Would a missile shooter change the game?

[Mar$el]

I'm curious what people think if Nintendo decided to release a shooter with missiles in Splatoon 3. Like what if shot got a 3rd variant with burst bomb missiles? Or what if the 2nd 52 kit gets missiles (with or without a lethal bomb)? It could be any missile shooter... but would it principally change the way the game is played?

In Splatoon 2, kshot and vjet significantly changed the way you had to play the game. But, in Splatoon 3 there are many other options offered to help speed up the game (like COOLER (which I think needs to be nerfed....)). Would Splatoon 3's "speed buff" be enough to cancel out a return to Splatoon 2 gamestyle? What effect would a missile shooter have? What comp would you build? Would it be strong enough to beat the current Splatoon 3 meta strategy?

 

[Funky_Eevee]

I do not think shooter being given missiles would take over long term in S3, the cooldown nerf limits a weapon’s output quite well. However the shooter, (unless it’s Nova) would be strong and potentially could be a problem if the shooter they choose is good at fighting.

 

[KeenSaysGM]

Yes and no

Yes, but not to any comparable level of s2 kshot/vjet due to cooldown nerf, hitbox shrinking and a generally faster paced game
Missile doesnt abuse cooler special saver and qr the way something like inkjet or zooka or crab tank can either which is another knock against it

Also if we're talking nothing til 3rd kits, the only feasible thing is like curling missile 52 imo which would be really annoying, but unlikely given how many specials there are

If they get wild later and do something like burst missile shot #3 then yeah, that's a game changer.

But it feels like their missile distribution is way more conservative in this game.
It's been limited to kinda awkward main weapons that have genuine problems they have to work around like poor fighting/charge time weapons/slow kill time etc.

People freaked over Wiper Deco for a day and then realize its kill time is slow and it has no combat sub like Torp Wiper uses to approach/force things/alleviate kill time. Like cool, it farms missiles 6-7 missiles a game give or take, but will lose most actual fights to stuff like coolered up shooters. So for me, my Wiper Deco usage is limited to fighting slow enemy comps using things like Eliter but I do not like using it vs heavy fighting based comps at all.

 

[Julian³]

If shot got missiles again, it would become the best missiles weapon but the game would not centralise around it like it did in Splatoon 2 for a few reasons:

Missiles has faced a cool-down nerf, this is a huge balance change that made the special much healthier as it hurt it's special output significantly.
It has also faced a blast radius nerf for its 30 damage. (It also faced a few nerfs at launch.)

S2 and S3 play very differently as well, Splatoon 2 is much more passive whereas Splatoon 3 is much more fight orientated.

 

[Oliy]

Honestly Wiper Deco is functionally a shooter with missiles at this point

With the cooldown nerfs I don't think it would really change the game, especially if the shooter that gets it isn't one of the four short-range ones or jet, but it would just kind of be a boring pick after endgame S2. Honestly a short-ranged shooter with inkjet would make more of an impact on S3 at this point

52 would not get missiles though considering it has wail and doesn't combo super well with missile damage

 

[beyondinsane]

Unless its something like jr. I think we're safe thanks to the cooldown nerf

 

[turtle4k]

depends if it has a bomb and what shooter it is. also pfs. rn missiles isn’t as good as it’s been in the past especially with the sizeable nerfs it’s gotten over the past few patches