I honestly like Rapid Blaster for certain Splat Zone maps.
So the main question with this weapon and other rapid blasters: why would you ever use it over any of the other blasters? The reason I think it's okay is that being able to shoot splash damage at long range, quickly, with little ink usage helps to prevent enemies from taking positions. You can just blast at it from safety near a wall. If people are hiding behind a wall, you can just chip away at them with splash damage and force them into doing something. That tiny bit of damage you deal is enough to force others into acting, either to get away or move to a different place behind cover. It makes direct hitting slightly easier, since you can lay down some ink or splash near an enemy and predict where they'll move for the direct shot follow up. While directs with other blasters kill 100% of the time, if your teammates are able to deal 1 shot from almost any other weapon, a Rapid Blaster shot will kill. Also, the quick shot speed makes it slightly quicker to roll out to the middle of the map, as you don't need to wait as long to re-enter squid form. This obviously doesn't matter on more compact maps, like museum or skatepark.
Keeping in mind this weapon's sub and special
.
Custom Range Blaster has a better damage and kill potential, a better sub-weapon in
, and a similar invincibility special in
. The rapid shots from Rapid Blaster can more readily deter enemy movement, as you can lay down ink to cut off enemies from moving forward or taking a position. Also, in splat zones and tower control, the ink mine can hold a more defensive position for you. To be honest, I prefer the custom range blaster, because I like the security of 2-shot kills.
Custom Blaster has short range, but has more damage, the
, and
. I feel like Custom Blaster severely out-classes this Rapid Blaster. It kills quicker, you can reveal locations of enemies to force them into acting or to give your teammates better idea of what's going on, and it has the same special. I like the rapid blaster in most situations though, because I like to keep myself a distance away from enemies and hold ground. Custom Blaster needs to be in people's faces.
I recommend these abilities, alongside the consistently amazing
and
-- Damage up is basically a necessity if you aren't consistent with direct hits. One direct hit will do about 80 damage with no defenses, making a splash damage followup almost certainly kill any player. Otherwise, you're banking on some uncertain range of 2-5 splash damage shots. Damage-up will bring that to a more consistent shot-to-kill.
/
-- Getting the special up serves 2 purposes: 1.) this weapon plays more of a support role, as it can't kill by itself reliably. Being able to get a Bubbler for your more damaging allies is important for pushes. 2.) you need invincibility to keep from splatting to people who rush you. If you feel like you'll be dying a lot, consider saver.
-- Swim up is necessary to be able to out-pace people who rush you. Anyone who's inside the range of your blast radius will quickly cause trouble, and being able to swim faster than them will make it easy to set up shots or get away. It also makes rolling out better. Being in a position to deny positioning with this weapon is important, and if you can't get into a safe spot at the start of the match, you'll find yourself playing too far back to deny sniping posts or keep the enemy from gaining middle/tower control.
Defense is not amazing, as you out-range most weapons in the game if you play right, though 52gals can get pretty lucky shots sometimes. Ink usage rate isn't that bad. I can't think of any reason to use other abilities.
Lemme know what you think.
Sadly, I can't say I reached S rank exclusively with this weapon. It's too in-consistent. You need to rely on directs a lot to play consistently, and the rampant splat-walls and splattershot weapons make it less viable, as you can't get around those at all in some games.
