Ability Usefulness

[Jayy]

Alright, I'm going to start this by saying I have not tested every single ability. I probably haven't even tested half, But this is my gripe- I feel like over half of the abilities in this game are completely useless. This may not be a popular opinion as I see many posts referring to many abilities as situational, but it just seems to me that there only a few abilities that are worth using and stacking because of the fact that they are good in so many situations.

I realize that by using a certain weapon and playing a certain map can dictate the effectiveness of this ability or that, but really, the few good abilities that there are just seem like they benefit any weapon and play style far more often.

My personal opinion is that Ink Saver (M/S), Ink Recovery, Run/Swim Speed, Special Charge/Saver, Ink Resist, and Ninja Squid are the only ones I could ever think to use. The rest seem like fillers that were added for the sake of variety, yet I roll my eyes and curse under my breath when a piece of gear procs a new ability and its one of the useless ones. Plus it just makes the grind for the abilities I want that much more painful when the RNG gives me the sh*t I don't want more often.

Special Power Up, Sub Power up sound like the most effective of the useless abilities, but I still don't see a reason to ever prioritize, or even use or fill one slot that could have ink saver, speed, etc. in its place.

Quick Respawn- Probably shouldn't be getting splatted so many times without being able to lock a splat yourself in the first place. Yes some games are a slaughter and you can't help it. But to make this one a part of your gear? Why?

Quick Super Jump- I don't see how a few fractions of a second in a Super Jump could warrant filling a slot or more over an ink saver or speed or special saver/charge or Ink resist.

Bomb Defense- Probably shouldn't stand so close to bombs anyway.

Cold-Blooded- In the amount of time I've been playing it doesn't seem like many people even use Point Sensor. Why would I care to waste slots and stack this?

Sub Power Up- I could see an increase in throwing range as a plus, but not enough really in the end to replace a more useful ability.

I won't even waste my time with some of the other ones as they seem geared only to new players and people who just in general aren't great at the game. Plus many of them aren't stackable at all and waste the slot of a main ability on a piece of gear. That then in my eyes renders so many pieces of gear useless altogether.

Now I could be completely wrong in all of this, and I could not even understand how some of the abilities work. And I hope I am wrong, because it seems like a huge waste of time for me to be weeding out so many useless abilities fishing for the 9 of 25 abilities I'm ever gunna use. Please. Call me an idiot. Tell me I'm horribly mistaken. Prove me wrong. I'll honestly be happy about it because I want to find more use out of such a large pool of abilities.

 

[LiX]

As I see it, Swim Speed Up, Ink Saver Main and some others you listed are really the abilities I use the most. But I find that about 80% of the normal abilities (those you can have chunks of) can be useful, depending on what weapon you use at the time. I don't wanna write a big wall of words when I find what useful, So let me give you some examples for those abilities that you listed as useless:

Bomb Defense - This was a big thing before they nerfed the effect of Sub Saver. I saw mostly N-Zaps run it to be even more save with their ink armor when all those Splattershots were throwing burst bombs which this obviously shielded you a tad from.

Special Charge Up - I actually use this a lot when playing my Carbon. I like to go 2 mains and 6 subs of those + 1 main and 3 subs of swim speed up with that Roller. It allowes me to develop the ink storm crazy fast. Can really decide a game early in Ranked or league.

Sub Power Up - Try Sub Power up with a Splattershot. Haul those Burst Bombs at 'em and watch them get splatted in no time. Really, even after the update you can do crazy damage with those.

Quick Super Jump - I really don't use that. But I see this being a niche thing for people who like to quick jump into a huge and close knit battlefield and then surprise Splashdown. So I can imagine some people can use that in a strategic way.

Cold Blooded - This one would really be useful if they still had weapons which could make you tag the whole enemy team by their special like they had in Splatoon 1. Nowadays you're right: You don't get tagged often enough anymore to warrant trading more appealing abilities. But IF tagging everyone was ever to return, this would be great!

As for the others listed: Yep, I really don't use them a lot and see nobody doing it aswell. Quick Respawn? Well, better get other abilities to just make sure you don't die so much. ;-P

P.S.: Funnily, before I saw this, I had just opened a thread regarding unique abilities in the competitive forum. If you'd like to, you can give your opinion on there regarding those. Would be interesting to hear which of those you deem useful.

 

[Dessgeega]

Only a handful of abilities are worthless. Everything else has it's value. I shall elaborate.

Quick Super Jump - You shouldn't underestimate the ability to flee from situations that might be certain death otherwise. 1 main 3 subs of QSJ is enough to leap to spawn almost instantly. This can be invaluable in these combat-focused stages, with few to no ways to mitigate the death penalty. The trip from spawn is shorter than the respawn time. Discretion is the better of valor and also, you know, not dying.

Bomb Defense - You REALLY shouldn't underestimate this ability, it has enormous and wide-reaching benefits. Despite the name, it reduces the damage of everything in the game that isn't a main weapon. Everything. Just one sub of this ability keeps two indirect Inkjet blasts from killing you. 3 subs provides around 11% global damage reduction from non-main damage sources. Bomb defense lets you walk away from fights you might have lost due to specials and explosives flying about.

Special Charge Up - this is a flat reduction to the amount of points you need in order to use your special. Considering your special can completely turn the tide when used well, this can be a game changer. And to respond to Lix...

Special Charge Up - I actually use this a lot when playing my Carbon. I like to go 2 mains and 6 subs of those + 1 main and 3 subs of swim speed up with that Roller. It allowes me to develop the ink storm crazy fast. Can really decide a game early in Ranked or league.

That is WAY too much Special Charge. It's basically doing nothing for you past the 2nd main, as this video will show you. As a rule of thumb, going beyond 2 mains/1 main 3 subs of anything is usually a tad too specialized.

Spoiler

Sub Power Up - This has it's uses. Remember, it increases velocity as well as throwing range, meaning your explosives reach the target that much faster, and if they're surprised and can't react in time to the extra speed, you win! There are others uses as well. On point sensors and ink mines it extends the tracking time, allowing you to stalk foes for VERY long periods in this fast-paced game. Sprinklers are incredibly efficient painters with some Sub Power Up. And enhanced squid beakons can allow for some diabolical tactics, particularly in League when you can coordinate with allies.

Special Power Up - Bubble Blower benefits the most from this, as it increases both the bubble size and the resulting explosion, enhancing offense and defense. It's useful but debatable on most other specials, but it's viable enough. One friend of mine has a "cheeky" Special Power Up-only outfit in order to have exceedingly large Inkjet explosions.

Quick Respawn and Cold-Blooded are indeed pretty worthless, but I won't get into that. I could go on for a while, but I hope that clears things up.

 

[LiX]

Interesting video! Thanks for that. I shall no longer overstack Special Charge Up!

 

[Drew Sebastino]

Only a handful of abilities are worthless. Everything else has it's value.

I think a fair bit are pretty worthless. On top of Quick Respawn and Cold Blooded, there's Opening Gambit, Last-Ditch Effort, Comeback, Haunt, Drop Roller, Object Shredder, Respawn Punisher, Stealth Jump, Tenacity, and Thermal Ink, which all range from bad to useless.

 

[Dessgeega]

I think a fair bit are pretty worthless. On top of Quick Respawn and Cold Blooded, there's Opening Gambit, Last-Ditch Effort, Comeback, Haunt, Drop Roller, Object Shredder, Respawn Punisher, Stealth Jump, Tenacity, and Thermal Ink, which all range from bad to useless.

You'd be incorrect. Many unique specials are situational, yes, however there's exceptions.

Comeback provides a whopping 24 subs of abilities for 20 seconds, an entire outfit's worth for quite a bit of time in this game. Object Shredder on fast-firing weapons has it's uses, particularly against ballers, ink armor, and the rainmaker shield. Tenacity massively adds up over the course of a match if you tend to outlive your allies, 2 per second per dead ally can create 2 or more additional specials. Stealth Jump has no speed penalty anymore, so combined with quick super jump it can enable some highly mobile plans especially in league with ally coordination. Drop Roller is of limited use, but Inkjet users can find utility with it.

Besides, I was talking about stackable abilities, all the ones you've mentioned have yet to come up in this thread, kind of a different matter.

 

[Padre]

Respawn Punisher is the best ability and last-ditch effort works also.
Some abilities are better in league.

 

[Elecmaw]

No ability should be excused because of something that shouldn't happen. That's not how it works. Even pro-players regularly get hit and die and have to prepare themselves for it.

Bomb Defense Up is actually useful, it stops Splashdown + Burst cheese dead in it's tracks. You have to actually be precise on how much you end up stacking it to get the most out of it. It stops burst + weapon combos pretty well.
Special Charge, while nerfed, is also still useful.

I think a big problem with the timed abilities is that there's no longer an indicator when they are active, meaning you're effectively playing a guessing game when you can fully utilize them and when the effects are over, comeback in particular is bad at this. It also doesn't help that the in-game text doesn't even explain what kind of abilities you will get.

QSJ might be useful in Clam Blitz to get around the stage fast, but outside of that mode it's not very useful. There's also the issue that there are very few weapons out there that use beakons, and half of them aren't popular to begin with.

Quick Respawn is terrible in it's current state. I personally think they should've taken the same route of Damage Up and remove it from the game entirely. Special Saver is a much better alternative.

And just like QR, Cold-Blooded also took a fall from grace but that's mostly because Echolocator is no longer a thing.

There's a lot out there that is actually very specific (Thermal is only good on Jet/Heavy/Hydra, Sub Power up is best restricted to just one main and only on some subs) that are pretty helpful but don't get used a lot.
People tend to leave these things in the dust because they can't roll the sub abilities they want yet, and they rather want to invest in a set of clothes with universally helpful perks first so they can stay flexible with their weapon choices. And even if they get what they wanted, it might have not been that useful after all.

Given the circumstances i could probably rant about abilities all day, but the solution would either to give it a hollow tier-list style treatment or to drown this topic in a massive tl;dr textwall.

 

[Mar$el]

This is something interesting I tested as I was messing around doing "what if I wear the most I can of a certain ability"...
I'm 4 subs away from being able to have 12 Sub Power up, so with my 3 mains and 5 subs of sub power up, I found that a point sensor increased its time from 8 seconds to 16.5 seconds, so I'm gonna test how much a few subs do to point sensor. Also, ink mines, while being gigantic also had a time increase from 6 seconds I believe? to 10 seconds. Also, boy you can just huck burst bombs so far so fast. Splash walls last FOREVER is kinda insane. You can basically instantly jump anywhere you place a beacon. Those were all the cool things I noticed. Obviously this basically has no place in competitive play for it's really fun putting on as much as you can and going into turf war (or anywhere else) and just abuse them. I've done it very successfully in ranked with the hydra deco and sub saver, and sub power up with the Custom E-Liter and on the firefin, along with rainkmaker and 12 swim speeds (still don't advise it). These things just make the game a lot more fun and new and enjoyable.

 

[J'Wiz]

One thing that has been concerning me lately is the usefulness of pures. As you know, abilities have diminishing returns, but I have noticed that diminishing returns can sometimes make it to where it seems more effective if you use a piece of equipment with mixed abilities rather than a pure.

One example is the Splattershot Pro. It seems a pure of Ink Saver Main leaves you with 1.4% of a tank used per shot as opposed to the normal 2%. Sounds like a nice reduction, but a main or even 3 subs of Ink Saver Main leaves you with 1.6% of a tank per shot. With that said, it seems like I'm just better off using the 3 subs of Ink Saver Main, and a main of something else.

Of course I still see alot of pures where they're still very useful despite the diminishing returns. A pure of Ink Saver Sub makes Splash Wall go slightly below 50% a tank. Pures of Run Speed, Swim Speed, or Ink Recovery are still great because faster whatever are always nice.

I'm still not 100% sure on where I need to stop on some abilities, but I was kind of frustrated when looking at the numbers. I'm having to rework one of my sets because of this.

 

[Mar$el]

One thing that has been concerning me lately is the usefulness of pures. As you know, abilities have diminishing returns, but I have noticed that diminishing returns can sometimes make it to where it seems more effective if you use a piece of equipment with mixed abilities rather than a pure.

One example is the Splattershot Pro. It seems a pure of Ink Saver Main leaves you with 1.4% of a tank used per shot as opposed to the normal 2%. Sounds like a nice reduction, but a main or even 3 subs of Ink Saver Main leaves you with 1.6% of a tank per shot. With that said, it seems like I'm just better off using the 3 subs of Ink Saver Main, and a main of something else.

Of course I still see alot of pures where they're still very useful despite the diminishing returns. A pure of Ink Saver Sub makes Splash Wall go slightly below 50% a tank. Pures of Run Speed, Swim Speed, or Ink Recovery are still great because faster whatever are always nice.

I'm still not 100% sure on where I need to stop on some abilities, but I was kind of frustrated when looking at the numbers. I'm having to rework one of my sets because of this.

Despite the fact that pures are aesthetically pleasing and seem like the ultimate goal for gear, a good amount of times you'd be better off having some other things. When you're thinking about a build you should really spend a lot of time on loadout.ink to check all of the benefits and how much from certain types of gear. Should I really have a pure of swim speed or just a few subs or a main? Pures imo just make it easier to decide what you want for a weapon. But then, you should be able to look at the stats for those pures and decide maybe I'll replace this ink recovery sub with bomb defense or maybe I don't need so much special charge I'll replace these last few worthless subs that only lower it by 2 points with some special saver. Maybe you decide you don't need a ton of swim speed but you need some so you figure out where you can fit 2 subs of swim speed.

Pures are helpful to choose what you think will be best for your weapon and playstyle and seem to be the ultimate goal for gear just because it's the simplest to think about and the most aesthetically pleasing. It's not like the best thing is to have a hodgepodge of abilities but maybe having 3 of the same sub but the main different on your gear so you have more widespread benefits. Or maybe you do decide you want to stack sub saver or main saver or special charge. I used to always wear a bomb defense pure shirt but then when I realized I didn't need a pure of bomb defense I replaced it with something for more widespread benefits and just kept a sub of bomb defense. Pures are good to have, but you can definitely go farther to understand what you really need for your build.

 

[Dessgeega]

The main draw of pures is convenience. 1 sub of bomb defense or quick super jump can provide big benefits, but then it's harder to swap around gear for different weapons and modes. I have an outfit tailor-made for my Jet that I haven't used in some time just because it's been easier swapping pures around for different effects. Pures aren't absolutely optimal for every ability, but they strike a good balance between convenience and stats that will always remain viable. Crunching the numbers for perfect stats is definitely something you can do, but it's not going to make a grand difference when that Japanese Splattershot pops up and splats you in 1 hit. It's a matter of taste at the end of the day, I think.

For a personal example, 1 main 3 subs of ink recovery is my ideal amount as is, because I need ammo to live :P

 

[Jayy]

The bomb defense up and sub power up are intriguing me after all of your useful information on them.

In what kind of build/playstyle would you want either of these though?

Seems like sub power up would be good for burst bombs for when you’re spamming them. But bomb defense up seems like it would be an all around ability. Unless it’s more efficient in closer ranges weapons/play styles where you’re in the face of your opponents. Thoughts?

 

[Dessgeega]

Burst bombs get the most use out of sub power up among the explosives, yes, due to their instant detonation. The rest can still surprise people but their timers lessen that. Well, aside from Curling Bombs which benefit from the extra movement speed. Throwing toxic mist further really isn't worth investing in, but point sensors and ink mines and squid beakons and sprinklers can really benefit with the right builds. It really depends on your sub-weapon and your plans for it - if you work around your sub, this and/or ink saver sub is good, but much of the time you can go without.

Bomb defense is universally useful. Whether you're on the front lines dealing with foes or in the back dodging what's thrown your way, everyone benefits from increased survivability. As I stated, even small amounts provide surprising amounts of protection.

 

[blep]

I'm bumping a dead thread, I know, but this information is outdated.

FIRST OF ALL not every ability is good on every weapon. Absolutely NOT. What abilities you favor will depend greatly on what weapons you favor.

Quick Super Jump is extremely useful no matter what weapon you play. All you need is 2s to get off the ground over a half second faster. It's not overall jump time that's quite as useful as getting off the ground ASAP and not much QSJ is needed for that.

Bomb Defense is another ability that's useful in tiny amounts. Just 1s can prevent weak hits from Inkjets and bombs from destroying Ink Armor. Burst bomb combos die to it as well. Now, with the 4.3 patch, Bomb Defense and Cold Blooded are merged. Pretty freaking good IMO, especially for Ninja Squid weapons.

Sub Power Up...sigh. This ability is so, so, SO slept on. It's not too great on bombs, first of all, but Point Sensors and Beakons benefit HUGELY from it. HUGELY. Beakons gain faster super jump time to them...FOR THE WHOLE TEAM. Point Sensors get increased range, target radius, and target time. Splash Walls can also gain loads of HP from it. Ink Mines get bigger radius and more tracking time. Toxic Mist benefits least from it.

Special Power Up is great on Armor and Bubbles and Bomb Launchers, okay on Sting Ray (but not great. SC>SP with ray after 4.3). Ballers almost ALWAYS run some of it. Not many specials benefit much from it, but the ones that do are greatly enhanced.

Opening Gambit is good on slayers, providing speed buffs for 30s plus 7.5s per splat or assist. Last-Ditch Effort is good on very ink-heavy weapons (can you say Blackbelly Rainmaker?), providing huge amounts of ink efficiency. HUGE amounts. Comeback is also good on slayers, especially ones that die a lot, providing significant speed buffs for 20s after respawning. Tenacity is alright on backliners that don't die a lot and also have trouble building special like chargers, particularly Firefin Splat Charger or Custom E-liter.

Respawn Punisher is also good for backliners who don't die a lot to inflict that much more, well, punishment per every splat they get.Thermal Ink, as mentioned, is good on Heavy/Hydra/Jet, but I'd argue Respawn Punisher over it.

Drop Roller is amazing for the following few weapons: Rapid Blaster Pro, Tentatek Splattershot, Nautilus 79, Ballpoint Splatling, Custom Goo Tuber...notice a pattern? Non-roll weapons with Inkjet! You can roll after an Inkjet and instantly gain powerful speed buffs as well. Object Shredder is very useful in Rainmaker to pop the shield, and can benefit Bubbles weapons greatly, especially the Heavy Deco. Stealth Jump is nice on slayers who don't want to be jump camped and also for surprise Splashdown. Splattershot, Splat Roller, Sploosh-O-Matic, even .96 Deco can benefit from it.

The only ability I'd ever encourage someone NOT to use regardless of weapon or role is Haunt.

A great resource for loadout building is loadout.ink. It's outdated, but it can still function very well. I use it extremely often, coupled with the Splatoon Wiki to catch me up on information that loadout.ink has not been outfitted with yet. It gives direct statistics to almost every value that a weapon can ever have. Here is an example of loadout.ink using a Splattershot build. (Pretend the shoes are the Enperry Online Squidkid V.)

 

[ceruleanink]

Nice insights you got there. I have to give 'em a try and see which one will work best for me.

 

[blep]

thank you! If you don't mind, what weapon and role do you usually play? I'd be happy to give you some ideas~

 

[SilverBrick]

QSJ is my favorite ability because it lets you play more conspicuous, waste enemies’ time trying to kill you and then deny them the kill anyway by superjumping. It can even waste some Specials like Baller and Stingray if you’re careful to stay away from the rest of the team and pull a wounded gazelle gambit. I find this works better with trickster weapons like Inkbrush, Flingza and Undercover, especially if you get into the habit of X-Down-A while your Special isn’t ready. Also, quick enough superjumps can cancel the animation for the Dynamo’s swings and the Flingza’s vertical swing, allowing an escape if you mis-input a fling against a rushing opponent.

Bomb Defense Up isn’t really noticeable in the moment, but I’ve found myself dying and raging a lot less with just a few subs than otherwise.

I keep forgetting that Drop Roller comes with stats-ups now. Considering how often I superjump, it seems like I should check that out. Does it work (at least the buffs) if you Splashdown during the superjump?

I think Haunt can be useful if you use it to avoid an enemy whose weapon hard-counters yours, or relies on obstacles (so Sloshers, especially the Bloblobber), but that’s so niche and unreliant on you that it’s not worth carrying.