THIS! I play a ton of weapons with wave and it's probably my favourite special. You covered a lot of issues that I've had with wave recently. A couple extra things that really knocked down wave is the dev's inclination to use object damage as a way to buff weapons during crab meta. I believe splatana, tri stringer, zooka, tri strike and possibly zip all got this buff. I constantly find that the moment I play a wave out in the open or in a secluded corner some stray form of damage wipes it out early. With crab being less present all that rampant object damage can really focus down a wave breaker. Additionally, tacticooler poses an extra issue for wave due to intensify action. In earlier metas I found it easier to go in following a wave and using it as an engagement tool. When enemies jump their shots spread out and reduce their potential kill time, providing weapons with slower splat times a small advantage to get in. As for buffs there's a couple things that could help. The first is an extension of the vertical height downward. If a wave user gets on a vantage point let them really lock it down. Currently, wave cannot fully affect large pillars like in scorch gorge, inkblot and flounder heights. Extending that range by an additional 20% downward could really help wave deter enemies. Secondly, I think an interesting change would be to modify the shape of the wave. Staying in theme the wave could appear as a sine wave that rotates. The hurt box would have high points and low points that can force opponents to move more often. Kinda like this: ~~~~~ but rotation clockwise and counter clock wise for alternating waves. Those are just my thoughts though
I was talking with some friends recently and had an interesting idea for a buff, although one that doesn't really help as much with the tempo issue, but at least makes dodging it that bit harder: have special power up affect the speed of the waves. I kinda liked that since it makes dodging it a lot less automatic even if it was sped up because the speed is going to be somewhat different most times you go against it, so it at least is more of a cognitive load
Another huge issue with wave is the lack of flexibility you have with your placement of it. If you put it too far away from enemies, it will have next to no impact. If you put it too close in the line of sight of enemies, it will get destroyed quickly and get no value. Your only option with it is to place it somewhat close to fights, but not too close, and only if there is sufficient cover for it, which is too specific to be practically put into use throughout multiple scenarios. Would be interesting if they made it indestructible like tacticooler to remedy this issue, that seems like a good way to meaningfully impact how the special is used without overtuning it. Would also not be opposed to adding more waves, although that’s probably a more drastic change. Nonetheless, I think it’ll put it on par with another passive, slow-tempo special that is actually pretty good in this meta: ink storm. Right now, both wavebreaker and ink storm both lack the high-tempo playmaking potential that you described. However, ink storm has the ability to force people to move out of large areas for a solid amount of time, which is an ability that wave can’t compare to. There really isn’t a feasible way to give wavebreaker that area-denying capability, but it could have an effect on par with that if it had a longer duration with more waves. In return for not being as strong at dictating enemy movements like ink storm is, it’d last much longer than ink storm. Of course, the amount of waves would need to be increased by a significant amount for it to last longer than ink storm. But if we want to see slow, passive specials truly succeed in this quick, cooler-based meta, we should consider really stretching out the impacts of passive specials.
Yea this is a pretty solid buff. Also, I place mine usually on point right behind cover. I Yolo everytime with this thing lol, I've even pushed on another spec and threw it behind them. Alot of time wb's end up in the most random spots imo. My favorite so far is ppl that thro them on the tower, can't remember the map. The tower has a bridge connecting both high points. Evetytime I see this I stop and laugh as the waves for 2ft off the bottom and dissapear.
worth mentioning that we're moving away from zooka meta a bit, where instead of shot u run nsplash and get a lot more consistent value with strikes. you still see squeezer but mostly cuz of the main weapon
it’s also worth mentioning that there never really was a zooka meta, in jp junior rose up to counter it and here in the west we realized that zooka is too inconsistent compared to strikes where you just strike and let your midline’s fight
I think wave works as a quick deploy special. I found my greatest use of the special in just tossing it somewhere whenever I need a full ink tank on the fly. Using specials like that have its place, but it shares competion with tacticooler, so that's an uphill battle.
My idea to buff Wave Breaker is to add a new effect, making it so that when an opponent gets hit by a wave, they cannot heal any hp for the entire duration of the location effect. This woule make Wave Breaker the ultimate combo tool, since now it would deal the 45 damage and also cripple the opponent for around 8 seconds, making it so they cant heal. This would make it very rewarding when it comnects, while still being balanced since its easy to dodge.
What Imma say might be controversial, but Wave Breaker when place should have a disrupter effect. Like everyone who got hit by the point sensor when placed should get the effect. Don’t make it last too long, maybe like 0.5 seconds. My idea behind this is that Wave Breaker is a slow special in a fast paced meta. So what if instead of speeding up Wave Breaker, we slow everyone down. The only other way that can happen besides Toxic Mist and Ink Vac is painting the floor but I know no one would like that.
If we make it a toxic mist effect instead then perhaps. my only concern is that it wouldn't be useful as a zone control tool and makes it more of a catch tool instead as you'd just throw wavebreaker at anybody alone or isolated to catch them and kill them. if wavebreaker is about long term area denial, toxic mist would be a cool idea as it would disincentive players to get to close and comes with the added threat of not being able to dodge the waves
Wave breaker should do 60 damage; I think a 2 shot will feel very natural in a game this, and will let it combo with weapons like dread wringer. Oh and then make heavy 190p :)
Plz no. This is strong but extremely annoying. It also doesn't account for solo queue, where for significant periods of time nothing makes sense in a match. Most times I get killed by wb is because in trying to lay low after a fight and some scrub throws it out for an ink refill
idk. more damage would do very little to actually solve the issues of wavebreakers speed. like you could get away with giving more damage but why? the special would still be too slow and too easy to avoid it wouldn't actually move up a tier imo. what we need is a buff that either makes it harder to dodge or affect the game state faster
When Wave Breaker was teased before Splat3 came out, I was really hoping they would make it so could alternate between a rising and falling action, making it so not only would have to jump over it, but also swim under it, hence the name Wave Breaker, would’ve been a cool concept imo
I want wavebreaker to get increased height of consecutive waves, so the first is unchanged but the second is harder to jump over and the third cannot be avoided without a large terrain height difference. This would make placing the special more interesting in evaluating its instant and short term value vs putting it in a safer spot to make it more likely to get off more powerful waves. Playing against it would add more value in targeting and breaking the special, and makes it potentially worth it to deny even if it has already activated once or twice. It wouldn’t be too punishing because it’s only a single wave that would be unavoidable in its AoE and it would be extremely delayed and telegraphed. Curious on other people’s thoughts on this buff I’ve had in mind for a while now!
...What about laggy players? Wouldn't making the waves beeg make it harder for them to deal with? What if you just threw... TWO wavebreakers? Decrease the damage and increase the wave's movement speed, of course. Spread them out for more area on a high point, or stack them at a disjoint to make people actually think about how to dodge them.
I think the buffs you want to give are nice, but it doesn't really help when it comes to what weapons it's on 7 out of 8 of them work with wave, but just increasing its damge from 45 to 60 makes the wave way more threatening and Dread wringer can finally have a combo with it as well
Maybe it's because I am a survivor of the mpu meta back in splatoon 2 but i am very hesitant to give wave breaker more damage, especially damage that would reduce its shots to kill. even still, upping the damage does nothing to solve the issue of the special just being waaaaaay too slow and easy to dodge. imo, it needs something to either make the waves come out or travel faster or be harder to dodge. also dread wringer deals like 90 damage if you hit both sloshes. that think combos with everything. it combos with the wavebreaker contact damage. it even combos with standing in enemy ink too long.
I think its “tempo” is weird, cause it does immediately effect the game, it has a big point sensor effect on deployment, but that only last a couple seconds
True. There is an immediate point sensor effect but the issue is that marking people in a very small radius for a very short time is pretty low impact imo and so does very little to solving the issue
How about the waves could randomly oscillate back and forth as they expand to make the special more unpredictable and negate the problem of people learning to dodge it?
I like the idea of the oscillating waves. idk about making it random since we still want players to be able to control if they get hit with skillful play. making them oscillate would still make them harder to dodge which is something wavebreaker needs
Simply put, wave breaker receiving any changes or buffs is why it is bad. I have one change I think could be interesting for it. When the wave thingy releases a wave, that wave will now effect its entire range instantly, the wave duration would be shorter as a result but I think it would increase wave’s tempo in a way that would make it be more threatening. (Nice video btw)
I've got to ask, why does Wave Breaker only make 3 waves? Like sure Splatoon 3 has a big 3 theme with Trizooka, Triple Inkstrike, Tri-Stringer and all that but with Wave Breaker it feels kinda tacked on and limiting, like imagine Wave breaker with 4 or even 5 waves, maybe the waves are a bit weaker and come out more frequently too, but it being stuck with 3 feels too limiting, like if it was buffed to make the waves come out faster then that means it goes away faster too
Ohh, solution! Change wave breaker so that it emits a dmg field instead of lines. The duration for each pulse can be the same as it'd take a normal WB line to reach max distant. So instead of jumping line WV would change how the opps engage. Persist and take some dmg, ir back off and wait it out. I introduce this concept because jumping over the lives is piss easy. This weapon stops functioning once the competition is competent. But, I'd change the dmg per tick to 30, since eith a dmg field the waves will penetrate terrain and vertical height would not linger matter. Tldr; change te breaker from 3 lines to 3 dmg periods. Decrease dmg from 40 to 30. Now WB has more meaningful impact, presence in the game, and actual threat value.
Nah I need a BUFFED inkbrush, sploosh, explo, ultra stamp. I need custom kits, reeflsider buffed, dapples made relveant... I want a lot to return, just waaay better than it is now 💀😭😭
@Astra7Light I honestly liked sp2 gameplay more than 3. Sp2 made it easier to win games with easier players. It's one of the reasons I care less about things being busted than strong, because I'd rather more stuff be busted than pathetically weak. Also, ultrastamp was waaaaay fxcking faster in 2. That alone made it playable but in 3, it's seems like the hitbox got smaller, ur hitbox got bigger, and they added 15-45 frames to all its moves. Decavitor/rollers are basically even matchups for ultrastamo at this point. 70% trade rate.
@@Astra7LightThey made new specials in 3 though, they learned that global specials are most of the times bad for the game if they are the meta specials, Splatoon 1 had inkstrike and killer wail which were global specials but they weren't the best in the game so they didn't destroy the game. They learned how to design specials better after 2
Make the waves not go on the ground, instead mid air, so you’d either have to squid or jump over the waves. That, or make one on the ground(have to jump), in the air(have to squid) and then middle,(do one of both) Or just make the wave different shapes. Add squiggles or something to make the wave realer a bit tougher to deal with
