The Plight of the Blight - Sting Ray Deep Dive

[OnePotWonder]

Even if you've never played Splatoon 2, you should be familiar with Sting Ray, at least by reputation. It replaces the user's main weapon with a massive ink beam railgun that fires across the stage and through terrain. It has terrible mobility and worse turning speed, encouraging players to use it as far away from the front lines as possible. It allows the user to see the silhouettes of enemy players through walls while not firing, and it marks them on the Turf Map with the slightest amount of damage. Not to mention that the beam it fires is about as wide as the Tower Control tower once its shockwaves kick in, and deals more damage than a pair of Killer Wail 5.1 speakers at minimum. Even Nintendo recognized how harmful the special was and stopped adding it to new weapon kits halfway through Splatoon 2's update cycle.

So, you would be very justified in questioning why I absolutely love the special.
Strip away Sting Ray's biggest flaws and you end up with an extremely awesome special weapon that's perfect for long-range weapons. The concept of a massive, aim-intensive laser that hinders enemies at a distance to support its team, even though walls, while leaving the user vulnerable is absolutely awesome. And Nintendo knows it. They've drawn from Sting Ray's design for multiple of Splatoon 3's special weapons; combining its traits with Killer Wail's in Killer Wail 5.1, trying (and failing) to recreate its role as a special for backlines with Ink Vac, and finding great success in replicating its long-range powerhouse pressure in Crab Tank.

Sting Ray has more then enough potential to be a good special, but it needs a lot of changes, removing its overbearing strengths and crippling weaknesses to get a special that's more well-rounded and less glass cannon sniper. No more beating around the bush; here are my complete thoughts on how to fix Sting Ray for future games in the series:

Sting Ray 2.0

Range reduced from global to 32.5 units (about the same as Scoped E-liter)​

Movement speed while firing increased from practically 0 to 0.06 units per frame (slightly faster than Splattershot Pro)​

Four shopping cart wheels are added to the bottom of its pressure tank to justify this increase​

Turning speed while firing doubled​

Damage when fired through walls decreased from 1.5 to 0.9 damage per frame (half that of unobstructed)​

Shockwave damage removed​

Shockwaves slow enemies in their area by 20%, or 10% when obstructed by terrain​

Enemies caught in the shockwaves are located by silhouette and on the Turf Map​

There's a lot to cover here, so I'll go one change at a time.
Removing the global range is a pretty obvious change, since it forced the special to play at a reasonable distance from where the action is taking place, and not from their own base. The mobility and turning speed increases compensate the range nerf by giving the special user more flexibility in their aiming and positioning. Further decreasing the damage dealt through walls by the special encourages using it with line of sight, and therefore in more vulnerable positions, but this change is also compensated by giving the shockwaves silhouette location to make aiming the special without line of sight easier. The most obvious nerf is replacing the shockwaves' damage with a slow effect, making it so the special user has to land the central beam to deal damage, but also making it easier to land that beam on enemies in the shockwaves. The slow effect also greatly benefits teammates playing off the special.

Feel free to share your thoughts on the special and/or my idea for it below. I'm well aware the special being fixable is a hot take, but I think I've made a fairly convincing argument here.
Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful day.

 

[Algae]

Ever since I heard of a version of Crab Tank where the mech is an underwater chelicherate called a sea spider, I thought of combining Crab, Ray and Wail into a version of Crab with a Liter-range wall-piercing telegraphed speaker railgun shot, which is fired thrice quickly if the special naturally times out. And the ball form is replaced with regular swim form and mech-form climbing. Crab Tank is actually a successor to Sting Ray (w/ a dash of Baller); in terms of my "Sea Subber" idea, I could've done worse.

Funnily enough, Missiles is only on 3 post-launch Splatoon 3 kits. I'm certain the devs dislike it, too (despite shutting it down with a single cooldown nerf), so I'm confused at why the Kensa Splattershot kit exists.

also, wail 5.1 homes in like a stinger does, so victims have disproportionate control over the attack

 

[solz]

Do you mean that while firing you move faster?

 

[OnePotWonder]

Do you mean that while firing you move faster?

You would be able to strafe at the same speed as firing while in kid form but not actively firing. I didn't mention it because it isn't incredibly relevant to the special's usage, but the special would not move faster while firing than while not firing.