Boltgun AoE Stagger Not Affecting Enemies?

[Krampy Style]

I'm not sure if it's losing the stagger from the bolts hitting enemies or if the game isn't registering it, but it seems like it doesn't work 100% of the time in combat. It's confusing me why I can't stagger the hordes, or a part of one at least, even when aiming at their feet and makes me wonder if there's just too much going on for either me to notice or the game to register. I'd think it was an actual issue with the force of the stagger itself, but I swear it works sometimes and doesn't others.

Anyone else have this problem or am I delusional? I know it isn't a favorite gun for many, but I like the idea of staggering the groups of enemies swarming my teammates or I, while still being useful with larger and/or overwhelming numbers of specialists and during boss encounters.

And yes, I know I'm weird for trying to play support.

[Diakoptes]

uh why aim at their feet when you can aim at them?
also yeah you can shoot enemies with the bolter and sometimes they dont even flinch

[XIX Victorious Aut Mortis]

so their is a Stagger limit that each enemy has i believe infested has a large number, same as suppression each shot near or on them reduce their stagger limited it to zero it resests after each sucessful stagger. that why it can take multiple hits to stagger a Single enemy s it not reaching th stagger limit, boltguns have the Splash Radius which is Damage but also stagger, and Suppresion is a higher radius then stagger.

[2D > 3D WEEB 4 LIFE]

The explosion has limited stagger and splash damage values so it takes a lot of shots to stun a few targets which means that suppression ends up being the CC alternative in most cases.

[Nodork]

Your support for the team should be fullfilling your role. As a Vet you kill Specials and Ranged, as a Zealot you kill Hordes and Bosses.
The Shout and the other Buff from the Zealot are more then enough support.
Just fullfill your role, otherwise play a different class maybe?

[Krampy Style]

Originally posted by Diakoptes:

Bolter has a tendency to miss when firing shots while aiming, mostly due to sway and distance. I've found ways to deal with that, but I'd rather it hit the ground for certain and possibly hit the foot of a poxwalker, killing them, than having the shot pass beside them, especially with the long reload to consider.

Originally posted by XIX Victorious Aut Mortis:

Originally posted by 2D > 3D WEEB 4 LIFE:

Suppression doesn't work on melee enemies does it? I'd have to find more ways to increase the splash stagger. Would be interesting if it could get powerful enough to lock them in stagger using ADS, as hordes are what get me the most.

[Krampy Style]

Originally posted by Nodork:

Shoo. Go back to Auric or whatever. I play casually at T3 - T4.

[junimai233]

Originally posted by Krampy Style:

Suppression doesn't work on melee enemies does it? I'd have to find more ways to increase the splash stagger. Would be interesting if it could get powerful enough to lock them in stagger using ADS, as hordes are what get me the most.

It does, but it's different than stagger. It's the cowering animation they make when you're shooting or on near kill.

If you having trouble with pox hordes, just pick the grenade abilities and spam the frag every time there's one. It'll help you more than picking the boltgun.
That's besides the point with your melee skill but that's another story.

[Krampy Style]

Originally posted by junimai233:

Alright. I do use the grenades frequently, but guns... Nothing really clicked besides the boltgun. Recon was fun for a while, but I ended up wanting more kick, and plasma gun was too single-target focused. Boltgun ended up being an all-rounder, but still underwhelming. Didn't like the other classes too much either. Started playing to experience using the guns, all of which Vet had, and the las and plasma have builds, so now I'm just trying to experiment with this one.

As for melee... Yeah... Tbf, it's always the singles that sneak behind that get me.

Anyways, thanks to all for the info!