OnePotWonder
Inkling Fleet Admiral
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2024
- Messages
- 977
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- Canada
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- He/Him
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- SW-2068-8904-6306
Splatoon 3 has a lot of specials. This obviously means that some will be better than others, but there's one special that's been consistently bottom of the barrel throughout the game's history. That special, as you can guess by the title, is Ink Vac. Now, to be fair, Vacuum isn't the only special to have a history of utter unviability. Alongside it are options equally bad like Ultra Stamp and Splattercolor Screen. They have their excuses, however. Splattercolor Screen is mostly hindered by accessibility issues, and Ultra Stamp outright does not work properly. Both of these aspects aren't related to the developers' vision of the special.
Rather than not functioning as intended, Ink Vac's problem is the fact that its design inherently contradicts itself. It encourages its users to move up to the enemy team to get value out of its suction and power up its shot, then its shot leaves it ridiculously vulnerable and is best used from a distance. The most popular change to Ink Vac is letting it access its shot earlier, such that it can build up its charge by consuming bombs and specials from the back line and fire its shot from safety. I have a different solution.
Ink Vac
Hear me out, here. Ink Vac's biggest weakness as a special is its dependency on its teammates to do literally anything other than panic survive against a flanking enemy. It has no way of dealing any damage other than its shot, which is supposed to be the reward for a job well done with its suction mode. At least half of the Ink Vacs that I see used (that don't end up dying before getting their shot off) are forced to fire the shot at their feet as a get-off-me tool because they end their suction with an enemy directly in their face. With no way to damage enemies in the suction mode, the special instantly loses all value if an enemy gets near it. As such, the main change I'd make to fix the special is to give it a way to deal damage in its suction mode. Not by giving it access to a sub weapon or letting the special fire its shot early. By making the suction deal damage.
30 DPS is relatively quite slow. An enemy would have to stay caught in the suction cone for three and a third seconds to actually get splatted by it from full health. This damage isn't directly meant to splat enemies, in the same way the lethal damage of bombs isn't directly meant to splat enemies; it's the threat of getting splatted that matters. If a player pops an Ink Vac in a 1v1 as of now, the other player just waits the special out and splats it in the startup of its shot. After this change, popping an Ink Vac in a 1v1 can be lethal if an opponent can't get out of the suction area or fill the special in time. Neither of which is particularly difficult, but both demand action.
This upgrade transforms Ink Vac from a pathetic to a strong special in a 1v1, but it becomes completely insane once the user's teammates are brought back into the picture. The special is already strong now when paired with teammates capable of picking off enemies caught in the suction cone, and the chip damage adds to that drastically. This change on its own would make the special way too strong, so it would have to come with some nerfs to balance it out.
Ink Vac, cont'd
Ironically, the first of these two changes would be a buff to the current version of Ink Vac, letting it access its shot one second sooner than it would as of now without being filled. With the damage buff to its suction mode, this change instead becomes a nerf that limits the uptime of the special's DPS without it being filled, making filling it less essential to counterplay. The other change to its radius significantly decreases the special's area of effect, reducing its collateral impact and encouraging more careful aim when using the suction mode.
There's just one last part of Ink Vac that needs to be addressed before I would consider the special truly fixed, that being its matchup spread. Backline chargers and weapons with rush attacks essentially cheese the special, either being able to instantly snipe it once its suction ends or outright ignore its suction to splat it regardless; meanwhile other classes get completely crippled when targeted by the vacuum, and can't even consistently damage the user when flanking beside them. All of these need fixing.
Ink Vac, cont'd, again
These changes all have one goal in mind; diversifying and streamlining counterplay against Ink Vac. The first change makes flanking the special an actual viable option, balancing out its strength in 1v1s by making it extremely difficult to use in 2v1s, compounding the AoE nerf. This also makes getting behind the enemy team when they're pushing up with Ink Vac consistently extremely effective. The second change removes the special's vulnerability to rush attacks because why is it even there in the first place? You can claim logic all you like, this is a game about squid and octopus people who fling ink at one another with buckets and rollers as their main form of recreation. A vacuum can most definitely nullify the damage of a sword in this world, and it should. Main weapons should not be able to hard counter special weapons.
The most interesting change here is the mini-suction, which could fare just as well as a standalone buff to the special. Stalling is currently way too effective a counter to Ink Vac, and even with the damage change it would still be a problem. Making it so the special can maintain its frontal protection if long-range enemies try to wait it out seems only fair, especially when the main culprit for this sort of counterplay are backline chargers, stringers, and splatlings that the special is supposed to be able to counter with its shot.
That's just about everything.
If you find any of these ideas for the special interesting, I'd love to hear it. Constructive feedback is also appreciated.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day.
Rather than not functioning as intended, Ink Vac's problem is the fact that its design inherently contradicts itself. It encourages its users to move up to the enemy team to get value out of its suction and power up its shot, then its shot leaves it ridiculously vulnerable and is best used from a distance. The most popular change to Ink Vac is letting it access its shot earlier, such that it can build up its charge by consuming bombs and specials from the back line and fire its shot from safety. I have a different solution.
Ink Vac
Damages enemies in the suction cone at a rate of 30 DPS
Hear me out, here. Ink Vac's biggest weakness as a special is its dependency on its teammates to do literally anything other than panic survive against a flanking enemy. It has no way of dealing any damage other than its shot, which is supposed to be the reward for a job well done with its suction mode. At least half of the Ink Vacs that I see used (that don't end up dying before getting their shot off) are forced to fire the shot at their feet as a get-off-me tool because they end their suction with an enemy directly in their face. With no way to damage enemies in the suction mode, the special instantly loses all value if an enemy gets near it. As such, the main change I'd make to fix the special is to give it a way to deal damage in its suction mode. Not by giving it access to a sub weapon or letting the special fire its shot early. By making the suction deal damage.
30 DPS is relatively quite slow. An enemy would have to stay caught in the suction cone for three and a third seconds to actually get splatted by it from full health. This damage isn't directly meant to splat enemies, in the same way the lethal damage of bombs isn't directly meant to splat enemies; it's the threat of getting splatted that matters. If a player pops an Ink Vac in a 1v1 as of now, the other player just waits the special out and splats it in the startup of its shot. After this change, popping an Ink Vac in a 1v1 can be lethal if an opponent can't get out of the suction area or fill the special in time. Neither of which is particularly difficult, but both demand action.
This upgrade transforms Ink Vac from a pathetic to a strong special in a 1v1, but it becomes completely insane once the user's teammates are brought back into the picture. The special is already strong now when paired with teammates capable of picking off enemies caught in the suction cone, and the chip damage adds to that drastically. This change on its own would make the special way too strong, so it would have to come with some nerfs to balance it out.
Ink Vac, cont'd
Suction mode duration reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
Suction cone radius reduced by 20%
Ironically, the first of these two changes would be a buff to the current version of Ink Vac, letting it access its shot one second sooner than it would as of now without being filled. With the damage buff to its suction mode, this change instead becomes a nerf that limits the uptime of the special's DPS without it being filled, making filling it less essential to counterplay. The other change to its radius significantly decreases the special's area of effect, reducing its collateral impact and encouraging more careful aim when using the suction mode.
There's just one last part of Ink Vac that needs to be addressed before I would consider the special truly fixed, that being its matchup spread. Backline chargers and weapons with rush attacks essentially cheese the special, either being able to instantly snipe it once its suction ends or outright ignore its suction to splat it regardless; meanwhile other classes get completely crippled when targeted by the vacuum, and can't even consistently damage the user when flanking beside them. All of these need fixing.
Ink Vac, cont'd, again
Suction hitbox moved forward to reduce the protection it provides its user on the sides
The user is immune to rush attacks from any player in the suction
The user maintains a suction cone 1/4 of the normal size while aiming the shot if the vacuum isn't full
These changes all have one goal in mind; diversifying and streamlining counterplay against Ink Vac. The first change makes flanking the special an actual viable option, balancing out its strength in 1v1s by making it extremely difficult to use in 2v1s, compounding the AoE nerf. This also makes getting behind the enemy team when they're pushing up with Ink Vac consistently extremely effective. The second change removes the special's vulnerability to rush attacks because why is it even there in the first place? You can claim logic all you like, this is a game about squid and octopus people who fling ink at one another with buckets and rollers as their main form of recreation. A vacuum can most definitely nullify the damage of a sword in this world, and it should. Main weapons should not be able to hard counter special weapons.
The most interesting change here is the mini-suction, which could fare just as well as a standalone buff to the special. Stalling is currently way too effective a counter to Ink Vac, and even with the damage change it would still be a problem. Making it so the special can maintain its frontal protection if long-range enemies try to wait it out seems only fair, especially when the main culprit for this sort of counterplay are backline chargers, stringers, and splatlings that the special is supposed to be able to counter with its shot.
That's just about everything.
If you find any of these ideas for the special interesting, I'd love to hear it. Constructive feedback is also appreciated.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day.