What are some tips on using a charger?

[GreenTeaTaiyaki]

I was wondering what some tips are on using chargers, and what ones you think are the best to use.

 

[Zahntavier]

This question has been answered/discussed a lot, and the forum archives/youtube tutorials will take you a long way. That being said, here are some thoughts:

• Hide the beam as best you can
• practice! Chargers are high skill weapon-training area is great for this, work on charging while aiming down/hiding beam, and lining up the shot as quickly as you can while maintaining accuracy
• This weapon might be the most sensitive to motion control settings, try different settings to find your comfort level
• for most of the chargers, close quarter combat is very challenging, best to avoid
• Inking is not the weapons strength, but you can do reasonably well by strafing and putting down parallel uncharged shots-inking with fully charged shots is inefficient
• It’s better to not release shots unless you have the splat
• Learn the maps, and safe places to perch
• Don’t venture to the front lines or mid unless its safe(ie enough of the enemies are dead)
• Check your map constantly: effective use of a back line weapon is as much about knowing where people areas it is being able to quickly lineup tricky shots, map awareness is so important.
• Pay attention to your opponents weapons

The best charger is probably the Basic Splat Charger, with the splat bombs and a synergistic special.


...that being said, I achieved high ranks on the back of my personal favorites,the Eliter 4k family and Kensa Chargers, so play what interests you!

 

[29 Tentacles & Counting]

Here is a tip for snipers who are first learning. If you've never picked up a charger before or have very little experience with them, I definitely recommend starting with a splat charger or splatterscope just to get a feel for them.
Yes, close combat can be tough for chargers, but it's definitely not impossible. Even with an e-liter, you could have as little as three swim speed subs in your gear thanks to the recent buff and it would do wonders for you when trying to maneuver through your ink. If an opponent is coming at you fast and you have little time to react, there's always good old ZR tapping. Three taps should do it for e-liters, I'm not sure if it takes the same amount of taps for splat chargers. But close combat with chargers doesn't always have to be ZR tapping either. Sometimes you can confuse your opponent by swimming around in your ink in an unexpected direction, and swimming just far enough away from them to charge up a shot and snipe them before they get too close.
Some abilities I'd recommend are swim speed up and ink recovery up, but ink saver is also a good one of course if you are not the best with ink consumption.

And for e-liters users with ink mines: Ink mines are very useful for preventing flanks. The point sensor in them can surprisingly be enough to drive a potential infiltrator away even if no one on your team is anywhere near that area of the map to stop them. It's not something that stops everyone, but it can help when you least expect it.