blunderbuss is not fun to play with or against

blunderbuss is not very fun. it is balanced to do very low damage and very high knockback, meaning it has advantage against boards, and losses advantage when boarding and after being boarded. the problem is that when using it, the knockback is inconsistent meaning sometimes your opponent goes flying and sometimes they dont even move. the damage is also inconsistent but in practice it ranges from 0-25%, meaning if they dont get knocked off the ship then the shot doesn't really matter. playing against it is also not fun because 8 out of 10 times you get shot and then eat and you are fine, but the other 2, you get knocked off the ship which is effectively an instant kill. i think the knockback should not work unless it is at very close range, so it still remains good for ladder guarding, but the damage falloff should be decreased to make it actually do damage at even slightly increased ranges.
it was more fun to play with and against when it still oneblundered most of the time and did not have knockback.
it is easily the best weapon for ladder guarding, it is not even close. it does not give boarders a chance to get on the boat. the old blunderbuss could be defeated by making you opponent shoot too early and not hit all the pellets, but the new blunderbuss can win every time, even if they only hit a few pellets. I understand that the instant kill was bad, but instant knock off ship is arguably the same or worse. it should be hard to board someone, but not this hard. the knockback should only work when they hit all of the pellets, so it is still possible to dodge.