The Inkbrush

[Judd]

What will the Inkbrush's competitive power be? As I was playing just an hour or so ago, I felt it was more optimal to cover ground using the Inkbrush shake, and in ranked I could only find use in it's sub and special weapons. What do you guys think about it? Opinions?

 

[Tango]

Well, it's out now. I've only played a handful matches with it, but my first impression is one of disappointment. I really wanted the Inkbrush to be a fast melee weapon for moving deep into enemy territory and aggressively attacking your opponents, but the fact is it just doesn't kill fast enough. I can't really fault the developers for that. I assume that this weapon's release was delayed because they wanted to tweak the balance some more, and I must admit that it'd be much worse if the Inkbrush was overpowered.

Aesthetically, Inkbrush is my favorite weapon so far, but it's going to take a lot of work to make it good. So time to stop complaining and start talking about strategy! Has anyone had more luck than me using the Inkbrush? I can't seem to score above 700 points in a match with it. So far, I've found the best strategy is to take higher positions and splatter paint all around me. Also, run away from the first sign of danger, because I can't seem to beat any of the other weapons in the game unless I sneak up behind them.

 

[swifT]

I'm not sure if this thread will remain active/open since its pretty much happening in the Weapons seciton of the forum, but I'll go ahead and post what I already put there. These are my initial thoughts on the inkbrush and my impressions for its competitive value.

Directly copy pasted from where I posted in another thread

First of all this weapon has a huge learning curve. You cant just pick this weapon up and immediately be successful with it. Personally I feel like rollers in general have a nice learning curve to use them in the most successful manner at least, but the inkbrush is on an entirely new level. It has very specific purposes, and if you cant meet them for any one reason it can jeopordize your entire game.

I feel like atm the inkbrushes uses are miniscule but something I feel like it will excel at as people continue to play with it is defending your own turf. Especially in game modes like Splat Zones.

The first good purpose I see for the Paintbrush is the simple line ahead that it provides for your team. It is so quick that you could easily get 1 or two of your teammates to a specific area within the first few seconds of the game. That alone makes it an interesting weapon in its own right.

I feel like as a brush player the most important part is going to be knowing where you can get the drop on your opponent the fastest and easiest. You also need to make it a point to not remain in the same place. Keep yourself moving as much as possible to keep the enemies offence guessing as to where you might me.

Best friends to the inkbush are easily the echolocater since you can get the drop on your opponents even faster and of course ninja squid.

I feel like with party chat this weapon will be able to become much better. With your teammates additional eyes on the map you'll be able to keep tabs on enemy movements easier.

That's about all I have to say on it right now, but I plan to continue experimenting as I really enjoy this weapon.

 

[Agosta44]

Splat Zones it's for flanking and distracting enemies for your team.

Too bad most teams are brain dead.

 

[ZeroParadox]

Turf War: Being the TF2 Scout
Splat Zones: Being the ninja class - fastest one in, fastest one to flank and get out.
Tower Control: ...uuuuuh...

Yeah, that's gonna be... interesting.

EDIT: Actually I should probably reverse those two, but at the same time either one works. It depends on the situation, but in general the idea of this weapon is to be annoying, either by quickly holding down a zone with your speed or ending people via flanking way faster than a normal roller could.

 

[Leather Belt]

It'll be infinitely more useful when premade 4v4 ranked mode is out. It feels like a big risk to me to try and fill a role for a team that I have no way of knowing will already be filled or not. However, when a team can plan around a composition and be more coordinated I think it'll be a huge help. The quick line you can draw for your team will make really aggressive players really happy and also fill the role of a distraction or some kind of assassin.

Overall it's seems like a really versatile weapon that fits multiple roles and I like it a lot.

 

[Vexen]

I think its going to have almost no impact other than some cheesy strategy that does not involve it engaging any enemies at all. damage is too low 4hko if you swing it around, 6hko if you just run at them with it. And there are better weapons that have either the sprinkler or inkstrike for sub/special. Definitely going to see threads calling out for a ban or anything close to it

 

[NebulaWords]

To be honest, I wanted to use it like the roller, ink the ground as much as I can and defend myself if necessary. I'm not the type to attack the other team.
And I was happy to learn that you can attack them by throwing ink at them. I don't know how much it hurts but I bet that it'll be good enough for me to go from defensive to offensive if needed.
Though, I'm kind of sad that it doesn't have the Kraken special. But heh, beggars can't be choosers.
I'll edit once I got to play with the Inkbrush. I bet it'll be fun to try it out.

 

[Jellyfishn]

I was thinking it wouldn't be that good until I got destroyed by some really good Japanese inkbrush users in ranked. Everyone is saying the damage is bad, but the fact that you can spam it REALLY fast makes up for it. A large number of fast small hits can be just as good as a slow hard hit.

 

[Mortaas]

Ninjasquid + Inkbrush = awesome. Had so much fun with it today and got really good results in Ranked too. But you have to be very careful and exclusively ambush your opponents.

Edit: Changed back to the Roller. Inkbrush is fun, but the Roller is just better for ambushes.

 

[ryuudrawsstuff]

I love this weapon a lot!! it matches my play style very well, although if it doesn't remotely match yours this weapon will be extremely tough to use..

It's obviously extremely fast, a great sub and special combination for it, the shake covers a nice amount of ground, especially if you're on a higher floor.
I'm not sure how I feel about it in splat zones yet, in turf war I can see if being great but, if you have more than 1 inkbrush on the team it can be very tough..
Although it's not as bad as a lot of people I've heard talk about it, it still seems to cover less turf than a lot of the weapons, combat highly depends on your situation and match up, so the defense can be kinda weak as well, but having a well balanced team with the inkbrush is great! I think it'll be MUCH better once you can make private groups..

On to play style, if you try to play this as a normal roller you'll probably have a bad time?? It feels very different even though it looks similar, as I said earlier it has great speed, using that speed you can place sprinklers fast, I think sprinklers are great as a sub for it because not only can you use it to cover more turf but it can work as a great distraction, recently I've had matches in Port Mackerel, and I'd place a sprinkler on one side, and when they go to shoot it I use the speed of this thing to get behind or to the side of them and swipe as fast as I can, although it's power is kinda weak, if you catch the opponent early and have enough ink you can kill them very fast! I also noticed no problem dealing with rollers..

I've seen a lot of ink brushes online not using the speed of this thing as an advantage, it can help you escape or even ambush/assassinate so well, I've found no issue usually getting in and out often and finding chances to place my subs and use my special (ink strike is great btw)..
The inkbrush does have a nice amount of horizontal range btw, getting a double or triple kill isn't too hard to imagine with it and is so satisfying..

Gear wise..I need to test it more but for turf war I've had a lot of fun with gear that increases ink capacity or makes it refill faster, that combo'd with the quick swipes can really make it deceivingly cover a lot of turf, although if you wanna focus on kills power gear might help, some defense can probably help nicely regardless of your main objective too.

I haven't played it enough to judge what stages it's best on but from what I can think of right now, at Port Mackerel it seems to be very nice at killing as well as running away, the thin hallways and turns make it easy to place sprinklers as a distraction, get to an opponents blindside, or just run away from the enemy, now in the Saltspray rig as I mentioned before getting a high ground can really help cover a lot of turf, although overall I'm not sure how it does there?
But ya that's my personal experience with this weapon so far, it'll take practice to use and you'll have to really connect with it's style as it feels very different to the other weapons, nothings concrete as it like just came out of course but thought I'd share here what I think so far!! Thanks for reading my ramble. :]

 

[ryuudrawsstuff]

Update: Trying inkbrush on ranked right now and oh my, it's doing so well, the inkbrush by itself with its speed and horizontal coverage is amazing, that with sprinklers and ink strike? This weapon is so awesome in splat zones..

 

[Mayday]

I'm not sure if this thread will remain active/open since its pretty much happening in the Weapons seciton of the forum, but I'll go ahead and post what I already put there. These are my initial thoughts on the inkbrush and my impressions for its competitive value.

Locking thread for this reason. For more Inkbrush discussion: http://squidboards.com/threads/ink-brush-analysis-and-thoughts-thread.2092/