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Maelific ammo is 40 friggin points, putting it back into landraider costs. For 6 str5 shots. wooooooooooooooooooo.

IMO, shooty contemptors (or decimators) for that matter are entirely a waste of the unit's potential. If you want to shoot, get a relic predator, or some rapier batteries, or aircraft, or anything else really. Youre paying through the nose for the contemptors melee capabilities of WS5, AV13 (a huge boon in combat), and powerfist attacks.
The chaos contemptor is unique amongst most walkers in that it can be made extremely effective in a dual role, which is where I think it excels. If you want a pure melee walker, there are better options (blood slaughterers, soul grinders, maulerfiends, decimators) that have deepstrike or speed. If you want shooty, use a tank. But the contemptor can do both, and that versatility helps offset the high cost a bit. It will always kill stuff in a game.

Personally, I run mine with a single butcher cannon, and mark of khorne. It spits out as much firepower as a rifleman dread, and punches harder than any assault dread, with up to 6-8 powerfist swings on the charge at WS5. Walk up it up the field shooting away with the cannon, and charging whatever you can get your mits on once he gets to midfield.
Regardless, I think 1 ranged and 1 fist loadout is the way to go, bullying whatever they can reach. This is not a unit that was meant to sit at the back of the table and take potshots. It's not fast enough to be pure choppy, and its not cheap enough to be full shooty, but it does both very well.