DzNutsKong
Inkling Commander
There's been a lot of game balance discussion on these forums lately in particular. I've been meaning to throw my hat into the ring for a while with a thread like this but haven't felt any strong urge to do so until today. The thread's title tells the basic idea here. I think this community focuses on buffing and nerfing every single weapon a bit more than I would be a fan of if I were helping balance Splatoon 3.
A very big, easy example for me to draw was with ProChara's whole series about the state of the balancing of every weapon class in the game. This is no slight against him, this series and most of his other videos are a great watch, but it's just the easiest place for me to draw an example. In his section about Splatanas, he brings up the Decavitator (see why the example is easy for me?) saying it's a fine spot but is in need of a smaller buff. The proposed buff was to both make its dash 50% faster and to reduce the lag of its uncharged slash by two frames. At the time this was proposed this seemed like a perfectly reasonable buff on paper. This weapon has two solid kits with fantastic synergy with the main weapon and yet it was still sitting on the outsides of top-level play with a bit of experimentation here and there but the results not being especially promising.
The problem with this is something that you might've been able to put together by yourself. Despite not getting those buffs, the Mint Decavitator is currently a top tier weapon that can effortlessly fit onto many different team comps. Some top players have even called it a top 2 frontline in the game right now behind the Slosher, an incredibly strong main weapon with an incredibly strong kit! To my understanding the reason was because of very favorable meta shifts. The Decavitator can't play defensively as well against midline-focused comps that used to be meta, but it can against shorter-ranged comps, and Big Bubbler has been seen a lot more favorably with options like Zimi and vBlaster also seeing increased usage.
I was a bit apprehensive of the buffs ProChara had suggested even before any of this happened but imagine the timeline if it had gotten those buffs. Doubling the speed of the dash gives a massive frame advantage! Just look at how much the Machine was hit by a much smaller nerf, and that's to say nothing of the buff to its uncharged slashes! Before the big midline nerf patch it could've easily been a high- or top-tier weapon with those changes. Imagine where it would be now. Now the meta is favorable for the Decavitator on top of it being a much stronger main weapon on its own. Even if the buffs weren't so big the same problem would still be here.
I think you see the point I'm getting at. If parts of a weapon happen to become more favorable in a given meta for whatever reason, whether it be its kit, playstyle, matchup spread, role on a team, and so on, there are a lot of mid tiers that could easily shift to a much better spot. Any buffs you give to a weapon can have major consequence if you don't consider all of that.
This isn't just a problem where you need to keep Splatoon 3's current kits in mind either because Splatoon 4 will definitely happen, will definitely have different kits and the same problem could just as easily be caused by the jump between games. Something like the Explosher may have been completely shafted by every single special that's been meta with earlier patches' Crab Tank and Inkjet being hard matchups and the current meta's Tacticooler Snipewriter making it incredibly hard to justify as an anchor. But what if, for example, Explosher was the only anchor with Tacticooler in Splatoon 4, or it didn't have a completely atrocious matchup into so many other specials? If you were to buff the main weapon now then it could easily see the issues Splatoon 3 brought for the Sloshing Machine where it was an incredibly dominant weapon to the point where it needed many nerfs to get knocked out of its place.
Well, why can't we just nerf the weapon again later? When you buff a weapon, the people currently playing it are going to get very attached to the buffs and get a good grip of the new things they're now able to do with it. People who previously didn't play the weapon might be interested in trying it out, click with it pretty well, and continue playing it as well. Suddenly ripping that buff away can do a lot of damage to how its playerbase sees it. It's never going to be enough to completely destroy it of course but this still isn't something you would want as a developer.
Below is an image of ProChara's most recent tier list, specifically the part just below weapons he'd consider viable at top level. I've crossed out the weapons that have a kit that is currently in a higher tier.
Let's just go over a list of every main weapon that's here...
If Nintendo's balancing team is anything like me, then this is probably why they're so content just adding or removing 10 points for special and calling it there. If a weapon kit feels weak even relative to others with the same special then 10 points has been shown to make a difference before. Look at how badly Tri Nouveau has been hurt by it and look at how much Neo Splash has been improved by it. And this is all to say nothing of the weapons that aren't even good enough to be included here - things like the Splattershot Nova, Clash Blaster, or Recycled Brella are in an incredibly dire state even despite having strong specials. Those could totally use buffs.
I've said before that aiming for a perfectly balanced game with the complexity of something like Splatoon is kind of a fool's errand. The differences between some weapons that are high-tier and low-tier here feel so specific that it's hard to argue these weapons are even bad on their own, but just aren't worth using over other weapons that have more favorable strengths. Even in the hypothetical case where a game is perfectly balanced, everything is just as easy as everything else and everything has a good or bad matchup into the same amount of weapons, a meta would eventually form out of whatever players are finding the most fun and how to beat those strategies.
For what it's worth, most of Splatoon 3's lifespan has had very diverse metas where people have a lot of room to experiment with weapons that are "good enough" or play one of a number of different things at top level. This game feels very far from solved even in its current state and solo queue will likely be in a pretty healthy state even if top level play were solved. Even in spite of Snipewriter being meta, there's been nothing stopping me from going crazy with Inkjet, which is extremely held back by Snipewriter and other Chargers. I for one have been content with the state of this game from the moment Ballpoint was meta onwards and I don't see that changing unless we get some truly horrendous buffs. Some comps might feel similar, but there's still a very good amount of diversity if you're spectating top level gameplay, and more importantly, there's nothing stopping you from going out and having fun with the Painbrush in solo play.
A very big, easy example for me to draw was with ProChara's whole series about the state of the balancing of every weapon class in the game. This is no slight against him, this series and most of his other videos are a great watch, but it's just the easiest place for me to draw an example. In his section about Splatanas, he brings up the Decavitator (see why the example is easy for me?) saying it's a fine spot but is in need of a smaller buff. The proposed buff was to both make its dash 50% faster and to reduce the lag of its uncharged slash by two frames. At the time this was proposed this seemed like a perfectly reasonable buff on paper. This weapon has two solid kits with fantastic synergy with the main weapon and yet it was still sitting on the outsides of top-level play with a bit of experimentation here and there but the results not being especially promising.
The problem with this is something that you might've been able to put together by yourself. Despite not getting those buffs, the Mint Decavitator is currently a top tier weapon that can effortlessly fit onto many different team comps. Some top players have even called it a top 2 frontline in the game right now behind the Slosher, an incredibly strong main weapon with an incredibly strong kit! To my understanding the reason was because of very favorable meta shifts. The Decavitator can't play defensively as well against midline-focused comps that used to be meta, but it can against shorter-ranged comps, and Big Bubbler has been seen a lot more favorably with options like Zimi and vBlaster also seeing increased usage.
I was a bit apprehensive of the buffs ProChara had suggested even before any of this happened but imagine the timeline if it had gotten those buffs. Doubling the speed of the dash gives a massive frame advantage! Just look at how much the Machine was hit by a much smaller nerf, and that's to say nothing of the buff to its uncharged slashes! Before the big midline nerf patch it could've easily been a high- or top-tier weapon with those changes. Imagine where it would be now. Now the meta is favorable for the Decavitator on top of it being a much stronger main weapon on its own. Even if the buffs weren't so big the same problem would still be here.
I think you see the point I'm getting at. If parts of a weapon happen to become more favorable in a given meta for whatever reason, whether it be its kit, playstyle, matchup spread, role on a team, and so on, there are a lot of mid tiers that could easily shift to a much better spot. Any buffs you give to a weapon can have major consequence if you don't consider all of that.
This isn't just a problem where you need to keep Splatoon 3's current kits in mind either because Splatoon 4 will definitely happen, will definitely have different kits and the same problem could just as easily be caused by the jump between games. Something like the Explosher may have been completely shafted by every single special that's been meta with earlier patches' Crab Tank and Inkjet being hard matchups and the current meta's Tacticooler Snipewriter making it incredibly hard to justify as an anchor. But what if, for example, Explosher was the only anchor with Tacticooler in Splatoon 4, or it didn't have a completely atrocious matchup into so many other specials? If you were to buff the main weapon now then it could easily see the issues Splatoon 3 brought for the Sloshing Machine where it was an incredibly dominant weapon to the point where it needed many nerfs to get knocked out of its place.
Well, why can't we just nerf the weapon again later? When you buff a weapon, the people currently playing it are going to get very attached to the buffs and get a good grip of the new things they're now able to do with it. People who previously didn't play the weapon might be interested in trying it out, click with it pretty well, and continue playing it as well. Suddenly ripping that buff away can do a lot of damage to how its playerbase sees it. It's never going to be enough to completely destroy it of course but this still isn't something you would want as a developer.
Below is an image of ProChara's most recent tier list, specifically the part just below weapons he'd consider viable at top level. I've crossed out the weapons that have a kit that is currently in a higher tier.
Let's just go over a list of every main weapon that's here...
- Splattershot Pro - Notoriously mediocre main weapon, could probably use slight buffs to compete with other Shooters.
- Dynamo Roller - Also mediocre, and people have said Sprinkler + Tacticooler is a perfect kit for Dynamo on paper. The state of Tacticooler and how it matches up into Chargers make it hard to say whether or not a future game could make this version of Dynamo better. This one could go either way.
- Squiffer - Autobomb + Zipcaster is, once again, a great kit on paper with the synergy being there and Zipcaster being strong, but I've heard it's too difficult to see consistency in practice. As a result I'd argue there are better kits it could have and a meta could totally see a viable Squiffer.
- E-Liter - Arguable top 5 weapon in the game when it launched. Absolutely not.
- Explosher - Previously mentioned in this post.
- Heavy Splatling - Still a solid weapon in spite of neither kit having a great special and Snipewriter being meta and destroying it. Also was high-tier when Wave Breaker was better, even if still flawed during Crab Tank meta.
- Glooga Dualies - Both kits are good but the main weapon still sucks. I don't see a world where it isn't strictly outclassed by several other midlines. Definitely could use something.
- Douser Dualies - Triple Inkstrike is the best it's ever been and Burst Bomb is Burst Bomb, plus both have great synergy with the main weapon on paper. Still has to compete heavily with Snipewriter as an anchor so a case could be made for it not needing buffs with my line of thinking but with how perfect this kit should be for it right now I think it has a much stronger case to be buffed.
- Splat Brella - Absolutely needs a buff. Next question.
- S-BLAST - Kind of an oddball. To my understanding Burst Bomb has shown to be less useful for it in practice than it is on paper and the weapon has also not seen much experimentation at top level. For what little we do have, Chara saw some reasonable success with it on Last Resort back when we just had the horrible vanilla kit. I'm leaning towards this one not needing anything but this one's a bit iffy.
- Tri-Stringer - Has to contend with too many other backlines for how weak its two kits are. This one's gonna be controversial but pass.
- REEF-LUX - Kits have either too little synergy or are just weak in the meta overall but it's been said before that the main weapon is capable as is. That's all to say nothing about the high-level Turf War meta that exists where REEF-LUX has been very common.
- Jet Squelcher - Was incredibly dominant in Splatoon 2. It's pretty clear that the kits are the problem here.
- L-3 Nozzlenose - A viable Ultra Stamp would make this one pretty strong, no need for anything.
- H-3 Nozzlenose - This weapon has two godsends of kits for current meta and is still horrible. Needs buffs.
- Bloblobber - Is anyone even asking for this weapon to be buffed? Anyways its kits have never been great and I could see it being a nightmare if instead of Tacticooler it was somehow Ink Storm that ended up being mandatory for all teams and also Snipewriter was taken out back.
- Luna Blaster - Just like L-3, and just like what's already happened with the vanilla Blaster's Big Bubbler, I could totally see a viable entry special making this one a lot better.
- Painbrush - Neither of its kits have had a good special at any point in the game's lifespan. There's been a lot of speculation over whether or not it would be better if it had a good kit because the main weapon seems incredibly weak right now. I personally think it'd still suck but it's not like anyone's ever pushed the weapon before so we don't know for sure.
If Nintendo's balancing team is anything like me, then this is probably why they're so content just adding or removing 10 points for special and calling it there. If a weapon kit feels weak even relative to others with the same special then 10 points has been shown to make a difference before. Look at how badly Tri Nouveau has been hurt by it and look at how much Neo Splash has been improved by it. And this is all to say nothing of the weapons that aren't even good enough to be included here - things like the Splattershot Nova, Clash Blaster, or Recycled Brella are in an incredibly dire state even despite having strong specials. Those could totally use buffs.
I've said before that aiming for a perfectly balanced game with the complexity of something like Splatoon is kind of a fool's errand. The differences between some weapons that are high-tier and low-tier here feel so specific that it's hard to argue these weapons are even bad on their own, but just aren't worth using over other weapons that have more favorable strengths. Even in the hypothetical case where a game is perfectly balanced, everything is just as easy as everything else and everything has a good or bad matchup into the same amount of weapons, a meta would eventually form out of whatever players are finding the most fun and how to beat those strategies.
For what it's worth, most of Splatoon 3's lifespan has had very diverse metas where people have a lot of room to experiment with weapons that are "good enough" or play one of a number of different things at top level. This game feels very far from solved even in its current state and solo queue will likely be in a pretty healthy state even if top level play were solved. Even in spite of Snipewriter being meta, there's been nothing stopping me from going crazy with Inkjet, which is extremely held back by Snipewriter and other Chargers. I for one have been content with the state of this game from the moment Ballpoint was meta onwards and I don't see that changing unless we get some truly horrendous buffs. Some comps might feel similar, but there's still a very good amount of diversity if you're spectating top level gameplay, and more importantly, there's nothing stopping you from going out and having fun with the Painbrush in solo play.
