Pazizmix
Inkling
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- Pazizmx
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Howdy. Call me Paz.
A crowd favorite, ProChara, recently posted all of his builds with minor explanations in each if you click on the "i" on the bottom of the card next to the link that sends you to the build analyzer. Spending the majority of my time looking at the numbers for abilities when I'm not playing Splatoon, I figured I would start analyzing them as test to myself and to maybe help more people understand how the pros make their builds. I'm not really an authority or anything. I just follow the competitive scene closely, and Sendou's Build Analyzer is such a great tool for taking a look at what you get for your ability slots.
No better place to start than with his Range Blaster Build. Chara's a strong advocate for the weapon, posting many great clips on his TL, and enjoying the biggest change that Splatoon 3 brought for Blasters in the form of Intensify Action.
The Breakdown
2.2 Intensify Action - Used to lower shot deviation on jump shots from 8° to 2.6°, the boons for Squid Roll and Surge are a cherry on top in this context. (In general, you see IA mostly for the shot deviation reduction more than it's bonuses to Squid Roll and Surge.)
1.0 Stealth Jump - Hides your jumps from a far.
0.1 + 0.1 Ink Saver (Main) and (Sub) - These are lumped together because in Chara's notes they are used together to meet the threshold for an additional shot after using a suction bomb from full tank. 2.73 shots to 3.08.
0.2 Swim Speed Up - These two subs are very close to reaching a lightweight bonus in swim speed 1.92 Units per Frame to 2.01 (Lightweight 2.02 UPF), or just under a 5% speed bonus if that makes more sense.
0.1 Special Saver - Lose 41% of your special gauge on being splat instead of the normal 50%
0.1 Quick Super Jump - Shaves off over a third of your super jump time, 3.63s to 3.27s (0.36s), and reduces the frames you are vulnerable during the animation from 80 to 58, assuming you are already in swim form.
0.1 Ink Resist - Lowers DPS while in enemy ink from 18DSP to 12DPS, adds 10 frames before you start taking damage, lowers the max damage you take from enemy ink from 40 to 38,
and helps you walk in enemy ink a bit better to wiggle out.
The Analysis
Chara's Notes:
Mostly used for AOE comps and solo
.1 ISM/ISS = 3 shot after bomb
From the top, one of Chara's biggest wishes to come to the Range Blaster specifically was to remove RNG from jump shots on the Range. The change he proposed was making it heavyweight to add some gear dependency for the trade off, so I bet he was excited to see that Intensify Action added this dynamic. 2.2 is a pretty steep cost, I think most would go with less, but it does make the jump RNG as close to negligible as you can get while still having room for other abilities in your build. If you were trying to eliminate it completely, you would need to spring for full 3.9 (57AP) which is clearly not worth it.
As a side, the most potent points you can place into an ability are generally the first 3-10 points. If Chara is placing 2.2 (26AP) it shows you how much he values this reduction. Another reason why the investment into this is so high is simply because the reduction to shot RNG on jump scales differently on Blasters to their detriment. It's before my time with the game as I came in during Splat2, but I heard that Blasters use to not have any RNG on jumps in Splat1, and it was curtailed in Splat2, and being given back to some degree in Splat3 with abilities. This weaker scaling is likely because the devs thought having no jump RNG was too strong, but trading it off with ability investment is an interesting avenue of balance.
Stealth Jump is a near ubiquitous choice at the moment with the prevalence of backliners and cheap lethal bombs under Last-Ditch Effort. Normally, an observant cephalopod can spy your jump from across the map assuming they have line of sight, and can take actions to camp your landing, or in a competitive setting, report your position to the rest of the team. The only downside to the boon of denying your opponent information is that it costs one main, and your opponents can still find your jump if they happen to be close by, but ideally you won't be jumping into the heat of a skirmish without a solid advantage.
The value subs, 0.1 Special Saver, Quick Super Jump and Ink Resist enjoy a spot in any well rounded build for the competitive boons bestowed on your cephalopod at just one Sub. As I previously touched on, the first 3-10 ability points are the most potent of any ability, and no better is this exemplified with these boys.
The jump from 0.1 to 0.2 Special Saver only buys you an additional 6% compared to 9% from the first.
0.1 to 0.2 Quick Super Jump gives 8 less vulnerable frames from the original 22, and reduces the over all jump by a half second from a third.
The next DPS reduction in Ink Resist from 12DPS to 6DPS isn't until whopping 2.2 investment, with movement and the frames before you take damage in enemy ink giving back only about 2/3rds the benefit than the first sub.
If you think the returns aren't so bad on the second sub, it's because it's actually a preference to run an additional sub of any of these abilities. In the context of Chara's build, where much of the agency is taken up by running a healthy amount of Intensify Action, they are competitive at one point.
0.2 Swim Speed Up continues the rule of having the first points of an ability being the most potent, but also it conveniently gets you super close to the lightweight speed bonus (from midweight) as I mentioned before. Swim Speed along with a few other abilities are something of a "feel" benefit where you understand it's value viscerally when you don't have it, and not something you necessarily quantify by numbers. Having a bonus that is near identical to the swim speed feel of a lightweight weapon is a great anchor to judge if you want more.
The 0.1 Ink Saver Main, and Ink Saver Sub are, as I previously stated before, a little combo package that give you an additional shot after using a suction bomb from full tank. Typically speaking, both Ink Savers are used in this way, to reach a particular threshold when it comes to actions per tank. It's rare that you will have a competitive player add a general amount just to buoy up the ink inefficiency of a weapon because, as we can see above, you can easily miss out on a lot of competitive benefits for just a few slots. More over, you will spend the majority of your time in the ink. Staying above ink leaves you open and vulnerable, good play is about being above ink or in positions only as long as you need to cover the ever changing game states in a match of Splatoon.
Conclusion
I picked ProChara's Range Build not only because I'm a fan of his content or that he is well known name, but that it exemplifies cleanly what I think is the best approach to builds in Splatoon. A build the compliments your playstyle, and not one that is necessarily "the best" by any objective standard. It's clear here that ProChara wants makes liberal use of the only mobility option Blasters have when they are committed to taking a shot, jumping, and finds the most competitive benefit he can to accentuate that play-style while still leaving room for
other useful perks and value abilities that make a well rounded loadout.
If you want more evidence, you don't need to look much further than his Range Build 2 where he makes a generous modification to accommodate 1.4 Quick Respawn to deal with match ups against faster enemy compositions while still finding a space for some Intensify Action. The weakness he is alleviating is that it's easy to suffocate Range with pressure if it doesn't have room to keep targets at arms length, and faster compositions are quick to aggressively take the map, but that analysis is for another time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would enjoy hearing your thoughts. What you think I got right, wrong, or if you want me to expand on anything a bit more. Take care.
A crowd favorite, ProChara, recently posted all of his builds with minor explanations in each if you click on the "i" on the bottom of the card next to the link that sends you to the build analyzer. Spending the majority of my time looking at the numbers for abilities when I'm not playing Splatoon, I figured I would start analyzing them as test to myself and to maybe help more people understand how the pros make their builds. I'm not really an authority or anything. I just follow the competitive scene closely, and Sendou's Build Analyzer is such a great tool for taking a look at what you get for your ability slots.
No better place to start than with his Range Blaster Build. Chara's a strong advocate for the weapon, posting many great clips on his TL, and enjoying the biggest change that Splatoon 3 brought for Blasters in the form of Intensify Action.
The Breakdown
2.2 Intensify Action - Used to lower shot deviation on jump shots from 8° to 2.6°, the boons for Squid Roll and Surge are a cherry on top in this context. (In general, you see IA mostly for the shot deviation reduction more than it's bonuses to Squid Roll and Surge.)
1.0 Stealth Jump - Hides your jumps from a far.
0.1 + 0.1 Ink Saver (Main) and (Sub) - These are lumped together because in Chara's notes they are used together to meet the threshold for an additional shot after using a suction bomb from full tank. 2.73 shots to 3.08.
0.2 Swim Speed Up - These two subs are very close to reaching a lightweight bonus in swim speed 1.92 Units per Frame to 2.01 (Lightweight 2.02 UPF), or just under a 5% speed bonus if that makes more sense.
0.1 Special Saver - Lose 41% of your special gauge on being splat instead of the normal 50%
0.1 Quick Super Jump - Shaves off over a third of your super jump time, 3.63s to 3.27s (0.36s), and reduces the frames you are vulnerable during the animation from 80 to 58, assuming you are already in swim form.
0.1 Ink Resist - Lowers DPS while in enemy ink from 18DSP to 12DPS, adds 10 frames before you start taking damage, lowers the max damage you take from enemy ink from 40 to 38,
and helps you walk in enemy ink a bit better to wiggle out.
The Analysis
Chara's Notes:
Mostly used for AOE comps and solo
.1 ISM/ISS = 3 shot after bomb
From the top, one of Chara's biggest wishes to come to the Range Blaster specifically was to remove RNG from jump shots on the Range. The change he proposed was making it heavyweight to add some gear dependency for the trade off, so I bet he was excited to see that Intensify Action added this dynamic. 2.2 is a pretty steep cost, I think most would go with less, but it does make the jump RNG as close to negligible as you can get while still having room for other abilities in your build. If you were trying to eliminate it completely, you would need to spring for full 3.9 (57AP) which is clearly not worth it.
As a side, the most potent points you can place into an ability are generally the first 3-10 points. If Chara is placing 2.2 (26AP) it shows you how much he values this reduction. Another reason why the investment into this is so high is simply because the reduction to shot RNG on jump scales differently on Blasters to their detriment. It's before my time with the game as I came in during Splat2, but I heard that Blasters use to not have any RNG on jumps in Splat1, and it was curtailed in Splat2, and being given back to some degree in Splat3 with abilities. This weaker scaling is likely because the devs thought having no jump RNG was too strong, but trading it off with ability investment is an interesting avenue of balance.
Stealth Jump is a near ubiquitous choice at the moment with the prevalence of backliners and cheap lethal bombs under Last-Ditch Effort. Normally, an observant cephalopod can spy your jump from across the map assuming they have line of sight, and can take actions to camp your landing, or in a competitive setting, report your position to the rest of the team. The only downside to the boon of denying your opponent information is that it costs one main, and your opponents can still find your jump if they happen to be close by, but ideally you won't be jumping into the heat of a skirmish without a solid advantage.
The value subs, 0.1 Special Saver, Quick Super Jump and Ink Resist enjoy a spot in any well rounded build for the competitive boons bestowed on your cephalopod at just one Sub. As I previously touched on, the first 3-10 ability points are the most potent of any ability, and no better is this exemplified with these boys.
The jump from 0.1 to 0.2 Special Saver only buys you an additional 6% compared to 9% from the first.
0.1 to 0.2 Quick Super Jump gives 8 less vulnerable frames from the original 22, and reduces the over all jump by a half second from a third.
The next DPS reduction in Ink Resist from 12DPS to 6DPS isn't until whopping 2.2 investment, with movement and the frames before you take damage in enemy ink giving back only about 2/3rds the benefit than the first sub.
If you think the returns aren't so bad on the second sub, it's because it's actually a preference to run an additional sub of any of these abilities. In the context of Chara's build, where much of the agency is taken up by running a healthy amount of Intensify Action, they are competitive at one point.
0.2 Swim Speed Up continues the rule of having the first points of an ability being the most potent, but also it conveniently gets you super close to the lightweight speed bonus (from midweight) as I mentioned before. Swim Speed along with a few other abilities are something of a "feel" benefit where you understand it's value viscerally when you don't have it, and not something you necessarily quantify by numbers. Having a bonus that is near identical to the swim speed feel of a lightweight weapon is a great anchor to judge if you want more.
The 0.1 Ink Saver Main, and Ink Saver Sub are, as I previously stated before, a little combo package that give you an additional shot after using a suction bomb from full tank. Typically speaking, both Ink Savers are used in this way, to reach a particular threshold when it comes to actions per tank. It's rare that you will have a competitive player add a general amount just to buoy up the ink inefficiency of a weapon because, as we can see above, you can easily miss out on a lot of competitive benefits for just a few slots. More over, you will spend the majority of your time in the ink. Staying above ink leaves you open and vulnerable, good play is about being above ink or in positions only as long as you need to cover the ever changing game states in a match of Splatoon.
Conclusion
I picked ProChara's Range Build not only because I'm a fan of his content or that he is well known name, but that it exemplifies cleanly what I think is the best approach to builds in Splatoon. A build the compliments your playstyle, and not one that is necessarily "the best" by any objective standard. It's clear here that ProChara wants makes liberal use of the only mobility option Blasters have when they are committed to taking a shot, jumping, and finds the most competitive benefit he can to accentuate that play-style while still leaving room for
other useful perks and value abilities that make a well rounded loadout.
If you want more evidence, you don't need to look much further than his Range Build 2 where he makes a generous modification to accommodate 1.4 Quick Respawn to deal with match ups against faster enemy compositions while still finding a space for some Intensify Action. The weakness he is alleviating is that it's easy to suffocate Range with pressure if it doesn't have room to keep targets at arms length, and faster compositions are quick to aggressively take the map, but that analysis is for another time.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I would enjoy hearing your thoughts. What you think I got right, wrong, or if you want me to expand on anything a bit more. Take care.