Cosgar
The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar
DARKSTAR ARMY
22
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Posted - 2013.04.18 05:58:00 -
[2] - Quote
I've never invested points into shotguns or scout suits but I'll attest that they have their place. With sufficient skill in sharpshootng, a shotgun has a very deceptive range paired off with spike damage that matches or surpasses anything in the game.
Lone wolfing is a very high risk, high reward scenario that will endlessly reward players with "twitch gameplay" skills and situational awareness especially when properly dampened. Out of all the things in this game I've died to that wasn't an assault rifle, it would have to be a scout with an insanely low signature sneaking up behind me. When I hear that "Poing!" I'm already selecting a new fitting.
With a coordinated squad, shotgunning scouts can easily flank the enemy and take care of any stragglers in an engagement. As a MD using Logi that lays covering fire, this is very effective. But it goes both ways if the opposing side has their own scout since I'm probably the #1 priority on their kill list. (Usually I wind up trading deaths with the scout from an unlucky point blank shot.)
Shotgun scouts are the ultimate spawn campers. I've seen very good scouts just run circles around an enemy CRU, racking up kills before anyone even has a chance to ADS. A member of my corp went 29/1 from doing this at "The Complex" a few days ago. I could barely keep up with him to leech gaurdian points
There's probably other examples I could list, but pretty much any situation where ganking is important is the perfect context for using a shotgun scout. If this wasn't the case, why are there so many out there? |
Cosgar
The Unholy Legion Of DarkStar
DARKSTAR ARMY
25
|
Posted - 2013.04.18 23:34:00 -
[3] - Quote
0 Try Harder, I'm seriously worried about how much you're going to have fun with this game in the longrun once more and more encouraged diversity and roles in combat become prevalent in the future. In fact, indirect combat or non combat support could be a realistic possibility in the near future with all the different modules/roles that already exist in EVE that could easily translate to Dust. There's a fine line between fun and effective and you're leaning dangerously close to the latter with borderline traits of elitism and xenophia. Personal opinion and preference are one thing, but it should never replace hard facts, especially when teaching players that don't know, want to know, and want to learn. If Dust was just another generic FPS with equal grounding from out the gate, many of your opinions disguised as facts would be applicable, but this is a MMOFPS with diverse roles and near limitless customization properties.
I'm glad you found a personal preference that suits your specific role and playstyle, but you need to accept that it's not the end-all-be-all for everyone. You've brought a lot of good points to the table many times over in the past to help newer, inexperienced players. In fact, I've recommended a lot of your sound advice to many of my friends when trying Dust for the first time. I respect your ideals, and hope to be as experienced FPS player as your are one day, but your narrowed views have a tendency to misguide players with much less FPS experience than you. Especially in a game like Dust where strong RPG aspects and (soon to be) irreversible customization come into play.
First and foremost, ARs and Shotguns are two different types of weapons that play to different strengths. No matter how many walls of text you throw out, the AR is DoT and the shotgun is spike damage. Unless there's an undiscovered game breaking statistic you're going by that you and only you know about spike damage always surpasses DoT in a single hit. No matter how high the base damage you have on an AR, the meta level shotgun equivalent will deal that damage multiplied by how many times (unlisted in the description but discussed multiple times on the forums) in a single burst at one pull of a trigger, but at the cost of range. Both weapons have their strengths and both weapons have their weaknesses. When different suits, scan radius, precision, speed come into play, a shotgun can have the potential to equal or even surpass an AR assault if they have the advantage of dictating the context of their engagement. No suit class is better than the other, they all have their strengths and weaknesses but are effective in their own respective ways.
A shotgun scout has the advantage of speed, a lower profile, smaller hitbox, and a wider scan radius to other suits. This allows them to dictate engagements through situational awareness and stealth and deception prioritized over meeting an opponent face to face. This playstyle has good synergy with the short range, spike damage of a shotgun where they can easily flank or outright sneak up on an opponent for a possible OHK (with very little room for error) before they know what hits them. Head on, places them at a severe disadvantage with a lower pool of EHP and in most cases will lose when an engagement is on the opponents terms.
The more mobile variant logistic suits could fulfill a role similar to the scout with a shotgun if properly fitted to do so, but not always. Again, player preference, customization come into play. Depending on the suit type, the logistics are either as fast as an assault, between assault and scout or even outright faster than a scout. But when you factor in the medium class logistic suits larger signature, hitbox, and inferior scan radius/precision compared to the scout, specific fittings that play to the logistics' strengths will have to come into play along with player preference to truly be effective.
I could spend all day dissecting your previous posts that are littered with bias, but honestly, someone better at nitpicking could do it eventually. I might come back later to edit this one (while throwing in some fancy mathematics) if time permits. But the bottom line is if you're going to advise players, please leave personal bias at the door. You need to take into account that many of the newbr0s on here are probably playing a game with FPS elements for the very first time in their lives and were drawn in by the RPG aspects. Pushing elitist ideals that "everyone should be an AR, shield tanking, frontline assault or GTFO" in an unforgiving game like Dust will be the ruination to this community's growth and even worse, destroy your own credibility whenever you give sound advice no matter how right you may be.
I hope you don't take any of this as an insult, personal attack, or an invitation to a flame war. It's constructive criticism based on repeated observation. We'll probably never meet eye-to-eye on views regarding playstyle, builds, customization, or anything having to do with how to play the FPS aspects of this game, but if you're as passionate about helping people as we all can plainly see that you are, take a conscientious look at your approach in the future. |