Three weapon skills?

[Dong Quixote]

So I'm playing an Elven Street Samurai using ranged weapons, and I've been doing pretty well so far. I've been spending my karma on Shotguns, Pistols, Dodge, and Ranged Combat. Shotguns and pistols complement one another well but I've read that rifles are often a better option than either of those.

Is Shotgun/Rifle/Pistol viable or should I just stick to the two ranged weapons?

Thanks.

[Morphic]

Spreading your points between three different weapons is a poor choice, especially when Pistol and Rifle are considered.

Doing Shotgun + Pistol is a perfectly logical setup since your Pistol will let you shoot far off enemies much better than a Shotgun, plus you have a variety of utility combat skills. Shotguns are great for close - mid range for when enemies bunch up or have very little armor, I've literally 2-3 shot people with 100+ HP with a Shotgun simply because they had no armor and I scored a Critical.

Rifle is basically "Overpowered" because it's great for everything, close - far range, its got Armor Penetration and great damage potential ... not to mention the double shot and Full Auto fire for 5 hits on a guy in a single turn. Rifles typically kill people much faster than Shotguns or Pistols because they are "always effective" no matter what you are fighting. The only bonus Shotguns have over Rifles is the spread/multishot factor ... which doesn't really matter when you miss.

Essentially, IMO, if you've already invested points in Shotguns and Pistols, don't bother with Rifles. You'll be spreading your Karma very thin in a weapon skill that you should have probably picked first. You're better off using the Karma you would have spent on Rifles towards something else, like Body or Charisma or whatever else you'd want.

[Ahbadah]

Shotguns can do more damage than rifles with the burst fire option, especially vs a group of 2 or more bunched up enemies. A rifle on full auto can do a max of 5x damage and only very rarely when all 5 attacks do full damage. A shotgun on burst fire, however, can do 4x dmg to one person, and 8x to 2 and 12x to 3, and so on if all hits do max damage. Shotguns are very worthwhile in the hands of someone skilled at corraling enemies.

[jbridso]

Rifles have a hidden bonus that makes them extremely useful... they flush opponents from cover with full auto. Also, they are great at all ranges since the bonuses to hit a close range target offset the long range weapon penalties.

The mini-gun is also a rifle which is hard to beat in overall performance and style.

[The Jaguar]

It's better to focus on one or two weapons than to spread yourself too thin. I like rifles best. Shotties are OK too.