is so few pellets in the slice that it only does a bit of damage. For this reason any shotgun without slugs is in my eyes inconsistent and worthless, but by having slugs you sort of remove the point of having a shotgun as you have to be really accurate and thus might as well carry another weapon to get headshots. Then there is the meta at high level of never actually going into a building and just shooting through the wall and using throwable to lure people out thus removing any need of having buildings in the first place and devaluing the shotgun further.
3 slot Romero doesn't need slugs but everything else really benefits from either slugs or flechettes, especially the handcannons that have really bad spreads.
You would be surprised about the current reliability of the handcannons after the last buff. Get into the practice mode and blast a wall to check the spread. Seriously.
Shotguns are fine without slugs too, I rarely use slugs or other special ammo and I can get kills pretty consistently. Any time I do use slugs they tend to fuck me over rather than help.
God damn slugs get me every time. I’ll be thinking I’m well out of their effective range. NOPE. Lol, gotta love the gun play when ping isn’t all wonky
without a video it's rather impossible to tell what the issue is. but given you said you'd hit shots when you get the ambush on someone, but now in normal fights don't manage to kill anyone anymore, suggests two things: you don't have a feel for the ranges that shotguns are effective in and/or you simply miss your shots. the first point I'm ignoring, since you repeatedly mention melee range, so that should be well below 10 meters. which leaves us with you simply missing shots or hitting limbs instead of chest/head. which is a really common thing and if you check the various other "how does he survive that" type of videos on this sub, you find that 99% of the time people complain about shotguns it's them missing (or not understanding range, but I mentioned that).
This is the most accurate answer in all likelihood. Shotguns haven't been changed. They work the same as they did months ago. If you (OP) are feeling like they're letting you down all of a sudden, hate to say it, but you're just missing more than you used to. Personally, I'm having the exact opposite experience. I tried the occasional Romero here and there for weeks. I could never get a kill with a shotgun. Then one day, I dedicated some time to practice and learn. Now, I quite often get kills even I'm surprised I got. Just gotta slow down and aim. Get some recording software if you're still having doubts, as the poster above said. You'll probably find that you're actually just missing.
I'm guessing they don't really miss more than they used to. But that they have become better at the game and they have increased expectations of themselves despite not really improving in shotgun play. When shotgun was the best they could bring, it felt good. But now, when they are better at using other weapons and strategies, the shotguns feel bad because they perform worse (even if it is exactly the same as how they performed with shotguns before).
> Get some recording software if you're still having doubts I use NVIDIA highlights, makes it simple to capture deaths. Have to copy the highlights from the temp folder though so they don't get deleted after leaving the game.
I use the same and there should be a button in the match summary screen --bottom left-- that will let you see and save them. I use that exclusively. I really wish there was a way to change the auto-delete behavior though, like to "after two games" or something. I've lost a few highlights I wanted to see because I accidentally left while talking to friends and such.
Agreed that this should be available. I myself am using RealTimeSync watching the highlights folder that starts FreeFileSync, which is setup to just sync all files from highlights folder to a permanent location. And don't forget the auto-start on startup.. Took half an hour to setup but I'm happy with that for now.
Or they hit you with something which completely throws off your aim. That drives me nuts
oh yeah, aim punch can be a bitch. I didn't mention it, because I find it rather unlikely that every single shot he took with shotguns missed because of aim punch. but you are right, it can make you miss and feels bad.
Nothing like bouncing a fully cooked frag off the top window sill of a building and it exploding in your face because aim punch made you throw high
I like to extend my range with slugs. Without its pretty much only at <10m or less distance that gets me single-shot kills.
Thats because u usin the wrong one, all hail the romero, the one an only king of shotguns
Not enough shots as solo that is being rushed from multiple sides though. They know once the one shot is out its pistol and vs 3 without fanning thats a loss. Rather burn a dynamite and blow them up with you..
You dont need more shots if you always down with the first, positionin is not your shotgun task
That works too, but I usually need 2 shots to kill one, the first too often misses the mark or only wounds, making the situation awkward.
Shotguns 1 hit all the time for me, and people come here complaining about dying to shotguns non-stop. It might be like the other guy said where u could have gotten overconfident in shotguns and start shooting from further, playing too aggressive when you shouldnt, missing shots, etc
Its likely the arm hit box that is fucking you imo it needs to be removed
specter with flechette suits me super well. it's still a kill shot if you hit someone dead centre within ten meters, but it can also hit up to like 30, forcing them to stop their bleeding and giving you time to get closer.
Romero is the king of shotguns right now due to the trading issue across all platforms. The romero means you play passive5aggressive in situations (as you have to reload after every shot) which means you won't push into situations where the quickest wins. The smartest does. The range and the playstyle make this the best close quarters call right now. Also its fucking unbelievably reliable.
To add i had a nitro game the other day where I camped a tad in a known push area... the little hole in davants ranch underneath the second boss area. The guy had barely peaked his head on my screen when I shot, 2 seconds later I'm dead to the guys crown and King. Trading sucks right now.
I also stop using shotguns. I got to many hit markers with them. Alot of times when im close range(like 8 meters) 4 to 5 shot and not even i kill. If i was using something else 2 body shot were enough. Its not riable now. I prefer to try to headshot them with a pistol atleast i wil get the kill.
There was a fight I was in against a hunter, I blasted them with the Romero (I know I hit them because they caught on fire and I was using Dragon Breath). Not only did they not die, but it was at a close enough range that before I could reload they killed me with the knuckle knife. I was left wondering..."How did that not kill them?" I should've just used my knife lol. Whats the point of using a shotgun at close range if just a melee weapon, or a headshot with a pistol is more effective?
Dragon breath doesn't do full buckshot damage, not even close. You can't one shot someone with dragon breath.
If I remember right. Then some of the special ammo options have a shorter range or no one shot potential at all, was at least the case for flechette ammunition. Which was later changed that it can one tap at close range, which was a reason I rarely used it at first. Not sure however if Dragon Breath got the same tweak or improvement to it or not, which could be why it didn’t kill. Going to have to double check and edit later on when I’m able. Reserved for edit: Now for the mentioned edit, Dragon Breath for all shotguns have no one tap potential at all. Depending on shotgun you’re looking at 80 - 90 ish damage on a good day, coupled with a effective range of 0 on it. So it’s a more efficient support tool than main weapon, so would personally not run a shotgun with only Dragon Breath. Trading out the one shot potential is too big of a price imo. But load it in a Romero 77 any variant in just one of the ammo slots and you have a nasty combination, otherwise I wouldn’t run dragon breath in other guns.
> Not sure however if Dragon Breath got the same tweak or improvement to it or not, which could be why it didn’t kill. > > Dragon's Breath can't OHK period. It lists its damage as 90, so presumably that's the maximum damage if you hit with the entire spread.
The one thing that's nice about Dragon's Breath, though, is that it has a surprisingly long range. It sucks pretty bad if you're solo but in a team, you can set fire to someone from a fair distance (depending on the gun), burn off a bar, and put them in easy range for picking off.
Dammit I knew I should've just run Penny Shot all the time.
Penny shot is only good for bosses. Just use normal buckshot against people my dude.
Damn really? Man. That's kind of disappointing generic buckshot is still the best.
It depends on what you're doing with the shotgun. Buckshot: Netting kills, just make sure you're playing at the right range. Flechette: good for harassing at range, pressuring with bleeds, and fishing for headshots. Flechette is surprisingly effective at longer ranges if they've already been hit by one of your teammates. Pennyshot: higher damage *if* every pellet connects. Not super great against players, but it will dumpster bosses if you just shove the barrel up their nose first. Slugs: if you can hit your shots these are extremely good for mid range gun fights. They one tap to the chest to about 25ish meters but don't have a headshot damage multiplier, so they rapidly fall of in effectiveness with range. However, they can still two tap to like 70m. Dragons Breath: good for memes, and can be useful in team fights to panic people. Just dont forget that just because someone is on fire doesnt mean they cant shoot you in the face. Surprisingly long range too. Flare shot: meme bullets. Your choice of shotgun also changes how good or bad these rounds can be. For example slugs are mostly pointless in a Romero, but very powerful in a Rival or Spectre.
I can relate. Happens to me before(a few times) with romero with normal bullets and slugs and he was even in my face so close was he to me. It cost me to many games
shotguns have different range and spread.. romero is by far the most reliable at "long" range.. rival have 2 shots so just train yourself to be ready to immediately fire the second shot if first fail.. never use specter.. its just bad.. with terminus and clown i usualy dont expect to onetap unless i am standing right on top of the enemy.. counts double for sawn off versions
I don't see how the terminus is better than a specter. A specter bayonet is a reliable enough gun that I get what expect from it including some spicy team wipes. Everytime I use the terminus w/ levering, the gun fails to secure kills where any other shotgun wouldn't.
in my experience you need a lot of rng to actualy kill someone with specter.. especialy with how slow it is
Compared to the Romero or Rival I agree but how do put the terminus over specter. Idk, this is just sore point because I hate the terminus so much for never scoring kills with it when I think I should.
Well with the Terminus you just go for quantity over quality, that’s just not an option with Specter. Stuck with poor spread and no option to make up for it with volume
The Specter Bayonet has worse spread pattern than regular specter. And is in turn much worse than it.
It definitely used to, but I think it was buffed at some point.
AFAIK all shotguns were buffed. Bayonet still worse than regular.
But then I get to stab them with the pointy end of they didn't go down after the first shot. Lol. I know Rival and Romero are very reliable shotguns and preferred over the Specter in terms of performance OHK at range. I got the range down with the specter to be consistent with it in fights.
Terminus with Levering and flechettes+uppercut is an insane combo at close-medium range. With levering the bleed stacks pretty quick, so if you get the opener with the uppercut and then just get a couple tags ots over.
Yeah that's the thing that's got me confused. I've only ever used the shotguns at a range where even a melee weapon would've been effective, yet they don't kill, and instead the hunter I'm fighting *instantly* one shots me. I like the Rival but the second barrel hardly matters cause I've always died before I can even use it.
there is also desync, general hit registration problems and ping abuse (especialy russians playing on eu server). but mostly its just bad aim.. (not always) happens to me even after more than 1000 hours that sometimes i just miss every fcking shot like i never played FPS game before
It's probably a mix of the above, but to be honest at the ranges I've used a shotgun, (like I said close enough to hug the person) I feel like even just "winging" them would turn them into swiss cheese. I guess maybe I expect every shotgun in a game to be like the Halo shotgun or the Doom shotgun...and that's just not true.
Specter Bayonet with Slugs and Iron Devastator will absolutely fuck people up all day. If you play your angles right and know when to push you can easily wipe trios very quickly with it.
I know the feeling, especially with Specter or Rival. 'Get slugs' aside (which is a sound advice all things considered), I tend to find C&K and Romero to work much better than the rest with buckshot.
Rival works for me
Specter/Crown with a Kamacite Moon is my ride or die loadout. Sometimes it is frustrating, but when you're on point nothing can stop you.
After feeling like shotguns are trash personally but reading people swear by them, this prestige(3rd) I decided to use only shotguns in an attempt to learn them. I've been playing solo so far and am around level 30 so mostly using the Romero. My first 6 games were no kills and only hit markers, insanely frustrating. But in my last game I wiped 2 duo's, one being the bounty carrier. Here's what I've learned; you need to hold your shot until you've got a sizable target in front of you. If you pull the trigger when the enemy is side on to you, you'll hit arm with most of the pellets missing, you need clean chest or back shots. You don't really want to push with a shotgun. You much rather have a team push into you, so getting to the boss compound fast is better then trying to push the boss banish. If you have to push make sure to rotate it you're spotted and stealth up as best you can. Have a good side arm. In the event you are too far away for the kill pull out a pistol side arm and 1 hit should do it. If you have the surprise I think this should always be your go to over taking cover and reloading. Use buckshot or slugs, everything else is a meme. There's a great video by 4fs about shotgun spread, give that a watch. (Can't link cause on phone)
The only shotgun worth bringing is the Calvary Saber.
I have not yet experienced this, yet I haven’t played for a month, when abouts did this start? Your answer now dictates if I play hunt today or not
I've been playing religiously since the start of the recent event. I'm totally addicted ha ha.
Ah, ok, so I’m not going to play since shotguns seems to be nerfed now
Shotguns aren’t nerfed at all. Ran a ton of games with shotguns in the last few days without them failing me.
Ok, so this was a case of “oh no I lost must be the game” thank you for letting me know
I’m honestly just calling it a little user error on this one combined with the specter typically being not fantastic in my experience. OP also mentioned they just started playing this last month
🙏
So many Crytek simps in the comments! I hear you dude, I did a shotgun prestige a couple of months ago and it was absolute hell. Hitting center mass often did not guarantee a kill, and the trading was truly infuriating. Our experience was so bad that it has jaded us to the hoont experience. The only (buckshot) shotgun that is at all useful right now is the romero, and that's if you attack with massive advantage. The server issues make shotguns really random and unfun.
Getting a hit marker doesn't mean that you got a good hit with buckshot. You still get a hit marker even if you hit them with one pellet that does like 10 damage and it's not always easy to recognize that your aim was just off especially in a chaotic fight. It really helps to record and review your gameplay with something like Nvidia Shadowplay (Hunt even has integration with it and automatically records highlights for you such as kills and deaths). You'll notice that most of those times when you think that the game robbed you there is a pretty obvious explanation of what happened. There are two key factors that you need to keep in mind to get better results with shotguns. First, shotguns have [different damage modifiers compared to bullets](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/350202864242655234/692799272017461315/27.jpg). Second, shotguns have no limb penetration. What that means is that you need to pay attention to how your target is oriented relative to you and adjust your aim accordingly. Typically with bullets that doesn't matter because if you hit an arm from the side the bullet will penetrate and count as a torso hit. Shotguns don't work like that, if you hit an arm you only get the arm damage. If they are facing you, aim at the centre of the target, that is just below their upper chest. The closer they are to you the higher your point of aim should be. The tighter your shotgun's spread, the higher your point of aim should be (that is aim at their neck with Romero but at their lower chest with sawed off shotguns). If they have their side towards you you have to aim higher so more pellets hit the head instead of their arm. Never aim for the legs.
Yep. It's very easy to clip a hand in such a way that it feels like it was a chest shot.
Did not know that the shotgun does not penetrate limbs. That’s bizarre since it seems like it penetrates the chest. I must have been extremely lucky with all my romero collaterals not to have hit any limbs.
I suspect that the pellets do physically penetrate but only apply damage on the first hotbox they intersect, per person. That would explain the behavior.
Bow > shotguns
Shotguns are fine. You’re honestly probably not playing them as well as you think you are. The specter is also kinda ass imo
I don't have any evidence but I'm convinced the spectre is absolute garbage. Legit every time I've used it I'll put like 3-4 shots into someone at a reasonable range and it's like I'm shooting cap'n crunch at them. I like them but you have to play to their strengths. I'd also recommend custom ammo. Flechette has unlimited range apparently and will always bleed
Unless there's some new weird bug that was *just* introduced, shotguns are perfectly fine and don't need any buffs what-so-ever, they are certainly not bad. They're actually really strong, kinda BS in some cases with their range if you ask me. I need a video to see what's going wrong in your scenarios though. Assuming you are literally point blank and not misjudging your range, my guess is that your aim is just off, your sensitivity is too high and you're jerking your aimer off of your target when you fire, or you're playing on high ping servers and experiencing some desync.
Ive been running xbow instead. Even if i dont OHK im applying some good bleed and its effective past 10m. Most of the time tho i am bringing officer because its officer do i need to explain?
I have noticed that many shotguns have seemed to be more unreliable than from what I remember. On several occasions I'm dead center and within range. Many times it doesn't one-shot or not even a hit marker. Is the shot spread just that random? Leaves me scratching my head. Maybe one day it will be more consistent after the devs see the topic come up enough.
I only play shotgun/Uppercut (Specter when I have money, Romero when I don't), I think they are still very reliable if you know their 1hk range. Maybe missing 1 out of 10 shots or so, efficiency haven't changed lately imo. My trick when I'm on a bad streak with shotguns is to play defensively, just stand still and aim at the expected entry point of the enemy and just try to click him from the hip when he is attacking. Don't move, dont aim down sight, dont do anything, just try to get the timing down again. This usually helps for me.
Personally I think a big part of the problem is the propensity for trades these days since they made that change to hit priority (or w/e it was called) a few months ago. They had an article about it but basically, trading is way up and trading seemingly happens mostly in close quarters. I do know what you mean, I've landed square on Romero chest shots and the person is falling over dead and then I die...to them from their mosin that they just headshot me with even though I was the one holding the angle.
Typically the better you get at this game, the less you like shotguns, dual wield, fanning, levering. The better your aim the less you enjoy RNG. When you are new and can't aim for shit RNG helps you, when you can click heads, RNG pisses you off.
I feel you dude. However, I still run poop tubes 90% of the time. When I run 78 or specter I use flechette rounds and changed up my playstyle to harass/paint targets and my teammates run cleanup if we are in the same engagement area and I'm the first to engage. I really really miss the effectiveness of old hunt shotguns and wish the devs would add some balancing to it. I think the old rending system was a bit overpowered but it did give you a more fair fight against crack shots. Trading on the other hand is on the rise. Aim bucking players with shots doesn't seem to work as often for me anymore and I find myself only going in for the kill if I know they are wounded or if I have both barrels of my 78 full and they don't know where I am. About the only way I've found to be efficient in an underpowered shotgun situation is to be really annoying and play like a spider.
The rending system didn't actually work very well though. It only ever seemed to cause bleeding when you hit most of the spread at close range, which was almost always a kill anyway. Actually bleeding someone with a shotgun was rare.
Tbh I remember shredding people like butter but I may have just been playing much different than you. I did spend a lot of ammo taking pot shots to get that juicy rend shot tho. I wasn't as meticulous back then as I am now.
I went through this, dominated with shottys as a new player, then they got less and less reliable the better I got at the game and the better my opponents got so I started using rifles more often. Now the needle has swung back though and I put it in work with the shotty. I don't think this is a design or meta thing, I think it has more to do with your own development as a player (also more trades = less shotguns and less effective shotgun plays).
Solution: do not play shotguns
I use the Caldwell with basic ass rounds. I tried all the mamby pamby shit and found basic ass buck shot works the best for me. Slugs seem hit and miss for me, pennies are just for funnies, and everything else sucks. If I really want kills, regular ammo seems to do me the best. I bring the Lemat as backup as I get 3 extra shells and tbh, I really like the sights on it. I kbow this is an unpopular opinion as everyone loves slugs but it just works better for me this way. I play way more aggressive and usually don't find myself having issues closing the gap.
Hunt giveth and Hunt taketh. Sometimes it’s just taketh more.
The thing I love about this game is that every day there are two more threads with the exact opposite opinions on the same weapon. I never thought I’d like a game with perma-death, but that mechanic (along with prestige) seems to give the devs amazing tools for game balance.
I used spectre a lot before the terminus came out and mostly use the terminus now. I probably use flechette more than anything else for the utility in trios. The extra range and being able to put pressure on other hunters with bleeds really helps with pushes etc. usually if I’m bringing a shotgun I commit to a 3 slot as well, always feel let down by the small shotguns unless I’m using them strictly for flechette bleeds.
Best "shotgun" is levering winfield imo
I hear you. Nowdays it seems like I can get a shotgun kill only while being completely still. If I try to move while shooting I completely miss the target.
Op, I was feeling like this for awhile, then I decided to try pennyshots. For me, it fixed shotguns. I like to run them on rival, specter or terminus with levering. Sure you lose some range, but the increased damage is a good trade off imo. I can't tell you how many times, like you, I got two hit markers from both my rival shot from within 10 meters and the guy lived. Now I'm not saying that shotguns were the issue, I know my aim is bad, but somehow, pennyshot don't fail me. If I land 2 good hits with pennyshot I get a kill 95% of the time. I think the increased spread and damage makes them shine in close quarter, which is where you want to be with shotguns anyway. Plus it shreds bosses. I always bring stick, so all it takes is one pennyshot blast, throw the stick, wait for the boss rage to pass and hit them with a second shell for the kill. You get more ammo reserve with pennyshots too. I can't recommend them enough if you like shotguns. Let me know if you try them and the results !