Grushi edit: Yes you do I need to read an in-depth essay on why you love decavitator
Okay, fine. If you want it I will not complain about giving it.
When I first saw the internal name implying that there was a heavyweight Splatana, I was very confused and above all else interested about how they'd do it. I thought Stamper
was the heavyweight Splatana and I don't think I was alone in that. All of its stats seem basically impossible to tweak in a way that doesn't mess with something else.
I mean, you have a three-shot at a distance that's a two-shot up close that you can charge to turn it into a two-shot at a distance that's a one-shot up close. Most heavyweights look to boost the damage and range of whatever weapon class they're a part of. How do you tweak either of these with the Splatana Stamper? If you let's just say bump up the horizontal projectile a make it a two-shot, now you're at risk of making both the vertical projectile and the horizontal up close obsolete. The entire Splatana weapon class has kind of ridiculous range as well. Giving them any more would just turn this into a backline, right? How do you balance a backline that probably has the same combo Stamper's main weapon does?
Well... you can give a weapon more range without making its projectiles travel as far.
Look at how far I'm able to threaten space after sharking to kill the Tristrike here. I apologize for how low-quality the footage there is. I don't know why sending a clip to my phone does that. Compare this to what Stamper would have needed to do in this situation though. Stamper would have had to go further forward before doing anything to be able to hit the Bucket player, especially since that block would have been in the way had I tried hitting him from Stamper's max effective range.
The dash in general is awesome. It's real fun to be able to just Akuma slide right up to people and pop this unreasonably large hitbox in their faces. People are saying that it needs to be made faster and I really don't agree at all. The fact that it's "too slow" is just something you need to be able to work around right now. The dodge roll is very usable at top level but doesn't have the same application as a Dualie dodge roll because that's really just not the point of the attack.
If it were faster, it wouldn't
feel like a heavyweight. It's not supposed to have this perfectly spammable movement option everyone seems to want for it. Your attack comes out way faster if it's at the end of a dash. The most ideal use case for the dash when fighting is using it to quickly get around a corner or up a slope. The Decavitator is very slow but the one-shot being so big and the Stamper combo still existing all means you need to respect it no matter where it is.
The one thing I think I overlooked when thinking about the heavyweight Splatana is the damage, but ultimately isn't as important to its design. They did ever so slightly put this weapon's damage output above Stamper's - horizontals deal 40 at a distance or 70 up close, and charge shots deal 80 or 160 up close. Definitely isn't obvious but this does make a difference, especially the 70. The only thing that technically is new from Stamper is your horizontal projectiles can combo into your horizontals up close. Big thing though is that you play so ridiculously well off of chip damage it's not even funny. Stamper was already good at this but this thing takes it to another level.
Otherwise, more obviously, the attacks' hitboxes are all massive. This weapon would be super hard to use at a low level otherwise and that wouldn't be ideal for a new post-launch weapon meant to get people playing the game again. You would need a way more specific idea of spacing than you'll ever pick up if you're newer to the game to make use of the dash, which would suck when that's the whole central focus of the weapon. What they needed to do to compensate is give this weapon a unique animation for its charged attack that no other Splatana has. Is this the first time one specific weapon in a class has had a whole new attack animation? Aside from smaller stuff like the Ballpoint having a glowing spot on its back. Like they had to completely rig a few new animations for your Inkling just to get this idea to work.
And my god they knocked it out of the park with the kits. They did a great job with all of the Splatanas, like I'll even defend Wiper Deco despite the idea not working in practice, but I don't think they did any of them as much justice as this one. It's a great idea to give a Big Bubbler to a weapon like this for similar reasons to the vanilla Roller except the dash can also sometimes help you get in to use the bubble in more pressing spots. I think Suction Bomb is probably the worst bomb it could have gotten but a weapon like this is never complaining over having a bomb. Splash Wall lets this thing play so much more skirmishy than it usually would be able to otherwise because of how slow it is and Inkjet perfectly covers how it can't hit over ledges like other Splatanas. Very different playstyles but the synergy of both are great and it's left a lot of people with a genuine choice of which they prefer even if the Charcoal kit is clearly the stronger of the two.
After all is said and done, you're left with a weapon that plays unlike anything else I've ever played. It's a slow weapon with most of the usual heavyweight tropes but instead trades away the projectile range these slower weapons usually have for an added movement option. Wiper can get into enemy lines fairly easily with its mobility and Stamper can consistently play to its strong fighting at a distance. This weapon can do neither of these. You need to constantly look for openings to get into your opponents' faces with sharking, specific use of your dash, or by using Big Bubbler or Splash Wall. If I were to guess, and I haven't played either of these super seriously so take this with a grain of salt, this weapon probably plays most similarly to a strange mix of a Dualie and Roller as opposed to either of the Splatanas.
This thing is awesome. I was very excited for this weapon's drop since I saw its codename in the files, said excitement only grew when I saw the weapon in trailers and then again when I heard about its two kits, and the thing still blew my expectations. When Stamper Nouveau came out it stopped me from playing anything else for too long over the five months that followed, but the difference is night and day how much more I've been enjoying this weapon than even that one. Let the fact that I hit five stars on the Charcoal kit in less than a month speak for itself.
