Splatoon 2 Revival of the Mini?

[ϛ(°³°)/`]

The Mini's been receiving a lot of buffs as of late. It looks like the devs can't seem to settle on a balance between the stats in Splatoon 1 and 2. In its current state it moves faster while charging and while firing, and it jumps higher than it did in S1; it gets more of a buff from Run Speed perks; Main Power Up already made it much more viable, but then they pumped up the ability's effects; and it got a boost to its ink recovery too. So are all of these buffs the reason it's seeing so much more use or is there something else happening in the meta that I didn't know about?

I've been looking to spice up my weapon selection - I've been a Splatling troll for a bit too long, and while it doesn't have nearly the same lustre as the Zimi did in Splatoon 1 I admit I've been enjoying the vanilla Mini for Clam Blitz.

 

[Ansible]

Interesting~.

I guess that could be why I'm starting to see more of them than usual. That and the usual "let's copy whatever the JP players are doing" tendency among players.

I sometimes play it during those "Looks like I'm gonna be the one playing forward, but I still want to play with my splatlings" sessions. So I haven't really paid all that much attention to or felt out the numerous buffs received.

 

[Mar$el]

Decided to take a visit back to this site and I can explain this one. First of all, the only relevant mini in the meta is the vanilla one with missiles. I'll start with the main weapon though. First of all, this thing is a paint machine. It's output is so insane which makes it great at supporting other players (to the point where it can help make blasters viable). It has good range, deletes things with object shredder, in general is a god at supporting players while being untouchable itself (which is what any midline should strive to do). The reason the other variants are kinda irrelevant in the meta is because for zimi, curlings suck for the role the mini plays (and curlings are not great in general). Rain is a good special but curlings don't do anything and missiles are a more viable pick (will get into this later). Kimi doesn't get much worth from it's kit as a midline either. You can play it as a front but there are more powerful options.

Now I'll explain why people actually use missiles (to the point where kshot and vimi are meta). This one has been pretty weird to see to be honest. Literally just all of a sudden with no patches or anything missiles were seeing use. It started with people experimenting them on small maps like MakoMart where they became a niche pick, and in this process people saw their potential and how they can use them not only for tracking but for paint and pressure. There's also some crazy special pairing like missiles + stingray which applies tons of pressure that you only need those two, and your other 2 players can save their own specials for a longer, stronger push.

One more point I want to make is that the scene is developing to create separate mode metas in terms of weapon comps. For instance, vimi and other painters like h3d, explosh, remix, etc are super strong in zones, but weak in other modes. Inkbrush nouveau is a top pick in clams and turf but isn't great otherwise. Stingray is a requirement in tc/rm but doesn't need to be run in other modes. Vimi fits into that zones meta but isn't always the best pick for every map/mode. Basically my point is that the meta no longer encapsulates using the same comp every map/mode like early in the game, but abusing the properties of every map/mode which let more weapons see use.

 

[Metasepia]

I'd personally disagree with calling kimi unviable because, although it's kit sucks for it's role, it has been seeing use as a brella counter. Mist puts heavy pressure on the brella's already high ink consumption and Stamp is just a death train for any brella that stands in it's way. It's a decent pick on clams where lots of tents run rampant and the fact that you build up hammer in a snap with kimi means that you almost always have your special ready to invalidate a Tent's push. But still, Kimi is only really good as a brella counter pick imo. Other than that just use Camo tent if you want stamp because that thing is crazy strong.