Custom Hydra Splatling: Analysis and Thoughts

[Hawk Seow]

Don't you mean nerf it?

Thanks for catching that error! I've made the necessary edits.

 

[Hawk Seow]

What i don't understand is why you guys say it's inking capability is bad. I'm by no means a good hydra player but i do wish i was. But whenever i go into squads or play tw i use it as a sniper esque weapon that some times go forward to cover ink or kill someone. Whenever i used the standard hydra i was always able to cover up the ground nicely a few patches of nude ground here and there but i generally didn't see enemy ink because i could scare enemies off then recover what they covered. So i just don't really understand how with sprinklers this could be worse at covering ink.

That splotchiness is part of what I mean. The other thing is that you need to spend a lot of time charging for the amount of turf you want to cover. It can ink decently well on a map like Kelp Dome (firing at that big open area while you're on top of the grates) but in many other maps you'll be inking at something like half the speed of most of the more capable inking weapons.

Also, something I've never really mentioned in either Hydra thread before: due to the high pressure of the Hydra, your shots fly out further. What this also means is that you have a harder time arcing shots to ink turf (you know those two small sides in Walleye Warehouse? Try turfing that quicker with a Hydra than the more common weapons) so usually your best option is to find the right position on high ground and ink from there.

Contrast that with something like an E-Liter (or any charger type weapon besides the Bamboozler, which requires a semi-charge to ink a nice thick line) which fires a thick straight line over any turf regardless of differences in height or you can just spam the button and strafe to get a nice big rectangular patch.

EDIT: If you don't want to read all that, just understand that when I say Hydra's turfing capability is bad, I really mean it's turfing efficiency is horrible. (Yes it's my fault for not saying that in the first place :x)

 

[blaziken2000]

Okay i think i understand your point a bit more, but usually hydras are in the back holding defense and can charge then cover while the mid or enemy base is getting rushed.

 

[Hawk Seow]

Okay i think i understand your point a bit more, but usually hydras are in the back holding defense and can charge then cover while the mid or enemy base is getting rushed.

If I'm not misunderstanding you're saying that being on the backlines means Hydra has more time to charge? That still doesn't change its inking efficiency. Sometimes you want to ink a certain area at a certain distance which requires you to charge for at least 1 second but oftentimes you either have to cancel your shot halfway (not efficient) or it still doesn't cover enough after all that spraying (not efficient).

 

[Of Moose & Men]

but oftentimes you either have to cancel your shot halfway (not efficient)

Just curious, what do you mean by cancel your shot? Do you mean squidding mid burst? Because, if so, if you squid mid charge it refills the tank up to the amount of ink you used. So, even if you charge all the way, if you only use 1/4 of that shot then squid, it will only take a 1/4 of the ink you charged not the full charge.

 

[Hawk Seow]

Just curious, what do you mean by cancel your shot? Do you mean squidding mid burst? Because, if so, if you squid mid charge it refills the tank up to the amount of ink you used. So, even if you charge all the way, if you only use 1/4 of that shot then squid, it will only take a 1/4 of the ink you charged not the full charge.

Yea that's what I meant by cancelling. The shot can also be cancelled by pressing the sub button too (not the best way usually but it's there).

I'm aware of the ink being used up is equivalent to how much you actually shot out. When I say inefficient, I'm referring to the time you spend charging for the amount and distance of turf you want to ink.

Imagine spending 2 hrs charging a rechargeable battery to have it run out in 1.

Edit: To make the above analogy a bit more accurate, imagine the battery can last for a maximum of 3 hrs (with 2 hrs charge) but the moment you put your device on standby you need to spend at least 1 hr charging it before you can use it again.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

Yea that's what I meant by cancelling. The shot can also be cancelled by pressing the sub button too (not the best way usually but it's there).

I'm aware of the ink being used up is equivalent to how much you actually shot out. When I say inefficient, I'm referring to the time you spend charging for the amount and distance of turf you want to ink.

Imagine spending 2 hrs charging a rechargeable battery to have it run out in 1.

Except you're charging that battery for 2 hours, and getting 3.5. If I disconnected the battery mid use, of course I'd expect to get less time to use it.

Yea, squidding can stop the burst, but you don't lose that ink. Nine times out of ten, when you're using a fully charged shot, there's very little reason for you to squid because you are in the back of the pack as previously mentioned, holding the shot until you need it. I mean, yea, it is unfortunate to have fully charged a shot, then have someone flank you. However, that just means you weren't doing the main thing you should be doing as a Hydra, paying attention to everything around you.

My Point is, when you fully charge a shot, you definitely get more than what you paid for. It's just dependent on how well you pay attention that defines whether you get to use it all.

 

[Hawk Seow]

Except you're charging that battery for 2 hours, and getting 3.5. If I disconnected the battery mid use, of course I'd expect to get less time to use it.

Yea, squidding can stop the burst, but you don't lose that ink. Nine times out of ten, when you're using a fully charged shot, there's very little reason for you to squid because you are in the back of the pack as previously mentioned, holding the shot until you need it. I mean, yea, it is unfortunate to have fully charged a shot, then have someone flank you. However, that just means you weren't doing the main thing you should be doing as a Hydra, paying attention to everything around you.

Point is, when you fully charge a shot, you definitely get more than what you paid for. It's just dependent on how well you pay attention that defines whether you get to use it all.

Apparently you didn't see my quick edit before you posted but it's ok.

Not sure why you felt the need to repeat that squidding stops the burst when I already acknowledged it.

I'm aware that your POV with the Hydra is almost entirely based on Ranked. My POV is based on Turf Wars. I assume you're thinking in terms of "How long can I lay down suppressive fire" whilst mine is more like "How much turf can I ink with a certain amount of charge".

The part you seem to be missing about my point is that, let's say I wanted to ink a square piece of turf that is 400p. How long do I need to spend charging and firing with a Hydra as opposed to any of the better turfing weapons? In light of that, don't you think the Hydra is relatively inefficient at turfing?

Note: You can say that the turfing efficiency of a Hydra is irrelevant to its performance in battle, but that's a whole other topic as far as I'm concerned.

That said, I agree total awareness is an important skill to have when using the Hydra.

I'd like to remind you that I provided the amount of time required for a full charge and the full duration for firing for both the Heavy Splatling and the Hydra in the relevant thread so I'm more than aware of your final point.

Just so I'm clear, the Hydra has the longest firing duration (220f) for a full charge (137f) which is 20f shy of 4 full seconds. In terms of mowing down a potential horde of enemies (like that entire bunch of dummies in the firing range), the Hydra is probably the most efficient (ink and time spent VS number of enemies splatted) out of every weapon.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

Oh, you're talking about its turfing capabilities, I was thinking something completely different.
My apologies, looking at said edit though, I see what you were saying.

We can 100% agree there then, because the Hydra is atrocious at racking up "p" to get its special charged up. Which is odd to me, because it seems like it should get more, but I digress.

 

[Hawk Seow]

Oh, you're talking about its turfing capabilities, I was thinking something completely different.
My apologies, looking at said edit though, I see what you were saying.

We can 100% agree there then, because the Hydra is atrocious at racking up "p" to get its special charged up. Which is odd to me, because it seems like it should get more, but I digress.

Actually I realized I'm at fault for not using the proper terminology in the first place. I should have said "turfing efficiency" from the very beginning.

I do understand why the Hydra doesn't ink as well as we imagine it should (I talked about it in an earlier post above) but still, I'll make a new post tomorrow (Edit: Splat tmr, I just posted it :D) regarding Custom Hydra loadouts here. Found some juicy stuff while using it tonight :D

 

[Hawk Seow]

I decided to try out some rough measurements for building up the Custom's special tonight in the firing range.

I'll get to the juicy details quick (once again measurements are rough):

Using the same gear loadout in the picture below to charge up specials in the firing range:

• Bubbler with the Splattershot Jr in roughly 10s.
• Custom Hydra, placing down a Sprinkler and then going for a full charge spray nets me a Bubbler in roughly 8s.
• Using Dynamo I managed to get a time of around 6.5s.

Of course, it being the firing range, these times aren't meant to be taken as the rule.

What it does mean however, is that as a Custom Hydra, you can actually get a Bubbler pretty early from the start (even in ranked). Whether you choose to hold on to it or activate it (for the instant tank refill) is up to you.

Using this information, I actually managed to almost always get top turfing points in TW along with a decent number of splats and 0-1 deaths, granted my opponents aren't made up of 4x S+ players.

Just to explain my gear loadout a little: The sub saver and ink saver synergize nicely to let me lay down a sprinkler at full tank and still charge a full salvo (I'm not sure if the ink saver sub is required TBH). Special charge ups ought to be self-explanatory :)

Despite me always bagging on the Hydra's (the main weapon itself, ignoring loadout) turfing efficiency, I do have to say it is fantastic at inking vertical surfaces (Eg. If you're on that central 'tower' in Blackbelly, you can pretty much ink all the mini walls around pretty quickly. It helps certain team members like rollers with their ambush efforts).

Finally, here's a pretty nasty setup if you have a savvy team mate and the enemy has no pesky snipers:
https://streamable.com/ceim

P.S. I have an irrational fear of Bamboozlers when I'm playing the Hydra: they've proven to be my number 1 issue so far. Not having a Bubbler at the time didn't help either.

EDIT: Ok so I was just trying some other gear out in the range and found out that 'sub saver' doesn't really have a substantial benefit unless I have it slotted in 3 mains so now I'm trying these out for the 3 mains: Ink Saver, Ink Recovery & Run Speed (I might substitute this with another main based on the maps).

 

[Rael]

No run speed? I'm not an Hydra expert, but isn't that useful to all kinds of Splatlings?

 

[Of Moose & Men]

No run speed? I'm not an Hydra expert, but isn't that useful to all kinds of Splatlings?

It can be, but even with 3 speed mains you still aren't really moving too quick lol. It's pretty upsetting.
I'd rather invest in something that can make a difference towards the number of shots I have, and how fast my ink recovers.

 

[ShinyTogetic]

With Three subs and one main you'll be able to have the walking speed of the heavy splatling with no run speed

 

[Of Moose & Men]

With Three subs and one main you'll be able to have the walking speed of the heavy splatling with no run speed

While charging? I find that hard to believe.
I could be wrong, but I experimented with run speeds, and it was not as fast as the Heavy.

 

[Award]

Played around with it more today now that Splatfest is done. I'm liking it more. I normally play an "offensive defense" style with weapons. Most of the time I take up a defensive position(s) just inside our side of mid, but weapon/range pending, go out to meet the enemy aggressively in defense. The splat bombs of the original appeal to me too, I'll have to go back and try it again at some point ,but the ability to hold turf with sprinklers just seems to work well with the Hydra's style of play versus Nzap89 and Splatterscope.

As always it's disgracefully difficult to ascertain my effectiveness with this weapon. We lost almost every TW round I played with it, and yet often times I had the best k/d on the team just from holding a position and #2-#3 ink. Unless the round was so bad we got fully spawncamped (inkoming thread about that soon. Or a barrage of new threads!). I was often left defending an area alone much like I am with eliter. And I'd end up missing a shot and getting overrun in the last 45 seconds like I do with eliter. And the whole round would fall apart as soon as my position was compromised. The fact that I tend to get assaulted by 3-4 squds in a coordinated attack with loaded specials in the last 45 seconds of most rounds tells me I must be doing something right ;)

Hmm that's weird, I know S+ users tend to be really good but S ranks are sometimes rather average too. Although, if you are only using the harder weapons, then you'll generally always have a tough time with these people who are most likely experienced enough to deal with you.

Part of the challenge of playing with randoms in TW or even ranked is trying to communicate with them somehow. I think as more time passes, people will slowly understand what should be done as a game progresses. A big part of this will be when people finally have an idea of how every weapon works as well as how every map is like. (Eg. I started out as a roller and mained inkbrush for a while after so on a map like Flounder Heights, if I see those users on my team, I follow them and ink the walls for them first if I have the right weapon).

Hmm, one thing you can safely assume about S/S+ users, they have a good grasp of when to deploy their special. It's vital that you don't ignore your special regardless of you weapon, if anything, sometimes the special is what determines which variant of the weapon you should bring in to a map and its mode.

I have a feeling the "average" S players stick to ranked, and the exceptional S players are frustrated with bouncing from S+ to S and spend more time in TW. I have seen a FEW of the average S players (the few rounds the S players were on my team instead of against me....and I somehow outperformed both of them....) most of the time the S/S+ are opposing team, and they thoroughly trash us. On the occasion I get trashed by a team of B-, most of my team is C- and/or unranked :p It's fairly weapon independent. No matter the weapon, I'll get stomped in those matchups as they are definitely more skilled than myself. It's getting frustrating enough that I'll likely return to ranked, scrap any interest in what rank I am and just experiment with all my weapons of interest in the actual ranked modes. It'll drag me back several ranks, but it's the only way to really get usable matchups.

I think people figuring out all the weapons and maps and the overall meta applies to the players in the top ranks and the competition scene. I don't think it applies broadly, especially in TW. I've seen such horible horrible plays so many times in TW, y players on my team in the mid-30's levels, in the B ranks. Even A ranks. Especially with Hydra I try to pay more attention to working with the team and what they're doing than with, say carbon roller, since it's so essential. Today on Kelp, so many times would they run straight to the tower get slaughtered, run right back, get slaughtered, then once we DID luck out and take mid, they'd just scatter around the rest of the map, including the enemy base, leaving the lone hydra to defend (same happens with eliter.) Which inevitably went badly by the end. I used to think they overvalued the snipers as 1-squid defense mechanisms, but observing their behavior today, my new conclusion is they simply don't understand the importance of mid! Hard to help a team out that doesn't even know what they're trying to do. That's the one thing that makes me worry about Hydra in general. In competition and high ranks where teams know more how to work as a team, it might be a very powerful weapon. With randoms that don't even know the map, it's pretty hard to try to support them - it's more essential to be a one squid army. More times than not, if I don't ink the turf, the turf will simply not be inked. If I don't defend the base, the base will simply not be defended. (several times we lost on Piranha because the lower section was entirely unpainted! The team was painting the enemy base over and over.) That's not a good mix for a Hydra to be in.

Specials...I'll freely admit to either hoarding it for the right moment (then forgetting it) or simply forgetting it. I'll use Wail, rush, and echo pretty reliably. Kraken/bubbler I try to save, and inkzooka I tend to save simply because it takes forever to charge the thing at least until I need to take out an enemy sniper (when playing roller, etc.) Bubblere on the hydra is a little hard to use well. I remembered it more today, and more specifically waited to share it with teammates, who appreciated it, and ultimately squandered it. But it was fun! I few times I saved it a second too long to activate it in defense of mid (alone), but most times I either never needed it (and was never splatted), or we were being massively overrun and I couldn't get it charged (3-4 squids camping your base is never fun...I hate Mackerel!)

Yes they help a carbon roller do the same thing too. The thing is, an E-Liter actually rushed me (Custom Hydra with no special yet) down behind the wall in my territory in Kelp Dome by burst bombing his way in -_- It's what made me mention this. You sure as hell don't see any other charger type just barge their way in...

LOL, Oh, I'll admit to being an aggressive eliter. :D When I have burst bombs, I'll run opponents down without hesitation ;) It's map dependent though, and it's great to have that ability to play near or far. But it's also risky. Being inkless as a charger is dangerous. I like it, but then I also play hyperactive close range weapons. Hydra's fun though because it's kind of zen compared to even eliter. I think this things going to have to join my list of mains, but I have to figure out how to make it work well. I did have quite a few 3/0, 6/0, even a 7/0 run today. And a lot of 3/5's (which was much better than the 0/7's across the rest of the team.

 

[Hawk Seow]

No run speed? I'm not an Hydra expert, but isn't that useful to all kinds of Splatlings?

My belief is that it's possible to play most of the weapons in more than 1 style. Having higher run speed would work if I want to keep walking around whilst firing my Hydra. My playstyle also varies based on the mode and maps I'm playing on so I'll pick my gear accordingly.

At the moment my chosen style is to use the sprinkler to charge my special, distract and harass enemies. Then I position myself in spots where I can keep enemies at bay.

It's also why my shirt has a weird mix of sub abilities; I've only ever rerolled once or twice to see what happens, other than that I don't min-max my equipment, I just mix and match what I happen to have.

 

[Hawk Seow]

Played around with it more today now that Splatfest is done. I'm liking it more. I normally play an "offensive defense" style with weapons. Most of the time I take up a defensive position(s) just inside our side of mid, but weapon/range pending, go out to meet the enemy aggressively in defense. The splat bombs of the original appeal to me too, I'll have to go back and try it again at some point ,but the ability to hold turf with sprinklers just seems to work well with the Hydra's style of play versus Nzap89 and Splatterscope.

Just based on my past experience, I definitely prefer the Custom right now because it actually allows me temporary bursts of aggro with the Bubbler and Sprinklers can be really devious in the right places.

As always it's disgracefully difficult to ascertain my effectiveness with this weapon. We lost almost every TW round I played with it, and yet often times I had the best k/d on the team just from holding a position and #2-#3 ink. Unless the round was so bad we got fully spawncamped (inkoming thread about that soon. Or a barrage of new threads!). I was often left defending an area alone much like I am with eliter. And I'd end up missing a shot and getting overrun in the last 45 seconds like I do with eliter. And the whole round would fall apart as soon as my position was compromised. The fact that I tend to get assaulted by 3-4 squds in a coordinated attack with loaded specials in the last 45 seconds of most rounds tells me I must be doing something right ;)

TBH, I'd be afraid of a good Custom Hydra with its special loaded up too. A good Hydra (either variant) can generally hold off a strategic chokepoint very effectively so I'm not surprised to see the enemy team coordinate to take you out. In most matches with balanced teams, there tends to be 1-2 'problem squids' which basically need to be taken out ASAP before any progress can be had. Hydra can definitely be one of those problem squids in many situations, some might say a good Hydra is always a problem squid :D

I have a feeling the "average" S players stick to ranked, and the exceptional S players are frustrated with bouncing from S+ to S and spend more time in TW. I have seen a FEW of the average S players (the few rounds the S players were on my team instead of against me....and I somehow outperformed both of them....) most of the time the S/S+ are opposing team, and they thoroughly trash us. On the occasion I get trashed by a team of B-, most of my team is C- and/or unranked :p It's fairly weapon independent. No matter the weapon, I'll get stomped in those matchups as they are definitely more skilled than myself. It's getting frustrating enough that I'll likely return to ranked, scrap any interest in what rank I am and just experiment with all my weapons of interest in the actual ranked modes. It'll drag me back several ranks, but it's the only way to really get usable matchups.

Personally I rarely pay attention to the ranks of my opponents (with the exception of S+ who do tend to be a cut above). Mostly I observe their play in the game itself and can quickly tell who are the ones who know what they're doing. Sometimes you can even tell if your team mate uses the map by seeing if they actually actively destroy enemy beakons (which they don't -_-). An easy example is beakons in the throne room on Saltspray Rig, I'd say it's imperative to destroy any stray enemy beakon there but sometimes it feels like I'm the only one heading there.

I think people figuring out all the weapons and maps and the overall meta applies to the players in the top ranks and the competition scene. I don't think it applies broadly, especially in TW. I've seen such horible horrible plays so many times in TW, y players on my team in the mid-30's levels, in the B ranks. Even A ranks. Especially with Hydra I try to pay more attention to working with the team and what they're doing than with, say carbon roller, since it's so essential. Today on Kelp, so many times would they run straight to the tower get slaughtered, run right back, get slaughtered, then once we DID luck out and take mid, they'd just scatter around the rest of the map, including the enemy base, leaving the lone hydra to defend (same happens with eliter.) Which inevitably went badly by the end. I used to think they overvalued the snipers as 1-squid defense mechanisms, but observing their behavior today, my new conclusion is they simply don't understand the importance of mid! Hard to help a team out that doesn't even know what they're trying to do. That's the one thing that makes me worry about Hydra in general. In competition and high ranks where teams know more how to work as a team, it might be a very powerful weapon. With randoms that don't even know the map, it's pretty hard to try to support them - it's more essential to be a one squid army. More times than not, if I don't ink the turf, the turf will simply not be inked. If I don't defend the base, the base will simply not be defended. (several times we lost on Piranha because the lower section was entirely unpainted! The team was painting the enemy base over and over.) That's not a good mix for a Hydra to be in.

Yea while using the original Hydra I reached a point where I told myself that it's best to assume that no team mate is going to support me consciously. If they do, then it's great! Otherwise I play more like a lone wolf. Despite that, like I've mentioned a few times, it's important for the Hydra to support the team mates who need it (Inking walls for rollers is my favourite example, they might not know it but it'll always be helpful as the match goes on).

Specials...I'll freely admit to either hoarding it for the right moment (then forgetting it) or simply forgetting it. I'll use Wail, rush, and echo pretty reliably. Kraken/bubbler I try to save, and inkzooka I tend to save simply because it takes forever to charge the thing at least until I need to take out an enemy sniper (when playing roller, etc.) Bubblere on the hydra is a little hard to use well. I remembered it more today, and more specifically waited to share it with teammates, who appreciated it, and ultimately squandered it. But it was fun! I few times I saved it a second too long to activate it in defense of mid (alone), but most times I either never needed it (and was never splatted), or we were being massively overrun and I couldn't get it charged (3-4 squids camping your base is never fun...I hate Mackerel!)

I think a shared Bubbler is similar to Echolocator in that it suddenly pressures the enemy team. Make sure you don't accidentally share your Bubbler with teammates who want to play stealthily (brushes and carbon rollers especially) and considering how strong Cold-Blooded is, I feel like Bubbler works out better in the long run (charges faster too at 180p). I assume you know this already but while Bubbler is active, the bubble can get rid of splat and suction bombs. So you can partially nullify a bomb rush if the need arises.

LOL, Oh, I'll admit to being an aggressive eliter. :D When I have burst bombs, I'll run opponents down without hesitation ;) It's map dependent though, and it's great to have that ability to play near or far. But it's also risky. Being inkless as a charger is dangerous. I like it, but then I also play hyperactive close range weapons. Hydra's fun though because it's kind of zen compared to even eliter. I think this things going to have to join my list of mains, but I have to figure out how to make it work well. I did have quite a few 3/0, 6/0, even a 7/0 run today. And a lot of 3/5's (which was much better than the 0/7's across the rest of the team.

Yea it's definitely map-dependent, as are most strategies and weapons. Being inkless as any weapon is risky haha, unless you have one of the panic specials (Kraken or Bubbler). IMO when it comes to TW, the K/D is actually less important unless we're talking chargers. I identify newbies by seeing how many points they got from turfing. I mean, when you see an Aerospray RG with less than 400p you know something is very wrong (answering an important phone call could be part of those but getting less than 400p in 2 consecutive matches is a sure sign :D)

 

[Hawk Seow]

While charging? I find that hard to believe.
I could be wrong, but I experimented with run speeds, and it was not as fast as the Heavy.

I could attempt to do some rough measurements but yea if all things are equal (same gear abilities) then the walk/run speeds of splatlings always go from Mini (fastest) > Heavy (fast) > Hydra (slow) based on my experience.

 

[Award]

It's also why my shirt has a weird mix of sub abilities; I've only ever rerolled once or twice to see what happens, other than that I don't min-max my equipment, I just mix and match what I happen to have.

Glad to see I'm not alone in not really being crazy about rerolls. The odds are just so low of getting what you want, and I worry that I can spend tons of snails rerolling things and end up with a worse trio that's less flexible than what I originally had. And the odds of wanting 3x swim, 3x str, 3x armor and getting them in that order are a lot lower than getting 1 of each on 3 different gears yielding the same result. Rolling perfects seems to be more for the OCD, the ones that specifically want the aesthetics of a certain kit but want to get the best abilities out of it, or the insane tryhards (and cheaters!!) that sit there with 9x swim speed ups... Because they definitely had the 300 or so snails required for that.

Just based on my past experience, I definitely prefer the Custom right now because it actually allows me temporary bursts of aggro with the Bubbler and Sprinklers can be really devious in the right places.

The one issue I have with bubbler is the short duration. It's great to get away, but I can't effectively use it for aggro with the slow charge of the hydra. Even a quick burst. For the moment I even have 2x special duration subs on my run speed up parka, it's not much but it should be some kind of help. It's not much of one though. Sharing the bubbler with an aggro shooter seems more practical. haven't made a good ambush out of it yet though.

I still love splat bombs, and the pressuring/close range with the hydra would be great. But I AM liking sprinklers for it. Bombs take up too much ink for too little in return for such a slow weapon. I use splat bombs like mad on splat charger. I think of it as a grenade launcher with a bonus sniper rifle. I use them a lot on luna neo. Hydra...they just don't fit for me. But it's the other way around for sprinklers. With kelp splat charger I feel helpless without my bombs around corners and the sprinklers can't ink as well as my main gun so I drop one, then forget about it and never really do much with it until I remember it. With hydra since it's more a fixed gun, It's great to keep spamming out sprinklers, slowly taking over all the area around you as you move. Fend off a wave and when the enemy comes back, all the terrain is back as it was. And harassing them with reappearing sprinklers is much more fun with this.

TBH, I'd be afraid of a good Custom Hydra with its special loaded up too. A good Hydra (either variant) can generally hold off a strategic chokepoint very effectively so I'm not surprised to see the enemy team coordinate to take you out. In most matches with balanced teams, there tends to be 1-2 'problem squids' which basically need to be taken out ASAP before any progress can be had. Hydra can definitely be one of those problem squids in many situations, some might say a good Hydra is always a problem squid :D

Well, that's the usual result with ANY weapon I use. Obviously hydras and eliters attract attention and wrath. But even carbon rollers and varieties of other weapons I'll often form a defensive line/area and patrol it. I'll thwart all their attacks for the first part of the round, irritate the heck out of them that they can't get into our base, and THEN the come after me with two wails, an inkstrike and a bubble huddle all at once :45 to the end. :D And once I go down, that's it, game over, they've painted our base and it's impossible to cover it up and retrench in 45 seconds.

that's if it's not a superior team that never lets us out of spawn. They'll come in bubbled up with a strike or two in the first 25 seconds right to the spawn, trap us there, and that's the game right there. (That's what the other tread will be on). I had to take my hydra and venture out by myself, sneaking past spawn, heading deep into the enemy base. Just me, my hydra, and my sprinklers. You can guess how that turned out. And my team of course refused to jump to me, instead fighting at spawn forever...

Personally I rarely pay attention to the ranks of my opponents (with the exception of S+ who do tend to be a cut above). Mostly I observe their play in the game itself and can quickly tell who are the ones who know what they're doing. Sometimes you can even tell if your team mate uses the map by seeing if they actually actively destroy enemy beakons (which they don't -_-). An easy example is beakons in the throne room on Saltspray Rig, I'd say it's imperative to destroy any stray enemy beakon there but sometimes it feels like I'm the only one heading there.

Playing mostly TW, I can only check ranks (and gear to order!) after the match. So I pay attention to which teams were thoroughly dominant and check them out. Lots of S and S+ are the culprits. Occasionally it's some B- that's clearly an alt account for the above. I suspect most of the S's I find in TW are among the good ones. I'm guessing they're the ones pinging back and forth between S+ and S and go to TW to avoid a losing streak getting too deep. And somehow they get paired against me

Oh, my team mates use beacons. They'll use them exclusively when I'm using Custom E-Liter, and placed beacons for my own jump points. Any time I get in a pickle, and go to jump to my alt zones, and of course, my beacons are all gone. Both taken out by enemies, or jumped to by my team. Often enough jumped to by my team while I'm standing right next to it. And of course I get splatted when my escape route is gone. But they'll never take out enemy beacons! Especially not when their inside our hallway on Underpass! I seriously had to go lurching around with CHydra hunting beacons just to secure my spot.

Yea while using the original Hydra I reached a point where I told myself that it's best to assume that no team mate is going to support me consciously. If they do, then it's great! Otherwise I play more like a lone wolf. Despite that, like I've mentioned a few times, it's important for the Hydra to support the team mates who need it (Inking walls for rollers is my favourite example, they might not know it but it'll always be helpful as the match goes on).

Yeah, I learned that with eliter long ago....

Interesting about inking walls for rollers. Typically as a Carbon roller I'm not going up walls unless I'm making escape routes back up in places like the skatepark tower. I try to stay low, and stay moving. Places that would be dangerous for a hydra to go and turn around to ink. I did have one helpful teammate that actually inked walls for my hydra in skatepark to take the right perch. That was a rare experience.

I think a shared Bubbler is similar to Echolocator in that it suddenly pressures the enemy team. Make sure you don't accidentally share your Bubbler with teammates who want to play stealthily (brushes and carbon rollers especially) and considering how strong Cold-Blooded is, I feel like Bubbler works out better in the long run (charges faster too at 180p). I assume you know this already but while Bubbler is active, the bubble can get rid of splat and suction bombs. So you can partially nullify a bomb rush if the need arises.

LOL, yeah, these guys aren't the subtle sort usually. I try to share when I see them making (another) suicide run into enemy territory so they might at least splat something on their way to go 1v4 in a fortified area :p

On the other hand when I have carbon roller and am camping, that's always when someone decides to jump to me. THough I've caught a few enemies that way too!

Yeah, I do love echolocator on eliter. I've found a few flanks that way. But cold blooded really breaks it. But it never made as much sense on other weapons like hydra. You can't chase down your flanker, and you're not likely to be as perched or as far as eliter so you're going to be more aware of the action in the immediate area. It helps the team (though I wonder if most randoms even notice?)

I still need to try it in more maps. I felt REALLY useless in Port Mackarel. The usual eliter perches just aren't as easy to hold with hydra. And the close quarters don't do sprinklers any favors. I found myself more times than not running back to spawn to pick up flanks than holding anything of value. I'm liking it so far. And I think I need to add it to my stable of mains. Hard to dethrone the eliter(s), carbon, and splat charger as favorites though! But I'm liking it so far!