Bettering Brellas

[OnePotWonder]

I'm going to be concise with this one; brellas are best class in the game from a design standpoint. In my objectively correct opinion, the entire brella class deserves to be viable at all levels of play (possibly excluding Undercover). As such, I'm suggesting some buffs for all of them.
I will go over all of the changes first, then describe my thought processes behind them.

Splat Brella
Damage increased from 16.2 per pellet and 81 maximum to 17 per pellet and 85 maximum.
Ink coverage from shots increased by about 20%.
Time taken for the shield to open after firing decreased by 2 frames.
New kit: Fizzy Bomb and Tacticooler

Tenta Brella
Damage increased from 17 per pellet and 119 maximum to 18 per pellet and 126 maximum.
Time taken for the shield to open after firing decreased by 4 frames.

Undercover Brella
Damage while shield is not open increased to 14 per pellet and 56 maximum.
Damage while shield is open increased to 14 per pellet and 42 maximum.
New kit: Splat Bomb and Kraken Royale

Recycled Brella 24
Shield HP increased from 100 to 150.
Range increased by about 15%.
Time taken for the shield to open after firing decreased by 2 frames.
New kit: Burst Bomb and Crab Tank

First off, Splat Brella. The only way I could find to buff its damage without any issues was to give it Tenta Brella's pellet damage. I gave it a decent paint buff to help the weapon lean into a more supportive role, and then gave it a decent support kit. Tri Nouveau's to be exact. Additionally, I increased the shield activation speed of all brellas (except Undercover) to help compensate for netcode/tickrate jank.

Tenta Brella is already in a decent spot and just needs a bit of a nudge to fully reenter the meta. As such, I've given it a shove; a significantly larger shield speed buff than the other brellas, and a bit of extra damage (the latter mostly there to avoid overlap with buffed Splat Brella). Tenta Brella is the only brella that I think doesn't need a new kit. Considering every other brella has a vanilla kit that's pretty much completely useless, omitting it feels fair.

Undercover Brella is the most interesting weapon on the list due to its nature as a bottom tier. I've heavily reworked its damage such that three pellets do slightly more than its current maximum damage, but it only gets the damage from its fourth pellet if its shield isn't open. Nintendo supposedly wants the weapon to have a stealthy, sharking playstyle. Well, now it can two-shot. The new kit references Splatoon 2's Undercover Sorella, and is fun. Custom Range players will testify.

Finally, Recycled Brella. This is the only brella whose damage is already good and doesn't need changing. The shield, however, needs to be a bit sturdier than a sheet of paper for it to effectively do brella things. Alongside a 50% durability buff, I've given it more range such that it isn't just playing at the same distance as Splat Brella. The new kit is built to turn the weapon into an unstoppable powerhouse. This is fair because Recycled is innately a very difficult weapon and fully deserves it. Unlike a certain shooter...

Feel free to discuss brellas below, or my ideas for buffing them if you so desire.
Thanks for reading to the end, and have a wonderful day.

 

[isaac4]

I'm assuming you decided on not bringing back Brella's old damage because you think it'd be healthier if it leaned towards a more supportive role but is there another reason for that decision?
I would guess Recycled being in the game played a factor in that since it's a brella with a bigger focus on fighting.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I'm assuming you decided on not bringing back Brella's old damage because you think it'd be healthier if it leaned towards a more supportive role but is there another reason for that decision?
I would guess Recycled being in the game played a factor in that since it's a brella with a bigger focus on fighting.

As much as I would have liked to simply give it its old damage back, doing so steps on the toes of Recycled Brella too much. I did also consider giving it its old pellet damage and keeping its current maximum, but that would allow it to deal 99 damage, which can be problematic for a few reasons. With the smaller increase I gave it, it still takes the same number of pellets to splat as it would have with its old damage, but it remains distinct from Recycled. It also allowed me to unabashedly buff its paint even more.

I do think a support playstyle fits best for most brellas, especially Splat when compared to Recycled, but it’s mostly a matter of not making half of the weapons in the class deal the same amount of damage. Easier said than done, oddly.

 

[Algae]

For all brella canopies, bombs should not deal double damage. Lethal bombs are already prized for the zone control they exert near objectives -- and their instant explosions at any kind of enemy shield; they shouldn't be given this much of an advantage.

Making Splat Brella's canopy open faster fits its defensive nature. I think its canopy should be a bit more ink-efficient, too; you're using it as a health pool for this weapon, and a buff that plays into its playstyle can't hurt.

Recycled Brella should definitely have more canopy HP, but I dunno if it should be less, equal to, or more than Undercover's. Also, ReBrella should have a slightly wider canopy and a taaad bit more time before detaching from the gun, to offer more versatile protection. I think the weapon's accuracy does well to extend its effective range; I think the weapon would make a good introduction to the Brella class as something between the Splat and Tenta Brella in many ways.

I, too, find Brellas an excellent twist on the line-of-sight sort of weapon that enables defensive combat and creates a slight rock-paper-scissors with the full-auto guns (which they counter) and the trick-skirmishing blasters and sloshers (which they're weak to). I find learning the Splatoon 2 Sorella Brella kit to be an accomplishment itself, and while I'm not into Splatoon 3's gameplay loop, I'm glad that it's now a bit more of an environment where lower-tier but non-skill-check weapons can perform well in high-level competitive play via superior skill.

 

[Catloafman]

I like all of these changes although I feel that much of a paint buff to splat brella is a little much

Undercover Brella
Damage while shield is not open increased to 14 per pellet and 56 maximum.
Damage while shield is open increased to 14 per pellet and 42 maximum.
New kit: Splat Bomb and Kraken Royale

Also reguarding the undercover I really like this change I just think the shot with the shield and without should combo to 100 damage instead of 98
I really like the idea of the spy weapon (its called spy gadget in japanese) being able to actually assassinate people

 

[Yeenom]

While I like ProChara's idea of giving it Recycled Brella two canopies, I think it would be cool if you actively wanted to lose it's shield. Normally it's heavier and laggier, but it gains it's normal speed upon launching it's Brella. This is kinda more of a rework instead of a buff but I think the weapon is broken from it's core: It's a slayer that can't slay and a shield that can't shield. Launching the Brella is now a core concept of the weapon, with it doing 50 damage upon hitting an opponent on top of it's speed buff. The shield is also stronger upon launch, gaining a 10% health increase. Combined with Torpedo to track and Tri-Strike to help paint, this should turn it into a formidable foe. It's now a weapon based around building strong combos and picking fights for it to win. The main drawback with this weapon is now the fact that you have to play around it's shielded mode, so if you end up getting it back in the middle of a fight you're kinda screwed. The pellet spread has also been nerfed at range so you now have to get way closer and more precise to get max damage.

 

[OnePotWonder]

Also reguarding the undercover I really like this change I just think the shot with the shield and without should combo to 100 damage instead of 98
I really like the idea of the spy weapon (its called spy gadget in japanese) being able to actually assassinate people

I don’t really want to give it the power to two-shot with its shield working as normal, at least, not unless it has to hit all four pellets for both of the shots. If only we could actually test these changes, since if they were noticeably not enough we could bump up the weapon’s damage to 14.5 per pellet.