Blaster: Analysis and Thoughts Thread

[SkyBlue]

It can be alright in turf wars, but you're never going to put the ink down that a Roller or Aerospray can. As started though, in splat zones it really shines. It brings the pain and keeps the enemy scattered. On a map like Walleye Warehouse you can be an absolute menace to the opposing team. I just wish it had a set with the Disruptor and the Bubbler together.

I think nintendo's going to try and avoid really really powerful sub/special combos. The custom jr. for example doesn't get the bubbler. Granted other people think differently on how overpowered something is/may be. Take the custom jet squelcher for example, burst bombs+ Kraken really compliment the weapon well. It's naturally long ranged, has the bombs if they get in close(aeros), and the kraken to escape/wreck face with.

but back on topic. I hate for any weapon to be the 'worst' of all so I hope if its not updated to be better, than that the rapid blaster gets a really good sub/special combo.

 

[Kayeka]

I like this weapon quite a bit. The key to winning is to keep the right distance from your opponent, and you'll have pretty good odds of splatting them. Another nifty trick is to use it against enemies in cover, or from behind cover yourself, since the AoE is large enough for you to hit opponents you can't even see.

The lack of range is a weakness, but if you know the map and can use cover well, you'll be able to do quite nicely with this.

 

[swifT]

Well well well. Lets talk about blasters.

When I first saw this weapon I was skeptical and frankly didn't like it at all, but today I've been testing new weapons to see if I could find anymore that I personalyl enjoy and I found myself drawn to the custom blaster, and frankly I love it, The strengths and weaknesses of the blaster are clearly seen, but at the same time it is still a very powerful weapon in my opinion if you play your cards right.

The most important things I've found when using the balster are as follow:

• Keeping at the correct range
• Taking one shot at a time and if possible quickly shifting to squid form and back before your next shot.
• Using jump shots to hit areas you otherwise would not
• knowing the best areas for the gun on each map

Things I try to avoid as a blaster are, running into to a firefight without my special, which for me(using the custom blaster) is bubble. This is especially important when going up against full auto weapons as they will easily take you out if they get up close. I find that without the back up of my team when trying to push an area it is very difficult. Also I avoid spam fire as much as possible. I take time to place and lead my shots so that I can guarantee they connect with whatever I'm aiming at. That is also useful in the fact that because of the aoe at the end of a shot even if you don't directly hit an enemy they still take a fair bit of damage.

 

[Eiron]

Another thing to note: this weapon's effectiveness is really stage dependent. It can be quite a struggle on Arowana Mall or Blackbelly Skatepark, but it's a terror on Saltspray Rig and absolutely ridiculous on Port Mackerel. Those narrow corridors were made for the Blaster.

 

[flc]

spamming jump & using 5 sensitivity on blaster is a thing if my japanese pub experience is any indication

twitch to look, strafe to aim, spam shots with ink saver main, maybe run tenacity or special saver to abuse bubble with... it's quite something

also I disagree about its effectiveness on arowana, it's very good at attacking up the ramps and generally dealing with campers due to its aoe. can't say for sure about blackbelly since I haven't seen a good blaster on it yet but I'd imagine it to be weak for assaulting points there.

 

[SylemG]

Yeah, i could definitely see it having some trouble on blackbelly skatepark, just because of how vertical the stage is- I find the way the weapon spreads ink to be fairly decent, if not amazing, but it's one big issue is inking walls for climbing. Though the weapon is similar to the charger class weapons, unlike them, the weapon will only put a solid ink trail down on the ground- never on the walls. Combine that with being too close for the explosion, and you get a very small amount of coverage, leading to it taking you much longer to get up.

 

[Nerdicon]

This thing is my go to for Splat Zones along with the Splatterscope. The AoE blast combined with a 2-hit KO on indirect hit or a 1-hit KO on a direct hit makes the blaster an excellent choice for killing absolutely everything that moves. It excels at picking off pesky snipers and at hitting around corners and slopes. The Disruptor can come in handy as a makeshift point sensor as well as a tool to delay the opponent's approach.
Only problem is that when you (somehow) miss against a roller or shooter, you're toast. Does well on all maps bar Walleye Warehouse due to the large horizontal area near the zone. Excels on Arowana Mall, Saltspray Rig, and Urchin Underpass due to the opponents clumping together.

 

[Duralumin]

I'm a fan of the Blasters due to how spacing-heavy they are. To the point where if you're not constantly keeping your foe at detonation range, you might as well just drop the weapon. It makes for very stimulating play.

Rapid is better for harassment/poking due to the lower downtime and longer range, but Standard is better for bullying (harassment but with more aggressive positioning) because of the larger AoE, shorter detonation range and OHKO capabilities.

I run the standard Blaster and the Rapid Deco variant. The former because the Disruptor goes very well with Bomb Range Up, and the latter because Suction Bomb Rush is like a damn airstrike and covers a ridiculous amount of turf if used well.

 

[WaifuRaccoonBL]

After using the blaster in splat zone, yeah, I really love it. It's great for keeping opponents back or disrupting them with the disruptor for a kill.

It's become one of my go to weapons in splat zone...still iffy on Turf Wars but we will see.

 

[SylemG]

I agree with Duralumin, the weapon requiring a specific range is something i find extremely engaging. A very unique style of shooting.

I like the standard a lot more than the rapid because a non-direct hit is a two hit kill, which is usually enough to catch lazy snipers by surprise before they realize what's even hitting them from directly beneath them. The Blaster is an amazing anti-sniper weapon if you can close the distance- nothing busts up sniper's perches better.

I don't know how i feel about the Rapid. It needs 2 directs for KO and 3 non-directs. I think the 3 non-directs are too much to give you any element of surprise, and because of it's longer range, i feel like you'd lose out on the ability to hit snipers from directly beneath them, as your bubble bursts too high. You're also more of a sitting duck if foes get closer to you, since you'll need two direct hits to stop them, and the critical burst wont be an option. But I'm not super familiar with the rapid by comparison, and for a weapon that makes you learn your distance, switching to a different critical distance can really screw with you.

That said, i think possibly the Rapid could be a nice alternative for turf war since killing your foes isn't as important, your ink trail goes further, and you may have stronger area denial. Maybe. I need more time with the variant.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

I think the Blaster is alright (great in Splat Zones).
I can't get the hang of them (precision shooting isn't something I'm good at; I have the same problem with Chargers), but every time I see one in Ranked they get at least 6 splats (at least 2 of which were on me) and their team generally wins.
Generally, I prefer the Custom Blaster, solely for the Bubbler (I miss by a little bit pretty often, so I like not getting splatted before my second shot) (Point Sensor seems like a good thing if nobody has Cold Blooded, but I never think to use it over shooting people), but I could see the normal Blaster being better if you have Ninja Squid (Disruptor should slow people enough that you can more easily splat them, though I'm not sure how much ink it uses), and having Killer Wail is pretty nice too if you know where the enemies are (or you can see them. Or you guess correctly).
Rapid Blaster on the other hand...
What is the point of this weapon? I get that it's supposed to be faster, but not as powerful, but I don't feel like it's appreciably faster (and while you're firing, you move so slowly; just like with regular Blasters, but it's not so bad when you can one-shot people), so the loss of power goes from acceptable to devastating. It's nice that it has Bubbler (since you're still slow but also weaker, it seems necessary if you get caught), but Custom Blaster has that and one-shot splats (and the Point Sensor, which I've never used effectively but seems like it could be useful), and I don't know how Ink Mine is supposed to help (besides dropping it in a Splat Zone, or the center platform on Blackbelly), but that's more my lackof knowledge than anything.
I'm not sure what to make of the Rapid Blaster Deco. Its only change is to the loadout, but I'm not sure how good Suction Bombs are (I rarely see them), but Suction Bomb Rush could be nice for covering areas and forcing people into the open (but I don't feel like Rapid Blaster has an advantage in combat over anything except maybe the Inkbrush, so hopefully you have a teammate nearby).
But I haven't used these weapons much (or in the Rapid Blaster Deco's case, never), so I'm probably wrong about some (or all) of this.

 

[sammich]

the rapid blaster is pretty decent, but i can't really get kills with it unless my opponent is dumb, stuck, or i have a teammate helping. still, it feels like it covers more ground consistently in turf wars??

it seems to more consistently get me wins with more points in turf wars than the regular blaster does... but... playing it, i just feel like i might as well be using the squiffer for more range, flexibility, and a stronger hit.

regular blaster is satisfying with the large number of KOs i get, but checking my results at the end i see that even if i did contribute a lot to the victory, it's only in that i made it safe for my teammates to advance. i also get totally thrown off if an opponent gets up close. just like with a charger but with a slightly higher chance of survival seeing how i can still terrify my opponent off by jumping and shooting the ground where with the charger your best option is usually: MAKE A PATH AND RUN

 

[ILikeKirbys]

So I played a few Ranked matches today, and the first one had a guy with a Rapid Blaster Deco (and a Blaster guy, but I didn't run into him at all), so I can sort of form an opinion based on that.
WOW that was surprisingly effective. The RBD guy stayed in the left-side corridor's sniper perch most of the time, shot into the center and threw out Suction Bombs (I only saw one Bomb Rush, but it looked pretty good). He only splatted me once (After splatting him, I got stuck mentally and stared down a Suction Bomb until it blew up in my face; put some distance betwen myself and bombs after that), but his team almost won and he had quite a few splats, so clearly they (and he) were doing something right.
Still don't think it's my thing (movement while firing is so slow, and it still doesn't splat in one shot like the regular ones), but I'll have to give it a shot after that performance.

 

[meleesplatter]

This weapon works best in maps with a lot of cover or narrow chokepoints, where you can easily hit them indirectly with the blast radius
or at least hold them back. It suffers a bit in more open areas since opponents can more easily outmaneuver your shots there and punish
missed shots.

How does a Rapid Blaster stack up to burst bombs?

 

[ILikeKirbys]

This weapon works best in maps with a lot of cover or narrow chokepoints, where you can easily hit them indirectly with the blast radius
or at least hold them back. It suffers a bit in more open areas since opponents can more easily outmaneuver your shots there and punish
missed shots.

How does a Rapid Blaster stack up to burst bombs?

Burst Bombs cost more ink (comparing one throw to one shot), but they can have more range than the Rapid Blaster, especially with Bomb Range Ups. However, Rapid Blaster shots go straight forward, while Burst Bombs arc (like the other bombs), so you'd probably have to aim them a little more carefully. Also, you can start running/swimming around again pretty quickly after throwing a Burst Bomb, while firing a Rapid (or non-Rapid, for that matter) Blaster locks you into a really slow walk for a second after firing (maybe jumping and firing could help with this, I dunno), so you're more mobile with bombs (even if jump-shooting ups your speed, you can squid away more quickly after throwing a bomb, so...).
At least that's what I think.

 

[BIG Tom]

Love this weapon. Recently, I've been playing around with the Blaster paired with Damage Ups because the weapon does not really have a high ink usage and I felt Ink Saver/Regen abilities were not a great benefit.

I've read from multiple sources about the damage cap preventing a decrease in the number of shots to splat and the Blaster will always be a one hit splat with a direct hit, but I wanted to push for more damage from the splash. In matches with at least two main Damage ups, I noticed that on a few occassions, the splash damage from nearly missed direct hits seemed to be one hit splats. At first, I thought that it was probably just perception due to latency.

I tested it on the dummies with 3 main Damage Up and 1 sub Damage Up to confirm and the close proximity splash damage can register over 100. The direct hit was 156, and splash damage registered up to 120+. However, the damage does seem to decrease quickly the further away from the center of impact.

As for the Rapid Blaster, I've topped it out to 99 damage direct hit and close proximity splash damage reduced to two hit splat ~60 damage.

Anyone have thoughts or want to further test this for all of us Blaster Jockeys out there?

 

[nukedeggs]

Yeah, I ran the Custom Blaster with 3 Dmg Ups and it definitely seemed to have an effect on near-misses, making them one-hit splats. However, it has to be very near misses for it to have this effect.

I've been playing nothing but the Custom Blaster for the past few days in Ranked, and I gotta say, damn, I sucked. I realized that I've been using the wide radius of the Splattershot Jr as a crutch, and since the Blaster demanded more precise aiming. I couldn't deliver for a while. I deranked all the way down to C- (and very quickly ranked back up, because C- is a completely different world of people not being very good). Now I'm back at B-. A strategy I've been toying around with is by being stealthy, hiding in ink, and moving slowly to avoid waves (and also so that I can gauge my distance better). I run Cold-Blooded, Tenacity, and Ink Resistance, and that's been going pretty well for me. Still gotta improve my aim, though.

 

[DaisyFan]

with the Disruptor, the Blaster is pretty decend in Splat zone if you use it wisely. it will be also known to be a cheap weapon or more likely a Tryhard weapon too.

 

[Nerdicon]

I've switched over to the custom blaster, the point sensor is better for team support and in my experience better in actual combat. The bubbler is better for blaster in every way thinkable

 

[Avatar K]

I feel like the blaster should count as it's own weapon class since its nothing like a regular shooter. Its rate of fire is slow slow that is a pain to lay out ink, but it has amazing kill potential, so I'd save it for Ranked mode.

It does count as its own weapon class.

This seems to be a good weapon for guarding an area, such as a splat zone. One can cover the area with his/her ink, scout the area with point sensors if you have the custom blaster, hide in his/her own ink with stealth squid, and splat any enemy that gets within range. The blaster can struggle with going on the offensive as it has difficulty being in range to harm the enemy without committing fairly heavily, which can put its user in a difficult position.