Understanding the Weapons and Meta of Splatoon

[Mr.HawK]

Understanding the Weapons and Meta in Splatoon

A topic made to give players an insight into how you should view the Weapons and Meta without disregarding both
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Please note

This is in no way a guide on how to deal with weapons in the game. It talks about how players should treat the weapons and not dismiss them based on what some might say.You all have different mindsets and preferences and that is perfectly fine. Just take the following information into consideration before trying to judge and undermine the weapons in this game.

We don’t know everything about the weapons yet

People in the Splatoon community have taken the time to learn certain weapons or classes and have given us a good idea of what the meta looks like right now. It hasn't even been a year since Splatoon came out and we just received our final weapon in January. Right now people have an idea of where the current meta-game is but don’t have a complete answer as to where it is now.

What has been missing in the meta in general is the overall shared knowledge of these weapons. The lack of detailed and research driven guides has set us back quite a bit and has created more problems for us for a while.

Guides are needed. We have them, but they don’t give us what we are looking for.




Splatoon Weapon Guides

Weapon guides are pretty rare, but RESEARCHED guides are even harder to find.
People aren’t looking for personal preference and what I mean is “what you feel is good about the weapon” other than “What IS good about the weapon”. People want to know the facts about the weapon is and what it’s strengths and weaknesses are, not what gear you use and what maps you think are best suited for it. If you know other info about the weapon that will help players use it differently or get them to think about the many different possible uses for it then that's fine.

A guide isn’t an opinion, it’s a walkthrough, a “How This Weapon Works” showcase, and a way to give advice and teach people something new. If you know each of the functions of a weapon meaning what it does, what it lacks, its strength and weakness, the gear that it benefits from, the maps suited for it, and what other weapons it works well with, then you have a pretty well rounded guide that has information that the people of the community can use for their own personal reasons. Just remember, nobody cares about an opinion or preference. People want facts, info, and examples of what you're talking about.

An example of a well made guide for players who want to learn about a weapon or strategy would be this E liter Positions guide made by Octarian Legion members, Specter and Locke

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EJc5ZOWhZ565OrjpxFsB3sCXydyMDAFJMnyBsFkBQfI/edit?usp=sharing
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Acknowledgement

There’s a chance you aren’t going to like a weapon. There’s an even greater chance that you won’t play certain weapons because they don’t interest you or that they aren’t your style. That’s absolutely fine. The one thing you don't want to resort to is using a weapon because someone else is or someone else tells you to. It's different if they recommend it however.

Live streamers and well known players in the competitive community have been vocal about certain weapons and how they are “bad, cheap, not viable, and downright impossible to use” they’ve gone so far as to say that some are literally the worst in the game.

The problem with this is the fact that not only have certain people not acknowledged that they aren’t good with every weapon but that they are also telling the people who watch/listen to them to completely disregard those weapons. Only because they can’t use them, and people believe them.

The main issue here is that people will blindly listen without actually being shown the information. It doesn't matter if you are a pro player, you aren't good with every weapon and you can't tell people otherwise.
It is true that some weapons are better than others, but you don't need to preach to the quire about a personal opinion that only affects you.

This is where Bandwagoning comes into play. People will become unwilling to acknowledge that there are other weapons that could be just as good as what they are playing all because they heard that it was ok to ignore everything else. Everyone will choose the same three or so weapons and the Meta will not develop at all which is slightly detrimental to the growth of the community itself.

Once people acknowledge that you can learn more about the weapons in this game they will have a better understanding of how the game works. Players will get better if they put in the time and the work.

There’s nothing wrong with taking the time to learn something.

Nothing is easy at first. So don’t expect otherwise.

Dealing with other players input on weapons

Everyone has their own little salt management issue about weapons in a game. For splatoon there are weapons that players believe are only good to due lag and RNG. The thing is, none of that actually matters.

The only way to deal with someone telling you that the weapon you like is bad because of “salt, salt, and more salt” is to literally ignore them. Just like with guides and walkthroughs, an opinion and perspective is not important at all. Each player is different and the weapon does not determine the player. Saying that you prefer something for the weapon helps less than saying what DOES help.

Overall, feedback is good to enhance your knowledge of your play style. However, it is up to you to determine if someone is being realistic with their feedback or if they are being a clown who is just messing with you.
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In Conclusion

Right now the way we look at the weapon roster in splatoon is with different and conflicting preferences that people seem to either take to heart or completely disregard. (Ex: Tier Lists)

Nobody can tell someone what to play or what to like. But it helps if people acknowledge the fact that disregarding weapons does nobody any good.

Like I said before. Lag doesn’t make anything good, if anything it makes things worse in all cases. Not every weapon is equal to each other. To some there may be “Best or Worst” weapons and “Simple and Complex” weapons, and they both do exist but you should keep in mind that not everyone is going to agree with you. Should you care? No, but you should take their input into consideration. Just because you THINK doesn't mean you KNOW. You don't main every weapon. You don't understand every weapon. Most importantly, You never will.
Just play the game however you want. But please, don’t be that one guy that makes the community believe something is worse because you couldn’t play with it and lost your first couple of games with that weapon. That’s called salt. Don’t back up your opinions or findings with salt. Nobody Cares



Now the question is, What do you think? Does this give you some kind curiosity that might make you want to explore or learn more about the game? It's all up to you! Leave your thoughts down below, it is a discussion after all, so don't be afraid to express your thoughts. Just be courteous and respectful.



Thanks for reading! There will be more topics and discussions From Splat Central in the future!

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[paida1]

People just play walls because it is much easier to use than anything else. So I dont think people are gonna change any soon

 

[Albatross]

Thank you for writing this. When I picked up Bamboozler it was highly disregarded as a horrible weapon, there are still many people today that try to tell me using literally any other charger would be better for me. Sometimes people come into my chat and post messages like "This weapon is good? lol what?" Many times I heard people say that "Bamboozler can be used, but it will never be top tier." It's just like, how can you know that? You can't. I'd like to say that the weapon has come far enough to where if there was a theoretical tier list it could be placed high now.

As time passed and I used it more I learned a lot from the weapon and I'd like to say I developed the weapon into a certain way that not many people considered. Although I still see messages that say Bamboozler is bad, I see a lot more saying that it's great and many people that say they want to pick it up.

People need to just give other weapons a chance and they may find them to be usable with enough time and effort. I wasn't good with Bamboozler right away. I know one guy that uses H-3 a lot and he does well for himself. It might not be the perfect weapon, but it's certainly more usable than people give it credit for.

 

[NotAPerso]

This, so much this. Every little n00b is clamoring for a weapon "tier list" but doesn't understand how little that would help or even how detrimental to growth an "official Squidboards tier list" would be.

In depth guides that provided specific benefits and uses for each weapon would be great. Current mentality seems to favor one kit per weapon as if that loadout is always superior or preferred even going so far as to call the other kit "useless".

Also, "if it doesn't work in solo ranked then it's not a good weapon" is a silly attitude that has also defined weapon preference.

 

[Varonth]

Splatoon is a fairly simple game. There isn't alot of thought required to see which weapon are better than others.

If you really believe that the majority of those 4 million people that bought splatoon use the same weapons because they read some post on the internet?

As of right now, squidboards has only about 130 visitors, including guests. The splatoon reddit has about 100. The reach of those post which weapons are considered overpowered is much less than 1% of the playerbase. Still you see the same weapons. And you want to know why? Because they are better.

Players can make their own conclussion, and they can do so really fast. Players will find the best weapon and build really fast on their own. That's why tierlist in games like Dota2, LoL or Smite do exist. These games have much more complexity than splatoon can ever reach. And it still only takes about 2 weeks after major balance shifts for communities to come up with accurate tier list.

You can say that tier list do not work as long as you like, but they do. You can also say the sky is red not blue, but that doesn't change that the sky is in fact blue.

We thankfully have the numbers of how many copies got sold, so we can compare them to the reach of communities, and as it is, most players never read anything in communities like ours about the game. They make their own conclusions. So if you see a weapon being used more often than others, it is because the majority of players came to their own conclusion that this weapon performs better than others.

 

[Albatross]

Splatoon is a fairly simple game. There isn't alot of thought required to see which weapon are better than others.

If you really believe that the majority of those 4 million people that bought splatoon use the same weapons because they read some post on the internet?

As of right now, squidboards has only about 130 visitors, including guests. The splatoon reddit has about 100. The reach of those post which weapons are considered overpowered is much less than 1% of the playerbase. Still you see the same weapons. And you want to know why? Because they are better.

Players can make their own conclussion, and they can do so really fast. Players will find the best weapon and build really fast on their own. That's why tierlist in games like Dota2, LoL or Smite do exist. These games have much more complexity than splatoon can ever reach. And it still only takes about 2 weeks after major balance shifts for communities to come up with accurate tier list.

You can say that tier list do not work as long as you like, but they do. You can also say the sky is red not blue, but that doesn't change that the sky is in fact blue.

We thankfully have the numbers of how many copies got sold, so we can compare them to the reach of communities, and as it is, most players never read anything in communities like ours about the game. They make their own conclusions. So if you see a weapon being used more often than others, it is because the majority of players came to their own conclusion that this weapon performs better than others.

It's funny that you use Dota2 as an example because when I played dota 2 tier lists were placing Visage at top tier even though his overall usage throughout the game was in the bottom 5. And sniper was one of the most picked people despite being extremely low on a tier list. Are the professionals wrong? Is sniper actually good because the majority pick it? Is visage bad because everyone neglected him? No, people picked sniper because he was easy, because you had to do almost nothing to play him to his full extent. Visage was rarely picked because of his difficulty, you had to pull off crazy **** to get anything done.

People don't flock to what's best, they flock to what will reward them most for least effort. And Solo Ranked is not in anyway a representation of the state of competitive Splatoon.

 

[flc]

You don't understand every weapon. Most importantly, You never will​

you want to make a bet on that one m8?

Still you see the same weapons. And you want to know why? Because they are better.

low effort, high reward weapons like luna, 52, ttek, rollers, etc are used because they're easy, not because they're better. bamboozler is one of the best weapons in this game and you almost never see any because people suck at using it. crb is better than luna at basically everything but people still use luna because you can't have bad games with it.

cue the memes

 

[Skoodge]

All of this is good to keep in mind at all times. As much as people complain about the Gals, or Lunas, or Tentateks, they just as easily complain about all the other weapons that they get killed with. People just need to complain, and like to make generalized statements because it is easier to understand that these weapons are good, rather than all of these weapons might be good, but I am not with them. Totally agreed that you will never be good with all weapons!

To add to this, I think that the future of Splatoon will focus on roles, and not maining specific weapons. I intend to make a guide about playing support with the Splatlings, but I am working on the Hydra now, so it is taking a while before I can explain how to play the Hydra. My initial thoughts were that the Hydra was a weapon with more cons than pros, but I have changed this opinion while playing it, and think that it is a very strong weapon, you just have to play strictly to the strengths of the weapon, and in a way let the weapon play you.

 

[Static]

you want to make a bet on that one m8?



low effort, high reward weapons like luna, 52, ttek, rollers, etc are used because they're easy, not because they're better. bamboozler is one of the best weapons in this game and you almost never see any because people suck at using it. crb is better than luna at basically everything but people still use luna because you can't have bad games with it.

cue the memes

I think most top players will agree that weapons like the bamby, cbr, and other weapons like splatlings, and hell even weapons like the Jr. And splosh still have a place in the meta. But I feel like with he current state of the game team comps are really limited to only changing one role around as the other 3 tend to be more finite.. being a charger(which **sometimes** can be player wihout, hell I've placed in top 3 in multiple tournaments without a charger) , then you have usually two front line players which falls in the gals and t tek meta, and the 4th slot which people tend to play around with... Or will top teams do. Although there may be exceptions to this I.e. countering a team who plays triple splash wall with triple bomb subs. But for the most part teams kind of only have one and maybe two real roles/slots to rotate around in this current meta... Thoughts?

I guess what I'm getting at is people need to take things like this with a grain of salt and not go all in... I feel like it takes slight changes to try new thing, being playing new weapons with three other meta weapons to see how it functions. Basically I feel only one person should be experimenting on your team at a time. My team for example plays with me using the zink mini splatling and heavy, both deco and villina, but this is with usually an eliter, 96/52, and t tek/52.. to help develop new play styles for our team around the splatlings.

 

[binx]

Players can make their own conclussion, and they can do so really fast. Players will find the best weapon and build really fast on their own. That's why tierlist in games like Dota2, LoL or Smite do exist. These games have much more complexity than splatoon can ever reach. And it still only takes about 2 weeks after major balance shifts for communities to come up with accurate tier list.

You can say that tier list do not work as long as you like, but they do. You can also say the sky is red not blue, but that doesn't change that the sky is in fact blue.

They make their own conclusions, but that doesn't mean it's true. Even if 99% of the populattion of [something] believe something, that doesn't make it true.

As it was said before, I think people tend to take the easiest weapons. That's obvious : you're losing a lot with a weapon, then you switch and win more... You keep the second one. The players spending tons of hours in the game and the ones trying to be competitive will try to think about lots of think, they will compare and search a lot of things. These ones won't be thinking "this weapon is bad because someone told me so". But for a huge amounf of players, they'll just take the weapons they have the most fun with, and it will be the ones they tend to kill or win more easily with.

I like the CRB, it's the only one I maxed out and it might be my strongest weapon. But of course it's harder than the Luna, though it's fun to kill Luna with the CRB. So I don't expect to see them a lot.

I agree with the fact that a weapon might be stronger or weaker in solo than in squad. For instance, I need the Kraken on my Range Blaster because in solo, I need to have the possibility to play forcefully. But in a team, if I can leave that kind of spot to a more flexible weapon as a .52, the other Range Blaster can be better.

 

[Varonth]

They make their own conclusions, but that doesn't mean it's true. Even if 99% of the populattion of [something] believe something, that doesn't make it true.

As it was said before, I think people tend to take the easiest weapons. That's obvious : you're losing a lot with a weapon, then you switch and win more... You keep the second one. The players spending tons of hours in the game and the ones trying to be competitive will try to think about lots of think, they will compare and search a lot of things. These ones won't be thinking "this weapon is bad because someone told me so". But for a huge amounf of players, they'll just take the weapons they have the most fun with, and it will be the ones they tend to kill or win more easily with.

I like the CRB, it's the only one I maxed out and it might be my strongest weapon. But of course it's harder than the Luna, though it's fun to kill Luna with the CRB. So I don't expect to see them a lot.

I agree with the fact that a weapon might be stronger or weaker in solo than in squad. For instance, I need the Kraken on my Range Blaster because in solo, I need to have the possibility to play forcefully. But in a team, if I can leave that kind of spot to a more flexible weapon as a .52, the other Range Blaster can be better.

If, in an organized team, every weapon has equal oppurtunities and sees equal amounts of play, then let's make a small hypothetical example:

Let's say the next tournament/league features a well known system, for all sorts of games: Weapondraft.
Drafting mean, that you can ban and pick weapons. You can ban any weapon you want, so your enemy cannot use that weapon, but your team cannot use it either.

Also the enemy might actually pick a weapon which you banned the counter weapon for, making your ban counterproductive for your team.

Now, with such a very basic drafting system, used by alot of games in place, would you and your team roll a dice for their bans, or would you pick specific weapons out of splatoons weaponpool, which you would ban as you don't want the enemy to have the chance to pick it. Is there any weapon you would make sure that the enemy will not pick it so you ban it for both teams? If you know such a weapon, then congratz, you found one of the stronger weapons. If you thing that your bans wouldn't matter and you would ban something on absolute random, even if you might ban a Nozzlenose, then yes the game is perfectly balance, and every weapon in it's current state is fine.

 

[binx]

I don't fully agree.

First, a team might have a specific weakness. For instance my team doesn't have the best chargers, so I would ban E-Liters.

Second, let's say your team is balanced and don't have a real weakness. Some people can play lots of weapons, but in a tournament, most will only pick the 1 to 3 weapons they're the most confident with, that doesn't cover the dozens of weapons of the game. So I wouldn't randomly ban a weapon I know none of them master. As it would be stupid to ban E-Liters against my team, as we don't have a great one.

Then you say you find a stronger weapon because you want it out? Are you feeling weak? If you think that weapon is strong, don't ban it, you'll use it and win. Unless you're thinking the opponents are stronger than you with it, but then you're not saying the weapon is strong, you're just saying you're not as good against it than your opponents when you use it.

But anyway, I don't see the point. I still think the players pick weapons because they are easy to use, not because they are strong. And I never said the weapons were perfectly balanced, as I believe the only way to perfectly balance such a game is to put only one weapon (and that would be so sad). The balance is pretty ok as it is, maybe there will be some adjustments, but it's ok. There is not a weapon so much stronger that everything else is useless. Just a bit stronger for this, a bit stronger for that.

Some weapons are harder to use, yet they are strong. But the players will need time to master it before the weapon rewards him with victory. That might even mean losing ranks, and some players won't have enough patience to accept that.

But if you just want to make a point by saying "every weapon is not equal", then yes, I totally agree, some are slightly better than others for more than 50% of the situations. Cause I don't believe the perfect balance is possible. And even if it was, change the map, change from ER to RM and oops, they're not equal once again... Yet I believe you still can compete with a lot of weapons, and not only the most mainstream ones. For instance I never saw any Bamboozler in my competitive opponents, yet if it happens I wouldn't think "LOL he's so weak it will be easy!"...

 

[Ultramus]

Oh boy, this discussion.

Well, as someone who has made both guides and tier lists, maybe this is addressed at least tangentially to me. So let's get down to business(to defeat the Huns)

First, are there objectively better weapons than others? Yes. Are weapons sometimes used for their ease of use over a theoretical upper limit? Yes. Are there weapons that while having a high potential, require such inordinate amounts of effort or are plagued by specific crippling drawbacks that makes them completely not worth using? Yes. Are there players that are successful using weapons that are generally considered "bad"? Yes. Are there weapons that are affected by lag more than others? Yes.

So, getting that out of the way, let's address some of the things that I do when I work on a tier list(I should probably make an updated one tbh).

Generally speaking, what actually makes a tier list, when we are talking about a weapon being better than another, what do we normally mean by that, for me, it means that a given weapon is either best in slot, or best in slot most of the time. A lower tier weapon is one that generally, a player of a given skill would benefit his team more by picking a different weapon. So now we start to get into some really nebulous territory of team compositions, player preference and ability, et cetera. Part of the problem is people not understanding tier lists, when you look at my guide on here, I don't even talk about any weapons being crap or otherwise, I just listed what I thought the best weapons for each given role were, and even put special considerations for some of the more eccentric weapons, if someone reads what I've written and decides they will drop X weapon for one that I mention as being top tier, it is really on that player to decide, one would hope that if they do worse on a top tier weapon as opposed to what they were using before,they would switch back. And to be honest, that's what has happened, I'm not so arrogant as to suspect that there are players using certain weapons because they read my tier list, people are simply using the weapons that give then the best results.

When you look at all the top players and teams using mostly the same weapons with few exceptions, it is because those weapons win them games, I've not heard of a team or player that tried "meta" weapons and couldn't perform, but as soon as they switch to a "low-tier" weapon they suddenly shine, if it is happening I haven't heard of it.

To suspect that it is guides and tier lists that have somehow shaped the meta instead of the game itself, that is giving our little competitive scene far too much credit. Even without us ever having written anything, people would still be using 52/96/tenta/e liter because the weapons are the best at what you want them to do, and when I write something, I'm not going to bother sitting there justifying why another weapon is worse, or why no other weapon is worth considering for X role that X weapon fills, I just don't have time for that. Nor do I really think anyone wants to hear why I think sloshing machine or RBP are bad.

Posts like this just kind of reek of pretentiousness, of you really think we are wrong in our assessments of weapons, make your own guides and tier lists that oppose us, and then we can start really digging into the games theory and optimisation.

 

[Templar]

Yeah one problem is what you are saying is that chances are, some weapons are just going to be better in more situations than others, or do a job much better than another, that's why they are usually considered better. Its the same reason Smash Bros games have tier lists.

For example in specials, take Bomb Rush seekers and the Inkzooka, one special can literally be jumped over and goes along the ground, crashes on splash walls, but shoots a quicker and can break splash walls. The other can't be jumped, can hit people on roofs and goes over splash walls but doesn't shoot as fast. They are both insta kills. In 90% of situations the Inkzooka is better, because its much harder to escape and can hit in more situations. So streamers are more likely to say Inkzookas are better, its not just because they are bad with seekers, its just that one is more useful in more situations as it has more application, and hence is considered better.

It's not so much a biased opinion that certain weapons are worse, its more one that isn't fully educated. Sure the inkbrush could later turn out to be considered one of the best weapons in the game, however currently it loses 99% of straight 1v1s against .52 Gals because the latter splats in 2 hits and has more range. The only way inkbrushes would win more of the time is if it assassin style jumps the .52 Gal, but the .52 Gal can do that too, even if in a different way.

This is coming from someone who loves the inkbrush, and only picked up the .52 Gal 3 days ago.

 

[Mr.HawK]

Yeah one problem is what you are saying is that chances are, some weapons are just going to be better in more situations than others, or do a job much better than another, that's why they are usually considered better. Its the same reason Smash Bros games have tier lists.

For example in specials, take Bomb Rush seekers and the Inkzooka, one special can literally be jumped over and goes along the ground, crashes on splash walls, but shoots a quicker and can break splash walls. The other can't be jumped, can hit people on roofs and goes over splash walls but doesn't shoot as fast. They are both insta kills. In 90% of situations the Inkzooka is better, because its much harder to escape and can hit in more situations. So streamers are more likely to say Inkzookas are better, its not just because they are bad with seekers, its just that one is more useful in more situations as it has more application, and hence is considered better.

It's not so much a biased opinion that certain weapons are worse, its more one that isn't fully educated. Sure the inkbrush could later turn out to be considered one of the best weapons in the game, however currently it loses 99% of straight 1v1s against .52 Gals because the latter splats in 2 hits and has more range. The only way inkbrushes would win more of the time is if it assassin style jumps the .52 Gal, but the .52 Gal can do that too, even if in a different way.

This is coming from someone who loves the inkbrush, and only picked up the .52 Gal 3 days ago.

I definitely agree with this.

I understand that some weapons are better than others, nothing is truly equal or on par with each other in this game. That being said I also understand that what I said in the post made it sound like "these supposed non-viable or low tier weapons have yet to be used to their full potential meaning they could possibly combat the higher placing weapons" or something along those lines. I may not have been clear enough with this thought. Some weapons are easier to use or are perfect for many or most situations.

The basic intention of that specific topic was to tell people that right now it's obvious that some weapons are not being fully utilized or are being experimented with in a tournament setting and that is slightly detrimental to the overall growth of the meta. I wasn't trying to say something like "This is what the meta is and needs to be changed" I'm saying that the people who think the meta is fully grown or fully determined need to go back and experiment a bit more. That is of course my own opinion, but due to certain players efforts, weapons such as the octo-brush are being more accepted in competitive thanks to the guys at SRL and others of course, of course this is only one small example of my point and does not reflect the whole statement. Basically slowly but surely more and more diverse weapon comps will be seen. Will they be successful? I honestly dont know, which is exactly what I want to fin out and want to see.

The intention of this thread was to get others to think. Not to fully believe what I say but to think if something is or isn't possible, such as the meta either being complete or still a work in progress. I only brought the topic up because I myself am trying to understand the current meta and what the current mindset of players who approach this topic is as well. This was kind of an experiment to see what both sides of the coin looked like and i'm glad that people are taking SOME things into consideration. Again the point was not to believe everything I wrote but to get people to think about the subject itself and maybe somehow get one of you to enhance or change what we know for the betterment of the meta. I won't claim I know everything, hopefully I didn't come across that way too :P

So thank you for the feedback I really do appreciate it.

 

[maximumtherayray]

Isn't it still a little too early to say that some weapons are just the definitive best? There could be a lot of reasons why people play tentatek or other popular weapons. Maybe they are better but the fact that a weapon becomes popular for whatever reason doesn't mean it's because it's better than all the other ones. Besides different modes make for different games and updates will keep changing the game. But yeah salty streamers that I've seen talk **** a lot but even they have been wrong about the weapons being used by the community like flc! nobody is right at this point. I love playing all weapons in the game. Instead of focusing on winning maybe people should focus on having fun with the game and experimenting with different weapons

 

[HypernovaSoul]

I agree it’s tough to flesh out a true meta, let alone concrete tier list (and I acknowledge the debate over whether those even do/should exist), in a game that’s less than a year old, at least a fully comprehensive one. That being said, a meta absolutely already exists and as others have mentioned, low-risk, high-reward weapons have and very likely will continue to sit atop that throne. I’ve said many times on the forums, I consider Splatoon to be a largely balanced, mostly unbroken game. Do I consider it perfect? Absolutely not. But as with every other competitive/moveset or weapon-based game I’ve ever played, some statistically speaking fare better than others, and do so pretty consistently.

I don’t think this means any one weapon is unusable-that is one thing I state solidly, confidently. No weapon in Splatoon is completely terrible/unusable. Not a single one. But the top “tier” meta is, at least currently, based very heavily around the versatile, quick-to-kill, mid-range shooters. Tentateks, Lunas, Gals and Burst Bomb main E-Liters absolutely dominate upper tier, and very likely will continue to at least until new popular strategies arise, or in the (debatably) unlikely event there’s another large update involving new weapons/weapon variants. They fare better more frequently, more easily, and in more situations the higher you rank. This absolutely doesn’t mean they’re unbeatable, or horribly broken. But it does mean, undeniably, they fall solidly in the overused category of weapons, and there’s a reason they are overused. This isn’t something I can complain too much about, as much as I sometimes still do lol. It’s just the nature of this type of game, and the overall subjectivity that each person’s play style, skill level and personal experience can all factor into.

There is a small part of me that’s disheartened by the fact that, overall, non-shooters don’t much exist in the meta, not in what I would consider to be a “tier-topping” sense. The big exception is E-Liters, a category all their own. I’m disheartened by this, admittedly because literally none of my mains are shooters (I’ll admit bias there :p), but also because I feel like those weapons are a huge part of what sets Splatoon apart from standard FPS games. Don’t get me wrong-there are some truly formidable Octobrush and roller users in S and S+. But they’re fewer and further between the higher you get. The sorta-exception is Dynamo, which is fairly common in upper rank squads, depending on the mode. Generally speaking, ability to kill quickly at (minimum of) mid range is king in upper tier. I’ve been in A-S for ages now, S+ just seems like such an impossibly tough nut to crack with these mains (though I'm sure I wouldn't necessarily soar to S+ immediately using anything else). Who knows, maybe I’ve just hit my own personal skill ceiling. :p

 

[Leronne]

or in the (debatably) unlikely event there’s another large update involving new weapons/weapon variants.

Well there was the announcement of a few new weapon variants in what they titled "sheldon's picks volume 1" coming in april. It was mentioned in the most recent Nintendo direct and there were quite a few threads talking about the potential weapons, like the one i have as my profile pic, or did i misunderstood what you said.

 

[SkyBound]

Oh boy, this discussion.

Well, as someone who has made both guides and tier lists, maybe this is addressed at least tangentially to me. So let's get down to business(to defeat the Huns)

First, are there objectively better weapons than others? Yes. Are weapons sometimes used for their ease of use over a theoretical upper limit? Yes. Are there weapons that while having a high potential, require such inordinate amounts of effort or are plagued by specific crippling drawbacks that makes them completely not worth using? Yes. Are there players that are successful using weapons that are generally considered "bad"? Yes. Are there weapons that are affected by lag more than others? Yes.

So, getting that out of the way, let's address some of the things that I do when I work on a tier list(I should probably make an updated one tbh).

Generally speaking, what actually makes a tier list, when we are talking about a weapon being better than another, what do we normally mean by that, for me, it means that a given weapon is either best in slot, or best in slot most of the time. A lower tier weapon is one that generally, a player of a given skill would benefit his team more by picking a different weapon. So now we start to get into some really nebulous territory of team compositions, player preference and ability, et cetera. Part of the problem is people not understanding tier lists, when you look at my guide on here, I don't even talk about any weapons being crap or otherwise, I just listed what I thought the best weapons for each given role were, and even put special considerations for some of the more eccentric weapons, if someone reads what I've written and decides they will drop X weapon for one that I mention as being top tier, it is really on that player to decide, one would hope that if they do worse on a top tier weapon as opposed to what they were using before,they would switch back. And to be honest, that's what has happened, I'm not so arrogant as to suspect that there are players using certain weapons because they read my tier list, people are simply using the weapons that give then the best results.

When you look at all the top players and teams using mostly the same weapons with few exceptions, it is because those weapons win them games, I've not heard of a team or player that tried "meta" weapons and couldn't perform, but as soon as they switch to a "low-tier" weapon they suddenly shine, if it is happening I haven't heard of it.

To suspect that it is guides and tier lists that have somehow shaped the meta instead of the game itself, that is giving our little competitive scene far too much credit. Even without us ever having written anything, people would still be using 52/96/tenta/e liter because the weapons are the best at what you want them to do, and when I write something, I'm not going to bother sitting there justifying why another weapon is worse, or why no other weapon is worth considering for X role that X weapon fills, I just don't have time for that. Nor do I really think anyone wants to hear why I think sloshing machine or RBP are bad.

Posts like this just kind of reek of pretentiousness, of you really think we are wrong in our assessments of weapons, make your own guides and tier lists that oppose us, and then we can start really digging into the games theory and optimisation.

Actually i was trying tts at the beginning. Failed and switched to inkbrush and the normal roller. Worked pretty good