Context.
Shadowtech is the worst weapon to fight zombies.
Jellies are harmless.

But thanks to Vana and Co., Blitz wins.

The sentenza is my favorite gun.

Good mobility, range, and excellent for gremlins in spikes.

Valience wins by a long shot if its for all round.

decent knockback
nice damage
3 shot magazine
fast speed
EPIC CHARGE
like proto gun

great for everyone gunners swordsman bombers.

For beginners or pros

Try using the pepperbox line in t3 ld

"Evil Laugh"

All of a sudden? I've been goin' on about Pepperbox since January and even then thought it was rad.
Honestly, if you get hit after the charge, you're not using it correctly. The charge onehits turrets and KBs everything in front of you (since the spread is so wide) so you should only be getting hit by something behind you and...well, you shouldn't stop to shoot if somethin' is just behind you.
It's only "meh" because it's normal type, but the damage is comparable to Blitz, easily hitting 1k5~2k...and since it's normal, that's the damage it hits on everything, and not including the fire it spreads (which deals more damage than a bullet x 4).

It's an incredibly versatile gun and can be effectively used absolutely anywhere you want which, imho, is what makes it the "best" for CW.

As Will said though, it falls to pieces in LD because the range is nerfed in there and since everyone has huge normal defences.

One person does not make a craze, nor does it validate anything.
I've had pepperbox since March or so, and I've used it a fair amount since then. It has an annoying and very noticeable pause at the end of every charge that you can't shield through and requires considerable amounts of ASI to dispell. It also pales in comparison to Blitz in terms of damage, range, and even utility (I'd take constant interruption on charge over a counter-productive knockback effect any day). Even in the theorized best situation where Pepperbox would outdo Blitz (besides slimes and constructs), vana's mask phase, it falls 400 damage short with no damage bonuses. Granted, it's not a bad gun, it's just outclassed by other guns, namely Pulsars, for turrets, knockback, and crowd control, and Blitz for damage.

Also, it fails in LD because it triggers invincibility frames, which negate almost all of the attack, and has a low fire proc chance. Blitz also fails, but not because everyone seems to have piercing defense too (Skolver). That being said, I had a chance to use both during invincibility-free LD week. While being a great troll weapon, I had a lot of trouble killing anything with full health with pepperbox, even with max damage. Blitz on the other hand, became notoriously cheap because that thing wiped out teams of Skolvers in a charge.

"Without the KB, the charge would just be a suicide mission (akin to sentenza's charge that just wants you to die)."

Then you were using it wrong before the patch. I and many pre-patch Pepperbox users have long thought the vacuum effect to be one of the gun's biggest draws (no pun intended). There have been quite a few threads on this topic.

For me, it's a tie with Argent Peacemaker and any of the Driver lines.

Argent Peacemaker:

Advantages:
Medium Damage Bonus VS Undead.
Can be shot 6 times before reloading.
Charge attack shoots out a bird on the last shot which does about twice as much damage and great knockback.

Disadvantages:
No knockback except charge attack's last shot.
Cannot move for a couple of seconds using charge attack.
Used to do both pure Piercing and Elemental damage but was changed to pure Elemental.

Driver lines:

Advantages:
Bullets bounce when they hit a enemy, with luck, can hit the same enemy again or hit another enemy, this can also be done shooting walls.
Some lines can inflict stats like shock and freeze.
Charge attack, with luck, can nearly kill or instant kill the enemy.

Disadvantages:
Can only be shot twice before reloading.
Bullets bounce randomly so they may not hit anything at all after they bounce off the enemy or not the enemy itself.
No knockback at all.

Hell, I'll go for the Nova Driver any day.

Blitz is the best gun for me. I carry a Blitz 100% of the time, and if there were piercing versions of the other guns and elemental and shadow Blitz Needles, I would probably carry the three needles. Not really, I like having variety in my weapons, but I'd strongly consider it.

Alchemers are the coolest and the most interesting to play with. Umbra will always be my favorite <3.

People are always going on about how knockback is good and stuff, but I disagree pretty strongly. Knockback is usually bad. It pushes things away, which means they're harder to hit and they take less damage. Plus, why would you compromise damage output for personal safety? Being safe is not even remotely fun. If I could have a version of Polaris without the knockback, I would be all over that thing.

The thing is, though, Blitz does in-your-face better because it outright kills things, and even if it doesn't it interrupts. Other than slimes, constructs, bosses, and slag guards, nothing in the game can actually take a Blitz clip without dying, and Blitz usually kills multiple things at the same time. Another thing Blitz does extremely well is distance fighting since it outranges nearly everything, making it one of the safest weapons in the game to use anyway if you feel like using it as one. I have other weapons to use on constructs and slimes, so I'm not really sure what Pepperbox gets me that Blitz doesn't already do better. Admittedly I still don't have one, but I rarely hear good things and my plans to get one kind of got derailed when the vacuum effect was removed.

My dislike of knockback isn't just Pepperbox, though. People have said Valiance is a weapon any gunner should carry as a utility gun, and I've been playing the game as a pure gunner for a long time without one; I've gotten one recently for PvP but I'd never realistically carry it in PvE because it's pretty much worthless for DPS and the knockback is problematic. People have said that Polaris shouldn't be used for DPS, and that it's a utility gun; in a lot of situations (and if you use it right), Polaris significantly out-DPSes Nova, so why not use it then? And don't even get me started on the design of Supernova as a weapon, at least the player base generally agrees that it's terrible.

All in all, I don't see how knockback on a weapon can be a good thing. If you're a gunner and you need knockback, you shield bump.

@Kalaina:
Well, as I said earlier, Blitz may be able to ohko stuff, but so can Pepperbox; that damage becomes redundant after a while and only useful again in full parties against high hp mobs. Not to say the damage isn't good, just that "Blitz has more damage than Pepper" isn't as an important factor when redundancy is an issue.
As with the KB/interrupt, they both have the same effect so I like them equally for that fact.
As for constructs and slimes, I can't think of a single other gun that can out-dps the Pepperbox against them. I've not tried them all to be sure, but Pepperbox can onehit Lumbers and kill full groups of slimes as well as control them and burn survivors. It's also one of the fastest JK killers.
Again, not saying that it's better than Blitz in terms of damage etc, just that Pepper has the ability to be used anywhere in the CW without worry, and can be effectively used at that.

As for gunners needing KB, I'd say it's a situational thing. If you're in a crowd and just need some space, sure shield-bump away, but the KB frmo the charge is useful as it interrupts, damages, burns and kills many things WHILE it KBs them; something that merely shield-bumping can't achieve. Just depends on what you need done, really. Not that the KB is always useful, but I've never, ever found it to actually cause a problem. If you want the damage without the KB, just stand closer or follow up after the shoot.

@Papaya:
Blitz probably. Polaris is, as Kalaina said, really just a utility/pvp gun, whereas Blitz can be used widely and effectively.

Oh, I'm with you, right!

I'm not saying KB is better than drag, but I like both just as much. It didn't phase me at all when it changed and was quite happy to alter my tactics around it. I'd rather either one over neither though; having neither would just kill half the beauty of the charge, imo.

After reading the thread. It seems that quite a few people enjoy using the Volcanic Pepperbox and the Umbra Driver. I was wondering about which few guns would suit a person who's switching to full gunner (AKA me). Currently I have a Blitz in my arsenal of guns, a Cryotech Alchemer Mk II, and a Kilowatt Pulsar. Not sure whats the next gun I will go for though......................too many choices..........................

Difficult choice. Either the Antigua series (AP and Sentenza) or the Polaris.

Blitz needle isn't my first choice for an offensive gun, I only use that for FSC.

polaris shocks and has HUGE knockback and its GREAT for lockdown.
shock interrupts the foe and it causes damage.
shock deals less damage than fire, but more damage than freeze
shock has more crowd control than fire, but less crowd control than freeze

I've found every loadout of mine to include the Polaris. Yes, I understand that you need to be within certain range for the bullets to expand, but really if you're going to be that close to an enemy, you'd be better off switching to a GF or DA; No poor soul should be fighting within sword reach with a gun. Plus, this gun will save your behind in arenas when clearing out rooted enemies; they're toast after the third bullet.

Turn your auto-aim off and go hog-wild. The blasts can easily break up enemy congregations and inflict shock in the process. Sure, it may make things too easy in certain situations, but cmon, knocking enemies around never gets old.