Pistol Preference

[swampy11]

When ever I face an opponent armed with a pistol and me with my sub-machine gun and we both fire at the same time, and both have low ping's, seems the pistol always wins. At over 30 meters, I should have the advantage, but it seems in RO2 that does not seem to be the case. Any suggestions or am I the only one who notices this?
Thanks in advance.
`swamp

[PhoenixDragon]

Sounds like flawed perception and/or confirmation bias. Pistols have no advantage over SMGs in that situation.

Keep in mind, if you see him firing at the same time you fire, then he actually fired some time earlier than you (His ping plus your ping earlier, in fact).

[=GG= Mr Moe]

Carrying a rifle most of the time, I sometimes also have a revolver. If I encounter someone with an smg, I usually come out on the losing end. Not always, but often enough.

Now I will say that when I do come out on top, its mostly because I have my pistol raised and the other person is holding their smg at the hip; in the spray and pray position. That generally makes me more accurate and one or two shots is all I need.

[Cpt-Praxius]

The first shot with any weapon is going to always be the most accurate, and accuracy reduces after that the more times you fire. When it comes to recoil, most of the pistols seem to not have as much recoil / accuracy loss when fired in succession compared to SMG's fired at Full auto.... mostly due to being semi auto.

Regarding that, take note that when you fire the MG34 at full auto, the recoil is pretty high.... but when you use the semi-auto mode, the recoil is very minimal and you have much more accurate shots.

Because of this, the guy with the pistol will usually be more accurate than you with their shots.

This kind of boils down to the game mechanics more than anything.

As for the accuracy of pistols in the game, it's more or less down to the player using the pistol and their experience using them.

If I am a rifleman with a pistol available, if I know I will be dealing with a close quarters situation, the pistol will come out almost all the time because I can fire off more rounds faster than with my rifle.

Also keep in mind that the pistols will take you down in one hit if they land in your chest or head, but will take many more hits to drop you if hit anywhere else, compared to other weapons..... so if that guy lands a head shot on you with his first hit and you sprayed and only hit him in the limbs.... well, you know the out come of that.

Oh and yeah.... ping differences, regardless of how low both of you are, will have a difference.... it may seem like you both shot at the same time, but it's rarely the case. I've been on the losing end of that situation a few times where I thought I shot, I heard the shot, yet I died.

Did I hit him or didn't I?

Most times I did and I notice they either ran off to bandage up or they had a slow death and dropped a few seconds later.

[LordKhaine]

While the pistol has a few minor things in its favour (lighter/lower zoom/side on aiming stance presents a slightly smaller target), overall an SMG is clearly better at well, everything. If a pistol user takes out an SMG guy, the chances are he was simply quicker and more accurate. I've won many fights with SMGs using my trusty pistol, and almost always it's because I've scored the first hits.

[=GG= Mr Moe]

Originally Posted by LordKhaine

While the pistol has a few minor things in its favour (lighter/lower zoom/side on aiming stance presents a slightly smaller target), overall an SMG is clearly better at well, everything. If a pistol user takes out an SMG guy, the chances are he was simply quicker and more accurate. I've won many fights with SMGs using my trusty pistol, and almost always it's because I've scored the first hits.

I think you target practice with the pistols in your sleep. I know enough to try and stay away from you

[Sensemann]

Point is: If I have a pistol, facing an opponent with an SMG, I know that my first shot MUST be a hit, otherwise I am dead. So I take more care on making the first shot count. When I am with the SMG, facing a guy with a pistol, I rely on the volume of bullets I can throw into my opponents direction, so I first shoot, then adjust my aim. Makes sense?

[Mekhazzio]

Unless you're playing on a LAN (and usually even then too), by the time you see an enemy fire, the shot has already hit or missed you a while ago and you're just waiting to find out about it. For typical online latencies, their second or even third shots have already hit/missed you too. If any of those shots killed you, then your return fire won't even have an effect, because to the server's view of the timing, you were already dead before you fired.

Weapons are irrelevant to the issue, but for what it's worth, there isn't any game mechanic or statistic where any pistol has an advantage over either SMG.

[Westernesse]

I like using the Nagant revolver, but its mostly for style points. Its the worst weapon in the game, with 7 bullets, a long reload time and only 40 damage a bullet means it takes 3 bullets to kill. Usually if I kill an SMG in cqc its because I sneak up behind him and execution style killed him to the head or fired first and got lucky with a heart or head shot or he was already wounded, but had bandaged so 1-2 bullets killed him.

Once, I unlocked the silencer it became a lot more useful because you can sneak around behind enemy lines and get head shots without alerting nearby enemies of your presence like an SMG or rifle would. Head shots mean they also usually die a lot quicker and quieter. It took a lot of dying to do unlock though, I got into a lot of fights where I ran out of bullets after 1-2 kills and was a sitting duck and thus died while reloading where a rifle or SMG would of allowed me to keep getting kills. I also had a lot of deaths where I shoot first, only to have my enemy turn and kill me in one rifle hit or SMG burst before I could put 2 more bullets into him also happened a lot.

If you want to level pistols I recommend playing AT class when its available though as there is usually several open slots and you can drop your main gun, but still use the AT grenades to be effective anti tank player if you happen to be near a tank. Taking something like MG, marksmen or commander to only use a pistol is often very bad for the rest of your team.

One of my favorite things in the game is to play marksmen and in the process of your sniping end up near the enemy marksmen, notice his distinctive gun fire and go looking around for him, then walk up behind him and kill him execution style with a silenced Nagant revolver.

[Panzer Jager '43]

Originally Posted by Westernesse

I like using the Nagant revolver, but its mostly for style points. Its the worst weapon in the game, with 6 bullets, a long reload time and only 40 damage a bullet means it takes 3 bullets to kill. Usually if I kill an SMG in cqc its because I sneak up behind him and execution style killed him to the head or fired first and got lucky with a heart or head shot or he was already wounded, but had bandaged so 1-2 bullets killed him.

p.s. it holds 7 rounds

[2dfrog]

It really comes down to who has quicker reactions and who shoots first. The times I have killed a SMG user up close is because I knew where they would be and fired accurately and quickly, those are the big benefits of the P38/C96. Many times I get lucky and take them out, sometimes I'm even luckier and kill them and get lightly wounded, but in head on situation caught by surprise the chances are against you.

[Le Strigoi]

I find it curious that some consider the Nagant the worst pistol. I think that it is really simple to use, and has some very good characteristics; eg the low recoil and high accuracy. Plus the mag disadvantage is off set by the fact you can top up the cylinder even if it is not completely empty (I think).

I would say the P38 is the worst pistol, it seems to me that it has the same damage as the revolver (although I may be wrong) though it is far more inaccurate and has much greater recoil.

[GARY OAK]

dem darn pistol users dun shot you good.

basically those pistol users shot you before you shot them and those pistol users should be high fived for killing a smg user in close quarters

[Westernesse]

Originally Posted by Le Strigoi

I find it curious that some consider the Nagant the worst pistol. I think that it is really simple to use, and has some very good characteristics; eg the low recoil and high accuracy. Plus the mag disadvantage is off set by the fact you can top up the cylinder even if it is not completely empty (I think).

I would say the P38 is the worst pistol, it seems to me that it has the same damage as the revolver (although I may be wrong) though it is far more inaccurate and has much greater recoil.

Well it may not be accurately reflected in game, but from comparing their wiki entries the P38 has a larger magazine, faster reload/faster RoF for suppression, longer barrel, higher muzzle velocity and imo a much less distinctive firing sound, so its harder to hear in a firefight.

I'm no ammo expert, but I know the Nagant often used substandard target ammo, so I think ammo favors P38, although this may not be reflected in game at all.

I'd say in game there is very little difference, and you'll live and die in the same situations regardless of which one you use, except that the faster reload on P38 might help you live longer in a rare case where your in a smaller cap zone where you kill 2 players using most/all of the bullets in the gun, but attract enemies from the next room over with the gun fire. You'll of reloaded the P38 and can fire back for the chance at a kill vs with the nagant you'll be running from the room trying to reload or maybe going for a melee kill.

Originally Posted by Panzer Jager '43

p.s. it holds 7 rounds

Thanks, this is why one should never switch between using a laptop for half the day that has a regular keyboard and an ergonomic keyboard on a desktop that splits the keys into two sections and is concealed on a pull out drawer under my desk, that I rarely pull out. I find there is often a empty space where my muscle memory thinks a y,7,h or n key often should be and it leads to embarrassing mistakes.