Splatoon 2 Competitive 101 for an Otherwise Newcomer

[Dessgeega]

Bryant and Jon are right. Every match is a chance to learn. Get out there, do your best, and never stop asking questions, to yourself and others.

 

[ChaosChao]

I do hope to have recording software and a capture device soon...once my personal laptop comes back and is repaired. XD

 

[ChaosChao]

Well...um...I must be improving somewhere because this happened yesterday...

 

[ChaosChao]

So...quick update: I've made it to A+ In Splat Zones and Tower Control! I also have a question: is Turf War the best way to experiment with weapons?

 

[Dessgeega]

So...quick update: I've made it to A+ In Splat Zones and Tower Control! I also have a question: is Turf War the best way to experiment with weapons?

Yes and no. There's no risk in turf and you get some exp and cash regardless of what happens, but turf is vicious these days. Even when experimenting you have to do your best because opponents never let up.

 

[Sifu]

Yes and no. There's no risk in turf and you get some exp and cash regardless of what happens, but turf is vicious these days. Even when experimenting you have to do your best because opponents never let up.

That all sounds like reasons to use Turf for practice. Considering also the freshness mechanic that tracks how well you use each weapon in TW, I'd say it's the best way to figure out new weapons.

 

[Dessgeega]

That all sounds like reasons to use Turf for practice. Considering also the freshness mechanic that tracks how well you use each weapon in TW, I'd say it's the best way to figure out new weapons.

...Freshness is a crock and should be ignored. It only functions as a win-streak counter because any loss completely slams your rating - 1.5 lost at 10+ freshness and 2.5 lost at 20+. Even the "freshness bonus" for reaching Superfresh is barely worth more than 2 ranked/league victories or 4 turf victories. Freshness is not a mechanic that should be taken seriously by anyone, and now I've said the word "fresh" so much that it's losing it's meaning.

 

[ChaosChao]

The game made the word "fresh" lose all meaning. XD Anyway, I've been reluctant to try chargers because of the high skill curve for them. Any advice on learning those?

 

[Dessgeega]

The game made the word "fresh" lose all meaning. XD Anyway, I've been reluctant to try chargers because of the high skill curve for them. Any advice on learning those?

This is strictly my personal opinion and no one else's. If you want to learn chargers... don't, at least not right now. This meta does not favor chargers, what with the stage designs focused on confrontation, the existence of ink armor and brellas, less-than-stellar kits on many chargers, and damage up being gone. Skilled chargers are still a terror, but it's an uphill struggle to reach that point currently. I'd recommend trying chargers when you're more skilled.

 

[Mar$el]

This is strictly my personal opinion and no one else's. If you want to learn chargers... don't, at least not right now. This meta does not favor chargers, what with the stage designs focused on confrontation, the existence of ink armor and brellas, less-than-stellar kits on many chargers, and damage up being gone. Skilled chargers are still a terror, but it's an uphill struggle to reach that point currently. I'd recommend trying chargers when you're more skilled.

I got skilled by using chargers. Of course I started out with things like the N-Zap but one time I was like "I wanna learn chargers" and when you keep at it and go into practice, your aim just starts to develop super fast (maybe not as fast with the charger but it improves aim on other weapons). For aim practice, just keep at it and take it slow at first. Maybe try using it in hero mode if turf war is still too ruthless or going to a very secure spot in TW that doesn't lead to as much flanking or confrontation. Once you have the aim thing down (and probably while learning) watch what other chargers on youtube do when in tough situations and pay attention to where they position themselves. Some people learn faster than others. The main reason I like chargers over close range shooters (even if they're better with the current meta) is because it's easier and more relaxing to not be in the midst of battle constantly (although sometimes get too close for comfort). Don't get frustrated if you get flanked just know that eventually you'll be able to keep enemies far from you and keep working at it.

If you're looking to chargers to rank up faster than with the best weapons in the meta, then don't. Learn chargers if you wanna learn chargers for the sake of sniping. Personally I enjoy sniping in other shooters so naturally I wanted to in this game. If you're looking for a new aspect of the game and improving your skills in a new way then I highly encourage to learn all weapon types (I'm working on blasters rn). I just find sniping fun and close range shooters to be too much pressure to play for very long.

 

[Sifu]

...Freshness is a crock and should be ignored. It only functions as a win-streak counter because any loss completely slams your rating - 1.5 lost at 10+ freshness and 2.5 lost at 20+. Even the "freshness bonus" for reaching Superfresh is barely worth more than 2 ranked/league victories or 4 turf victories. Freshness is not a mechanic that should be taken seriously by anyone, and now I've said the word "fresh" so much that it's losing it's meaning.

Freshness is not completely meaningless - the way I like to see it, it gives you a rough indication of your win/loss ratio. Of course, if you are extremely good at Splatoon, you might be able to win matches with whatever weapon consistently, but for a person who is still learning the game, they will be losing matches, and the freshness of each weapon will tell them which weapons they consistently win using, and which weapons they consistently lose with.

For example, I am currently struggling to get my CJr past a 5.0 rating, which tells me that I still have a lot to improve upon with it. It would be stupid for me to take it to a ranked battle, because I know I would lose those matches, and see my rank dive down. On the other hand, there are many weapons that I have the red flag or the white flag with, and I feel much more comfortable bringing those weapons to a ranked match, since I know that I know how to use that weapon.

Even striving for a high freshness rating isn't completely pointless - remember, the rating serves as a meter of your win/loss ratio. If a player is really good at the game, they might win 80% of matches - In other words, for every 4 wins, they lose one match. If they are above level 20, maybe for one game they have a team that doesn't know what they are doing, and maybe someone disconnects. Okay, they lose 2.5 freshness, but if they are winning 80% of their matches, they will quickly regain those points, and still continue to improve their rating.

TL;DR, freshness isn't about your win streak. It's a measure of how often you win, and by extension, how well you are able to secure a victory. That doesn't sound meaningless to me.

 

[Dessgeega]

There are far better ways to track your win/loss ratio - like the actual win/loss ratio on the splatnet app, along with detailed match statistics. Most anyone with a phone can access that these days. And your example falls apart in the face of the eternally strange matchmaking - it's not just "one game" where people get teams that don't know what they're doing. Even pros can and will go on losing streaks because of disconnects, or poor single-digit players being thrown to the wolves, or just poor team play. I'm sure many people on this forum will attest to that. Given the raw chaos that turf war is, that's why I think freshness is meaningless.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

So...quick update: I've made it to A+ In Splat Zones and Tower Control! I also have a question: is Turf War the best way to experiment with weapons?

I get first practice in on turf and then put in some time in league with the other modes. Some people might prefer making that jump to ranked before league. Either way, eventually you have to try the weapon out in other modes. You can only learn so much about a weapon in turf.

 

[ChaosChao]

So...after this last Splatfest (btw, yay Team Vampire!), I'm questioning my skills again. I made it to Vampire Champion with maybe a couple of losses throughout the Splatfest until the last few hours of the events with a Splatfest Power of about 2150 or 2200 (somewhere between that), which is the highest I've ever gotten in a Splatfest and suddenly it just tanked. Those last few hours were just loss after loss after loss and getting up to Vampire Queen was not only a slog but kind of humiliating. I thought I knew what I was doing...I'm not sure what went wrong. Maybe I played on stages I'm weaker on (sans Shifty Station, I think I share everyone's sentiment that this one really sucked), idk. Is it that during Splatfest players are more aggressive than normal?

 

[ThatOneGuy]

Splatfest Power of about 2150 or 2200

This is pretty good. Solid, actually.

Just don't get too excited, as splatfest power doesn't mean too much because you're playing turf war. And in turf war you can win pretty easily by playing good in the last 30 seconds of the game, or if the other team has a bad team comp or something around those guidelines.

Still though, if you're getting curious on how to gauge your skill, I suggest playing with several different people on league, and seeing how you rank there. Or just by playing solo queue and seeing how you fare against other people in the same rank.
(Be careful with solo queue though, because it's not nearly as accurate at gauging skill than it was in splatoon 1)

As for why you had that losing streak, I personally can't say because I didn't watch your gameplay or saw what you did. But losing streaks are common for every player really. There is usually a slippery slope where a player loses once (usually to a small mistake) and it just results into more losses because of frustration, anxiety, or over anticipation.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

As for why you had that losing streak, I personally can't say because I didn't watch your gameplay or saw what you did. But losing streaks are common for every player really. There is usually a slippery slope where a player loses once (usually to a small mistake) and it just results into more losses because of frustration, anxiety, or over anticipation.

This ^

I find, when I'm actually making good decisions about my life, the best way to bust through a losing streak is to go into Turf Wars with a weapon completely different from the ones I usually use. Most of the time, this is either a really short range weapon or a nozzlenose. I play with that for a while to clear my mind of how it feels to play with my main. Then I play a round of turf with my main to make sure I'm feeling okay again... and go back to ranked.

Think of it like resetting your router. Sometimes it's more healthy to mess around with something that has no expectations tied to it. It works for me.

But usually, I'm a self-destructive insane person who keeps pushing on through ranked even though it's against my own self-interest. I'm really good at know what the right decision is, and I'm really bad at actually doing it.

 

[ChaosChao]

So...Mario Odyssey took over my life for about a few weeks now and with the upcoming Splatfest (Go Team Fantasy!)....I've found out that I'm pretty much sucking again outside of using the Dualie Squelchers. Any advice on getting your groove back, so to speak?

 

[Jon914]

Just play more.

If you've got a friend, league with them to see where you're at or try joining an S+ friend's turf lobby, so you can break the rust on some harder opponents.

 

[ThatOneGuy]

Let's see.

Practice some aiming against the test dummies.

I know what you're saying. "u wot, these things don't even move, what's the point of shooting them over and over? It's not like it's hard to kill them either, so why put in the effort in doing so"

What you get out of this is reacting quicker to certain threats, crafting your aim, and learning/mastering some techniques with your weapons.

So since you play the dualie squelchers, I would practice dodge rolling to the side of targets and trying to kill them as fast as possible. I know the dualie squelchers aren't the fastest killers in the game, but you'll never get punished for having good aim. Also, for extra credit, I would compare the dualie squelchers's range in comparison to other weapons that share the same range tier. Do the other weapons kill quicker? Or can you completely stomp them if you engage them upfront? If they kill quicker, try to find ways to incorporate your roll into winning the gunfight.

 

[Mar$el]

Let's see.

Practice some aiming against the test dummies.

I know what you're saying. "u wot, these things don't even move, what's the point of shooting them over and over? It's not like it's hard to kill them either, so why put in the effort in doing so"

What you get out of this is reacting quicker to certain threats, crafting your aim, and learning/mastering some techniques with your weapons.

So since you play the dualie squelchers, I would practice dodge rolling to the side of targets and trying to kill them as fast as possible. I know the dualie squelchers aren't the fastest killers in the game, but you'll never get punished for having good aim. Also, for extra credit, I would compare the dualie squelchers's range in comparison to other weapons that share the same range tier. Do the other weapons kill quicker? Or can you completely stomp them if you engage them upfront? If they kill quicker, try to find ways to incorporate your roll into winning the gunfight.

Also makes you feel really cool when you kill the dummies really fast with minimal mistakes. I usually do that before playing or when I'm bored with a charger. Practice all sorts of shots and all sorts of situations. With chargers you can practice holding a charge and getting used to shooting in different ways from different angles. Also applies to dualies. See if you can master doing a "fast fall" and killing the dummies on the bottom level and then the top ones and then the moving ones. There's so many things you can work on in the practice zone place whatever it's called.