What Build Impacted You the Most?

[NeoSeth]

I thought I'd post this in Competitive Discussion, but I thought it might be more appropriate for here. Have you ever changed your gear setup and just felt like a new squid? People talk a lot about just how impactful gear really is on how you play, but I think we can all agree sometimes it really makes a huge difference.

Looking back at my own setups, I can see a few moments when gear really made a huge difference. The first time was when I started running Swim Speed Up on pretty much every build I had, way back when I was a scrub. The way I played the game completely changed. I was so fast! I could approach and escape all these situations. The mobility increase really felt revolutionary. I also noticed a big difference when I started using Bomb Range Up on my CJS. I was able to get the Burst Bomb combo kill at my max range and secure really quick kills at a distance. My whole playstyle shifted and I felt much more effective in my role on teams. Finally, the thing that got me wondering how other people felt was when I switched to a Damage Up build for the Berry Splattershot Pro. I had previously been using an ink efficiency/Swim Speed Build, but my brand new build has even more Swim Speed and Damage Up instead of ink abilities. It feels like a much better weapon for my playstyle! Being able to get kills with fall-off damage has led to way fewer squids escaping my clutches and the 2-hit kill potential is way more useful than I thought. It also helps with assisting, as dealing nearly 50 damage with a single shot makes it so easy to pick up a kill from a teammate or help them secure their own.

But I've prattled on long enough. What about you guys? What gear really made a huge difference in your own play?

 

[Anaru]

When I stopped using ninja squid I noticed a fantastic speed difference. And I switched to cold blooded, which is really good when someone uses echolocator, because they let their guard down when they don't see a line to someone near them, so you can sneak up on them more easily, so their special actually works against them. And I now think Ninja Squid is one of the worst abilities, since if you really need to sneak, you can just quickly alternate swimming and not swimming to not make ripples and only go slightly slower, and go at a good speed the rest of the time.

My usual octobrush set is:

(Octobrush can splat in 2 instead of 3 hits if you hit the enemy the right way, the damage up makes it a lot easier to do but is is technically possible to get the 2 hit splat without any damage up)

 

[Cuttleshock]

Ooh, shiny presentation, Anaru - did you put that together from scratch or is there a website/application which does that?

 

[Anaru]

Ooh, shiny presentation, Anaru - did you put that together from scratch or is there a website/application which does that?

There's an app called SplatPal that shows you the maps in rotation, what each brand does, allows you to make a list of owned gear, and the ability to make loadouts. I haven't used it very much, that's actually the only loadout I've ever made on it, but it definitely could be useful for people who used it more. I have a list of a few loadouts I made on my laptop just with words before I found it, so all I would need to do is transfer that information to the app, but I haven't created very many loadouts, and use the same ones for some weapons (like I use similar loadouts for most shooters), and my memory is good enough I've never felt the need to do so.

 

[Cuttleshock]

Awh... can't use apps (without a lot of difficulty), so that's a slight shame. I wouldn't need it for keeping track of loadouts, but it'd be neat to be able to make images like that. Anyway...

When I started Splatoon, I climbed the ranks alarmingly quickly, up to A+. There, I stayed for some time, mostly making use of -focused Jr. and Tri sets (with loads of ...). I did reach S with this, primarily via TC, but at that point, I was crushed, sinking eventually to A-. Not sure what exactly lead to it, but I finally discovered, similarly to NeoSeth, that was good. Today, in almost all cases, my go-to Tri set is
|
|
|.
That generally taught me to leave my comfort zone more often with builds. Most recently, I've been trying many different things with the SM and finding my preferred balance of mobility and ink efficiency (when I'm not going near-pure , say).

 

[NeoSeth]

@Anaru, that was my first "revelation" too! I used to play the standard Inkbrush with Ninja Squid and I stopped using Ninja Squid when I switched to Cold Blooded. What a difference that made. I improved like crazy from then on. This is my Octobrush Nouveau build:

So very, very similar. I use the Ink Recovery Up over more Swim Speed because I don't have Kraken and the recovery gives me more bombs. I literally never use any builds beside this, as Cold Blooded is just so good on the brush family. I do forgo it sometimes on the Permanent Inkbrush, but the slots are much tighter on that weapon.

 

[Ryuji]

Run Speed Up for me. It changed everything to the point where I was bashing myself for not using it earlier. I somehow managed to climb to A+ without it, which was before the introduction of S and S+. At that time I really didn't care about gear that much and all I used was the Jr. However once I put on RSU, I couldn't be stopped. It was much easier to win engagements and it led me to switch my main from the Jr. to the Tentatek. Now I think it's essential to have. I can feel the difference if I don't have it. Hoping to get to S+99 eventually.