Talk:Soma Prime/@comment-212.183.105.232-20170104160821/@comment-30681343-20170106040106

I am actually kind of moving from shotguns to soma. Shots are awesome for tanky frames, but not so much if you're a squishy caster that can't get into optimal range. And don't forget the Soma is a hitscan SMG, so getting headshots with it is easier than trying to control pellet spread. The main competitor in the shotgun category is V Hek which has a really tight spread for close/mid and absurd DPS, but at longer ranges even that falls off hard, and the V Hek has a small mag and long reload so it has problems in high mob density.

I use a lot of bows as well, and I think the R Cernos in particular is really underrated - more DPS than the Soma, more ammo efficient, good accuracy at long range, Blight proc to boot. The thing is the Soma P fires so fast, it actually procs status a lot faster even though the status chance looks low. It's actually better in a lot of situations losing some DPS to drop Heat staggers on mobs so they don't get a chance to hit you.

I would actually argue the biggest reason not to build Soma is if you own Akstiletto Prime. It's got better damage, better ammo efficiency, and better status per second. It's also a secondary, so you can drop something funky like a launcher or bow in the primary slot and rely on the Akstiletto for standard hitscan work instead.