Tips on shotgun usage?

threek · 3 months

Practice. Good shotgun usage is based on knowing when switching to shotty is your best move, e.g. finishing off a demo with a shot or two after splashing them with ~120+ damage, or nailing a scout who's pushing in on you. As pyro, shotgun is good for enemies just out of your flamethrower's reach, or scouts doublejumping away from your axetinguisher. You need to recognize good situations for using it, and know how much damage you'll be doing when you do.

My favorite 2 methods of practicing vanilla shotgun use are shotgun heavy -- you're tough, but you have to make those shots count, and position yourself well -- and gunslinger engie, for obvious reasons.

telamascope · 3 months

Using the shotgun as pyro is a different ballgame than the others. It's your primary damage dealer because it's not limited to hitting things in front of it and it does more dps than the FT up close. You want to get your shots in when you see an opening and then pull out your degreaser when you feel threatened. Use your shots liberally; you're a class with decently high health, you're run faster than any class that has more health than and your airblast can zone enemies and projectiles to let you escape. One more little tip; approach corners with your shotgun equipped. You can do 60-90 damage if you happen to run into anyone and still be at an advantage with the quick weapon switch the degreaser allows. This is especially useful against other pyros.

TL;DR Be aggressive as shotgun pyro, rely on your airblast to keep you safe.

Fruglemonkey · 3 months

As which class?

Rossco1337 · 3 months

You've got good advice there already but I'll add a cent or two. Needless to say, the shotgun is a close range weapon. If you're serious about finishing someone off with it, decrease your distance to them if possible. Knowing when to pull out your shotty is only half the battle, following through with that plan can be even more difficult against a wary player.

Saying that, it's a lot easier said than done. Usually if I pull out my shotgun as most classes, I'd rather be backing away than making an aggressive kill. But ~15 damage per shot isn't going to make anyone run away and cry to their Medic. In fact, if I seen a Soldier/Pyro/Heavy trying to pepper me with the shotgun while running away, I'd definitely try and close in for the kill knowing that they were on their last legs. You might be able to use that to your advantage although it's certainly not something I'd think about while playing.

Another tip I'd give is play Engi for a while on a pub server and use the Widowmaker (Alongside doing your natural Engi duties obviously, a Dispenser to fall back on is almost critical). It sounds silly but I think not having to focus on reloading really helped my aim and combined with the mini-sentry, knowledge of ammo boxes and clever ambush spots, you can really clear up.

pandello · 3 months

As for me (I'm div2 level solly), shotgun practise is needed even more than rocketlauncher practise. Once i realized i need it, I managed to start play on pubs. Imo, best way to practise shotgun is playing as scout and try to never stop while shooting. Some players on puclic servers are simply unable to strafe, so your chaotic movement will at least make it more difficult to hit.

Playing shotgun solly vs shotgun scout @ mge is also good. It's really balanced matchup, and that practise is actually strong

Also, I keep my ingame sensitivity at ~60 cm/360 just because i cant use shotgun on a higher sens.

Really rarely changing crosshair can help. One of my friends started pwning after changing his "+" to "( )" with dot in a middle.

Pielikey · 3 months

play extremely fast-paced games for practice. You won't need too play too much, but it will ramp up your reaction time and aim a lot. I find that after I play an hour of Instagib in Sauerbraten I could shoot the fucking eyelashes off a cat in another county. And if you can do that, you can hit a scout no problem

EDIT: if you want to stick with TF2 fatscout (heavy with shotgun) and gunslinger engineer is a good way to practice too, I imagine.

DavidTheWin · 3 months

A tip that I've posted around here a lot is to edit your .cfg files so that when you select shotgun (or any hitscan weapon in my opinion), the viewmodels turn off (r_drawviewmodel 0). The models can be really distracting sometimes, a notable case is the spy's revolver, especially when reloading, and they point slightly off-centre. Another tip that I think is quite important is to play with a lower sensitivity. Most competitive players use somewhere between 6 and 14 inches of mouse movement from side to side to do a 360 degree turn in game. This, coupled with taking a little extra time to line up your shots precisely, can really make a difference.

I practice my hitscan aim by playing scout in MGE, against other scouts. Nothing like an hour or two of lining up shots against the fastest class in the game to improve your aim. Also two shotting scouts is high up on my scale of satisfying kills, close to double reflect kills and airshots.

cbfw86 · 3 months

If you play pyro you should consider Degreaser and Reserve Shooter. The switch-outs are insanely fast, and the airblast and shotgun combination is good practise for reflexes and aim.

squaminator · 2 months

Focus on each landing individual shot. Watch their movement and wait sure them to commit to running a certain direction.

that-one-kid · 3 months

Shoot people. Best advice in any fps for almost every weapon.

EvanFTL · 3 months

Don't use it.

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