Special Saver - Is it viable?

[Inky Corruption]

This is something I've been internally debating for the longest time but am unable to figure out an answer to, so here I have come to ask: what is the board's overall consensus on the Special Saver as an ability?

I have seen Special Saver mentioned on occasion where some users have stated they run this ability, but I want to raise the question as to why? There are numerous abilities available that could otherwise fill a more immediate role in your loadout, be it more mobility, better efficiency when using your main- or sub-weapon, faster special charge and so on. The immediate role of the Special Saver is to preserve as much of your special gauge as possible in the unfortunate event that you get splatted (or clumsily trip over a ledge). On the other hand, if you don't die then the Special Saver becomes a dead ability.

From what I gather, it works better as a comeback ability, allowing you to preserve larger portions of your special gauge so that you may rebuild your special quicker for the potential comeback. For those of you who use Special Saver in your loadouts, have you personally experienced games where Special Saver has allowed you to mount a comeback from a desperate situation? Is it truly worth the ability slot(s) to keep an insurance against the odds? How does it play out in organised team compositions - is there a dedicated comeback engineer? Do specific abilities combo well in conjunction with Special Saver? Does this ability function better for the solo squid or the squad kid? These are all questions I am dying to hear answered.



Feel free to discuss the viability of the Special Saver as an ability and what you feel works best with it. Below I have provided a visual graph of the Special Saver ability effects, sourced from the 2ch Splatoon Wiki. For convenience sake, the formula for calculating the effect of Special Saver from a full gauge can be viewed above the graph.

Spoiler: Wiki Data

x = [Main] * 10 + [Sub] * 3
[Reduction Multiplier] = 0.5 - ((0.99 * x) - (0.09 * x)^2) / 60

[Default Required Points] * [Reduction Multiplier]

Default Required Points:
Inkzooka: 220
Echolocator/Kraken: 200
Killer Wail: 160
Others: 180

 

[Vitezen]

It will depend on what ability you have, how fast you charge it, and how often you need it. As an example, I use the TTK a lot. People have recommended to use special charge or saver in order to get the inkzooka more often. However, I find most of the time I'm sitting with a fully charged inkzooka waiting for a time to use it, so having abilities that get it faster won't be useful.

Things to consider are how aggressive you intend to be, and how often you intend to use your super. A good example I can think of for considering special saver would be NZAP 85 with its echolocator.

 

[Lonely_Dolphin]

Same deal with Quick Respawn, it's only useless if you're completely dominating, something that's highly unlikely, compared to dying which is pretty much inevitable, especially during Rainmaker and Tower Control where pushing the objective makes you more vulnerable. As to why you'd use it over abilitys, well you don't, I find just one main is sufficient enough and I'd only ever use two max, so still plenty of slots left. Your special weapon is very important and worth boosting it's efficiency, well not so much if your special is Inkstrike, but very much worthwhile for the Kraken and it's game clinching potential in Tower Control and Rainmaker. Heck I purposely let myself die if it means I can use the Kraken at the ideal time, and Special Saver only helps with that.

 

[cwjakesteel]

Things to consider are how aggressive you intend to be, and how often you intend to use your super. A good example I can think of for considering special saver would be NZAP 85 with its echolocator.

I think the other way around. IMO, if you encounter an enemy that you fear you might lose to, use echolocator right away. You get a chance to use echolocator once every 200 points, so if you're racking up the ink points that's 3-4 echolocators in a game, more than enough to use it as soon as you get it.

You're right about "why have an ability that only helps you when you die, wouldn't you rather something that actually helps you?" Well the thing is, if you're not dying and therefore not benefiting from the special saver, you lose nothing, while if you die while having the "better" abilities, you gain potentially less than you would with special saver.

 

[SafetyPoncho]

I feel it's viable and then some. When I am playing with randoms, I really don't know how a game will go. Like last night for instance, in splat zones, our team had some synergy. I was able to aggravate the other team without having to head on encounter any of them, I could hang up high and keep strategically throwing sprinklers, covering our zone and making them have to open themselves up to my other team members if they wanted to get rid of it. I had 2 kills but like 1 death, and I was able to inkstrike like 3 or so times before we won. But special saver would have been useless.

However, sometimes I don't know how a game will go, and if I have to push push push while like my whole team holds back...it's nice to have.

Suffice it to say, I go for special charger now over special saver. But a lot of things can be situational, I always wear my cold blooded shirt when I play nzap 89, and that can be a waste of a slot if no one is echo locating or sensoring. But I still think it's worth to keep. Just like even tho some games you might not have to push or put yourself out on a line, special saver can save your butt end game. I tend to play bully and as a result I have high kills and high deaths. But I still want to get that echo locator off for the team when I'm using my nzap 85.

Also depends on how I'm playing for the day I guess.

 

[Reset Bomb Jigglypuff]

It's all dependent on whether or not you think you'll use your special immediately. Running Dynamo standard, then use a special charge up. Running tri slosher? Okay, maybe special saver might be better.

 

[Joseph Staleknight]

I find that Special Saver's really useful since I tend to get into the fray plenty of times and more often than not I get splatted for my troubles. Considering how many times I get land-camped as well, I feel it's one of the more useful abilities out there along with Quick Respawn.

 

[MissingNumbers]

Personally, the main reason I run a Special Saver shirt is due to it also having triple Special Charge Ups, which overall makes specials as frequent as you need them to be.

 

[KeebyKakes]

It's good for "expensive" specials like the Inkzooka, but if you want to get your specials faster then I think Special Charge Up is a better option. That said, I use both as they have good synergy.

 

[Zombie Aladdin]

Considering how popular and useful Comeback is, even the best players expect to get splatted constantly. A splat normally takes away half of your special meter, which is usually what you need to gain an upper hand (Echolocator, Bubbler), control a large amount of ground briefly (Killer Wail, Inkzooka), or force opponents to evacuate (Inkstrike, Bomb Rush, Kraken). If you get splatted too often, you'll never get a special out, and in Ranked, every single special can turn the tide of a match all by itself.

While I'm not that good a player, I do appreciate having Special Saver, because it means I get to use specials more often, and I love using specials, every kind. I don't know if it can be combined with Special Charge Up, but if you can, that's a lot of Inkstrikes every match and even more Killer Wails.

 

[Magix]

Special saver is amazing, but situational. Of course "it's useless if you don't die" is a true statement, but there's much more to it than that. It depends very much on the combination of game mode and weapon, wether special saver should be valued or not. These are examples of questions and answers I would give myself before using special saver on my gear:

Will I get myself into dangerous situations while executing my role with this weapon? As a charger, probably not, so I won't bother with special saver. As a short-ranged weapon, definitely, so special saver is worth further consideration.

Does my weapon take a long time to charge its special? If it doesn't, either because my weapon covers turf quickly or because my special is Killer Wail, I might feel like I can regularly get my special(on demand) already. But if it does, it means a longer time risking getting splatted before I can use my special, and longer time to charge up again after getting splatted - special saver is worth considering.

Can my weapon spare the ability slots? If I'm running a rapid blaster or charger, a combination of "necessary" damage up and cold-blooded might require almost all my gear abilities and not leave room for special saver. If I'm running Custom Blaster, I don't "have to" use my gear abilities for anything and can certainly spare some slots for special saver to keep its Bubbler from being denied.

Is my weapon's special an important one for this game mode? If it's Tower Control and I want to play a weapon that "unfortunately" has Inkstrike as its special, I won't worry about not getting to use it. But if it's TC and Kraken, my special might mean a guaranteed win if I can have it ready when the enemy team is pushing for an overtime victory - definitely worth considering special saver.

 

[seakingtheonixpected]

If you use enough special saver you can make it so dying doesn't decrease your gauge at all, this can be incredibly handy if getting your special twice as often is important (for example if you think you need a lot of Inkstrikes in Splat Zones)

Pretty much all abilities are conditionally useful. I consider Special Duration Up to be the least useful ability in the game, but if you have a Kraken an extra few seconds with the special can make a huge difference.

 

[Blue24]

Basically what Magix said. With the Jet Squelcher, at least the way I play, I rather have 1 Special Saver main than 2 Special Charge Up mains.