Actually, I use a standard on the 'Dragonfly' Scout. It's easily able to bring down anything that isn't a Sentinel within a couple of shots. It takes something a bit stronger to crack the Sentinels before they can react. No, I don't brick tank a light frame. I find the concept silly. I actually use Dampeners on my Scout suits. You're not using the shotgun right if you really believe rate of fire is what the shotgun needs.

I'm also going to go out of my way and assume you have never used the Breach. The Breach is the only shotgun that benefits with rate of fire to a considerable amount. However, high rate of fire implies that you will need multiple shots in a short amount of time. Damage, on the other hand, implies that you will be doing a lot of damage and thusly will not need to shoot multiple times quickly. That's the fundamental difference between sheer power and speed.

It's actually an anti-shield buff, anti-armor nerf. The shotgun is, after all, Gallentean and is a blaster. You realize exactly how much of a boost that anti-shield bonus is, right? It's going to devastate shields, as it should. This will give the Breach variant a lot more tempting use than in 1.7, you know. As a Commando runner, I'll gladly take that shield damage over the rate of fire. Not only am I getting a boost from the Commando skill, but also Prof.? **** yeah.

So no, it's actually not a nerf.

Shhhhhh.... Say nothing of the ScP, don't draw attention to it. 2 ScP cowboy fit is where it's at

You obviously dont use the shotgun
Anyone who skilled up the shotgun knows how terrible of a bonus this is.
The shotgun would need to 1 hit kill most suits and 2 hit kill heavys with this bonus for it to be worth it.

I really wish I had the Syndicate SMG on my Matari pride n joy...I hope to get one when the market opens up.

I kind of want to use NKs on my Caldari scout but knowing that it doesn't have that 25% matari badassness going on it puts me off. Might go Magsec and something on him.

CR and NK will always be my fav combo though. I'm most at home with the CR and is a very versatile gun and I think the combo gives me the perfect range of combative options and advantages should I choose to engage in combat. They will be getting a bit of a rest come 1.8 with lower profile and cloaking as I shall be merciful and leave you on your merry way as I go on mine to stab stab hack.

CR just looks awesome too, by far my favorite design of the 4 rifles.

Nova knives, scrambler pistol, and maybe the mag sec on the side arm?

Scrambler rifle for the charge shot on light?

Maybe even the lazorz rifle or MD?

The only ones I'm banking on are NK and ScP.

nova knifes are a side arm

Shotgun proficiency is changing from +3% ROF to +3% shield damage
This means the shotgun will not be able to kill heavies in 1.8 as they will be able to turn around before you can shoot the 4 shots it takes to kill them

Nova knives, scrambler pistol, and maybe the mag sec on the side arm?

Scrambler rifle for the charge shot on light?

Maybe even the lazorz rifle or MD?

The only ones I'm banking on are NK and ScP.

Shhhhhh.... Say nothing of the ScP, don't draw attention to it. 2 ScP cowboy fit is where it's at

Looking into the data, it's actually worse than initially thought. It's not a flat % nerf; instead, all ScPs of a given variant have been given the same ROF, like so:

Non-Variant
285.71 RPM

Breach
133.33 RPM (unchanged)

Assault
301.51 RPM

Burst
476.19 RPM

With the exception of Breach pistols, all pistols in each tier have been nerfed by the same amount:

MLT/STD: 29% reduction to DPS
ADV: 36% reduction to DPS
PRO: 43% reduction to DPS

These numbers seem insane. All ScPs save for the Breach variants have gotten a *MASSIVE* nerf in 1.8, at least almost twice as much as any of the rifles. The proto variants have had their DPS almost halved. I'm a little angry that this hasn't been mentioned *at all* in the dev blogs, when it is by far the biggest weapon change coming in 1.8. I didn't even know that the ScP was a problem. When has anybody ever complained about the scrambler pistol being OP?

A more comprehensive breakdown of the ROF and DPS changes for each ScP:

Militia Scrambler Pistol & Scrambler Pistol
400 ---> 285.71 RPM
(533.33 ---> 380.95 DPS, 29% nerf)

Assault Scrambler Pistol
422.54 ---> 301.51 RPM
(563.39 ---> 402.01 DPS, 29% nerf)

Breach Scrambler Pistol
133.33 ---> 133.33 RPM
(DPS unchanged)

KLO-1 Scrambler Pistol
444.44 ---> 285.71 RPM
(622.22 ---> 400 DPS, 36% nerf)

TT-3 Assault Scrambler Pistol
468.75 ---> 301.51 RPM
(656.25 ---> 422.11 DPS, 36% nerf)

TY-5 Breach Scrambler Pistol
133.33 ---> 133.33 RPM
(DPS unchanged)

CAR-9 Burst ScP
740.74 ---> 476.19 RPM
(622.22 ---> 400 DPS, 36% nerf)

Viziam Scrambler Pistol
500 ---> 285.71 RPM
(733.33 ---> 419.04 DPS, 43% nerf)

Carthum Assault Scrambler Pistol
526.32 ---> 301.51 RPM
(771.94 ---> 442.21 DPS, 43% nerf)

Proto Knives still do 1000 damage off the bat no matter what race you are, so still very viable. It'll certainly still give the new heavies something to think about. Not to mention keeping the original damage model.

It's actually an anti-shield buff, anti-armor nerf. The shotgun is, after all, Gallentean and is a blaster. You realize exactly how much of a boost that anti-shield bonus is, right? It's going to devastate shields, as it should. This will give the Breach variant a lot more tempting use than in 1.7, you know. As a Commando runner, I'll gladly take that shield damage over the rate of fire. Not only am I getting a boost from the Commando skill, but also Prof.? **** yeah.

So no, it's actually not a nerf.

You may want to rethink a few things about shotguns. I have no shotgun skills whatsoever and can still take out heavies with a militia shotgun, no damage modifiers.

It's not terrible. I in fact prefer this bonus over ROF, since alpha damage is king with SG's.