Tips for Cooler Slave?

[Beat0s]

Ive been trying to play zap more for flexibility in my team’s comps, so im looking for some general advice like; when its right to start farming for/pop cooler, general positions to take, how aggro i should be with/without cooler active, etc.
Let’s fill this thread with general advice for the aspiring cooler bot! thanks in advance ya’ll!

 

[quilxinm]

Hi! I play zap for my team and even tho I’m not the best I hope I can help ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა
Generally the loop you have with nzap is Paint > Cooler > Aggro and it’s reliable. At the beginning of the game you must farm for cooler but don’t use much of your spawn paint, instead head towards mid and paint as much as you can to get a cooler in 15 seconds or so for an opening push. For the most part you are able to supply paint and cooler for your team while pushing objective ( with exceptions, ie rainmaker carrier )
you just generally want to be painting and don’t seek out fights because for the most part you will lose them. Positions wise I find success just positioning kinda as a shooter but also playing a little further back. You can defend yourself but generally you just need to be rather passive and focus on cooler output

in terms of when to pop cooler. Always try and pop when pushing or about to push, on opening, if defending a push- don’t pop it aimlessly. If nothing is really happening then popping cooler with your teammates who have other specials can change the field

 

[SillyMaru]

the main thing you need to look out for is that when you paint for cooler, do not engage in fights (Or any other situation that might get you killed). Dying and losing your special is bad, but losing the cooler player will put you in a huge disadvantage compared to most other specials. Once you get cooler though, you can go more agressive until the effect runs out/you die, and then you start farming again.

 

[Beat0s]

Hi! I play zap for my team and even tho I’m not the best I hope I can help ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა
Generally the loop you have with nzap is Paint > Cooler > Aggro and it’s reliable. At the beginning of the game you must farm for cooler but don’t use much of your spawn paint, instead head towards mid and paint as much as you can to get a cooler in 15 seconds or so for an opening push. For the most part you are able to supply paint and cooler for your team while pushing objective ( with exceptions, ie rainmaker carrier )
you just generally want to be painting and don’t seek out fights because for the most part you will lose them. Positions wise I find success just positioning kinda as a shooter but also playing a little further back. You can defend yourself but generally you just need to be rather passive and focus on cooler output

in terms of when to pop cooler. Always try and pop when pushing or about to push, on opening, if defending a push- don’t pop it aimlessly. If nothing is really happening then popping cooler with your teammates who have other specials can change the field

thank you for the advice!! ( ᐛ )ᕗ

 

[Xquirt]

Fellow cooler slave here. Honestly anytime you’re not actively fighting you should be farming cooler. Generally I pop cooler anytime I’m near my teammates unless we have a big player advantage. It’s also good to place your coolers in areas that aren’t too hard to rotate to. Agro levels greatly depend on the team comp and how your mechanics compare to the enemy team’s. If your teammates aren’t struggling with fights then you could just chill back and cooler bot for them, otherwise it’s prob a good idea to help them in fights. Agro levels can also depend on how close your special gauge is to your next cooler, if it’s past half it’s probably best to play more passive till you get cooler.

 

[zyf_]

hi div 1-ish support here
i normally play ttek but sometimes will flex zap and also study my teammate's coolers when he uses pencil

the biggest thing you have to understand with cooler placement is that if you really want to be optimally efficient, you ideally want to predict where your teammates are going to be flowing through in about 3-5 seconds

so you have to recognize what part of the map all/the majority of them are going to go through in the near future

if you've all just been killed and are respawning, you can throw it almost right in front of spawn and virtually guarantee that everyone gets it
if you're retaking and about to drop back into mid with specials, you should throw the cooler into mid, NOT on your plat or whatever spawn high ground you're currently sitting on
if your teammates are about to back out of an area, you can throw the cooler behind them so that as they're running away, they naturally pick it up

the main sense in which you need to worry about cooler placement is "do I need to throw this above or below this ledge" or "do I throw it forward or at my feet"
if you throw it too safely (above a ledge in your spawn or on you), you may get several of your teammates killed or cause them to give up a ton of space trying to rotate back to grab it, or they may decide theyre too far away and not bother
if you're too aggressive about it, people will have to either skip out and not grab it, or they'll die trying

whatever it is, only throw your cooler if youre confident you know where your teammates are going--a bad cooler or two can definitely cost you a game, especially because most of the cooler weapons rn (other than tri) don't contribute much other than paint and the cooler itself

dont ask me what the minimum number of people worth coolering is, cuz idk lol

other tips:
- if you have dead teammates who havent grabbed cooler yet, stand next to it so they grab the cooler immediately on landing and don't have to rotate to it
- if you want to avoid stunting/limiting your team's ability to play off-angle, you'll have to cooler early (this is why predicting your teammates is so important)
- try to find places on maps where you can grab cooler from above or below the ledge, it's useful tech to know
- any overlapping map object, such as tower, the spinners on museum, or a cooler on the tower clipping into the grates of a map, will destroy the cooler. you may already know that i'm just saying don't forget it and accidentally lose the game to a knowledge check (it's me, i've lost to the knowledge check)