MW3 Improvement #7 Shotgun weapons and set ups.

Welcome to another edition of Modern Warfare Improvement and today we'll start the first of 5 weapon subsets of my improvement blog. We'll begin with shotguns.

From here on out I'll list each shotgun, the proficiencies to use with perks and attachments and if I think using the weapon is worthwhile or not:

USAS 12- This shotgun is fully automatic, but you wouldn't know it if you pulled the trigger. You can spam it like a semi-auto and fire just as fast if you held onto the trigger. This weapon excels in no particular stat (accuracy, damage, range, fire rate) and is the most pedestrian of the shotguns. If you were to run with it (and I have no idea why you'd want to...smg's are a better option than this weapon) I'd suggest running a range proficiency to make up for the lack of range it has, extended mags (because every other attachment is unnecessary) extreme conditioning and steady aim to improve hip fire.

KSG 12- This is by far the worst of the shotguns. Yes, it has a large damage stat, but it is negated by it's lack of range, accuracy and fire rate. As a pump action shotgun the Spas is much better even if it loses a bit in the damage department. If you were to run with this weapon, I'd run a slightly different set-up than the USAS. I'd run range, grip to improve hip fire extreme conditioning and dead silence for a better chance killing someone from behind or the sides ( about the only way you'll reliably be able to get kills with this weapon). I changed perk three and the attachment for a reason I'll explain at the end of this blog.

SPAS 12- This is the better pump action shotgun. It has decent damage (a tad less than the KSG) and better range. The accuracy is still poor though. To keep this weapon in a sweet spot for killing power, I'd run it with the damage proficiency, grip extreme conditioning and once again dead silence. The change of proficiencies from the KSG actually make the damage of the SPAS higher than the KSG and since their range is essentially the same, the SPAS will win out more often than not over the previous set up of the KSG.

AA-12- This is the fastest shotgun in the game. It's auto fire ability is incredible and not even spamming the striker as fast as possible can anything compete with the ability of this weapon to fire downrange. This weapon is essentially a limited range smg with incredible damage. The drawback to this weapon (or we'd all be using it) is it's very low ammo clip. You can easily burn through a clip of this weapon in one kill, and when you only have 3 clips for your gun, you will run out of ammo very quickly. The damage of this weapon is surprisingly high. Only the KSG has a higher damage stat. It also has by far the worst accuracy for shotguns. This weapon can be fun to run, and will often piss some people off when you do, but you are very limited in what proficiency, attachment and perks to use. You are almost forced to run the range proficiency, the extended mags attachment, scavenger and steady aim. That's right, I said scavenger. Even with extended mags, you'll still run out of ammo relatively quickly with this weapon. You need to have scavenger to replenish ammo and having steady aim is a must have with the amount of hip firing you will do with this weapon.

STRIKER- This weapon is considered the best shotgun in the game, but I personally think its a tie between it and the next weapon. The stricker is a semi-auto shotgun which has, even though the stats say it doesn't, the same rate of fire as the USAS. This is because being able to spam the trigger of the STRIKER makes it react like an auto shotgun. This weapon probably has the most leeway in the loadout department. You could, if you wanted, run it with range or damage (your pick), grip, sleight of hand and dead silence. Or you could run with damage or range (once again, your choice), extended mags, extreme conditioning and steady aim. Or you could run kick, extended mags, extreme conditioning and dead silence. I prefer the first option with range, but i've seen many run it with the range/extended mag/steady aim loadout perfectly well.

MDEL 1887- I like this gun, even though many people I've talked to don't I think it is better than the pump actions by far and the two auto shotguns can't win against it at medium range. This weapon is essentially in a tie with the STRIKER for best shotgun. It has the second highest damage behind the KSG, ties the SPAS in accuracy and has the best range in it's class. The fire rate is a bit slow but with one shot kills, who cares if its slow? When I run this weapon I always run range. Since the damage is already high and the rate of fire so slow, you DO NOT ever want to find yourself in up close encounters where you can be swarmed. Keep a respectable distance and you'll always win out in a fight. The best loadout for this weapon is range, extreme conditioning and steady aim. Since this weapon does not have any attachments, you are forced to run steady aim, but that's not really an issue. This is probably the ONLY SHOTGUN YOU'D EVER AIM DOWN THE SIGHTS WITH! So if you felt comfortable doing that, you can switch out steady aim for dead silence. Personally I think it is unnecessary because with this weapon you'll be trying to keep your distance anyway, so having steady aim for those chance up close encounters is a much better option.

Here's the crux of the shotgun class. You remember above I said I'd tell you why I don't stack kick/grip/steady aim together to create one uber accurate shotgun? That's because those things don't stack up. They do to a certain extent If the weapons had the range of sniper rifles I'm sure we'd see a difference. But they don't, and to maximize the ability of our shotguns we need to equip them with what they are best suited to handle. The SPAS gets a grip because if you had to aim down the sights, the grip would be a better option, and it is essentially the same as steady aim when hip firing. The AA-12 forces you to run steady aim because you have to run extended mags in order for this gun to be the best it can.

I'll try to explain my system for optimizing your shotgun.

The primary thing to look at first is dead silence. You should always look for this 3rd perk first. Take the KSG as an example. If I have dead silence, I need to have some way of improving the hip firing ability of my weapon. Grip is still availble and doesn't subtract from the performance of the weapon, so I choose grip, Then I have my weapon proficiencies to play around with.

So I try the same thing with the AA-12. I set up dead silence first. Then I look at the attachments. If I took grip here, I'd be severely limiting my weapon. I'd be on reload all the time, so I'm forced to use the extended mags to optimize my gun. I then look towards the proficiencies and I see kick is the only stabilizing feature left available. But that still makes this weapon crap. You must make this weapon be able to kill from further away, because the range on this thing is so short, you might as well be knifing the guy instead of shooting him. So you're forced to take range. The only way to get stability with this gun is to head back to dead silence, remove it and use steady aim instead. This weapon is now as good as its going to get.

You need to take this approach for all the shotguns when choosing how you'll run with them. You must have something to stabilize it for hip firing and then customize the rest of the weapon to improve the weakest values of the gun.

On a side note....In the past the shotguns used to shoot more pellets out of each shell if you added extended mags to it. If a shell had 8 pellets per shell, like the striker, then it would have 12 pellets with the addition of extended mags. I'm sure you've all seen the videos on youtube by people like tMARTn and WOODYSGAMERTAG (both channels I enjoy myself...woody is our age btw). Those videos ARE OLD PRE-PATCH VIDEOS. Since the last couple of patches IW has removed this feature from the shotguns. Pellets in shells no longer increase by 50% when extended mags is added. This is why damage is to be considered when setting up a shotgun class now. Before everyone ran range with extended mags because the pellets would have a spread such that only 4 pellets would kill someone, and with 12 pellets flying down range, you'd have a decent chance of a one shot kill with a SPAS at medium range. Now, damage has to be considered (I use it with the SPAS to good effect) because it improves a weakness the weapon has without detracting from it's nature. Damage on a SPAS makes it great up close and meduim at range. Add range instead of damage and the gun remains medium up close and medium at range for killing power.

Hope this helps. Tmorrow I'll be going into the SMGs.