observations and strategies for S-Blaster 96?

[hearty dawn]

From my use of the weapon it feels like you need to trest it like a sniper weapon, the close range blasts do not come out fast enough to be used effectively.

It has the same shot recovery time as range blaster in both modes, however only close range has the big blast radius and its smaller then luna blasters, couple that with the very small explosion from range mode and the need to jump plus the recovery time per shot and its something that you need to use at the back line.

The close range blast only use it seems finishing of enemies that are damaged, not to directly fight them.

So from all this the effective strategy ive come up with is treating it like a range blaster but trying to get directs all the time, this is especially the case given you can jump and get the range mode with no shot RNG if you fire then jump quickly.

This weapon will be great for those with gid like aim with blasters but not for anyone else, at least to my observations.

Now if they switched which mode was for standing and jumping and made it as quick as the luna while the jump mode has that shot recovery then id say the weapon would be in a better spot.

But sgain these are my observations, anyone want to add to this?

[scarlet bobcat]

Sblaster’s fighting up close is comparable to VBlaster and Luna, and has a very large AOE, so chances are it’s very important

Sblaster can fire it’s grounded shots in the air, but the main weaknesses are it’s awful@kit and the fact that it’s longer range shots have small radius for indirect; likely the drawback for it, and is designed more around getting directs (with more shot velocity to boot). Most blasters tend to not like to hard go for directs unless they have to. Having that AOE when jumping and trying to keep mobile is very good for a blaster.
A lot will have to depend on which mode Sblaster wants to rely on more, and peeps are actually starting to think it’s the Shortrange mode

Which makes its kit even worse, Bc now it wants to prioritize having a bomb and sprinkler is not that

Mines made Luna Neo in 2 particularly horrible and it’s not unlikely something similar would happen to Sblast

[hearty dawn]

Its not really compareable to luna though, because you are dealing with the same pause time per shot vs any luna blaster, that massive pause makes it highly impractical to use at clise range.

The radius of the explosion might be similar but if it takes so long to actually fire each shot you will always be dead before you can fire another close range shot.

Meanwhile any luna blaster has half the time it takes to fire each shot and thys is allowed to be a more aggressive weapon, also luna neo doesn't have mines, its fizzy bomb and ultra stamp.

The kit for Sblast 96 is designed for a faster, more aggressive weapon but the main weapon of the kit is a slow, sniper like weapon that goes hard for direct hits.

The kit is mishmashed with how the weapon goes

[shrewd hawk]

luna neo had mines in splatoon 2.

and it massively limited it because of having no ranged otions in the kit basically besides a bomb rush it could not paint for

I think sblast doesn´t have that issue tho because you have a range mode

[scarlet bobcat]

Yeah but also the long range mode doesn’t fully make up for it, so it’s more kinda a problem w the wep

[scarlet bobcat]

Luna Neo had mines last game

Is what I mean

And it was a bottom 5 weapon

[scarlet bobcat]

And tbh that’s an issue any Shortrange blaster indirect has but you also can just aim around terrain w it and abuse what movement you do have, which is what these blasters actually do w their poking

Blasters naturally in most cases are gonna kill pretty slow, but if they get initiative even on Indirects they’re hard to react to bc they reach so wide around you and already did half the job or more before you can react

They have to work around that and Sblast is no exception

Luna isn’t even that good at aggro itself Bc if it’s range

Sblast is better at that, Luna’s mostly an ambushing wep

But chances are Sblast wants to ambush more itself and leave its long range hits on the side

Like yeah it has the option but it’s the plan B not the plan A

[scarlet bobcat]

That’s why I see cause for concern on it having sprinkler, Bc if it does want to play like a Shortrange weapon more often than not it needs a Shortrange weapons tools

It’s endlag is pretty close to reg blaster too I think btw, it’s def way faster than RB

[hearty dawn]

Blasters normally go for indirect hits, with blasters like luna having the slightly slower to the same fire rate as a slosher.

Im not sure why you guys are going on about last game when we are dealing with splatoon 3 and should be comparing the new weapons to blasters in this game.

Even if it has the same endlag as normal blaster its still to slow to use effectively at close range.
Mix thst with the ranege modes tiny explosion radius makes it not thst good at long range ether.

Which is why i say this is a weapon designed to play as a sniper m, addionally this weapon also needs to be close to teammates to help finish of enemies at close range.

Its not one that can take an opponent head on.

[scarlet bobcat]

Because the weapon could literally have the same problem as a weapon from the last game by having the same thing happen to its kit

[hearty dawn]

What?

[scarlet bobcat]

We know that sort of kit design on a weapon like that doesn’t really work and it’s not gonna work all a sudden in 3 if they gave Luna mines again

[hearty dawn]

Ok.....so are you trying to say that we have already seen the problem of kit designs that Sblast has in splatoon 2 and thus the devs are just being dumb.

Because if mot then idk why you keep bringing it up, its not like we can choose if luna gets mies back, i like luna neos kit in 3

[scarlet bobcat]

If you wanna play around the long range mode then RB is going to be absolutely a better pick rn, Bc it’s long range mode is outclassed by RB

[hearty dawn]

Yep, does RB have longer range? Sblast shoots to 4 tiles

[scarlet bobcat]

And RB has a real kit on top of that as well, the AOE being small is gonna be an issue for using the Longrange mode

[scarlet bobcat]

It does Bc it’s indirect is larger

[hearty dawn]

I was talking about distance not the diameter of the blast

Is it 5 tiles away or is it 4 like Sblast

[scarlet bobcat]

The indirect is a pretty big part of a blasters range

And direct range Sblaster has around the same as rb

[hearty dawn]

Ok but the distance it travels before it explodes is an even bigger part is aiming properly.

If you are too close then you will never get thrm in the blast

[shrewd hawk]

rb and sblast have like basically the same range except sblast doesn´t even reach as far with indirects, which is quite notable because usually rb can outrange the general midrange weapons meanwhile sblast can´t and needs to direct to finish those fights faster instead of outspacing

[hearty dawn]

Yeah thats what i thought

[scarlet bobcat]

Yeah a lot of like Splattershot pro range weps have an easier time bullying around Sblast sometimes for that reason

[shrewd hawk]

tbf luckily most of those aren´t super relevant but yea

[scarlet bobcat]

Whereas RB is genuinely one of my least favorite DS matchups

And if they were both rapids also rip them to shreds

[hearty dawn]

Again its like you have to treat this weapon like a splat charger without the charge

[shrewd hawk]

so squiffer

[hearty dawn]

With even less charge time

[shrewd hawk]

but endlag instead

[hearty dawn]

I mean yeah

[scarlet bobcat]

I think it’s VBlaster with no kit that has the ability to go for funny shots sometimes

Also the other big thing is again RB has a very good kit

Even VBlaster has a better kit

[hearty dawn]

Vblaster? Im trying to figure out which one that is....vanilla blaster?

[scarlet bobcat]

Yeah

[shrewd hawk]

yea

normal one, bubble one

[hearty dawn]

Ah i see

Good guess thrn

[scarlet bobcat]

The one w Autobomb

[shrewd hawk]

sblast range mode is quite similar to squiffer surprisingly, both have weaker kits, and rely on skillshots at midrange, sblast switches out charge time instead to have endlag. but it´s also slower firerate than squiffer which is bad, I feel like to set itself apart from range blaster/squiffer it needs to make good use of short range mode (and strong range blasters can fight at short range too even)

[scarlet bobcat]

Strong range blasters randomly 1 shot you for overextending into them like that so yeah

Tbh Sblast does have an easier time

Also if@you do hit someone while poking Long range a Shortrange hit when they get close cleans them pretty easy

It’s almost like machine AOE coverage between the two shots

But I think it’s tricky to get right

[hearty dawn]

I hope we get an alt kit that switches the modes

[shrewd hawk]

wym by that

[scarlet bobcat]

Alt kits always have same exact main wep

This thing just really REALLY needs a bomb

[hearty dawn]

As in standing is short range and jumping is long range.

Though it would need a endlag decrease to be comparable to shirtrange blasters

[scarlet bobcat]

That would just be an entirely different weapon

[shrewd hawk]

^

you can jump with long range anyways

zr + b (with zr first)

[hearty dawn]

If you time it right

[scarlet bobcat]

Crazy that the blaster is hard to use

[shrewd hawk]

besides the fact you can´t delay a shot to be at the end of your jump it´s mostly good enough as jumpshots

[hearty dawn]

Yeah ill be sticking with luna neo because, sblast can't compare to both the main weapon and the kit it has

[shrewd hawk]

luna neo 🥸

I like zip and splat bomb more but fizzy does have some combo potential

stamp nerf isn´t helping why is there a stamp nerf LMAO

[hearty dawn]

Im not sure but as long as i can tank another stamper im ok with it

[scarlet bobcat]

Bc stamp lasts 10 million years

[shrewd hawk]

yea but it wasn´t too strong anyways

[hearty dawn]

Fizzy bomb combined with the rapid fire of the luna is a grest combo, you can launch fizzy far too so it can harrass people at a distance

[shrewd hawk]

I think it was a neat feature for it

to have more time to shark

[hearty dawn]

Terrifying

[shrewd hawk]

splat bomb behind someone does that too

I like to start fights with a bomb behind them as luna to trap them from running away

and also could potentially combo dmg with splat bomb but it isn´t as good at that as fizzy

[hearty dawn]

Is there anyway to charnfe it besides jumping or shaking the controller?

[scarlet bobcat]

Might have been too good for timmy tbh

[shrewd hawk]

idc what timmy meta wants 😭

they can´t just release this new brush and then try to appeal to that

[shrewd hawk]

flick left stick left and right while spamming b

easiest way I prefer because it doesn´t mess up aim but if you get used to doing slight shake while still aiming the fizzy right that is nice to have extra speed too

like you can actually shake the controller left right a bit without it affecting aim a lot iirc because something about the input cancelling each other out?

idk

[hearty dawn]

I have been just jumping so far

But to conclude all this i guess, best strategy is to play like squiffer or not play it at all?

Cause its lacking in a lot of areas other blasters excel at.

Man psinbrush really is the main show of the two

[shrewd hawk]

I think it´s a mixture between midrange precise shots + short range utility you switch to depending on situation

it´s interesting to see the different players trying it

from watching painapo, a range blaster that relies on indirects and poking more, he just flops with sblast

with his playstyle it doesn´t go well

I haven´t checked shiomintos gameplay yet, but I assume he would be better with sblast

https://www.openrec.tv/live/e2zwj7xq9ro

he has good aim to line up directs in general and is really mechanically skilled at spacing with range blaster

so I think he may be better on sblast than painapo

but ultimately the loss of poking ability as trade off for short range mode, dunno how that turns out

not a good sign 💀

"S blast could be stronger if the short range mode becomes as good as lunas's or if the blast of the long range mode becomes bigger."