Whats the Point of them right now ? Why should i use one over a Boltpistol ?
The Damage isnt that great, even on Kanthreal, the Ammo is low, reloading takes ages and the special Shots are clunky to use .
I dont see the benefit that makes these disadvantages worthwhile or do i miss something ?
You have a boltpistol? Tell me more. Whatās the base damage? How many rounds in the magazine?
Anyway, assuming you meant the bolter:
- instant draw time, perfect for deploying on the fly in a melee
- Damage is high enough to oneshot shooters on headshot out to like 30-40 meters (lawbringer)
- Lawbringer, for example, can twotap a trapper or dispatch a sniper or bomber quickly
- Special shells add useful utility if slow to load
- Shotguns can be partially reloaded and deployed back to the action immediately. Just do full reloads on downtime
This makes them quite handy for Zealots. Less useful for veterans.
Dont know if its lost in translation but on the german client its a Boltpistol.
Yeah the drawtime is nice, but everything elseā¦ underwhelming.
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falsche Ćbersetzung im englischen steht da boltgun
Guess its a translation thing. Thatās a bolter or boltgun. Bolt Pistols are an actual thing in 40k. Ironically under United States law via the (entirely unconstitutional and thus evil) National Firearms Act the bolter would be a Pistol since it doesnāt have a stock. Though technically its .75 caliber explosive two stage ammunition would make it an āany other weaponā.
This is a bolt pistol.
If your goal with the weapon is to just kill everything while its in your hands, obviously the shotgun is going to be inferior to the venerable boltgun. But if you want a flexible weapon with quickdraw, that can preform in melee conditions, has relatively high damage compared most other weapons, then the shotgun is best in class.
Its about what you want out of a gun and its uses.
Shotguns are very valuable on the zealot class:
- On zealot we are not shooting that much overall, so the low ammo count of the shotgun is almost never an issue.
- Fast drawing time is for sure the main argument. It makes a huge difference for a melee class, because when being on the frontline you are often targeted by disablers and some other specials. Shotguns are a very good emergency tool for this purpose: you can instant switch weapon, take a couple shots at a trapper/flamer/etc and go back to your melee weapon. Drawing a bolter is always a commitment because it is very slow. It doesnāt allow as easily to have this run&gun playstyle where you are constantly switching between your ranged and melee weapon.
- the shotguns reload speed from 0 to full clip is the longest of any reload speed in the game, but you have the possibility to quickly load only a couple rounds when needed, which will be sufficient to take out a special enemy, whereas on the bolter you have to wait until the end of the full reload animation. In panic situations it can be life changing!
- the special ammo of the Kantrael and Agripinaa is very ammo efficient against bosses, probably more so than a bolter! (itās my impression, I haven"t tested this thoroughly). Try to fight a nurgle beast only by loading special ammo before each shot. It gives a very good score on boss damage if you look at the scoreboard.
- not a hugely important argument but worth mentioning: the weapon swaying while on ADS is noticeably higher on the bolter than on shotguns
- added as an edit : on zealot your shotguns can ignore armor with the use of chastise the wicked. You can 4-5 shot a crusher with normal ammo. The destructive power of the boltgun against armored target is less vital on zealots thanks to this
On the veteran however I donāt see a lot of reasons to take a shotgun over a bolterā¦ The swaying and long draw time is totally negated by veteranās ult and, as a ranged class, you should be less on the frontline in meleeā¦
How do you call the actual bolt pistol in german then? 
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Seem to be a translation error:
Shotgun is, rather surprisingly, as accurate at range as almost any other āsniperā gun. And you can pop two rounds off without massive recoil which is normally enough for any special.
Quick draw.
Alt fire mode.
Perfect for 9x 1 tap gunner kills.
Versatile reload.
Other than the empty your clip panic mode on the bolter, itās IMHO a better choice on the zealot.
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