The Combat Shotgun
(Super Shotgun, Double Barrel Shotgun)
An excellent short range weapon, fair midrange, and limited-value long range weapon. This weapon has beautiful take-down power, one shot kills with it are not uncommon when the correct techniques are learned. This weapon has no firing lag or ammo lag, and is generally the weapon of choice for self-protection in a BFG defense situation, as well as in many hallway situations. Because of the massive damage it can inflict in one shot, it can badly blind an opponent that isnt quite killed in a first shot.
Its weaknesses are interesting in that they work hand in hand with its own strengths:
- It has a slow repeat rate,
- It makes a steady, rhythmic sound the whole time it reloads, which broadcasts your location as well as your direction of movement auditorially,
- When you run out of ammo, depending on how close you are to your opponant, he may know it because the reloading sound does not occur after your last shot and he can hear that.
- While the gun is reloading, you are vulnerable, and because of this weapon's up-close power, there is a lot of opporatunity for you to end up very close to the opponent during this helpless moment of reload. Correct super-shotgun technique attempts to mimimize this vulnerability.
The SSG is often the first weapon that new players begin to feel comfortable with, and there is a trap that I sometimes see newer players fall into. Not infrequently, I see them get so comfortable with their SSG that they come to falsely believe that they have mastered it, when in reality they have only gotton good to fair at using it in an open area. In these cases, their movement (especially backwards movement) in hallways and around corners has not reached a level where they can fully develop their SSG. It's apparrently an easy trap to fall into.