I'll say this; Pulsar line are very good all-rounder guns. Very good. Polaris is a beast (Supernova is pretty good too. I have both.). However, if you do not solo A LOT, your team will hate it when you use it... unless you use it really well, and don't screw up everyone else' attack patterns.

Catalyzer is fun, but really hard to use the charge shots. However, when you can place 3-5+ charges on an enemy... they will die in a lovely explosion that rocks the world. It's quite fun, but i will emphasize this point: It's really hard to land that many shots and then set it off. And it takes time.. This is not a gun for quickly killing your enemy. The normal shots do pretty decent damage though, for a gun (I have the most experience with Biohazard, which is great for shadow weak mobs... gremlins dodge it really well though...)

both are ok weps i think but i havent had one since i fell off my dinosaur XD

Pulsar vs. Catalyzer

if you want the overall utility, I recommend the normal damage pulsar, aka, the supernova. It has normal damage thus allowing to push the living crap out of any monster in the game. Pulsar's bullets does have its limitation, first off, it is much slower than the blaster, alchy and antigua bullets, dodgy enemies like wolvers and devilites can easily evade if you just shoot pulsar like a moron. Pulsar are, yes, like others have said, is not team friendly, many veterans, in both LD and PvE will scorn you for using it. Pulsar's charge attack is a joke, just don't bother with it.

I keep seeing people posting about the guns in the Gunner update, I thought that wasn't allowed on here?

Although if anyone wants to get a hold of me on Steam so that I can see the picture of all the new guns again... :D

EDIT: Also, to reply to the OP: I don't know what pet you have but I haven't needed my 3* shadow catalyzer for poison since I got my maskeraith. I haven't really tried it's normal shots much, but like any gun it's best with gunner gear. As a swordie, if you are just wanting a sidearm, the most common suggestion is an elemental anti-turret gun, or just get a gun that helps against some type of enemy that you often have trouble fighting with a sword. I heavily rely on my gigwatt for getting rid of gun puppies, howlitzers, and even polyps since the expanded shots interrupt their attacks. I'd recommend the Polaris line, as long as you are careful when using it in parties. It's also handy against large groups of fiends if you are low on health, shocking kats to prep them for sword attacks, or pushing away groups of enemies to give you some breathing room.

Well, pulsar is mainly about pushing monsters away.

Catalyzer is about inflicting huge amounts of damage at a go.

Pulsar=party support

Catalyzer= solo

Pulsars are great for soloing because of interruption+area+damage+status+mobility. They screw your party over because of the hard to control knockback.

Catalyzers, meanwhile, are the most advanced weapons in the game with highly controlable knockback so long as you don't bombard everything with charges. For example, shooting a charge on an enemy and then shooting a detonating shot as soon as possible has a predictable result. Any proper Catalyzer user should know that result. The knight closest to mastering Catalyzers I've seen is Sir Fehzor. She knows plenty about using them well, and how to use them in groups of mindless swordsmen.

That said, the oh so rare Catalyzer user should be more worried about being screwed over by their teammates rather than the other way around, as it is with Pulsars. If a group is informed, Catalyzers are tremendous tools that can cooporate with all kinds of crowd control and deal sick damage, rather than shooting four charge bullets that fail to detonate because brainless sowrdsmen who know how to press their attack button kill the wrong enemies.

The best part about Catalyzers is using several of them, no matter. It's surprisingly effective and tons of fun.

P.S. How do you get a picture?

If I had to choose either of these guns for a Swordie, the choice would be Pulsar, though Alchemers and Antigua lines are less of an annoyance on your party members so I highly suggest changing your options. If you don't know how to restrain yourself from spamming it, people will hate you, no matter how effective it is in destroying enemies. The knockback makes the area unnecessarily dangerous against enemies that aren't bolted to the ground.

Catalyzer fills a niche purpose and shouldn't be used by a Swordie under any circumstance unless you want to have fun with it, or are a Gunslinger that's dual switching guns (Val + Bio/Neut is a very nice Gunslinger combo in both PvE and PvP).