Gauss shotgun or Gauss minigun?

[Ju87gstukas]

As the title suggests, as for the gauss shotgun, since its called a "shotgun" I am more or less discouraged by the name(the pump action shotgun and combat shotgun didn't left me a very good impression). The minigun does sounds more badass, but I do wonder if it is convenient to supply a gauss minigun's ammo consumption.

[AllergicToBrainRot]

gauss shotgun with anti armor, vats kills. 1 to 2 shots enemies with the right mods on it. Gauss minigun sucks up ammo very quickly and does little damage. Even with heavy gunner and explosive damage perk to max. Not worth it.

[Eriskumma]

Gauss shotgun isn't really a shotgun, with right build it's a sniper cannon that can one shot most of the enemies from quite long range. They need to be used in vats like all shotguns to get most out of them though. Try getting one with +50 vats hit chance, they are beasts.
Which one depends on your build, if you are PA heavy gunner then mini, otherwise I'd go with shotgun. You use awful lot of ammo with mini and there's no hope staying stealthy with them so you also get hit more often making PA pretty much mandatory.

[Ju87gstukas]

Shotgun it is, then.

[Jman]

just be careful when you use the gauss shotgun at point blank range, the explosive damage can hurt you. I've blown myself up a few times from that.

[Eriskumma]

Originally posted by Jman:

just be careful when you use the gauss shotgun at point blank range, the explosive damage can hurt you. I've blown myself up a few times from that.

Maxed fireproof and dense mod on chest piece helps a lot, but if running low health and bloodied gauss with maxed demolition expert even those won't always save you. Don't ask me how I know.. :P

[RMPyro]

For me gauss minigun is best, B25 gauss mingun deals a lot of damage. Just do short burst to conserve ammo. You might need ammo factory legendary perk, ammo smith and super duper. And craft ultracite ammo since you get more of it when you craft that type of ammo. Also use the weapon on daily ops to get some ammo back. Takes like 3-4 shots to kill most mobs. It a lot better on stronger mobs, its bad on Earl however.

Seen it go from 50 damage to 350 damage per shot on scorch queen when stuff start to trigger. Like taking one for the team and some other perks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhz-xsaNSy8

[wkett]

Gauss shotgun vats set to legs does massive splash damage, other limb targeting not so much.

[Ju87gstukas]

Originally posted by Eriskumma:

Originally posted by Jman:

just be careful when you use the gauss shotgun at point blank range, the explosive damage can hurt you. I've blown myself up a few times from that.

Maxed fireproof and dense mod on chest piece helps a lot, but if running low health and bloodied gauss with maxed demolition expert even those won't always save you. Don't ask me how I know.. :P

The dense mod is in conflict with jet pack, that is a pity.

[Lord of Cinder]

Neither of those weapons is particularly good or useful for different reasons.

Gauss minigun eats a lot of ammo, but the fact that it is explosive also makes it a subpar choice for SBQ fights. I'd much rather have an anti-armor Gatling plasma in pretty much any situation. There are simply better heavy guns than the gauss minigun.

Gauss shotgun is also quite bad on boss fights or for fighting scorchbeasts, but pretty decent for killing most regular mobs. Shotguns are gimped in general, and yet the gauss shotgun can be more useful in more situations to a shotgunner compared to a gauss minigun to a heavy gunner.

I'd go shotgun.

[RiChuF]

Originally posted by Eriskumma:

Originally posted by Jman:

just be careful when you use the gauss shotgun at point blank range, the explosive damage can hurt you. I've blown myself up a few times from that.

Maxed fireproof and dense mod on chest piece helps a lot, but if running low health and bloodied gauss with maxed demolition expert even those won't always save you. Don't ask me how I know.. :P

does help abit but with an instigating gauss shotty that does 800+dam you dont last very long
ma poor legs :(

[RiChuF]

Originally posted by Lord of Cinder:

Neither of those weapons is particularly good or useful for different reasons.

Gauss minigun eats a lot of ammo, but the fact that it is explosive also makes it a subpar choice for SBQ fights. I'd much rather have an anti-armor Gatling plasma in pretty much any situation. There are simply better heavy guns than the gauss minigun.

Gauss shotgun is also quite bad on boss fights or for fighting scorchbeasts, but pretty decent for killing most regular mobs. Shotguns are gimped in general, and yet the gauss shotgun can be more useful in more situations to a shotgunner compared to a gauss minigun to a heavy gunner.

I'd go shotgun.

while the Gauss minigun does eat alot of ammo it is worth it and it drops squanshbeasts quickly with the right roll (yes explosives works on them) but i prefer the 50cal over it but still a good wep its just that spool up like most of the other heavys that buggs me esp wen u get stunned trying to shoot
but the Gauss shotgun while good at 1 shotting trash mobs and melting smaller weaker bosses
tis a bit of a pain on bigger things but still good if u can get the hits off with vats but its far from bad once u get used to it
but the guass pistol now that ones useless :(
but i wouldnt go as far as saying that both are basically crap

[Eriskumma]

Originally posted by RiChuF:

does help abit but with an instigating gauss shotty that does 800+dam you dont last very long
ma poor legs :(

Yeah, my bloodied gauss has pip-boy damage over 1000, add maxed stealth and vats buffs, some adrenaline and you blow yourself to bits very easily if enemies are too close.

[Giannhs]

The Gauss Minigun is currently the best Heavy weapon in the game (non legay), it destroys regular mobs but because the bosses have absurd explosive resistance it loses its edge to a heavy flamer, its ammo is very heavy and expensive to produce and eats it very fast.
Not a very good weapon to use for daily use.

The Gauss Shotgun on the other hand is fantastic for daily use thanks to its very high damage and explosive damage, for example you can use only the explosive perk and it still oneshots mobs, but because a big portion of the damage is explosive its not very good for the 2 bosses( earle and queen).

Both are fantastic weapons.

[Ju87gstukas]

Originally posted by Arandigos:

The Gauss Minigun is currently the best Heavy weapon in the game (non legay), it destroys regular mobs but because the bosses have absurd explosive resistance it loses its edge to a heavy flamer, its ammo is very heavy and expensive to produce and eats it very fast.
Not a very good weapon to use for daily use.

The Gauss Shotgun on the other hand is fantastic for daily use thanks to its very high damage and explosive damage, for example you can use only the explosive perk and it still oneshots mobs, but because a big portion of the damage is explosive its not very good for the 2 bosses( earle and queen).

Both are fantastic weapons.

That solves my confusion, I actually tried the shotgun on the queen but the damage is quite low.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Gauss Shotgun has some issues, it does almost no damage to scorchbeasts because of the weird issues with explosive raycasts being ignored by the server unless they also intersect the ground plane.

This also causes problems against large enemies like Super Mutants and Earl. In general, outside VATS you want to target center mass or the enemy's hips so the pellets properly register their explosive damage. And you'll want a completely different weapon against Scorchbeasts.

Contrary to what Arandigos said, Earl is actually not very resistant to explosive (No more than he is against any other type of damage), the Queen is, but not Earl, the Gauss Shotgun isn't ideal against Earl for the reason I Just outlined: He's too tall, the explosives don't even register for him unless you shoot his legs right next to the ground.

The best weapons to fight Earl and the Queen are typically anti-armor Crit Damage rifles with a crit build. At least if we're talking ammo efficacy here, not raw dps.