[Lastat27]

The Shotgun. Ye old boom stick. The zombie-bane of the past and the suicidal weapon of choice for the future. While most Rangers would rather be dishing out solid damage from 100 meters away, I would like to give some foresight into this refreshing misunderstood force to be reckoned with.

Upon first glance and a bit of testing you'll find that Shotguns can tag many enemies with a single shot and spray status effects around the room with frenzy. However, most Rangers see this as a weak weapon because of its low damage output. There is however one thing that most Rangers are unaware of: Its point blank damage potential.

Basic knowledge:
-Shotguns fire 3 bullets a shot with a Bullet level of 0-10, 4 bullets from 11-20, and 5 bullets from 21-30.

Advanced knowledge:
-Every time you shoot a monster with a shotgun at point blank distance, all four of your bullets hit that monster, and each of them count as a hit.

Test: Level 11 Bullets (4 Shots)
Shoot a level 16 Badira (lizard) at long range four times.
Shoot a level 16 Badira (lizard) point blank.

At long distance you'll notice it takes four shots to kill a Badira. Each shot doing 100 damage. Thus the Badira has roughly 350-400hp.

However, moving into point blank range you'll notice you kill the same Badira with a single shot. But wait, you only saw 100 x 2 damage appear above its head, how did he die to only 200 damage?

You actually just did 100 x 4 damage with a single shot; you just hit him with all four bullets at once, instantly killing him. The damage is there, but the numbers verifying this above its head are not.

*Sometimes you will not kill them with one point blank shot, the reason being one of the four bullets actually missed*

-Shotguns have an "extremely small" area of effect on each bullet. If two monsters are extremely close to each other, one bullet can hit both of them.

It is possible to hit 8 monsters with a single shot using level 11 bullets. All four of your bullets can hit two mobs each. The chance of such a perfect set up is very rare. My record is 7 mobs with one shot.

-Getting into a position in which all four bullets always hit monsters can be tricky. One mob point blank, two mobs rather close, or a group of mobs at long range all work well. At the moment I hit 150x4 point blank, and when mobs are in perfect formations 150x (5~. Armor deductions aside that is.

Good times for a Shotgun
-Fighting De Ragan with Ice bullets is always fun. I'd rather not fight that douche EVER again, but it's always refreshing to hit De Ragan in 5-7 spots per shot, for 40-150 damage each.

-The big and dumb. Polavohras, Flaming crocs, and Megid masters. Just stay behind them or beside them and let the beating commence.

-Mass mobs. By using Freeze or Shock on C Rank and Shock on B-A Rank you become the best crowd controller around. Your damage output is decent, but it can be hard to hit 4+ mobs with each shot.

-In any other scenario, other weapons can do better. The shotgun can keep up in damage by staying point blank. However, because you are unable to make mobs flinch or strafe out of the way you can really take a beating. Having to dodge constant attacks can really slow you down.

Conclusion
At the moment the Shotgun is nowhere near the best weapon of choice. I would recommend using one as a backup weapon for those PP stressed situations, crowd control on A rank, or for taking down those slow mobs with multiple damage points. At the very least I would take Shock bullets up to 11, and get them to level 21 upon the next update.

Once you get your bullets up to 21-30, you will be hitting mobs point blank with 5 bullets. This is sure to leave a mark, especially when those bullets start doing 200-250 damage a hit.

[Tycho]

Pretty cool. Would probably do quite well at 21-30.

[Remedy]

More Rangers need to read this.

My Ranger is level 18, and she's already loving her little 4* +1 Shotgun. :3

[ChyronType0]

I've been pimpin' my Shigga Amza for a while now. More rangers need to use shotties, ice on a shottie at lvl 20 is extremely great to have.

[Otis_Kat]

I used to think shotguns sucked until I discovered the point blank power of them.

A pointblank shot is a near guarentee status effect.

[Rizen]

Im glad to see more people using the Shotgun. I just hope more people come to see its better than what others think.

I posted some info a while ago and someone within the last week or two about Shotgun's ability in my ranger thread. I would like to point you there so you can take part in some of the discussions we have there. And if you dont mind, can you post your first post in the thread?

Heres a link to my Ranger topic in the guide section:
http://www.pso-world.com/viewtopic.p...1&forum=22&203

[SailorDaravon]

Yeah, I started using shotguns recently, and they're pretty badass. I point blank shoot a lot; I still don't do Hunter damage, but it's pretty respectable all the same, and that's 3/4/5 chances to hit the enemy with a SE as well.

[etlitch]

Newsflash: The current shotgun hit numbers allows each bullet to hit up to 3 enemies. It's just that noone knows to do that.

[Dhylec]

Nice, some finer points that Rangers can use as a reference. ;]

[Randomness]

Yes, I love my shotgun. And at point blank, even going for freezing, its almost guaranteed. Admittedly, higher defense enemies tend to be barely affected due to the lower output of each hit, but thats what rifles are for, after all. If it isnt ten times the size of your character, a shotgun will maim it... Which is why I love my shotgun.