Hate to be the bearer of bad news but:
Shotgun's are still broken -- quite possibly more so than before -- so Shotgun Scouts are still broken.

Mechanical changes will likely work to our advantage,
but we Scouts are still too slow and too squishy,
and our beloved Shotgun too inconsistent,
to take on a decent medium with a decent AR.

Im ready for it, i take on hevs and proto medium with militia gear, shines the light on who really has skill.

Shotguns are useless, aim assist is OP as ****. Scouts are worse than ever

Maybe we should start over?
Absoliav's Academy experiences sound like more fun.

Cute, just try the Scanner, I'm sure your experience on the field will be more positive, if you have one, I'm sure you'll find information of your enemies more useful than some extra health, after all, they don't know where your at, and with the Labs map, sneaking up on people has never been easier.

But I'm sure already knew that.

The scanner works great. But it's a major resource hog on a scout suit, & requires a sacrifice that no scout can afford. On top of that, there is no WP benefit to running scanners(uplinks are still a better choice), making them even less appealing.

I think the SG works fine.

Back after a couple of matches, and saw something VERY interesting.

Point-blank, back of the target's head, barely scratched him. But it DID register as a hit.

As he backed up, turned, then jumped right before I pulled the trigger, landed what SHOULD have been a close-range bodyshot dealing less damage than the Shotgun to the back of the head, and it killed him instantly.

Back in the VERY old days, people worked out that Shotgun spread wasn't a cone that started accurately around the barrel and narrowed down when you skill up, but a tapered cylinder that narrows down evenly along its entire length as you skill up. Pretty sure this is still the case, and I suspect they've either widened it slightly, or made the pellet placement more random within it.

Not sure why that would be done, particularly without being listed in the patch notes, but it's the theory I'm working from right now.

NOTE: Shotgun Operation 3 on the character this happened to.

It was in bad taste for me to mock your inexperience, Absoliav.
For that, I apologize. I admire your enthusiasm and desire to assist.

I run a proto scanner. You are absolutely correct in that it is hugely helpful.

If the SG is working fine for you, then your experience is likely unique.
It isn't working for the vast majority of us.

- Shotty

... in my own opinion, I don't think the problem is the SG this time, I believe the issue is now coming from the server, not saying I'm right, just giving out some ideas.

Noticed a similar pattern (an issue seemingly separate from the damage delay):
A dead-on, point-blank shot scratches off maybe 10% of target shields.
Other shots deal disproportionately large damage.
Randomizing pellet patterns further is a peculiar approach to addressing SG hit detection.

They'll have to remove the shotgun from the game to get me to stop using it. Me as well as many other did well with it before when it was just crappy. Even though it's crappier, I'm sure a lot of us will still ruin some people's day

I'll try some testing to see if anythings changed to the pellet spread/pattern, if I can get in a match today, I'll try to find a place I can shoot my SG and watch the pellet spread/pattern, I'd like to ask if you guys would the same thing, just try and find an empty place with four walls, and fire at the wall with while switching ranges.

I'd really like to get some info on this, so if anyone else would like to contribute, please do.

I'll try some testing to see if anythings changed to the pellet spread/pattern, if I can get in a match today, I'll try to find a place I can shoot my SG and watch the pellet spread/pattern, I'd like to ask if you guys would the same thing, just try and find an empty place with four walls, and fire at the wall with while switching ranges.

I'd really like to get some info on this, so if anyone else would like to contribute, please do.

I can contribute, as a non - scout. I went up against one of you guys, in one of the new indoor sockets. There was mixed results IMO.

The shottie, seemed to do less damage up close; as it did from say 10m out - I got two shotted from a longer distance than I am used to.

One of those shots, was only aimed at half of my body too; I was half way round a corner and he could only see half of my body. Whether the shotgun spread is less than I realise, or there was the random spread distriubution, you guys were talking about meh.

This is all I was able to test by myself, I hope this helps in some way, if anyone has anymore data to share please do, I'd very much like to compare notes.

Thanks for investigation and detailed report, Absoliav. o7

Good news! The Devs are working on a fix as we speak:
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=107197

Shotgun Scouts after 1.4:
Our suit needs work, but our weapon is back with a vengeance thanks to today's update.