Dear Shotgun users...

[Nestahima]

I made a thread earlier about Shotguns, but I'm still trying to use them.

I worked hard today and got my Barada Riga PA up to level 11, so now I fire four freeze bullets. However, I'm still having an incredibly hard time solo'ing anything with a shotgun. I'm currently level 14, using two +5 B-Rank Shotguns. If I take out pretty much any weapon, the soloing is smoother and faster. I like Shotguns though, however they don't seem to have a great use. Any help?

[omegapirate2k]

You should just stick to using the shotgun on crowds or enemies with ALOT of points on them.

[Carbinne]

They're not great solo weapons. Just get used to that fact. A friend of mine said Grenade Launchers are also not well suited for soloing, but he then found in a group he could easily keep enemies knocked to the ground where the forces and hunters could RIP AND TEAR into the helpless monsters.

That said, you could probably very easily get by perfectly fine without using shotguns. They're versatile in that they let you divide attacks and status effect among multiple monsters or head up and blast things point blank for MASSIVE DAMAGE. They don't burn through PP like rifles and they level up their PAs rather quick. But the long delay after each shot makes them quite unsuited for soloing.

[Cav]

sgs are for mass mob pack debuffing, not damage >.>

[Itchee]

You absolutely have to attack from the sides...or preferably the back if you wanna attack at close range due to the delay. All 4 shots hitting the monster works wonders....
The shotgun is much better suited when used in parties.....you can tag multiples easily and get in close thanks to your teammates distracting the monsters.
Jus remember to stick and move.....stick and move....

[Niered]

Why would you even try that? The shotgun is meant to crowd control and barrage enemy groups with SE. Its also useful when used against a single enemy at close range, since your nearly gaurunteed a SE. They were never meant as a solo weapon though, dualies, rifles, and saber/handguns do that just fine.

[Golto]

The shotgun will become more usefull when soloing once your atp gets higher. i'd say around lvl 30-35 or so.

[Realmz]

i use my shotgun for soloing all the time, along with single target damage on mobs that take reduced damage to melee but full to range (tenhong anyone?) because for the simple fact that one shot gun blast does 700+ damage from me.

when shotgunning always try to be behind the mob (for 100% hit) or to the side of it (it that gives you a greater surface area to hit, so you can back up)

[Cav]

700+? what are you using 8* sg with lvl 30 bullets? it hits max 5 times and usual damage for my 5*+5 with lvl 22 bullets against weak element is 130 which one usually misses, if you get too close it only hits once also.

[Shade-]

[ not reading replies ]

stop soloing, problem solved. Shotty sucks for soloing, as you clearly found out, so why not join a party?

[Realmz]

On 2006-12-14 18:58, Cav wrote:
700+? what are you using 8* sg with lvl 30 bullets? it hits max 5 times and usual damage for my 5*+5 with lvl 22 bullets against weak element is 130 which one usually misses, if you get too close it only hits once also.



wrong, each bullet does close to the same damage, so when they overlap it looks like just one hit

unless your saying that some mobs only have 100 hp..

also the aoe effect of the bullets adds on two hits http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Realmz on 2006-12-14 19:39 ]</font>

[Randomness]

On 2006-12-14 18:58, Cav wrote:
700+? what are you using 8* sg with lvl 30 bullets? it hits max 5 times and usual damage for my 5*+5 with lvl 22 bullets against weak element is 130 which one usually misses, if you get too close it only hits once also.



5*130=650.

Hes only doing 50 more than you.

[uhawww]

Whilst leveling RA to become a FighGunner, I often used Shotguns.
I found them great at lower level soloing, but they tailed off in effectiveness steadily since I didn't spend much Meseta on upgraded ones.

Shigga What?

[Schubalts]

On 2006-12-14 19:34, uhawww wrote:

Shigga What?



SHIGGA AMZA!

[VelosofLight]

On 2006-12-14 15:44, Golto wrote:
The shotgun will become more usefull when soloing once your atp gets higher. i'd say around lvl 30-35 or so.



Yes, I'm level 37 with a level 20 Barada Riga, and currently my shotgun owns.

[EC_Subbie]

On 2006-12-14 14:30, Cav wrote:
sgs are for mass mob pack debuffing, not damage >.>



My shotguns can outdamage my rifles if there's groups of mobs. I'm primarily a shotgun user with 2 Shigga Bomas (A Rank 7 Star) and my bullets are lv 27, 24, and earth lagging behind at 18. The nice thing with a shotty is if you point blank an enemy..all the bullets overlap and hit it at once...each bullet having a chance also to apply SE. It's a good, powerful, gun but a bit slow and dangerous at times.. especially you're stuck in reload animation and a Megid is flying at your face...

[Cav]

It only hits more than the bullet amount of mobs if theres more monsters in the spray, like you can hit 8 mobs with the 5 bullet spray if they line up correctly, but you don't hit that all on one mob. Also, I know about the bullets doing same damage and overlapping text, but you can see that because the numbers appear fatter, it you get too close the number edges are thin, meaning it hit only once.
And thirdly I meant the 700+ comment because that doesnt happen most of the time, most of the time one misses at least, and you cant always get behind mobs all the time to ensure all hit. I was just saying it doesn't hit that much all the time.

[nefarious]

I really wish shotguns were more useful at close range...

I'd like to see some distance based damage mods in PSU...

I mean, really, shotguns should do some significant damage at point blank, but, even with all hits connecting, a same-rank rifle will do the same damage, faster, from across the map...

I'm seeing shotgun as debuff onry.

And I already have a grenade launcher, so I'll prolly avoid shotguns entirely.

[Fleur-de-Lis]

Though I'm not sure what problem you're talking about, I'm guessing from your post that your runs are proceeding too slowly for you.

If you're LV14 (and I assume you're referring to base LV) you must be soloing C Rank. Honestly, I end up soloing a lot on Parum, and as a gimped Ranger who can only use Shotguns, I've had a bit of experience with what you're going through. The tips about bullet spacing and hitting multiple targets are right on: There are rooms in Sleeping Warriors, for instance, that a sub-LV11 BA will hit 7 enemies simultaneously from a single firing. That's just crazy. It's also possible to hit 2 or 3 targets with 4-6 hits from a single firing. It's all about positioning. You can imagine what your higher LV BAs can do. Said runs usually take 10-15 minutes, netting you 40-60 MP in an hour of persistent grinding. If you need any info regarding my equipment configuration, let me know.

I'm far from an expert, so the only other advice I can offer is try to make every bullet count every time you pull the trigger. Again, positioning, and this may be where you're running into the problem of your runs taking too long. Unfortunately, for a lowly Shotgunner like my character, patience and tactics have to take precedence over speed.

Phew. I hope I didn't just waste your time.

{EDITED for terrible grammar}

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Fleur-de-Lis on 2006-12-15 00:41 ]</font>

[AngelLight]

To clarify for some posters here on shotguns and usage....

Obviously a shotty spreads effects around. Mind you this is not the optimal way to proc effects based on the fact that it's status level is much lower then the high power single target options (rifles and bows). However, in cases where you're fighting small herding mobs it's ideal since these same mobs also typically have low STA scores as well. A side effect of doing this is that it also makes it easier to get a piece of everything for exp purposes.

Now a second use of a shotty is as a PB Weapon. In this capacity damage is not from just hit timing like you'd expect from other normal single shot weapons but in fact is from the hit timing PER BULLET. This means that every bullet that comes out of the gun counts as an individual attack and, and this is specific to shotguns and maybe crossbows (never used one yet), each individual bullet has a chance of registering as a multi hit (basically the bullet counts as 2 for hit registering) each time based on the angle the bullet hits the target.

So lets use an example to illustrate:

You have a shot gun with a PA art over Level 20. This means that it's firing 5 shots each time you pull the trigger. Lets say each shot does a damage range of 60-100 counting PA bonuses grinding and whatnot. Now at point blank range, you pull the trigger. All five shots register as a hit, no misses (which is wholy possible if you have a good enough ata and the level difference between you and the target isn't something extreme). From my experience, the 3 middle bullets tend to multi hit or have a chance to as opposed to the 2 outside ones (based on the angle it hits the target. That would mean that even if you didn't get a multi hit, you're still doing a dmg range of 300-500 (60-100 * 5 bullets) without any multi hits and if you get all 3 bullets to multi hit you're now doing 480-800 damage (60-100 * 8 bullets).

Now obviously this is a rough example and all of this is based on exactly what sort of gear you're using, what your stats are, and what PA and skill level you're using. However, with proper gear (rangers being the most gear dependent class in the game IMO), rangers can put up big numbers on a PB shotty. Just keep in mind that damage numbers overlap each other graphically and just because you dont see it doesn't mean it's not there.

Now, as for is this something you can solo with. If you mean use nothing but shottys the answer is no. Bottom line, a Shotgun is a slow weapon. A big part of soloing is the ability to keep mobile and shotguns just dont allow for that. Now if you're using other weapons along with the shotgun (say duallies for strafe running, or a bow or rifle to proc early a CC effect) then yes, shotguns do give you a big damage source weapon. But you have to be careful using them since PB anything with a ranger is always a risky affair.

Hope that helps.