Originally Posted by
Swagile
the problem is that buck is the perfect ammo type
it:
- stuns
- does immense damage in ONE SHOT (this is very important)
- can hold a good amount of said one shots (robustos rarely run out of buck at front, and when they do, its after killing several xenos)
- goes through armor
now lets look at the pulse rifle
it:
- does not stun
- does not do a lot of damage (sometimes you miss xenos RIGHT INFRONT OF YOU because of how accuracy mechanics work)
- carries 40 shots but your probably only hitting 10, 20 if your lucky + good due to how accuracy works in this game
- does not go through armor; have to carry a SEPARATE AMMO TYPE just to go through armor
- because of all of the above, usually needs several reloads to kill even one xeno, as most run away before you even do enough damage to crit, let alone kill a xeno
don't start with attachments, most attachments on every other gun except buck sacrifice something important, or take too many attachments to make viable except for round start marines
for example, even WITHOUT any vendor attachments, a buck shotgun with bayo and rail light is the second best gun in the game a marine can REALISTICALLY get their hands on
in order to make a pulse rifle good, you need either a QFA agrip AP ammo setup, or a vgrip, RDS / reflex, BC, AP ammo setup
SMG is similar; BC, RDS, Vgrip, or BC, RDS, laser sight if you have to M39 holster it
L42 you can get away with just a laser sight and rail flashlight if you take off stock and use it as a chase weapon but thats about it
TL;DR shotgun buck is too versatile as it fits almost every situation that marines face, while every other gun has too many drawbacks; low ammo, low damage, too many attachments needed to make it good, need lots of space on you (webbing, belts) to hold enough ammo not to burn out in first 10 minutes of fighting, etc