Looking for recommendations on how to improve movement skills

[Azhdarcho]

Hi everyone. My goal this season is to significantly improve my movement skills. Between my old person reflexes, not playing video games as a kid, and then playing approximately one bajillion games with Hydra, my ability to move around efficiently has fallen really far behind.

Does anyone have recommendations for drills I could run in the training room and/or recon mode, and maybe suggestions for a weapon I could play for a while that would pressure me to improve?

 

[OnePotWonder]

If you're looking for a more mobile weapon to train movement, I'd recommend the Heavy Edit Splatling, as it's similar to Hydra but it's able to move a lot faster. The biggest downside of playing Hydra is your inability to move quickly, so there's only so much you can do to improve your movement skills. The only advice I can give is to plan ahead, since outmanoeuvring a lot of shorter range weapons is off the table. I hope this is helpful!

 

[Azhdarcho]

I’ve played Hedit and I like it a lot! I’m not sure it’s quite what I’m looking for, because it has a similar ultra-long charge time. I have bad habits like “Why squid roll up this ramp when I could walk and charge?” and “I don’t want to reposition because I don’t want to sacrifice this charge.” Makes me wonder if I’d better off with like .96 or Squeezer.

 

[Arigato!]

Hi everyone. My goal this season is to significantly improve my movement skills. Between my old person reflexes, not playing video games as a kid, and then playing approximately one bajillion games with Hydra, my ability to move around efficiently has fallen really far behind.

Does anyone have recommendations for drills I could run in the training room and/or recon mode, and maybe suggestions for a weapon I could play for a while that would pressure me to improve?

I've seen you in a game before! I was Soliel. Or lychee. depends. anyway, look for alterna missions. Those help sometimes. Also practice moving diagonally to the moving dummies with your hydra while keeping your cursor on it. It helps with aim and shifting your strafe.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I’ve played Hedit and I like it a lot! I’m not sure it’s quite what I’m looking for, because it has a similar ultra-long charge time. I have bad habits like “Why squid roll up this ramp when I could walk and charge?” and “I don’t want to reposition because I don’t want to sacrifice this charge.” Makes me wonder if I’d better off with like .96 or Squeezer.

Fair enough. You could go a step further and try Mini, but if you want a weapon that doesn’t need to charge at all, the Douser Dualies seem to be popular among splatling players as an alternative class option.

 

[QuagSass]

Even with splatlings you want to make squid rolls just as natural to your movement as "charging and walking". Especially with Hydra it's overall faster to cut a corner with a squid roll and then charge than charge and walk. To that end, practicing your squid rolls before/inbetween matches can help get the muscle memory down. That's what I like to do. Not just squid rolling back and forth, but also wall jumping up to the grates in the lobby. After a while you'll start using them in actual matches without even realising.
With splatlings especially it's all about the little movement optimisations. They make a world of difference, trust.

And if you do end up using Edit more, then remember you can now jump up ramps! Instead of charge and walk, you can charge and jump. Your walking speed is insane! Zip around the map and the charge time wont feel long at all.

Ah, but if you feel like using splatlings is getting you nowhere, then I recommend picking up a shooter. They are the most mobile class and have the most movement options. If your goal is improving general movement, then that's the way to go, I think.
I personally enjoyed Squeezer a lot, but now my wrist doesn't really like it when I pick it up. Jet Squelcher and .96 Gal are more on the backline-y side (Jet moreso) so you might find it easier to transition to them from Hydra.

 

[Azhdarcho]

the Douser Dualies seem to be popular among splatling players as an alternative class option.

Yeah! I haven’t tried dousers at all, and they really should be next on my list of weapons to try. Plus I can practice not rolling off the map

Even with splatlings you want to make squid rolls just as natural to your movement as "charging and walking". … but if you feel like using splatlings is getting you nowhere, then I recommend picking up a shooter.

Yeah, that’s my whole mistake. Hydra let me be lazy about movement because its mobility was already poor, and now I have two years of bad habits to undo. 1800 hours of gameplay and I still can’t reliably squid roll, even in the lobby. That’s why I’m looking to train with a non-Splatling.

 

[Driftwood]

I've been playing Dousers a quite a bit lately and it's really good and fun. However learning when and how to utilize the dodge roll effectively adds a skill set to learn on it's own IMO, even compared to other dualies (since it has only one dodge roll and a different range in turret mode).

I don't think I've seen it mentioned but have you considered Nautilus? It's midline weapon but it's a splattling so it should be mechanically pretty comfortable, and it's main selling point is that you can hold your charge (briefly) while swimming or even squid rolling.

For practice like Arigato! said, Alterna Missions (or Side Order runs) could be a good way to get the muscle memory. I've been trying to get better at substrafing using Side Order runs.

 

[QuagSass]

Nautilus is pretty demanding mechanically. I don't think I'd personally recommend it for general movement practice. Not to mention it plays vastly differently from other splatlings, more like a shooter really. I feel like Nautilus might inadvertently reinforce the bad habits mentioned, while also feeling like garbage.

If anything I recommend going to Nautilus after you feel like you might want to give splatlings another try. Letting it ease the transition from shooter/dualies/whatever to splatling rather than the other way around.

 

[Mp3]

Try the heavy edit splatling, or you could get more run speed on your gear.

 

[DzNutsKong]

The movement in this game just kinda clicked with me from the start but a drill I've heard about some people using is going into recon in a specific map of your choice and trying to move from one spawn to the other as quickly as possible by whatever means necessary. Can't speak to the effectiveness of this from experience but it's definitely worth a shot, and there are plenty of maps with weird obstacles that'll get in your way like Crableg Capital's grates.

 

[Azhdarcho]

After trying out a couple different weapons, Squiffer of all things is what’s clicking. Something about trying to get the most out of the charge hold is encouraging me to move really efficiently at midline range. I’m not about to start maining it, and I can’t undo all the damage in a day, but it’s a start

 

[vitellary]

one thing that i personally think greatly improved my ability to move in this game was playing salmon run and practicing it there; stuff like sub-strafing and optimal movement is still important in that mode and so it's good practice since there's actual stakes, but salmonids won't punish mistakes in movement nearly as much as a human player will. i've found that practicing in environments that don't have stakes don't help me quite as much because i think the time-sensitivity is an important aspect of getting good at moving around