Any tips for using Toxic Mist?

[electronvolt]

I often play tri-stringer, and I've found killer wail very useful, but I'm not really sure how to use toxic mist.

Does anyone have tips about where on maps I should be using it (chokepoints or mid, maybe?) and how often I should use it?

 

[Grushi]

I haven't played mist for long, mostly on recycled Mk II which I've played a LOT, so I've learned a good bit about using the sub.
I'm pretty sure tri-stringer can use it differently at times though, so take this with a grain of salt!

• Most importantly, mist is really ink hungry and doesn't do a ton, so try to use it sparingly, even when you have comeback or LDE active. I only use it when I really have nothing better to do: I want to throw it at people outside of my range, get location, or slow down the enemies. Most of the time you're probably better off just sticking to your main, especially since tri stringer can paint over the enemies relatively well, so you'll slow them down that way.
• I think mist is actually more useful for teammates, though tri-stringer can actually hit the enemies your teammates are fighting; but it's extremely useful when paired with specials. If you notice your team popping inkjet, crab, tristrike, kraken, or most specials in the game really, throw it! It's especially useful considering mist lasts about as long as the special does, so getting into the mist is basically a death sentence against those. If you have killer wail ready, throwing one before popping it is also really useful, though I'm not sure if you want to use it after since you won't have as much ink to follow up with.
• Tri stringer can throw it at its feet if you're being rushed down, just run, throw it on the ground, and charge your main, it's probably really useful to defend yourself.
  
  
• But most importantly, mist is extremely useful at controlling the objective! It's notoriously weak on zones, though you can use it on some chokepoints, stuff like the Robo ROM-en choke is a good one but I can't think of many examples, in zones you should really use it sparingly.
• On tower control, I'd say use it on the tower checkpoints, that way the enemy on tower won't be able to help their team much, they can't spam bombs or even paint that well so it's kind of useful there. Use it on checkpoints since the tower stops for the mist's full duration, so you'll get the entire effect. It's also great at stopping tower jumps! If you use it on the first check in crableg TC for example, the enemy team can't jump on your plat and you'll be free to pressure tower, which is especially nice for tri-stringer.
• On rainmaker, it's really good at slowing down pushes, spamming mists is a real strategy, though for stringer I'd still recommend using your main more, just throw mists in front of the rainmaker to slow them down. You can also use it on jumps, like the manta maria left route which literally becomes unusable with mist. It's also really good on Museum's spinners.
• Clams is similar, throw it in front of the basket, there's not much to add.

I hope this can help you! Sorry if it's a bit long

 

[DzNutsKong]

I've mostly been using it with Stamper Nouveau so not all of this might end up applying to Tri-Stringer. The two main weapons are very different and I really don't think it benefits Stamper that much so take this as you may.

I don't like using Toxic Mist too often. Most of the time I would consider using it, I would rather just have used my main weapon instead. You can't really trust it in a lot of the intended use cases for it either because your opponents can literally Squid Roll to get through it with minimal penalty. This limits the usage I would get from Toxic Mist to covering either climbable walls, jumps, or spots where the floor is uninkable, and they have to be important spots too. Maybe with a Stringer this could cover areas like this where people might rush you down as well? This costs 60% of your ink tank so you probably wouldn't want to use it in any of these spots if you feel confident you can cover them with your main weapon.

One very unique thing this does is mess with Splash Wall. When a weapon throws out a Splash Wall it's usually to anchor itself in one place for a while. Toxic Mist can deny people from sitting in one small, very specific spot, so the connection should be obvious. Stamper can struggle into weapons with Splash Wall so it's very nice to throw a Toxic Mist to prevent a Glooga from doing that roll -> throw wall -> roll barely behind wall strat and make them sit back for a bit to refill their ink tank.

That's really about it though. For an AoE-focused backline in particular I don't know how helpful this could be. Hope there's some stuff in here you find interesting regardless.

 

[isaac4]

Not much to add here but checking an area for enemy players is another use I've found from using Toxic Mist on vTri.
It's less useful for Tri-Stringer since you're not moving forward as much as a Tri-Slosher has to and you could try using your main weapon instead to hit around corners but I still think it's really nice to deal with players that like sharking.
Toxic Mist covers a very wide area so instead of having to defensively paint a section of the map that you think might have a player sharking, you could just throw Toxic Mist and the sound that it makes when a player is inside will let you know someone is there.
The sub isn't really great or even good at stopping players from pushing in but a player who's just hiding in their own ink will have a much harder time escaping if they get a Mist thrown at them. You can try taking advantage of that and kill them before they're able to slowly swim away.
I don't recommend using it a lot though, it still costs 60% of your ink tank.

 

[OnePotWonder]

Toxic mist is extremely situational, especially on Stringer; a main weapon that can already trap enemies fine on its own. The only real use cases for the sub are preventing certain jumps and setting up specials, it’s just not worth using to try and deny an area or displace enemies.

Ultimately, Toxic Mist is just a really weak sub. Not even by design; its effects are pitifully undertuned. It doesn’t significantly slow unless an enemy has been sitting in it for a few seconds, and its ink drain effect ends up being more of an anti-ink recovery effect.

Mist can have an impact in the right situations, but outside of them it does virtually nothing. Use it sparingly.
That’s all I can really add, the previous comments covered everything else.

 

[QuagSass]

Hi, hi! Backline weapons enjoyer with a Tri-Stringer pocket here, I agree with pretty much everything here, but also wanna add a thing.

Since the Tri-Stringer is a backline, there'll be situations where most of your teammates are down and you need to give them jumps. On some maps where the enemies can approach you from multiple angles, say Undertow Spillway or Sturgeon Shipyard, you can use Mist as a way to "guard" one path while focusing on the other path with your main.
You do still need to keep an eye on that path, since Mist doesn't really stop anyone on it's own. But it does discourage/slow down pushes from that direction. That can often be just enough to get your frontlines in or to get you out.

Most important thing really is that Mist can be your second pair of eyes. Use it to passively keep tabs on a path while you focus on another. Really learn to recognise the sound the mist makes when an enemy is being affected by it. But dont worry about having it up all the time, the main is still the star of the show here.

 

[C-53]

I play a lot of vanilla Tri-stringer, and at the risk of repeating some great points others have made here, I will simplify the value I get from mist into three techniques…

1. To stay alive and anchor: space out your opponent in a dogfight. If you get rushed by a front-liner, dropping mist as you back up allows you to create space MUCH more quickly than without mist. This can change the dynamics of a fight in your favor, or give you the time to decide to retreat.
2. To amplify killer wail: hit your target with mist immediately after locking on to them with wail. The floor here is to cause a panicked retreat, and the ceiling is an easy auto-splat while you focus your main on another target or reposition for more advantage or space.
3. To locate while taking space: throw mist ahead of your paint. vBow can take space differently than most back-line weapons, when you are in a hurry. The horizontal half-charge shots can act like a moving wall, but doing this quickly is risky, especially in open areas. Mist can help mitigate risk when you need to advance your zone quickly.

 

[McSquid82]

In my personal opinion, in addition to buffing the ink consumption on it I would also remove the penalty it gives to ink saver sub. Right now it negates 14 percent of the effect and with how weak it's regarded as, I think that's completely unnecessary. They did it earlier in this game's life cycle by removing Ninja Squid's 20 percent Swim Speed Up penalty and with the right balancing I think they could do the same with Toxic Mist.

 

[electronvolt]

Not much to add here but checking an area for enemy players is another use I've found from using Toxic Mist on vTri.
It's less useful for Tri-Stringer since you're not moving forward as much as a Tri-Slosher has to and you could try using your main weapon instead to hit around corners but I still think it's really nice to deal with players that like sharking.
Toxic Mist covers a very wide area so instead of having to defensively paint a section of the map that you think might have a player sharking, you could just throw Toxic Mist and the sound that it makes when a player is inside will let you know someone is there.

Most important thing really is that Mist can be your second pair of eyes. Use it to passively keep tabs on a path while you focus on another. Really learn to recognise the sound the mist makes when an enemy is being affected by it. But dont worry about having it up all the time, the main is still the star of the show here.

Oh yeah, it makes a little "bloop-bloop-bloop" noise when someone enters it! (I forgot it did that when I made this post) So you can use it as sort of a "we have point sensor at home"

I did think the answer to "how do i use toxic mist" might be "you don't, it's bad". There'll be a patch soon though, so maybe it'll get buffed?

 

[OnePotWonder]

I did think the answer to "how do i use toxic mist" might be "you don't, it's bad". There'll be a patch soon though, so maybe it'll get buffed?

We can hope. For the sake of Mini, Recycled, Stringer, and all of the other weapons screwed over by the sub.

 

[C-53]

"you don't, it's bad"

(¬_¬)

*overpriced