Well i probably can't be as detailed as the two above me but as a former Rapid main who reached S with the blaster (It's now my secondary...thank the Sloshing machine for that.) But i'll give some of my opinions. The more the merrier right?
If your looking for an answer on specific playstyle, with the Standard, you should focus on ranged defence, of areas that your team has pushed into and support your team in pushing further, (or defending the zone). With the Deco, it's a balace of support and attack where you should gain some turf/push for your team, but also help your team push as well. You'll gain experience in time and will learn when and where to apply yourself in situations if you commit to the weapon. I see high ranks like S and S+ where you've got some of the best knowledge about the game and how to deal with almost any situation. From a solo perspective anyway, I don't do squads.
Now for the general stuff.
The Rapid blaster as you have heard from HappyBear and Bagels, cannot deal with close range issues, at best, the standard Rapid blaster can get a trade with the inkmine, but really, as a support weapon, that's your last resort and should always be avoided into getting into those situations where possible. You've probably heard it enough but your aim is important, so always have good aim so you can make direct hits whenever possible, or get good splash damage.
If you find yourself in those situations where you need a last resort too often. Then that means you're not playing the Rapid blaster to it's full extent. The Rapid blaster (Both variants) pride themselves in fast(for a blaster), ranged combat that can generally shut down any mid range shooter from afar. I"m sure you'll hear this a lot but the Rapid blaster has some insane range for a blaster and a decent fire rate to boot.
Abuse it.
A trick you can do (well, not really a trick but hey) is with ink mines, you don't necessarily have to wait until the explosion finishes to plant a new inkmine. You can plant a new one as soon as the explosion starts. Its usefulness is questionable. In a fire fight, the best that trick can do is give you more ink to stand on, which i guess is good because the rapid can't ink too well by itself, but it would be a waste of ink. You could use it as a distraction i guess while you're super jumping away.
If you want to know the gear i used, this was the set i used for a long time until i switched to the Sloshing machine, where i use
instead of
:
|
Squid Girl Tunic:
|
Squid Girl Boots:
|
: Pretty darn useful if you find yourself relying on Splash damage for attack. Also effective when opponents run
: I used it because it's on my current favourite headgear. It isn't too effective, but it's enough to help me out when using bombs.
:Always something good to have. Get around my own ink quickly, and if i'm unsure about super jumping, i'll swim instead.
:For those times i need to get out of a situation, or get to the middle of a stage quickly.
: Extended Invincibility and Bomb rush are always a plus....but lol spyke.
and
were compliments from Spyke. how nice. I don't save scum or anything like that so i don't want to risk re rolling what i've got unless if i'm bored and don't want the current abilities.
All in all, those abilities were what suited me best and what suited my playstyle too. I don't know what you work well with so my gear set my not have great synergy with your playstyle.
Sorry if that ended up being too long to read Dx