Most underrated weapon?

[Mr. Freeze]

What is, in your opinion, the most underrated weapon in DooM, DooM II, or DooM 3?

DooM: Plasma Gun
DooM II: regular Shotgun
DooM 3: Chaingun

[DuckReconMajor]

Fists

WHY ARE YOU WHINING ABOUT AMMO? BE A MAN AND PUNCH SOMETHING!

[Torn]

The pistol in multiplayer. :P

[DeumReaper]

Mr. Freeze said:
DooM 3: Chaingun

this. It was my favorite weapon in Doom 3 since it was a large step up from the boring weapons you get before. The Plasma Gun comes close, but maybe if it had a faster ROF and/or looked like a cannon instead of the assault rifle-look.

[Jodwin]

The chaingun.

[Ichor]

Other monsters

[vdgg]

Having watched a few thousands Doom / Doom II demos, I'd say "All of them, except the Super Shotgun!". In particular, these three are neglected:
- Plasma rifle in favor of BFG
- Chaingun in favor of SG/SSG
- Berserk

[Kyka]

Jodwin said:

The chaingun.

The chaingun.

[ArmouredBlood]

Kyka said:

Jodwin said:

The chaingun.

The chaingun.

I'd have to agree.

[Maes]

Actually, the pistol ;-)

As every lover of "scrooge" type maps knows (I'm looking at you, Jodwin), using the pistol with accurate aim can help you save that one bullet for monsters that take odd numbers of shots, and that you WILL need later.

[pavera]

Pistol actually comes in pretty handy in early levels as a secondary to the shotgun. Can help you save shells on zombiemen and build bullet ammo at the same time, as they generally only take two bullets to kill and they drop four.

[NoWits]

The normal shotgun in Doom 2.

[arrrgh]

The chainsaw. You can chainsaw an Arcachnotron, if you're careful.

[Abyssalstudios1]

arrrgh said:

The chainsaw. You can chainsaw an Arcachnotron, if you're careful.

Grinding up Mancubii has to be one of my favorite pastimes in single player.

[Super Jamie]

The pistol.

I love using it to finish off an enemy who I know is only a few shots away from their demise. Like when you shotgun an Imp and they don't die, but they're probably not far off it. Their "headshot" death animation goes really well with the pistol's single shot. Putting the final shot into a Baron or Arachno with the weakest weapon is pretty funny to see.

[eargosedown]

Chainsaw I'd say.
Something about the sound of it just makes me grin.

[Abyssalstudios1]

Super Jamie said:

Putting the final shot into a Baron or Arachno with the weakest weapon is pretty funny to see.

Bah! Use it on the Cyberdemon. A pistol should not make something that large die that dramatically.

[kristus]

The shotgun. Some people got the ludicrous idea that it's rendered useless by the addition of the more powerful SSG. These people are stupid.

Super Jamie said:

The pistol.

I love using it to finish off an enemy who I know is only a few shots away from their demise. Like when you shotgun an Imp and they don't die, but they're probably not far off it. Their "headshot" death animation goes really well with the pistol's single shot.

Yes. I quite enjoy this myself. Quite enjoyable to finish them off with a well balanced pistol round. The fact that the pistol is held with the left hand only adds to the image in my mind of me holding the shotgun still in the right hand while pulling my pistol to unload that killing round.

[DuckReconMajor]

kristus said:

The shotgun. Some people got the ludicrous idea that it's rendered useless by the addition of the more powerful SSG. These people are stupid.

I was gonna say something like this, but I figured there weren't any people like that left.

[kristus]

There are.

[Super Jamie]

The shotgun is the ultimate distance-sniping weapon for powerful monsters. The SSG has too large a spread. Sure, you could take out Revenants or Mancubi shot by shot with the Pistol/Chaingun but that's boring. It's also hell useful for distant rows of zombieman/sargeants.

I make a conscious effort to balance my play across all the weapons, leveraging each ones strengths where the others have weaknesses, and also to suit the ammo balance of the level.

[kristus]

I find the plasma vs BFG hardest to balance. Hard to assess if I will need 40 plasma to take down whatever I want to take down.

[Super Jamie]

Against a single monster, I'd almost always choose the plasma. Maybe if I was backed into a corner whilst low on health I'd go for a more instant kill.

I find the BFG more useful against large numbers, especially hitscanners, or the few "ultra-hard" maps I have the skill to complete. I usually save it for such occasions.

Now that you mention it, I've never considered the ammo economy of Plasma vs BFG on a single kill. Looking at the damage tables it's probably only an issue for Barons anyway.

[40oz]

I want to say chainsaw, but having recently using prBoom as my favored sourceport, I found it much easier to chainsaw things in ZDoom based ports than in prBoom. It can still be done but it's definitely harder.

I normally utilize all the weapons in my arsenal except for the BFG, save for slaughter maps. Even the fists. If i shoot an imp or a chaingun guy with the regular shotgun and he doesn't back down, run up and finish him off with a single roundhouse to the jaw.

[Super Jamie]

I believe that's because the chainsaw has a longer range in ZDoom than in other ports.

[DuckReconMajor]

I think the fists do as well.

[Reaper978]

I find the time it takes to switch from one weapon to another is surprisingly important. Switching leaves you completely defenseless (for one or two seconds!?) and during a fight, you can get hammered badly just from doing it.

The pistol would be a lot more useful if the spread wasn't so wide. It's a weak weapon to begin with, and missing the target when firing continuously just aggravates the problem. The first shot is pixel-perfect, but one accurate shot at a time is pretty limiting, even at long range.

[Super Jamie]

It's definitely a snipe weapon. The only time I really hold pistol fire down is when I'm confronted with a large target at the start of a map. Authors often stick a few Imps in, or the Caco at the start of E3M1 is another good example.

[phi108]

kristus said:

The shotgun. Some people got the ludicrous idea that it's rendered useless by the addition of the more powerful SSG. These people are stupid.


Yes. I quite enjoy this myself. Quite enjoyable to finish them off with a well balanced pistol round. The fact that the pistol is held with the left hand only adds to the image in my mind of me holding the shotgun still in the right hand while pulling my pistol to unload that killing round.

You have just given me a great idea. I made a quick fake screenshot, but iI think I know of a way to get this to work, maybe....

Anyway, the below imp just took a shell without dying. Let's see how he handles this...

[DuckReconMajor]

Hellbent had a similar idea, but for deathmatch. He didn't get too far, I don't think.