Sobek -- Reviewed

[CastleCarv]

SOBEK -- Reviewed

 ~ OLD VERSION ~

 

Introduction:
Okay, I never reviewed anything before but i felt like I should now, so please give me alot of tips for me to improve. Second, I have 2 categories to go through then the verdict and maybe a Mod settings category and how to improve it. That's how my reviews are gonna be gone through. Lastly, sound off in the comments on what do you think about the Sobek and how it should be improve. this is MY review/opinion. Also, what should I review next ? Now, shall we start ?

Quick Description:
Sobek is a rapid-firing Grineer shotgun that has reduced damage per shot but boasts an extra large clip capacity.

Aesthetics/Design:
I have to seriously slow-clap for this.

Seriously, good job on the design. I admire the design on the stock and of course, the clip and the barrel. Awesome name, Sobek. I know what this name means and is because of too many Smite action (don't judge me). The sound is pretty good but can still be improved. Alot of people are commenting that the Sobek is a little bit small, undersized and I'll have to agree


Gameplay:
Now, this is where it's going to get rough, *takes a deep breath* *breaths out*. The damage sucks, period. When Unranked, It does roughly, 4-6 damage per pellet and sometimes 1-2. The fourth installment in the shotgun family has the lowest damage per shot between all the shotguns. No polaraties. Needs a Mastery Rank 4. Also takes a while to craft. But of course, It doesn't suck ultimately. It tries to make up with a bigger clip and a faster reload than any shotguns available. Spread of the bullets are not that bad, Ideal for a mid-range fight.

Final Verdict:


Improvements:
How do you improve it then ? Well, maybe you could increase the base damage from 40.0 to something around 80.0 and cut the clip fom 20 to 12. Or, you can make the gun shoot two bullets per shot which results in roughly 12 or 13 per shot but not cutting down the clip, which totals up into uhhhh...240 per magazine. Not on par with the Hek but hey, it's something. Or, you could always make this:




----------------------------------------------------------------- EDIT AREA --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(early)

(21:08 - fixed Introduction)

Edited July 16, 2013 by CastleCarv

[MetalGerbil]

id rather they put in a legit double barreled shotgun later. not point turning this into it.

i agree with the damage. altho i dont think they need to cut the clip size. just something to make it hit hard. doesnt have to be 80 i guess but something other than its current value.

i dont want to turn it into just another shotgun. and they have a nice package here.... just that damage....

[SoulEchelon]

I agree with what you've written so far. Definitely a nice looking weapon (should be a little larger imo), but every other shotgun outshines it in every way apart from the initial magazine size.

[Kaidinah]

Mine is in the cooker right now. Can't wait to try it out. Loving the Boar so far, but I am expecting to not love this very much. Kinda sick of weapons not starting with polarities. Especially weapons that require a higher rank and require rare materials (5 neurodes.... formas for clantech weapons).

[CY13ERPUNK]

i think making the sobek the first armor ignore shotty would do a lot to improve its lacklusterness

[SoulEchelon]

i think making the sobek the first armor ignore shotty would do a lot to improve its lacklusterness

 

That..would probably fix a ton of gripes. I'd happily continue using it if it ignored armor, like Boltor. Won't need any other buffs.

[HollowExistence]

Problems: Damage
Reason: Low Damage, small amounts of pellets (4) - this also leads to elemental and damage mods to scale bad on this gun.

Solutions:

Without breaking the spirit of the weapon; its low damage and huge clip, increase the number of pellets to 8 maybe 10.
This will effectively double its damage but make it bad on hitting weakspots from range, especially on the new ancients.

As mentioned before armor ignore is always desirable and would increase the usefulness of this weapon. Considering the low base this and a pellet increase might make this gun actually good.

Another idea is to remove the damage drop off on this one shotgun only? I leave this idea up for debate though as i am not sure if that would fix anything

 

[Rhorge]

Honestly, I have no clue what DE tried to achieve with this gun... They just cannibalized features of other shotguns and mashed it together into a stinking pile of crap. It looks nice though,

[Jaon]

Ive got Acellerated blast, fire rate, damage, AP damage and frost on my level 15 one, and boy does it own. 

The fire rate is its boon. Get MOAR FIRERATE. 

It can outshine the hek in DPS if modded right. 

[CastleCarv]

Ive got Acellerated blast, fire rate, damage, AP damage and frost on my level 15 one, and boy does it own.

The fire rate is its boon. Get MOAR FIRERATE.

It can outshine the hek in DPS if modded right.

What's AP Damage ?

edit:

Just found out

Edited July 15, 2013 by CastleCarv

[Tsukinoki]

@Jaon

That is my thoughts on it. In sustained DPS it can beat the Hek.

It can spit out the 20 rounds quickly, and when modded for full damage it can deal the same damage, if not more, in the same period of time as the Hek. It just uses more bullets to do so.

For a sustained DPS shotgun it works well in that niche.

Its not meant to be a hard hitting, one shot everything, shotgun. Its meant to spray into a crowd with elemental effects, or focus on a single target for sustained DPS instead of burst DPS.

Because of the fast reload speeds and high fire-rate, coupled with a large clip size, you can very easily keep a bosses shields down, where if you were just using the Hek, the bosses shields would be regenning during your reloads. It works great with other weapons, but if you ever need to hammer a target over a sustained period of time this is what to use.

I also use it to fire quickly into a group of enemies to slow them all down with ice damage, or stun them all with electricity to make it easier for other weapons to mop them up. And if you slap on a max stun mod you can keep most of the enemies stunlocked and out of the fight until someone can bring the more damaging weapons against it.

From what I see this isn't meant to be a fast burst DPS heavy hitter. Its meant for sustained DPS and support rolls, in which it excells in.

It has its own niche that is different from the other shotguns and as such it shouldn't immeadiently be compared to the other shotguns.

[Wesgile]

not sure if serious,

only 0.3 more fire rate than the hek and less than 1/3rd the damage.

why stun when you can outright kill. it doesn't even do well to groups due to only firing 4 tight pellets. you're better off with a rifle or some sort.

also, tactical pump. no issue of shields regenerating between reloads.

[Tsukinoki]

@Wesgile

And yet I can fire off 20 rounds and reload much faster than a Hek could hope to when fully modded and stunlock pretty much everything.

And its a full auto gun that can fire quite a bit faster than the heck, not just the .3 advertised.

When fully modded with Hells chamber and the elemental mods, including the new mods, it becomes a very decent weapon.

You put on a max accelerated burst and the damage you can pump out against larger targets over a sustained period of time is quite high.

Unlike the hek I dont have to stop and reload every 4 rounds, meaning that while it does deal 1/3 of the damage I can fire for a much longer period of time. What that means is that over a sustained period of time I can deal more damage than your hek because you have to stop to reload every 4 shots, which lowers DPS over time, and I dont have to. Meaning in practical uses I can deal more damage over an entire mission.

Sure you can deal damage in higher bursts, but against some things keeping them staggered and dealing sustained DPS is better.

Especially when I can stagger a few bosses endlessly using the Sobek where you cant hope to do that with a Hek.

[CastleCarv]

i think making the sobek the first armor ignore shotty would do a lot to improve its lacklusterness

 

what....dude, did anyone told you that you're a genius ? Because you are one.

[Luxangel7]

Honestly, I have no clue what DE tried to achieve with this gun... They just cannibalized features of other shotguns and mashed it together into a stinking pile of crap. It looks nice though,

 

This shotgun is pure garbage at the moment.

 

With max damage mod and max armor penetration it takes FOUR shots at point blank range to kill a lvl 20 crawler.

 

WHAT.

[dstock]

Anyone tried ammo stock? I'm curious how this would be with 32 rounds and a fire-rate mod. You wouldn't be able to fit all of the damage cards, but it would be interesting as a shotgun version of the Gorgon.

[LuckyStr_ke]

I like the look BUT...   it seems to me that it is underscaled, it clearly is too small when i look at my volt holding it, it is basically floating in his hands. Hope they fix that, doesn't look like intended

[Tsukinoki]

@dstock

If you forma it I could see it working out nicely in that roll. I have tested it with the new "Accelerated Burst" which at max gives +60% fire rate and +60% AP, coupled with Blaze for +60% damage +60% fire damage and then all of the standard mods and it works nicely.

With a maxed "Point Blank" and "Blaze" you are dealing 100 damage a shot, couple that with the "Accelerated Burst" and you can spit out bullets very fast for a ton of damage.

In short bursts the Hek will out class it. Over an entire mission where it takes the Hek multiple clips to kill something, a maxed out Sobek can easily keep up with it DPS wise.

[Wesgile]

@Tsukinoki

well here's the thing, though.

having 3x more damage than sobek, a hek can just fire once every 3-4 shots of sobek and it would still have the desired sustained dps. especially when the hek can just do away with shotgun spazz/accelerated burst and (with the limited amount of mod slots) instead put in more damage mods to further amplify the damage per shot, which could then equals even 5-6 shots of sobek.

[Tsukinoki]

@Wesgile

With just a maxed "Point Blank", "Accelerated Burst" and "Blaze" I am hitting for 100 base damage, 60 AP and 60 Fire, and firing quite a bit faster than the Hek. When fully maxed out with damage mods the sobek can fire longer and a LOT faster than the hek.

Meaning that taking into account your reload times compared to the sobek I can deal a bit MORE damage than you over the longer period of times when things stop dying in 2 or 3 shots from the hek. I have actually beaten out in DPS and overall damage/kills a fully modded and potatoed Hek with a fully modded and potatoed Sobek in T3 extermination missions more than once.

[CastleCarv]

Trying to work on the best mod settings for the Sobek to be on par with the other shotguns

[AscendantWyvern]

I personally think that Sobek had all the marks in what it was expected to be, a freaking DB shotgun (technically...yes...it is still a double barrel shotgun...but I mean what people expect as a double barrel shotgun, two shots, high damage.) I mean look at the weapon, it practically has a barrel break for quick two round loading.

 

I think game design went a bit wrong on this one. I'm putting my hopes up, they redesigned warframes before, they can redesign a weapon. Change "high magazine, low damage" to the opposite, "High damage, low magazine". Something that has the GREATEST burst damage of the shotguns, but sustained DPS falls back terribly.

 

Just a thought.

[Wesgile]

@Wesgile

With just a maxed "Point Blank", "Accelerated Burst" and "Blaze" I am hitting for 100 base damage, 60 AP and 60 Fire

while the hek, substituting accelerated burst for flechette, can get you 350 base 315 AP 210 Fire damage.

 

, and firing quite a bit faster than the Hek. When fully maxed out with damage mods the sobek can fire longer and a LOT faster than the hek.

as i said, shooting the hek just once for every time sobek shot 4 times achieves the same sustained damage, and the hek can definitely shoot once every 4 sobek shots even without rate of fire mods. bonus points for ammo efficiency.

 

Meaning that taking into account your reload times compared to the sobek I can deal a bit MORE damage than you over the longer period of times when things stop dying in 2 or 3 shots from the hek.

when things stop dying in 2 or 3 shots from the hek, you would probably need to empty the whole magazine of sobek to kill it.

 

I have actually beaten out in DPS and overall damage/kills a fully modded and potatoed Hek with a fully modded and potatoed Sobek in T3 extermination missions more than once.

eh i stopped caring the bugged results screen for ages. or otherwise how did you figure that out?

edit:

that said, i'm pretty sure sobek does better with rate of fire mods. as had been explained, taking into advantage the amount of ammo per magazine. but as it stands i think it still needs a bit of a boost. i have one myself and currently sitting at max, haven't potatoed it yet or whatever though.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Wesgile

[Tsukinoki]

@Wesgile

I wouldn't mind a boost, but for its Niche of a sustained damage shotgun verses a burst damage I think it does well for what its made to do. Really the only boost I can see would make it AI instead of normal damage as has already been suggested but it does well in what its supposed to be.

And besides using the results from the results screen (which is only bugged for some abilities) we actually timed TTK, kill counts and enemy types killed in T3 Exterminate missions manually.

Edited July 15, 2013 by Tsukinoki

[WarG0d]

People are too fixated on the double-barrel, it has a drum magazine! It's fictional weapon built using fictional technology in a fictional world, to expect to weapon behave, perform a certain way is asinine. I don't see people complaining that the Hek doesn't fire 4 shots at once even though it has 4 barrels, or have double the fire-rate of the sobek.

Edited July 15, 2013 by WarG0d