Heavy Splatling: Analysis and Thoughts

[Joseph Staleknight]

Man, this thing is golden for Splat Zones. Granted, too many of them on one team (or someone incompetent with them) can ruin your chances as always, but as long as you keep your distance and catch your foes at a disadvantage it'll hold down a zone as quickly as you can drive people back. An Inkstrike for this thing doesn't hurt, either.

Also, I know the Splash Wall is supposed to be used for defense but a well-timed and -positioned throw can let it rain ink on your foes for an easy kill. I should know; sometimes I manage to throw a Wall before I get splatted and it then destroys the guy who splatted me because they didn't get out of the way.

 

[StayPuft]

I've noticed that this thing charges very slowly if you're airborne.

 

[Feryn Hyrk]

Everything about this weapon is so cool, my last love at first sight was the L-3 Nozzlenose, but I droped it because it just wasn't as good as I thought...

But this thing is puurrrfect, specially on Tower Control because the Splash Wall stalls the tower while you kill everything...

In Splat Zones it works too, but you need good team mates because even in Tower Control it's difficult to carry a team with it.

One of my first thoughts was that it's a charger that requires less precise aiming since it has long range and a fast continuous burst.

 

[Mr. Kibbles]

This gun is an assist/defender weapon.
This weapon is unable to handle close range combat as it requires to be charged, however it does small blasts when tapped, but not strong enough to kill an opponent.

*This weapon should NOT be used to brute force your way into the battlefield, play defensive with this weapon, however this does not mean it doesn't have it's offense-pushing power.

Due to how long the gun fires at full charge, you'll be able to kill from a distance, however this gun does not have the same range of a charger,
I've been told that letting the Splatling charge twice, adds extra range and power, but I cannot confirm for sure.

This weapon has strict accuracy. It will fire where the crosshairs meet, and won't really splatter, so I don't entirely recommend it for Turf Wars, not saying it isn't helpful. This weapon, like the charger, is better used above ground, where you can aim down and cover ground from above.

It comes with and
You can use to protect yourself as you dish out kills, and it helps in Moray Towers for some passageways.

You have a chance of finding success with this weapon in Tower Control as this weapon's charge will let you cover the entire tower and any foe on it.

This weapon has a pretty steep learning curve, You cannot simply pick up this weapon and play it, like Aerospray, it requires your skill such as the paintbrush does.

Advantage Maps: Saltspray Rig (Tower Control), Camp Triggerfish (Tower Control)
Unconfirmed Advantage Maps: Moray Towers (All), Bluefin Depot (???)
Standard Performance Maps: Walleye Warehouse (Turf), Urchin Underpass (Turf), Arowana Mall (Turf)

I can confirm from testing that the range increase stops after the first ring of charge. A second ring only benefits the player with more ink to provide covering fire but it uses up more ink than a single ring charge.

 

[Mr. Kibbles]

Ink recovery and ink savor have been really helpfully to my play with the Gatling. I can get about 10 uses out of single ring barrages with 4 sub-slots filled with ink savior. I haven't had the luck to get gear completely with ink savior, but I'll leave the details to the experts. I don't know if running speed ability helps while charging, but the general trend is that weapons with an additional state like rolling vs walking don't benefit in that additional state of movement. The running ability seems to be permanently associated with walking even if that does sound weird.

 

[Shroomsy]

Actually, I've had quite a bit of success going aggressive with the Splatling. It's a bit tricky, you really need to know your max range and have good accuracy, and yeah, waiting for teammates to open a path is probably the better strategy, but it's doable and quite fun (at least, for me).

I can corroborate this, i've had much more success playing aggressively with the splatling than I have defensively. It's more than capable of pushing on the front lines, the range enables a very safe and skittish style of offense that baits people into rushing you while still covering turf. If you're quick enough and your positioning's on point there's usually enough time to back up and outrange your aggressors or just catch them with a quick volley while they're closing in. This thing reaches lethal burst range astonishingly fast, like a quarter/half second's charge. The burst reaches dual squelcher range so quickcharging it is a more than viable way to secure kills 'up close' (relatively speaking). Sure wall/strike isn't exactly conducive to offensive play, but people writing it off as weak in direct/close combat are definitely jumping the gun.

 

[Mr. Kibbles]

I can corroborate this, i've had much more success playing aggressively with the splatling than I have defensively. It's more than capable of pushing on the front lines, the range enables a very safe and skittish style of offense that baits people into rushing you while still covering turf. If you're quick enough and your positioning's on point there's usually enough time to back up and outrange your aggressors or just catch them with a quick volley while they're closing in. This thing reaches lethal burst range astonishingly fast, like a quarter/half second's charge. The burst reaches dual squelcher range so quickcharging it is a more than viable way to secure kills 'up close' (relatively speaking). Sure wall/strike isn't exactly conducive to offensive play, but people writing it off as weak in direct/close combat are definitely jumping the gun.

It can probably be used both ways, but it heavily leans towards defense. The charge noise is a dead giveaway to your position and your only going to hold it for long if your in a choke point. As the meta evolves people will listen for it more and hopefully we'll see more chargers in Turf Wars now that they have easy, slow moving targets to get rid of if they try to assert their squelcher range. But if the dominate range is gatling the only thing someone has to do is assert it and not get ganked by a sneak attack.

 

[meleesplatter]

I've noticed that this thing charges very slowly if you're airborne.

So do all chargers.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

It can probably be used both ways, but it heavily leans towards defense. The charge noise is a dead giveaway to your position and your only going to hold it for long if your in a choke point. As the meta evolves people will listen for it more and hopefully we'll see more chargers in Turf Wars now that they have easy, slow moving targets to get rid of if they try to assert their squelcher range. But if the dominate range is gatling the only thing someone has to do is assert it and not get ganked by a sneak attack.

You don't need to hold it for long to get enough bullets to splat reliably, and the rest of the time you should be either swimming around, dropping a Splash Wall, or firing off an Inkstrike in a safeish place, so the wind-up time isn't much of an issue unless you go for a full charge, which really you should only do if you're covering turf or raining down ink on multiple enemies, otherwise it's just a waste of ink (though you can squid-cancel while firing to save ink, at least I think that saves ink, I dunno for sure).

I've been using this weapon more since it dropped, and yeah, it's good for defense, but its true strength in my eyes is that it can do both offense and defense pretty well. It can do defense really well, between Splash Walls and its long range to tag foes at a distance, and it can do offense well too, since it has long range and a really fast fire rate to splatter enemies up close or from afar and Inkstrikes to pressure enemies and claim turf. Additionally, you can release while winding up to shoot a short spray at enemies who ambush you, which is useful for offense since you might get flanked while winding up, though you're probably screwed if you get caught with no wind-up. Its ability to succeed both offensively and defensively is what makes the Heavy Splatling a good weapon, at least to me. Sure, it takes one or two hits more than I'd like it to, and that can leave you in a bad situation at times when you stop firing one bullet short of a splat (this has happened to me, and it never ended well), but that's a small price to pay for a quite versatile weapon.

Also, is it just me, or is this weapon really good at pushing Bubblers? Because it feels really good for pushing Bubblers around.

 

[SkyBlue]

You don't need to hold it for long to get enough bullets to splat reliably, and the rest of the time you should be either swimming around, dropping a Splash Wall, or firing off an Inkstrike in a safeish place, so the wind-up time isn't much of an issue unless you go for a full charge, which really you should only do if you're covering turf or raining down ink on multiple enemies, otherwise it's just a waste of ink (though you can squid-cancel while firing to save ink, at least I think that saves ink, I dunno for sure).

I've been using this weapon more since it dropped, and yeah, it's good for defense, but its true strength in my eyes is that it can do both offense and defense pretty well. It can do defense really well, between Splash Walls and its long range to tag foes at a distance, and it can do offense well too, since it has long range and a really fast fire rate to splatter enemies up close or from afar and Inkstrikes to pressure enemies and claim turf. Additionally, you can release while winding up to shoot a short spray at enemies who ambush you, which is useful for offense since you might get flanked while winding up, though you're probably screwed if you get caught with no wind-up. Its ability to succeed both offensively and defensively is what makes the Heavy Splatling a good weapon, at least to me. Sure, it takes one or two hits more than I'd like it to, and that can leave you in a bad situation at times when you stop firing one bullet short of a splat (this has happened to me, and it never ended well), but that's a small price to pay for a quite versatile weapon.

Also, is it just me, or is this weapon really good at pushing Bubblers? Because it feels really good for pushing Bubblers around.

Its great at pushing back krakens too. Unfortunately I only did it once, hitting the right spot to push them back is so hard for me x.x

 

[Mr. Kibbles]

You don't need to hold it for long to get enough bullets to splat reliably, and the rest of the time you should be either swimming around, dropping a Splash Wall, or firing off an Inkstrike in a safeish place, so the wind-up time isn't much of an issue unless you go for a full charge, which really you should only do if you're covering turf or raining down ink on multiple enemies, otherwise it's just a waste of ink (though you can squid-cancel while firing to save ink, at least I think that saves ink, I dunno for sure).

I've been using this weapon more since it dropped, and yeah, it's good for defense, but its true strength in my eyes is that it can do both offense and defense pretty well. It can do defense really well, between Splash Walls and its long range to tag foes at a distance, and it can do offense well too, since it has long range and a really fast fire rate to splatter enemies up close or from afar and Inkstrikes to pressure enemies and claim turf. Additionally, you can release while winding up to shoot a short spray at enemies who ambush you, which is useful for offense since you might get flanked while winding up, though you're probably screwed if you get caught with no wind-up. Its ability to succeed both offensively and defensively is what makes the Heavy Splatling a good weapon, at least to me. Sure, it takes one or two hits more than I'd like it to, and that can leave you in a bad situation at times when you stop firing one bullet short of a splat (this has happened to me, and it never ended well), but that's a small price to pay for a quite versatile weapon.

Also, is it just me, or is this weapon really good at pushing Bubblers? Because it feels really good for pushing Bubblers around.

Yeah, I see what you mean about staying mobile. I hope we get an alternative sub/special set soon. I'm not really used to the Splashwall. But I can definitely see this set being used offensively with seekers and a bubbler.

 

[Kami-V]

Alright, a few things about this weapon:

• It has a range of about 4.5 lines. This puts it slightly below Splat Charger (5.5) and Splatterscope (6) but farther than Squiffer (4).
• It is a 4 hit KO when fully charged and hitting at effective range, but 5HKO otherwise. It fires so fast that if you're accurate, it kills at effective range (4 lines or so) about as fast as a point-blank Aerospray.
• It has two "levels" of being charged: the first one puts it at max power and range, while the other just increases the time it fires. Fully charged for range and damage, it fires for about 2 seconds. Completely charged it fires for about 3.

I think it is most appropriate to compare it to chargers given its range, as many would agree. In this respect, its important to compare a few things between the heavy splatling and chargers in general:

• The bullets on a splatling are projectiles like normal splatters in this game as opposed to a charger shot. This means they arc at the end, which is a big deal for hitting targets with slight variances in terrain. The most important example is enemies in squid form hiding on a tower. A charger firing at an enemy in squid form at ground level (i.e. you're on flat ground and so is the tower) can be an extremely difficult for the charger. Splatlings have almost no problem with this and can kill them quite easily.
• Splatlings have no laser pointer. I think this a big deal. With a charger, you have to hide your laser and get twitch kills if you don't want them to know you're about to get them. Splatlings have considerable range and can decimate targets quite quickly before they realize they're being shot at.
• The constant fire of a Splatling is much more effective and forgiving than the shot of a charger. You only have one chance with a charger, where as missing for the first .2 of a second with a Splatling can still easily nab you a kill as you correct your aim. We could say "theoretically, this doesn't matter if the player has good enough aim", but we all know that even A/S rank chargers miss plenty of shots, even if they still end up getting many kills per game. Less room for error = more consistency from top players. While its true that you don't die instantly to the Splatling like you do to a charger, you still won't move because of the ink you'll be standing in.
• The Heavy Splatling gets its full range/power charge `~.2 seconds faster than a Splatter Scope/Splat Charger.
• Splatlings also manage close range encounters a lot better due to multiple bullets and a quick charge to kill.

Finally, there is the sub/special. As far as I am concerned, charger sets are plagued with bad subs, with (IMO) the only good charger set being Splat Charger/Splatter Scope. The Splatling has Splash Wall, which is every chargers wet dream. Ink Strike is also a respectable special that players are getting better at using (and also much better on longer range weapons that are usually in a safer position to place an Ink Strike.)

This is not even to mention that Splatlings are affected by lag a lot less than chargers are. I know it is a bit early, but as it stands, it feels like the Heavy Splatling offers a lot of advantages over our current list of chargers. Even if its effectively just charger with a splash wall, that still immediately makes it an incredibly viable weapon, yet it offers seemingly more than that. For what its worth, Splatlings are more or less countered by chargers due to being outranged and standing still a bunch.

TL;DR: I think the Splatling is the real deal.

(p.s. All things I listed are just from personal testing, no data mining etc. If any of my data is wrong, please correct me.)

 

[LMG]

• It is a 4 hit KO when fully charged and hitting at effective range, but 5HKO otherwise. It fires so fast that if you're accurate, it kills at effective range (4 lines or so) about as fast as a point-blank Aerospray.

Damage doesn't increase with charge time. You can try firing one shot at a time in the testing area and it will still take 4 shots to splat, unless you're shooting at the dummy with three Defense Ups while unequipped with Damage Ups (requires at least 2 sub Damage Ups to counteract the enemy's defense), which is the same as the Dual Squelcher. It splats quicker than the Aerospray, which fires at the same speed and requires an extra shot in almost any case

 

[Mr. Kibbles]

Ink consumption doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought it would be. Without any of my ink saver gear I can still get about 7 single ring charges off before reloading and nearly 4 full charges before reloading. It's made me value ink refill up because with 2-3 of them as main abilities the consumption is almost trivial. After splatfest is over I should be able to put on a shirt and reroll a bit to hopefully get 3-9 ink savers + the 3 main ink refills. Although, I would probably still recommend getting a descent number of sub slots filled with defense. You walk slow and having the chance to take an extra shot of ink can mean all the difference.

 

[ILikeKirbys]

Damage doesn't increase with charge time. You can try firing one shot at a time in the testing area and it will still take 4 shots to splat, unless you're shooting at the dummy with three Defense Ups while unequipped with Damage Ups (requires at least 2 sub Damage Ups to counteract the enemy's defense), which is the same as the Dual Squelcher. It splats quicker than the Aerospray, which fires at the same speed and requires an extra shot in almost any case

Wait, the Heavy Splatling is always a 4-shot (minus 3-Defense-Ups, but I have a Damage Up anyway so...)? Awesome, and good to know.
And yeah, it splats really quickly if you keep it on an enemy for a bit. Which is nice.

Ink consumption doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought it would be. Without any of my ink saver gear I can still get about 7 single ring charges off before reloading and nearly 4 full charges before reloading. It's made me value ink refill up because with 2-3 of them as main abilities the consumption is almost trivial. After splatfest is over I should be able to put on a shirt and reroll a bit to hopefully get 3-9 ink savers + the 3 main ink refills. Although, I would probably still recommend getting a descent number of sub slots filled with defense. You walk slow and having the chance to take an extra shot of ink can mean all the difference.

Really? Cool, I wouldn't have guessed that. And yeah, Ink Saver Sub is good to have, since Splash Wall costs quite a lot without it. And I wouldn't have thought of Defense Ups, might try that some time.

 

[Ryuji]

I've noticed that this thing charges very slowly if you're airborne.

yeah, that's one of the drawbacks of this weapon besides suffering from its need to charge up. It's great weapon otherwise. I really enjoy using this weapon, especially on Blackbelly Skatepark. Getting on the tower in the middle makes you very scary because of this weapon's insane range.
Another problem is that it isn't good in close combat - you have to make sure you're at a range safe enough to fire otherwise you'll get destroyed. Contrary to what others have said though, I don't think it's good for just sitting on a ledge like a sniper and shooting people. It is useful in that regard, but not to the same extent as chargers. Its use is more suited to moving around shooting others from a distance, not necessarily being stationary.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

yeah, that's one of the drawbacks of this weapon besides suffering from its need to charge up. It's great weapon otherwise. I really enjoy using this weapon, especially on Blackbelly Skatepark. Getting on the tower in the middle makes you very scary because of this weapon's insane range.
Another problem is that it isn't good in close combat - you have to make sure you're at a range safe enough to fire otherwise you'll get destroyed. Contrary to what others have said though, I don't think it's good for just sitting on a ledge like a sniper and shooting people. It is useful in that regard, but not to the same extent as chargers. Its use is more suited to moving around shooting others from a distance, not necessarily being stationary.

Yeah, I agree with a few tactical points made here. This thing was meant for long-distance splatting far more than simply shoving it in someone's face and hoping you fire before they do. Blackbelly Skatepark's tower and the second-tier building before the center in Moray Towers are especially great places to hang around and shoot up foes below, though you still have to keep an eye out for people trying to sneak up around and destroy you.

Of course, I've noticed that Slosher and Roller users can still give Splatling users a run for their money because they can get up close and personal if you let them have the chance. Good thing a properly-deployed Splash Wall can divert such an attack.

 

[dapperlace]

I'm used to a more aggressive Ninja Squid strategy, Splat and Run, so this is definitely taking me some time to get used to. I still slip up and occasionally let the enemy get too close before I've got a good enough charge to Splat them. Still, it's a great weapon, fantastic at spreading ink. It can be more offensive in certain maps than others. Charging forward in Moray Towers has proven difficult for me without teammates carving a bit of a path first, but I've had a fantastic offensive time with it on Camp Triggerfish as well as the Warehouse. I've shut down teams completely at the Camp during Splatfest before, and the relatively linear path of the Warehouse makes this weapon really fun to push with without having too worry too much about tight corners. There are some, but they're easier to deal with since the map is relatively flat. The new Underpass is a bit of a mix. It's great for holding down the middle, and if you Splat enough of the opposing team, pushing forward with this while hiding behind the Splash Wall near the base is kind of ridiculous. On Blackbelly Skatepark, this thing is a monster.

 

[Mr. Kibbles]

I recently found out that Splatling vs Splatling should be treated with more care than most engagements. Sometimes I enjoy unleashing full charges of ink to the point that I forget that the opposing team also has a Splatling player. And I've been on the receiving end lately when I'm not actively keeping an eye on players who use it. You should not challenge the full charge of someone who can aim well with a gatling gun - I'm just thankful that my sub weapon is Splashwall. There is no better example of when to cancel your charge.

 

[deepseadiva]

Maybe no one is good with this weapon yet but I have an inlkling this weapon is... ***...