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How Would You Balance Splatoon 2?

Does this game need more buffs or nerfs?

  • Buffs (Gotta get dem powerful weapons!)

    Votes: 17 60.7%
  • Nerfs (This game has some annoying strategies my dude...)

    Votes: 11 39.3%

  • Total voters
    28

mvsdkrocks

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jul 31, 2017
Messages
19
Location
California
Splatoon 2 just came out and people are already starting to have fun playing different weapons and gear abilities. However just like with all new games maybe there are some balance fixes needed to make this truly a great game. This thread is for just that!

The rules are simple: List anything in the game that you believe needs to be buffed or nerfed in some way, and give at least one reason why.

You can even debate buffs or nerfs with others here if you feel maybe a buff mentioned was not warranted.

(IDK I thought this might be a fun idea in my head)

Here's an example from me: I'd buff the ink mines to make them do more damage, I really liked the ink mines in Splatoon one as a way to trick people into easy splats when they tried to follow me and I'm sad to see it reduced to a glorified point sensor.
 

MindWanderer

Inkling Commander
Joined
Apr 19, 2016
Messages
446
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MindWanderer
Switch Friend Code
SW-5961-6763-3987
I'm happy with the Ink Mines, personally. The facts that you can always see them, they never expire, and you see when they went off mean that they are extremely effective perimeter defense, even without the point sensor effect. It's a role change for sure, but they were an unpopular sub then. And their minor damage is still helpful given that your whole team can now jump on them and finish them off.

It's uncreative, but Sting Ray for sure needs a buff. Between its speed, its lack of damage, and its narrow area of effect, it's very hard to use effectively and is outclassed by most other specials in just about every use case. I think that rather than buffing its damage, slightly increasing its area and turning speed would help it be balanced properly.
 

mercenariez

Inkling Cadet
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
186
NNID
gamelo8018
Not really a nerf but I wanna be more alerted when I get hit by a sting ray. When you attack someone you hear like 10 hits but when you get hit you only hear like 3.

Curling bomb rush feels so slow for some reason. When you throw a regular curling bomb it moves fast but the special has like no momentum. I'd buff the speed on that one.

I'd maybe lower damage on Tenta Missiles slightly too. When an enemy team has 2-3 Tenta Missiles it just gets ridiculous.
 

Hero of Lime

Inkling Fleet Admiral
Joined
Sep 26, 2015
Messages
661
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Link643
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SW-5339-5185-8796.
I don't know how to nerf it fairly, but Ink Armor even with the little nerf it got does not really help the issue it has. Being on both sides of the ink armor spam, it gets to the point where the other team literally can't do anything to stop the all out assault the armored team can do. Even in just the short time its active, team wipes can be easily done.

I have an idea to make things more fair despite what I just said above, the more people alive on your team when activated, the weaker the armor is. The problem is I don't know how to do that, it only has 30 HP, which means rapid fire weapons can shred it quickly, but other weapons like rollers for example can't take out the armor without easily being taken out. It's a real conundrum, and I imagine the devs are not having an easy time balancing stuff like this.

The special itself would not be so frustrating to fight if there weren't so many people using it. It's very rare I have any match where someone isn't using one. I really hope the devs are tracking what is getting chosen and used the most in this game, because there is no way they would not see just how overused weapons with Ink Armor are.
 

OctoBlooper27

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jul 22, 2017
Messages
23
NNID
itsmemil
I dont think anything needs any nerfs as of right know but i do feel sting ray needs a buff maybe do more damage or able to turn quicker.
 

Splooner

Inkling
Joined
May 4, 2017
Messages
7
NNID
PaulyD23
Tenta and Ink Armor are maybe a little too good if spamming. I would like Tenta more if they didn't kill you on walls and Ink Armor if it had some kind of proximity to squad effect but quicker to apply.

Rainmaker carrier I think kinda needs to have a speed penalty although I really have enjoyed the mobility compared to Splatoon 1.

Ink walls could use a little more health.

Autobombs could maybe be a little easier to see. I'm often surprised at how many splats I can get just by spamming them.

The Stingray needs a little something, It would be cool if it had like a farsight perfect dark effect.

I think the dualies buff was a tad much.

I miss my bamboozler.
 

UnChosen

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
25
The Inkbrush definitely needs a buff, or at least a different kit. Even in Splatoon 1 they were barely usable with a lot of practice but the Splatoon 2 Inkbrush's kit is simply too atrocious to compensate with skill.

Ink Armor and Inkjet should get a nerf, especially compared to the terrible Sting Ray special.

The Inkjet's launch marker should be made much more obvious (Ex. A pillar of light). Right now that special has no weakness if you launch from a hard to reach cover, and you can use drop roller/dualie dodge roll on top of that to make it even safer. Also, unlike Sting Ray or Tenta Missile, even if I find the Inkjet launch point I cannot do anything until the user super jump backs, leaving only a small window for me to punish.
 
Last edited:

Oka Chokka

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Apr 15, 2017
Messages
32
Do keep in mind, though, that whatever buffs and nerfs get applied to the specials means the same will also happen for the Salmonids that use them in Salmon Run, just to keep things fair.
 

Lyn

Squid Savior From the Future
Premium
Joined
Apr 23, 2015
Messages
2,277
The game seems pretty balanced at the moment, IMO, a lot more so than the first game. I might improve some weaker weapons, but no real big changes. I don't know what the competitive community thinks, though...
 

Cerebralbore101

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jul 27, 2017
Messages
19
Long range weapons like the Gal 96, Gal 52, and Splattershot Pro all need a buff. In Splatoon 1 you could add damage up badges until you were able to kill effectively at range. In Splatoon 2 almost nobody uses these weapons because they don't do enough damage. I would change the Gal 96 so that it is more accurate and only needs 1.5 hits to kill. I would change the Splattershot Pro so that it kills in 2.5 hits instead of 3.

The Stingray needs a buff obviously.

The Aerospray is just too good for Turf War. Bomb rush Aerospray builds dominate that mode right now. So I'd nerf it's fire rate and mobility a bit.
 

Danku

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
381
Switch Friend Code
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Increase Aerospray MG's special charge to 180p. It already builds special faster than you can say WOOMY, it doesnt need to be 170p.

Increase Sting Ray's damage. It's such a crappy special that requires 10 or so ticks to splat. Either up it's damage, or remove the thermal ink effect and have the Sting Ray temporarily replace your sub weapon when you activate it, allowing you to drag someone out in the open with the sting ray, and then finish them with your primary weapon. Of course you can only use one at a time, though. Or just let it turn quicker. SOMETHING, man.

Fix the Inkbrush's hit registration so all the ink blobs ACTUALLY hit and deal damage. Ive gotten jumped by so many inkbrushes, and i was always able to turn around and splat them because of the wonky damage not registering and shredding inklings like it should. I actually kinda wanna use an Inkbrush without mentally grumbling "gee i could be having so much more fun with the Octobrush right now."

Buff Flingza Roller's vertical flick. It does a cruddy 40 damage at all ranges except Splat Roller range, at which point you'd just use your horizontal flick anyways.

Maybe give Clash Blaster a bit more ink coverage.

Give Goo Tuber some sort of buff, too. As of now, there's no reason to use it over the Splat Charger, as you can VERY easily infinitely hold you charge with a very simple trick of exiting squid form, still holding down the charge, then jump BACK into squid form over and over, effectively making the Goo Tuber's unique saving grace essentially pointless.

Change Ink Armor so it ACTUALLY blocks a SINGLE instance of damage, and then INSTANTLY breaks. As of now it has proven to have about 30HP from testing, and about a half second of delay in between taking damage and actually breaking. This is absolutely horrible right now, it lacks any sort of counter play.

and lastly, I'd change Autobombs so that if you shoot them enough, they break and stop following you, then promptly explode. Autobomb spam is so obnoxious. We needed an anti-camping tool, and the Autobomb is great, but there's nothing stopping someone from just mindlessly throwing Autobomb after Autobomb to force you to move and either get to a new position or bait the explosion. It isnt a problem in turf war, but my god is it effective in ranked.

im no game dev, im just spitballing changes I'd like.
 

OctoBlooper27

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jul 22, 2017
Messages
23
NNID
itsmemil
All the nerfs in this thread is ridiculous. the game has only been out for a w 2 weeks its a little to early dont you think.

if i had to change anything though is buff the stingray maybe more damage. Increase charging speed on goo tuber, and make some of the gear abilities more useful.
 

Danku

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jul 18, 2017
Messages
381
Switch Friend Code
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All the nerfs in this thread is ridiculous. the game has only been out for a w 2 weeks its a little to early dont you think.

if i had to change anything though is buff the stingray maybe more damage. Increase charging speed on goo tuber, and make some of the gear abilities more useful.
the charging speed on the Goo Tuber is supposed to be one of it's drawbacks for it's very long charge hold. Also nerfs can be necessary. We dont want a power creep.
 

GearWax

Semi-Pro Squid
Joined
Aug 12, 2016
Messages
83
NNID
KoopaTroopaBloop
Splatoon 2 just came out and people are already starting to have fun playing different weapons and gear abilities. However just like with all new games maybe there are some balance fixes needed to make this truly a great game. This thread is for just that!

The rules are simple: List anything in the game that you believe needs to be buffed or nerfed in some way, and give at least one reason why.

You can even debate buffs or nerfs with others here if you feel maybe a buff mentioned was not warranted.

(IDK I thought this might be a fun idea in my head)

Here's an example from me: I'd buff the ink mines to make them do more damage, I really liked the ink mines in Splatoon one as a way to trick people into easy splats when they tried to follow me and I'm sad to see it reduced to a glorified point sensor.
I would buff AND nerf a few subs and specials.
Splat Bombs- Give me a reason to use it instead of the Autobomb.
Curling Bomb- Increase the contact damage. It's too easy to see it coming so that could be a new way to use it.
Autobomb- SLOW IT DOWN.
Ink Mine- More damage, or ANY damage so it's not a worse point sensor.
Toxic Mist- Honestly, this sub is just awful IMO, especially compared to the disruptor. Give it INSTANT slowdown and drain a bit of ink immediately to anyone in range BEFORE activating the gradual slowdown/drain.
Splash Wall- I wanted this in the first game too. Reduce the recovery lag.
Stingray- I see little value in this special at the moment if you're not playing on Port Mackerel. Make it so you have x-ray vision at all times, not just when not firing, and increase mobility and DPS, then I'd play it more.
Inkjet- Maybe increase fire rate?
Splashdown- Speed it up.
Inkstorm- Covers WAY too much now.
 

Scootaloon

Inkling
Joined
Aug 2, 2017
Messages
3
I'm not sure how i'd do a buff on it, but it kinda makes me sad to see next to nobody using the splat charger, or gattling (at least from what I've seen so far)

It may be that they just aren't suitable for the kind of game speed that Splatoon tends to have, or their pretty meh coverage capability. Overall though I'm just disappointed when some weapons seem strictly worse than other options, or even unplayable.
 

Elecmaw

Lord of the Squids
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the charging speed on the Goo Tuber is supposed to be one of it's drawbacks for it's very long charge hold. Also nerfs can be necessary. We dont want a power creep.
Yeah but there has been a lot of nerfs since Splatoon 1, and even then that game had patches that nerfed a lot of things. Too many nerfs can make things stale and boring.
 

Danku

Inkling Commander
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Messages
381
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Yeah but there has been a lot of nerfs since Splatoon 1, and even then that game had patches that nerfed a lot of things. Too many nerfs can make things stale and boring.
Good thing i didnt suggest anything that would make the game boring, then. believe me, i know too many nerfs make things boring. (was roadhog main)
 

mvsdkrocks

Inkster Jr.
Joined
Jul 31, 2017
Messages
19
Location
California
Curling Bomb- Increase the contact damage. It's too easy to see it coming so that could be a new way to use it.
I dunno man, with how many aero sprays are out there right now, I think the fact that one curling bomb does little contact damage doesn't matter when you're suddenly surrounded by 20 of them. But for weapons that have it as their sub weapon I could see a reason for that. Maybe buff standard curling bomb but not the bomb rush special?
 

Agent Z

Inkling Commander
Joined
Jul 24, 2017
Messages
396
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Unknown
The Sting Ray needs a total rework or a Buff the size of Octavio's shutter shades. It has terrible accuracy, the beam it fires is incredibly thin, and the wall piercing ability becomes obsolete when you only get to see enemies through walls for a split second and then you're firing blindly again.
 

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