May not seem like the best one on the block, but aside from my combat shotgun that's the only one I could find atm, been sifting through the vendors and ones keep popping up with horrible stats like only reduced accuracy and nothing else, so anyone think this is trash? or a goer depending on circumstance? just want opinions if anyone would like to share their thoughts, any help would be appreciated - taking into concideration a lot on yalls suggestions on perks, the blur stuff also and the swapping back and fourth on guns, it would help a lot.
This is an excellent sawed-off. If you stick a couple quartermaster mods in it and a blue x0.85 mod you'll have a total of 55% reload bonus. And since you'll be reloading often and fast, 10% ego recharge on full reload is a very good purple bonus.
The two best ways I know to level sawed-offs are the following:
1) Use a courrier (sawed-off that shoots two grenades), and go fight big crowds of enemies. As the explosions will damage multiple enemies, you'll gain weapon xp faster. Afflicted sieges are a very good place to do this.
2) Use an FRC heavy sawed-off (the one that shoots two high damage slugs), ideally with a crit bonus, and the intimidation and gunslinger perks. Then go fight enemies that can be staggered (that's most humanoids) and do the following: run to an enemy, hit it with melee, then while it is staggered shoot it in the head. FRC heavy sawed-offs are accurate enough that you should be able to crit with both slugs most of the time.
1) is the standard method that most people use when they want to grind sawed-off xp, but I personally really enjoy 2). It's actually a very efficient method, because it deals a ton of overkill damage: a regular raider has something like 2000 HP when solo, so if you kill him normally you can only get 2k xp. But using the method I described, you can deal more than 8k damage on a single hit. You may need to use Blur instead of Overcharge to pull it off properly if fighting 99ers or dark matters: without blur your melee strikes may not be strong enough to stagger them (shields reduce melee damage by 50% unless you're using blur).
I made a little video of this method a while ago. Just be warned that the quality is poor and that I'm missing half of my shots because my computer couldn't keep up with the recording software running (this was my first and last attempt at recording gameplay). Also, nowadays FRC heavy sawed-offs are more accurate than they used to be, so it's easier to hit headshots consistently.
For other shotguns:
- Combat shotguns: they pretty much all suck. Your best bet in most situations is to use intimidation, and use a shotgun that fires fast enough so that the first shot staggers the enemy, and the next one or two gets the 75% bonus. If you can find tightly packed groups of mobs, a clustershot will work, but not as well as most other explosive weapons (because of its small explosion radius).
- Pump shotguns: Birdshot pumps and sluggers can be salvaged on sight, I'm not sure why these two even exist. The best pump shotgun is arguably the VOT fragger: good accuracy, decent damage and high rate of fire. It fires fast enough that with intimidation, you can stagger an enemy with the first shot, and then get the 75% bonus for the next 3. If you play mainly PvE look for VOT fraggers with reload bonuses, and use them with Overcharge (activate when the clip is empty for an instant full reload, and use the Overload perk). There's been an annoying bug for a few months that prevents you from shooting before the gun is fully reloaded, even though shells are added progressively in the magazine. But you can work around this: aiming down sights interrupts the reload animation, and lets you start firing right away.
This is an excellent sawed-off. If you stick a couple quartermaster mods in it and a blue x0.85 mod you'll have a total of 55% reload bonus. And since you'll be reloading often and fast, 10% ego recharge on full reload is a very good purple bonus.
The two best ways I know to level sawed-offs are the following:
1) Use a courrier (sawed-off that shoots two grenades), and go fight big crowds of enemies. As the explosions will damage multiple enemies, you'll gain weapon xp faster. Afflicted sieges are a very good place to do this.
2) Use an FRC heavy sawed-off (the one that shoots two high damage slugs), ideally with a crit bonus, and the intimidation and gunslinger perks. Then go fight enemies that can be staggered (that's most humanoids) and do the following: run to an enemy, hit it with melee, then while it is staggered shoot it in the head. FRC heavy sawed-offs are accurate enough that you should be able to crit with both slugs most of the time.
1) is the standard method that most people use when they want to grind sawed-off xp, but I personally really enjoy 2). It's actually a very efficient method, because it deals a ton of overkill damage: a regular raider has something like 2000 HP when solo, so if you kill him normally you can only get 2k xp. But using the method I described, you can deal more than 8k damage on a single hit. You may need to use Blur instead of Overcharge to pull it off properly if fighting 99ers or dark matters: without blur your melee strikes may not be strong enough to stagger them (shields reduce melee damage by 50% unless you're using blur).
I made a little video of this method a while ago. Just be warned that the quality is poor and that I'm missing half of my shots because my computer couldn't keep up with the recording software running (this was my first and last attempt at recording gameplay). Also, nowadays FRC heavy sawed-offs are more accurate than they used to be, so it's easier to hit headshots consistently.
Thanks for this info.
I landed an orange heavy scattergun a while back that has an orange crit roll. I leveled it up by standing outside the mole vehicles at raider/99er arkfalls and ambushing bad guys as they appeared.
I have gunslinger in that loadout but I will add intimidation and give it a go. Curious, why blur and not overcharge?
When I started out I really enjoyed the Combat Shotguns, at the time I wasnt real accurate with, well anything, and the shotgun let me put rounds on target without having to worry about being to precise. Now I am better with things like AR's and SMG's I don't need the shotguns quite so much but I do still enjoy them. I run with the CS-X for leveling true it dosent have a large blast radius, but it has enough "Splash" to hit tight groups, or to hit crit spots with ease.
For Sawed Off's I used a Courier for leveling, did alot of Afflicted emergencies and seiges for that. Actually I enjoyed firing them at just about anything, I loved that second you have where the mob is standing there with 2 gloing grenades stuck to it just before they blow. (need to get some new ones, but havent had any drop for since the changes)
For the Pumps I used the Grind Fragger, they fire full auto, but still reload like a pump. Worked well for me at the time, and at that time they were considered the best bet for a pump, but that may have changed.
Right now Combats are at 17 wont be hard to knock those out. But Pumps and Sawed offs are still only about 6, probably not a fun grind.
I love the sawed-offs in this game. I'm using Blur with Preparedness and Height Advantage with an FRC Sawed Off Scattergun and a Frontier Sawed Off Gun. When you are using the sawn offs, I strongly recommend jumping over the enemy and shoot them as you pass overhead. They have a hard time tracking you, the height advantage perk gives you bonus damage, and many of your shots land as head shots because you are looking down at them, leaving the head as one of the largest targets. Using intimidation to melee then kill them is typically far slower for me, I will finish most enemies off in one or two shots and never stop moving.
Of course, I only recently started playing this, my EGO level is 426 and my sawn-off level is 9 without specifically grinding for it, my tactic might lose effectiveness later on, I'm not sure, but its a heck of a lot of fun.
Using intimidation to melee then kill them is typically far slower for me, I will finish most enemies off in one or two shots and never stop moving.
Yes, but the strategy I described is aimed specifically at levelling up sawed-offs. Of course not first meleeing lets you kill faster, but overall you'll be dealing less damage (and hence get less weapon xp).
Also, the height advantage perk usually doesn't work if you're just jumping (as it needs at least a 2m height difference). Weapon masteries that increase damage when higher than the enemy do work with jumping though. Also, without intimidation you won't be able to one-shot kill most elite enemies, especially if you're not playing solo.
Originally Posted by Zugo
Curious, why blur and not overcharge?
As I said, without blur your melee strikes may be too weak to stagger some enemies. The main reason is that shields halve melee damage when not under blur, so 99ers and dark matters would be a little problematic with overcharge.
Thankya so much for the vid and the info, looks like I have a winner for now then! I have an FRC auto scattergun I tagged a little bit ago for combat shotgun, they shoot pretty quick with a base of 800ish dmg, not too terrible, but hey the video helped me get a really good idea of what I need to do next, so I appreciate it
Also, the height advantage perk usually doesn't work if you're just jumping (as it needs at least a 2m height difference). Weapon masteries that increase damage when higher than the enemy do work with jumping though. Also, without intimidation you won't be able to one-shot kill most elite enemies, especially if you're not playing solo.
I'm not convinced, I'm seeing different numbers pop up if I am jumping overhead compared to if I am at ground level.
I'm not really sure how its measuring two meters above though, if its measuring where each persons' feet are or if its player's feet to enemy's head, I'm not sure. The former would definitely allow jumping overhead the bonus, and like I said, I am pretty sure I am getting a bit more damage out of it. I'll need do some more testing though.
Please do. This has already changed once in the past (height advantage didn't use to have the 2m restriction), and I'm positive that right after the restriction was added jumping alone was not enough in most cases. But things could have changed again.
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Originally Posted by Tekrunner
