Is there a reason to take a shotgun over a boltgun on Vet or Zealot? If my memory is correct, there wasn’t really before. The boltgun just straight up outclasses the shotguns as a close-medium range way to deal with, pretty much any situation, and the boltgun is better at range, if taking aimed slow aimed shots. It can also dump more in the way of dps if you unload the magazine in close range. I guess there might be a slight handling advantage for the shotgun when it comes to hipfiring in close range when the damage is enough to kill with either weapon. And one of the shotguns does have that slug alt-fire mode for a snipe shot, but because of the reload time and sight, I think I’d still give the ranged advantage to the Boltgun.
I’d really like to be able to invest in a shotgun for my zealot at least so it had some advantages compared to other weapons or could be on pair. Whether that’s through talents or blessings, etc. I like the spearhead boltgun, but I enjoy the semi-automatic, one-shot, high impact feel of a shotgun, as well as the satisfying sound it makes. And typically in games they fill that niche of slow and powerful. In Darktide they’re outclassed by the Boltgun, and I guess that’s okay, but while I don’t want to be a meta slave, it’s a little bit less fun to know you’re gimping yourself and the team by taking a weapon for fun.
But also, I’m just coming back to the game after… six months, so things might’ve changed, maybe there’s some good builds now. What does everyone think?
The ammo scarcity situation seem to hit it pretty hard when its damage isn’t anything to write home about in the first place. The ammo efficiency just goes down into the dump when you have to spam it since it hit like wet tissue unless you nail headshot(can’t even one shot some chaff at point blank, what kind of shotgun is this??)
The only reason to use it seem to be only for its special shell(rip lawbringer) or quick knock down to follow up with melee.
I like the feel of how it’s handle but it’s probably the least powerful shotgun in any game that I’ve ever play imo.
The last time I saw a good shotgun was in Trepang2, and it was really darn satisfying to use.
Shotguns were always better than bolter on zealot if you planned to melee all game. The shotguns are quickdraw and can easily blast specialists apart without horrendous draw times.
However they have been supplanted in that roll by the recently buffed revolver. There’s no real value anymore.
Kant shotty special shell technically has some unique utility against bulwarks and dots stacking onslaught (which is brittle) on Vet gives it some unique debuff utility against crushers and bosses. High damage per mag isn’t a terrible thing for Zealot either when you’re likely using your ranged intermittently in bursts. Agrip probably has better ammo efficiency than revolver if you exclusively use special shell as well I guess.
Definitely not saying any of these are good enough reasons to bring a shotty over something else on either character that can use them, but wanna point out the few small things they do have going for them anyway.
I disagree on this point. They fill similar roles and the revolver is better for quick follow up shots at long range, but I prefer the agripina on my zealot. The raw amount of stagger on its slug has been invaluable to me IMO. If I see a teammate getting bullied by some crushers/bulwarks/maulers, then I can quickswap and pretty much instantly send one completely flying onto its arse to give my teammate some breathing room. It doesn’t take much longer to load a second slug if he needs more help.
Likewise it can give myself some room if I’m facing a mixed group of enemies and there’s an inconviently placed bulwark/crusher/mauler in the mix. One quick slug and they’re out of the mix for a bit so that I can clean things up a bit more piecemeal with melee. With no respite and fullbore adding extra damage to the mix, I can even kill an inconvenient bulwark outright with a few shots where the slug knocks the shield away and gives brings both damage boosting blessings online to mop the bulwark up with a few headshots of buckshot.
I absolutely love it on zealot. It’s like vermintide’s handgun on steroids. You can quicksnipe specials, especially reaching out to kill a sniper. You’ve got a bit of crowd control to simplify mixed horde situations where groups of melee elites are intermixed with lots of other mobs, and at close and medium ranges the buckshot can work fine for finishing off enemies who barely survive the slug or quickly pump damage into a group of ragers or help mop up a shooter squad when it isn’t safe to charge into melee.
Well, I can only speak for the zealot, but I think these days the shotguns have largely been supplanted by other more effective options. The post-buff revolver now does much of what shotguns used to do, but better. Reliably picking off specials and elites through density(!) is just the better option, and with the newly reworked hand-cannon blessing it just became even better.
I used to run all three shotguns. These days I run none of them. The guns I mostly stick to now are revolver, agripinaa braced auto and occasionally the good old MG XII lasgun. I do still see other zealots run the Kantrael shotgun once in a blue moon, but that’s about it.
Good place as any to ask a question based on my experience yesterday. Have they changed shotguns or corresponding blessings (like Fire Frenzy, Deathspitter) in any way (documented or not) over the last 4-5 months?
Fire Frenzy was changed: it now gives increase fire rate after a close-range kill - pretty terrible vs it’s predecessor. Deathsplitter remains unchanged, I believe.
shotguns would really benefit from the new Stripped Down.
Problem of shotgun (and revolvers) is the ammunitions reserve.
It was before (especially at high int damnation), it is even more now.
Revolver is actually a better idea cause it is precise so you deal a good amount of damage in an headshot really easilly.
Agri shotgun, excepted the special, doesn’t allow to one shoot the enemies… it means more ammos used. Same for lawnbringer. Less true for kantrael.
Kantrael is still good for a zealot as it has quick draw, high damages and 9 bullets in “clip”.
Bolter seems better balanced now. Revolver seems insane actually. Shotgun does pretty good damages. From what I see, but this is really too soon to be sure, the 3 weapons have their niche now: bolter high damages, heavy and bad quickdraw/reload time, revolver precise, cleaving bullets, shotguns aoe shots, high damages, does not cleave (unless using a blessing).
The problem is ammunitions, cause shotgun damages makes you use, more than with a bolter or a revolver, several bullets. And with the actual ammunitions economy, this can be pretty bad.
Revolver and shotguns needed more ammos before this patch… they have reduced the ammos reserve instead.
It gained increase duration making it usable on special shells, including the lawbringer. Which has value of course but not enough for me to want to run them. The low ammo pool simply hurts the shotguns too much. The lawbringer needs more damage against infested for its special shell at a minimum.
Strongly agree. I can live with the revolver’s lower ammo pool since I play zealot and just melee until I find more ammo and conserve ammo by only shooting key targets. But on shotguns the regular 2-tap breakpoint at medium range just eats too much.
Unfortunately the distance that counts as “close range” I believe for all talents/blessings that use that term in their description was approximately halved this patch. You really feel that difference and testing in meat grinder how close you have to be to gain stacks is kinda depressing sad brauto noises.
I agree with this. I see the Agripinaa slug shotty as a sidegrade to the Revolver: weaker damage per shot and range without the slug special and slower draw time, but larger magazine, faster reload per-shot, slug shot does better damage, and can open up Bulwarks.
Likewise, the Kantrael dragon’s breath shotgun has its uses against hordes and Bulwarks.
…lawbringer duckbill choke shotgun could definitely use a buff though.
