Ability Tier List

[Katastrphik]

Ink resistance is undoubtedly a god-tier skill as long as you're dealing with Splattershots. If we end up in a meta where they're not common (which I doubt will ever happen) then it's going to be filler like ink recovery or swim speed.

Ninja squid is probably the most effective main skill you could have on the body slot, and cold blooded is second only because there's no way of knowing exactly what the opponent will bring.

Headgear exclusive skills are kinda eh. Until we get some hardcore info on the first/final 30 skills and if tenacity works faster with special fill +, filler would probably be preferred.

I could see Cold Blooded becoming more of a thing once Ranked lets you party up. For now it seems easier to take another ability and just play around a locater if the enemy happens to have it.

 

[Mayday]

It says...(You have insufficient privileges to post here.) um

Didn't know they put a limit on who can make guides. Well just drop it in this thread for now

 

[Squelchior]

Stealth Jump still possesses a lot of utility IMO, in my experience. While there is the really great Squid Beakon support, not every roller will use them, so being able to use Super Jumps without the constant fear of instant death. It allows for some incredibly useful revenge killing (after you are killed, kill the opponent back instantly) when your team is being chased down constantly. Which I could use on Port Mackerel or Blackbelly Skatepark....

 

[Trifroze]

I'm just going to say bits of pieces of everything I think is good. I will start by breaking down the OP.


First off, read this post
http://squidboards.com/threads/how-defense-up-damage-up-seem-to-work.1258/#post-29389

Secondly, DMG/DEF up are situational at best. To elaborate on this, DEF UP is very good for say, the JR/Aerospray guns. This is because, their must common enemy is the .gal series. With one DEF UP, you die in 3 shots, instead of 2. Giving the JR/Aerospray a real fighting chance. Ofc they lose at a distance, but with mobility and ninja swimmer, closing any gap is easy. I don't know any situational occurs for DMG up atm.

Run SPD UP is good, since the boost is fairly large. Do know this increases your run speed by 50%. Swim spd up is great, however, the boost is half as large as run spd up.

Ink savors are more than likely top tier. This in combination with a ink recovery er two as sub-abilities, is amazing.

Ninja Swimmer and Cold Blooded are going be top tier. I can see Cold Blooded being higher than ninja as the meta evolves tho. For those of you, who are ill-informed on Cold Blooded... It reduces the amount of time tracking items apply to you:

Point Sensor 10sec->2.5sec
Echolocator 12sec->3sec​

Ink Resistance is one of the best skills in the game. When you are normally in enemy ink, your run spd/jump height is lowered to 12%. You also take a large chunk of DPS while standing in it. With this ability however, your run spd/jump height are lowered to 80% broken

Haunt is really good, if you are always in the heat of the battle.

I'll probably come back and revisit this thread, as more posts are dropped.

The effect of swim speed up is roughly 10% which is far from 25%. Run speed up I don't see being very useful unless it increases your movement speed while shooting as well, since you're ideally always moving by swimming or shooting. Ink resistance up sounds good but you can escape any situation by holding ZL and tapping ZR below yourself so it has no utility there. In combat it could be a situational advantage where you don't automatically die if you step on enemy ink though, so need to check it out in practice. What comes to ninja squid/swimmer, I don't think that one's too great either as you often don't have that much of a choice where to swim (and if you do you'll most likely get away anyway). People will cover your options with ink and easily predict where you're going most of the time, and the decrease in swim speed is a big downside. As for cold-blooded, it effectively negates 75% of one special in the game. Useful, but too situational in my opinion to make it a really good skill unless the meta completely centralizes around echolocators.

I feel like special charge up is extremely good if used with a weapon that focuses on special. Ink saver main is definitely good for staying in pressure for about 10-12% longer, and swim speed up, while not giving a huge boost, is an important thing to have especially in the beginning of zone matches.

 

[Hinichii.ez.™]

The effect of swim speed up is roughly 10% which is far from 25%. Run speed up I don't see being very useful unless it increases your movement speed while shooting as well, since you're ideally always moving by swimming or shooting. Ink resistance up sounds good but you can escape any situation by holding ZL and tapping ZR below yourself so it has no utility there. In combat it could be a situational advantage where you don't automatically die if you step on enemy ink though, so need to check it out in practice. What comes to ninja squid/swimmer, I don't think that one's too great either as you often don't have that much of a choice where to swim (and if you do you'll most likely get away anyway). People will cover your options with ink and easily predict where you're going most of the time, and the decrease in swim speed is a big downside.

I feel like special charge up is extremely good if used with a weapon that focuses on special. Ink saver main is definitely good for staying in pressure for about 10-12% longer, and swim speed up, while not giving a huge boost, is an important thing to have especially in the beginning of zone matches.

Where are you getting 10% from? and your other %'s? I have some knowledge sources, done some testing and I have the primaguide online one... And uh.. I use ninja swimmer and have faced it. Once you go down under, it becomes one big guessing game.

 

[Trifroze]

Where are you getting 10% from? and your other %'s? I have some knowledge sources and the guide book. And uh.. I use ninja swimmer all the time. Once you go down under, it becomes one big guessing game.

I've tested every ability myself. Whatever your sources say, swim speed up decreases the time it takes to go from one wall to the other in the weapon test stage from 5 seconds to about 4½.

Most of the time in combat you only have one or a couple paths to choose from, and the opponent can ink your escape route before you make it out especially if you swim slightly slower because of the ability.

 

[Hinichii.ez.™]

I've tested every ability myself. Whatever your sources say, swim speed up decreases the time it takes to go from one wall to the other in the weapon test stage from 5 seconds to about 4½.

Most of the time in combat you only have one or a couple paths to choose from, and the opponent can ink your escape route before you make it out especially if you swim slightly slower because of the ability.

Well um... my information is also backed and re-comfirmed by the official game guide. So... I mean

 

[Trifroze]

Well um... my information is also backed and re-comfirmed by the official game guide. So... I mean

It doesn't matter. Go and test it yourself with a stopwatch, several times if you must. Whatever the guide says the effect is about 10% in practice and that's what it comes down to.

 

[Hinichii.ez.™]

I already have tested. We can share and compare tests; another day though.

btw i messed up
i should have said up to, not by. small mistake that blew up to become bigger than it actually was.

 

[Katastrphik]

I already have tested. We can share and compare tests; another day though.

Speed increases tested with a Capture Card.

The effect of swim speed up is roughly 10% which is far from 25%. Run speed up I don't see being very useful unless it increases your movement speed while shooting as well, since you're ideally always moving by swimming or shooting. Ink resistance up sounds good but you can escape any situation by holding ZL and tapping ZR below yourself so it has no utility there. In combat it could be a situational advantage where you don't automatically die if you step on enemy ink though, so need to check it out in practice. What comes to ninja squid/swimmer, I don't think that one's too great either as you often don't have that much of a choice where to swim (and if you do you'll most likely get away anyway). People will cover your options with ink and easily predict where you're going most of the time, and the decrease in swim speed is a big downside. As for cold-blooded, it effectively negates 75% of one special in the game. Useful, but too situational in my opinion to make it a really good skill unless the meta completely centralizes around echolocators.

I feel like special charge up is extremely good if used with a weapon that focuses on special. Ink saver main is definitely good for staying in pressure for about 10-12% longer, and swim speed up, while not giving a huge boost, is an important thing to have especially in the beginning of zone matches.

If you are using a weapon that can't ink directly at your feet quickly, Ink Resistance is very handy, especially because the effect is so potent. Been running it on a roller and it helps my survivability immensely. I can see Bomb Sniffer being more helpful to other weapon classes over Ink Resistance.

As for Stealth Swim, the speed decrease is negligible, especially because it only affects your top speed, not your acceleration. I haven't tested the numbers frame perfectly, but the speed penalty should be counteracted by 1 Sub Speed Up. I would say in general though, it helps you escape sometimes, leaving your attacker to guess which route you took out. I find it more useful for approaching myself. Coming in from a distance while an enemy is busy grabbing turf can make for an easy sneak attack. All in all, still situational, but Cold Blooded is fairly situational until Party Lobbies start happening.

 

[Fightersword]

Wow, I just looked over the data on the Power/Defense boosts, they are nearly negligible. Of course, they can be the difference between winning and losing a 1v1. Additionally, the game is not played in a vacuum, so I could see situations in which a minor amount of damage from other sources could make the difference in HtS with higher power.

The only time to really consider attack or defense up is when it affects shots to kill. You can easily test both for yourself in the test area, and generally neither are worth it.

Ninja squid is extremely powerful. Just the denial of that information gives you a serious edge. Though I haven't gotten it, I heard the change for ink resistance is significant, meaning that one is also relatively powerful. Swim speed is also really good. Recon seems like it would be really good in a team setting. Tenacity also doesn't look half bad from what I've seen of it. Opening gambit is amazing for the initial rollout, especially on splat zones, which is really important.

 

[UnnecessaryTodd]

Ink Resistance is fantastic. If you're in a tight situation and you need to escape (50% of time in Splat Zones) it's a saving grace. I used to run stealth jump, but the only time it's really useful is if you need to help an ally in trouble, but even then it's better to jump somewhere safe and provide support from afar rather than jumping straight into danger.

I currently have Swim Speed Up as my main ability on shirt, I know people have been doing tests but has it been confirmed the difference between main boosts and minor boosts for these abilities?

I also run Opening Gambit because combined with Swim Speed Up it means that I more often than not get to the choke points/centre first which is really important for establishing early control.

The only minor abilities I want are Ink Saver (Main) and Special Charge Up. If I had them on every piece of equipment I would be in heaven. I wouldn't mind Ink Saver (sub) either. These three abilities are the most important for me, especially with my weapon choices (Jet Squelcher and .52 Gal Deco, but especially the Jet Squelcher) Damage/Defense up are mostly useless from everything I've seen. They exist purely to counteract each other and don't really change much. Even in the rare cases that it can turn a 3 hit into a 2 hit or vice versa, odds are that if they hit you twice they'll hit you again. And that's if you take no other damage from anywhere else.

I know there's a list out there that says which brands have more common minor abilities but is there a list of gear and what main abilities they have?

 

[Katastrphik]

I know there's a list out there that says which brands have more common minor abilities but is there a list of gear and what main abilities they have?

Fairly sure this guide has what you are looking for.

And here is how brands affect Sub Abilities if anybody missed it.

 

[bluekentuckyboy]

I CANNOT stress how much I love opening gambit. I don't have swim speed yet (working on it), but opening gambit is SO good for taking mid. Along with a good rollout, this ability practically guarantees you being at mid first. You can then spam the enemy team out while the rest of your team assumes good positions in preparation for the mid fight.

Recon is also extremely helpful and I can only see it becoming more helpful in competitive.

 

[EarthBoundEnigma]

Constant and passive abilities will clearly net more value, but depending on what setup and subs you're using, some abilities will be worthless. Ninja Jump will be highly useful for almost all setups, whereas recon is only marginally valuable since you can just as easily look at where there is enemy paint. Having fast special gauge increase and duration are amazing on the Krack-On Roller, but aren't as important for people running a less pivotal special. Stat-boosting upgrades are mediocre compared to upgrades that grant abilities and powers. The Ninja perks are spectacular. Bomb Sniffer and Ink Resistance Up are fantastic. Tenacity is priceless if you find yourself having to carry your team a lot. (Especially when combined with the Echolocator special!)

Ability perks that require you to die or backtrack to the spawn are the absolute worst perks, that only serve to help bad players compensate for being bad, so dying doesn't come at such a harsh penalty. If you're good enough to stay alive, they're worthless.

That said, two perks are worse than any other: the 30 second start/end abilities.
These are less-active than even the death abilities.

 

[Seleir]

i just dont know how to put if ink resistance and other else that i dont know, or stealth super jump....

 

[EarthBoundEnigma]

Ink Resistance Up is good if you're playing very mobile, otherwise, stealth is preferable. Stealth jump is extremely good.

 

[Erico9001]

It really matters with what weapon you are using. A better idea than a tier list is to start making the most competitively menacing sets between different equipment and weapons

 

[EarthBoundEnigma]

There are some abilities that will just never be seen on a structured and intentioned set, so a preliminary tier list for abilities is important, because people are still choosing death and 30 second perks.

 

[Erico9001]

Constant and passive abilities will clearly net more value, but depending on what setup and subs you're using, some abilities will be worthless. Ninja Jump will be highly useful for almost all setups, whereas recon is only marginally valuable since you can just as easily look at where there is enemy paint. Having fast special gauge increase and duration are amazing on the Krack-On Roller, but aren't as important for people running a less pivotal special. Stat-boosting upgrades are mediocre compared to upgrades that grant abilities and powers. The Ninja perks are spectacular. Bomb Sniffer and Ink Resistance Up are fantastic. Tenacity is priceless if you find yourself having to carry your team a lot. (Especially when combined with the Echolocator special!)

Ability perks that require you to die or backtrack to the spawn are the absolute worst perks, that only serve to help bad players compensate for being bad, so dying doesn't come at such a harsh penalty. If you're good enough to stay alive, they're worthless.

That said, two perks are worse than any other: the 30 second start/end abilities.
These are less-active than even the death abilities.

I agree with a lot of this. However, getting splatted is inevitable if your team is losing. They would be useful for comebacks. There is actually one death ability named comeback, lol. I'm currently on this forum looking for information on what exactly is boosted by that ability, but I have found nothing.