Goodbye Old Meta (Patch 2.7.0 is Insane!)

[WeirdChillFever]

Imo the specials were intolerable as it was. If the specials are even MORE abused this might well lead to me putting the game down for good. It was BARELY tolerable before. And in particular bomb rushes and bubblers. They were overused and broken. If they're used MORE now, the game will be flat out broken. This is a very sad day for Slatoon :(

I was excited for balance updates coming but looking at what theyve done Im starting to wonder what insanity motivated them to completely turn the entire gameplay around a year into the game when all but the high level players have mostly stopped playing, while simultaneously NOT addressing most of the real problems, namely the effects of lag on some weapons (in fact they're making that worse), and the effect of scummers abuseively stacking gear (and in some cases they make that worse.)

It's like replacing half the MK8 item boxes with blue shells and adding an Orange Shell that takes out the #2 and #3 player and calling it a balance update.



Isn't that what the burst bomb mains were using it as before? Doesn't that make it worse?

"The main problem with eliters is their range combined with the effectiveness of burst bombs as a close range killer!"
"We have the solution! We'll make the burst bombs even MORE deadly, make the long range shots charge faster, but make both the eliter AND the custom eliter have no midrange ability at all! Even though Custom has nothing OTHER than the main gun! Also, MOAR SPECIALZ! Please understand."



Yeah....I really REALLY don't know what their thinking is. Im not sure if it's about "lets remove anything but midrange shooters and make guns solely about charging specials because reasons" or "We want people to stop playing Splatoon so they buy NX after it's announced in 2 months, so let's make it as unfun as we can"

But everything about this patch screams "fixes no existing problems, makes those problems worse, breaks a few weapons for no reason, but includes a few fixes everyone wanted, and the Jr. will be even MORE broken than before. Because it just didn't have enough bubbler charge rate.

Normally I love the balance updates but from the moment i read these patch notes I've been thinking "there goes Splatoon"

I'd be bummed out too, if it weren't for the fact all Splat Bomb Rushes (except Sloshing Machine) get their specials LESS often, as the Splat Charger, Splatterscope and Luna Blaster Neo get a 75% decrease in Special Meter per death.

This also goes for Bubbler, where the Splattershot Jr, Tri-Slosher and Zink Mini Splatling get a 60% decrease in Special per death.

There are still a lot of Bubbler weapons left, but these are all way less common than these three and charge it slower as well.
Think of weapons like Squiffer and Custom Blaster

Again, same with Inkzooka (except for the Aerospray MG, which gets more Inkzookas)
But then there's the Tentatek losing 75% per death.
For an agressive weapon like the Tentatek, that's pretty huge.

In general, there will more specials for some weapons and less for the most common weapons.
I think the weapons that got played for the powerful specials (Tri-Slosher, Luna Neo) will be played less.

 

[ArcticWolf]

New Slosher gets Splat Bombs and Inkzooka
New Bamboozler gets Burst Bomb and Inkstrike

 

[sammich]

loll "soda slosher" (may not be the final english name),
rubbing in that fake leak

 

[Claus]

Uncharged range nerf? Swim Speed decrease? On my precious E-Litre?

Now is the time to get upset.

 

[karl childers]

A Bamboozler with Burst Bombs? Basically the Bamboozler will require only one precise shot now. Nintendo has no idea what they're about unleash upon Splatoon!

 

[LupusFreak]

The dual squelcher wasn't nerfed. It got a buff like a bunch of other weapons where it loses less special upon death. and the tentatek got the opposite where it loses much more special upon death.

While it wasn't nerfed directly, echo was, and the Splattershot pro, Jet squelcher, and .96 gal all got buffs, which nerfed the Dual indirectly. I was just mostly bummed that everything I use was impacted negatively, and I got no positives out of it...

...until I saw the bamboozler kit, and now i'm less bummed about it, but still a little bummed that i'll have to completely change my playstyle (for chargers).

 

[Cyan]

I like the Soda Slosher's set, and really think it's the best thing it could have pulled. Obviously the Bubbler was ruled out on the basis of the Slosher Deco, since 2 invincible specials on the same weapon stat wise isn't exactly fair. Killer Wail would have lumbered it, Bomb Rush is underwhelming generally, and Echolocator won't benefit its style. The Inkzooka gives it power and the Splat Bombs allow for sub attacks without leaving the main weapon defenceless. I hope its English name is the Soda Slosher, since it rolls off the tongue nicely and fits the colour scheme. Definitely considering maining it alongside its Deco brother.

The Bamboozler is underwhelming in my eyes, Burst Bombs won't help its cause, since that is slower than a full charge followed by an uncharged shot. The Inkstrike is an odd choice special, since it isn't useful at all on this weapon. The Mk II is better on the basis of disruptors and Echolocator, which enables the Bamboozler to disable and track players, and allows them to do the full charge and uncharged shot for the kill. Due to how quickly the Bamboozler gets a full charge the Burst Bombs aren't as useful as the Splash Wall or Disruptors on the other 2 so I don't see it being very viable, although I could be wrong.

 

[Leronne]

While it wasn't nerfed directly, echo was, and the Splattershot pro, Jet squelcher, and .96 gal all got buffs, which nerfed the Dual indirectly. I was just mostly bummed that everything I use was impacted negatively, and I got no positives out of it...

...until I saw the bamboozler kit, and now i'm less bummed about it, but still a little bummed that i'll have to completely change my playstyle (for chargers).

actually yeah you have a point. The dual only got that minor special buff (which a lot of different weapons also got). No range buff, no shot speed buff, no strafe buff, nothing. The dual will really struggle against a lot of other weapons now. That really sucks. Hopefully they'll buff it in the second sheldon's picks along with other weapons that didn't get buffed like the sloshing machine and ink brush.

 

[UBERU-5]

I'm wondering if the designers had a little too much saki when they designed this thing. The spc charge nerf list seems almost random. Jr. in the 60% bracket?? Huh? Nerfing Krak-On's spc charge when that's the main element of that roller? Little odd.

The weapon nerfs/buffs....Hydra, cool, some others kind of cool. Finally 96 is weakened. But WTF did they do to chargers? I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. I'm thankfully a multi-weapon main so if chargers are now not viable I can always go brush/roller/sploosh/hydra, and I welcome more chances to take a hydra than I used to have, and part of me is happy since NOBODY is going to want to play eliters anymore, which is a good thing since I haven't been able to play it recently due to the fact that every team consists of 3-4 chargers when I do. So something making them less popular is good. However, the massive decrease in uncharged range makes them useless except for the very slow occasional full charge shots. Players that were already salty about "chargers are useless on your team" are going to have a field day over them now, as eliter k/d's are going to drop exponentially and their turfing will suck to match. It's now reduced to a pure support weapon which indeed makes it useless among the midrange shooter fest.

They needed to curb the effects of scummed damage up stackers, so that a non-scum-stacked eliter isn't disadvantaged compared to scum stacked eliters. Now they just made eliter a little bit of a joke between the slower swim speed, and the inability to shoot more often than every 5 seconds. The biggest effect, though is they may have killed off the scoped versions of all chargers for good. The only way to use them was to charge-while aiming - but you'd never have time with aware targets to do that to full charge. The fact it now has no advantage over unscoped for uncharged shots, and the need to charge up to full charge?

Does anyone know if "uncharged shot range reduced to match [unscoped] means the NEW -20% god-awful nerf for unscoped, or if it means the OLD range for unscoped. A 20% range loss is pretty severe in how it changes the whole way eliters are used and dramatically reduces their usefulness.

The 6% charge speed buff MAY mitigate it, but, IMO the main effect of this is that you NEED to hold your charge and flick shot which pretty much removes scoped eliters from any and all usability in the game giving unscoped all the advantages.

That's really awful. I know the popularity of eliter had to be curbed, but not the the point of obsoleting a weapon.

On the other hand, all the more reason for me to continue playing with H3 and Bamboozler if C3K isn't usable anymore!

Also, slosher is the new May 2015 roller.


Edit: The big issue here is no player at the high ranks can afford to simply sit waaay back at the designated perch for the entire match and do nothing but snipe. You have to join the fray and be aggressive, even with eliter. With this nerf, it reduces the mobility of eliter and removes most of the ability to shot at midrange, meaning all eliters are going to be stuck as "perch snipers" - a role I'm not even certain is viable in high ranks outside of organized squads.

lol wow, just reading this whole thing made me laugh. do you really think that lowly of 3k eliter scope mains? there are those who heavily depend on stacked dmg but it doesn't mean they can't aim, if they want to full charge then they will full charge. this whole eliter nerf won't bother me at all, since i don't stack dmg, and i always full charge my shots for those far away splats. so i'm really stoked on the 6% decrease charge time!

but it really sounds like you kinda know nothing about 3k eliter scopes...your reasons sounds so...ridiculous? i'm sure many 3k eliter scope mains are laughing at this, or at least i'm laughing at this x3

 

[Award]

How often do you fire from max charge? I haven't used the Hydras too extensively but I feel unless I'm behind a corner waiting I don't wait until max charge but the first ring of charge before firing or even earlier if the enemy is close. This thing just charges so darn slowly, and with the unwarranted swim speed nerf I'm kinda wishing the extra damage came into play at the first ring.

Personally I nearly always max charge hydra unless I'm being barnstormed by incoming foes. There's too much to gain and too little to lose doing a partial charge otherwise. To me partial charge is an emergency measure for being caught off guard, while max charge is what gives you the actual features of the Hydra. IMO partial charging all the time is what Heavy players do when they try Hydra because they're too accustomed to shorter charges :)

>All my mains get nerfed (Dual Squelcher, Splatterscope, E-liter)

>Tentatek remains mostly unchanged

*sigh*

Just when I felt like I was becoming competent with the E-liter, too. Oh well, I guess the Splatterscope was always my favorite charger, anyways. I feel like the E-liter being hit from literally all sides was too much, but whatever. I'll still play it, in TW for fun, that is.

I don't know how I feel about the cold blooded/echolocator thing. I've always ran cold blooded paired with echo, so having both nerfed is so... weird. I don't know if I should keep using both, or only use one, or what.

I was hoping that I could find a balance between Special Duration Up, Swim Speed Up, Ink Saver Main, Ink Saver Sub, Ink Recovery Up, and Damage Up to take the E-liter at least closer to my current fit, but no matter how I look at it, it's nerfs are too great.

I'm just really bummed the only thing i'm getting from this update is nerfs, and it seems that the one weapon that i'm good at that i've been reluctant to use because of it's OPness is unchanged. I mean, I kinda like the splash, I guess, so i'll give that a try.

I'm just hoping that the 20% reduction isn't as much as it seems in game. Hopefully 6% is enough to offset it, but c'mon. Six percent? Ugh, i'll stop spitting salt onto this post now.

EDIT: I just remembered (because I forgot for some reason) what annoyed me the most. When they buffed Ink Saver Sub, I started rerolling my and I finally got a good roll on them and put together a decent set for e-liter, only to find out that all my rerolling has done is bring the amount of burst bombs back to 2.6.0, at the cost of 2 mains. There goes that set. At least I can use them with .

Cold blooded is just kind of "meh" to me overall. Echo & sensors kind of suck due to cold blooded, but cold blooded kind of sucks because it takes one of your mains away and only gives you an advantage IF the enemy is spamming echos/sensors. I've stopped wearing cold blooded even when playing brushes in favor of speed/ink enhancement. If echo is up I might be screwed and have to hide. If they use sensors, they're going to know I was there anyway. It's a boon to those of use that use sensors though!

Still, the poor eliter....there were too many good players with them and it became too popular....but the problem has always been the scummers with their dmg stacking. And the burst bombs. And the scummers with their dmg stacking using burst bombs. And their solution was to make the scummers with burst bombs even MORE OP while crippling Custom Scope almost entirely. :rageface:

I honestly didn't like the Hydra Splatling since it didn't give much benefit over the Heavy at a high cost. That said, at least there's a reason to use it after the patch (and go for full charge on top of it), as I believe it'll make the Hydra Splatling the fastest splatting weapon in the game (aside of weapons capable of one-shot splats). It shoots faster than the Sploosh and splats in the same number of hits

I'm all for the Hydra buff, but comparing Hydra to Sploosh? :p I think that's one of those metrics that makes sense on paper only. Since they can't be played remotely the same and a Hydra is almost never going to be in the same locations as a sploosh (a base raiding Hydra? :) ) it's a sideways comparison. Though I wonder how it compares ttk wise to carbon (buffed carbon....fffuuu nintendo!)

It depends on the map really. When it comes to larger maps like Camp Triggerfish and Piranha Pit, I'm usually fully charging the Hydra because there's a lot of space. It gives more time to charge the Hydra and figure out where to aim. Smaller maps like Blackbelly give more of an issue because it's easier for the enemy to get in your face much quicker. So it's rarer to find a Hydra who will fully charge on a small map unless their team is in complete control. Fully charging does have its benefits. When the Hydra is fully charged, I can easily take out three people in a single charge and this buff could help me take out all four enemies if they're close enough together. I'm often coming across teams packed together far more than I probably should haha. :p

The strongest teams seem to always cluster together. Hydra might be amazing since it can chew through that now!

A Bamboozler with Burst Bombs? Basically the Bamboozler will require only one precise shot now. Nintendo has no idea what they're about unleash upon Splatoon!

The Bamboozler is underwhelming in my eyes, Burst Bombs won't help its cause, since that is slower than a full charge followed by an uncharged shot. The Inkstrike is an odd choice special, since it isn't useful at all on this weapon. The Mk II is better on the basis of disruptors and Echolocator, which enables the Bamboozler to disable and track players, and allows them to do the full charge and uncharged shot for the kill. Due to how quickly the Bamboozler gets a full charge the Burst Bombs aren't as useful as the Splash Wall or Disruptors on the other 2 so I don't see it being very viable, although I could be wrong.

I agree, I always liked Bamboozler, but dropped it and only recently picked it back up thanks to @Leronne and @Reila, but Mk1 and Mk2 have two of the best kits in the game, so I'm not sure what exactly they intend to add with the Mk3. Burst bombs are the opposite of everything bamboozler does well, they're slow, they drain ink, they lack the range of the main gun without gaining anything but turfing ability. And inkstrike on a bamboozler seems pretty weak after echo and wail. Ok maybe par with wail, but doesn't fit into useage so well. Since the Sheldon's Picks were all about encouraging use of underused weapons, I'm guessing they picked up Bamboozler ans one of the least used weapons and thought "well, I dunno, metrics show kids like burst bombs and inkstrikes these days, lets try that!" It seems like a downgrade to me. Then again how can you come up with a BETTER kit than a charger with disruptors and walls unless you make the thing shoot krakens as a sub :p I think seekers would have been an interesting kit for it IMO. Burstbae is just.....I literally can't even. ;)

lol wow, just reading this whole thing made me laugh. do you really think that lowly of 3k eliter scope mains? there are those who heavily depend on stacked dmg but it doesn't mean they can't aim, if they want to full charge then they will full charge. this whole eliter nerf won't bother me at all, since i don't stack dmg, and i always full charge my shots for those far away splats. so i'm really stoked on the 6% decrease charge time!

but it really sounds like you kinda know nothing about 3k eliter scopes...your reasons sounds so...ridiculous? i'm sure many 3k eliter scope mains are laughing at this, or at least i'm laughing at this x3

Err...except that I'm a Custom 3K Scope main (who does not stack dmg up?)

6% charge increase is still LESS than one main dmg up used to allow for the ohko at near full range. That range is now 20% less unless fully charged with no advantage for scope (meaning great disadvantage for scope) over unscoped. You may always fully charge your shots, but may eliters don't. It's going to be a big setback for the way a great many eliters play, and the need to sit on full charges definitely impacts scope more severely than unscoped as you can't afford to sit on the charge.

 

[UBERU-5]

Err...except that I'm a Custom 3K Scope main (who does not stack dmg up?)

6% charge increase is still LESS than one main dmg up used to allow for the ohko at near full range. That range is now 20% less unless fully charged with no advantage for scope (meaning great disadvantage for scope) over unscoped. You may always fully charge your shots, but may eliters don't. It's going to be a big setback for the way a great many eliters play, and the need to sit on full charges definitely impacts scope more severely than unscoped as you can't afford to sit on the charge.

ah, guess i forgot to mention i main the custom 3k eliter scope. i stack special duration up, special charge up and swim speed.
and having less eliters is fine by me. means i can snipe more peacefully now.
lol and even when other eliters back then stacked dmg up. just means you have to plan carefully and out patience them, even play mind games with left side peek and right side peek.
oh, and sitting on a charge is a big no no...if you don't see anyone once the scope is full charged, i would squid form and reset the scope.

 

[Ansible]

Don't know why they call it a Soda Slosher. Why not Pop Slosher or Coke Slosher? hur hur (Bad American humor, ignore me!)

Not feelin the new Bamboozler's sub and special. But that might change once I give it some drive time.

And I'm quite sad the Permanent Inkbrush doesn't have Disrupter. I wanted to develop my Inkbrush evasion skills further! Disrupt someone, draw a shape around them, paddle them on the bum or twirl just outside their range, then speed off. Recharge ink. Then do it again!

Okay... maybe not giving it that sub is a good idea.

 

[Award]

ah, guess i forgot to mention i main the custom 3k eliter scope. i stack special duration up, special charge up and swim speed.
and having less eliters is fine by me. means i can snipe more peacefully now.
lol and even when other eliters back then stacked dmg up. just means you have to plan carefully and out patience them, even play mind games with left side peek and right side peek.
oh, and sitting on a charge is a big no no...if you don't see anyone once the scope is full charged, i would squid form and reset the scope.

Ahh, so you're emphasizing the kraken more, that makes a little more sense on the full charge thing now. I focus on the main gun and using beacons to keep map control forward, the kraken is just a periodic bonus (except for TC where I'll go out of my way to charge it at times.) The one that will impact you the most, then is the 10% swim speed nerf. That will take a little over 1 main swim speed to make up, a main and a half or so to make it up on the kraken. That means less spc duration/charge slots, along with the spc reduction when splatted (which admittedly affects eliters less than other weapons.)

So the uncharged range nerf won't hurt your play too much, but poor Custom Scope gets hit from every side. The uncharged range nerf hurts the main gun, and the swim speed and splatted gauge cap hurts it for kraken mains. The most complained about eliters were the vanillas with the burst bombs, and they end up getting a buff! Nobody really complained about custom. :(

Personally it would be less salt inducing if it were 1 main dmg up equivalent charge time (to free a slot for the swim speed hit) and/or if scope had an advantage over unscoped in uncharged range still. Not only did they nerf overall range but ALSO removed an advantage specific to scopes while not removing the mobility disadvantage - so for everything but a full charge, scope is always worse than unscoped now. I started eliters unscoped but learned scope to gain the range advantages across the board ans well as the visual indicator for the uncharged shot the scope provides, and learned to work with the reduced mobility. Now it's still less mobile than unscoped, adds nothing for uncharged shots over unscoped. I have no idea why in the patch that for the first time balances per specific weapon rather than across the board, they decided to treat all four eliters identically.


I agree though the one good thing about it is there will be less eliters. Somehow in the pas 3 weeks its as though EVERYONE is playing them, and I've been avoiding using it because I end up in all eliter or eliter/splat charger/splatterscope lobbies even after 2.6 supposedly fixed that.

 

[LMG]

I'm all for the Hydra buff, but comparing Hydra to Sploosh? :p I think that's one of those metrics that makes sense on paper only. Since they can't be played remotely the same and a Hydra is almost never going to be in the same locations as a sploosh (a base raiding Hydra? :) ) it's a sideways comparison. Though I wonder how it compares ttk wise to carbon (buffed carbon....fffuuu nintendo!)

I wasn't really comparing the Hydra to the Sploosh, I was just using it as an example of just how fast it can splat since the Sploosh-o-matic is one of the fastest splatting weapons in the game (and the Hydra shoots faster)

 

[Saber]

Honestly everyone is talking about how burst bombs were nerf but they also got a huge trade in for their blast radius, originally the bomb would be about 4 steps wide (in inkling feet), having the worst bomb radius of all the bombs (best being the inkmine and suction bombs at 12 steps wide), leading to many indirect or even missed hits, and even with ink saver main this put many in a detrimental position of wasting their ink and helpless to defend themselves if deep in enemy territory.

So now we won't see as many people be able to quickly spat enemies who are too close I get it, but now you have a better chance to hit an enemy at a distance AND can use burst bomb to cover over turf in splat zones and turf war a whole lot more effective

 

[Cuttleshock]

[...] now you have a better chance to hit an enemy at a distance

I don't think that's what the changes mean.

▼Radius for dealing minimum damage reduced by 20%.
...
△Painting radius increased by about 43%.

Are you confusing the painting radius with the minimum damage radius? How I interpret it is that you can, much more easily after 2.7, get stuck in the ink from a Burst Bomb without actually being hit by it. It has pretty much twice the turf coverage, which I agree is great if one needs quickly to cover the last spot in a Splat Zone and is out of Main range, but actually aiming at opponents is still more difficult.

 

[Award]

I wasn't really comparing the Hydra to the Sploosh, I was just using it as an example of just how fast it can splat since the Sploosh-o-matic is one of the fastest splatting weapons in the game (and the Hydra shoots faster)

Yeah, though with the shooting distance hydra is likely to be used at, is it really that fast?

Honestly everyone is talking about how burst bombs were nerf but they also got a huge trade in for their blast radius, originally the bomb would be about 4 steps wide (in inkling feet), having the worst bomb radius of all the bombs (best being the inkmine and suction bombs at 12 steps wide), leading to many indirect or even missed hits, and even with ink saver main this put many in a detrimental position of wasting their ink and helpless to defend themselves if deep in enemy territory.

So now we won't see as many people be able to quickly spat enemies who are too close I get it, but now you have a better chance to hit an enemy at a distance AND can use burst bomb to cover over turf in splat zones and turf war a whole lot more effective

Yes, exactly this. I suppose the big problem before was the abuse of people NOT aiming the bombs. How many times were you killed by bombs you never saw coming because they were shot at the floor?

But I agree, this is why it sucks that vanilla eliter, the one everyone complained about, basically got a BUFF at superior close to mid-range killing, while Custom has been totally gutted. Custom even has it's kraken nerfed by swim speed nerf. Beacons are literally the only thing it has going for it now vs vanilla. I wonder how they tested this "balancing"?

I don't think that's what the changes mean.

Are you confusing the painting radius with the minimum damage radius? How I interpret it is that you can, much more easily after 2.7, get stuck in the ink from a Burst Bomb without actually being hit by it. It has pretty much twice the turf coverage, which I agree is great if one needs quickly to cover the last spot in a Splat Zone and is out of Main range, but actually aiming at opponents is still more difficult.

But look at the sub details of the dmg increase in the minimum radius and dmg decrease in the max radius. If you aim close, it will do more damage than before. The "nerf" affects those that would fire 4 at the ground to kill everything nearby, but actually makes them MORE powerful for the people who aim them and miss just a little.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Can we stop pretending Burst Bombs got buffed?

They cost 40% of your ink tank now, which means an E-Liter in danger cannot spam these anymore, since E-Liters are just such ink hungry weapons.
The radius decrease means people have to aim, directly crippling spam happy Burst Bomb mains.
For the vanilla, Echolocator got nerfed as well.

So let's stop whining about how Vanilla E-Liter was buffed immensly, as it was gutted as much as the Custom.
And it was about damn time too, as it was way too opressing, versatility my ***.

 

[Cuttleshock]

But look at the sub details of the dmg increase in the minimum radius and dmg decrease in the max radius. If you aim close, it will do more damage than before. The "nerf" affects those that would fire 4 at the ground to kill everything nearby, but actually makes them MORE powerful for the people who aim them and miss just a little.

With that, I agree. I had qualms with the claim that it's easier to hit at a distance - I interpret that to mean that it's easier to score any damage, low-, mid- or high-tier, which is false. It is easier to get good damage off, certainly.

For the vanilla, Echolocator got nerfed as well.

I wouldn't agree with that. Typically, in an S-Rank Ranked Battle (although I'm sure it varies between modes), I can expect to see at the absolute minimum 4 and, not uncommonly, a full 8 players running Cold-Blooded. That means that, most of the time, the Echolocator will only properly work on 1-2 opponents, the others having Cold-Blooded. With the considerable increase in tracking time on Cold-Blooded users (now 1/2 of standard time instead of a 1/4), Echolocated Cold-Blooded opponents will be much more vulnerable or stay out of commission for longer than before; besides that, the Ability itself is bound to see a significant decrease in usage.

 

[Award]

Can we stop pretending Burst Bombs got buffed?

They cost 40% of your ink tank now, which means an E-Liter in danger cannot spam these anymore, since E-Liters are just such ink hungry weapons.
The radius decrease means people have to aim, directly crippling spam happy Burst Bomb mains.
For the vanilla, Echolocator got nerfed as well.

So let's stop whining about how Vanilla E-Liter was buffed immensly, as it was gutted as much as the Custom.
And it was about damn time too, as it was way too opressing, versatility my ***.

You're right about the spamming being ended, but they DID at least become more deadly for the people that really AIM them. Meaning vanilla in the hands of actual burst bomb throwers rather than the spam-at-your-feet crowd did get a buff, and as its special is not kraken it didn't get hugely nerfed all the way around. yeah, echo got a nerf, sort of, but it's not a nerf that puts the user in greater danger than before and I'd argue might be a nerf or buff depending on what issues you're looking at. You're right that both variants were hit, but they were both hit inequally. Which for the first time ever, this patch didn't need to do. It's not that vanilla was buffed so much that it got a buff amid it's nerfs, to offset them somewhat while custom got totally hosed, and the Scope on both models, especially custom got utterly screwed. Do I ALSO main vanilla unscoped? Yes, I take it whenever Mackerel is in rotation and in hammerhead zones. But it always rode back seat to Custom Scope which, most of the advantages have now been diminished, and most of the disadvantages accentuated in this patch. Maybe the next patch will fix Custom separately, but for this patch Custom Scope is a broken weapon compared to its alternatives.

I still don't understand all the complaints about how oppressive eliters are. They're unwieldy hard to use weapons that can be multipurpose by those that learned to use them well over a long time. Other than the burst bomb mains I can't remember the last time an eliter was my nemesis in a match no matter which weapon I'm using because I know how they work so I know how to avoid them or harass them.

I'm not sure what it is about eliter salt, where, no matter what anyone complains about in the game the uniform response is "git gud" but when it comes to eliters, even though you CAN "git gud" and avoid them as they were, everyone begged for and rejoices in a nerf hammer that massively kills a hard to learn weapon and throws months of practice out the window. Ironically it's squiffer that I can remember a recent match where I was utterly dominated by it - and that one they're trying to boost!