He listened mostly.  Said he didn't have a ton of game time logged with shotguns so he didn't know exactly what he wanted done.  I am trying to get him to play some shotguns with me online.  I'm sure if I can log some gametime with him while talking and playing shotguns at the same time a few key things will become immediately appearent.  I like our odds.

No the buffs we are proposing have been proven 100% fair.  The pre patch spas with emags and damage had the same close range damage we are asking for. 3/12=2/8.  In fact the pre patch spas will be better because of the extra pellets giving it a more consistent spread coverage.  In the three months that we had the spas with emags and damage there was not one thread created to complain about its close range damage.  Nor have I even seen one post to suggest its close range damage was unfair.  This compounded with the fact that shotguns have had a 2 pellet kill since cod 2 and you see that it is not possible to suggest that a 2 pellet kill is unfair. 

The real thing the community has a problem with is long range damage and spamability.  The mw3 pumps have an acceptable level of range performance.  I don't feel that the pumps need any increase in range performance out of the gate.  That is why we have suggested these specific numbers.  These numbers proposed for the pumps do not increase the reliable one shot kill range on the spas and 1887 even one inch.  The ksg is the only pump to see any increase in range performance with these proposals.  The ksg will see a .65 meter increase in reliable one shot kill range.  But you have to use the range proficiency to get that .65 meters so you don't get both the 2 pellet kill and the extra range at the same time.

You don't balance a weapon for skilled hands.  A person who can keep a 2 k/d with a pump shotguns could easily keep a 3 k/d with an smg.  There has only been one person who has posted in this thread that has had the pump shotguns anywhere near a competitive k/d to his other primaries.  Literally one out of hundreds of profiles checked.  That's not a good sign.

The damage proficiency was created so that they could have a range proficiency.  If shotguns had their damage proficiency levels built in then you could take the range proficiency and then have a mock specialist bonus without needing to get it through a 7-8 killstreak.  The problem is that if they think the pumps are balanced with the damage proficiency why is it the last unlocked?  They are themselves admitting that we have to put up with an underpowered weapon for 500 kills or so before we get to what they believe is a balanced damage level.  And that does not inspire faith in the weapon team.

Black ops shotguns are better than stock mw3 shotguns.  The stakeout from BO is much better than the stock pumps in mw3.  But the damage proficiency makes the mw3 pumps a little beter than the stakeout.

But yeah the mw3 aa12 is truely aweful.  I don't remember ever getting a one shot kill with the aa12.  I have around 700 kills with it between the profiles I play on and its just bad.  There is literally no situation in mw3 where I was happy to have that thing in my hands.  Hip fire on any smg, the striker, and usas make the aa12 look like a bbgun.  It makes me upset that such blatant imbalance even made it through testing.

On a side note the usas also has a minimum damage of 5 per pellet. 

Also I don't recognise your community name.  If you have not posted in this thread in the past please write your gamer tag along with your posts.  I ask everyone who wants to post here to provide their gamer tag.