How to Nerf and Buff Specials

[SilverBlue-Neko]

So I made an earlier thread about the best and worst specials in Splatoon 2. Hearing people's opinions was super interesting and made me think about how you would nerf/buff a special. It seems Bubble Blowers really need a buff so I would make them float forward faster and have a slightly larger blast radius. To nerf Baller just a smidge, ,maybe just make it move slower?

 

[Dessgeega]

All baller needs is less durability so one player can break it, albeit with concentrated fire. I'd have no complaints then. Bubbles would be fine if they took less to pop, then they'd be more useful as a spur-of-the-moment special.

 

[Flareth]

Yeah, Bubbles could stand to require a few less shots to burst. Perhaps to compensate they could make the actual bubbles bigger upon creation, so that an opponent can't just ignore 'em.

The Baller, I dunno... maybe make it so that the explosion gets delayed when the ball is directly fired upon? Undo the minimum damage buff?

Only other thing in need of tweaking I can think of is the Bomb Launcher, and that I'd argue just needs a shorter overall duration.

Granted, I tend to be in the business of breaking things rather than balancing them, so take what I say with a grain of salt, yeah?

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

I think all specials need to better display what the area of effect is going to be. Getting killed by a splashdown when it appears I'm WELL outside the splash zone is annoying. Don't show me the circle of death if that's not really the circle of death, ya know?

Baller was fine before it was buffed. Maybe speed it up a tad, but scale back what it takes to break it (harder to catch but easier to break).

Inkjet blasts should go back to their previous effectiveness, but keep how easy it is to take them down where it's at.

Inkstorm needs to go back to literally what it was before the buff and stay there. It was already one of the best specials. I don't know why they made it more powerful.

Ink armor is really good how it is now.

Bubbles, like others said, need to be easier to pop if it's your own special. Maybe even make the person who blew the bubbles have a bigger damage effect on them but everyone else where they're at now. That would be a nice compromise.

Bomb rushes are all fine.

Sting Ray needs either a way to cancel out of it or the ability to shoot your real gun. That way it's not a punishment when people descend on you and/or when you want to start using your regular gun again. If we can use our guns during a bomb rush, why not during Sting Ray?

Am I forgetting any? If I have, buff whatever I forgot in some way.

 

[Ulk]

I'd buff the Baller a little more actually. Object Shredder is already too much of an effective counterplay method which is a disadvantage that is unaccounted for.

For Bubbler on the other hand it'd be safer to add different multiplicators for user and enemy alike rather than immediately going for an HP drop. If it needs any buff at all, that is. Too soon to tell.
For now all I'd give it is higher bomb defense towards opponents to not make it entirely useless when you're outnumbered.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Inkjet blasts should go back to their previous effectiveness, but keep how easy it is to take them down where it's at.

I feel the Inkjet got nerfed hard on a very knee jerk basis. The improved hitbox against it was very necessary, no question. But to weaken the blasts, and simultaneously lessen the ink spread by the blasts, it got hit much harder than needed. And with the TTek's special charge being the highest in the game, even a good weapon like that is less useful when it takes forever to get its special, and the special itself is not that amazing.

I still do fine with the TTek since it's a weapon that fits my play style very well, but all the nerfs really caused a lot of people to drop it. I see regular Splattershots getting more usage these days with the buffed Splashdown being very effective overall. If the devs wanted to discourage more people from using the TTek, which was overused no question, mission accomplished. Lowering its special charge or restoring the ink jet a bit would be fair. Even if I am glad the weapon is used less so I look less boring by using it a lot. :p

For extra balancing, I actually would love for most weapons to take longer to get their specials charged. Despite my complaints about the harsh special charge for the TTek, if everything took longer to get their specials I would be totally fine with the current requirement. Even though specials in this game are far less volatile and game changing, the beginning of battles can sometimes feel swayed by which team can spam their special better. For example, the Aero RG needs more charge to get the baller. Even an Aerospray can be pretty deadly when it can get several ballers in one battle.

 

[Lyn]

I would just make bubbles pop or move faster. I'm aware it's been said, but it's the only thing that comes to mind when thinking of what I'd personally change.

 

[Spaceswitchmars]

I'd buff the Baller a little more actually. Object Shredder is already too much of an effective counterplay method which is a disadvantage that is unaccounted for.

For Bubbler on the other hand it'd be safer to add different multiplicators for user and enemy alike rather than immediately going for an HP drop. If it needs any buff at all, that is. Too soon to tell.
For now all I'd give it is higher bomb defense towards opponents to not make it entirely useless when you're outnumbered.

But that's what makes object shredder useful as an ability. I think they've accounted for what object shredder does because object shredder does what it's supposed to do.

For extra balancing, I actually would love for most weapons to take longer to get their specials charged. Despite my complaints about the harsh special charge for the TTek, if everything took longer to get their specials I would be totally fine with the current requirement. Even though specials in this game are far less volatile and game changing, the beginning of battles can sometimes feel swayed by which team can spam their special better. For example, the Aero RG needs more charge to get the baller. Even an Aerospray can be pretty deadly when it can get several ballers in one battle.

I agree with this. All the special points needed should be higher. Even if every special is a little more powerful to compensate, people pop specials at too fast of a rate.

 

[BBGrenorange]

I would actually want the bubbles from Bubble Blower to move away slower, because I always end up losing control of them and then things start to go wrong. Slower bubbles mean that you could pop them all just by throwing a bomb at them which could lead to some very unexpected kills.

Nooooooooo keep the baller the same!

......

I can actually get kills with it now.

 

[Ulk]

But that's what makes object shredder useful as an ability. I think they've accounted for what object shredder does because object shredder does what it's supposed to do.



I agree with this. All the special points needed should be higher. Even if every special is a little more powerful to compensate, people pop specials at too fast of a rate.

Object Shredder has an extreme effect on baller while having no effect on most other specials, and it has a stronger effect on baller than it has on any other, while Baller is in comparison still underwhelming. That is an unaccounted for disadvantage towards other specials, because there is no compensation for that. With Bomb Defense Up and Object Shredder it has two counterplay methods against it with nothing on the other side balancing that out.

 

[Elecmaw]

Object Shredder has an extreme effect on baller while having no effect on most other specials, and it has a stronger effect on baller than it has on any other, while Baller is in comparison still underwhelming. That is an unaccounted for disadvantage towards other specials, because there is no compensation for that. With Bomb Defense Up and Object Shredder it has two counterplay methods against it with nothing on the other side balancing that out.

Not exactly true.
Shredder also has an equally pronounced effect on Bubble Blower(both your bubbles and those of the enemy) and Armor, which all take roughly 25% more damage from shredder. Have a look over here!

 

[Ulk]

Not exactly true.
Shredder also has an equally pronounced effect on Bubble Blower(both your bubbles and those of the enemy) and Armor, which all take roughly 25% more damage from shredder. Have a look over here!

That effect is by no means equal. Destroy the Baller and the entire special attack is done for. Bubble Blower on the other hand can be supported by your own team with a x2 multiplicator, which even an opponent with object shredder cannot oppose with only a max increase of 25%. Not to mention its HP 800 against opponents. Object Shredder is a lot less effective here. Ink armor on the other hand only has no comparible HP. It gets one-shotted by 80% of all weapons. Object Shredder does nothing but turn the few weapons with a damage output of below 30 per shot into weapons capable of one-shotting as well. In fact with only 20% of the weapons actually benefiting against Ink Armor with Object Shredder at all, Ink Armor is by absolute far the least influenced special.