A cool little extra thing they could give Ink Jet is to let it Squid Roll mid-air. Justified by using the exhaust to give the inkfish the movement it needs to roll. Would need some unique limitations so you can't mid-air roll too much in a row, but doing this would give Ink Jet some extra maneuverability and survivability. It also just makes the special feel more "Splatoon 3"
Cool idea for inkstorm: give it a 1/100 chance of firing down lightning. If a bolt were to hit a player, their Splatoon 3 cartridge would burn itselt thus rendering it unusable.
I like this because the main strategy I ALWAYS use, especially if someone Reefsliders suddenly or from an awkward angle and I don't have a bead on them... ...is just paint their feet. Unless it's a Tetra's Reefslider (and I guess Dapples), it's always, _always_ stalling the user for long enough for me or an ally to punish them. Since dodge rolls ignore ink, this would help a lot!
It would also be cool if the explosion would move in the direction of your dodge roll, allowing you to choose where it goes. It would give you a bit more options while using the special for where to hit people. If it's too OP, maybe just remove the invincibility frames that were added, maybe slightly reduce the explosion radius.
Some of my design gripes about a few specials: -Booyah Bomb users can shoot back before their armor wears off, making it hard to fight if you can't straight up shred it -Ultra Stamp's vulnerability windows from the front are a bit strange and favor faster firerate weapons (shooters) too much, on everything else it just feels random whether it's fightable or not -Trizooka's first shot is sometimes unreactable for slower weapons
Idea for missiles, remove the markers for people and the feedback from locking onto them, you would just have the large reticle showing your area you can target people. This means it takes good game sense from the user to get maximum effectiveness, and removes one of the many functions it already has of immediately locating the entire enemy team.
that sounds like ink strike from the first game. Booyah bomb was the retrained version of that special so reintroducing that mechanic would be redundant. Fixing the special could be as simple as; 1) Removing the lock on reticle after you've fired the missles 2) Limiting it's range of use so players have to be close enough to the action to get the most out of use (could be 2X e-litre range or something more or less generous, just remove the unlimited range)
@@dillamadukes21 With the small maps 2X E-liter range would make basically no difference compared to unlimited, I do think removing the lock on reticles could be a good idea tho.
Wave breaker is my personal favorite special across all of the games. It's not super powerful on its own, but with the right use it can really disrupt the enemy team. It's also fun to play against, as you have to decide if it's worth destroying it or not, and jumping over the waves is pretty fun.
@@PalPlays custom splatter shot jr. torpedo and wave break is its kit. both keep the enemy busy with objects rather than the weapon its self. its a really fun weapon to use, but annoying to fight against. its the only reason i grinded so hard for gear yet still lost to a foe with better gear. ALL his slots were ink saver sub. 3 mains, 9 secondaries. now im an anarchy brand wearer just to grind for chunks and have it spread across several pieces of gear, and one of my sets has 3 mains and each has secondary of ink saver sub too. (so thats like3 main, 3 secondary) so i know how trollish CJR can be. its my only 5 star weapon. im sorry for text walling but i have had so many great 3 vs 1 experiences with that weapon. when i finally die, i say "Took you long enough" cuz i can hold off the enemy for like 15 or 20 seconds 3 of them against me, the lone warrior.
I love the wave breaker on the heavy splatling. The damage combos and enemy manipulation lead to very quick and certain kills. In addition, tagging is incredibly helpful for backliners, as it allows them to gage a target's path and speed, making shot-leading (which is especially important for splatlings) a lot easier.
A change that I think could be interesting for reefslider is that instead of always going in a straight line you can decide if you want to take a curved path (with a turning limit) to be able to surprise behind corners. I think it would make the special more fun and interesting.
I was about to say that lol. I agree, just being able to slightly maneuver left or right would make reefslider less predictable. The invincibility buff imo didn't help much as you could just delay your attack.
Specials like Tristrike, Wave breaker and Zipcaster have thought me a lot about positioning well so you can get the high reward for the high risk. I love that so much about the games specials since they’re not just a powerful weapon, but also teach how to get better if they are well designed.
Literally the only thing I want for Ink Vac is for the shot to be fired upon trigger release. Currently you need to hold down the trigger to suck, then react to when its full, release and press again. It's just a bit clunky.
I feel like the best way to make reefslider more interesting is that when the shark is detonating, instead of akira sliding it, it akira slides itself and you squid surge directly upwards. Sort of like jumping off a motorbike and letting it crash.
Maybe that could be controlled by how much you hold ZR, so just tapping it wouldn't jump you at all, holding it slightly would give you a small jump, holding it long would give you a big jump. Thinking back to how Splashdown had the problem of a predictable motion and how there were thoughts around that a varied height could be a good fix for that
I had the same idea, it’s just that you can input a direction to instantly squidroll after the explosion. Kind of like when it stops, it tilts one direction, and the explosion throws you off in that direction
Breakable Tacticooler is fine by me, teaches you about valuable positioning and communication, I'm fine with Special Saver maybe being reduced to a main or two or something. Using Cooler as a shield is cool and clever imo. Let it have ENOUGH health to be an effective shield but not much, something like Wave maybe. All I want to see is that Tacticooler is meta and I get to experience the thrill of a QR meta.
It's crazy how tri strike has been buffed to actually be scary to play against. Because on launch, using tri strike would just net you a one way ticket to meet death
Very good video, very nice insights but I disagree with you on one small thing: I don't think making the Tacticooler destroyable would make it better designed. A big difference between the Tacticooler and other objects like the Wave Breaker is that the team who used it has to walk close to it in order to benefit from it. This creates an interesting dynamic if an enemy uses it while one or more of their teammates are far away: If those enemies reach the Tacticooler, they'll be buffed, but they'll have to come close to it so you can set up an ambush. This makes it more interesting both for the player trying to stop the Tacticooler from being used and the player trying to use it. If the Tacticooler could be destroyed, you'd just destroy it and this interesting situation would be negated. Now, I'm nowhere close to being a competitive player and not at all familiar with the scene, so it's possible that this doesn't really happen on that level for one reason or another, but in my low-level experience it can lead to some fun situations. Curious to hear if you have any thoughts on this, I think your game design sensibilities are very good and your arguments are well-reasoned.
Inkjet has always felt sluggish, a cool buff could be giving it a horizontal dash by going into squid form and pressing jump. The downsides could be big to compensate like a massive cool down or the zipcaster treatment where it shortens the duration, or not being able to shoot for a short time. Like if you can only use it once or twice while it makes you sink down closer to player-level That way flanking is more encouraged with inkjet
I was just trying to tap on something at the top of my screen and you sniped me with the notification for this 😭😭😭 I get to watch this now tho so it’s oki loool
Reef might need a rework honestly. Rn, if it doesn't have enough endlag or has too much invincibility, it could warp the meta around itself, and we all know what happens otherwise. Like you said, it's just too simple of a special
They should let you dismount Reefslider without detonating it, so the dolphin continues forward for the full length before exploding. Maybe you could even kick off the reefslider to the side, sending it forward at an angle. The tradeoff for dismounting would be that the explosion is smaller than it would be with the rider on it. It would be similar to how Villager’s side-b works in Smash Bros.
the salty people in chat saying "crab bad" are why most people cant be trusted with the power to heavily influence balance changes haha Its not a bad special that needs drastic changes, its just slightly too good and the weapons that have it, splash, get it slightly too frequently I am also part of "most people" tho lmao, salt is very understandable
Reefslider should be in bad tier. It accomplishes nothing that it wants to do effectively. If you want to try and use it to get out of a jam, you'll die before you "board" it, or you'll be caught up to and splatted after your detonation due to the immense endlag. So it's not worthwhile as an escapement tool. If you want to try to splat another player with it, that's only going to happen if they were already heavily damaged or cornered. Reefslider is monstrously telegraphed and easy to outswim or avoid. Against objects, Reefslider also fails as it is stopped by an Ink Wall and you'll either get shredded before boarding or never be able to reach a Crab Tank. It has one small niche in going through Big Bubbler that Triple Inkstrike performs so much better. Further, you cannot use Reefslider while superjumping or in the air at all. It also retains little momentum when going airbourne. That was the one good thing about splashdown was that it punished jump campers. If I were to fix slider, I'd give it the ability to curve its trajectory, the ability to "superjump splashdown" and allow special power up to increase the distance it can travel. I'd also reduce the boarding time and remove the endlag and end invulnerability entirely)
My suggested design changes to all specials that i could think of: Crab Tank - stun lock player after timer runs out or crab is broken Reefslider - allow the player to curve the reefslider to go react to players trying to escape and adding a level of potential skill Tacticooler - add a button prompt to pick up a drink, allowing you to pick it up while in ink or avoid picking one up to pull off a stealth play Missiles - remove the ability for a single missile to 1 shot and also reduce the tracking to whoever is visible to the player already Also, not special but make it so spawn armor is greater than the squid roll / squid surge armor to avoid letting players squid roll through specials while simultaneously not letting them be used to spawn camp
I think one way to make Tenta Missiles a little better design-wise would be to remove the markers on enemies. Entirely. Instead, it will just show the number of enemies you are locked onto while you're aiming the missiles. The special can still target people through walls like it does now, but you won't be able to take advantage of it nearly as much of a locator since you can't pinpoint their exact location. Additionally, you'll have to do your own enemy location beforehand to determine where the most enemies are to get the most displacement value instead of the special directly showing you.
I saw an interesting idea for Reefslider where it could function similar to Steve’s Minecart in smash. You still get the option to detonate early, but there’s another option to jump off the Reefslider. If you jump off, the Reefslider continues forward and still explodes, but the damage and radius of the explosion would be reduced a decent amt. I think this could be a cool change to add a little more complexity to the special. No idea how it would work balance wise but it sounds interesting.
if reefslider ended with what's basically a squid surge but in inkling form with more armor it would reward hitting the slider as you'd (normally) kill enough people that they can't shred the armor and you can escape but if you miss then there's enough enemy players left to shred the armor or cover your landing options
I feel like killer wail shoild get an update where its tracking speed gets increased so theres a higher chance that it even does damage at all, its so easy to cheese! Just by walking, you can avoid it!
Booyah Bomb has become so annoying recently, for the stalling like you mentioned and just because everyone’s running Aerospray recently. I think Ink jet and Zipcaster could be way better if they had SOME armor to them. Zipcaster just makes you way more vulnerable and so does Ink Jet. They’re liabilities not strengths
My one thing I disagree on is Tri Strike. I think it needed a small buff, but the last patch overbuffed it. I think it’s just a bit too powerful now, especially considering that TTek has it cheap. I understand that now it also can function as crab counter play, which is good. BUT crab was undernerfed. When my sink overflows, I turn off the water before I mop up the mess it made. Refusing to nerf crab in a more reasonable way before buffing counters is like moping up the mess without turning off the water and wondering why the problem isn’t going away. Now instead of only worrying about dodging crabs, I’m dodging crabs and inkstrikes.
Ideas on how to rework the returning Splatoon 2 Special Weapons. Ink Storm: Instead of having the storm work like how it usually does, let's have it so that the storm stays stationary, but also has a larger radius. The very center of the storm is a safe space however, so the damage radius sort of looks like an O. The damage radius, including the eye of the storm, will then slowly expand as the downpour of ink slowly turns into a light drizzle before finally dissipating. Booyah Bomb: The Special Meter will not decrease until you finish charging the Special. Once you have finished charging, the bomb will decay over time up until you throw it. The smaller it gets, the smaller your explosion radius will be, but the farther you can throw it. If you wait too long, you won't be able to throw the bomb close to your feet, which gives enemies a potential opening. The smaller explosion will also have more damage per second as a sort of trade off. Tenta Missiles: This time, there will be two modes of fire, each one triggered via a press of the ZL button. The default mode will be a rapid fire barrage that is aimed straight forward. A storm of missiles will fly forwards in a straight line trajectory. These missiles don't lock on to players, and they can be blocked by solid objects such as walls. They can also be countered via the Vacuum. The second mode of fire is a sort of cluster fire mode, where all missiles are fired at once into the sky after the user chooses a target location. This target location will be visible to all players. The moment the missiles (which are repurposed soda bottles) land, they will spread out from the original radius rapidly via carbonated ink, covering a relatively wide distance. These bottles can also be blocked by walls, and similar to Wave Breaker, can be jumped over with proper timing. Unlike the Wave Breaker which does chip damage, these bottles will one shot.
Wavebreaker is by far my favorite special in the game right now, it just gives so many options to both the user and the opposing team and is pretty much perfectly balanced right now.
They missed so much opportunity with the reef slider. You should be able to move around in shark form, splat players by knocking into them, and maybe even swim in the ink (perhaps like a maws, there’s an indicator where you are). That would make it even more similar to baller/kraken and give it a much more interesting play style.
I love looking at the designs of these items instead of just simply going over the balance, its something not many people in these types of communitys really try and go far, and you handle it with such grace. Would love to see something like this for Subs, Main Weapons, or maybe even Salmonids
Switching the end-lag and invincibility between crab-break and reefslider could be interesting. Crab still protects while reef allows VERY aggressive play, although allowing reef to curve would also be big but that may be too much
heres a crazy idea for reef slider: allow the rider to jump off. it would keep the damage without needing the rider to go into the fray kamikaze style. as a torpedo user, any form of attacks that dont allow me to be near my victim is always a plus. 1) throwing the hammer 2) jumping off a reef slider 3) wave breaker 4) tossing any bomb, for that matter. i can send out an attack then take cover while my enemy is being splatted or distracted and move to a better position. as a 5 star CJR main. i LOVE having 3 enemies distracted by me. any control point is less contested due to torpedo/wave breaker. i can then either swim around while they are distracted and splat them or ultimately die. but those seconds means that my team can control the tower uncontested, hold the splat zone uncontested, and hold mid in turf war less contested. (since they can go around me) but yeah disjointed attacks would make reef slider a LOT more viable since its less of a suicide special. most good players just side step that shark like a bull fighter. Olé! then splat the user. a disjointed shark attack would allow two points of gun fire. the main weapon and the special. basically the reef slider is now a glorified curling bomb.
here's a crazier idea: once you jump off the shark it follows the enemy. not with a fatal blast but for a large burst around them and 20 damage. its a tactical trap since they get blocked in for the same original radius of a reef slider explosion, but due to tracking the damage would have to be nerfed to non lethal. so yeah 20 damage but big explosion. 1) tracking 2) large explosion 3) 20 damage again the user had jumped off so its up to him to get a splat now. (this is a secondary version than my original comment, where it only goes straight but without a rider)
I noticed that we only have 3 support based specials (tacticooler, ink vac and bubble shield), which kinda makes me think that there should be another support based special.
Or if it, say, popped you back or up a little distance, making it so you don't totally lose control and can still steer in the air a bit, but having to eject because someone destroyed your tank would make it really easy for a player to go skeet shooting with you.
I feel that to counteract the fact crab has no endlag when broken, make it explode in a burst of non-lethal yet damaging ink instead of fizzling out as usual, around the radius of a suction bomb. Then, stun the user for 1-3 seconds depending on how much of the duration is left, more stun if broken early. This gives extra counterplay in that of the stun, while also giving the crab user an opportunity to run away with ink left behind or a teammate of theirs to finish off the attacking player. Just something I thought would fit crab's design
The nerf you're suggesting wouldn't address any of the grievances that the player base is having with the special. The only nerf I'd be happy with that wouldn't ruin the special is the tank losing it's rapid fire and range AFTER it's taken more than 50% damage. Savvy players get to enjoy the powerful special we know @ 100% health, opposing players are rewarded for challenging and inflicting damage. In a 1v1 situation you'll probably still lose, but the tank doesn't go on to wipe your whole team and claim turf.
Ironic how the first ProChara video I ever watched was one of him praising Tenta Missiles as a very well designed simple special, and now the general opinion on them has done a complete 180 and they are now regarded as very bad special design lol. Oh how times have changed.
I don't mind missiles at all. From what I've gathered from comp players is that missiles are "horrible" because they cause mass displacement of a coordinated group that stay in close proximity to one another while going to or trying to defend objective.
Personally, I think ttek is the best weapon in the game with the best sub and special, with the buffs that tri strike got, I think it is better than crab, being able to dominate hp specials like booyah and crab, players just need to know how to properly use tri strike
Idea for Tenta Missiles: - Increase the amount of OS that it does to specials and allow it to lock on to things like Big Bubbler, Crab, etc. - As well as reducing the sweet spot radius and damage, making it more inconsistence for splatting opponents with 1-3 missiles, increasing survivability. Overall, this would make Missiles a better option against HP specials and also makes it more balanced against targeted opponents, making it easier to dodge and survive whilst giving it the benefit of dealing with HP specials more effectively.
Reefslider rework idea; What if Reedslider could path a trajectory off of other parts of the level geometry, such as bouncing off of walls or objects at angles in the same way curling bomb can, and having the option to use ZL or something to climb up a wall (albeit, perhaps moving slower vertically than horizontally and shortening the duration based on "slowing momentum") which would then allow a little more depth because it still remains a short, aggressive entry tool, but like how ultra stamp and zipcaster can similarly, it gives players a bit more options on their trajectory. Additionally, instead of giving the slider full invinsibility frames, they could just shorten the end lag and allow the player a free squid roll in any direction a few frames after the explosion. That way, the enemy team still gets counter play by being able to jump in and try to slay the slider but would need to move quickly, while the slider still also gets counter play by granting themselves armor by squid rolling, which is bouncing off the idea that the Tetras and dapples are a bit safer because they can dodge roll after the slider, but giving movement options with armor as a possibility to all weapons that have it. Additionally if slider could go up vertical surfaces, you could roll backwards off a wall and the extra movement would still just be a nice additional option for the fast aggressive dualies to pair with the dodge roll, without changing the fundamental design of the special, which is still a quick and simple special but with more options on how and where you can and should use it, additionally giving it options for more surprising off angles, beginner players could still just ride the slider into groups of players but as you go up the skill ladder there are more complex options for how to use the special, while still allowing counter play for both sides. It also fits more with the playstyles of the weapons that already have it by giving it the option to be both a confrontational and aggressive special, which can also be used in a more sneaky way depending on the placement of it. It's the only movement special in the game without an option to move anywhere other than straight ahead, and this would give it the same movement options as the other movement specials while still having unique mechanics, and being the movement special that is fully grounded. I feel this might balance it out better with the other movement specials available while also making it a bit more threatening but not overpowered, with a good amount of counterplay, more depth and options for higher level play while still remaining a simple design, and also teaches players multiple facets of utilizing good placement and movement built into the special. Also, I noticed someone else mentioning giving squid roll to Ink Jet, and I'm all for encorporating more of the brand new but underutilized movement options more opportunities to be used within the actual design of the other aspects of the game
I actually like that Tacticooler can't be broken because of one key detail: Tacticooler forces the team to gather up in one location, which is a weakness of the special, however, this weakness can be mitigated by players by trying to hide behind the indestructible Tacticooler. It can teach players how to hide behind cover and how to snuff someone out from behind cover. It gives the Tacticooler item itself depth on top of the depth of the soda cans. It's the only special in the game with TWO unique items to play around. If the Tacticooler could be broken, then instead of being player-placed cover, it would just turn it into another HP meat-shield like Wavebreaker or Big Bubbler. I'd go as far to say that the player-placed cover block aspect of Tacticooler is cool enough to where it could be it's own unique special, like imagine if there was a special that was basically a Super-Splash Wall that was indestructible at the caveat of not being able to go through it. Tacticooler is basically that already
What if they changed reeflslider so when it detonates you like jump off it. Then you can start moving slightly before it explodes so then it's not super punishable.
I view Reefslider as "worse splashdown" Booyah Bomb and Tri-Strike are my favorites! Crab was awesome because I'm a casual player, but now that it's the meta, I enjoy it less because people think I'm a tryhard, when in fact, "crab go brrrr"
So, this comment went way longer than I was expecting. If anyone's still interesting in reading, here's a breakdown of the comment and you can look at the sections that interest you: 1. My attempt to reverse-think the design decisions of Tenta Missiles. 2. My issues with Missiles as they exist now. 3. Possible balance reworks I could apply to Missiles to try to increase their teaching value/remove "the game plays itself" qualities form them(pending playtesting). Reverse Thinking the Design: I think the designers were intending the Missiles to be something that balances forward position with the ability to hit more targets. Like, the closer the Missiles user is to the front lines, the harder it is to get all 4 enemy players in the same go so they're encouraged to fall back to hit more targets. However, now that means they're not actively supporting the team so they have to run back in to be useful again. Unfortunately, I don't think Missiles currently balance that kind of risk-reward correctly. Criticisms: 1. Being able to still see the lock-on targets until the missiles land is INSANELY advantageous to the user. Additionally, if I'm ever on call with my friends, then suddenly the missiles are also functioning as an Echolocater in addition to displacing the enemies and I'm sure people who know faster call-outs than me can take even better advantage of this feature. 2. Special Power Up(SPU) increasing the Missiles' targeting radius undermines the risk-reward I'm guessing the designers wanted. I personally run 3 subs of SPU and that's enough for me to fire on at least 3 opponents, if not, 4, in most situations. Because I passed the drip check, I no longer have to give up anything to get all the benefits of Missiles. Sure I'm vulnerable while aiming, but Missiles go out so quickly that if I'm getting even slightly aggressed, I can just fire them and then run-away from danger or attempt to attack back with my main/sub weapons. Also, since I'm playing Flingza, I'm probably a couple steps back from danger anyway, and even if I'm not, finding the nearest cover isn't too hard with most maps. 3. The number of Missiles per target increasing when there's less targets in the radius means that there's never a bad time to use Missiles: just better times. If I pop missiles without realizing only one opponent is alive, then I can still pelt them with 10 missiles which forces them to stop aiming for a considerable amount of time, which makes a bad situation worse for the only one still up waiting for teammates to come back in. I give up about a second to aim the Missiles and then I can start flicking again in exchange for forcing the E-Liter/Hydra to take their eye off the map and move for about 3 seconds before they can start charging again. It's a win without question for Flingza. Idk if this is a controversial opinion, but I don't think the global range of the Missiles is inherently a large problem(I'll concede it's an issue insomuch as it's an issue for Wail), but I believe it does compound many of the other design issues with Missiles. If I were responsible for redesigning Missiles, I'd probably apply one, some, or all of these changes(depending on what I found in playtesting): Possible Balance Reworks: 1. Remove the global range. I'd have to do a lot of playtesting to get an idea of what range would feel right, but to spitball some numbers, let's call it an E-Liter-range radius sphere centered on the user that can target through cover. This is the "firing range". I'd also add a 1.5 times longer radius sphere on top of that, which would be the "targeting range". Missiles can only hit someone within the "firing range" , but the user can see where people are inside the "targeting range"(to indicate a difference, I'd probably reduce the opacity of the lock-on targets the further an opponent is from the Missiles' user until it disappears when outside the "targeting range"). This would hopefully give more weight to another trade-off of the special of choosing to wait longer for someone to get in range to fire the missiles or just firing on less targets to get out of the vulnerable stage quicker. With removing the global range, I hope there's a range I could find for Missiles that would allow the "forward position -> opponents hit-able" trade-off to be more fully pronounced while disincentivizing people from standing way back/jumping to spawn to fire Missiles. 2. Remove the lock-on targets from the opponents after the user hits "ZR" to fire the missiles. This would address my 1st criticism while still allowing the Missiles user to get feedback on where to place their missiles before firing(which I think is an important part of making the special feel good to use). 3. Make the user's targeting radius a fixed size. Instead, allow SPU to increase the size of the "firing range". I would probably leave the "targeting range" static in case someone decides to stack a bunch of it to effectively give themselves the echolocater effect again, but perhaps it could scale to a lesser degree than the "firing range" to compensate for this issue(I'd wanna playtest with this idea a bit to get a better feel for how the relationships and scaling with SPU should be). This would hopefully address my 2nd criticism. 4. Fire a fixed number(I'd say "4") of missiles regardless of whether they target 1 opponent or 4. This would hopefully be a good step in encouraging players to look for enemy numbers before firing them as 4 missiles hitting one person is a minor inconvenience to the one(compared to 10 missiles anyway), especially since they don't have to worry about walking into someone else's missiles. This would hopefully address my 3rd criticism.
To me the smallest thing that could massively improve several specials is punishment when the special is countered. Here's examples: Crab Tank: When the special is BROKEN/DESTROYED, the user gains several "startle" frames the opponents could capitalize if the Crab over-extends or got good positioning on Crab. After those frames expire it enters a "recoup" mode of sorts where the player gains movement abilities, but still has some frames before they can shoot again. Essentially, by breaking the special you force the opponents to retreat or risk death, while not necessarily harming them if the special is untouched. Missiles: If the shots became something like torpedoes where they become semi-slow moving projectiles that home towards enemies, this would allow you to mitigate the threat at the cost of revealing your location. To fix the global range issue, keep the range, remove the reticle. If there's no one in your targeting system, the screen flashes a red to let you know. This requires the user of missiles to actively observe where the shots are going to gain locational information and detracts both retreating and point-clicking since shorter travel times result in a more dangerous projectile. When the user is distracted trying to follow missile targeting, this also makes them more vulnerable since they'll be paying less attention to enemies they may have missed. Tacticooler: Make it destructible. 2 possible paths in my opinion for how to deal with a broken Tacticooler: 1- The other team can pick up the dropped cans 2- The effects of the cans are halved. Personally I think "If it breaks, it's gone" is a poor solution, but I could see the argument for it. I think the above though would encourage Tacticooler play closer to the frontline though, which would up the strategy of the tool. Don't have too much else to say, it's just more or less agreeing with "give tacticooler HP". Bubble: If destroyed by shooting the top of it (where it's vulnerable), add a recharge penalty. Additionally, to fix issues like the tower, double the damage bubble takes if it's moving. Small things to retain use but provide counterplay. Booyah: When max charged, 2-3 seconds until forced throw. Stalling gone, moving on. Oh you could also punish it by reducing Booyah's damage for the more damage the user takes Reefslider: last one. I think its path should be invisible to the ENEMY so it's less predictable, and it should get a slight bit of turning to allow it to aim for the enemy better. Additionally, it could gain a better escape strategy instead of invincibility by having the user superjump as the special ends, similar to inkjet or zip. The super location would be the beginning, but could be overwritten to where the reef exploded by pressing [unused button during reef that Idk lol]. The superjump could be invisible, marker wise, to make it less predictable and fair. Additionally, shooting the shark itself could *slightly* slow it down to compensate the lesser information.
HOLY I have been -modding- thinking about how to fix shark and missiles sooooooo much. Shark needs either more control, or more panic functionality, so I opted for control. Curving, jumping, and hiding in your ink with a litttle shark fin poking out. You can use it to go in, to displace, to protect yourself, to platform, and to kill. A jack of all trades special, for letting your team follow behind you. On the other end of the spectrum, missiles was easy to -code- fix AHEM! Just shooting the missiles back and forth could be fun like Octavio’s fight, and just removing the OHKO hit box could make the missiles fairer. look. I get having a simple agressive special is good, but shark shouldn’t be it. If anything, the next kraken should be it. I don’t think that a simple agressive special would be what all the shark weapons want, so just don’t make it so simple and agro, and we good. Nintendo plz do not kill me I have more -mods- ideas to share
Reef Slider should have two options: Option A: Explode at will, like it has currently Option B: Jump off the Reef Slider and leave it driving ahead, at which point you can no longer explode it early, but can be away from the explosion radius, can mix up your opponents, and more quickly follow up on the splash damage if your enemies take damage but not enough to splat them.
Catch me having a bit of a PTSD moment with Booyah from the one round where I was the ONLY player charging it- even the user who HAD the special wasn’t charging it.
Killer Wail 5.1 should change its range for tracking an opponent to be of a E-Liter 4k Scope but in exchange the tracking ability gets improved with a 15% increase on each speaker to be around the size.of the of Splatoon 1's Killer Wail.
Hey Chara, just a suggestion. I'd recommend turning chat overlay off when making main channel uploads. Just adds to the quality of the video imo instead of appearing as being stripped from your stream. Nice vid
I have always felt that zipcaster was way to much risk for too little reward. Not only do you only have armor when zipping, but your jump spot can be easily camped, all so you can get maybe 1 or 2 kills and absolutely 0 displacement. Not too many people are scared of it enough to make them move. The lack of sub weapon on splatana stamper is a really big downside. I think maybe allowing for a total of 2 zips where you can either complete the first or interrupt it and go somewhere else mid zip kinda like Pikachu/Pichu's and Geninja's up b in smash. I think it would be really cool and allow for interesting situations.
I don't like the fact that Wave Breaker can still detect players hiding on walls. If you have to give up your sneak by having to go off the wall and then jump over the waves you still can be noticed by the opponents anyway, meaning that whatever you do you will still get detected... Hiding on walls would be a nice counterplay to it. (That's why it's one of my most disliked specials in Splatoon 3.)
Maybe make Reefslider work like a combination of Kraken from Splatoon 1 and splashdown from Splatoon 2. The player can guide the reefslider and damage anyone they run into, and when the super ends, it explodes.
Here's an idea to fix missiles: Give the user a screen overlay similar to a radar effect, and limit the range of the special (I'm thinking it would be close to the entirety of Museum's mid, maybe smaller tho). For areas outside the special's range, there would be a fog-like static clouding that part of the user's vision. This could change up the dynamic of the special so that the user is a bit more vulnerable when they use it (having sight heavily reduced) and that it won't be able to displace entire teams if they're split up well enough. Maybe the addition of removing the ability to use squid form would also make the special a bit more fair to play against, like with Tri-Strike.
Not sure if I jive with the idea that most of the "best designed" specials also happened to rank low in terms of effective power. I mean, if every special was like Inkzooka and ultra stamp in that everything was easy to punish and deny value from, when we just need a situation where everything just feels weak and anemic? Honestly, this tier list feels way too subjective and more like an opinion piece, like if the buffed tri-strike turns out to be really meta then it's more than likely going to go down a peg in your tier list just like crab tank did. And even if we did achieve this balance where everything is decently punishable, I feel like whatever is the least punishable of the group comparatively will still be ranked below near perfect.
It would be interesting to note if any specials have changed since the Sizzle Season's patch. Missiles still need to be toned back a bit, but I'm glad Tacticooler got a buff.
I'm glad Tri-Strike got buffed and it's getting more attention, but dear lord I hope they fix up the animation because I've died to seemingly nothing, only to remember the end frames of the strike (where no ink is animated) still have a hurt box.
I feel like breaking the tank could: blow up the tank, causing a (much) smaller booyah blast radius and give the end lag of reefslider, this could give a “suicide bomber” playstyle whilst making it weaker when a player rushes up and kills the tank, this or it could just also kill the player
How about the Reefslider gets to climb up paintable surfaces and also let it jump while rushing so you for example jump on the ledge of the climbable surface so the enemie would be caught in the explosion from grates in Sturgeon Shipyard.
I do wanna give my two cents for reefslider, and the thing I wanna throw out is an idea. What if you could jump off the slider as it was moving forward, allowing it to go the full distance and keep you relatively safe. It could either be a full animation, leaving you vulnerable and farther back, or similar to a zip cast jump off a wall, allowing you to act almost right after jumping off. I can see someone using this along a wall and jumping off at the right time to get a height advantage, as the slider careens off into an area and exploding on its own. I think it’s a bit worth mentioning, since I haven’t seen people talk about it, but I feel like some people might say it ruins the point of the special, and they would not be entirely wrong about that. But, just as a different option and more depth, I thought I’d throw it out there
For missiles, I think it'd be cool if it shot 10-15 in a forward arc, like to a predetermined location a certain distance away from where you pop them, and has the chance to home in on players along their path or all hitting the ground at max range. It's a much faster, much less stally alternative to booyah that would cover about the same area of turf if no one gets targeted. This lets people kite missles from the barrage away from points as a choice for counterplay, and it could have a charge time of maybe two or three seconds before firing them for another two or three seconds. Removes the global affect and lack of counterplay!
Umm just a cool thing I found ( not sure if everyone else knows this alr ) When you are firing in crab, it's slow. If you quickly switch into ball form whilst holding down ZR you turn easily, but do lose the 'quick' firing rate. Its a bit hard to do, but once you get the hang of it, it definitely helps, especially in S rank- the 'awkward zone.
At launch, we got reefslider with endlag to the point it could be killed before it even was able to act. We also got, in the same game, shredding a 600 hp special that sits on the enemy backline and is almost entirely unapproachable that, when destroyed, allows the user to move immediately, to the point that shredding it can offers little advantage. Nintendo, what are you doing?!
Personally, and this is a MASSIVELY hot take, I don't think tenta missiles need that big of a nerf. I've seen some people want it completely destroyed and nerfed to the ground, making it unusable, but I think that's just selfish and is not good game design. Now i'm not pro player, i'm simply just S+ for the fun of it, but personally I would rework how tenta missiles function; make it so that you cant swim with the missiles active and instead of missiles exploding hitting the ground,. they explode in the air and rain down on the located opponents like fireworks. Oh and make it so that you're able to shoot the fireworks out of the air before they explode and rain down on you. I feel like thats way more balanced especially since I'm keeping the global range 5-object target thing its got. Again though I'm no competitive player so maybe this is biased from a more casual or standard experience.
I have some ideas for specials • Reefslider - you can turn it and jump • tacticooler - mini stations are summon where teammates are near and it hold a drink for them • Ink storm - can strike lightning three times or wind makes it harder to move • inkjet - has movement boosts • booyah bomb - (someone else's idea) you can shoot while in ink armor • killer whale 0.5 - two or one beams that are more damaging and can sensor you
I wish the reefslider could turn off its track to the left or right. It would explode shortly after leaving the track. Which is kinda how it function already, since if you get nudged off the track you just stop and explode.
Triple Inkstrike's buff in the most recent update is a godsend. I just hope that the recent buffs to T-Tek and shooters in general doesn't make weapons that have the special too OP
I love Inkstorm and I wish the special had more depth to it. I feel like a God when I'm in my Inkstorm and splating people stuck in the rain, but the act of initially throwing out the Inkstorm is a bit too basic and unsatisfying. It would be cool if you could shake the Inkstorm like Fizzy Bomb and depending on how you shake the Inkstorm, it changes the type of rain. That way there could be more player-input and counterplay while still granting that awesome feeling of wreaking havoc with a tempest.
I feel like Inkjet is generally pretty bad. It's similar to Trizooka, Triple Inkstrike, and Ultra Stamp in that you briefly trade out your main weapon for a weapon with much more pronounced strengths and weaknesses, but all of those specials let you control when the special ends. With Trizooka and Triple Inkstrike, the special ends as soon as you take all 3 shots. For Ultra Stamp, you can end it early by throwing the stamp. With Inkjet, you just have to wait out the full time no matter what, so if a situation occurs where you've achieved what you wanted with the special and you want your main weapon back, you're out of luck. Combined with the fact that I would say the threat level of the special generally lower than those other specials, it feels like easily one of the worst specials to me.
Something I think that would be cool on reefslider is a bluff. You could make it look like you’re about to explode for a second to get people to leave then keep going. Not sure it would fix it but I think it would be funny
