[Thought Exercise] Penciling Other Chargers

[OnePotWonder]

I have an idea for a way to fix the entire backline role in Splatoon. Since the original game, backline chargers have been a problem with their unmatched range and ability to one-shot at said range. They have dominant matchups against all other backlines thanks to their longer range and high concentrated firepower that both make trying to approach them a death sentence. However, there is one backline charger where these problems aren't quite as severe. That being Snipewriter.

While Pencil still has dominant matchups against other backlines due to its range, its lack of a one-shot splat makes coming out from behind cover a lot less dangerous when fighting it. Its multiple shots also make the weapon less vulnerable in close-quarters compared to others. Ultimately, Pencil is better than other chargers in terms of design. You guys wouldn't really prefer a Splat Charger spamming Tacticooler for its team, would you? So, what if other chargers were more like Snipewriter? Hear me out.

Splat Charger

Fires three shots on a full charge​

Full charge damage decreased to 70​

Full charge paint width halved​

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A basic example of what a multi-shot Splat Charger could look like, dealing 70 damage for combos and having one shot of lenience. It's effectively just a lighter version of Snipewriter with higher damage and fewer shots. The charger hold could apply when the weapon hasn't fired any shots yet while the scope could remain active as long as the user still has shots remaining, adequately nerfing both mechanics on chargers specifically. Here's another example:

E-liter 2K

Fires two shots on a full charge​

Full charge damage decreased to 90​

Full charge paint width reduced by 50%​

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E-liter would become a much more team-reliant weapon, needing to hit two shots in a row to splat on its own, but able to splat in one shot if its target has taken any amount of damage from teammates. This would definitely be an improvement over current E-liter's overbearing power. And this doesn't necessarily have to turn every charger into a two-shot. Squiffer would remain unchanged. And in another case...

Goo Tuber

Fires two shots on a full charge (can hold a partially fired charge)​

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Goo Tuber could get two lethal shots on a full charge to make up for the fact that it can splat with a partial charge (which leaves it with little reason to charge fully in its current state). This gives the weapon a margin of error when going for snipes, and would drastically increase its paint power, since this change would come with no paint nerf. Finally, as for Snipewriter itself:

Snipewriter

Full charge damage decreased to 60​

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The point of this change is fairly simple. The reason why Snipewriter is so strong in the current meta and has been for over a year is because it can paint a lot of turf to spam Tacticoolers, but also because it can combo damage with a lot of other strong weapons like Splattershot, Squeezer, Mini Splatling, and Splatana Stamper. Reducing its full charge damage back to 60 removes those combos, and the reworked multi-shot Splat Charger offers an alternative to keep those combos intact. Finally, a bit of competition.

These changes also leave Tri-Stringer as the only backline weapon capable of landing a one-shot splat at its maximum range, making it more viable as well for comps that want that kind of lethal distance pressure.

Overall, with a bit more polishing, this sort of class-wide rework could leave chargers in a healthier state than they've ever been.
Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter, since I know that this isn't perfect and has plenty of room for improvement.
Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day.

 

[isaac4]

Not much to add here but I don't think you need to decrease Pencil's damage at all if you just nerf it's range.
The extra range from Splat Charger would be enough to give it a reason to be picked over Pencil without taking away the damage combos the weapon currently has.
I also think that nerfing Pencil's range would allow it to get its old paint back which would further separate both weapons so that one doesn't immediately outclass the other considering that they now both now share the same charge mechanic.

 

[Algae]

Yo, I just thought of an L-3-ranged two-shot charger that can fire thrice on a full charge. It'd be a good replacement for both .52 and L-3 (a four-shot burst shooter with two-bullet leniency isn't too interesting to me). Yeah, this'd be the shortest-range charger of all, inspired by Splat Charger's tap-shot attack.

 

[youre_a_squib_now]

You guys wouldn't really prefer a Splat Charger spamming Tacticooler for its team, would you? So, what if other chargers were more like Snipewriter? Hear me out.

I very much appreciate the stance of "here's an idea that I think would work", as opposed to "if you disagree with this you are objectively wrong". Especially given the drastic changes being made here.

I do like the idea, though. Pencil being better designed than the other backlines isn't something I've thought about before, but you make some good points, and most of my arguments against your changes are at least somewhat addressed by reading through the changes again. However, I'll give my thoughts on each one individually, since I don't feel the same about all of them.

Squiffer and bamboo aren't being changed by this, and no one is saying they should be. Moving on.

This goo tuber change is something I've been suggesting for a while. Giving it yet another gimmick doesn't seem like the best idea at first, but having two lethal shots separates it further from other chargers (with or without your changes to them) as well as giving its other gimmicks much more reason to be used, because you're storing twice as much lethal damage.
Not nerfing the full charge paint might be a bit extreme since tap shots already paint pretty well, but I'm not too worried about details like this in comparison to the other things I'm going to talk about, so this is fine. We're painting with very broad strokes here.

Liter is... interesting. Presumably, there would be a significant delay between the two shots (much more than pencil has) but exactly how much of a delay is very important. If it's small enough that it's not reasonable to react to the first and dodge the second, then you've made it harder for the liter player but not necessarily less annoying for the player being targeted. My bigger concern is that it will play the same as before (even with a long enough time between shots). It wouldn't be able to stop an entire route by itself, but it could force people to stay behind cover the same way because getting hit with 90 damage makes you super vulnerable to anyone else in the area. And since you get two, the threat of that doesn't even go away after a shot.
It doesn't one shot and requires a teammate to be nearby to finish the player off, but it might slow down the game just as much and feel just as bad to fight. So I don't know if this actually fixes the issue.

Pencil doing less damage does make it combo less with other weapons, which makes it worse. But I take issue with the fact that this still hasn't fixed pencil's matchups against other backlines, or its oppressive paint and cooler output pushing out other supports. I would argue that you've removed the best part and kept the worst ones, but comboing less with other weapons would give other supports more reason to be used (if more other supports were good but that's beside the point) which somewhat addresses the second issue, and having good matchups against other backlines might not be as much of an issue if it had other weaknesses to balance it out, but I'm not sure. It still feels like this doesn't really change that much.

New vcharger is essentially pencil with only three shots and less paint, and new pencil is pencil with less damage. These would easily be two of the most similar weapons in the game, on the level of rapid and rapid pro or maybe even more similar. This isn't necessarily a bad thing by itself (rapid and rapid pro are more different than I think most people give them credit for) but if you're going to make them this similar, they need to still have distinct use cases. And I don't think 10 more damage is ever going to be worth having two less shots and worse paint per shot on top of that.
This feels like it's two separate attempts to balance pencil. I'm not sure what changes would be best for it, but I don't see any reason to have two, especially if they're going to be this alike.

The other thing is that I don't see any problem with charger in its current state, outside of wall. Having a splash wall up means that z+f charger is protected while charging, which gets rid of its main weakness at the cost of using a lot of ink. But being vulnerable at close range is part of the design of charger. It can't store a partial charge and it has very slow movement while charging, so without wall, approaching it while it charges usually lets you splat it without too much difficulty. Liter plays from too far away for this to be reasonable, and wall lets charger be protected while it charges and then shoot the attacker before they can get around the wall. Both seriously decrease their weakness to being rushed down. One could argue that this is either fair or unfair, but as someone who has played quite a lot of chargers, people should be rewarded for rushing them down. Without a wall or liter's range, vcharger has to be as fast as it is or else it can't keep the other team away effectively. In particular, most midlines can run up to it and kill it between charges, since they don't have to go as far into its range to be able to shoot it. I'm not opposed to potentially adjusting some of its stats, but it's certainly not beyond saving, and I would argue it doesn't need to be changed at all.

 

[Algae]

Forgot to mention that Snipewriter having multi-shot charges makes it better at painting WHILE controlling space than Splat Charger is; dunno how well Zekkofin does at farming Tristrikes, since it diminishes its zone control upon firing just once.

 

[solz]

Would scoped chargers work, the same? Does bamboo get a change? Also, E-liter 2K doesn't exist

 

[Algae]

Scoped chargers can't store a charge anyway so it's fine. Bamboozler comboes a charge-shot with a tap-shot, and Squiffer was likely overlooked on purpose. I don't think E-liter would run dry in 2 full charges (as opposed to the current 4 charges and the first game's 3); I call this version E-liter-02 (fits the grittier Custom brand and reminds me of the combustion of gasoline (E-liter is a repurposed gas pump).

I'd give E-liter 70 damage and put Snipewriter at 60 damage and closer to Jet Squelcher's range.

 

[OnePotWonder]

Would scoped chargers work, the same? Does bamboo get a change? Also, E-liter 2K doesn't exist

It’s a new model of E-liter. The original Splatoon 1 version was actually called the 3K.