How to deal with Spitters/Praetorians, as a Shotgunner?

[kooarbiter]

I have problems being out ranged by spitters, my shotgun game is stronk, but I usually don't have enough room to carry pulse rifles, or the desire to. Whenever I fight a spitter if my teammates aren't covering me I tend to get assblasted by acid, and paincritted before I can so much as glance at them with my slugs, and when I do get close they back off into the darkness just long enough to regain spit and toast me up, I don't appreciate being human french fries, so I'd like some advice

[Zilenan91]

You don't. Your job as a shotgunner is to keep melee xenos off of your pulse rifle guys who will deal with everything else.

[Challenger]

That's the downside of shotguns. The best way to deal with those castes is to have a buddy by your side with an M4.

Could just as easily ask how to deal with runners and hunters as a rifleman; you need a shotgunner buddy. In general, marines are gonna win by working together like that. So my advice is to just grab someone who looks like they can shoot good.

Alternatively just take both a shotgun and M4, but then you're reliant on resupplying with ammo constantly.

[Karmac]

Bring a rifle and a shotgun, don't use a backpack, you carry less ammo overall but you become more versatile, I can only recommend this tactic for standards however as other battlefield roles fill other niches with their gear.

Okay I just read digitalis' reply and now I feel kinda dumb for repeating his comment but imma leave this here anyways.

[WinterClould]

Whenever I find myself fighting some ranged xenos and all I've got is my trusty shottie I do two things.
1) I realize that the life choices I've made leading to this situation have been quite poor.
2) I run away like a little bitch boi because fuck fighting anything with acid. That shit will melt me quicker then I can switch weapons or charge the cock sucker down if I'm not lucky.


In the event that 2 is not possible I wipe out the secret third option that really should have been the REAL second option you all should go for because we're MARINES DAMNIT! Not some little cry babies who run from their "problems". WE KILL OUR PROBLEMS!
3) I put my MAN pants on, rush those bitch ass xeno's down and give them the good word express delivered via the "Shooty Stabby Express".

Three usually works out well for me and it will for you as well damnit! I usually have another marine with me covering me incase I get neruo'd and dragged away. The buddy system is basically manditory if you don't want to have to fall back to the super secret 4th option of...
4) Cry as Im stun locked for 2 minutes as Im dragged off to the hive and horribly violated till death.

Others say to carry a M41 on your back, and I do, but I rarely swap to it at all. I myself find the firepower of the M41 to be so lacking that it just doesn''t ever do the job for me and I generally forget I even have it. (I also cant aim or lead a target for shit so maybe your better with it?) Slugs are just as bad, even worse really unless its incen slugs. I meme about using them or them being good but I haven't loaded a normal slug in my shotgun willingly for like, 5 months, they truly eat ass. So like I said above. Rushing and kicking ass is the option all Standards should be rolling with, running away is for medic's, engi's and SL's. I usually rush spitters or sents down if we're both alone since "The xeno can not spit acid/Neuro at you if you disable her everything". But Prae's do so much damage that it's lucky that most people that play them are cowards or play so rarely you wont see one, not like how you'll never not see a Rav.

Truly above all else though teamwork is the most powerful tool you have as a marine. I couldn't charge and attack the enemy as often as I do if I didn't know that I had comrades behind me ready to back my ass up, save my ass, or sometimes but rarely, shoot my ass in the ass. The worst thing marines can do is be cowards when their other marines need them to save their asses the most. Dancing around trading shots is how marines lose rounds. It's all about momentum baby. Marines who run away or try and defend have zero momentum and can not win 99% of the time. Your defense is pointless if marines are dying, xeno's aren't dying, and a counter attack isn't being prep'd.

(I know I kinda went in a bit hard there going beyond the small question you asked that only needed a small answer but I feel like "How do I deal with spitters at a shottie" is a thread lots of new and old players are gonna be looking at for months to come to see what people have to say and about and look for answers themselves. Good place for me to preach the religion of "Come on your apes, do you want to live forever?" to the mass market and maybe we'll see less cowards marines and more coordinated marine charging and attacking.)

[Crab_Spider]

You can use slugs and hope they fuck off.

[Blade2000Br]

Whenever I find myself fighting some ranged xenos and all I've got is my trusty shottie I do two things.
1) I realize that the life choices I've made leading to this situation have been quite poor.
2) I run away like a little bitch boi because fuck fighting anything with acid. That shit will melt me quicker then I can switch weapons or charge the cock sucker down if I'm not lucky.


In the event that 2 is not possible I wipe out the secret third option that really should have been the REAL second option you all should go for because we're MARINES DAMNIT! Not some little cry babies who run from their "problems". WE KILL OUR PROBLEMS!
3) I put my MAN pants on, rush those bitch ass xeno's down and give them the good word express delivered via the "Shooty Stabby Express".

Three usually works out well for me and it will for you as well damnit! I usually have another marine with me covering me incase I get neruo'd and dragged away. The buddy system is basically manditory if you don't want to have to fall back to the super secret 4th option of...
4) Cry as Im stun locked for 2 minutes as Im dragged off to the hive and horribly violated till death.

Others say to carry a M41 on your back, and I do, but I rarely swap to it at all. I myself find the firepower of the M41 to be so lacking that it just doesn''t ever do the job for me and I generally forget I even have it. (I also cant aim or lead a target for shit so maybe your better with it?) Slugs are just as bad, even worse really unless its incen slugs. I meme about using them or them being good but I haven't loaded a normal slug in my shotgun willingly for like, 5 months, they truly eat ass. So like I said above. Rushing and kicking ass is the option all Standards should be rolling with, running away is for medic's, engi's and SL's. I usually rush spitters or sents down if we're both alone since "The xeno can not spit acid/Neuro at you if you disable her everything". But Prae's do so much damage that it's lucky that most people that play them are cowards or play so rarely you wont see one, not like how you'll never not see a Rav.

Truly above all else though teamwork is the most powerful tool you have as a marine. I couldn't charge and attack the enemy as often as I do if I didn't know that I had comrades behind me ready to back my ass up, save my ass, or sometimes but rarely, shoot my ass in the ass. The worst thing marines can do is be cowards when their other marines need them to save their asses the most. Dancing around trading shots is how marines lose rounds. It's all about momentum baby. Marines who run away or try and defend have zero momentum and can not win 99% of the time. Your defense is pointless if marines are dying, xeno's aren't dying, and a counter attack isn't being prep'd.

(I know I kinda went in a bit hard there going beyond the small question you asked that only needed a small answer but I feel like "How do I deal with spitters at a shottie" is a thread lots of new and old players are gonna be looking at for months to come to see what people have to say and about and look for answers themselves. Good place for me to preach the religion of "Come on your apes, do you want to live forever?" to the mass market and maybe we'll see less cowards marines and more coordinated marine charging and attacking.)

or you can have RNGesus by your side and survive 15 minutes of spits towards you without hitting once. and killing the spitter.

It works OK?

[Hulkamania]

or you can have RNGesus by your side and survive 15 minutes of spits towards you without hitting once. and killing the spitter.

It works OK?

All things are possible through our lord and saviour RNGesus. He who turns buckshot to slug, he who turns magazines to AP, he who turns a slash into a decap. Praise him daily and you too shall be rewarded.

[Renomaki]

If you are a standard and you decide to be a shotgunner, I suggest you pack a revolver/pistol in your bag with a few magazines/speedloaders.

Slugs can help ward em off, but as many say, the shotgun works best at short ranges, which ranged-based xenos take advantage of. Combine with the fact that the shotgun's rate of fire isn't all that fast and reloading is a bitch, it would be best to have a weapon that has a decent RoF. If you can handle a crippled inventory capacity, then you can do what a lot of people do and pack a rifle on your back (or on your suit slot if you have a shotgun holster, which fits on your back and thus allows you to wear shotties on said back). An SMG could work too, although you trade firepower for agility.

But if you don't want to sacrifice a whole lotta inventory space, you could always do what I do and pack a pistol or revolver, with 2 reloads. In fact, I make a habit to do this with ANY weapon loadout I chose when I roll standard, since you never know when you are going to be in a situation where you suddenly lose your gun and are in a dire situation. Handguns might not do a lot of damage, let alone kill anything, but they can still save your life and spook xenos, who hate taking damage in any shape or form.

And yeah, before anyone says it, I USE a pistol as a secondary (unless I go SMG, then it is a revolver). I don't need to min-max to survive, folks.