Hopes for the 8.1.0 patch?

[OnePotWonder]

We're already partway through July, meaning the the mid-season balance patch is on its way.
Here are a few changes I'd like to see, trying to stay within the realm of changes Nintendo would actually make.

Nerfs:
Splattershot - Paint reduced by ~8%
.52 Gal - Fire rate lowered by 1 frame (9 > 10 frames between shots)
Squeezer - Maximum tap fire rate lowered by 2 frames (8 > 10 frames between shots)
Snipewriter - Maximum damage reduced to 65
Snipewriter - Range reduced by ~2%
Snipewriter 5H - Points for special increased to 220p
Range Blaster - Blast radius reduced by 5%
Octobrush - Attacks concentrated in a ~30% narrower area
Decavitator - Charge slash lethal hitbox reduced by ~5%

Splash Wall - Base HP reduced from 800 to 600

Tri-Zooka - Startup increased by 20 frames
Tri-Zooka - Splash damage reduced from 53 to 50
Triple Inkstrike - Now has a 10 second recharge cooldown

Buffs:
Splattershot Nova - Now has perfect accuracy while on the ground
H-3 Nozzlenose - Burst fire rate increased by 2 frames (20 > 18 frames between bursts)
Dynamo Roller - Number of ink splatters produced by a horizontal flick increased by 2
Dynamo Roller - Minimum vertical flick damage increased to 60
Goo Tuber - Overall charge time reduced by 5 frames (75 > 70 frames total)
Dualie Squelchers - Shot spread reduced by ~10%
Douser Dualies FF - Paint increased by ~8%
Octobrush - Attacks concentrated in a ~30% narrower area
Splat Brella - Paint increased by ~10%
Recycled Brella 24 - Canopy HP increased by 50 (100 > 150 HP)
Recycled Brella 24 - Range increased by ~5%
Wellstring V - Shot spread at maximum charge reduced by ~8%
Decavitator - Dash speed increased by ~20%

Ink Mine - Close explosion damage increased to 60
Ink Mine - Ink cost reduced to 55%
Angle Shooter - Direct damage increased by 20 (20 > 40 damage)
Angle Shooter - Trail damage increased by 30 (0 > 30 damage)

Ink Vac - Can now fire the shot early by releasing ZR when the vacuum is partly filled
Wave Breaker - Wave size increased by ~25%
Wave Breaker - Wave damage increased by 15 (45 > 60 damage)
Super Chump - One chump will always land at the center of the targeted area
Super Chump - Chump detonation time reduced by 0.5 seconds (4 > 3.5 seconds)
Splattercolor Screen - The opaque parts of the screen are now slightly transparent to the user's team

Bonus | Unrealistic Reworks:
Splash Wall - Now placed directly in front of the user (akin to Squid Beakon)
Splash Wall - Base duration increased by 3 seconds
Toxic Mist - Mist radius reduced by ~15%
Toxic Mist - Initial effect strength doubled
Toxic Mist - Effects linger for 1 second after leaving the mist

Ink Vac - Suction is no longer cancelled while aiming the shot
Ink Vac - If the special is filled completely, it explodes on the spot
Booyah Bomb - Armor HP reduced by 170 (470 > 300 HP)
Booyah Bomb - Blast radius increased by ~5%
Ultra Stamp - Stamp hitbox changed to consistently protect the user from the front in rush mode
Ultra Stamp - Rush movement speed decreases by 30% over the course of 3 seconds
Ultra Stamp - Rush shockwave radius reduced by ~8%

Share your hopes and predictions for the potentially final balance patch of the game in this thread's comments.
I hope you have a wonderful day!

 

[DzNutsKong]

Honestly? For as much as they can do to the game that would make me happy, there's not much that I feel like I need. The game's genuinely in a really good spot right now for the most part.

• Revert Tacticooler's previous buff. If I were in charge of this game I would just give Tacticooler to like a dozen third kits. I don't mind having to play around Tacticooler and do appreciate a lot of the things it does for this game but I hate how it's both completely mandatory for any real team and that there are only four viable weapons that have it. I avoid the only weapons that have it because I either suck with them, they aren't good, or because I find them super boring to play, which makes it feel like I'm sticking someone else on Tacticooler who could be playing a weapon with a more fun special. I know some people are gonna need to go a bit out of their comfort zone as you get more and more serious in a game like this but I think this isn't an uncommon sentiment and the game was in an even better state before Tacticooler was this good.
• Give Trizooka Splatoon 1 startup and reduce its outer hit damage back to 40. Have I gone on enough about this one? I dunno so I'll just say it all again. Any special that's this consistent whos primary purpose is to flat out kill people at a distance, not displace them, cannot be healthy for the game. The counterplay to this is far too limited. If Tacticooler doesn't get nerfed then I'm almost fine keeping this special as is because it's a great way to answer Snipewriter but even still unhealthy answering unhealthy is not a good thing. The special was in a much better spot before.
• Fix Splattercolor Screen's accessibility issues. This one should go without saying.

That's it. The weapon diversity in the game is very good right now and I wouldn't want there to be too many changes to minimize the chance that it ends up messing that up. There are absolutely some things that could be buffed but I'd be perfectly fine if none of them ended up happening.

 

[isaac4]

Booyah Bomb - Armor HP reduced by 170 (470 > 300 HP)
Booyah Bomb - Blast radius increased by ~5%

The 5% increased blast radius really wouldn't be enough to make up the armor nerf.
There's already so many weapons or specials that can quickly shred Booyah on top of some other weaknesses the special has that it would be a huge problem for any weapon that uses Booyah as a continuation special such as Machine or S-Blast.
There's obviously some bias here from my side but I do think the armor is one of the most important factors keeping this special good and reliable.


I would like to discuss this topic more but that's not the point of the thread so getting back on topic here

• Splattershot paint nerf
• Explosher ink efficiency buff to increase its shots without any gear abilities by 2
• Splash Wall HP nerf
• TSD explosion radius damage increased from 60 to 70
• Pencil 210p increased to 220p

That's all I have.
I didn't feel like mentioning Zooka again or some other obvious changes because there doesn't seem much of a point in mentioning them if I don't think there's a chance that they're happening anyway.

 

[vitellary]

i remember hearing that the trizooka startup likely hasn't been changed because there just doesn't exist a startup parameter for the devs to adjust... hopefully the devs find a workaround for it, or some equivalent nerf to trizooka that reduces its panicky effectiveness in some way, because i definitely would argue that that's maybe the #1 change the balance patch needs. aside from that, and several slaps on the wrist to snipewriter (nothing to make it feel bad but enough that it feels actually Nerfed), i pretty much only want buffs out of this patch. buffs that actually Matter would be especially nice

all of my own mains are pretty good (aside from douser paint it would be nice if it were good at that), so i don't have anything i'm desperately hoping for myself. buffs to the bad cooler options would be really nice though, dynamo and h-3 at least have really obvious buff ideas (fully consistent paint on the former and significantly reduced lag on the latter) that would make them both very very fun and very very viable i think. i'm less sure about what they could do for dapples but it obviously needs something too... i'm not very fond of the "3 dodge rolls" idea that a lot of people throw around, it feels like it steps way too much on tetras' gimmick and would absolutely require some sheldon rewriting that the devs would Not bother doing. maybe slightly longer dodge rolls, or even less cooldown after the dodge rolls? actually i wonder if dualies have separate "cooldown before moving" and "cooldown before you can dodge again" timers, and you could give dapples a practically nonexistent cooldown before it's allowed to swim away, giving it mobility similar to the sploosh (which is obviously what the dapples are trying to be the dualie equivalent of). and like maybe better painting range for more cooler output idk

uhh really big aimless ramble sorry! tldr nerf zooka panicking in some way even if it's not startup, buff the bad cooler options because dude they could be so fun you just need to buff them PLEASE nintendo

 

[briank913]

Increase Torpedo ink consumption to 70%.
-And/or-
Increase the amount of time before ink to begin recovering after a Torpedo by 1/8 of a second.

 

[Catloafman]

Make one hit of dread combo with wave
make dread d relevent for a week please nintendo

 

[Grushi]

I have a lot changes that I'd like but realistically, I don't think nintendo'll change much.

A zooka nerf might happen since nintendo seems aware that it's a problem: they nerfed squeezer and splattershot's pfs, but I'm not holding my breath.

Predictions!

I'm confident dousers and recycled are getting buffs, literally every new main weapon they've added has been buffed 2 to 3 patches later, not to mention they don't see any use in solo *or* comp. I know everyone's expecting a douser paint buff and 150HP recycled, but I've got a gut feeling that's not what they'll buff. Those seem weak on purpose, design wise, I'm not sure if nintendo would change those. I hope I'm wrong though.

• Douser Dualies: Dodge Roll ink consumption decreased from 12% > 10%.
  The devs do love their ink consumption buffs.
  
  
• Recycled Brella 24 Mk II: 200 > 190p
  I still think the main weapon needs help, but playing it reminded me that 90 damage brella was always kind of dumb lol. Splat Brella did have less range and shot spread to make up for that but recycled is close to 52 gal damage bullsh*t not gonna lie lmao. So I'd be careful with buffing the shots, and its paint is already decent, so I'm just betting on pfs, 200p is kind of excessive. I really hope it's a main weapon buff though.
  
  
• Squiffer: Maximum range increased by 5%.
  It didn't get anything in this game and it's never used, so I'm betting on a buff for squiffer
  
  
• Squeezer: Tap fire range decreased by 5%.
  I think they'll nerf squeezer, they definitely know it's a problem. It's insane in japan, and the main is ridiculous, so I think a range nerf would be decently impactful.
  
  
• Slosher: 200 > 210p
  Slosher's really good right now, it's used everywhere, it's very popular in solo, even the 52 gal players are switching to bucket in X, so I'm pretty sure it's getting something.
  
  
• Sorella tent: 200 > 210p
  If we're not nerfing zooka, sure I guess. Tent can outzooka shot if you try, so this feels fair. It could be that they haven't nerfed it because it's the only brella that's seeing any real use, so they still want the class to see some representation.
  
  
• Splash Wall: ... Something
  The devs clearly... tried to nerf wall last patch so I think they'll give it a nerf, I have no idea what though.
  It's considered the best sub by top level japan, it definitely needs to be toned back.
  
  
• Ink storm buff: Increased storm radius by 10%.
  It hasn't been buffed in a while and the special is kind of eh. As to the buff itself, I'd love a buff to the healing, making it so you can heal even if your feet touch enemy ink, but I'm betting on a simple radius buff.
  
  
• Wave Breaker: NOTHING
  I think they're scared of wave because of RB. If it becomes a strong special, RB stocks are going trough the roof. This is the most pessimist take though haha

Aside from that, I honestly have no idea what they'll buff. Hopefully the patch is good! I don't expect anything huge though

 

[cipsbsndj]

Ultra Stamp - Stamp hitbox changed to consistently protect the user from the front in rush mode
Ultra Stamp - Rush movement speed decreases by 30% over the course of 3 seconds
Ultra Stamp - Rush shockwave radius reduced by ~8%

This is the Ultra Stamp rework I have been dreaming of. I think decreasing the speed of the rush mode might be a little much, but it makes sense, since you shouldn’t be relying too much on the rush mode anyway.

I think that either Nintendo, as a corporation, hates Stamp and will never let it get the rework it needs, or (more likely), the devs think Stamp is in the best spot it can be in, and have come to the conclusion that there is nothing more to be done, which is disappointing. I do hope to be proven wrong though. Ultra Stamp is my favorite special, and I would love to see it be actually good, as it would make a lot of weapons reach some of their full potential (mainly Wiper, Vimi, L-3 D, and Wellstring).

 

[Azhdarcho]

I don’t know if it’s some thing they’d ever do, but I wish they would add a thermal ink effect to splattercolor screen. Right now, screen feels like a nerf to both teams when it’s deployed because nobody can see each other.

 

[Aiko.Octo]

As long as they do something to put Zooka and/or Cooler back in line I don't care how they do it (nor am I knowledgeable enough to know what way would be best to do it)
I also want more reef buffs but I always want more reef buffs (I am biased)

 

[OnePotWonder]

The 5% increased blast radius really wouldn't be enough to make up the armor nerf.
There's already so many weapons or specials that can quickly shred Booyah on top of some other weaknesses the special has that it would be a huge problem for any weapon that uses Booyah as a continuation special such as Machine or S-Blast.
There's obviously some bias here from my side but I do think the armor is one of the most important factors keeping this special good and reliable.

At this point “continuation special” just feels like a positive way of saying “panic button”. I think Booyah Bomb deserves to be good, but a single weapon should also be able to barely splat it if it gets panicked mid-fight.
I would be fine with its armour getting significantly more startup instead.
I feel like Booyah Bomb really needs to be a better offensive tool than a defensive one. Otherwise it’s just a strong version of Splashdown.


And Tacticooler, I kind of forgot about it in the post. I feel like reducing the stand duration to 10 seconds and the Special Saver boost to 29 AP (the same as the swim and run speed-ups) would both be reasonable nerfs.

 

[isaac4]

At this point “continuation special” just feels like a positive way of saying “panic button”. I think Booyah Bomb deserves to be good, but a single weapon should also be able to barely splat it if it gets panicked mid-fight.
I would be fine with its armour getting significantly more startup instead.
I feel like Booyah Bomb really needs to be a better offensive tool than a defensive one. Otherwise it’s just a strong version of Splashdown.

I disagree that every weapon should be able to shred the armor on their own.
Not only would it just be bad for the special since you'll now be incentivized to use it from further away which would only make it more similar to Tri-Strike, it would also make the special less interesting to counter and use.
Booyah Bomb takes away your main weapon for around 4 seconds and in that time the enemy team can move away, ignore you if you're in a bad position and kill you after your special is over, try to attack the armor to either break it or force the user to waste their special on them, throw a bomb right under their feet right before they land, or use their own special to counter it.
The Booyah Bomb itself not being an immediate threat makes it much easier to deal with as a panic option than something like TSD but that really only works if the armor is enough to handle one player.
If it wasn't then using it aggressively would be much worse.

And Tacticooler, I kind of forgot about it in the post. I feel like reducing the stand duration to 10 seconds and the Special Saver boost to 29 AP (the same as the swim and run speed-ups) would both be reasonable nerfs.

The stand duration being nerfed seems like such an obvious choice but unfortunately I think they want Cooler to stay the way it is.
I'm sure they've known that it's been at the top of the game for a while now but they haven't touched it at all, only the weapons with it.
I hope I'm wrong though.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I disagree that every weapon should be able to shred the armor on their own.
Not only would it just be bad for the special since you'll now be incentivized to use it from further away which would only make it more similar to Tri-Strike, it would also make the special less interesting to counter and use.
Booyah Bomb takes away your main weapon for around 4 seconds and in that time the enemy team can move away, ignore you if you're in a bad position and kill you after your special is over, try to attack the armor to either break it or force the user to waste their special on them, throw a bomb right under their feet right before they land, or use their own special to counter it.
The Booyah Bomb itself not being an immediate threat makes it much easier to deal with as a panic option than something like TSD but that really only works if the armor is enough to handle one player.
If it wasn't then using it aggressively would be much worse.

Fair point, but I still think it being such a free panic button is not good. An armour startup increase would probably be the fairest fix, since it would still be usable as an aggressive continuation option without being so easily panicked against dives or in 1v1s.
They could also probably round down the armour’s HP to 450; 470 looks a little ridiculous.
Of course, this is all from the “unrealistic changes” section of the post. Not like anything’s actually going to happen to the special in the next patch.

 

[Grushi]

I don't like the idea of nerfing the cooler stand duration to be honest. It makes sense in competitive where you can call out that you're close to cooler, and your team can play accordingly... but for solo, it just makes the special worse than it already is. You can't tell when it's coming, and you already don't have much time to grab it as is, so lowering that would make it feel way worse.

 

[isaac4]

I don't like the idea of nerfing the cooler stand duration to be honest. It makes sense in competitive where you can call out that you're close to cooler, and your team can play accordingly... but for solo, it just makes the special worse than it already is. You can't tell when it's coming, and you already don't have much time to grab it as is, so lowering that would make it feel way worse.

Definitely a real issue if they do nerf the stand duration.
I want to be able to see Cooler on the map anyway though so if they're ever willing to nerf the special that significantly then I can see them also adding an icon for where Tacticooler is on the map. I'm surprised it hasn't been added already.

 

[QuagSass]

I want a substantial Pencil nerf. None of that pfs nerf that does nothing since everything else also got the same nerf.

Ideally a paint nerf. When Pencil came out I thought the idea of a long-range chip damage charger was really cool. And then it became a paint bot I think any change to the weapon should lean more into reinforcing that chip damage anchor identity. Give it Bamboo paint. Make it Bamboo again.

 

[vitellary]

... [dousers/recycled] don't see any use in solo *or* comp...
[squiffer] didn't get anything in this game and it's never used, ...

not sure what your standards for "never used" are but i think they're very generous lol, i see dousers and squiffer relatively often in solo (not more than any other weapon, but like, they're definitely weapons that people like). squiffer doesn't see much competitive use because it's a really really hard weapon but i don't think it's bad at all, and i doubt it'd get buffed because i don't really think it needs it. and i'm fairly sure comp players are interested in using custom dousers too. recycled is entirely fair though yeah i NEVER see that weapon anywhere

I think they're scared of wave because of RB.

to be fair to this, they could absolutely buff wave in ways that barely benefit range (namely, damage becoming a 2-shot, which wouldn't change range's combos at all). not to mention like, how scared could they really be of range if they gave it its perfect kit this season lol

Give it Bamboo paint. Make it Bamboo again.

to be honest this is such a good idea for a pencil nerf i'm surprised i don't hear it more often, i've always thought it should get a paint nerf but couldn't think of how you could do that (it already has one of the thinnest lines of any charger i believe), and making it so its paint is super spotty like bamboo would absolutely accomplish that and feel very fair too, i think. hopefully nintendo hears you out
(giving it a paint weakness would also justify the storm better on its second kit too! they should really do this!)

 

[Grushi]

not sure what your standards for "never used" are but i think they're very generous lol, i see dousers and squiffer relatively often in solo (not more than any other weapon, but like, they're definitely weapons that people like). squiffer doesn't see much competitive use because it's a really really hard weapon but i don't think it's bad at all, and i doubt it'd get buffed because i don't really think it needs it. and i'm fairly sure comp players are interested in using custom dousers too. recycled is entirely fair though yeah i NEVER see that weapon anywhere

to be fair to this, they could absolutely buff wave in ways that barely benefit range (namely, damage becoming a 2-shot, which wouldn't change range's combos at all). not to mention like, how scared could they really be of range if they gave it its perfect kit this season lol

Oh yeah I'm absolutely exaggerating that squiffer and dousers see no use, they definitely see some use, but it's like... they both got perfect, peak fun kits, and they don't get picked nearly as often as they should imo. Everyone was really hype for new squiffer and I'm kind of sad it's not picked more. For how difficult it is, I think the main weapon should be better than it currently is, it's pretty good but I'd like it to be better.

And for RB, honestly even if the buff doesn't help it much directly, it's still going to get a better special for its team, which I'd argue is impactful. And CRB isn't that much better for zones, so making the vanilla kit better would make RB more common.

 

[McSquid82]

My hopes not just for this patch but for the future of competitive Splatoon isn't necessarily for any balance change without taking up a ton of space. Rather, I would just like to see the meta develop to a place where shooters aren't as mandatory as they are now on team comps. I would love seeing teams try more single or even shooterless comps in the future to show that shooter meta isn't the only meta.

 

[DzNutsKong]

https://x.com/PKfuzzy/status/1808153024390480001
https://x.com/PKfuzzy/status/1809224124406866057

The two most recent Area Cups show that teams with one/zero shooters are perfectly viable. They have been for a while though, I remember a western team doing super well at a major a while ago with Vdualie/Tent/Stamper/I think Pencil