Shotgun has been overnerfed as this comparison shows

Note the comparison of the Mystic Bolt-Action vs the Shotgun (double barrel) in the screenshots. Both were constructed as close to identically as the components would allow. Both are being held by the same character with all the same base stats and food buffs.

The shotgun's base X critmult is actually now less than the Bolt-Action's base X critmult.... with the added disadvantages of a shorter range, no ADS, less ammo per reload....

Yes, things got silly pre-patch, even without the exploit. But the shotgun now has no real use case other than "i like boomstick" ;)

TL;DR Shotgun's pulling (in my case) around 48k baseline weakspot hits while the Bolt-Action is over 50k per weakspot hit, all other factors being equal; at longer range, with the ability to ADS, and delivering 8 rounds per reload. Soooo the shotgun needs to be uptuned more.

TBH magic is now doing what guns were doing pre-patch, i just watched someone fish-slap the entire desert vault in record time, including the boss xD the silliest spell is now the most OP. So ranged is now far behind, but since magic is now speedrunning the way i assume you DON'T want guns to - we need both a magic nerf and a slight Ranged buff.

Thanks!
So far so good, liking where things are going :D

~ spacefiddle