Splatoon 2 Unique Abilities and their merit

[LiX]

Greetings Squidboards-Community!

I'd like to ask you competitive players questions about unique abilities. And I'd also like to kick off a discussion regarding the unique abilities in Splatoon 2.

First of all, if you're confused by the terminology, by unique abilities, I mean those abilities that are not the regular ones which you can have chunks of. I mean these:

- Opening Gambit
- Ninja Squid
- Last-Ditch Effort
- Haunt
- Stealth Jump
- Tenacity
- Thermal Ink
- Object Shredder
- Comeback
- Respawn Punisher
- Drop Roller

The questions I want to ask you are: Do you use any of these abilities at all in competitive play? Do you know anyone who uses more than just Ninja Squid effectively in ranked or league?

I am asking this because I'm quite new to worrying about playing tactically well. I did play Splatoon 1 quite early in, but it is now in Splatoon 2 that I actually started caring about getting my rank high or playing league coordinated with friends. And a thing you really just cannot ignore then is gear meta.

My stance on this topic right now is: Basically every unique ability is a wasted slot I could put gear in that boosts the gameplay of my weapon instead. Why would I put a Respawn Punisher on my Carbon if I can give it a Special Charge Up instead and get off that rain early in on the Splat Zones or push the enemy back in Clam Blitz? Why would I sport Opening Gambit if I can put Ink Saver Main on my Squelcher or Squeezer instead and score those first deciding kills by having more ink to shoot?

Then there's those abilities that could have been great but that were either nerfed to being useless when they had a preappearance in Splatoon 1 or which just seem useless right away. Good examples are Stealth Jump and Respawn Punisher.
The first existed before and was way better back then, if I recall it correctly. Now your jump isn't actually stealthy. If you just get even remotely close, you can see where the player is jumping. Every experienced player will easily spot it...
The latter is just not worth it, in my view. To make good use of it, you really need to be scoring a lot of kills. And then again, even the really decent players will get shot down eventually and then it just seems to be a bad trade.

The only exception really to me is Ninja Squid which I like to run as a Brush player. In comparison to the other abilities, it just seems amazing to go stealth and surprise-kill other players. The other unique abilities however seem to offer nothing that I would be willing to give up a thick main ability slot - which I can only have three of - for.

So what do you think? Am I - as a newcomer to the tactical meta - just not seeing the merit? Or do you feel the same about it?

 

[Mar$el]

Ninja squid is pretty good. I don't use it it doesn't fit my playstyle. A lot of people do and I don't notice any patterns for people using it. I see it as most useful for close to mid range shooters and then like brushes and rollers. There's nothing more annoying than 1v1ing a shooter using ninja squid with map control.

Comeback is a very common ability for players who are constantly fighting in mid and dying. Like a splattershot who's constantly in the middle of things. If this is your playstyle then it's for you. A lot of people use it.

Tenacity is another common one for support players like a heavy splatling or a charger. This way you can stay alive, paint, kill at a distance, and build special if things get slow or just in general. I prefer special charge up tho.

Object shredder is is must-have for any N-Zap player as a shot does 28 damage, meaning it can't take down ink armor in one shot (ink armor has 30 health). It's also helpful in general quickly destroying other objects and the rainmaker. The main thing is for ink armor and with the god-tier weapon that is the N-Zap 85 ink armor is doing very well right now.

For those who talk about using stealth jump, it's pretty split between drop roller and stealth jump. I don't use either and I don't think I ever will - but that's because I never super jump. Some people do it a lot and with drop roller you can surprise them and kill anyone waiting to kill you. If you're smart with superjumping then stealth jump is gonna be better. If you super jump to good people in a good spot you're less detective. This just gives some wiggle room with safe jumps. I don't think it's useful but some people would disagree.

The last one anyone uses is thermal ink. This is basically only useful for squelchers and squeezers or any other long range long kill time weapon. I don't see any squeezers anymore and I don't see anyone other than squelchers using it. A lot of squelchers use it.

 

[thundasi]

- Opening Gambit
- Last-Ditch Effort
- Comeback
All of these i would say are TURF WAR/ SPLATFEST sets, and depending on the level of play you face i would say the higher the skill set the more i would use them selectively. For Splatfest i will usually use Last Ditch as its effect continues though overtime. Gambit is another you see alot in Splatfest as groups will stack speed and overtake you as half your team is back painting and the camp your exits before your team figures out they are in combat. Comeback- if your a lunablaster in a game of wack- a-mole and find yourself being the mole more often than not...

- Tenacity
Honestly I LOVE this!!!!!!!!! I run a minor special charge and a 2 man wipe is a damn near guaranteed special. This is awesome for Charger/ splatling as you get your special when you need it. this really ain't no slouch. you might be rocking a 20% buff but if your team wipes and you are not got a inkstorm to clear the tower, reroute the RM, or get the offense painting zone while you slide back for your team jumping in.
All the head pieces are great. just really for zones that aren't played alot in top brackets

- Respawn Punisher
- Haunt
IMO, hot garbage, have seen plenty that run them but IMO need a Buff, or a simple rework, Some SDDX player was using alot of (RP) at Squid Storm 17' and I cant remember why some glitch but that was Sept before patch.
EDIT: The combo is COMEBACK and RP as the gains from comeback compensate RP losses. powerful setup for tower control.
Haunt...thats all i got.

- Thermal Ink
- Ninja Squid
-Ninja squid is awesome but does make you invest in swim speed to counter the slowing effect. it's dope. Majority agree nuff said.
-Thermal is underrated getting flanked around a box, shooting someone on a snip only to have them jump off and shoot you in the face. Tryout thermal. i think specials can set it off as well as subs so my sprinklers and ink cloud give a nice heads up when you flag someone.

- Stealth Jump
WASTE of SpAcE!

- Object Shredder
- Drop Roller
OS is rainmaker main stay, so many with INK armor, and ballers i just can't say enough about it one shot all your sprinklers ( usually two shot for me) ballers in 3-4 shots (usually 6-7)
DR i love on clam blitz since they can jump with clam balls.

i never run more than one of these at a time.

 

[Mar$el]

Why are people against comeback? It's a great ability for close combat weapons and only takes one main to get 20 seconds of benefits from multiple abilities. To be specific you get the equivalent of 4 subs of main saver, sub saver, ink recovery, swim speed, run speed and special charge up. You'll see a lot of competitive players running comeback with their tri-sloshers and N-Zaps and splattershots, etc. All it takes is one main to get all these benefits. It's a pretty dang good ability.

 

[thundasi]

Thanks for refreshing me on this i have seen Comeback and respawn punisher stacked. I can see how i could work. seems like a good sploosh/luna/clash type thing.

 

[clefable]

I recently bought a piece of gear with ninja squid on it, and equip it with my headphones that have swim speed up as one of the abilities. I only use it for ranked. I think it's pretty nice to use with brushes.
Now I'm trying to find good gear to order with thermal ink, but nobody seems to use it? Again, i probably wouldn't use it for turf, but i could see it being nice for some ranked modes.
When i was level 4-7 i used something with RP before realizing how bad it was. It's probably one of my least favorite abilities, I'm not very good at not getting splatted. For chargers or anyone who prefers to attack from a distance i can see it being better but it absolutely does not fit my style.
I don't know anything about the other ones. I've never used them.

 

[Dessgeega]

Thanks for refreshing me on this i have seen Comeback and respawn punisher stacked. I can see how i could work. seems like a good sploosh/luna/clash type thing.

...Why would anyone use Comeback and Respawn Punisher together? That's a horrible idea. If you die then you have to wait an additional 1.2 seconds before respawning and getting the benefits of Comeback. They do absolutely nothing to complement each other.

That said, I'm gonna copy and paste my discussion of unique abilities from a conversation I had on Discord. EFFORT! :p

- Tenacity is great if you have a tendency to outlive your teammates. It combos exceedingly well with Special Charge, which reduces how many points are needed to get a special. How Tenacity works is that for every ally less you have than the other team (dead/disconnected), you gain 2 special per second until they respawn. If your team wipes except for you, that's 6 per second. This really adds up over the course of a match if you stay alive. Notably, if someone disconnects, Tenacity activates permanently. This can help turn the tide in otherwise unfair matches.

- Comeback is one of the best. When you die, you receive 4 subs each of Ink Saver Main, Ink Saver Sub, Ink Recovery Up, Special Charge, Run Speed, and Swim Speed for 20 seconds. That's an entire outfit of abilities on top of whatever you're wearing. The benefits are exponentially better the more you die, if you have die 3 times in a ranked match then you are powered up for 20% of it.

- Opening Gambit is of limited use. You gain five subs of run speed, swim speed, and ink resist for the first 30 seconds of the match. That's really only useful for fast rainmaker victories.

- Last-ditch effort provides 8 subs of ink saver main, ink saver sub, ink recovery, and quick respawn when it's the last 30 seconds of turf or permanently if the enemy's score drops below 30 in a ranked mode. Useful, but an ability that only works when you're already in trouble isn't too viable.

- Thermal Ink is iffy. You hit someone, and if they're past a certain distance you'll see their silhouette behind any cover. There's problems with this. The silhouettes can be hard to spot in the constant chaos of battle, and most importantly, it fails to track opponents that are swimming, only when they're in kid form.

- Haunt has similar problems. You die, and the person that killed you permanently has a thermal ink effect on them. However, it goes away when they're killed or someone else kills you. Same issues. Also, thermal ink can only be seen by you.

- Respawn Punisher, in theory, is great. You inflict longer respawn times and special loss on enemies in exchange for risking the same on your own deaths. The problem is that it affects you much, MUCH worse than it does enemies. Enemies take .8 seconds longer to respawn. You? 1.2 seconds, an eternity. It's not worth the penalty.

- Ninja Squid is great, better than it was in the first game. You essentially have to build your outfit around it, stacking at least 5 subs of swim speed to negate the penalty. In exchange, you go completely unseen when swimming. Technically all swimming leaves a visible indent, but good luck seeing that in the heat of combat, it's nigh-impossible. And since echolocator is dead and only 5 weapons have point sensors, it has few counters.

- Drop roller sucks. It lets you do a dodge roll when landing from a super jump or inkjet special. Inkjet users can get some utility out of it, but the roll is short since it's just one and it doesn't always work still.

- Object shredder is a weird case. It offers increased damage on literally everything in the game that is not an inkling, ranging from 1-hit breakages to 25-50% more damage. However it does either little or nothing for weapons that do one-hit kills or huge damage per shot, weak and/or rapid fire weapons gain the most benefit. Mostly it's used for rainmaker and to give ballers the middle finger.

- Stealth Jump, generally, isn't worth it. It no longer slows your super jump, but the enemy has to be away roughly the distance the .96 gal fires to not see the marker. Kinda limited use. Still has great potential when combined with a splashdown weapon and Quick Super Jump.

 

[thundasi]

...Why would anyone use Comeback and Respawn Punisher together? That's a horrible idea. If you die then you have to wait an additional 1.2 seconds before respawning and getting the benefits of Comeback. They do absolutely nothing to complement each other.

That said, I'm gonna copy and paste my discussion of unique abilities from a conversation I had on Discord. EFFORT! :p

- Tenacity is great if you have a tendency to outlive your teammates. It combos exceedingly well with Special Charge, which reduces how many points are needed to get a special. How Tenacity works is that for every ally less you have than the other team (dead/disconnected), you gain 2 special per second until they respawn. If your team wipes except for you, that's 6 per second. This really adds up over the course of a match if you stay alive. Notably, if someone disconnects, Tenacity activates permanently. This can help turn the tide in otherwise unfair matches.

- Comeback is one of the best. When you die, you receive 4 subs each of Ink Saver Main, Ink Saver Sub, Ink Recovery Up, Special Charge, Run Speed, and Swim Speed for 20 seconds. That's an entire outfit of abilities on top of whatever you're wearing. The benefits are exponentially better the more you die, if you have die 3 times in a ranked match then you are powered up for 20% of it.

- Opening Gambit is of limited use. You gain five subs of run speed, swim speed, and ink resist for the first 30 seconds of the match. That's really only useful for fast rainmaker victories.

- Last-ditch effort provides 8 subs of ink saver main, ink saver sub, ink recovery, and quick respawn when it's the last 30 seconds of turf or permanently if the enemy's score drops below 30 in a ranked mode. Useful, but an ability that only works when you're already in trouble isn't too viable.

- Thermal Ink is iffy. You hit someone, and if they're past a certain distance you'll see their silhouette behind any cover. There's problems with this. The silhouettes can be hard to spot in the constant chaos of battle, and most importantly, it fails to track opponents that are swimming, only when they're in kid form.

- Haunt has similar problems. You die, and the person that killed you permanently has a thermal ink effect on them. However, it goes away when they're killed or someone else kills you. Same issues. Also, thermal ink can only be seen by you.

- Respawn Punisher, in theory, is great. You inflict longer respawn times and special loss on enemies in exchange for risking the same on your own deaths. The problem is that it affects you much, MUCH worse than it does enemies. Enemies take .8 seconds longer to respawn. You? 1.2 seconds, an eternity. It's not worth the penalty.

- Ninja Squid is great, better than it was in the first game. You essentially have to build your outfit around it, stacking at least 5 subs of swim speed to negate the penalty. In exchange, you go completely unseen when swimming. Technically all swimming leaves a visible indent, but good luck seeing that in the heat of combat, it's nigh-impossible. And since echolocator is dead and only 5 weapons have point sensors, it has few counters.

- Drop roller sucks. It lets you do a dodge roll when landing from a super jump or inkjet special. Inkjet users can get some utility out of it, but the roll is short since it's just one and it doesn't always work still.

- Object shredder is a weird case. It offers increased damage on literally everything in the game that is not an inkling, ranging from 1-hit breakages to 25-50% more damage. However it does either little or nothing for weapons that do one-hit kills or huge damage per shot, weak and/or rapid fire weapons gain the most benefit. Mostly it's used for rainmaker and to give ballers the middle finger.

- Stealth Jump, generally, isn't worth it. It no longer slows your super jump, but the enemy has to be away roughly the distance the .96 gal fires to not see the marker. Kinda limited use. Still has great potential when combined with a splashdown weapon and Quick Super Jump.

I think it was Nikey that i saw running that but not sure thr rhyme or reason.

Thanks so much for the breakdown like this really helped me understand them better.

Q?
Does thermal ink take effect off sprinklers and ink cloud?
i used to run TI with my brella and was not sure they do, then saw someone say OS effects ink cloud?
i think this would make it huge benefit for situational awareness

 

[Squidilicious]

As others have noted some of those abilities are good - ninja squid, comeback, tenacity, maybe object shredder - mainly just for certain weapons or certain situations. I don't use any of the ones you listed even though I recognize some might be good.

I wanted to add though that I don't think the gear meta is that crucial to winning. Maybe for weapons that have noticeable weaknesses that can be mitigated with gear it's more important but I think the effect of abilities is small enough that it's not going to change the outcome of most games even if you waste some slots on relatively bad abilities (and most people are doing that most of the time anyway at least while they're grinding for chunks so it's not like everyone else you're facing has the perfect build).

But I am still a huge fan of certain abilities...I like swim speed up, ink saver sub (other than for weapons with crappy subs), ink recovery up, bomb defense up, ink resistance up for when I'm using a blaster or the sploosh, special power up (only for when I use the forge splatter shot pro for clam blitz).... Ink saver main is nice for the splatter shot pro but not necessary. Special charge can be good too although maybe I'm just stuffy but I find it really annoying to play with or against people whose entire strategy is to spam specials.... When that person is on your team they're always off painting somewhere to build special when you need them for a team fight and when they're on the other team it's a constant barrage of tenta missiles and neither side pushes the tower past checkpoint 1. I find this annoying and boring. This can be a winning strategy... It's just not for me. I probably really wouldn't like the specials in Splatoon 1 lol (which I never played).

 

[MindWanderer]

Does thermal ink take effect off sprinklers and ink cloud?

No, Thermal Ink only triggers off direct hits from a main weapon. No subs, no specials, no indirects from blasters or Sloshing Machines.

i used to run TI with my brella and was not sure they do, then saw someone say OS effects ink cloud?

Object Shredder? How do you shred a cloud?

 

[thundasi]

Object Shredder? How do you shred a cloud?

Well neither is true so no worries. i ment like object shredder effecting sprinklers

 

[LiX]

Thanks to all for the comments so far. There were indeed some things about certain unqiue abilities I was overlooking. I shall take this into account when working on gear next time!

 

[ϛ(°³°)/`]

Well neither is true so no worries. i ment like object shredder effecting sprinklers

Object Shredder makes it so that the ink cloud will take out sprinklers and beakons immediately, but Thermal Ink only causes its glowing effect if you hit someone with your main weapon, and as @MindWanderer said, indirect blaster hits won't trigger the effect.

 

[TechSkylander1518]

Personally, I think Opening Gambit and Last Ditch Effort are too niche to be very useful. Opening Gambit might be nice at first, but then it becomes a wasted main slot the remainder of the match. LDE is slightly better in that it doesn't turn off once it kicks in, but in ranked matches, it might not get turned on at all depending on the match. (If the other team is winning but still above 30, you're stuck in a tight spot)

One reason I love Comeback is because it reduces the need to super jump. When you respawn, the boost to speed and ink efficiency can help you get anywhere in the map pretty quickly, with time to spare for that sweet 20 seconds. That means you can check for invading foes, charge up your special, etc. while on your way up. Super jumping is definitely still useful-especially with boosts-but I personally prefer not to risk being seen coming in.

I really wish Thermal Ink would work if the enemy touched any of your color ink. That's already the case with the map-why restrict Thermal Ink to just one's main weapon? If you're close enough to hit someone with your main weapon, you can probably find them pretty easily without Thermal Ink.

 

[thundasi]

Personally, I think Opening Gambit and Last Ditch Effort are too niche to be very useful. Opening Gambit might be nice at first, but then it becomes a wasted main slot the remainder of the match. LDE is slightly better in that it doesn't turn off once it kicks in, but in ranked matches, it might not get turned on at all depending on the match. (If the other team is winning but still above 30, you're stuck in a tight spot)

One reason I love Comeback is because it reduces the need to super jump. When you respawn, the boost to speed and ink efficiency can help you get anywhere in the map pretty quickly, with time to spare for that sweet 20 seconds. That means you can check for invading foes, charge up your special, etc. while on your way up. Super jumping is definitely still useful-especially with boosts-but I personally prefer not to risk being seen coming in.

I really wish Thermal Ink would work if the enemy touched any of your color ink. That's already the case with the map-why restrict Thermal Ink to just one's main weapon? If you're close enough to hit someone with your main weapon, you can probably find them pretty easily without Thermal Ink.

I really don't see the issue with SUBs being effected by by Thermal Ink. Even if they reduced the overall effect to say 5 sec allowing bombs to mark really wouldn't be OP. Sprinklers would be hella useful, but not like point sensors as only the player can see it. I don't see it happening.