Scouts are bad in close combat now.

Only ones I am familiar with are Reflex and Omni.

I eat through most Heavy's with an Ishukone SMG.

Scout suits just don't have the CPU/PG for the damage mod stacking that is important for ARs, especially when you are already using a suit with less max HP. Combine that with the slightly lower strafe speed and there isn't much reason to use a scout over assault with the AR.

As for the SMG, your guess is as good as mine. It might be because, at the lower levels, it takes a bit longer to kill than the shotgun. Most scouts that likely would have gone with the SMG probably went assault or settled with a shotgun. The lowered strafe speed hasn't affected my use of the shotgun, but it gives SMGs that much less of an edge at the lower tiers.

I've only run into one Ishukone SMG, I believe it was Icy, and it took me down pretty fast. Earlier on, the Toxins and militia SMGs were much less threatening, which leads me to believe there is a bit of an imbalance when it comes to using them as primary weapons. Considering they are technically sidearms, it makes sense that it would take a bit more investment to make it a competitive primary.

I don't exactly know what about using an AR or SMG does to make someone a "great scout" over other weapons. But, I'll just ignore that comment for the time being.

I roll Dragonfly and Toxin SMG along with a sniper rifle. If I'm not out and about marking red dots and counter-sniping, I'm rolling the SMG and spraying people down along with frags and hacking for WP.

Still not as good as I'd like to be though...

I've always seen the difference between shotgun and SMG to be reaction time/situational awareness vs. precision/target acquisition respectively.

I have an extremely fast reaction time and play very instinctively, but I couldn't reliably keep a target in my sights if my life depended on it. Me trying to play with an SMG is a flailing mess of fail, I'm much better at taking the one split second shot.

You won't ever see me using an AR or SMG, but I don't underestimate their effectiveness. The shotgun is extremely useful at low tiers and low skill levels, but it's effectiveness increases linearly at best. The SMG seems to start very low and increase exponentially as you reach higher weapon tiers and invest in proficiency skills.

while this might be true the SMG is too little too late, you get less dps then any other gun and while its easier to apply said DPS, scouts kinda rely on getting in and out quickly and the SMG just does not provide.