A+ Ranked Strategy: Video Mini-Series (~1h 30min)

[flc]

Sup.

Had a decent ranked session last night that showcased a lot of what I'm always blabbering on about in my stream (blasters and krakons being bad, inkzookas being insane, etc etc). That, plus the fact that it's high time I start contributing my own information instead of just telling people they're wrong, made it seem like a good idea to record some commentary over my gameplay. What follows is a seven-part video series in which I discuss a number of aspects of the game fairly broadly with some (eventually) decent play to show off as well.

I initially was going to include an entire section on netcode, but this proved to be worthy of an entire follow-up video of its own... which I'll need to work on at some point in the future. Instead, this series covers the following:
- Video 1: An introduction and some basic concepts
- Video 2: General strategy and FPS fundamentals
- Video 3: How to deal with commonly-complained-about weapons
- Video 4: Superjumping and other things that you really shouldn't do
- Video 5: My current selection of the "best" weapons in the game
- Video 6: My current selection of the weakest weapons, plus a short analysis of over-valued subs and specials
- Video 7: A quick look at the new patch and what it might mean for the future of this game's comp scene

Hopefully people find it informative, or failing that, find the footage enjoyable to watch.

The first video is here:

And I've added all seven videos to this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2z1eVuvh1Mt5JqpuOZAqjocUmiHB_eAy

Feel free to discuss the points I make either in the comments or (preferably) here. It's still early days yet, and as my play in these videos indicates, I've still got a long way to go myself, so any discussion is good discussion.

 

[Agosta44]

I think you're sleeping hard on Blaster/Custom Blaster/Luna Blaster. They're very strong in Splat Zones and will probably be top tier for tower control (especially custom due to Bubbler). Even if you whiff someone you will most likely still kill them with the second shot due to them being caught in the ink you just laid down and the whiff damage. Luna has a debatable kit as it has ink mine, but having Inkzooka makes it quite powerful overall.

 

[River09]

I'll watch. You seem to have a pretty good grasp of the game.:p

I think you're sleeping hard on Blaster/Custom Blaster/Luna Blaster. They're very strong in Splat Zones and will probably be top tier for tower control (especially custom due to Bubbler). Even if you whiff someone you will most likely still kill them with the second shot due to them being caught in the ink you just laid down and the whiff damage. Luna has a debatable kit as it has ink mine, but having Inkzooka makes it quite powerful overall.

Eh, I disagree. Blasters have very limited range and if you don't actually hit them in the centre of the blast they're able to escape pretty easily and will probably be able to gun you down better from a faster fire rate. And all thats assuming they don't kill kill first from having better range. They don't even have very good inking capabilities because of the bad fire rate. So they're lackluster in firefights and inking. They are pretty much the weapons inj the game that only work very well on sneek kills but sneeking really isn't enough against good, aware opponents. Rapid Blaster Deco, I would say is the best out of the lot because it has a much better firing rate and range, it has bombs and bomb rush for coverage (although it takes a while to come out) but honestly I think there weapons that do its job better.

 

[Agosta44]

I'll watch. You seem to have a pretty good grasp of the game.:p


Eh, I disagree. Blasters have very limited range and if you don't actually hit them in the centre of the blast they're able to escape pretty easily and will probably be able to gun you down better from a faster fire rate. And all thats assuming they don't kill kill first from having better range. They don't even have very good inking capabilities because of the bad fire rate. So they're lackluster in firefights and inking. They are pretty much the weapons inj the game that only work very well on sneek kills but sneeking really isn't enough against good, aware opponents. Rapid Blaster Deco, I would say is the best out of the lot because it has a much better firing rate and range, it has bombs and bomb rush for coverage (although it takes a while to come out) but honestly I think there weapons that do its job better.

Inking is irrelevant. The entire point of the game is to catch people off guard. Unless you're a charger you have no business shooting someone in the face. I've seen some pretty impressive Blaster play online and from some streamers, so this is a weapon type I would rather wait and see how they develop rather than write them off.

edit: also the only 2 stages where I could see rapid blaster being decent is Salt Spray and Mall because of the small platforms and the reaction of "why is that guy using a rapid blaster".

 

[Eclipsc70]

I have to say I really appreciate small series like these that explain strategy in an organized fashion, tres bien flc. Now considering I will be one of the few that will be maining the apparently horrible Ink Brush Nouveau when it drops, Id like to know if you could possibly give me some advice on how to use the Bubbler properly whether it be offensively or defensively. You began to go into it in your 6th video at the end but stopped short.

 

[River09]

Inking is irrelevant. The entire point of the game is to catch people off guard. Unless you're a charger you have no business shooting someone in the face. I've seen some pretty impressive Blaster play online and from some streamers, so this is a weapon type I would rather wait and see how they develop rather than write them off.

edit: also the only 2 stages where I could see rapid blaster being decent is Salt Spray and Mall because of the small platforms and the reaction of "why is that guy using a rapid blaster".

Fair enough, they aren't really designed for inking. But that said, it still doesn't do very well at catching people offguard. The slow firing rate means very limited speed for traversing around opponents and splatting them. But we'll see. I'm sure there are many good players using them who are able to really do well at them.

 

[TheMH]

This looks promising. I will watch it in the evening today.

 

[GrandFinaleGalaxy]

I watched them and I think they're probably the best thing that exists for explaining how top level ranked is going and how to improve. FLC explains everything perfectly and doesn't just expect you to take his word for anything. I thought the parts that show how to counter certain weapons were very helpful. I think I might try out the squiffers too.

 

[Kaliafornia]

Fair enough, they aren't really designed for inking. But that said, it still doesn't do very well at catching people offguard. The slow firing rate means very limited speed for traversing around opponents and splatting them. But we'll see. I'm sure there are many good players using them who are able to really do well at them.

The point of catching people off guard is them not seeing you traverse around them. Unless one team has solid control of the map ink is flying everywhere and a sneaky, blaster with good aim could be deadly. Speed isn't everything, taking your time for the right moment and most importantly not dying is better for your team in the long run.

 

[Twinkie]

I'll watch. You seem to have a pretty good grasp of the game.:p


Eh, I disagree. Blasters have very limited range and if you don't actually hit them in the centre of the blast they're able to escape pretty easily and will probably be able to gun you down better from a faster fire rate. And all thats assuming they don't kill kill first from having better range. They don't even have very good inking capabilities because of the bad fire rate. So they're lackluster in firefights and inking. They are pretty much the weapons inj the game that only work very well on sneek kills but sneeking really isn't enough against good, aware opponents. Rapid Blaster Deco, I would say is the best out of the lot because it has a much better firing rate and range, it has bombs and bomb rush for coverage (although it takes a while to come out) but honestly I think there weapons that do its job better.

It just depends on the map in my opinion. The thing with Blasters is you don't go gung-ho with them. You have to depend on your team having good area control so you can AMBUSH players with it. So you need to play on maps that favor ambushing. I managed to rank up quite a bit using Blasters, going positive in every game.

It may not be top tier. But it is doable to get to A+ with it.

 

[TheMH]

Yup, I liked the series a lot as well. It's very well structured and informative. A thing which you see rarely on commentated YouTube videos.

 

[SHUTupNrocK8]

Seems like a good watch at work, thanks!

 

[flc]

I think you're sleeping hard on Blaster/Custom Blaster/Luna Blaster. They're very strong in Splat Zones and will probably be top tier for tower control (especially custom due to Bubbler). Even if you whiff someone you will most likely still kill them with the second shot due to them being caught in the ink you just laid down and the whiff damage. Luna has a debatable kit as it has ink mine, but having Inkzooka makes it quite powerful overall.

my concern is that they can't do much if someone's up in their face because they need to hit directly. for tower control--maybe, I actually recorded this commentary before seeing any gameplay of it (and I do say straight up that this series is for splat zones only), and blasters do have a low-ground advantage that could be annoying in tower control. if a blaster gets jumped on, they have to either fluke a direct hit or run away... and running away from point blank range is difficult. ink res also helps a lot with blasters. and as you said in your follow-up post, this game's about blindsiding people and blasters are pretty unsubtle and slow.

that said, I'm not necessarily saying these weapons are bad (especially not anything with inkzooka), just that they have glaring weaknesses that people don't tend to exploit, which makes people overrate their value. I put them in the 'weakest' section more to just highlight that rapid blaster is the worst weapon in the game and other blasters can be exploited in a similar manner. the only actual bad weapons are inkbrush and rapid blaster; the rest are decent enough to be usable but in my opinion are weaker than everything else as well.

You began to go into it in your 6th video at the end but stopped short.

the 6th video was a struggle, kept ranting about krak-on and then realising I had half a match to talk about everything else lol. apologies for that.

the problem with bubbler on short range weapons is that you generally use bubbler as a panic button to win a firefight when you get turned on, but since short range weapons get pinballed out of range after only a few shots, it's kind of weak on anything that isn't the squiffer or (if the rapid blaster didn't suck) the blasters. so for the inkbrush, I'd be using it as an escape tool and as team support; when your team rushes in, bubble them with your very fast move speed and get into a flanking position so that you can hit and run.

 

[GrandFinaleGalaxy]

I remember you saying something about scoped weapons and I think you said they were good. But I never see them anywhere. Can you explain more about those?

 

[swifT]

Quite the series you have here flcl, and I must say it was very enjoyable, and extremely informative.

Not only have you brought to light things that so many people have misconceptions about in regards to the ever growing meta, but you also have provided excellent insight into how a player of your level, or who wants to be on your level should be thinking.

I am by no means an A+ player nor do I consider myself an A player at all. I have reached "A" several times but always seem to find myself back in B-B+. I'm glad to have watched this video, and agree with everything you've said, but I do have some things I'd like to ask.

First. The weapons you have listed as weak certainly are, but I personally believe that in an organized setting things considered bad could easily be turned around. You have already listed your teams ideal composition, but I want to know your opinion on experimenting with the worse weapons in an organized setting. I feel like in a proper team setting with communication any weapon will become viable as teams develop their own strategies.

The next being in regards to competitive in general. Do you or your team members have an ideal competitive ruleset you'd like to see tested once custom games are possible in august?

 

[Mondrae205]

I love that when you were talking about how bad the roller is you lost to a team with two of them. Besides that I loved this video series! Before this I actually thought that the inkzooka was weak. Now I see that I just have been using it wrong! I never thought that Kraken was op though so at least I have that.

 

[River09]

The point of catching people off guard is them not seeing you traverse around them. Unless one team has solid control of the map ink is flying everywhere and a sneaky, blaster with good aim could be deadly. Speed isn't everything, taking your time for the right moment and most importantly not dying is better for your team in the long run.

It just depends on the map in my opinion. The thing with Blasters is you don't go gung-ho with them. You have to depend on your team having good area control so you can AMBUSH players with it. So you need to play on maps that favor ambushing. I managed to rank up quite a bit using Blasters, going positive in every game.

It may not be top tier. But it is doable to get to A+ with it.

I see your points. I don't play much with blasters, this is mostly theory for me. Also, I take back what I said about Rapid blaster being the best. At that point in time I forgot that it took 2 hits with it to kill opponents and it had ink mines.

 

[Erico9001]

blasters are the bane of rollers.

 

[flc]

I love that when you were talking about how bad the roller is you lost to a team with two of them. Besides that I loved this video series! Before this I actually thought that the inkzooka was weak. Now I see that I just have been using it wrong! I never thought that Kraken was op though so at least I have that.

yeah I noticed that as well but I also was playing incorrectly against them and tilting a little because of the tag teaming (and my team was sort of feeding itself to the meat grinder). also, tentatek is one of the few weapons that doesn't utterly destroy rollers in every situation (which is one of its few weaknesses)

rollers have their strengths and it's pretty ugly when they can abuse them like they did in that one particular game, but for the most part krak-ons are some of the least threatening things in this game

blasters are the bane of rollers.

idk, rollers are one of the best weapons in the game for abusing their minimum range issues. that said, blasters don't mind being able to get a free shot or two on someone who's rolling instead of squidding.

 

[Agosta44]

blasters are the bane of rollers.

As a Roller I can confirm that Blasters make me want to kill myself.