New Recon Viability?

[Midifish]

What do you guys think about the new recon ability? It allows for more tactical jumps to and from base and makes Inkstrike more useful...but is it worth taking over Cold-Blooded or others?

 

[Saber]

I main recon most times and honestly it matters on the mode your playing (this can be a lifesaver in rainmaker since you know no only where the rainmaker is but also who is defending them, or any back doors in the defense), or more importantly the tool you are using.
For example charger can seriously benefit from this since they will know where the other charger or dynamo rollers are now how to approach.
recon can also show you the most commonly used paths by the other team and give you the opportunity to stop flanks and allow you to place traps ahead of time (such inkmines) or provide an opportunity to ambush.

 

[Cyan]

I think it has its uses in Squads and Scrims/Tourneys (as of the 2.6.0 buff), but outside of that I doubt much will come of it. I have been contemplating what a build could be and I came up with this:


¦(Straw Boater - No Image)
¦(Any Recon Shirt)
¦

Since there aren't any Zink Recon shirts (probably to prevent this much Quick Super Jump from being stacked), you would have to scum for a Recon shirt like that and scum for the Hero Replica Shoes since those are Cuttlegear with QSJ main. Of course, you can use other weapons with this build, but it's ideal to use a weapon that has Squid Beakons, so you can quickly jump back and forth between the Spawn Point and your Beakons, minimising time spent away from the action and not helping your team. You can then call out all the weapon positions for a few seconds so you know where they're all heading, and then jump back to help flush them out and get an ace or push the Tower/Rainmaker. I doubt it'll be useful in Zones, since a good team would be able to set up a decent line of defence once they capture the zones, so you wouldn't really need Recon although it would be useful for pushing through their defence if they have the zones and finding weak spots. I picked the Straw Boater to have a little bit of a quicker respawn so you can return to the action a little faster.

I recommend the Custom Dual, because having additional range will allow you to attack from afar, so you don't struggle in fights from the lack of other abilities, a lot of the other weapons with Beakons either need Damage, or stealth play (requiring Swim Speed to get close fast) or have very short range, so I believe that the Custom Dual would be best suited for such a strategy and build. Just my thought on things, and it'll be interesting to hear other people's thoughts on Recon since it got buffed.

 

[buttfield]

I've been running the '89 with a mix of Damage Up/QSJ/Charge Up. It does fairly well even in solo, and the Damage Up both boosts Inkstrike damage and maintains TTK.

I'm planning to try out the .52 Deco with Tenacity instead of Charge Up, though that'd need quite a few off-brand rolls to optimize.

 

[Saber]

My most used set with recon is this-


,

Skull bandanna : or Legendary cap:

:

:

This set give a little boost to swim speed and ink recovery while proving sub saver for weapon for sprinklers/ ink walls, and special duration and damage to keep adding pressure to the enemy team
However stealth jump with recon will allow you jump to teammates who got splatted and while the enemy begins to advance give you the opportunity to flank from behind or allow teammates to jump in for a full out ambush

 

[SquiliamTentacles]

I find it somewhat like a light , it allows you to safely super jump to your teammates, and trades off the freedom for safely jumping anywhere by giving you tabs on what your foes are doing and a quicker super jump. I do not super jump much, but it likely would be useful to those who do (Simply swimming to the front lines gives the enemy a good opportunity to move out of the positions you knew). Overall, I would say it is useful for getting in the battle field, but not so much jumping back to check on the enemies (unless you can communicate with your team and have a bunch of on.)

 

[Shun_one]

I run it pretty consistently as I am an H-3 user. It helps a ton, knowing when it's safe to jump in and just knowing where what is after I get taken out. This is super important, because knowing what encounters I can win solo or which paths I should avoid until I have back-up is how I survive. It also helps to know which weapon you don't have to worry about in Rainmaker and identifying people trying to ambush you (like the guy who hides near your spawn point) without letting them know you know where they are.

At the end of the day, I think it's usefulness depends upon the player. And in Squads it's a god-send because you can instantly update your team where everyone is anytime you die without the enemy knowing your entire squad now knows where they are.