Weapon-specific sub/special tier lists

youre_a_squib_now

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There have been a few of these in profile posts recently, and I'm making one of my own (if I ever finish it, grr) but profile posts are annoyingly hard to search later so I figure this is a good way to put them all in one place.

Other than the recent two (by grushi and catloafman I believe) do you guys know of any other already existing ones? I have vague memories of these being done a while ago but I could be imagining it.

This doesn't just have to be a collection of already made ones though, if this inspires you to make one of your own then please do!
 

DzNutsKong

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Wait you like the wall on it?! can you elaborate some time?
Gladly! I can right now although it's a bit of a weird one for me to explain.

This weapon likes to play extremely fast. Usually at any given point you're trying to find weaknesses in your enemy lines and pounce there. Splash Wall both lets you get where you want to be a bit easier by providing brief cover and also lets you maintain spots you're already in, especially after killing someone. It also directly helps a lot into some of the midlines that it would otherwise struggle with like Stamper or Squeezer. Its shots are usually too slow and short-ranged to contest them and they can often react to its dash pretty well, and although they of course do a lot worse into you up close it's very hard to get in on some of them in the first place.

Bombs are great too of course for threatening space around corners. Maybe it's because I've not put enough time into the Mint kit yet, but there are a lot of points where I find myself preferring to lay low in the situations where I would use them. I still used Suction when I played Mint more but they're not nearly as omnipresent and playstyle-defining as Splash Wall has been for me.
 

Grushi

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I'll repost my recycled lists, only thing I think I'd change is putting suction bomb a bit lower:

Recycled subs tier list.png
Recycled special tier list.png


And I just made a tent one because this is fun!

Tent kit list.png


Burst bomb on tent would possibly break the game, I'm pretty sure it would instantly be meta regardless of special. If tent was ported to S1, I wish it got burst just to keep up in that game
 

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hydrasubs.png
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Made one for the Hydra Splatling because I find that it's really fun to think about kit design in the context of Hydra.

Sub weapons are pretty simple. the Hydra Splatling wants deployables. Putting Ink Mines above Squid Beakons because mines just give more value overall while also being cheaper. Everything else is tiered based on value/ink cost ratio. Lethal bombs are pretty much always a low tier for Hydra, except for Autobomb <3

Hydra as a weapon is so extreme that there's not a lot of specials that can work with the main. Even Booyah Bomb, which looks synergistic at first, really only benefits the Hydra's teammates. Basically everything below the Super Awesome tier is something that doesn't really work with Hydra. With the exception of Big Bubbler and Wavebreaker, I guess. Maybe should've moved those up.
 

NumberOneAries

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View attachment 12016View attachment 12017

Made one for the Hydra Splatling because I find that it's really fun to think about kit design in the context of Hydra.

Sub weapons are pretty simple. the Hydra Splatling wants deployables. Putting Ink Mines above Squid Beakons because mines just give more value overall while also being cheaper. Everything else is tiered based on value/ink cost ratio. Lethal bombs are pretty much always a low tier for Hydra, except for Autobomb <3

Hydra as a weapon is so extreme that there's not a lot of specials that can work with the main. Even Booyah Bomb, which looks synergistic at first, really only benefits the Hydra's teammates. Basically everything below the Super Awesome tier is something that doesn't really work with Hydra. With the exception of Big Bubbler and Wavebreaker, I guess. Maybe should've moved those up.
This is so interesting to me as a newer hydra player. I'm still trying to get to the 5th star on vHydra and just got my third star on cHydra and I won't lie, I hated the kit before but honestly I really like it!!! And I'm especially surprised but how much I enjoy using the screen, and ink mines are still a bit of a gray area for me but I'm getting better!

That being said I still really prefer auto bomb bc "funny chicken go boom" makes my brain happy 🤭. Also a Hydra that can just pop zooka sounds so annoyingly hilarious to me lmaoo.
 

QuagSass

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This is so interesting to me as a newer hydra player. I'm still trying to get to the 5th star on vHydra and just got my third star on cHydra and I won't lie, I hated the kit before but honestly I really like it!!! And I'm especially surprised but how much I enjoy using the screen, and ink mines are still a bit of a gray area for me but I'm getting better!

That being said I still really prefer auto bomb bc "funny chicken go boom" makes my brain happy 🤭. Also a Hydra that can just pop zooka sounds so annoyingly hilarious to me lmaoo.
You can often tell a new hydra player/non-hydra player from a more experienced one based on their opinion on Screen, haha.
Every newer player always thinks "Wow, they put the special that blocks your vision on Hydra? These devs have no braincells." But Screen does have great synergy with Hydra since it blocks the enemy backline's vision, gives Hydra potential damage combos, reveals sharks, allows Hydra to reposition more reliably and some others I'm probably forgetting. Proper Screen usage also means it wont block Hydra's sight for a very long time, if at all.

But I digress, glad to hear that you've been enjoying the Hydras! I always love seeing other people playing my beloved spinny gun :)
I totally understand preferring Autobomb over Mines. I do too! But I recognise that objectively, Ink Mines are what Hydra wants wants. The downside of the cHydra kit is that Mines + Screen together makes for a very defensive kit. Not something I'd personally put together. Mines/Storm is the true perfect combo 🙏
 

OnePotWonder

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For dualie squelchers

View attachment 12026

a little biased towards specials I really like to play so this is all just my personal opinion. Tiers aren't ordered.
I would have put Ink Mine in "Wouldn't be ideal". I'm not nearly as experienced with Squlchers as you are, but I feel like I have a bit more experience with Ink Mine. It would probably be fine on the weapon, since it would benefit from both the chip damage and location.
Mines are understandably not the most popular sub, but they can be fun if you get good with them (and your weapon has range).
 

Suchi

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I would have put Ink Mine in "Wouldn't be ideal". I'm not nearly as experienced with Squlchers as you are, but I feel like I have a bit more experience with Ink Mine. It would probably be fine on the weapon, since it would benefit from both the chip damage and location.
Mines are understandably not the most popular sub, but they can be fun if you get good with them (and your weapon has range).
squlechers like to move around a lot (having the most mobile dodge roll of the dualie class) and a stationary sub weapon doesn't help it that much. Beacons are also stationary but they also fulfill a specific purpose that puts CDS into more of a supportive role. Mines could theoretically fulfill that too but there's other subs in the game that synergize way better with the weapon.

DS also consumes ink really fast and chip damage or echolocation isn't really worth depleting 60% of your ink tank when burst bomb and point sensor can fulfill those separate roles much better with less cost to your ink tank.
 

OnePotWonder

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squlechers like to move around a lot (having the most mobile dodge roll of the dualie class) and a stationary sub weapon doesn't help it that much. Beacons are also stationary but they also fulfill a specific purpose that puts CDS into more of a supportive role. Mines could theoretically fulfill that too but there's other subs in the game that synergize way better with the weapon.

DS also consumes ink really fast and chip damage or echolocation isn't really worth depleting 60% of your ink tank when burst bomb and point sensor can fulfill those separate roles much better with less cost to your ink tank.
That's the funny thing I've found about Ink Mine. It doesn't care. It's always useful in the same way on every weapon. You place it down in a key area outside of combat, then when a fight occurs in that area, the sub paints the enemy's feet, chip damages them, and locates them for your entire team, and then one of you splats them. All three effects synergize particularly well with squelchers.
If not that, it can be used to keep track of flanks.

I'm not saying it's the best option, it does still leave Squelchers vulnerable to its best counters. It just looks good. To me, it's a piece of art. While I may not have as much experience with the weapon as you do, I did play it back in Splatoon 2, and I believe I have three stars on both of them in this game. Mine would be better than average on DS, if not an above average sub for the main.
Ultimately, though, I just think it's a way better sub for the weapon than Sprinkler. The thing already paints fine.
 

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I’m not the best Sploosh player, but this is my approximation for what would be good on Sploosh
 

isaac4

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I was going to reply to this thread back when it was first posted but while I was working on the tier lists I realized that I wasn't too sure about the specific placements of what subs and specials worked best with Machine.
I've been trying out different weapons to give me a better understanding on what would synergize best with Machine so I think I got it now.
Both tier lists are ordered, I tried not letting any personal feelings I have about how much I enjoy a certain sub or special affect placement as well.
I'll explain some placements but I won't be going through all of them.

Subs.
my-image (24).png

  • I had a hard time figuring out where to put Burst. Burst would be strong on any slosher of course but the sub has changed a good bit since Splatoon 1 and Machine is definitely not the same either. I think if this was early Splatoon 3 then Burst would be right next to Fizzy but increased ink consumption on Machine and Burst, increased white ink frames on Burst, nerfed LDE, and the fire rate nerf make the sub just a slightly weaker option for Machine.
  • Suction was also a difficult choice to figure out but I decided that despite being a good lethal bomb, Autobomb and Point Sensor have better synergy with the main weapon.
  • I thought Curling would be a bit higher but after trying it out on a few weapons, I don't think the mobility is as good as I thought it would be. It's still a bomb though so it's at least better than Angle Shooter.

Specials.
my-image (23).png

  • Surprisingly, I had a really tough time with Booyah Bomb because I had to think about whether I'm letting my love for the vMachine kit affect my opinion on how well the special synergizes with the main weapon. After all, vMachine has Fizzy so that plays a big part on why it ended up being meta but after thinking hard about it, I would still say Booyah is the best special for Machine.
  • I was going to put Wave Breaker much lower but I decided it was still fine enough. It's extremely weak but one wave combos with a single direct, it refills your ink tank, it can block damage, it lets you know the location of where the enemy team is if they get hit, and it also doesn't get rid of your main weapon. It's still not a good special but it's not a horrible option, I would still rather not have a 3rd Machine kit with Wave though.
  • Cooler on Machine sounds cool but as I've said before, Machine has a lot of weaknesses and one of those is poor paint output. Machine doesn't have a lot of gear freedom either so I'm not confident in how much space a kit with Cooler will have for SPU and SCU.
  • Ultra Stamp could be higher but it's such an inconsistent special that it doesn't really matter how well it could work when most of the time, it won't. The only good thing I can say about a Machine kit with Stamp would be that it plays well at ledges and you can throw it early to continue using your main weapon.
  • When I first started this tier list, I put Slider down at the bottom just because I hated it. I wasn't sure if it would stay there but as I went through every other special it became obvious that Reefslider was the worst option Machine could get.
 

youre_a_squib_now

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Here's a rough draft of mine for s-blast. It's taken long enough already, so if I never end up finishing it at least there's this.
Again, this is a rough draft.
my-image (18).png

I don't feel like explaining most of it (mostly because I just don't have good explanations atm) but I will say this: the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that torpedo would be absolutely busted on s-blast. I don't know if that will continue but I wouldn't at all be surprised.
 

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