This weapon was literally the weapon that I mained in my late splatoon 1 competitive career. This weapon has made me love the game so much more ever since I started playing it. Why this did I choose this blaster though? I could have been the best luna player in the world with potato aim. Or I could play the rapid for all my life and be a nerd about frame data. But I picked this blaster, and I'll tell you why I picked this absolute beast of a weapon.
The Range tier is golden
The thing that doesn't keep the Luna or Vanilla Blaster from winning too many match ups is that they just don't have the range to do so. For example, a Splattershot Pro against a vanilla blaster is almost always a bad match up for the blaster player. As the vanilla blaster just can't fight a Pro at range, and even up close, if the blaster decides to go for a 2 shot, the Pro user can win the gun fight if they aim all 3 shots. But you may ask, how does a range blaster fight them? A range blaster can retaliate against a pro user. It doesn't have to close in nearly as much distance, as you can hit from 3 and 1/2 bars away. For reference, the pro user has 4 bars. So you're still outranged, but the distance is much easier to close. And for those fights the vanilla blaster had a tough time with, against tentateks, N-Zaps, and the like, are now blown away as they can't even touch you anymore. Also, remember when the opponent could run when you had puny range, or when you had to get 3 shots on them. With the range blaster just doesn't have this problem, it kills so reliably. Also remember snipers, they were funny while they could hide on their perches, now they quiver whenever they see a blast come out from you.
What happens when you get rushed down though?
You give them the D, the direct you
sick f***. A cheeky flanker must respect the ever present OHKO direct. A range blaster who masters this mechanic is simply one that never dies. This is the reason why rapid is so weak to getting rushed down. If you get a direct as a rapid blaster, you need to either get a spark or another blast on them. Which can be hard to do when the tentatek user already has 2 shots into you. As a range blaster, you get your nice direct, and you get a kill. You don't need to pull off some matrix level technique to get the kill afterwards.
But I'm not going to be ignorant and pretend my weapon is perfect.
This weapon cannot paint anything. It is the worst painting weapon in the game, and you should only focus on painting if you have nothing else to do. This weakness becomes especially notable when paired up with a sniper, as once the opponent gets paint on to your side of the field, you don't have the means to remove it from your side, and you're stuck in ink whenever you want to make a play (which often involves your demise).
Getting directs is the saving grace of this weapon.
If you miss a lot of your directs with this weapon, you lose half, if not more of the value it brings to the team. As without getting up close directs reliably will result in you dying.
A LOT. And it can be challenging to get directs when you're tilted, or your aim is "off" for a bit. So, being inconsistent will kill your feel for the weapon.
The kit in splat one helped remedy mess ups because not every situation is goes in your favor. Splat bombs were great to roll on to your feet if someone was flanking you, and burst bombs allowed for quick reactions and follow up damage to flankers wanting to get close to you. Plus kraken, the famous panic button special fit with the weapon seamlessly.
But in this kit, suction and inkstorm don't allow for quick reactions, instead they're tools for maintaining control. Which is what the range blaster is good at. The range blaster just can't grab the momentum by itself to get in that defensive position. Which is why Grim was really successful. It had that burst cancel combo which was ideal for grabbing control through picks in the first couple seconds of a match.
Overall, I was very happy when this weapon got to be in my hands again. As I was waiting 3 months for this thing to come back. And it feels just like the reapers scythe in my hands.