Weapon for a psi build

[Esteban Failsmore]

Im building a methatermics psionic (mostly for aoe and crowd control) and i need to choose a weapon that complement it. But i cant decide! Every single weapon come with some major downside attached. I also will rather avoid playing with stealth- therefore i value initiative a lot.

Core stats- Willpower 8, Inteligence 6 or 7

Weapon choices im consdering-

Shotgun:
+Great damage
+Not stat demanding
-Character will have terrible initiative.
-Close range
-High ap cost to fire- not very flexable

Assault rifle:
+Versatile weapon
++Very low single fire ap cost- considering the amount of damage it does.
+Good damage
-Character will have terrible initiative.

Firearm pistol:
+Versatile weapon
++Character will have amazing initiative
+Low ap cost
--Very stat demanding- both high DEX and PER
--Poor damage
-Requires special attacks damage modifiers and stunned targets with oppurtunist/execute to get most potential out of it. My only "stun" will be cryostasis.

Knife:
+High crit chance
+Bleeding
+Character will have great initiative
++Not stat demanding at all- all you need is some dex
++Very low ap cost
-Melee range
-Less effective against armored targets and robots
-Knife perks all focus on you continusly hitting target with melee attacks- to stack up debuffs on it or getting multiple buffs on you for max damage. This is not what this character will be doing, at least not often.

Hammer:
+High damage
+Effective against armor and robots
++Not stat demanding at all- all you need is some str
-Melee range
-High ap cost to fire- not very flexiable
-Character will have terrible initiative.
-Weapon gets a lot better with very high str values- this character will not be focusing soley on strength.
-Some melee perks require dex- which i will not have.

[TheAverageGortsby]

If you manually start turn-based mode and begin combat on your own terms, you will always have the highest initiative, regardless of what your initiative stat value is.  Why not just use the weapon you prefer and take care to manually begin fights?  Here is the complete list of fights that you can't do that way:

Two bandits at the ladder in GMS3.
Beast bladelings fight.
Arena fights.
optional: Eels assault on Scrappers.
optional&random: that Azuridae map that in some games spawns on the way from SGS9 to Mushroom Cove.

That's it.  All the rest of the combats can be done on your terms.  If you're letting the game roll initiative, then you're choosing that play style.  If you want to choose to let the computer roll RNG, then maybe play tin can AR with psi.  No stealth, lots of tanking, and ARs are extremely potent.

[HulkOSaurus]

Both shotgun and AR can function well without being heavily invested into Per. The other weapons need more points into their governing stat to perform well.

Leather Pneumatic gloves can give you a ton of cc - those aren't a bad choice, either.