Shooters Need Fixing [Rant-Adjacent]

[OnePotWonder]

Allow me to express an opinion. The shooter class is far too privileged, and the strongest shooters should be nerfed heavily to the point where they're no longer relevant in the meta. Here's why.

Shooters, particularly those with short range, are the first class a player has access to in the game. This naturally means that said shooters are supposed to be balanced in a way that makes them strong options for new players. And new players have access to one game mode: Turf War. Shooters are built to ink tons of turf, more than any other class in the game with few weapons that can contest them. This is mostly fine on paper, since it gives shooters a unique identity as a class and a clear strength, thus a reason to be picked. The problem is that when shooters step outside of Turf War and into anarchy battle, this strength gives shooters access to a toxic play style of spamming special weapons. But that's just the start.

Shooters have better mobility than any other class in the game, which is also fine on paper even in tandem with their painting strength. Mobility offers a weapon the ability to skirmish, which is an excellent way to make up for a weakness in kill power. Except shooters don't have a weakness in kill power. Almost all shooters can consistently splat in under half of a second, even at their maximum range.

So, shooters have excellent paint, excellent mobility, fast times to splat, and on top of that excellent ink efficiency. So, then, how are these strengths balanced out; what are shooters' weaknesses? In a few cases, range. A few have longer times to splat. The class relies on line of sight, but that's not unique to it. Shooters like the Gals and Splattershot Jr. have accuracy problems, but Jr. has a large ink tank that allows it to spam bombs rather than fighting with its main, and both Gals have Splash Walls that make trying to approach them a death sentence. Then you have the two shooters I personally hate the most. Splattershot and N-ZAP both have zero noteworthy weaknesses.

In order to splat a shooter, you have to outrange it, play around cover, or splat it before it can react. Fail to do any of those things and the shooter gets a virtually free splat, be it a slayer or otherwise. This is the first half of the problem.

Going back to my original opening statement, shooters are the first class unlocked in the game and as such are balanced for beginners. This means that shooters are generally very easy to use. They have little in the way of mechanical challenges and their fighting style is anything but tactical. A shooter often feels like more of a hazard than a player. This alone comprises the second half of the problem.

So shooters are this beginner-friendly class with no weaknesses, easy to pick up with a strong presence in the meta. If this isn't absolutely ridiculous on every conceivable level, I don't know what is. Weapons like Goo Tuber and Dread Wringer are stuck in the low tiers while Splattershot Jr., the literal first weapon the players unlocks in the game, designed specifically to be good for Turf War noobs who want to paint everything and fight nothing, has a presence in the meta as a high tier. Splattershot and N-ZAP, both unlocked before anarchy battle is even available to the player, are top tiers. It's twisted. It's sickening. But it gets even worse.

The semi-automatic shooters are a subclass of weapon that takes the concept of shooters and executes them in a way where they aren't completely devoid of any depth or mechanical challenge. In addition to their consistent perfect accuracy, the semi-autos require perfectly-timed pulls of the trigger to operate at their peak capacity. This is a decently well-designed class of weapon. And out of the three of them, two are some of the weakest weapons in the class. This is not how you balance a game, Nintendo. Both Nozzlenoses, in spite of requiring twice the skill of full auto shooters, are weaker than Splattershot, Splash-o-matic, or even Splattershot Jr.. This makes me physically ill.

Short-range shooters need to be nerfed out of the meta. Weapons like L-3, Big Swig, Dread Wringer, and REEF-LUX should get actual kits that allow them to fill a team's support role. Weapons like H-3, Dynamo, and Goo Tuber should get buffs that make them relevant support options. Specials like Wave Breaker and Splattercolor Screen should be buffed into a state where they're viable supportive tools (and Screen's sound finally fixed). Short-range shooters; full auto shooters in general should be the last last thing any team considers running, because they don't deserve to be ran over literally anything else. (Except Clash Blaster, but that's off-topic.)

Weapons should be balanced based on how challenging they are to use. Otherwise, there's no point in playing challenging weapons.
I rest my case, have a nice day.

 

[SAMICOM]

Allow me to express an opinion. The shooter class is far too privileged, and the strongest shooters should be nerfed heavily to the point where they're no longer relevant in the meta. Here's why.

Shooters, particularly those with short range, are the first class a player has access to in the game. This naturally means that said shooters are supposed to be balanced in a way that makes them strong options for new players. And new players have access to one game mode: Turf War. Shooters are built to ink tons of turf, more than any other class in the game with few weapons that can contest them. This is mostly fine on paper, since it gives shooters a unique identity as a class and a clear strength, thus a reason to be picked. The problem is that when shooters step outside of Turf War and into anarchy battle, this strength gives shooters access to a toxic play style of spamming special weapons. But that's just the start.

Shooters have better mobility than any other class in the game, which is also fine on paper even in tandem with their painting strength. Mobility offers a weapon the ability to skirmish, which is an excellent way to make up for a weakness in kill power. Except shooters don't have a weakness in kill power. Almost all shooters can consistently splat in under half of a second, even at their maximum range.

So, shooters have excellent paint, excellent mobility, fast times to splat, and on top of that excellent ink efficiency. So, then, how are these strengths balanced out; what are shooters' weaknesses? In a few cases, range. A few have longer times to splat. The class relies on line of sight, but that's not unique to it. Shooters like the Gals and Splattershot Jr. have accuracy problems, but Jr. has a large ink tank that allows it to spam bombs rather than fighting with its main, and both Gals have Splash Walls that make trying to approach them a death sentence. Then you have the two shooters I personally hate the most. Splattershot and N-ZAP both have zero noteworthy weaknesses.

In order to splat a shooter, you have to outrange it, play around cover, or splat it before it can react. Fail to do any of those things and the shooter gets a virtually free splat, be it a slayer or otherwise. This is the first half of the problem.

Going back to my original opening statement, shooters are the first class unlocked in the game and as such are balanced for beginners. This means that shooters are generally very easy to use. They have little in the way of mechanical challenges and their fighting style is anything but tactical. A shooter often feels like more of a hazard than a player. This alone comprises the second half of the problem.

So shooters are this beginner-friendly class with no weaknesses, easy to pick up with a strong presence in the meta. If this isn't absolutely ridiculous on every conceivable level, I don't know what is. Weapons like Goo Tuber and Dread Wringer are stuck in the low tiers while Splattershot Jr., the literal first weapon the players unlocks in the game, designed specifically to be good for Turf War noobs who want to paint everything and fight nothing, has a presence in the meta as a high tier. Splattershot and N-ZAP, both unlocked before anarchy battle is even available to the player, are top tiers. It's twisted. It's sickening. But it gets even worse.

The semi-automatic shooters are a subclass of weapon that takes the concept of shooters and executes them in a way where they aren't completely devoid of any depth or mechanical challenge. In addition to their consistent perfect accuracy, the semi-autos require perfectly-timed pulls of the trigger to operate at their peak capacity. This is a decently well-designed class of weapon. And out of the three of them, two are some of the weakest weapons in the class. This is not how you balance a game, Nintendo. Both Nozzlenoses, in spite of requiring twice the skill of full auto shooters, are weaker than Splattershot, Splash-o-matic, or even Splattershot Jr.. This makes me physically ill.

Short-range shooters need to be nerfed out of the meta. Weapons like L-3, Big Swig, Dread Wringer, and REEF-LUX should get actual kits that allow them to fill a team's support role. Weapons like H-3, Dynamo, and Goo Tuber should get buffs that make them relevant support options. Specials like Wave Breaker and Splattercolor Screen should be buffed into a state where they're viable supportive tools (and Screen's sound finally fixed). Short-range shooters; full auto shooters in general should be the last last thing any team considers running, because they don't deserve to be ran over literally anything else. (Except Clash Blaster, but that's off-topic.)

Weapons should be balanced based on how challenging they are to use. Otherwise, there's no point in playing challenging weapons.
I rest my case, have a nice day.

I do think skill of weapons should determine buffs and nerfs, but nothing should be out of the meta. I'd try to calculate difficulty of use (ballpoint, H3, Bamboo, and Sblast high, Aerospray, Flingza, Shot low). I'm talking about main weapon and PFS only. kits are fine, but shooters have a bit Too many bombs

 

[isaac4]

I do think skill of weapons should determine buffs and nerfs, but nothing should be out of the meta. I'd try to calculate difficulty of use (ballpoint, H3, Bamboo, and Sblast high, Aerospray, Flingza, Shot low). I'm talking about main weapon and PFS only. kits are fine, but shooters have a bit Too many bombs

It's impossible for every weapon to be relevant in the meta though.
If we want other weapons to get the opportunity to play the role of support then a lot of the shooters will be used significantly less than before.

 

[OnePotWonder]

Imagine a world where non-shooter supports got decent third kits:

Torpedo and Triple Inkstrike on Refurbished Mini Splatling,
Fizzy Bomb and Crab Tank on Tentacola Big Swig Roller,
Burst Bomb and Tacticooler on Peach Dread Wringer,
Suction Bomb and Booyah Bomb on Acid REEF-LUX 450,
Meanwhile N-ZAP '83 gets stuck with Sprinkler and Kraken Royale.

Truly the best timeline...

 

[Algae]

It's not hard for me to think of synergistic kits and rebalanced subs, but in terms of ambitions for "nothing being out of the meta", map design shouldn't be too restrictive – if they're less oriented towards smaller size and large chokepoints in proportion, weapons that are based on flanking enemies or hitting around cover would more easily defeat shooter users via similar or superior tactical skill (and maybe the aid of a well-turfing roller and/or splatana or something). But Splatoon 3 often fosters environments where "some weapons just kill too slow". (I don't like thinking of the game as a string of failures to "innovate", though my distance from its online speaks all the better...)

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

It's nice to hear your thoughts on why you dislike shooters so intensely, which is an area that I feel lacked detail in your previous posts on the topic.

They have little in the way of mechanical challenges and their fighting style is anything but tactical. A shooter often feels like more of a hazard than a player. This alone comprises the second half of the problem.

This stands out to me as the most obviously incorrect thing here, but I'll read the whole post in more detail later. Until then, here's an excellent video from Chara, which explicitly addresses this exact thing.

 

[OnePotWonder]

It's nice to hear your thoughts on why you dislike shooters so intensely, which is an area that I feel lacked detail in your previous posts on the topic.

I noticed that some elaboration was needed in this regard.

This stands out to me as the most obviously incorrect thing here, but I'll read the whole post in more detail later. Until then, here's an excellent video from Chara about why splash and ballpoint were healthy for the game.

Splash is a different bag of beans from the rest of the shooter class. vSplash is one of the few full autos that actually deserves a spot in the meta, while nSplash is one of the shooters that is least deserving of a meta placement due to its extreme level of special spam.
Balancing Splash feels nearly impossible unless you make the vanilla kit 180p and the Neo kit 230p.

Also yes that was a very good video, hopefully Chara will revisit the concept soon.

 

[Algae]

Ah, good video of his. There's also the issue of versatility: online Splatoon is always a team game, and some weapons suit more compositions than others do. Unless players are sorted to fit the needs of a team in high-level play, a very situational weapon is a bad decision in solo queue.