Are Chargers bad

[correojon]

I sucked with this weapon so I dropped it completely, I couldn´t land a shot. But I started using the scope charger ad it somehow made my aim better. Yesterday I went back to the normal Charger (with Sprinkler and Killer Wail) and changed completely my playstyle and wow, this weapon rocks! I was consistently getting good scores and helping my team a lot. Here are some tips that have helped me a lot:

1. It´s mainly a support weapon, so try to be always behind your team to help them when they rush to the front lines. Once you reach choke points you can use advantage points to stop the enemy from advancing while your team covers the floor to your sides/back.
   
2. In some maps there are obvious spots where you need to be: Wally´s Warehouse->on top of the boxes in the center. Skatepark->The tower. Get there and defend them.
   
3. In others, you need to move from place to place, just paint something, secure the area and move on to the next spot.
4. Moving and shooting are independent with the charger. You are either on one place shooting or you are moving to another spot. Never try to travel from one place to another if you have to fight enemies on the way, search for a spot to get rid of them and then move to your original destination.
   
5. Shoot, move to the side and shoot again to cover a lot of area quickly.
6. Always leave a trail of ink to escape.
7. Avoid head to head encounters: if you see an enemy is close to your position move out using your escape route. Once there´s enough distance you can take them out and reclaim your position. Charger´s main strength is their range, so all your moves should be directed to preserving and using this.
   
8. Use the sprinkler right at the beginning of the match to cover zones near your base. Always remember that you have this sub weapon: it can cover big areas on it´s own so always try to make the best use of it. When you reach an advantage point place it at your feet to ink the area around you. It will also help you fill your special meter faster.
   
9. Play mind tricks with the enemy: throw the sprinkler to an open area as bait, someone will try to destroy it and you can take them out. Ink the floor around them to hinder their mobility so they try to do something stupid. Set the sprinkler in unexpected locations so the enemy can see the ink but not the sprinkler itself, they may think it´s someone shooting at them.
10. You don´t need to always fully charge your shots: use weak shots to cover fast small areas or walls you may want to climb.
11. Draw attention to yourself when your are in secure locations: the enemies try a lot of times to rush to your position, giving you easy shots and leaving your teammates alone to paint.
12. Be sneaky when not in a secure area.
13. Learn the maps: there are a lot of places where you can make shots with angles the enemy isn´t expecting. Shooting through cranes is one example.
    
14. To stop an enemy from advancing, always try to ink the area where they´ll be coming from, this will stop their advance, let you know when they try to move in and help you land a shot if necessary. A lot of times you can just pin down an enemy (or more) by just repeatedly inking the floor before them. This is also what will give you points and contribute to the team´s victory.
15. You are here to paint the floor. The charger is great for killing enemies, but never forget your main objective. Awesome killing streaks won´t give your team any points. Stopping menaces and painting the floor will.

It´s a great weapon and I don´t think it´s underpowered at all, it just plays totally different from the rest and requires you to change your mindset. And it´s tremendously fun!

 

[Reila]

No. You just need to git gud.

Exactly.

Also I am not sure if the charger should be called a support weapon, especially when it does everything other weapons do.

 

[Kalierdarke]

I say call it a support weapon because it's not as good at inking as the others, however it makes it much easier for the rest of your team with your superior ability to handle threats. It -can- ink well in the hands of someone skilled, but that same person probably could have done a better job with another weapon.

Personally, I switches between the E-liter 3K(for the massive range), and the .96 gal (when I need better coverage), both fulfil a support role quite well with Echolocation on the side.

Combined with Stealth Jump and Ninja Squid is fun =)

 

[correojon]

Yeah, the Charger excels at killing. For Turf War that´s not as important as painting the stage, so it´s main utility becomes something secondary and that´s why it´s seen as a support weapon.

 

[Reila]

It excels at killing but it still good for painting the maps. By your logic the only non-support weapons are the aerospraies, the splattershot jr and the rollers, since everything else "is not as good for painting the maps". There is absolutely nothing wrong about a weapon being a support weapon, but calling the charger a support weapon is like calling the Hunting Horn (from Monster Hunter) a support weapon. It's a misconception. A lot of people ignore the HH because they think it is a support weapon, failing to realize it is one of the best weapons in the game for killing, with the perk of being able to use buffs. It is a similar scenario with the charger. Just because it's great for killing opponents, which is a secondary purpose in turf wars, doesn't make it a support weapon.

 

[Kalierdarke]

actually with the .96 gal, I usually have the highest score in maps.


really though, the other weapons do a better job at dropping ink, the charger is better at killing.

 

[augustoflores]

I've been seen carrying my entire team on the back of my Squiffer. Just yesterday I backed the enemy team back to their base practically alone. (Killed 14 enemies that day, didn't even die... Also, top contributor with 1400 points)
I don't even camp out, I'm literally up close, and personal all up in your steeze like I'm some splatterstot user. (And I win the 1 on 1s against primary up close guns too)

Others may say that I could very well be just as good if not better with the aerospray RG (Real Gold *cough cough*) (actually, that's a line of thinking I expect from SmashChu tbh) I rely on the classic squiffer's sub weapon and it's bubbler. The sub weapon, point sensor, is my bread and butter. F*** the sprinkler btw, I kill that thing instantly. I bubble to escape and regroup, often to win 1 v 1s too. The aerospray does not have the toolset that gives me the game plan, and wearing clothes that show me where their ink mines are make that sub weapon useless IMO.

 

[Kalierdarke]

Honestly my favorite thing to do with a charger is to lay a line and have my friend(who uses rollers) squid down it with ninja squid.

 

[NineWholeGrains]

I've actually gotten decent ink coverage with the Splatterscope. Try going to Urchin Underpass and standing on one of the side platforms overlooking the middle. You can cover your entire side of the central area, the elevated area to the left (a popular drop point for rollers), and a good chunk of the opponent's side. If you get Bomb Burst (which you should, provided you don't die extremely quickly), you can rain down on pretty much any point in the center. It's a dominating position that I wish more people explored.

 

[Cuddlefish]

It excels at killing but it still good for painting the maps. By your logic the only non-support weapons are the aerospraies, the splattershot jr and the rollers, since everything else "is not as good for painting the maps". There is absolutely nothing wrong about a weapon being a support weapon, but calling the charger a support weapon is like calling the Hunting Horn (from Monster Hunter) a support weapon. It's a misconception. A lot of people ignore the HH because they think it is a support weapon, failing to realize it is one of the best weapons in the game for killing, with the perk of being able to use buffs. It is a similar scenario with the charger. Just because it's great for killing opponents, which is a secondary purpose in turf wars, doesn't make it a support weapon.

Middle-ground response: They're support weapons, but people are maintaining a misconception in how limited a role that entails. The Hunting Horn is indeed a support weapon, in that, it provides support to your teammates, but you get the same buffs they do and it's not like applying buffs is all a Hunting Horn can do; they can get right in the action and beat on a monster like any other weapon, it's just that part of a Hunting Horn's role is to, at some point in the battle, apply buffs to the team.

The Charger is a support weapon in that its roles on a team are seldom self-serving, but that doesn't mean there's a passivity to the role. One rather effective use for the Charger is paving the front lines for your team with a straight path of ink, creating a quick way for the team to get straight into the thick of things. I would hardly consider leading a charge to be a passive role. And the charger is actually quite effective at laying down ink, line by line like a printer; with this method, you can quickly lock down huge swaths of an area when, so long as you're behind a choke point, it becomes frustratingly difficult for your opponents to try and get past your insta-kill sniping power. Saltspray Rig immediately comes to mind as being perfectly suited for the Charger. Now granted, this type of strategy does have the potential to be passive, but only if the opposing team stupidly ignores a large patch of the enemy's ink covering the battlefield.

That's only all I learned playing the Testfire, I've yet to purchase the full game and yet I already have a better idea of what to with the Charger than most. People just need to git gud.

 

[Emlee]

I am most excited about chargers and can't wait to get some practice in with them. Currently I am just working on leveling and enjoying myself with Turf Wars though.

 

[Deku]

Splatoon: where killing someone is a support role.

The charger is really hard to use, but super annoying when you're up against a good player. Ever got hit by a charger with a shield on? It sends you way back.

 

[swifT]

Personally I feel that chargers, and other weapons of its variant are potentially very strong. BUT at a more organized level of play.

I personally feel that they are support weapons and very good at it at that. I tested with the splatterscope and see its potential. For one thing I feel that its ability to set up a quick line of ink for your teammates to swim through almost immediately is to be greatly valued. Especially in the early game. The ability to get your teammates forward without having to make them waste time spraying their own trail is important. Early I feel that having 1 or two players rush forward to get to the larger areas is important as in the long run those areas are important to winning and should be highly prioritized as opposed to immediately painting the spawn right out of the gate.

Personally I've ive adopted my own personal playstyle where I will rush the more important areas and choke points as opposed to wasting time sitting back paintint the base. While ofc this is not to devalue the importance of the base I just feel that taking control of the map first is more important and as I die each time I often will paint any areas I see left untouched before heading back out to support my team. At a higher level of play I could easily see a split in teams where 2 people will be charged with rushing upper while 2 people or 1 person is charged with rushing lower or covering the spawn. This also depends on the map as well, but that is just my current idea for strategy in the future Splatoon metagame one that will include chargers as a very strong portion.

I also have a feeling that the chargers will be very interesting on the new map released this evening.

 

[JuddTheCat]

It's not useful for someone to use the weapon ATM. When other modes become available it will, however.

 

[Wintry]

In an organized game, yes. I feel like if you had a Skype team that could relay points back and forth, a sniper would be amazing. He could call out points of interest, while also being warned by other members of people approaching his spot (like Skatepark's Tower).

I like going into recon and finding these little spots I think will be useful once we gain control of mid. I know Skatepark has an area close to their initial starting area, but it's a grate, so no hiding.

It's really good, but must be played in a different mindset. However, the frustrations I get when I'm paired with 3 Rollers who aren't good irk me a bit.

 

[swifT]

With the release of Port Mackerel I think we now see a stronger home for chargers as I originally thought/predicted. The long straightaways are perfect for chargers.

Chargers can easily make a line of ink for their teammates allowing them to move towards the major choke point it the map. By setting up for their teammates in then leaves the charger to finish covering the remaining two back areas and then move on to other vantage points. It also seems like taking control of the tops of the boxes towards the center proves very important to maintaining control of this map.

This is most likely imo the chargers strongest map currently.

 

[Starbound]

Seconding the above. Port Mackerel makes chargers viable in turf wars as the straight and narrow paths allow them to cover ground just as well as rollers do.

 

[Overmaster]

They're a lot better in Splatzones as well.

 

[River09]

As others have said, itrequires precision to work well wiith the charger much more than the roller or splattershots. It is viable no doubt.

I think the reason it got its underpowered name from the testfire charger. The charger at the testfire did not have the greatest sub and special weapon combo. It was basically grenades plus more grenades. It doesn't make a very effective combo thus the weapon itself is affected by it. But now I believe the Kelp charger is the best charger so far because it is effective at ink spraying with the sprinkler and relieving pressure woth the killer wail. It has the same stats as the regular charger which itself isn't a bad thing but its the specials and subs which really make the difference.

 

[correojon]

One thing I´m seeing is that a lot of people won´t use your ink lines to reach the important points faster at the beginning. Instead, more and more people are using their time painting ground before heading there so when they do they have their special ready :( Also, I hate it when I paint half a corridor, strafe to paint the other half in a shot and a happy Splatter Jr. of my own team runs though the corridor painting it himself, instead of using my corridor to advance faster and let me take care of what´s left.