Splattershot Jr.'s Flaws and Fundamental Team Construction

[CloneHat]

I've been hearing a lot about how the best loadout in Turf War is the Splattershot Jr. It spreads ink fast, building lots of points and meter, and its shield super will let you win any one-on-one confrontation. I agree that as a solo player, this is probably your best option. When players work as a coordinated team, however, I think the weaknesses of the weapon can be exploited, namely its inaccuracy and poor damage and range.

Ignoring ink spreading for a moment, firefights between weapons are won by their range and damage per second (DPS). This means that against most other guns, the Splattershot Junior will be at a disadvantage. At them moment this weakness has been masked by the inexperience of the player base: enemies are unprepared to back away from a bubble shield super and activating your shield at this point in the metagame will usually result in a kill. In reality, however, as all players share equal non-firing mobility, if players run away from the bubble shield the poor range of the Jr. makes it difficult to chase down enemies for a kill (presumably this is what Nintendo had in mind when choosing which gun to have the invincibility super).

That said, while almost every weapon overpowers the Jr. in a firefight, these higher-powered weapons are bad at spreading ink, which is what ultimately wins matches. Take the Splattershot vs. the Splattershot Pro: the default weapon covers more ground, while the Pro has better range and more accuracy (translating to more DPS). Each weapon has a place on a gradient between anti-personnel and ink covering ability. On one end we clearly have the Roller, which at a high level of play loses to any ranged weapon, but spreads ink quickly and efficiently. Near the other end we have the Jet Squelcher or Charger, which spread ink slowly but kill from a distance.

At this stage of the game we may feel that the Jr. is the best and that the Charger is ineffective in Turf War, and while not every weapon is going to have equal ability, an effective team has use for both. I believe that fundamental team construction in Turf War will consist of an inking group whose main role is to cover territory and and escort group who lead pushes and protect the inking group from the opposing team. The extreme mobility idiosyncratic to Splatoon as well as various sub weapons and supers will of course blur the lines between the two groups, but at its core team construction should be a balance of these two ideas.

Please give me you thoughts.

 

[Deku]

I think the Jr. is a great weapon, but it can get shut down fairly easily if you know what to do. I think it makes a great escort weapon for rollers. For instance, on the rig, you can take and hold the middle point and let the roller get the back area. Having the shield be available as often as possible is also key. Stay away from ranged weapons and only attack if you have a good area to retreat to.

 

[Fightersword]

Yeah, people overrate the bubbler a ton. It's a panic button, which to be clear isn't bad, but it doesn't actually do anything other than let you survive or let others survive if you're fast enough (like once I used it just to swim up to someone to save him from a grenade that was about to go off). Things like the ink strike or wail can put on a ton of pressure, the echolocator can allow you to have a massive advantage when you have to push, and the inkzooka can allow you to easily dispose of choice targets or put on decent pressure, while the bubbler really just focuses as an 'absolute' counter to any of that and anything that would kill you, while usually not getting you a kill against anyone who hasn't isolated themselves. It's kind of like flipping up a solemn judgment... well, without the life point loss.

But yes, if you look at Jr's pressure game, it is very poor compared to most weapons. What I mean by that is that if two shooters shoot at each other, the Jr. will in most matchups not be the one that can walk forward and force the opponent back up due to its range disadvantage. This means most of the time you have to flank with it or get around the enemy's shots, the latter of which is impossible if the opponent hasn't surrounded himself with too much enemy ink and is covering like he should. This makes it a relatively poor choice as a shooter for being defensive of areas or chokes, since almost every other shooter will be able to simply out range you and force you to back up, beating you out on the war of attrition. This bad pressure matchup isn't really helped at all by the bubbler since the bubbler itself takes knockback, meaning you still can't walk forward very effectively with it, which your opponent will exploit in certain matchups and just stand there doing attrition.

I mean the setup has its ups, but it isn't the behemoth some players believe it to be. I think people are starting to realize it isn't said behemoth.

 

[Reila]

I think people will slowly realize the Jr isn't the best thing ever and that the charger can be great on the right hands. It's no different from the "roller is OP" which was proven to be false even before the game was released, as it wasn't OP, the "problem" was that the players didn't know to deal with it yet.

On the subject of team construction, it sure is an important thing but at the same time I think there are very few weapon combinations that will lead to a team having substantial disadvantage. Like, a team with four rollers or four chargers will mostly likely be crushed. But dictating very specific weapons for teammates to use isn't going to be necessary at all.

 

[Howl]

So far I'm enjoying it because it's easy to play with it and if you focus on having your Special charged up most of the time you can invade the enemy ink pretty successfully (not necessarily gaining kills unless you flank though). It spreads ink pretty nicely.

But yeah in a straight up 1v1 it's bad. More of a supporting tool.

 

[Captain Norris]

Charger is very underrated. But this isn't the thread for that.
But yeah, there ARE times for the JR. to go against opponent, but never directly. From what I have played, Las-'ditch-effort is a great ability to have on this weapon due to it being able to spread ink quicly among other things.

 

[PhoenixRiku]

I think it is a pretty staple gun in a team comp right now (saying right now because obviously not defining meta game 2 days into a games life). Reason being it is a good pushing class. As people have said it isn't a killing class. Ideally I believe you want to use this when your team is looking to push up into an area. It is extremely safe for this class to push up and gain a little control and if things get hairy bubble and swim out, since staying alive is pretty important for control in this game.

 

[Fightersword]

I think it is a pretty staple gun in a team comp right now (saying right now because obviously not defining meta game 2 days into a games life). Reason being it is a good pushing class. As people have said it isn't a killing class. Ideally I believe you want to use this when your team is looking to push up into an area. It is extremely safe for this class to push up and gain a little control and if things get hairy bubble and swim out, since staying alive is pretty important for control in this game.

Straight up pushing? Not really. it gets crushed in pushing by shooters with better range than it, which designates it as the gun that usually has to 'walk backwards' and look for a moment to ride up close to them out of their current line in one v ones with shooters, meaning it's at a disadvantage. It is good for punishing overextension and getting on their side or back though. You also can't really push with the bubbler because, again, it suffers knockback, so people can use the same tactics on you as if you didn't have it. But the bubbler is a strict counter (or at least nullifier) to everything else in the game more or less. It's actually more of a killing class than other, more pressure oriented shooters, just not straight up one v one killing, which falls again into who has the DPS at the greater range so long as both players haven't overextended towards enemy ink. During a push it will be the one trying to circle around and pick off stragglers concentrated on the ones at the actual pressure line, which would be the shooters with longer range, unless it has the bubbler and needs to help the team counter a special.

Also, there is no team comp right now because there's no dedicated matchmaking. but that's a minor quip.

 

[Astral]

One of the best things i found with the Splattershot Jr. was the last second spawn rush opportunities. If you can gather your team and pass the shield, you can do serious damage.

 

[ThatsSo]

Splattershot Jr is useful for new players thanks to the fact it doesn't require much skill to master, and I'm almost certain that was the intention. The low fire rate means you don't really have to be accurate to use it, but it's horrid range and low accuracy mean you can never really become phenomenal with it.
You know how people realized the rollers aren't an issue because you can just walk backwards and fire a them? People are gonna realize you can do that to Splattershot Jrs too, if your range is longer than theirs.
It's nice to have a teammate covering the map pretty quickly, but wont matter much when he's spending at least a sixth of the entire game respawning.

 

[Mayday]

Bubble is the best part of the Splattershot Jr. class. The actual gun loses firefights to almost every other class. Bubble is very good for pushes, especially late pushes. I've won a decent amount of games by using Bubble in the last 10 seconds of a match, passing it to teammates, and aggressively rushing in to take as much turf as possible

 

[PhoenixRiku]

Straight up pushing? Not really. it gets crushed in pushing by shooters with better range than it, which designates it as the gun that usually has to 'walk backwards' and look for a moment to ride up close to them out of their current line in one v ones with shooters, meaning it's at a disadvantage. It is good for punishing overextension and getting on their side or back though. You also can't really push with the bubbler because, again, it suffers knockback, so people can use the same tactics on you as if you didn't have it. But the bubbler is a strict counter (or at least nullifier) to everything else in the game more or less. It's actually more of a killing class than other, more pressure oriented shooters, just not straight up one v one killing, which falls again into who has the DPS at the greater range so long as both players haven't overextended towards enemy ink. During a push it will be the one trying to circle around and pick off stragglers concentrated on the ones at the actual pressure line, which would be the shooters with longer range, unless it has the bubbler and needs to help the team counter a special.

Also, there is no team comp right now because there's no dedicated matchmaking. but that's a minor quip.

I didn't mean literal pushing like you just walk through gunfire... I meant it as "hey we want to push X, go forward sine its really easy to put down ink and do it safely as jr." Obviously its not smart to just run forward in a bubble. It's an easy class to maintain safe control.

 

[Fightersword]

I didn't mean literal pushing like you just walk through gunfire... I meant it as "hey we want to push X, go forward sine its really easy to put down ink and do it safely as jr." Obviously its not smart to just run forward in a bubble. It's an easy class to maintain safe control.

yeah that's true. it does work well on the flanks and if you get caught out you can bubbler then, and then they have to keep an eye on you while dealing with the brunt. just stuff that outranges it beats it in a true 'JR is the brunt' push.

 

[Chris]

The Jr. with the bubble is the best weapon in the game as far as I've seen. While the gun itself is not that special, the way you can easily zerg your opponents with a bubble, cover their ink and get another bubble so they can't counterattack is ridiculous. I wouldn't be too surprised if in ranked we only saw the Jr Bubble combo. Besides if you stack attack on gear you can kill just as easy

 

[Setu]

This thread belongs in the gear and weapons section and there is already a thread about the splattershot jr

 

[River09]

Splattershot jr may be the most popular of weapons but I agree that it has weaknesses. I have not played as much of it as others but the lack of range is a weakness that should be exploited. Since it might not be the best weapon to attack players I foresee that its popularity will dwindle. Its a matter of experimenting and we should not neglect other so-called underpowered weapons. People will eventually adapt to the jr.

 

[sniper]

I've been pretty effective with the Splattershot Jr. thus far, even against some very good level twenty players-- but I have to play with lots of guile, making the most of the stealth aspects of the game's mechanics (which is my style anyway-- brains over brawn). I agree in a straight-up firefight it is at a disadvantage against most of the other weapons. The key is to always have a line of retreat, and lure opponents to you, versus going in head first.

As for the chargers, I've seen them used to absolutely incredible effect in some matches in the hands of some exceptionally skilled players-- especially in controlling the middle area in the warehouse stage.

 

[Kris]

lol bubble. Great for pushing... great for literally being pushed back. If they out range you and are out of your range, they don't even have to back up, they can simply fire at you, and that'll keep you from advancing. That's not to say the bubble isn't great.

I got caught in a failwail blast. I activated my bubble. The blast pinned me in a corner. I thought i was going to get splatted. That was the longest 2 seconds of this game ever. Amazingly the blast didn't pop my bubble.


:3 but the bubble is far more lethal on the blaster.

 

[Reila]

Bubble is the best part of the Splattershot Jr. class. The actual gun loses firefights to almost every other class. Bubble is very good for pushes, especially late pushes. I've won a decent amount of games by using Bubble in the last 10 seconds of a match, passing it to teammates, and aggressively rushing in to take as much turf as possible

The bubble isn't exclusive to the Splattershot Jr, though. There is a charger with the bubble as well. Edit: I might have misread your post. lol

 

[Funen1]

The key to using any weapon loadout is knowing how to use its strengths and get around its weaknesses, and the Jr. is no exception. I've seen at least one person here describe it as an "assassin-type" weapon - ambush someone by hiding on a wall or up in a high spot to get around its short range, because you'll get blown up any farther away. I agree that it's far from ideal when it comes to breaking through choke points since you're not gonna reliably be hitting anyone outside of close range, but a strategy I've had some success with so far is using its wide ink spray like suppressive fire. More ink near wherever the enemy is hiding means less room for them to move without shooting at those spots first, and if anything this lets me buy time for reinforcements to arrive ("be the beacon", as I say) or just to act as a general distraction. The Bubbler is far from perfect itself, not even counting its short duration, but one of the reasons I think this loadout is so effective is because any sort of protective shield compliments a close-range style of play very well (again, the ink spray helps with charging it when shooting over wide areas, such as from the tops of Arowana's numerous ramps, or just over vast areas not already covered in your team's ink). When used as part of an ambush, it's also capable of directly take on multiple enemies that are close to each other, though preferably you should have a teammate nearby so they can get the shield too and back you up once it runs out.

There is indeed a distinction to be made when it comes to game modes. In modes where killing enemies more directly helps your cause, such as Splat Zones, the Jr. is most likely not going to be nearly as effective as other weapons (I foresee the various Inkstrike loadouts being popular for Splat Zones in particular). The Jr.'s properties seem more tailored to the objectives of Turf Wars, but even within that mode I think the biggest thing going for this loadout is its versatility. Great for inking space, which is the entire point of Turf Wars, rewards creative thinking with traversing and hiding along terrain to set up clean short-range kills, and the Bubbler has both personal and supportive utility.