Nerfing Shooters 101

[OnePotWonder]

I have attempted to simplify this thread as much as physically possible.

The reason I want to nerf shooters out of the meta is incredibly simple; shooters are the easiest class in the game by design, and shooters are the most prominent special spammers among all of the weapon classes. The first of these is good, it makes sense to have a class for beginners. The second point is unavoidable due to how shooters operate. In any case, both points combined make shooters a class that should not be strong.

I originally intended to make an additional point about shooters' shot RNG and how they're seemingly balanced around the assumption that they will miss shots while fighting. After looking into the four points that make up a shooter's accuracy, however, I decided it was infinitely easier to stay out of any accuracy changes for the most part. They are a problem, but fixing them is not in my power.

Shooters will be covered in the order they are unlocked.

Splattershot Jr.
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second
Ink tank capacity reduced from 110% → 100%
Now has a consistent 12% chance to shoot toward the outer reticle.

Splattershot Jr. is an excellent starter weapon that the developers should never have tried to make competitively viable. I would replace its extremely irritating larger ink tank gimmick with Splattershot Nova's lack of accuracy falloff, which suits the weapon far better.

Splattershot
Fire rate decreased from 10 → 7.5 shots per second

Splattershot is a generalist weapon, and would accordingly get a generalist nerf; two extra frames between shots rather than one. It's fine to have a weapon be a jack of all trades, but it has to be a master of none in order for that to work. I would decrease its time to splat and special output to get rid of its most prominent strengths.

Aerospray
Fire rate decreased from 15 → 12 shots per second
Accuracy falloff now scales exponentially, starting at a 3% → 1% accuracy decrease per shot, and adding 0.5% with each shot.
Initial chance to shoot wide decreased from 6% → 1%

I feel like the cleverest way to make Aerospray stand out from Splattershot Jr. would be to give it the opposite of its new gimmick; good initial accuracy with much more drastic scaling. This would make Aerospray much better as a fighter-painter hybrid to compensate for the greater impact of its fire rate nerf, what with it being a five-shot splat.

N-ZAP
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second
Damage decreased from 30 → 26

Nintendo has made N-ZAP far too good at fighting. The weapon is supposed to be a support-skirmisher hybrid with its high strafe speed. I would nerf its damage to streamline it further into this playstyle. It shouldn't be able to combo with 70 damage weapons anyway, the only reason they gave it that buff was to help it compete with Snipewriter during peak midline meta. It doesn't need it anymore.

Splattershot Nova
Accuracy while grounded is now unerring

Splattershot Nova; the only shooter that's only getting buffs. It having perfect accuracy would encourage it to spend more time fighting and less time farming its special, which alone makes it far healthier. It still has a significantly slower time to splat than the other support shooters, so it shouldn't be overbearingly good, but it being better than other, shorter-range options is a win my eyes.

Sploosh-o-Matic
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second

Not much to say about the Sploosh-o-Matic, since it generally ends up sharking more than farming special. I still think it would need the fire rate nerf to stay in line with the others, but nothing extra on top of it.

Splattershot Pro
Fire rate decreased from 7.5 → 6 shots per second
Movement speed while firing increased from 0.055 → 0.068 units per frame
Droplet size increased by 10%

The Splattershot Pro is essentially just a long Splattershot, and would be altered accordingly. A whole two-frame fire rate nerf for this weapon is pretty drastic, but also necessary to differentiate it from the Splattershot; I would counter-buff it by letting it paint more per shot to help alleviate the fire rate paint nerf, as well let it as strafe faster.

.52 Gal
Fire rate decreased from 6.66 → 5 shots per second
Ink consumption per shot increased from 1.3% → 1.9%

.52 Gal, the bane of everyone's existence. I would kneecap it with 3 extra frames between shots and much worse ink efficiency. It most certainly wouldn't be completely dead after these nerfs, but it would definitely struggle a lot more, as it should.

L-3 Nozzlenose
Interval between burst shots increased from 4 → 5 frames
Accuracy while mid-air is now unerring

The first of the semi-autos; the L-3 Nozzlenose. I don't actually have any issues with the semi-automatics being good since they require a lot more skill than standard shooters, but they still need to be kept in line with the others. A tiny fire rate nerf for uniformity with the full autos, compensated by a sizable mobile accuracy buff.

Jet Squelcher
Fire rate decreased from 7.5 → 6 shots per second
Initial shot velocity decreased from 3.36 → 3.28 units per frame

Effective range decreased from 20.1 → 19.7 units​

Jet Squelcher is the most prominent case of a weapon that should not be good. It's a backline with higher mobility and a faster time to splat than any other at the cost of having... less burst damage? That and 90% of the time it only exists to paint at a distance and spam its special. A decent fire rate and range nerf would put the weapon in a spot where it could finally get real kits without it ruining the game.

Splash-o-Matic
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second

Splash is possibly the simplest item on the list, already being better than most shooters due to its perfect accuracy and short range weakness. The fire rate nerf is all it would need, nothing extra on top of it.

.96 Gal
Fire rate decreased from 5 → 4.28 shots per second

Compared to .52 Gal, .96 Gal is a pretty decent weapon design-wise. A two-frame fire rate nerf for it would be fairly reasonable and keep it in line with the other nerfed shooters. Mostly, though, I gave .52 Gal its old fire rate, so the weapon needed to be significantly slower to not outright outclass it.

Squeezer
Maximum tap fire rate decreased from 7.5 → 6 shots per second
Tap fire damage increased from 38 → 41

Squeezer is possibly my favorite rework out of any weapon I'm covering here. Decreasing its tap fire rate to match Splattershot Pro is necessary, and it also makes Squeezer's mashing requirement less strict. The counter-buff to Squeezer would make up for its slower time to splat at a distance by making it stronger in close combat; one tap shot would combo with two spray shots to splat.

H-3 Nozzlenose
Interval between burst shots increased from 5 → 6 frames
Delay between bursts decreased from 20 → 16 frames
Ink consumption per burst decreased from 6.75% → 5.4%

H-3 Nozzlenose is the best-designed shooter, hands down, no contest. Its difficulty rivals Squeezer, yet it's a mid-range support painter, in line with the identity of the rest of the class. The increased interval between its shots has in this case been balanced by an even stronger fire rate buff, as well as its ink efficiency nerf from the end of Splatoon 2 being reverted. We need more Tacticooler options? There you go.

ADDENDUM: Splash Wall
HP decreased from 800 → 600
Now placed directly in front of the user like a Squid Beakon
Ink cost decreased from 60% → 55%

One extra "splat you" to .52 Gal and vanilla Squeezer; Splash Wall is not only weaker, it no longer takes any space. To compensate for the HP, the sub would be made slightly cheaper, which should be a welcome change for weapons like Custom Explosher. The sub that erects a wall of ink to block enemy fire would finally be a better defensive tool than an offensive one. Not like that's only logical.

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you for taking the time to read all of this! It was a lot of time and effort.
Feel free to share any opinions you might have on the matter. I've been craving discussion lately, and this is probably the hottest thing I've ever posted in my time on these forums. Any feedback is encouraged.
As always, to all of you, have a wonderful day.

 

[isaac4]

My favorite change here has to be what you did with Squeezer. It's a very interesting approach to try and improve the damage output so that the weapon can combo with its weaker painting shots.
I don't play Squeezer so I don't know how reliable that would end up being but it's still really interesting.

 

[Grushi]

H-3 Nozzlenose
Interval between burst shots increased from 5 → 6 frames
Delay between bursts decreased from 20 → 16 seconds

H3 CAN SHOOT ONCE EVERY 16 SECONDS NOW LET'S G-

I might post my ideas for how I'd balance shooters later, but I do like your idea of buffing squeezer's damage to compensate for a fire rate nerf.

But honestly I don't think shooters painting this well is a problem for the game. I agree that they shouldn't be the best at painting and fighting, which they arguable were in s2, but in their current spot, there's much better fighters in this game.

My problem with shooters painting so well is that the only weapons that can rival short range shooter paint are mini splatling, reeflux, dread wringer, big swig (lol), undercover, heavy edit... and arguably reg dualies and dualie squelchers. So many of these options have bad kits or other problems overall. I just wish shooters didn't outclass every other class for support, because we need weapons that paint well to enable the bad painters of the game, and for comp building to be easier.

 

[missingno]

nerf shooters out of the meta

I stopped reading here. If you're aiming to outright kill the entire class out of bias, no. Especially considering that only a few Shooters are top tier, yet you're nerfing all of them.

I don't even think the main weapons are the problem. It's just the fact that because there are so many Shooters, they had the most chances to win the kit lottery, and the winners won big.

 

[SAMICOM]

I have attempted to simplify this thread as much as physically possible.

The reason I want to nerf shooters out of the meta is incredibly simple; shooters are the easiest class in the game by design, and shooters are the most prominent special spammers among all of the weapon classes. The first of these is good, it makes sense to have a class for beginners. The second point is unavoidable due to how shooters operate. In any case, both points combined make shooters a class that should not be strong.

I originally intended to make an additional point about shooters' shot RNG and how they're seemingly balanced around the assumption that they will miss shots while fighting. After looking into the four points that make up a shooter's accuracy, however, I decided it was infinitely easier to stay out of any accuracy changes for the most part. They are a problem, but fixing them is not in my power.

Shooters will be covered in the order they are unlocked.

Splattershot Jr.
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second
Ink tank capacity reduced from 110% → 100%
Now has a consistent 12% chance to shoot toward the outer reticle.

Splattershot Jr. is an excellent starter weapon that the developers should never have tried to make competitively viable. I would replace its extremely irritating larger ink tank gimmick with Splattershot Nova's lack of accuracy falloff, which suits the weapon far better.

Splattershot
Fire rate decreased from 10 → 7.5 shots per second

Splattershot is a generalist weapon, and would accordingly get a generalist nerf; two extra frames between shots rather than one. It's fine to have a weapon be a jack of all trades, but it has to be a master of none in order for that to work. I would decrease its time to splat and special output to get rid of its most prominent strengths.

Aerospray
Fire rate decreased from 15 → 12 shots per second
Accuracy falloff now scales exponentially, starting at a 3% → 1% accuracy decrease per shot, and adding 0.5% with each shot.
Initial chance to shoot wide decreased from 6% → 1%

I feel like the cleverest way to make Aerospray stand out from Splattershot Jr. would be to give it the opposite of its new gimmick; good initial accuracy with much more drastic scaling. This would make Aerospray much better as a fighter-painter hybrid to compensate for the greater impact of its fire rate nerf, what with it being a five-shot splat.

N-ZAP
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second
Damage decreased from 30 → 26

Nintendo has made N-ZAP far too good at fighting. The weapon is supposed to be a support-skirmisher hybrid with its high strafe speed. I would nerf its damage to streamline it further into this playstyle. It shouldn't be able to combo with 70 damage weapons anyway, the only reason they gave it that buff was to help it compete with Snipewriter during peak midline meta. It doesn't need it anymore.

Splattershot Nova
Accuracy while grounded is now unerring

Splattershot Nova; the only shooter that's only getting buffs. It having perfect accuracy would encourage it to spend more time fighting and less time farming its special, which alone makes it far healthier. It still has a significantly slower time to splat than the other support shooters, so it shouldn't be overbearingly good, but it being better than other, shorter-range options is a win my eyes.

Sploosh-o-Matic
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second

Not much to say about the Sploosh-o-Matic, since it generally ends up sharking more than farming special. I still think it would need the fire rate nerf to stay in line with the others, but nothing extra on top of it.

Splattershot Pro
Fire rate decreased from 7.5 → 6 shots per second
Movement speed while firing increased from 0.055 → 0.068 units per frame
Droplet size increased by 10%

The Splattershot Pro is essentially just a long Splattershot, and would be altered accordingly. A whole two-frame fire rate nerf for this weapon is pretty drastic, but also necessary to differentiate it from the Splattershot; I would counter-buff it by letting it paint more per shot to help alleviate the fire rate paint nerf, as well let it as strafe faster.

.52 Gal
Fire rate decreased from 6.66 → 5 shots per second
Ink consumption per shot increased from 1.3% → 1.9%

.52 Gal, the bane of everyone's existence. I would kneecap it with 3 extra frames between shots and much worse ink efficiency. It most certainly wouldn't be completely dead after these nerfs, but it would definitely struggle a lot more, as it should.

L-3 Nozzlenose
Interval between burst shots increased from 4 → 5 frames
Accuracy while mid-air is now unerring

The first of the semi-autos; the L-3 Nozzlenose. I don't actually have any issues with the semi-automatics being good since they require a lot more skill than standard shooters, but they still need to be kept in line with the others. A tiny fire rate nerf for uniformity with the full autos, compensated by a sizable mobile accuracy buff.

Jet Squelcher
Fire rate decreased from 7.5 → 6 shots per second
Initial shot velocity decreased from 3.36 → 3.28 units per frame

Effective range decreased from 20.1 → 19.7 units​

Jet Squelcher is the most prominent case of a weapon that should not be good. It's a backline with higher mobility and a faster time to splat than any other at the cost of having... less burst damage? That and 90% of the time it only exists to paint at a distance and spam its special. A decent fire rate and range nerf would put the weapon in a spot where it could finally get real kits without it ruining the game.

Splash-o-Matic
Fire rate decreased from 12 → 10 shots per second

Splash is possibly the simplest item on the list, already being better than most shooters due to its perfect accuracy and short range weakness. The fire rate nerf is all it would need, nothing extra on top of it.

.96 Gal
Fire rate decreased from 5 → 4.28 shots per second

Compared to .52 Gal, .96 Gal is a pretty decent weapon design-wise. A two-frame fire rate nerf for it would be fairly reasonable and keep it in line with the other nerfed shooters. Mostly, though, I gave .52 Gal its old fire rate, so the weapon needed to be significantly slower to not outright outclass it.

Squeezer
Maximum tap fire rate decreased from 7.5 → 6 shots per second
Tap fire damage increased from 38 → 41

Squeezer is possibly my favorite rework out of any weapon I'm covering here. Decreasing its tap fire rate to match Splattershot Pro is necessary, and it also makes Squeezer's mashing requirement less strict. The counter-buff to Squeezer would make up for its slower time to splat at a distance by making it stronger in close combat; one tap shot would combo with two spray shots to splat.

H-3 Nozzlenose
Interval between burst shots increased from 5 → 6 frames
Delay between bursts decreased from 20 → 16 frames
Ink consumption per burst decreased from 6.75% → 5.4%

H-3 Nozzlenose is the best-designed shooter, hands down, no contest. Its difficulty rivals Squeezer, yet it's a mid-range support painter, in line with the identity of the rest of the class. The increased interval between its shots has in this case been balanced by an even stronger fire rate buff, as well as its ink efficiency nerf from the end of Splatoon 2 being reverted. We need more Tacticooler options? There you go.

ADDENDUM: Splash Wall
HP decreased from 800 → 600
Now placed directly in front of the user like a Squid Beakon
Ink cost decreased from 60% → 55%

One extra "splat you" to .52 Gal and vanilla Squeezer; Splash Wall is not only weaker, it no longer takes any space. To compensate for the HP, the sub would be made slightly cheaper, which should be a welcome change for weapons like Custom Explosher. The sub that erects a wall of ink to block enemy fire would finally be a better defensive tool than an offensive one. Not like that's only logical.

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you for taking the time to read all of this! It was a lot of time and effort.
Feel free to share any opinions you might have on the matter. I've been craving discussion lately, and this is probably the hottest thing I've ever posted in my time on these forums. Any feedback is encouraged.
As always, to all of you, have a wonderful day.

revert those jr changes. it literally ruins the weapon. without its special ink tank, it becomes so much worse. just make it more ink hungry PLEASE

besides that i like this :D

ps: also the h3 needs even more, sorry. it needs to be able to submerge in ink, drastically reducing its endlag, so you can fire spurts in rhythm.

 

[OnePotWonder]

H3 CAN SHOOT ONCE EVERY 16 SECONDS NOW LET'S G-

I might post my ideas for how I'd balance shooters later, but I do like your idea of buffing squeezer's damage to compensate for a fire rate nerf.

But honestly I don't think shooters painting this well is a problem for the game. I agree that they shouldn't be the best at painting and fighting, which they arguable were in s2, but in their current spot, there's much better fighters in this game.

My problem with shooters painting so well is that the only weapons that can rival short range shooter paint are mini splatling, reeflux, dread wringer, big swig (lol), undercover, heavy edit... and arguably reg dualies and dualie squelchers. So many of these options have bad kits or other problems overall. I just wish shooters didn't outclass every other class for support, because we need weapons that paint well to enable the bad painters of the game, and for comp building to be easier.

I KNEW I'D MAKE A TYPO SOMEWHERE.

I do agree we need more paint support options in other classes, since we've gotten to the point where the support role is being called the short-range shooter role in top level play. The biggest problem is the fact that half of the options you gave as examples are weak main weapons, and all of them have weak, aggressive, or otherwise unfitting specials, save for Heavy Edit. Nintendo has done zero favors for non-shooter support weapons.

 

[SAMICOM]

I KNEW I'D MAKE A TYPO SOMEWHERE.

I do agree we need more paint support options in other classes, since we've gotten to the point where the support role is being called the short-range shooter role in top level play. The biggest problem is the fact that half of the options you gave as examples are weak main weapons, and all of them have weak, aggressive, or otherwise unfitting specials, save for Heavy Edit. Nintendo has done zero favors for non-shooter support weapons.

tenta brella exists you know

 

[isaac4]

I stopped reading here. If you're aiming to outright kill the entire class out of bias, no. Especially considering that only a few Shooters are top tier, yet you're nerfing all of them.

I don't even think the main weapons are the problem. It's just the fact that because there are so many Shooters, they had the most chances to win the kit lottery, and the winners won big.

I don't think it's entirely fair to dismiss all the changes from one line. I might be wrong here but these changes seem to be focused on not outright killing the weapons but making them weaker so that other options can become more viable.
Some of these changes also have buffs to compensate for the nerfs given.

 

[SAMICOM]

I don't think it's entirely fair to dismiss all the changes from one line. I might be wrong here but these changes seem to be focused on not outright killing the weapons but making them weaker so that other options can become more viable.
Some of these changes also have buffs to compensate for the nerfs given.

also missingno acts like he's on r/saltoon all the time kek

 

[isaac4]

I don't even think the main weapons are the problem. It's just the fact that because there are so many Shooters, they had the most chances to win the kit lottery, and the winners won big.

I also want to respond to this point about the main weapons not being a problem which I don't agree with.
I obviously don't think the class as a whole is a problem since shooters like Splash and Pro exist but it's impossible to ignore the issues that other shooters like Jet and Squeezer have had.
Even Splattershot has been an unhealthy weapon for the game for how it good it is at farming for special.

 

[OnePotWonder]

I stopped reading here. If you're aiming to outright kill the entire class out of bias, no. Especially considering that only a few Shooters are top tier, yet you're nerfing all of them.

I don't even think the main weapons are the problem. It's just the fact that because there are so many Shooters, they had the most chances to win the kit lottery, and the winners won big.

Please read the thread before making harsh judgements. Out of the meta doesn't mean dead. I simply want to put shooters as a whole on the back burner so other, more interesting weapons get the opportunity to shine.
And yes, shooters have far better kits than other support options, but they're strong even without them.

revert those jr changes. it literally ruins the weapon. without its special ink tank, it becomes so much worse. just make it more ink hungry PLEASE

besides that i like this :D

Bomb spam just isn't good for the game, and its large ink tank doesn't improve the weapon in any other way. I learned long ago that it's impossible to please everyone, so I'm sorry, but the changes will have to stay.
The weapon still has lots of paint, high ink efficiency, and excellent bombs. I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[SAMICOM]

Please read the thread before making harsh judgements. Out of the meta doesn't mean dead. I simply want to put shooters as a whole on the back burner so other, more interesting weapons get the opportunity to shine.
And yes, shooters have far better kits than other support options, but they're strong even without them.


Bomb spam just isn't good for the game, and its large ink tank doesn't improve the weapon in any other way. I learned long ago that it's impossible to please everyone, so I'm sorry, but the changes will have to stay.
The weapon still has lots of paint, high ink efficiency, and excellent bombs. I'm sure it will be fine.

true, but can we give it 105 instead of 110? pleaaaseee

 

[missingno]

these changes seem to be focused on not outright killing the weapons

OP literally said up front that they are trying to kill the weapons. That's why I quoted it.

These changes are beyond overkill. Compare these to actual patch notes to see the kind of changes Nintendo typically makes. Small adjustments a frame at a time, not making .52 as slow as .96. .96 is already not very good, so you've made a weapon that is significantly worse than that now.

If Shooters need a change, which I'm not convinced they really do, something like 5-10% ink droplet radius reduction would be a reasonable Nintendo-sized nerf that tones back their ability to farm without sending them straight into the dumpster. Anything beyond that really isn't needed.

I obviously don't think the class as a whole is a problem since shooters like Splash and Pro exist but it's impossible to ignore the issues that other shooters like Jet and Squeezer have had.

I'll give you that Squeezer is one example of genuinely bad game design, I think it should be outright cut from S4 honestly, but Jet? Jet's sin was farming Sting Ray/Missiles, looking at where it is now I cannot say the main weapon was ever the problem.

 

[SAMICOM]

OP literally said up front that they are trying to kill the weapons. That's why I quoted it.

These changes are beyond overkill. Compare these to actual patch notes to see the kind of changes Nintendo typically makes. Small adjustments a frame at a time, not making .52 as slow as .96. .96 is already not very good, so you've made a weapon that is significantly worse than that now.

If Shooters need a change, which I'm not convinced they really do, something like 5-10% ink droplet radius reduction would be a reasonable Nintendo-sized nerf that tones back their ability to farm without sending them straight into the dumpster. Anything beyond that really isn't needed.




I'll give you that Squeezer is one example of genuinely bad game design, I think it should be outright cut from S4 honestly, but Jet? Jet's sin was farming Sting Ray/Missiles, looking at where it is now I cannot say the main weapon was ever the problem.

yeah im kinda with missingno on this. i like the squeezer nerf and the nozzlenose buffs, but id recommend nerfing 52 and shot in a different way and keeping the rest as is.

 

[Cephalobro]

The Splattershot shouldn't be majorly nerfed like you presented here. It's supposed to give new players a chance to win against experienced players. Look at all of the times in which new players couldn't do a thing against things like the Luna Blaster or the Hydra Splatling. Turf War exists, and nerfing the Splattershot like this would only take away one of the few things in which the casual/inexperienced players have over the more experienced players, especially in a casual mode like Turf War, which is bad long-term for an online-focused game.

 

[OnePotWonder]

The Splattershot shouldn't be majorly nerfed like you presented here. It's supposed to give new players a chance to win against experienced players.

I was going to write out a response to missingno, but this takes precedence. This argument is absolutely ridiculous. A weapon intended to carry beginners against better players is possibly the worst idea ever. I'm not denying that weapons accessible early on shouldn't be strong in some capacity; you shouldn't have to put up with exclusively bottom tiers until reaching a certain level, but a weapon should not be designed with carrying new players in mind. In any case, Splat Roller already fits the role you describe perfectly. And it's not like Splattershot isn't one of the problem weapons that new players struggle with fighting. The whole argument falls apart in a Splattershot v. Splattershot scenario.

This is not a reason to spare Splattershot in the slightest. Both of our biases aside.

 

[Cephalobro]

I was going to write out a response to missingno, but this takes precedence. This argument is absolutely ridiculous. A weapon intended to carry beginners against better players is possibly the worst idea ever. I'm not denying that weapons accessible early on shouldn't be strong in some capacity; you shouldn't have to put up with exclusively bottom tiers until reaching a certain level, but a weapon should not be designed with carrying new players in mind. In any case, Splat Roller already fits the role you describe perfectly. And it's not like Splattershot isn't one of the problem weapons that new players struggle with fighting. The whole argument falls apart in a Splattershot v. Splattershot scenario.

This is not a reason to spare Splattershot in the slightest. Both of our biases aside.

The idea of carrying new players is the point. And no, I'm not biased at all, it's just a fact that a game in which new players aren't given the chance to win against experienced players at all is bound to lose interest much more quickly.

I played non-shooter weapons plenty of times, the most recent example being the Splatana Stamper, and there are worse than shooters in terms of health of the game, like the Clash Blaster or the Inkbrush.

 

[isaac4]

These changes are beyond overkill. Compare these to actual patch notes to see the kind of changes Nintendo typically makes. Small adjustments a frame at a time

I'm not opposed to the idea of smaller nerfs instead as I would want to see how much would change with a simple paint nerf but I don't think just because Nintendo approaches their balance patches like this means more drastic changes couldn't be a viable option.

I'll give you that Squeezer is one example of genuinely bad game design, I think it should be outright cut from S4 honestly, but Jet? Jet's sin was farming Sting Ray/Missiles, looking at where it is now I cannot say the main weapon was ever the problem.

The main problem it had was having good paint output while staying completely safe making it really great at farming for special.
We saw that same problem again with Pencil in S3 and the biggest reason Jet isn't as unhealthy for the game as it used to be is because the kits it has prevents the weapon from farming for special as much as it could. It's also held back by having Angle Shooter and Toxic Mist.
I can't be sure that Nintendo purposely tried to keep Jet from being a special farmer again in S3 but I do believe that instead of trying to hold the weapon back with mediocre kits, the weapon should just be balanced to play less passively by nerfing the paint or range.

 

[sevenleaf]

ADDENDUM: Splash Wall
HP decreased from 800 → 600
Now placed directly in front of the user like a Squid Beakon
Ink cost decreased from 60% → 55%

One extra "splat you" to .52 Gal and vanilla Squeezer; Splash Wall is not only weaker, it no longer takes any space. To compensate for the HP, the sub would be made slightly cheaper, which should be a welcome change for weapons like Custom Explosher. The sub that erects a wall of ink to block enemy fire would finally be a better defensive tool than an offensive one. Not like that's only logical.

ough. immense collateral damage to gloogas :(

anyway i’m interested in how your aerospray rework would pan out in-game. aerospray is like, the last shooter i’d consider in need of nerfs, but i see it balancing out with the gimmick you gave it. maybe it would be slightly less embarrassing to get killed by your version of aerospray

 

[isaac4]

ough. immense collateral damage to gloogas :(

anyway i’m interested in how your aerospray rework would pan out in-game. aerospray is like, the last shooter i’d consider in need of nerfs, but i see it balancing out with the gimmick you gave it. maybe it would be slightly less embarrassing to get killed by your version of aerospray

You just reminded me that Gloogas exist.