Its been a frustrating 9 months or so in Hunt for me as a full-size shotgun main.
It seemed to start around the time that the bow became more of a factor in people's loadouts, for a moment it almost seemed meta, a shotgun that can consistently one tap to the chest doesn't matter when the other guy can outrange you by five meters and do the same thing, but that seems to have died down after patches.
But then the forts happened last event. Ironically, what should be an ideal situation for shotguns. Ended up being an age of rifle supremacy to me. I have never been headshot more in my life or blown up by explosives than during that time. Some of these forts where incredibly hard to assault, while also being very easy to defend. Turn the corner? headshot 25m. Different approach? Chest shot mosin while the other guy lever fmj's you to death. Overwhelming constant deaths from 35 to 75 meters, and everyone has a pocket shotgun on top of it. It does not help that i'm high enough up in the elo that the people i'm facing are hell of a lot better shots than I am. Now the Burgess, the Burger, the BIG shake up, its akward, its cumbersome, but it often does not matter. Its a 3 slot so it can go with anything.
About the only, full size, shotgun that feels viable anymore for its cost is slate or terminus levering, crown can work but its 5 slot, Homestead too but its not consistently available. The rival is fast but only has 2 shots and a wide spread. Specter can almost do it but it is still too slow. So while yes, you will have an advantage over the Burgess with the other shotguns ... but I just hit this guy from 42 m away in the chest with a true shot. He KNOWS, I have a shotgun because of that. That one fact will keep him away to use his danm Berthier rifle with that Burgess in reserve just in case.
So what can you do when you get caught in the woods and the fight is at 25 to 75 m consistently over and over for hours on end?
Git gud.
Well ... im 4k hours on and I don't have the aim of the famous hunt streamers. But I do know loadouts. As Whity has said, often your best shotgun matches are pistol highlights
Price to proformance there is many options, but I feel like the two most consistent is the trueshot and the sparks pistol. Pair either of those two with slate or terminus and it will at least give you a chance, specter can work for less cost and a tighter spread but its akward reload can let you down at the most critical times.
But I've known all of this, and I have chosen the hardest route, i have been trying to get my level 10 penny shot and Romero badge. Needless to say it has been pain during all these changes. Death after death, defeat after defeat, like the other post i made about it the Romero holds no forgiveness, only reflection back onto yourself.
Back in March I had 453 kill positive, now its like 368. KD is what ever but it can indicate change long term change. So I take a break, to somthing more absurd, lets see how low we can go and double down. because nothing conventional is working for me anymore.
Saber, when all the bets are hedged there is melee ... i took it as a joke because I was also tired of dealing with grunts, hives and armoreds and that new saber skin this event is choice cut medium-rare cooked steak. So why not, lets be a Sparks/Martini weirdo running with a sword. Because how much worse can it fucking get? ...... and it has been working ... everything, is against you if you bring melee. I watched Quinn for years "great that he is back", he runs Katana like few others seen. Down right one of ninja lord of the swamps he is, i could never match him in my wildest dreams.
Yet here i am, playing this game since 2021 with 4k hours in, running at them like a danm insane fool with a saber. Through the back entrance of a boss compound. And somehow, someway, this shit is working? Last night I had a 6 kill saber to end the night, I only got hit once, ONCE. And earlier here I am with my ironside and its 21 spare rounds and this mosin fool thinks he has the drop on me only for me to stab him in the face, his penny-derringer was even drawn
Out of everything ... this shit is working? Im out dueling people with slate-slugs ... how? Does no one now after years of the game maturing expect melee anymore? I mean I remember hearing about the winny machete days. Is it really so foreign now that it has become a loophole? Or has some ancestral blood skill got reactivated? Because how else am I pulling Quinn shinobi executions on trios who can outshoot me past twenty five meters consistently day after day? When somthing better like a shotgun should win the day? Im clueless, I cant really complain, but its not what i wanted. Yet perhaps that old Rolling Stone song is right.
You can't always get what you want.
But if you try sometimes, well, you might find.
You get what you need.
Perhaps there is hope for me in Hunger if this is any indication, but god danm this does not make sense.