As an Ork, I would KILL for a motherfucking Boltgun. In fact I bought one as a Relic and I'm still waiting for it to exist. That is my one gripe. I want my freaking Looted Boltgun.
I'm sure it has nothing to do with your skill level improving since you first played SM then decided to play Orks after when you had experience in the game, its maps and mechanics. No way. Definitely not. Logic RIP.
What the respective communities do, and their relative skill level, numbers or how heavily their results are influenced by guilds PUG stomping (the less people in a faction, the more prevalent) are largely irrelevant to the mechanics that are there. There are noticeable differences when you play with each faction as far as your allies go, which can and definitely do play a role despite mechanical advantages or disadvantages.
Our pistols are dope though, to be honest. I can down an LSM with one Slab Slugga magazine some times - at least the bad ones. Also makes a great finisher if an enemy somehow survived a rokkit.
I personally use the shoota far more often now. Initially I was lured by the flashy bitz of the big shoota. Faster rate of fire, light suppression, being real flash. Tracey shoota especially. But, then you go out on the maps and you find that very often you're suddenly upon an enemy as you round a corner and a duel begins, and you're there with a big shoota. The boltguns or twin-linked catapults starts firing within a millisecond. No matter how tough you are, you die within 1-1,5 seconds. So there you are, and the big shoota only starts firing after 1,2 seconds or such. Unless the enemy misses like, all of their shots at close range on the biggest target they'll ever have, you'll manage to fire a bullet or two at most before you're dead and often not even that. The shoota though is real flash. It acts exactly like the twin-linked or boltgun, and starts firing right away. That matters if you're often up in their face, and why wouldn't you be as an ork? You don't have the accuracy of the other factions, so you can't really get reliable distance kills with either weapon like you can with twinlinked and boltgun. Just get in there, and let the slightly better DPS speak for itself. It's what you pay for to get a higher recoil and worse accuracy to begin with. The CQC barrel helps to seal the deal. That's also why shootas are the only real comparison to boltguns. (big shootas, eh, compare it with stormbolters or such)
*ahem* LSM is populated wiff the embodiment of dis guy An' orks as of now has a community that 're da equivalent of NOBS, wiff dem leadin' boys dat 're touched by mork himself! no zoggin' wonder orkz is winnin' against LSM
That is up to 20 meters. At 20-30 meters it's Bolter 210.9, Shoota 152, at 30-100 meters it's Bolter 155.4, Shoota 152 (if I get that damage falloff correctly). So more damage is actually only up to 20 meters. I guess shooting at higher range is almost useless with shoota anyway, so if I had the choice I'd always take the bolter. WHERE'S MY LOOTED BOLTGUN? In that case please also consider higher LP costs. Also, I use the normal shoota :-(
