Is the Splat Charger even worth it in Turf Wars?

[RobinClair]

They are 100% useful in a turf war. You just require a competent team.

In the smaller map on the test fire you can reach the top of the middle boxes quickly by swinging and shooting 3 charge shots to reach the top of the middle boxes.

If your quick you will reach the middle before enemy Roller users. If you Can manage to splat them early, your team and own the middle half early and push into their base.

 

[DNE]

With an organized team, Chargers will likely be vital to yours teams success. They're the defensive class of the game. They single-handedly lock down entire zones when played right, which allows more people to focus on pushing into enemy territory elsewhere.

In unorganized play? Probably not, but that's because coordinating pushes and holds all over the map with randoms isn't going to work out. And you can't win just defending, which is what Chargers do best.

 

[FEF]

With the right map or customization, potentially. But right now they easily seem to be the worst weapon - of course it's still very, very early.

The reason I don't have much hope for them in the future has to do with Titanfall. I don't play that game at a high level or anything, but snipers are generally considered to be a bit weak in that game, because of all the movement options that make it difficult to snipe a target and find a safe place to snipe. Similarly, although not to the same degree, inklings are very mobile. The only way I can see somebody getting killed by the charger reliably is if they don't see the attack coming, but ironically, the charger is the worst sneak attack weapon as you have to be in 'human' form to charge, limiting sneak attacks drastically.

Potentially, certain maps could offer them advantages. They like narrow corridors, such as the ones in wall-eye, but those aren't long enough to cover the charge time. Now, you can probably ward off enemy inklings from trying to run down the hall at you if you've got a fully-charged shot, but you're not likely to get a kill in that situation unless they actually go for it. Even then, what if the enemy inkling starts spraying the ground in front of you? You'd have to release your charge shot to reclaim the ground, giving them time to rush you down while you recharge.

TL;DR: While it's way too early to say, I can only judge by what I've seen currently, and all signs point to flaws that keep the charger from being very great at its job. Even then, its job isn't terribly important in turf wars. I'm not saying it can't be used in the right place, at the right time, with the right team, just that the reward for using it doesn't seem worth it yet.

 

[GodspeedYou!]

It's a weapon that is super effective because it out ranges every other but needs the support of other players for it to be effective. Like FEF said, the fact that the enemy has so many movement options is what makes the weapon seem lackluster at first sight but if you're operating in high ground and your opponent must ink to advance into or past your range then they might as well be dead already. Offensively it has just enough potential to ink forward or backwards to better positioning but this weapon shines for denial and defense.

 

[Lyn]

It makes paths, hits people at a range, and can keep people out of the area your team is trying to cover with ink. I find it pretty useful, honestly.

 

[Unessential]

when I playd I thought it wasn't that useful, but after watching videos and seeing people do well with charger in turf war. I think it can work. I can't wait to get my hands on the game to experiment with the tech I see people use in the video more. It's quite a few things these people are doing differently from most chargers, I wont' go into too much detail, but the main things are:

people are *still* trying to kill too much with charger.
the charge is actually a lot faster than most people think
the charger definitely has a bigger advantage on certain maps, (most people say saltspray is better, but from the videos i've seen and how people use the charger, warehouse definitely is the better map for charger)

 

[Gsnap]

I think it's usefulness will increase as people get better. If your team can take the North in SSR, and you have a Charger to hold that position, and the enemy doesn't have any chargers, I can see a match like that being really one-sided in favor of the team with the charger (assuming every member of both teams is of a high skill level).

That said, if they never find their worth in Turf Wars, that's ok. Because they'll obviously be useful in ranked modes like Tower Control.

 

[Unessential]

I know i'll probably be playing as much as i can without equipment (except astetic choices) until I feel like i'm at *too* much of a disadvantage. Then i'll start making decisions about what i want.

 

[Astral]

In a map like Saltspray Rig, it was actually a pretty good weapon to use. In an open map with limited cover from enemy fire, i found it to be the most useful there.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

I found myself having trouble going through the WaWarehouse's corridors because a Charger was comtrolling it with his lasers and bombs.

And of course, there will be more powerful chargers in the full game, like the scoped variants and the E-Liter with more range.

 

[RiDEL]

I think the Chargers just have a steeper learning curve then most other weapons. They require good precision and timing that people just didn't have enough time to get used to in the demo.

 

[Sheikashii]

I don't think it will do any good at all. Remember, there are better snipers (and long range rapid fire guns too I think) in the full game so this one will have even less benefits to it as it had in the demo..beta? It might be a lost cause

 

[WaifuRaccoonBL]

I don't think it will do any good at all. Remember, there are better snipers (and long range rapid fire guns too I think) in the full game so this one will have even less benefits to it as it had in the demo..beta? It might be a lost cause

Hmm...Interesting points. I do have a slight counter though. Let's look at the Chargers we have so far:
Splatcharger
Scope
Classic Squiffer
E-liter 3k

The scope is of course looking like the splatcharger with a scope.
Classic is a totally different game then charger. It is like a weird hybrid of splatcharger and Splattershot. It needs to play a lot differently then a sniper. Still looks like an interesting support class.
E-liter 3k takes a long while to charge, so it is more of a different thing to the Splatcharger.

The only long range shooter I can think of at the moment is Jet Squelcher, while it is long range, it isn't as good as covering the ground with ink in a straight line, and it isn't that effective of a killing tool.

We also need to keep in mind all weapons have (potentially) different subs and specials. The ink grenades are actually pretty good for the charger.

 

[RayneTheSkunk]

I think a full charged shot actually covers a lot of ground in one shot and is really good for covering up enemy ink. If you can get a good perch and fire even 3 full charged shots you have just covered up a lot of ground. Its ground in a straight line but still a lot since it goes so far and has decent width.Its not as good as shooters for complete coverage but the amount it lays down at once is definitely beneficial. It also shoots far enough to be good at covering the enemies turf without having to enter it, which they either won't notice, or will have to take a moment to stop fighting you to cover it up. Either is a benefit.

For example in spots like the center of Walleye Warehouse or Salt spray rig if the enemy is trying to cover the area or already has a the area mostly covered, a charger on a perch in one shot can repaint a lot of that. This also gives your team mates some ground to work with. A splat charger's shot can be the first step to retaking an area. As splat charger I consistently came in second on team, now maybe my team mates weren't good, but that still means the charger was doing a contributing amount of ground coverage.

As far as movement options making people harder to hit. Most movement options involve squid form which you can't shoot in. So forcing people to have to move to avoid you is still beneficial. Even splatdashing (discussed in another thread) can't spread as much ink as when just shooting normally, plus while fast each splatdash doesn't move very far. While the opponent can mix up how long they stay in the ink if the charger player understands splatdashing the target can stilll be an anticipated and splat dashers can still be sniped. Plus to my understanding no matter where you hit an inkling with a charger it is still an instant kill.

I also don't think the splatcharger will be made useless by its counterparts Sqiffer or E-liter. Because of E-liters charge time (though you can shoot before the charge finishes for similar ink coverage but it won't kill I think) and the Sqiffer's smaller coverage making it not as good for taking back whole lines of land at once like the other two can.
Even the scoped charger has the problem of tunnel vision so you can't react to anything outside of scope.
In short, Chargers are totally beneficial to turf war.

 

[ThatsSo]

The maps we had for the testfire were not good for the charger. Wait until we can play on the Skatepark or the Camp, it'll possibly be the ideal weapon on those maps.

 

[obscurica]

I can't really find a reason to use it. What are your guys' opinions?

Hi, playing from Taiwan. Got a ton of Japanese players over the course of two Testfires, and my observation is that the Charger is going to be a necessary support weapon in competitive play. They've been dunking Rollers (and me) left and right by taking high ground on both of the testfire maps--Roller-heavy squads have no consistent means of dealing with them, and Splattershot Jrs lack the range to properly engage them until they have a charged special (and if you get splatted before you get the full charge, RIP).

It's conveniently analogous to the AWP in Counterstrike: you'd be idiots to run a full team of it, but also idiots not to put it on your best sniper. The best theoretical performance, from the standpoint of only Testfire weapons, seems to be a Roller/Jr combo on Walleye (group-shielding in close quarters is OP), and Splattershot/Charger on the other one.

 

[DDB]

I used the Charger for the entirety of this last Testfire, and I feel it actually works rather well. It can be used right at the start to lay out ink trails for the rest of your team, And once you gain a good high spot, you can defend a large area with relative ease.

But you definitely don't want more than one charger on the team because it's not so great at covering turf.

 

[w00se]

I think the charger is a lot better at covering turf than people give it credit for. Fully charged shots cover a lot of ground very quickly and entire portions of the map such as the rectangular area on saltspray rig between the two spawns that can be taken in just a few fully charged shots. While ideally you want a proper mix of different weapon types going into a match that isn't going to happen every time in random matches. I would rather end up on a team with 3 chargers than a team with 3 rollers. I actually got a game like that in the testfire and the 3 roller team got stomped into the ground by the 3 charger team. Obviously that was the extreme example and everybody is still new to the game but I had plenty of games during the testfire that were 1000+ points with a charger and I'd imagine it will only get better with more practice. It certainly isn't the best option for coverage in every single situation but that is why there are different weapons in the game and I would hardly say that chargers if played well have trouble significantly contributing to turf coverage.

 

[Flammie]

I found the splat charger good for mindgames and turf harassment, if you stay on a safe spot, and keep firing shots over objects into the opponent turf, you can actually tick them off pretty bad by forcing them to try to deal with you cause you keep covering their turf from a safe spot, you may get killed a lot by that, but having all of them trying to deal with you, while the other 3 team members will cover the other grounds,is solid enough, cause you do get extra points for winning.

Even if the splat charger itself is not good for covering ground, it's good for diversion and distracting, if done correctly. :)

 

[Reila]

It is always worth it if you have fun using it.