Boltgun?

[yeahnah]

I'm a newb to this starting out with the vet and I've just got access to the boltgun. On the surface it seems amazingly good at ripping through specials and elites (like a revolver with a much larger clip and faster reload) but I hear people say it's also terrible for some reason. I'd really like to main it but I get the feeling there's some meta reason I don't see it used very often.

[Xhal]

Super slow reload.

I would go plasma gun instead if you want a big 1 shot gun.

[Chaos]

It's poor reload speed and slow equip time make it a rather sluggish gun, not to mention it have less damage potential than plasma gun. make it so that meta minded people rather go for plasma instead, but bolter is still good if you have decent blessing for it.

[Angarvin]

it's a trade. you get big gun with big damage, but it's reaction time is abysmal.
you can't just pull it out to take out johny mc'flamer over there that is roasting your friends. reaction time doesn't really matter early on when specials are rather few and far between, but when you start getting in dem hi ints and shock troops, reaction time starts to really weigh in on your weapon choices and bolter loses a lot of it's viability, making way for other guns.

that's ofc not to say that it's not viable at all. you can make it work. but you have to be mindfull of the trade.

[SaltIcon]

I dont know why you would grab anything over the boltgun. You can 1 shot most elites and the concussive force from the rounds can knock a horde back enough for you to get some room to throw a grenade or swap to melee. PRO TIP never go full auto, each shot must be measured with the burden of wasting it on a heretic.

[Stu -1]

its not even just about being meta or not. it just doesn't hold up to the plasma gun these days. and even other guns imo. i used to main bolter in the golden days when it made everybody hate vet players. it had insane single target precision. could wreck bosses. and mag dumping cleared anything infront of you. and, in my opinion, balanced out the slow reload. tbh it was still too strong even WITH the slow reload.

now though. its crippled by ammo. it lacks cleave (penetration) and mag dumping feels useless as it can only kill a fraction of the enemies it used to. and it has to totally kill an enemy before it hits the one behind. its best use now is aiming down sights sniping. and compared to some other guns it just lacks the rate of fire and multi target damage capabilities that really shine in darktide.

it can be built to absolutely wreck bosses. but you've got to balance if you want to use a meh gun on the off chance you need to wreck a boss. or take a gun that excels at the other 95% of the map.

is not a bad gun. its just not strong by comparison anymore

[TaKo]

Originally posted by Delta:

I dont know why you would grab anything over the boltgun.

bad handling, slow ass reload, bad iron sights, not very accurate really, bad base ammo economy, cant kill groups due to no cleave/penetration as an explosive gun(since explosion does minimal dmg, 'just' staggers surrounding enemies really) and this makes ammo economy worse

not to say boltgun sucks but its very much not best in slot or anything close

Originally posted by Stu -1:

is not a bad gun. its just not strong by comparison anymore

yeah

[40oz to Freedom]

Originally posted by yeahnah:

I'm a newb to this starting out with the vet and I've just got access to the boltgun. On the surface it seems amazingly good at ripping through specials and elites (like a revolver with a much larger clip and faster reload) but I hear people say it's also terrible for some reason. I'd really like to main it but I get the feeling there's some meta reason I don't see it used very often.

A lot of people see the damage on the bolter and think that it applies to every shot, if you look at the damage breakdowns you'd see that it only does that damage to unarmored, it does a lot less damage to the other important armor types like flak and carapace.

Revolvers on the other hand do a lot more damage to those other armor types, so if you want something fast for dealing with specials, elites, snipers and hard targets the revolver is the way to go. it's also more ammo efficient which is important for Zealots since you want to be using melee a lot and letting the veterans collect most of the ammo pickups.

Not the gun-psykers though, screw those guys.

[Enkidu]

Bolter is fine, but it doesn't really hold up in Damnation High Intensity Shock Troop Gauntlet. The Bolter is pretty awful at quickly killing specials which is the main thing ranged weapons are used for in the highest difficulty. By the time you get to the highest difficulty you will understand why people rarely use it.

[519B.]

Revolver > Boltgun

[Irier]

On damnation it's fine and capable, not the best but if it's fun you're not holding the team back.

You can reload it in parts bellow stolen from a Reddit post

"Swap to bolt gun
Cancel the swapping/cocking animation by starting to reload
Wait until the magazine is ejected (which would empty out all ammo in your mag if you had any left)
Switch back to melee to push some enemies
Switch to bolt gun, continue the animation until a new mag is inserted
switch back to melee to push some enemies
switch back to bolt gun and let the cocking animation play
You now reloaded your bolt gun while in the middle of a horde"

Also if you run volley fire you can instant swap to it if you want to play more mele with emergency special killer.

If you don't you have to plan your weapon swaps or if your team has someone who clears hordes fast you can just keep watchout, occasionally staggering a crowd.

The Most single target damage build is the snub, fast swaps ok reload that you can interrupt since you load one bullet at a time.

[Warhunter]

as others said the boltgun has alot of downsides
from slow pull time, slow reload, high recoil, poor sight

its still a decent weapon. one that i use in auric damnation to decent effect. but its also one thats basically high skill requirement for low gain
the boltgun now favors weakspot/crits which its poor handling makes it hard to do while hipfiring is the absolute worst thing you can do and only should be used in dire situations or if you dont give a damn
if i didnt have a huge preference of ballistic weapons over energy like lasguns/plasma i probably wouldnt be using the bolter

there are new weapons that can replace the boltgun's role such as plasma or revolver
revolver has much faster pull time which is quite useful in chaotic situations such as during melee combat. with hand cannon it can pierce carapace meaning it can also kill crushers quite easily. big downside is poor ammo and long reload

plasma is basically like the bolter in terms of damage per shot. the much faster pulltime, large ammo mag, low recoil, and high pierce (can basically pierce through entire hordes) means alot of people favor it currently
its lower ammo efficiency than boltgun due to its low reserve ammo pool and requiring multiple ammo per shot, but is generally manageable compared to boltgun's downsides for many people

[Ghoul Hunter]

Boltgun from what I can tell is basically a lazy boy gun. You don't have to headshot to be effective, and it's a fairly beefy gun. That said, it's slow, clunky, and very inefficient. That inefficiency is where you pay the price (or your teammates pay the price).

I have a friend who refuses to put it down. He's a real ammo guzzler. That said, we do A5 with him using it, so it is playable. I'm very conservative with ammo, so you could say I'm donating all my ammo to him.