I'm a thunder guy too. However, the generalization that shaft is nooby is rather uncalled for. You know what my primary long range turret is? Do you know what turret single handedly got me from Master Corporal all the way through Lieutenant Colonel? You guessed it.
Now you might be thinking: "big whoop. Easy to use weapon got you to Lieutenant colonel. It's still a noob weapon."
That's where you go wrong. I made my shaft career in the time where the scope moved around and there was no laser.
I'll follow this up with a list of things shaft players must do.
1) find a sniping spot. Not always easy. But you need to find a good spot or spots to effectively support your team. This forces to use forward thinking skills to determine routes of entry into your base, potential choke points, and cover.
Now this is something that a lot of turrets need to consider as well, but not all of them cover as many bases as a shaft.
2) keep an "Eagles eye" on the battlefield. This entails keeping tabs on not only enemy tanks, but also your team and yourself. You need to be aware of your surroundings so you don't get caught from behind. You also need to determine enemy weak spots, so you can target specific areas for your teammates to break through. Not only that, but you need to watch enemy defenders and take them out to help your team. Additionally, you need to scan for enemy attackers and knock them out to protect your base. On top of that, you need to watch all of your teammates so you can cover them as they make the attack on the enemy base, ensuring that they get there with the most health possible.
Now at this point, you might be thinking: "Great any turret can do that." In response, I'll say sure they could do that, but do they NEED to do that. The answer is no. Now the turrets that Need to do this is down to your midfield to long range guns. Smoky, thunder, vulcan, railgun, and shaft. You can narrow this list down further by looking at the turrets that have a high damage per shot. This eliminates all but rail and shaft. The reason I took out Vulcan is because it can sustain damage, but it deals large damage over time. Time that is easy in which to punch a med kit or have an isida heal the tank.
So now we're down to rail and shaft. Both have high damage, range, and require you to look at the battlefield as a whole. This is where shaft wins. It has the scope to allow you to be more effective when taking out defenders. Not only that, but because you can't move while in scope mode, you need to be MORE aware of your surroundings. With a rail, all you have to do is move away when a threat comes. With shaft, you need to be aware of tanks that could be coming. Going back a bit, you need to keep tabs on all your enemies. Rail doesn't have to do that. All you need is to focus mainly on what's in front of you. Yes, you need to watch around you too, but it is much easier to do that with rail than it is shaft. That all being said, it's starting to look like shaft forces you to use more tactics and planning skills than railgun does.
I'll wrap this up by saying this: people consider railgun the real "pro's weapon" because it can be used in a wide variety of settings. They say shaft is a weapon for "noobs" because it is limited in where it can play. Because of the way shaft is, you can't play on certain maps effectively. However, this does not change the fact that to use shaft, you need more skills than your average player. You need more thinking skills than when you use firebird or freeze. You need to plan your shots carefully, and be more precise than railgun. You need to watch over the whole battlefield. Most other turrets don't have to do that. Shaft may be an easy weapon to use. But then again, so are all the turrets. What sets weapons apart is using them effectively. Simply put, you need a heck of a lot more thinking skills to use shaft effectively than you do with most other weapons. Mot so much for aiming, I'll give you that, but when it come to a test of the brain, shaft is where it's at.
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