Topic: Splatoon 2

@Tsurii You can shoot the Baller itself and it will break if it takes enough damage, but it's pretty durable after the buffs.

You can change gear sub abilities after they're rolled, but the main ability isn't changing once the gear is bought. The in-game stores have a set main ability for each item, but alternate versions are available from the SplatNet 2 shop in the online app, or from Inklings in the plaza if they're wearing it.

@Jazzer94 I said it before and I'll say it again, being very good in a particular mode is not enough to declare something overpowered. Like Aerosprays in Turf War, they can ink like crazy but their ability to play objectives is limited.

@Tsurii Well, a Baller has health. Deal enough damage to it and the ball simply poofs away, leaving the Inkling caught completely offguard and you know what that means - SPLAT! It's become harder to destroy it as it had received a rightfully earned buff in the last patch (pre-patch it was utter garbage, so easy to destroy, even for one Inkling). Now, it easily takes two people or a well-used Bomb Rush to get rid of the ball.

At first, I would try to find your play style and choose the right weapon for it instead of going out there and buying every weapon or gear you'll see. Over the course of fleshing out your play style, you'll see abilities you deem important enough to implement into your loadout. But right now, I'd just save up some cash before going into the whole perfect gear set thing, especially not before the next Splatfest. Though, I'd recommend looking up the brands on Inkipedia since each brand has a higher chance of giving you a certain ability and you'll save a ton of money with a little bit of luck.

Edit: Also, once you start thinking about your gear set, loadout.ink is a huge help. There, you can put in whatever abilities you want and see the resoluting stats without wasting time, money and especially Ability Chunks into something you won't be happy with.

So I was looking at the data mined weapons and I just noticed something interesting. I'll do spoilers so people do have to see.
So there are a set of dualies that caught my attention. The glooga dualies(ha glue guns!)are going to have the second longest range at 56 next to the dualie squelchers at 70. This out ranges the splattershots, .56 gal, o-matics, tri-slosher, and n-zap which I think is nice. Then I noticed numbers that seemed backwards and I had to keep going to the top of the column to see if I was looking at was right. Its mobility is 35 and its damage is 76(but no info on the fire rate, but I assume it is slow). But think about that, its mobility is less than the heavy splatling at 50 and the splat charger at 40. Wut? It damage is higher than the the splattershot pro at 60, the L-3 if all three shots from the burst hit at 25, and the gals at 75(yes, just one point but still). Now pair that with ink mines so people can't sneak up behind you. Looks like we have a heavy daulie set coming sometime and seems like it will be fun to use. Maybe this weekend? : P

Chargers are pretty good against ballers btw. They weren’t nerfed so a full charge shot almost takes it out completely. Object shredder takes a bit more health out of it too. Don’t really use shooters, but I think it might help with them too.

@yokokazuo Shooters aren't that hot anymore unless very fast firing.

Ive found if I have Splashdown Ill use that to stop them dead on, or bait them into detonating early and run.

I think the Tenta Brella is releasing tonight.

@-Green- Yeah, confirmed. Inkipedia's recent changes page is a good place to check this stuff - they have a Japanese user who quickly adds updates from the JP Twitter.

@meleebrawler it's actually good in every ranked mode just specifically silly in TC/RM do to it now functioning as a movable wail. It definitely needs some changes and I can see it happening eventually even if it's only and increase on amount needed for special.

Really looking forward to trying out the Tenta Brella but my gut tells me I'm not gonna like it since I'm not much of a Brella user, let alone its actual shield.

@Tsurii I'd say that's pretty normal for Dualies and for somebody who's just starting out and learning the ropes of Spattle. Yep, that's the Luna Blaster, it's pretty weird to handle, especially when you're used to Dualies and such. With a Charger, I'm mostly supportive to my team, reviving them, helping them take down a boss from afar. Try to stay away from wherever the Salmonids are coming from as the Charger ain't too great for close combat (trust me, I'm the expert here on how not to wield a Charger in any mode). Try to take them out before they reach you or a teammate in peril and don't refrain from using a Splat Bomb if they get too close for comfort. The weapon selection in Salmon Run changes every session. You can look up when it's next open and what kind of weapons are available by pressing X in the Square, Shops or Lobby, though, a Charger is almost always there.

Cool, so the tenta brella is coming out tonight. I was hoping it would come out the next splatfest, but still no word on that.
Every Friday I cross my fingers hoping to get the bamboozler, but alas, I'm always disappointed. I never ran all the main power up either because I didn't see the point of get it to do 99.9% damage. If they weren't in enemy ink they were still going to have to be hit by that follow up shot anyway, so I preferred to run other sets that I think will better translate to Spla2n. The wait continues.
But tonight:

Just for fun...if you had to choose, what would you say your favourite and least favourite stages are?

My favourites are probably Sturgeon Shipyard, Inkblot Art Academy and Moray Towers - but, if I had to pick just one, I'd probably say Moray Towers just about edges it! I just like the balance of it - good vantage points for snipers, multiple options of approach for runners, ambush points, a crazy 'no squid zone' in the middle - and plenty of opportunities to shift momentum with a change of tactic etc...it's been one of my faves since day 1!

It's tough to pick a least favourite really - I genuinely like them all - but, again, if I had to pick one, I'd probably go for Kelp Dome...partly because I think it lacks the style of many of the other stages - and partly because my squid is a pretty slow runner, so I often feel quite exposed whenever I venture out on to the suspended walkways!

...how about you?

@NaviAndMii I'm inclined to say Humpback Pump Track is my favourite overall, for providing good freedom of movement but also plenty of cover. Inkblot Art Academy is probably my least favourite; it's hard to advance past the centre, and the side areas are somewhat irrelevant in ranked matches.

It depends a lot on the mode, though. I'd rather play Tower Control on Inkblot than Humpback.

@NaviAndMii
My top 3 would probably be:
1)Musselforge Fitness - This one might get overrun by my number two stage pretty soon, but I just seem to have the most fun on this stage. It's not my favorite when it comes to TW, but I think it really shines in ranked. You can get to the middle pretty fast, but when you are pushing it is like snaking up the side of a mountain. It really forces you to put the work into getting to the goal.

2)Humpback Pump Track - Even if this is a small stage, I feel like it is the best balanced and has the best variations to it out of all the maps, but it just misses out as my favorite. I love the turns that you can use as sniper perches. You have to pay attention to both sides and the middle or someone will get behind you. I doesn't take long to get back into the fray. It just feels so dynamic.

3)Port Mackerel - This was my favorite in the first game. I don't link some of the changes they made but it still has the same feel to it. Almost like a jousting match. Yeah, it has its downsides in TW with getting pushed back into your own spawn, but breaking through that is part of the fun to me. Also slipping past people in the middle and coming up behind them is great too!

My least favorite is hands down Sturgeon Shipyard. Don't get me wrong, I do have fun on the map. The problem to me is even though it looks "large" and the middle of the stage looks like you can easily push to the other side, it just feels like the map bottlenecks in the middle. It just feels more narrow than port mackerel, and not in a good way. Maybe I just don't understand it well enough. I also HATE TC on this map. It is beyond frustrating.

I hated Moray Towers in the first game; however, with the balancing of the abilities and adding ink rails have made this map much more enjoyable in my opinion.

My favorite stage, by a rather large margin, just like in the first Splatoon, is Port Mackerel. I just like the layout, especially the central area, which is great for close quarter combat.

My second and third favorite are probably Humpback Pump Track and Sturgeon Shipyard due to the many paths you could take so you're not backed into a corner no matter what you do like in my least favorite, or rather most despised, stage ...

Moray Towers. I absolutely hate it in TW for its layout that, once the opposition has taken over the lower areas of my half of the stage, makes it almost impossible to turn the tide of battle. Either you jump down or go down the ramps but no matter what you do, you jump into enemy Ink, where the enemy is waiting for you. I also dislike the huge advantage Charger users have on the stage. I admit, the inkrails have made it a bit better when compared to how it was in Splatoon 1 but it's still by far my least favorite and I avoid it at any cost by either playing Ranked or Salmon Run instead.

Aww, not a lot of love for Moray Towers then.. Haha! I just fell in love with it straight away! The first time I saw it I was like 'Wow! That looks so cool!' ..and I usually have a blast playing it too

Different game-modes certainly make a difference...I really like The Reef in TW - but in TC, I sometimes find myself getting trapped beneath the tower when it goes under the central bridge, so it loses points based on that!

Port Mackerel is certainly a great one! The narrow corridors in the crucial centre ground are great! ..and I like the layout of each 'team base' too - especially as the sponge block-thingy's give you a little bit of an advantage when defending your home turf, allowing you opportunities to regain control, regroup and forge a counter-assault! ..and it just looks great too - which never hurts!

Moray Towers still gettin' the hate, huh? Funny thing is, it was one of the three stages voted into the Callie vs. Marie Splatfest (the others were Kelp Dome and Walleye Warehouse), so it surely has its fans. Although they might all be charger mains.

I actually do enjoy it myself, but it's true that it tends towards Turf War steamrolls.

@Tsurii Any movement ability is great, especially for heavy weapons. I wouldn't go overboard with it though. I would say ink recovery is a great complement to swim speed up.

Back on the topic, I'm not surprised Moray Towers isn't getting much love. It is a lot better this go around and it is in my top half of the stages no matter the mode. Oddly enough I do just fine with any weapon type besides blaster on this stage.

Anybody have hopes for a stage to make a comeback? I'd really like Mahi-Mahi Resort to make a comeback, and this time they should put the bouncy pads all over the place. I wonder if that would cause a lot of desync problems like the bubbles getting pushed by the tower?

Tbh I believe the only reason they even considered swapping the specials was because the Switch has no second screen (or to be more precise: it does, but doesn't utilize it). That ruled out the Inkstrike, so they knew they had to completely rework the specials.

Actually, that's not true. You could easily push the Kraken back if your weapon had high firerate. They also nerfed the Kraken numerous times (more than any other weapon) in Splatoon 1.

@NaviAndMii I have several favourite stages, but only one stage I truly dislike: Humbback Pumptrack. Its small size and open structure is a total nightmare for me.

@Tsurii: Just because you can swap subslots somewhere down the road (it will take ages and a lot of scrubbing slots to get there, even for swapping just a single slot).
So I'd say: definitely hunt down the equipment you want. I already bought almost everything from the ingame store and regularly check Splatnet2 every day (even on days where I'm not playing). The beauty of Splatnet2 is that you can get every piece of gear with the main ability you want.
Also: getting the equipment you want right now can immediately help you. I've already got various useful items whereas at the start of the game I barely could play the way (or even the weapons) I wanted because I didn't have the gear that I needed for that.
And I'd advise for getting swim and run speed up~ 3-4 subslots each should be enough (unless you're playing with the SSPro, in that case having more run speed up can still help).

@Tsurii Swim Speed Up is useful in almost any build, run speed is more situational (mostly depends on your weapon of choice) but has a proportionately stronger effect. The former helps in getting places faster while the latter makes you more agile in combat.

There aren't any abilities that increase damage in this game, due to controversy surrounding themin the first. The closest is Special Power Up increasing the area of effect on some like Splashdown. Consider running Ink Resistance if you're going for a mobility build since without it, even small spots of hostile ink can stop you cold.