A short analysis of weapons that aren't heavy but feel like it

[QuagSass]

Earlier this week I was playing Salmon Run with my teammates and we talked a bit about how bad I am with Dualies (I'm getting better, I promise!) During the conversation our captain told me that he couldn't wait for the devs to release a heavyweight Dualie just so I'd be forced to learn how to properly use one due to my self-imposed duty as a heavyweight weapons enjoyer. Then we kinda joked about how Gloogas are probably the closest to a heavyweight Dualie we'll ever get in Splatoon. It made me think about heavyweights and how some midweight weapons feel like heavies.

These are heavyweight mains in the game:
Dynamo Roller
E-liter 4K/E-liter 4K Scoped
Hydra Splatling <3
Explosher
Tenta Brella
Wellstring V

It's not a long list, which begs the quest: What makes a heavyweight a heavyweight? Why is something like the Tenta Brella a heavy but the Gloogas aren't?

To me a heavy weapon isn't just one that's slow and ink-hungry with big meaty damage numbers slapped on them. A heavy weapon is also the best at something within their class, regardless of how useful that actually is. Often this "something" is also one of the refining traits of the class. Dynamo Roller has the strongest swing, E-Liter has the most range, Hydra Splatling has the highest DPS etc.
The only one that kinda breaks the rule is Explosher, but even that had the highest potential damage per slosh until the Dread Wringer came along and tied it. Explo also just kinda feels the least "heavy" to me. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing, enlighten me Slosher experts. Either way, the weapon paints well enough and does enough damage to justify slapping the heavyweight penalties on it.

There's a couple weapons that feel like a heavyweight due to a combination to endlag, power and ink-efficiency but aren't. I'd like to go over a couple of them here.

So, why aren't Glooga Dualies heavy? They have the highest damage of any Dualie and that's a very common trait in heavies. But that's not a very "Dualie-like" quality. Dualies are fast, scrappy little peashooters that zip around and attract enemy attention. Even the Dualie Squelchers do this and Dousers to some extend. Dousers actually feel like the most heavy Dualie in some aspects. It's like the theoretical heavyweight Dualie was split into two different weapons. I'm not sure if a heavyweight Dualie could be a thing. It'd have to feel like it's the best at dodge rolling somehow while also being slow. Like a strange combination of Dousers and Tetras. I'd be down to hear some ideas from you Dualie folks.

Painbrush is a weapon that I thought was a heavyweight when it first came out. It certainly looks and feels like it. A mostly metallic brush with a large hitbox and a noticeable windup really felt like a homage to the Dynamo Roller in a way. Brushes and Rollers were once the same class, so it makes sense. Painbrush has more range and does more damage at the cost of sliding slower than the other Brushes. That last bit I think is why it's is not a heavyweight. It's not the best at sliding, in fact it can't start sliding as freely as the other Brushes due to it's windup. It does more damage when it bumps into someone while sliding, but that's not really something that Brushes try to do. It's also swung slower than the other Brushes, yet another strike againts it's potential heavyweight status.

Unlike with Dualies, I could see a heavyweight Brush being a thing. In fact I have two ideas on how to make it work:
Idea 1: Give it noticeable windup like with Painbrush, but make it swing really fast. The same speed as Inkbrush is probably as fast as you could go, but give it Octobrush damage so it feels faster. Would probably have swing ink in a narrower area make it more balanced.
Idea 2: Let it slide longer than the other Brushes. Inkbrush consumes 7.5% of it's inktank per second while sliding. The theoretical heavy Brush could consume 5% or something. Give it Inkbrush's enemy ink immunity and Octobrush's speed so this feels like a worthwhile defining trait of the weapon.

You could probably even combine these two ideas somehow. I think there's potential for a heavy Brush.

Range Blaster is an interesting case in that it has all the makings of a heavyweight weapon. It's ink hungry, it does a lot of damage, it had the biggest blast radius until it was nerfed. In an alternate dimension, the Range Blaster is a heavyweight.
I do sometimes wonder why, though I'm sure you Range players are happy it's not heavy. My guess is that while it's now tied for largest blast radius, it's old radius wasn't that much larger to begin with. When the radius did get nerfed I both heard people say that it didn't change much and that it did change things. That to me feels like the radius difference was neglible amongst the Blasters. Range was good at poking behind cover, but it wasn't overwhelmingly the best at it. Other Blasters could also do it just as effectively, barring some exceptions.
Range Blaster also deals a very standard amount of damage within the class. Both of those things combined with the fact that Range was not the longest range Blaster by the time weapon speed tiers were added to Splatoon 1 ultimately led to the weapon being cast as a midweight. Honestly Range is an honorary heavy in my eyes. I enjoy it a fair bit more than other Blasters.

But those are my thoughts on some midweights that don't quite feel like it. I'm sure there's more out there that I'm missing, but these were the ones that jumped out to me first. I was originally going to talk about lightweights as well, but uhhh. I don't care about lightweights >:)
Talk about them yourself.
Might write up an analysis on the actual heavyweights at some point as well. I really haven't been talking about them as much. Do you guys even know that I love heavies?

 

[briank913]

I always feel that Decav is a heavyweight. I think it's cause of the whole 3 model so Wiper would be lightweight, Stamper middle, and Decav heavy. The bows follow this model so I figure swords oughta too. Its dash makes it feel not like a Heavyweight.

 

[Algae]

Painbrush's slide speed is slightly faster than Octobrush, though I feel like they should be the same.

 

[C-53]

.96 gal is the heaviest shooter, if a middleweight on paper. Slow strafe, slow fire rate, slow projectile speed, high damage. Feels more cumbersome than Wellstring, Explo, or Tent, to me. I enjoy playing it quite a bit. I would play it more if the specials were more fun to use.

 

[C-53]

I always feel that Decav is a heavyweight. I think it's cause of the whole 3 model so Wiper would be lightweight, Stamper middle, and Decav heavy. The bows follow this model so I figure swords oughta too. Its dash makes it feel not like a Heavyweight.

I don’t remember where I heard this, but I recall someone speculating that decav was supposed to be heavy, based on some of the naming mined from the code (something like “heavy splatana”). As someone who dies to decav more than pretty much everything else, I like to assume that someone at Nintendo who is not a game design professional made the devs de-restrict it at the last minute (cope, I know).

 

[QuagSass]

.96 gal is the heaviest shooter, if a middleweight on paper. Slow strafe, slow fire rate, slow projectile speed, high damage. Feels more cumbersome than Wellstring, Explo, or Tent, to me. I enjoy playing it quite a bit. I would play it more if the specials were more fun to use.

Shooters are an interesting one. I agree that .96 feels heavy, honestly it's on the cusp of feeling kinda bad at times from what little I played it. It's probably a balancing decision that it's not a heavweight. But I do wonder if part of the reason is also that like Painbrush or Range it's not the best at being a Shooter. Whatever that would even mean in this context. Shooters do everything and you can't be the best at everything without breaking things. And you also can't just be the best at one of those things since that fundamentally goes againts the idea of Shooters being able to do everything.
Honestly this is probably why Shooters have so many lightweight weapons.

Assuming that my theory is even correct in the first place and that in order to be classified as a heavyweight you need at least one thing to be the best at within your class. I could just be going crazy for all I know, haha.

 

[solz]

Heavy weights make me think of thunder when they fire like BOOM (think about it) does googalas or painbrush make you Think BOOM!! My thoughts.

 

[lesbianseagull]

Painbrush having slower swing speed doesn't necessarily mean it ought to be bumped into the heavy weight class. Not every middle weight weapon is fast on its feet. Plus its thoroughly a frontline weapon with its lower mid-range flicks (and it can't poke enemies from a distance with a vertical flick like the rollers). A swim speed reduction would hinder its viability and it already struggles enough.

If anything, the swim speed reduction ought be reserved for the inevitable Dynamo tier long range fourth brush.

Painbrush's slide speed is slightly faster than Octobrush, though I feel like they should be the same.

I thought it was just me. They should've buffed the Octobrush run speed long ago. It always felt inadequate.

 

[QuagSass]

Painbrush having slower swing speed doesn't necessarily mean it ought to be bumped into the heavy weight class.

I mean yeah. That's what I said. In fact I think that because it has a slow swing speed, it shouldn't be a heavyweight. At least not in the context of brushes.
I think a weapon's preferred area of play is more coincidental to it's heavy status. "This weapon is slow, so it needs more range to compensate" -kinda deal. A balancing decision.
You probably could make a heavyweight that is primarily a frontline, but it would be difficult and not worth the effort. Could be a fun thought exercise

 

[lesbianseagull]

The only one that kinda breaks the rule is Explosher, but even that had the highest potential damage per slosh until the Dread Wringer came along and tied it. Explo also just kinda feels the least "heavy" to me. Maybe there's something I'm not seeing, enlighten me Slosher experts. Either way, the weapon paints well enough and does enough damage to justify slapping the heavyweight penalties on it.

Not a slosher expert but if I'm not mistaken, Explo has the slowest slosh rate of any slosher as well as the longest 'true range' (i.e. how far the slosh travels through the air before landing - the Blobber technically has more range but that range is contingent upon bouncing the blobs across a surface that is conducive to it, the true aerial range of the Blobber kinda sucks. The blobs also take longer to hit people from a long distance than the Explo making it less reliable at securing long range splats. But the Blobber can kill with a single slosh so its slightly better at handling surprise encounters). So the Explo feels the most like a backliner of any slosher (even more so than the Blobber). It also has a high degree of versatility for a long range backliner too: no startup charge; has a blast zone but without being limited to an inalterable 'sweet spot' distance like the blasters; can fight enemies indirectly & splat someone hiding behind a wall as far as 4 testing range units of distance away. It can also concentrate lots of ink in an area from a safe distance and has brutal long distance suppressive capabilities with it plopping ink around an enemy from far away, stopping him dead in his tracks, easily setting him up to be splatted either by you or a teammate. So I think the heavy weight classification is quite fair.

You probably could make a heavyweight that is primarily a frontline, but it would be difficult and not worth the effort. Could be a fun thought exercise

If I'm not mistaken, the Tenta is sort of a frontliner (if not a 'midliner'). It has mid range shots but its bulky durable shield makes lends it a rather defensive 'tanky' playstyle with a notable degree of survivability for a frontliner. So the swim speed reduction seems befitting to its playstyle. So I think swim speed can't be based on the sluggishness of the weapon alone nor can it be based on range alone. You have to play it by ear and determine which swim speed is appropriate for each weapon based on its respective playstyle. [note: I don't understand the Tenta as much as the Explo so I wouldn't object to it being bumped to middle weight]

As a side note, it would be interesting if the devs eventually switched to a swim speed spectrum where swim speed was more varied based on the playstyle of each weapon as opposed to lumping everything into 3 categories.

 

[OnePotWonder]

Another weapon one could consider a "false heavyweight" is the H-3 Nozzlenose. It has an extremely slow fire rate for a shooter and poor mobility, but it has the fastest time to splat for its range value, even beating out Range Blaster's direct. Assuming it hits all three shots in a burst, of course.