What weapons are good for countering both variations of the Splash-O-Matic?

[McSquid82]

Since this is the competitive board and both versions are used quite heavily in the competitive scene, I thought I'd ask this. Now I know about both of their sub and special weapons, but I also know those options either cost quite a lot of their ink or they have to burn a special to use. In that regard, I was thinking which weapons have are best suited to harassing and poking them from a distance and generally making them uncomfortable? Or if you want to try another tactic which are the best close range options for sharking and sneaking up on them before they have a chance to react? I have some opinions but I want to hear yours first.

 

[starry_echo]

Generally, anything that outranges splash can make its life harder. Very few weapons can outpaint a splash, but you can still prevent it from going into certain areas/splat it if you have more range than it. Bonus points if your weapon isn't crippled when a burst bomb is thrown at it (for example, rollers could do decently against splash but burst bomb forces them to back away).

Splatanas tend to do pretty well 1v1 against them, and missiles/stamp both can be used to keep a crab tank in check, as well as zipcasting behind a crab to force it into ball form.
Slosher and Sloshing Machine can ignore the hp of crab tank, and have AoE that's hard to contest for splash if it tries to shoot directly. Just watch out for burst bombs.
Inkjet weapons (tri slosher, annaki nova, ballpoint) can counter crab tank with their special, which is also an extremely good option at the moment against non-crab tank.
Splashes don't generally appreciate splash walls, so .52 gal or .96 deco can put a lot of pressure onto the weapon and force it to give up space/need a teammate.

In general, splash is a weapon that can get paint/special pretty well, but compared to a weapon like splattershot it's not *as* good at pushing forward. It often helps to mobilize/support its teammates to do more things. In general, if you play around your teammates and take control of good positions on the map, you'll be able to contest ground effectively.

 

[Tac]

(Disclaimer, I don't have much competitive experience, only some coaching and scrim practice) I generally agree with the above, if you can hit a Splash-o-matic from where they can't hit you, either behind a splash wall, around cover, or from far away, you'll probably have an easier time. Squeezer is a great weapon because it has the range, accuracy, and kill time to poke Splash from far away, while also having the benefits of shooters in mobility and low downtime that can let it keep up with Splash and pressure it from off angles in ways your traditional backline chargers and splatlings can't. It gets a splash wall to boot, although with Squeezer's range it probably won't have much use for it against a Splash anyways. I'd sing the same praises of H3-D if not for its awful burst fire removing most of those good qualities unless you have really, really good aim.

I don't think sharking is a great tactic, Splash paints well enough that you'll struggle to get within range with something like a Carbon Roller before it shuts off your path to it, especially if they know to take corners wide and paint around them. However if your team has a significant advantage in painting or map control due to the other team being down a player or something, you might find some good opportunities to ninja squid in and splat someone? But generally if we're talking about how to exploit the weaknesses of Splash I don't think sharking is one of them. My best idea for being sneaky would be to have a Dapple Dualies or Splat Dualies quickly roll in from around a corner and use your superior kill time to splat them first? My reasoning is that you'd be able to approach them this way without relying on your own ink for cover or movement. Reading it back it seems a very silly idea though...

 

[McSquid82]

(Disclaimer, I don't have much competitive experience, only some coaching and scrim practice) I generally agree with the above, if you can hit a Splash-o-matic from where they can't hit you, either behind a splash wall, around cover, or from far away, you'll probably have an easier time. Squeezer is a great weapon because it has the range, accuracy, and kill time to poke Splash from far away, while also having the benefits of shooters in mobility and low downtime that can let it keep up with Splash and pressure it from off angles in ways your traditional backline chargers and splatlings can't. It gets a splash wall to boot, although with Squeezer's range it probably won't have much use for it against a Splash anyways. I'd sing the same praises of H3-D if not for its awful burst fire removing most of those good qualities unless you have really, really good aim.

I don't think sharking is a great tactic, Splash paints well enough that you'll struggle to get within range with something like a Carbon Roller before it shuts off your path to it, especially if they know to take corners wide and paint around them. However if your team has a significant advantage in painting or map control due to the other team being down a player or something, you might find some good opportunities to ninja squid in and splat someone? But generally if we're talking about how to exploit the weaknesses of Splash I don't think sharking is one of them. My best idea for being sneaky would be to have a Dapple Dualies or Splat Dualies quickly roll in from around a corner and use your superior kill time to splat them first? My reasoning is that you'd be able to approach them this way without relying on your own ink for cover or movement. Reading it back it seems a very silly idea though...

You make some good points so I'll try to answer. In regards to the Carbon Roller the Splash does generally have more range and is a very tough matchup. However, both of them also have options. It's generally not advisable to rush them head-on, however I feel both the vanilla and deco do have at least something to help them approach. The vanillla has the autobomb that can put them in an awkward position which is either stand their ground and be splatted, or take a few seconds to retreat, giving you a window to rush in and get a few flicks in. And also, the Deco can give the vanilla Splash a taste of its own medicine with burst bombs. Not to mention Zipcaster and Trizooka can help you get the drop on them if you know what you're doing. Yes the Splash is extremely good at turfing, but if the user misses or ignores one spot or runs out of ink an inopportune time, the Carbon can capitalize. Even with the perfect build, that's easier than you think when you're forced to use your sub or refill ink in the heat of battle.

 

[Tac]

The vanillla has the autobomb that can put them in an awkward position which is either stand their ground and be splatted, or take a few seconds to retreat, giving you a window to rush in and get a few flicks in.

I really don't think autobomb would let a Carbon Roller or really any weapon approach well. If the goal is to make them retreat, wouldn't that mean they'd be running away from you? You could throw the bomb behind them, but it's very easy to simply swim past it and avoid the explosion. More importantly, throwing a bomb will give your location away, so it kind of defeats the purpose of being sneaky if your goal is to approach them with the bomb.

And also, the Deco can give the vanilla Splash a taste of its own medicine with burst bombs. Not to mention Zipcaster and Trizooka can help you get the drop on them if you know what you're doing.

Here's where I can start agreeing with you, I completely neglected the fact that the Deco kit has burst bombs, whoops. I also didn't really look into how effective Carbon Roller actually is in competitive play or how it is used. The team Alliance Rogue has seen a lot of success with Volty's Carbon Roller Deco and recently won the EU Championships, and from watching a little bit of their gameplay I can see how the burst bombs put in a lot of work. Gives you a quick and easy splotch of ink to approach through while also chipping people within range of dying to fall off damage from the roller. They were able to engage Splash and other short ranged shooters from relatively far away with it. Plus as you said, Trizooka is pretty great. I think Zipcaster also works extremely well with the weapon but it's on the significantly worse autobomb kit. But yeah, Volty showed me that a weapon that relies on sneaky play can still be useful against Splash, although I'm not sure what other weapon like that could be good without the burst bomb and speed of DCarbon

 

[McSquid82]

In light of the recent patch, I thought I'd drop in and give some fresh views on this topic. After playing a bit on 4.1.0 and testing out some of the changes, I can definitely say the Splash has some more competition now, at least from other shooters. Tightening up the Splattershot and Zap's accuracy has made a huge difference. They both feel better at pressuring the Splash more with their slightly longer range. On top of that, the buffs to their specials is huge. The Trizooka is definitely nice, but the Super Chump might actually help the Zap 89 see some more use. The Zap 85 already had tacticooler and was used in team comps but the 89 wasn't nearly as popular so now it might be used a bit more.