Thanks for the comments all.
@ bardysya: I think I will have to try shottyhead. I have played the other builds. I am just a little bit concerned about the ammo consumption of shottyhead - the build seems to invite spamming the assault /combat shotgun at a distance to deal with tricky enemies, but shotgun shells don't go far at range. I will have to try the focused double shotgun for ammo efficiency.
@ shark - thanks for the detailed numbers. This could lead to some interesting possibilities - think assault minigun - (2d5) x 4, assault plasma rifle is an even more efficient version of the hyperblaster (2d4) x3 vs (2d6) x 3, assault nuclear plasma rifle is possibly the best though, since ammo conservation goes so far with that weapon, (2d5) x3. I will have to give these a try some time.
@ spacedust - I just completed a HMP run with a tech that went int2 after Mss. I will admit I felt pretty overpowered. Cleared the vaults without so much as a scratch. 5x SoG is just ludicrous - .1 firespeed. The thing is that I prefer getting int after traits that make my character more powerful at range, to make radar shooting more powerful. I guess even without radar shooting int2 can give you great tactical awareness.
More questions - are move speed bonuses the same as dodge bonuses? So does the scout start with an innate 20% dodge bonus? When you play dodging characters, do you go for tactical armor, intermediate armor, or the heaviest you can wear?
How often are shotgun builds forced to use other weapons to preserve ammo past the first 12-15 levels when fewer sergeants spawn? I would think that unless you went MAd ammo consumption would be a problem still, just like my previous AoSh runs. Do the new shell boxes make a big enough difference that this isn't the case?
My problem with shotgun characters is that, other than the BFG, other weapon categories tend to be of marginal use. Chainguns and plasma are so inaccurate as to be kinda worthless to shotgun users I think, and obviously pistols are worthless without SoG. Whereas with other weapon specializations, shotguns are very solid to conserve ammo and corner shoot without any talents allocated to them. Then again, maybe I should try using the assault versions! That would be the perfect chain fire weapon for an unskilled user. Another option might be the missile launcher - I just hate destroying valuable items with indiscriminate rocket fire. Any advice on conserving ammo with shotty builds?
Some more changes I have noticed:
On the first level, phobos surface, either the formers use healthpacks without any message appearing on my screen or fewer healthpacks spawn on some of the maps. In previous versions I could usually get to the healthpacks around the same time as the formers and shoot them so that they wouldn't pick them up. This has made starting out a little more difficult.
Another change is the absence of the combat shotgun on the early levels. I have beaten NM maybe once and UV maybe 4 times in previous versions, and the combat shotty was my savior in the early levels for almost any build. Corner shooting with a regular shotgun may be viable vs. cacodemons or formers, but a regular shotgun is just too weak vs. early barons of hell or arachnotrons. Any advice? I guess that this difficulty increase is balanced by the new class bonuses, so it all works out.
Finally, the new lost souls are much scarier. They seem significantly resistant to regular bullets, but NOT to shotguns. A shotgun seems to almost always one shot them at short-medium range, while they can absorb upwards of 15 straight bullet damage. Am I correct here? I thought bullet resistance was the same thing as shotgun resistance.
