@Cro_Pittt Floor loot PK was stronger than floor loot Mastiff. PK did 10x11 for 110 in one shot vs. Mastiff's 13x8 for 104. The real problem with the previous shotgun metas was mostly damage and pellet dispersion.
Mastiff has always been gimped by its horizontal pellet distribution, and the fact you needed to ADS with it. You had to be a LOT closer to get good hits in, and even then you might not get good hits anyway due to hit-reg and horizontal spread.
EVA's pellet dispersion is too spread out compared to the PK meaning hipfire or ADS you might still miss based on the width / height, as well as distance to the target. On a shotgun with the lowest per round damage, that's not really what you want. A really nice buff would be much much tighter pellet spread, and crosshairs to match.
PK reigned king of shotguns for 5 seasons because it had really good damage, and most of its pellets were concentrated in the center of the crosshair, meaning even on thinner targets you might've missed a few pellets but still hit really hard. Precision choke just made it even better. PK became king of shotguns because it was king of consistency and damage, while Mastiff suffered from mediocre consistency (and being a CP only weapon at the time it was hard to find), and EVA suffered from both mediocre consistency and damage.
https://www.reddit.com/r/apexlegends/comments/asql1e/shotguns_ads_vs_hip_fire_spread/
Shotguns in general just need redefined characteristics based on damage and consistency. Kind of like how we have ammo types with different innate characteristics per weapon. EVA should've been king of consistency within shotgun range and have a longer effective range, Mastiff should double down on its inconsistent nature but really bump up the pellet damage while removing ADS spread tightening requiring you to get very close to drop targets, and the PK should be a nice middleground between the two.
