CicadaFan
Inkling
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2024
- Messages
- 2
The new nautilus kit is as disappointment to me, as it is to every nautilus player. However, the one benefit I can potentially see from this kit is that nautilus can potentially be used in a comp with a heavy deco, without doubling up on point sensors. For that reason, I am trying to cook up a gear set and comps for this pair, I'd appreciate any input from other nautilus and heavy players on what they think would work best.
Gear
As far as gear goes, I have two ideas. I think that to enable heavy deco and naut to play together without stepping on each other's toes too much, it will be important for the naut to play forward more than usual, as opposed to allowing frontlines to feed into them as is the typical playstyle. Given that, and also because I don't really care if I lose my triple splashdown, I am thinking of running Quick Respawn. I am aware that this is a weird choice for nautilus - it clashes with the typical playstyle, and naut can be a bit gear dependent between needing run speed and swim speed, but I am going to try it anyway. The current build I have for this is here:
My other idea is to run my normal nautilus build, taken from Leafi:
Comps:
I think the main concerns with running this pair are a lack of frontline aggression (slightly alleviated by the qr build), a lack of powerful entry specials, and vulnerability to chargers. It also probably requires the other two players to be at least paint independent, if not paint positive. With that in mind, I think the most obvious choices for the frontline at the moment are vshot and nzap. Vshot can cover for all of the weaknesses listed above, and especially against a team with a charger I would expect the zooka to be borderline necessary for this comp to succeed. Nzap is just a paint positive cooler support, so as long as cooler is where it is now I think nzap is the right choice. However, I think this comp will work best against teams without chargers or on maps that are difficult for chargers. With that in mind, I wonder if there might be better options to switch the vshot out with. I'd be interested in trying vsplash or vdualies, though I expect that using a crab with two splatlings on the team may be awkward. Maybe an inkjet or tristrike weapon can work, but the options there are pretty limited too - I think ttek, nsplash, and MAYBE anova are the reasonable options for those.
Use Cases
I think the best case for using this comp is as a counter to teams running lots of short range weapons, and lacking tools to punish the splatlings. It will probably struggle against any backline charger, and against teams that run lots of trizooka. The high object damage of two splatlings might give it an advantage against comps reliant on crab tank (and big bubbler, if it ever gets more competitive use.)
As far as modes go, I don't see this being very good outside of clam blitz. The comp is already niche as is, and the specials on the splatlings both have some advantages on clams. I think there might be an argument for using it on Rainmaker due to the object damage, and tower control (again for the specials). Rainmaker and tower control do slightly alleviate the issue of positioning both splatlings, as one of them should always play the objective on those modes. I would not want to use this on zones without a really compelling reason.
I think there are a few maps where this comp can work. The first one to come to mind is Inkblot, where chargers need to take more dangerous positions to impact the splatlings. Of course, the splatlings in turn have to take more dangerous positions against opposing frontlines when fighting for mid, which might negate the benefit. It might be alright on Mahi, though I don't see that in tournaments on modes other than zones. Sturgeon, Scorch, and Undertow might also be decent choices. Honestly I think the map choices are the shakiest part of this idea, as many maps that benefit splatlings also benefit chargers. Any advice on what maps this could work for would be appreciated.
Gear
As far as gear goes, I have two ideas. I think that to enable heavy deco and naut to play together without stepping on each other's toes too much, it will be important for the naut to play forward more than usual, as opposed to allowing frontlines to feed into them as is the typical playstyle. Given that, and also because I don't really care if I lose my triple splashdown, I am thinking of running Quick Respawn. I am aware that this is a weird choice for nautilus - it clashes with the typical playstyle, and naut can be a bit gear dependent between needing run speed and swim speed, but I am going to try it anyway. The current build I have for this is here:
My other idea is to run my normal nautilus build, taken from Leafi:
Comps:
I think the main concerns with running this pair are a lack of frontline aggression (slightly alleviated by the qr build), a lack of powerful entry specials, and vulnerability to chargers. It also probably requires the other two players to be at least paint independent, if not paint positive. With that in mind, I think the most obvious choices for the frontline at the moment are vshot and nzap. Vshot can cover for all of the weaknesses listed above, and especially against a team with a charger I would expect the zooka to be borderline necessary for this comp to succeed. Nzap is just a paint positive cooler support, so as long as cooler is where it is now I think nzap is the right choice. However, I think this comp will work best against teams without chargers or on maps that are difficult for chargers. With that in mind, I wonder if there might be better options to switch the vshot out with. I'd be interested in trying vsplash or vdualies, though I expect that using a crab with two splatlings on the team may be awkward. Maybe an inkjet or tristrike weapon can work, but the options there are pretty limited too - I think ttek, nsplash, and MAYBE anova are the reasonable options for those.
Use Cases
I think the best case for using this comp is as a counter to teams running lots of short range weapons, and lacking tools to punish the splatlings. It will probably struggle against any backline charger, and against teams that run lots of trizooka. The high object damage of two splatlings might give it an advantage against comps reliant on crab tank (and big bubbler, if it ever gets more competitive use.)
As far as modes go, I don't see this being very good outside of clam blitz. The comp is already niche as is, and the specials on the splatlings both have some advantages on clams. I think there might be an argument for using it on Rainmaker due to the object damage, and tower control (again for the specials). Rainmaker and tower control do slightly alleviate the issue of positioning both splatlings, as one of them should always play the objective on those modes. I would not want to use this on zones without a really compelling reason.
I think there are a few maps where this comp can work. The first one to come to mind is Inkblot, where chargers need to take more dangerous positions to impact the splatlings. Of course, the splatlings in turn have to take more dangerous positions against opposing frontlines when fighting for mid, which might negate the benefit. It might be alright on Mahi, though I don't see that in tournaments on modes other than zones. Sturgeon, Scorch, and Undertow might also be decent choices. Honestly I think the map choices are the shakiest part of this idea, as many maps that benefit splatlings also benefit chargers. Any advice on what maps this could work for would be appreciated.