Merlin, it looks like the shotgun (and probably other weapons) still show "heavy" dependencies in the ufopaedia, but this is inaccurate. The skill that the game uses will always be the one that appears when you're looking at the weapon/ammo in the equipment menu. I've
made a note to remove these ufopaedia errors when I remove the heavy skill from the UI. Please let us know if you find any other places that heavy still appears.
Regarding shotguns (I include the plasma blaster in this category). It sounds to me like you haven't quite mastered reaction fire and, for that reason, have focused your tactics on long-range encounters, using assault rifles when you have to close range. This is not a bad strategy and maintaining range is often smart
when its possible. But on quite a few maps this is just not possible, and shotguns have a few advantages over assault rifles in close quarters match-ups. The attached image describes a situation where a shotgun is much better.
Note: If you're taking 2-3 shots to down an alien with a shotgun, you must be using flechettes and only hitting with a few flechettes each shot. I'd recommend saboted slugs over flechette shells for killing power.Regarding grenade launchers. I really don't know what to say on this but to respectfully disagree. These guys are the biggest killers for me at every stage of the game. Nothing can match their ability to kill at short, medium and medium-long range. Sure, I have to minimize extra equipment for low-strength rookies, but it's a small trade-off to make. The reason I only take two (8 man team) or 4 (12 man team) is because they are purely offensive.
Doesn't matter when the hoverbots have enough TUs to move in shoot you three times for death. I like keeping my guys alive so I don't like getting close to aliens unless I know I can kill them on MY turn. Because reaction shots are still wonky. Put my guy on burst fire, he shoots (OMG) but fires one bullet before the alien turns and shoots him dead. When on burst fire. To me it's very unreliable so I use range and speed.
There's no partial reaction fire (ie - shooting only one shot of a burst mode). It sounds like it was set to snap not burst. Easy mistake to make, even when you're sure you got it set up right. I know every time I thought RF "didn't work properly", when I made a thorough investigation, I found I had set up the wrong firemode, or had it turned off, or my soldier was wounded causing the firemode TU cost to be higher, or the alien moved out of view.
On a separate note: players have different styles and tactical preferences, and this is not a bad thing. I just wish people wouldn't jump to the conclusion that something is "useless" just because it doesn't fit their profile. I, for instance, made heavy use of a fast sniper, who racked up the highest kill count while being protected by smoke. But ShipIt hardly used snipers. Some people consider assault specialists the primary offensive units -- but for me they were more defensive generalists, exposing themselves in dangerous forward positions to protect other soldiers and using their RF to soften distant aliens during their turn. I see this difference as part of the
benefit of having diverse weaponry.