740 réponses à ce sujet

[bobby_paradise]

for me it's just because it's light, so it's a perfect choice for a kroguard that spam biotic charge and shot in close quarter his foes.

[john-in-france]

I don't use the Pirahna because I usualy play engineers. They like the Wraith...they'd like it more if the rate of fire was slightly higher or the Store Troll actually gave me a level X...levelling it up is difficult.

However I have played with the Pirahna once or twice, and it was fun on vanguards, and N7 Shadow. Why? It is lighter than the Reegar, so gives more cooldown, and provides a good CQC panic button. Accuracy is naff though. Also it is a good weapon for those who have trouble reload cancelling or have no powers to fill refire gaps.

Geth Shottie: I hate charging weapons.
Claymore: reload cancelling never seems to work for me.
Crusader: Why use it? It does not ignore shieldgate, and weighs a ton.
Reegar: I like it on vanguards, and N7 Shadow, but play them rarely.
Scimitar: Loved this shotgun when I first played, it was my go to shotgun for engineers, but it does need a damage buff for use on Silver and above.
Eviscerator: I have the Wraith, and prefer it.
Disciple: Says it should stagger but rarely does, damage buff would be good.

[.458]

I posted already but saw something I find of interest as well, that's very important. Rate of fire. I only mentioned reload cancel pains, and how incredibly annoying it is to have to do it. The other part is related to this...how fast you can squeeze the trigger and get a shot off. If we have a shotgun with more than one round in the magazine, and the time before you are allowed to fire the second round is high, you just get killed, and even reload cancel won't help...if I use a weapon with a lot of muzzle climb, and learn to put it back on target fast, then I'll do good because I've learned something. Not being able to squeeze the trigger again...regardless of if I am on target or not...just means I can never learn to be any better at it. Artificial limitations that make my own improvements meaningless and just let me die in frustration are not fun. Give me a huge ass kick that breaks my arm...I don't care, but let me learn to re-center fast and I'll love having a broken arm. Take away the training wheels. Oh, I don't like the fully automatic piranha because the time between shots can't be controlled and I can't re-level. I'd love a semi-auto piranha that is exceptionally fast at firing if I hit the mouse button fast. Full auto without control? Nice for the glass case on the wall, or up very close.

Modifié par .458, 20 septembre 2012 - 08:42 .

[saecula]

Claymore: Well balanced weapon, but simply doesn't fit my play style. I'm more of a careful player, so if I miss with that one shot or the target doesn't quite die, I feel like I'm screwed, and with lag I rarely get a chance to recover.

Geth Plasma Shotgun, Graal Spike Thrower: I might use these weapons if they weren't projectiles. Lag makes a lot of my shots miss. I'm in South East Asia, so I lag if I join a pug and other people lag if they join a pug I host. If I play a local game with friends, it doesn't matter what I use, we're gonna win anyway. Oh, I don't really like charging weapons either.

Disciple: It's light, but just not so effective for damage, I find. If I'm going to get in close for a shotgun kill, I want to have a good chance of blowing the enemy away and I find this just doesn't cut it. Maybe it's supposed to be combined more with powers, seeing how it's light, but it just never worked well for me.

Reegar Carbine: I use this one a bit. This could actually use a rate of fire nerf on it. It just doesn't feel "right" that a whole clip is gone in what, 1.5 seconds? And it just doesn't work well if I'm lagging (see above). If I host, I can kill mooks with half a clip, easily. If I'm not host, and lagging, I won't know if my target is dead or not until I'm already reloading. And if the target is moving, I might empty the whole clip and it's not dead. So I find myself wasting a lot of ammo, and it doesn't have a lot to begin with. I mostly use this as a secondary weapon that I switch to if I find myself up close with a boss, or a spawn is right around the corner. In summary, good but situational, for me at least.

Wraith: I like this. It's almost like a 2-shot claymore. Suits my style better. I would like to see a rate of fire buff on this, and would tolerate a recoil increase to compensate.

Crusader: Just a very heavy sniper rifle wannabe. Other weapons do exactly what this does, only better.

Piranha: This is an entirely different beast to all the other shotguns. Good damage and low weight is what makes it popular. But also the rapid fire suits my play style a lot more. If I miss with one blast, I just shoot again. Popular not just because it does good damage, but because it's viable on almost any character.

It's light enough that a power user can equip it and still have fast cooldowns, does enough damage that it can be a soldier weapon, fast rate of fire makes it "safe" to use. Of course it's going to be popular.

That's not to say it's the only or even the best choice. If you look at each class individually, they all have several choices for weapons that are "viable". It just so happens that the Piranha is in that list for every class, so it seems more popular overall.

(Same reasoning goes for the Carnifex as well, by the way. It's not overpowered, it's just a viable choice for so many characters so of course will seem more popular overall than other pistols.)

Modifié par saecula, 20 septembre 2012 - 08:50 .

[-Morbid-]

I only use it on a few classes, but it's fun because it's sort of an up-close-and-personal weapon, which makes it exciting to use as apposed to hiding behind a low wall and popping out occasionally to fire a shot.

It's also great because it seems to hit the enemy with a good bit of force too, I love shooting a Geth Hunter in the chest and causing it to do a little back flip.

[Okovani Prometei]

It's the best damage dealer for me. Because of that, it offers me highest chance of successfully beating Platinum PUGs since I don't know how good other 3 players are. If I had a regular team I could rely on and who is in-sync, I'd use my favourite shotgun which is Claymore. So for me, Piranha is something like a necessary evil.

Also, I like shotguns the most in general.

Modifié par Okovani Prometei, 20 septembre 2012 - 08:55 .

[ABjerre]

Derek Hollan wrote...

Ok,

So, you have a Claymore, a Geth Plasma Shotgun, a Graal Spike Thrower, a Disciple, a Reegar Carbine, a Piranha, a Wraith, and a Crusader. All gold plus the ultra rare and promo shotguns.

Why are you using the Piranha?

Personally, i use the Piranha as a close quaters, backup weapon on some classes. Its weight is perfect for that purpose, as it will not increase power cooldowns significantly.

Claymore: I must admit, that i have never liked the "one shot, one kill" weapons very much. It is a powerfull weapon indeed, but the fact that you cant differenciate between mooks and bosses with it bothers me - its either overkill (on smaller enemies) or several reloads (on larger ones).

Geth Plasma Shotgun: My preferred shotgun as a main weapon. Much, much better accuract than the Pirtanha, and better damage per shot as well while holding a decent amount of ammo and the ability to charge. It is however a bit too heavy to use as a backup weapon for classes where cooldowns matter, and frankly, i prefer Assault Rifles and Sniper Rifles on distancs where the GPS really stands out.

Wraith: Nice damage, nice accuracy and pretty low weight as well. Sadly, its ammo capacity cant hold a candle to the Piranha with 2 against 8. If it had 4 rounds i would use it a lot more and if it had 6 i would never use another shotgun.

Disciple: I have never used it a lot, except on caster classes. My main problem is that it doesn't really do enough of what it says on the pack: stagger. If it would stagger reliably, it would fill its niche very nicely, and i would use it a lot more, but sadly thats not the case. And its damage or accuracy (which aren't that bad tbh) is not enough to compensate.

Reegar Carbine: I just never liked it. I think it may be as simple as that. Or perhaps the face that it has 100% efficiency within the beam and 0% outside of it where with other shotguns you can at least be lucky and land 2-3 pellets on longer distances.

Crusader: Basicly a sniper rifle without a scope, a fun gun that i would use a lot more if it bypassed shield gate (and weighed a bit less).

Graal Spike Thrower: Projektile based weapons have never been my cup of tea, mostly because often, i am not the host, and that thends to decrease the efficiency significantly. And i dont like how it looks.

N7 Piranha: As mentioned, i use is as a CQC backup to my main weapon (usually Assault or Sniper Rifles) when i need to get rid of somehting directly in front of me in a hurry. This negates the otherwise huge achilles' heel of the weapon: Its horrible accuracy at distance (75% effectiveness @ 20 meters distance on a Destroyer w. accuracy is horrible to say the least; thread here: social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/343/index/13419233). Apart from that, the weapon is very nicely tailored for that purpose. It has decent damage, low weight (remember: backup weapon) and above all: Large capacity. This is where the weapon in my oppinion really shines. I can choose to kill 4-5 husks or 2-3 Cannibals or simply empty the magazine into a single Brute should i wish to do so. No other shotgun allows for that degree of player choice, and that is why i prefer this weapon as backup for sertain classes, most notably:

• The Destroyer because i usually hold the line with this heavy character, meaning enemies tend to come to me - shift from AR to SG and back to AR.
• The Krogan Battlemaster (and N7 Slayer too): I always CQC with him, so here it is actually my main weapon. Also, the time it takes to empty a magazine into a mob of enemies alligns perfectly with the cooldown of charge, allowing a reload cancel with the next charge. This can be done with the Wraith too, but the significantly lower capacity is against it.

And a bit of personal opinion... If the Piranaha is overly popular, i dont think it is because it is "over powered", but merely that it appeals to a wider range of players than the other shotguns do at the moment. If you (BioWare) wish to see its popularity drop, this doesn't need to be done by toning down the Piranha, but can be achived just as well by making other shotguns more appealing - the Wraith and Disciple being obvious candidates. Increase the capacity of the Wraith from 2 to 4 (or 6 - if you are feeling frisky), and it would probably sky rocket in popularity. The same goes for the Disciple if it would stagger more and do a bit more damage per shot. Both while maintaining their low weight and good accuracy.

[saecula]

Another thing to consider is the learning curve for using a certain weapon effectively.

Most FPS players are accustomed to the assault rifle play style. Automatic weapons are in every shooter, and everybody knows how to spray and pray. Same goes for sniper rifles, who doesn't love the one shot one kill concept?

In ME3 it's easy to move from an assault rifle to a smg, they're almost the same thing, mechanically speaking. If you're good at sniper rifles, then you'll have little trouble adjusting to headshots with a pistol.

But shotguns are a different thing altogether. They work best at close range, and not everybody likes to be close range. You have to plan your attack, charge, shoot, then run or take cover or use a power. That's not something an assault rifle or sniper rifle user would usually think about. So it doesn't suit everybody's play style. I know it's not my preferred style, although I do use one from time to time.

The Piranha I think represents the easiest entry point, so to speak, of someone who wants to try shotguns but hasn't mastered the high risk high reward style of a single shot shotgun.

And it's not restricted to a certain class. Everybody can use it, so you can still use your favourite character, and use a shotgun at the same time.

Does that make it deserve a nerf? I don't know. It's not the only weapon in the game that's easy to use and gets good results.

[Kaall]

Why piranha is my favorite shotgun : It has decent damage/per shot, decent RoF, and a large mag, and is light enough for caster classes.


Why i don't like the others shotgun.
Claymore --> only one bullet, that's too few, too heavy.
Geth Plasma Shotgun ---> I dislike charge effect
Graal spike thrower ---> I dislike charge effect
Disciple ---> Not enough DPS
Reegar Carbine ---> Only useful on shield, and outmatched in this field by the diciple, low clip size high rate of fire, and not enough spare shot, too much return to the ammo crate needed.
Wraith ---> Could be good in my inventory, but is UR and mine is not high level enough to compete with a piranha X.
Crusader ----> Missing the target is too easy due to the nature of the type of shot, also far too heavy for the damage and RoF it provides.

Really the piranha is not overpowered, it is however well balanced between the number of shots, the damage the RoF and the weight, making it polyvalent, this is why i use it.

[Chaoswind]

Honestly the options are good, I only use the piranha because I have a lot of stability consumables, once those run out, I put it back on the chest and use something else.

[Rebel_Raven]

Considering the plans to just get the clip reduced on the Pirahna, I still will prolly use it normally. I tend not to play claymore friendly classes.

I -really- wanna use other shotguns, but almost none are particularly useful to me, nor can I see them as useful no matter what class I play. I elaborate more on this earlier in this thread, so I won't go over it again unless someone asks.

[Lamiaaa]

- as far as I know, disciple can only stagger unprotected enemies; I think having it stagger all of the time or at least a good chance on protected infantry may be something to play with. if something like that is added, I think its utility use will make any other buffs to it unnecessary

- scimitar is also another shotgun I'd like to see improved, it was a vanguard's best friend in ME2, and yet now absolutely noone uses it; a damage and/or capacity and rate of fire increases could give it the boost it deserves

- crusader is, as usually stated, interesting and fun, but it just weighs far too much for anyone to consider it over other options... pretty much the only ones that use it are non-power builds. one thing that could increase its use and make it comparable to the other N7 weapons is bonus headshot or protection damage

- wraith is rarely used, either. while it has decent stats and all, it gets outclassed easily due to rarity. I'm not sure exactly how to make it better, but some tiny fixes here and there to damage or something could help

- reducing the clip count for pirahna is a good idea. even after the first damage nerf, people still used it all over the place, and I rarely see any if ever other shotguns instead of it. I'm just one for diversity, anyway

Modifié par Lamiaaa, 20 septembre 2012 - 09:43 .

[AleHanSolo]

AleHanSolo wrote...
The piranha is used not because of it's power but because it has such a low weight and is great on classes  such as the fury, the paladin, and many other casters/cqc characters. ...
This is a pointless nerf which is just going to be annoyance rather than a deterent. The nerf won't fix the problem or decrease the weapons' popularity; balancing unpopular weapons to a competative level will fix this issue.

 So why do I pick the piranha over other shotgun? If the above doesn't suffice and since I want to add my own two cents I will analyze the other weapons ignoring the effects of weapon/damage enhancing powers such as HM. 

Talon:
Though strictly speaking not a shotgun, it functions like one, and a very good one at that 
I would say it is on par with the piranha and is one of my favorite guns in the game.

Katana:
It's a starter weapon so....yeah, moving on.

Eviscerator:
Before I owned the talon this was one of my goto light weight accurate high damage shotguns.

Scimitar:
It is ok on bronze and that's about it.

Claymore:Too heavy not good for casters. It has a single shot clip. I'm not very good at reload canceling consistently ...I should practice.
GPS:
Heavier than the piranha so I don't use it on all builds though there are some (GE, Destroyer, Demolisher, K Sentinel). Charging up can become annoying and ineffective, at least in my hands.

Graal:
Same story as the GPS. To be honest I haven't really used this gun since I unlocked it but I know its not bad it just doesn't fit into the way I play. 

Disciple:
Why would I use this weapon when the piranha does its job as a light shotgun better 
In fact the talon does its job better too. 

Reegar:
Another one of my favorite weapons. It works great with the vorcha, the kroguard (though I preffer a piranha since the CD is better and thus the kroguard is less likely to go down) and several other classes. But as I alluded to above, it is heavier than the piranha.

Wraith:
I personally have yet to level it up to X. Nevertheless, from what I have seen, it pales in comparison to other shotguns that have similar stats, furthermore, from what I have heard it has a very low rate of fire. 

Crusader:
Has 4 shots and has been buffed twice but I have it at lv 1 so right now it is just a fancy paper weight. 

Piranha:
Decent rate of fire (I dont have to click each time ), good enough accuracy to do the job, deals a sufficent amount of damage unlike other weapons in its same wieght class, its light wieght, and is a shotgun (vanguards benefit from this). This weapon, right next to the talon (and a few other non-shotgun-esque weapons), are my goto weapons when it comes to casters and cqc characters.

The nerf you are about to implose will not help the issue at hand. The issue being that other shotguns do not offer comperable stats to those of the piranaha. Should this nerf come to pass I will still use the piranha but be very unhappy about it. 

I return to my first statement: 

 "This is a pointless nerf which is just going to be annoyance rather than a deterent. The nerf won't fix the problem or decrease the weapons' popularity; balancing unpopular weapons to a competative level will fix this issue."

[Adhok42]

Derek Hollan wrote...

Ok,

So, you have a Claymore, a Geth Plasma Shotgun, a Graal Spike Thrower, a Disciple, a Reegar Carbine, a Piranha, a Wraith, and a Crusader. All gold plus the ultra rare and promo shotguns.

Why are you using the Piranha?

And don't give me, "Because the other shotguns suck!" That will just get you ignored.

Cheers

Oh you! Derek that was the most hilarious thing I think I've seen you assume about gamers yet! "Other shotguns suck! isn't a vaild reason..."



I'm sorry but just due to listening to all these threads asking for something "because it'z t3h awesomers!" probably has me jaded a little. For some reason, efficiancy just isn't prized over effectiveness and when it is, it's usually because "the others just plain suck."

Of course you could argue that is the defintion of efficiancy. Something that does the same thing but better that causes the others to become obsolite.

For the sake of making my point, I'll get down into it and answer your question at the same time.

The Piranaha is a semi/full automatic shotgun(depending on how heavy your trigger finger is) with an 8 round magazine. The weapon is fully capable of doing enough damage to shread through basic armored targets like unshielded Pyros and Brutes at Shotgun to point blank range.

It combines the damage of an Evicerator with the firing speed and magazine size of a Scimitar. With a compairative weight similar to a Disciple it is an effective lightweight killing machine of mass murder at close ranges. Just how a combat shotgun should be. If this were a real weapon and it got the same results in RL, it would be the Shotgun of Choice for the military. Why? No other weapon would be able to stack up!

Sure, other shotguns such as the Claymore and the Wraith would do more damage but their limited magazine size and weight make them a rather unpopular choice for anyone who doesn't have the strength(weight capacity for cooldown purpouses) to lug it around.

Conversly, the lighter shotguns who ironically pack more shots don't have the necessery punch to fufill their intended purpose in the event the wielder gets themselves into sticky situations where they need the blood spilled to match their bang.

So you have two very distinct sides to your shotguns and that each is only good for a certain way. Now people could pick at this and argue that "if they were good players they wouldn't get into those situations in the first place!"

Nobody is perfect and if you want to claim that, I challange you to think of a time where you shouldn't have been in that situation but found yourself in it anyway. You'd be surprised how many times it's happend.

Now you introduce a happy medium shotgun that fulfills both roles, while not perfectly, but to a degree that makes having one or the other, pointless.

You have rendered them obsolite because you have introduced a weapon that is effective in both situations. In laymans terms (and here it comes Derek!) "the other weapons when comparied to the performace of the Piranha... JUST. PLAIN. SUCK."

I prize effectiveness and veritility on the battlefield because it ensures I will survive and win the day.

THAT is why I use the Piranha.

You guys should be proud to have designed such an effective and versitle weapon. Anyone who condones it's use needs to be shot with one so they can REALLY appricate it for what it does. <_<

Now pardon me while I go laugh some more. You'd be surprised how many weapon reviews for weapons that didn't make the cut simply say when you boil them down and get past all the statistics and evaluations "This weapon just sucks sir."

[Arppis]

Because all those shotguns are too "exotic" for my liking.

Seriously, N7 Piranha is one of the few shotguns to "feel normal enough" and still do enough damage. Not to mention the weight is a nice bonus.

GPS and Discipline is too "pew pew lazors".

Claymore and Graal is slow and heavy.

I don't want to use Reegar, because don't wanna use flamethrower.

Scimitar and Katana I like, but they don't do enough damage.

Eviscator shoots too slowly and has too little ammo.

It's the same reason I use Harrier over other rifles, I just don't like the guns to be too exotic. I just want a gun that's reasonable "normal" and does good damage.

[Grotaiche]

On the (off-)topic of the Scimitar, it's more or less an Eviscerator with slightly more than half the damage but twice the rate of fire, and 2.67 times the magazine capacity. Honestly, I love the Eviscerator but the small clip size + the low rate of fire makes it less useful to me than a Scimitar (considering both are at the same level of course) and this is backed up by numbers. That's why I use it rather than the Eviscerator on my Kroguard (although I have to test with the Wraith).

If anything, it's the Eviscerator which would benefit from a small buff, like an increase in clip size (even going from 3 to 4 would be nice) or in rate of fire (48 -> 55).

[Achossa]

Regarding the Wraith..
I once ended up 1on1 with a banshee on gold, all of mine and her teammates were neutralized.

She has her warp and obnoxious screaming, I had a Wraith X; let's dance...
After several shots from handshake distance, banshee still had full barrier.
Luckily I had a nuke or two left

The Wraith is very low on damage even though it's power bar suggests otherwise.

[darkpassenger2342]

Achossa wrote...

Regarding the Wraith..
I once ended up 1on1 with a banshee on gold, all of mine and her teammates were neutralized.

She has her warp and obnoxious screaming, I had a Wraith X; let's dance...
After several shots from handshake distance, banshee still had full barrier.
Luckily I had a nuke or two left

The Wraith is very low on damage even though it's power bar suggests otherwise.

You missed.
For comparative purposes relative to your post, i have the IX.
 The wraith is awesome. you can shoot stuff all the way across the map with it, for high damage.

Modifié par darkpassenger2342, 20 septembre 2012 - 10:11 .

[nicola_nibhroin]

I don't use it.

I seem to unconsciously be a bit of a Hipster when it comes to ME weapons- I decide I don't like them (unconsciously!) if too many people use them. Don't like the Graal, Claymore or Reegar either (or the Krysae, Javelin or Striker, and was very resistant to the Carnifex).

With the Piranha I feel like I can't hit the broadside of a bus with it, even if I'm close, and as I tend to power-spam I feel like it barely starts to get going when I'm going to stop firing to use a power.

If I'm using a shotgun I'm using a GPS (usually uncharged) or a Scimitar (though this not above Silver)- my aiming is... unreliable, so I need a gun where I have the potential to get off a couple of shots quickly.

[JonasPeti]

Piranha has a very good DPS / WEIGHT rate.
It has enough DPS for all weapon-based classes.It has low weight for all power-based classes.
So it's easy to use.

I can't remember when used it last time.

[Arppis]

And that ammo capacity lowering-nerf. It's fine. As long as you don't touch total ammo.

[Urdnot Trex]

Derek Hollan wrote...

I think Eric's proposal seems to be, at least somewhat, in agreement with most answers here.

He has no desire to touch its damage or rate of fire which, is why he is proposing a 2 shot reduction in the clip.

Nerfing the Pirahna to some degree is fair, just as long as it doesn't go the way of the krysae. One shotgun that's extremely lack-luster though is the M27-Scimitar. I think that there should be a large damage buff to it. At least to be on oar with the damage of the Pirahna, as the Pirahna is a faster, harder hitting version if its slightly lower weight cousin. Something needs to be done about it. 

[Magicman10893]

Derek Hollan wrote...

Ok,

So, you have a Claymore, a Geth Plasma Shotgun, a Graal Spike Thrower, a Disciple, a Reegar Carbine, a Piranha, a Wraith, and a Crusader. All gold plus the ultra rare and promo shotguns.

Why are you using the Piranha?

And don't give me, "Because the other shotguns suck!" That will just get you ignored.

Cheers

Wraith - Doesn't seem to do much damage for only having 2 shots. Then again, mine is only a level 4...

Claymore - Amazing

Disciple - Even with Smart Choke (for insane accuracy) and Extended Barrel it barely kills anything on Silver. I know it is meant to be a light weapon for caster classes, but there are much better options for that role, such as the Hurricane, Tempest, Carnifex, Talon and even the Eviscerator.

Eviscerator - Pretty good. Not great, but for a light weight shotgun it is pretty good.

Scimitar - Pretty low damage. On a Turian Soldier it can work wonders, but it is now obsolete with the addition of the Piranha.

Katana - The Eviscerator practically makes this obsolete. The Eviscerator is more powerful and weighs less. I am still trying to figure out this gun's niche.

Crusader - Cool in the case that it doesn't need a Smart Choke or Shredder Mod, making it pretty valuable for a melee character since you can put a Bayonet on it without sacrificing a good mod.

Graal Spike Thrower - Charging and bullet travel time makes this gun very unattractive to most people. The damage can be great, but getting accustomed to leading your shots and messing with the charging mechanic is too much work for most people. Plus lag can make this an even bigger problem.

Geth Plasma Shotgun - Good gun. I personally don't like the charge mechanic or leading shots (doesn't seem to home in on enemies like it is supposed to, for me at least).

Reegar Carbine - Great, but the severely limited range makes it unappealing for most classes.

Piranha - Great damage output, decent weight and the spread combined with rate of fire make it hilariously fun to use on groups of enemies. On weapon-centric classes like the Turian Soldier, Geth Infiltrator and Destroyer, the Piranha's attrocious accuracy is somewhat or entirely mitigated and the increase in damage and/or rate of fire makes for some insane DPS.... but on classes other than those weapon-centric classes, it is rather mediocre due to the very wide spread and the weight is a bit too much for some classes. 

Basically, the only shotguns I use are the Wraith/Eviscerator, Piranha and Claymore. The Scimitar, Katana and Disciple pretty much suck. The Geth Plasma Shotgun and Graal Spike Thrower are ackward to use. The Crusader and Reeger shine on certain classes, but I don't personally use those set ups very often, or at all.

[mumba]

I mainly go for the Geth plasma shotgun. Especially when playing against Cerberus. It tears through phantoms.

[Sable Dove]

 Let's look at this on a case-by-case basis.

Katana:
Scimitar is better in every way except raw damage, and has a higher DPS. If you have a Scimitar X, there is no reason to ever use a Katana.

Geth Plasma Shotgun:
Good all-around shotgun, but it feels unsatisfying. Only drawback is that if you're in cover, it's tricky to charge without exposing yourself, which can get you killed pretty quick in Gold or Platinum. Probably the best shotgun other than an on-host Graal.

Wraith:
Ultra-rare. Is probably good at high levels. At low levels, it's outclassed by the Claymore, especially when you take reload canceling into account.

Scimitar:
Basically a Piranha with half the DPS. Just doesn't deal enough damage to be very useful; especially with the Piranha taking its place as an automatic shotgun.

Graal:
Terrible off-host, meaning you see it about 1/4th as much as you should if it were a hitscan weapon, or had tracking like the GPS. On-host it is one of the best shotguns.

Eviscerator:
Has lower DPS than the Scimitar, and has virtually no spare ammo. One of the worst shotguns.

Disciple:
Lower DPS and less accurate than the Eviscerator, and the increased force is not really noticeable. It's only really good for casters who need a light weapon that they'll barely ever shoot anyways.

Crusader: 
Weighs a tonne, difficult to use due to lack of momentum (enemies can stop, move, turn, etc. instantly, with no warning). Damage isn't high enough to offset the difficuly of use and high weight. Better off using a Claymore.

Claymore:
One-hit wonder. Great for infiltrators, some Vanguards, and Krogan. High weight makes it a poor choice for most classes, but it has its role.

Reegar:
Extremely powerful, but requires you to be close to the target and remain exposed while firing. Useful for certain classes, or as a secondary, but is crippled by its short range and vulnerability.

Piranha:
High DPS, decent ammo count, low weight. Only real drawback is horrendous accuracy that makes the Smart Choke all but necessary. 

Honestly, the biggest reason it's more popular than the high-end shotguns is the weight.
You don't see the Claymore, Graal, or GPS (the better shotguns) so much because they're heavier, and for most classes, powers are more important than weapons.
You don't see the Katana because it's basically useless once you have the Scimitar.
You don't see the Scimitar because it has a relatively low DPS.
You don't see the Eviscerator because it basically sucks in every way.
You don't see the Disciple because it has terrible stats to balance its high force, but its high force isn't really noticable.
You don't see the Wraith because it's not great at low levels, and it's an ultra-rare, so very few people have it higher than II or III, if they have it at all.
You don't see the Reegar because it's a high-risk weapon.
You don't see the Crusader because it's a promotional weapon, is difficult to use, and weighs a ton. It's basically a scopeless sniper. So no reason to take it over an actual sniper.

So that's that. The biggest problem is that weapons are usually secondary to most classes. Adepts, Engineers, Most Sentinels, Most Vanguards, and even most of the soldiers benefit more from lighter weapons like the Piranha than they do from heavy weapons like the Claymore, GPS, or Graal. The key to popularity is the low-weight, high DPS combo. Scimitar, Eviscerator, Disciple, and Katana all have relatively low DPS with low weight. Claymore and Crusader are high DPS and high weight. Graal, GPS, Wraith, and Reegar are high DPS, moderate weight.
The Piranha is high DPS, low weight. It allows for a weapon that isn't outshone by powers, while not also crippling your powers.

The problem is that the other shotguns are too weak. And yes, I know about power creep. That doesn't change the fact that most powers are far more powerful than the weapons, and thus, low-weight weapons are disproportionately more popular than high-weight weapons, and when a weapon comes along that is almost as strong as your powers, and doesn't prevent you from using your powers, of course it's going to be used a lot.


TL;DR:
There are 11 shotguns.
4 just don't do enough damage; they're only there because players want something light so they can spam powers. 
2 are extremely heavy.
1 is Ultra-rare.
1 is useless off-host.
1 is a very high-risk weapon.
This leaves most players with 2 shotguns to choose from. The Piranha has the high/low DPS/weight combo that makes it the most popular, and the GPS is probably the second-most popular.