Incoming wall of text that you should probably just skip.
I dig the loadout. That's a pretty solid loadout if you're not a main side holder and there's no Medic. Having something like Katana, Schneidzekk, Zed MkII and Hunting could be pretty good too as level 5 or 6. I mean, you can use the Machete for melee uppercuts, but it's riskier and easier to mess up under stress, hence the Katana being a good choice. But Machete and Mk23 are also solid choices instead.
Personally, I've used the MkII Zed gun as support a number of times, and I've found the easiest to use it with is Machete, HSG-1, MkII, and Hunting. You can Machete melee uppercut, or jumpshot Scrakes, and if you're not comfortable with either, you can soften with HSG-1, then stasis the Scrake and try to finish him during the stasis, or do a lot of damage and wait for him to rage at you once he's out of stasis, to finish with a jump shot.
Another loadout I have tried a few times is MkII, m32, Hunting. This is another loadout that is nice if you're not a main side holder, and if there is not a Demo aka you're backing up the entire team or just another player. The biggest issue this loadout faces is that you want to keep the m32 and MkII fully loaded for maximum sack saving efficiency. If you waste MkII ammo on trash you might not be full up for 2 stasis balls when you really need it, and you might also run out of ammo even faster for it.
Other loadouts I've found useful with the MkII are
Firebug
Dual Flares + Mac 10 + MkII*
Dual Flares + M79 + MkII*
Dual Flares + Mk23 + Machete + MkII
Dual Flares + Katana + MkII
Husk Launcher + MkII
Sharp
Pistol + Musket + MkII*
Pistol + LAR + MkII
Commando
Pistol + SCAR + Machete + MkII *
Pistol + FAL + MkII*
Katana + SCAR + MkII
Zerker
Claymore + Pistol + MkII*
Scythe + Pistol + MkII
Dwarfs Axe + Pistol + MkII
Katana + Axe + MkII
Demo
m32 + Pipes + MkII*
Medic
2 Submachine gun Med Guns + Pistol + MkII
M7a3 + Pistol + MkII
1 Submachine gun Med Gun + Katana + Pistol + MkII
1 Submachine gun Med Gun + Axe + MkII
1 Submachine gun Med Gun + SCAR + MkII
*Are the loadouts I really favor with it
The reason I like it so much on Commando or Firebug is because you are not expected to be soloing Scrakes or Fleshpounds in most cases. Not that you can't solo them, you can with proper knowledge and timing, but you aren't expected to by most players standards. Having the MkII loaded and ready to shoot the alt-fire is less hindering to a trash control perk, and allows you to focus more on the idea of letting loose the blue balls of sack saving.
The reason I like it on Sharp with a Musket and pistol is because if you take something like the Mk23 and Musket, you have enough ammo for trash control as well as soloing multiple Scrakes and Fleshpounds. The downfall of Sharpshooter is when things get crazy. A good Sharpshooter might pull off some clutch shots here and there, but when some Support specialist is nade spamming double FPs and the first one is spinning around during his rage and the second one rages from LoS, and both are moving around to avoid the grenades on the ground, the Sharpshooter is not likely to get in all the headshots he needs before getting drilled harder than at the dentist. This is when it's a good time to bust out that alt-fire and calm the FPs down and give the team some time to regroup before taking them.
As for Demo, you can reliably solo 1-3 FPs with the m32 and hand grenades alone if you're a good Demo, but not every situation has the FPs lined up so well, or packed together, sometimes there are problems where there are multiple Scrakes next to the Fleshpound(s), or there are triple Fleshpounds just spread out enough that the first two can be killed relatively easily, but the third one only takes enough damage to rage and the Demo has to reload. Various poop storms like this can be flushed away with some alt-fires from the MkII.
The game that Karsey spoke of was a fun one. I was the other Support in that game with the MkII. I had a derp loadout though, it was not meant to be effective. I had Mk23, HSG-1, MkII, Husk Launcher. Was a lot of fun to use, but those triples at the end were rough. We had very little ammo, very little firepower, not many grenades and a Commando who had no ammo.
All of the above are reasons for why I believe veteran and pro player's have a distaste for the Zed guns. It makes a lot of combos and sloppiness work that would have otherwise wiped a player or team. As I've said before about the Zed guns, I like them for this fact. I enjoy effective sloppiness from time to time, just as I enjoy precision techniques, combos and teamwork. So players can scream OP all they want, but I won't be able to hear them over the sound of my laughter from m32ing stasis'd Scrakes for fun.
