Only 20 damage? That's a lot lower than the standard hunter pistol. What's the catch to this weapon?

Guys, the shotguns in general were not designed for huge and heavy damage, they were designed for staggering opponents and opening up easier viscerals when enemies try to side step you. This has a longer range than the starting shotgun and a decent spray, making it possible for longer range viscerals that would be difficult to pull off on the pistols. I use this shotgun even on high bloodtinge builds just because it's such a useful way to keep people from healing from a distance (and because I use the Evelynn as a side arm, which is the main reason for the high bloodtinge to begin with). For those who are curious, just look at the description. This weapon was clearly designed by the church to hunt down huger, even more abominable beasts than what was seen in the past. Remember that Wendigo boss you fight (Cleric Beast)? Yeah....I sure as hell would not want to get all up and personal with a beast like that if it was real life, so the normal shotgun wouldn't cut it. Now, a longer ranged shotgun with a specialized barrel to fight from a distance, on the other hand....

I hate both of them

The weapon seems to work well for staggering for me it you focus on bigger types of enemies, but not recommended for PVP. DEFINITELY not in PVP

...I was hoping it'd be a legit, long range rifle rather than a narrower cone spread Shotgun and yet despite that, Blunderbuss is just overall better too. I know the advantage of the weapon is supposedly that the base stats are better than the Blunderbuss, but I don't think that's all that noticable when both are upgraded to be honest. I kinda think this thing could use a buff of some sort it's unfortunately by far the least useful firearm imo. It sucks because it's so ***** cool looking, and its not to say it couldn't be made viable...but it just sits in this really awkward place that doesn't really give a blunt advantage as the pistols handle range, damage, and targetting better, and the Blunderbuss as well as even some of the hybrid trick weapons like Rifle Spear handle shotgun situations better with more versatility and even a tiny bit more damage where it counts (up close).

if u know what you're doing you can stagger scrub healers everytime with this, easier than a pistol

Do Odd gems add damage to all bullets?

easily the worst gun in the game

It doesn't seem to fill enough of a niche to have warranted creating. It has a (slightly) higher base damage than the blunderbuss and poorer scaling, while also requiring a higher bloodtinge to use, which seems self-defeating. More than that, though, the shotguns weren't really made for damage in the first place. They are safer for parries (on enemies with screwy hitboxes, at least) and good for staggering multiple opponents. The only time you will deal any kind of damage with a weapon like this is at point blank range and with a high bloodtinge, but the narrower spread on this weapon means it's worse at that as well. It would have made more since to me if they had flipped the base damage and bld scaling on this and the blunderbuss.