Dodging close attacks and circling around your opponents

[Novinho]

Hello everybody,

This is going to be my first post. I also want to state that English is not my first language, so please take this in consideration. My grammar is not perfect, but I will try to explain my questions. First I want to introduce myself.

I started playing Splatoon from launch date. My main weapon is the Splattershot Jr. At this moment I'm a level 44 player. Without boasting and bragging, I have to admit a win a lot of matches online (Turf War). Many times I am the best player of the winning team, with the most points and most 'kills". So I honestly think I'm pretty good at the game. I've heard some player feel intimidated by Japanese players, but I'm not that impressed. Still I believe I have a lot to learn. Some other players really amaze me with their skills.

My question: recently I started to notice players with different skills and techniques that I didn't notice that much before. Things like splatdashing, -hopping etc.

Now I am noticing some players are really good at dodging my ink during extremely close attacks and I have not clue how they do that. They just circle around me really quick and I have to move super fast in circles to even keep up the paste, let alone hit them. How do they do that?

Another question: I've seen Japanese players moving super fast through enemy ink. How is that possible? Is it the splatdashing? It seems almost impossible to hit them. Every time I hit them, they move position and I miss almost every shot.

 

[Metarai]

Hello Novinho!
These answers may not be completely correct, I am a level 31 S rank (which means you have played this game longer than I have) and don't play turf wars very often.
Japanese players are not that bad, most of them are like me and you who just play this game for fun. There are some Japanese (and non Japanese for that matter) that are very dedicated and are quite good. I would assume that they would usually hang out in ranked lobbies. If you feel that you are good at turf wars, try out some ranked mode! It's pretty fun.
For you question about players who circle around you, they are probably trying to do this to confuse and throw off your aim. Are you playing with or without motion controls? I personally find it easier to make quicker turns to hit them if I have motion controls on. Also your weapon, the Splattershot Jr., is a rather short range weapon. This means that it is easier for them to get close and do this. They also might be wearing swim speed up equipment.
In response to your other question, I think it is probably splat dashing. It is the fastest movement option in enemy ink (at least I think so), and is good at getting away from opponents. Are their trails small splats of ink? If so, its probably splatdashing. If you can predict their movement, you can cut them off and splat them.

 

[Hero of Lime]

One common ability you will see people like to stack up on is run speed up. When someone has a few, they can weave so quickly, it can be hard to hit them. The same with swim speed up, if you have enough of it equipped, it's easy to confound enemies and get really close to splat them.

Hopping has been a pretty common strategy for a while now. Oddly enough, I see less people use it these days, the main exception being blaster users. People who just hop around are fairly easy to deal with. The best thing to do is move around a lot yourself. They hop to disorient you, just disorient them right back!

 

[Metarai]

Hopping has been a pretty common strategy for a while now. Oddly enough, I see less people use it these days, the main exception being blaster users. People who just hop around are fairly easy to deal with. The best thing to do is move around a lot yourself. They hop to disorient you, just disorient them right back!

Just to clarify this point, I believe the reason why less people hop is because of reduced accuracy. Sure, it does make you harder to hit and your shots go slightly farther, but on shooters it makes your spread much wider. Blasters don't have to worry about this since it doesn't affect their accuracy. Also people are getting better at aiming their shots up and down to kill hoppers. Hopping against a charger is also one of the worst things you can do.

 

[Skepticpunk]

Blasters don't have to worry about this since it doesn't affect their accuracy.

Yes, it does. Take a blaster into Test Mode and try firing after jumping. It can go way off.

 

[Rockin]

Now I am noticing some players are really good at dodging my ink during extremely close attacks and I have not clue how they do that. They just circle around me really quick and I have to move super fast in circles to even keep up the paste, let alone hit them. How do they do that?

Simply by how you described it. They must've saw you coming towards them, so they quickly swam around you just so they can kill you from behind. As a blaster, I tend to do that as often as I can to ensure a kill while moving to a safer area. It helps that I stack one main swim speed.

Another question: I've seen Japanese players moving super fast through enemy ink. How is that possible? Is it the splatdashing? It seems almost impossible to hit them. Every time I hit them, they move position and I miss almost every shot.

You may need to provide a bit more details, as it sounds like they lagged (that can happen sometimes. You put your ink on the floor and the game takes time to register). Was they shooting the ground at all?

Yes, it does. Take a blaster into Test Mode and try firing after jumping. It can go way off.

Without practice, yeah. But after enough practice, you can land splash hits (or direct hits) in Test mode. You have to aim your cursor onto the target at hand on or before you jump out of squid form. The real trick however is consiatntly landing direct hits on moving targets (but again, that takes time and practice. Even then, you could kill them with splash damage).

 

[Smarty1two]

for gear try using the Red hi-tops and just max out the swim speed

 

[Ryuji]

Now I am noticing some players are really good at dodging my ink during extremely close attacks and I have not clue how they do that. They just circle around me really quick and I have to move super fast in circles to even keep up the paste, let alone hit them. How do they do that?

It's most likely Run Speed Up. This 'dance' is done not only to avoid being shot at it, but also for them to continue shooting without having to stop at all, thereby making it easier for them to kill you and not die themselves. In this situation, just back up to break the cycle and you will be able to kill them(hopefully). As well, as a fellow Jr. main myself, I can give you another tip. If they ever doing this while circling around an obstacle, you can use a tactic that I like to call a bomb pincer. Throw a bomb on one side of the obstacle, then go on the opposite side to shoot them. They will either have to get blown up or meet you on the other side. It will almost always be the latter. They won't be able to hide from you and will have to engage you in this situation, which gives you the advantage. Splatting them will be easy.

 

[sammich]

Just to clarify this point, I believe the reason why less people hop is because of reduced accuracy. Sure, it does make you harder to hit and your shots go slightly farther, but on shooters it makes your spread much wider. Blasters don't have to worry about this since it doesn't affect their accuracy. Also people are getting better at aiming their shots up and down to kill hoppers. Hopping against a charger is also one of the worst things you can do.

jumping also severely limits your directional input once you're in the air, so you're essentially a sitting duck against chargers. i remember when everybody used to jump all the time and killing people was so easy

 

[Dolphoshi]

jumping also severely limits your directional input once you're in the air, so you're essentially a sitting duck against chargers. i remember when everybody used to jump all the time and killing people was so easy

ah the good old days
a good way to figure out what they are going to do is by the range they have if they have short range they are going to stay of your way and hit you from the side. for aimming it could just be lag but i would recommend using an more accurate demanding weapon (ei charger or long range weapon) it makes it so you don't get switched around as easily and will help your kill time as well

 

[Fightersword]

Now I am noticing some players are really good at dodging my ink during extremely close attacks and I have not clue how they do that. They just circle around me really quick and I have to move super fast in circles to even keep up the paste, let alone hit them. How do they do that?

Another question: I've seen Japanese players moving super fast through enemy ink. How is that possible? Is it the splatdashing? It seems almost impossible to hit them. Every time I hit them, they move position and I miss almost every shot.

For the first question, it has to do with the FoV model for aiming adjustment. What I mean by this is that, the closer you are to an opponent, for every movement you make said opponent has to adjust his aim more to compensate. It's even more effective if you move outside of their FoV, because then they will be much more likely to mess up their adjustment. Try backing away from the direction they're moving while they're trying to circle you to get a better bead on them, as this increases the distance between you and them while you adjust. Of course try and keep it iwthin your range (with the JR that means still very close).

it's something that was used in scout 1v1s in TF2 a lot too, so I'm pretty familiar. If you saw someone circling you like that in TF2, it was typical to move/jump backwards, at a diagonal angle, to put them back in your FoV and make it easier to hit them.

As for your second question, it's probably a combination of ATs plus lag. They're Sdashing/Shopping and the ink on th eground isn't adjusting properly. the always missing is probably indeed lag. I've had the game make hit noises and hit indications but still not kill the guy because of lag several, several time. it's just something you have to deal with.