Why Splatoon 3's Sub Weapon Balance Is AWFUL

Nintendos gonna be laughing at this video once they give line marker enough paint to cover the map.

the fact that fizzy outclasses curling in every way possible (damage, ink cost, poking power, etc.) and they havent even LOOKED at adjusting curling in any way is insane to me

Don’t forget the fact that angle shooter’s reticle is still broken and its placement under the main weapon reticle really hurts your chances of getting directs when tapping R

I also personally feel like the Sprinkler should always have it's Stage 1 active all the time since even with all these buffs, it's still a bit underwhelming

make the sprinkler itself bigger i want it to have more opportunities to be used as a shield such a cool use of it but looks so inconsistent

I think the change they need to make for Sprinkler is to, y’know, make it more similar to a real life water sprinkler. Y’know, the kind that generally shoots in one straight line as it slowly turns? That way, the sub can turn into a sort of turret area denial tool that is flexible since it can stick to walls. We can make it so that the range rivals Splattershot Pro or maybe even Squeezer, but only have the Sprinkler fire in a more fixed direction, making a sort of semi-circle or even triangular shot, instead of the full circle around it that we see in-game. Not only would that make it more similar to a real life sprinkler, but this also balances the new range that’d be given to it.

I think pretty much all of your ideas are spot on, but unfortunately, I think they sort of "intend" for these sub weapons to be worse, so they can give them to kits to nerf them. It's unfortunate because I think many of the ideas you suggested would make many kits a lot more interesting (it's generally way more interesting to have a strong kit with strong tools rather than mediocre ones) but I'm skeptical that they'll change it.

I thought about how cool it could be if toxic mist also functioned as a smoke bomb. It's opaque at first (for the enemy team) then it becomes translucent until the mist dissipates. It would help with both fighting and escaping and make the sub more unique

I think it will be a really cool idea to make toxic mist into a MIST, blocking opposing team vision by making it opaque. That can make it dangerous to go through and apply pressure by blocking information from scouting and adding the ability for sneak attacks. Also, a bit of constant damage like storm would be nice.

One idea I had for a Speinkler rework was a Sprinkler-G. Basically a Destroyable Squee-G enemy that carries a sprinkler towards Enemy Ink. It moves more slowly than the one in single player and can be destroyed. It also does not destroy your teams ink.

Angle shooter is really interesting as a utility sub, it sucks that its underwhelming… I had 2 ideas of buffing it, (1. If the marker hits an opponent it will ricochet to another player closer to the opponent you hit.) (2. If the market hits a wall it’ll do a mini explosion and continue on it’s normal route.) I really like your ideas for Angle Shooter/Line Marker buffs as well!

I think a fun buff for Sprinkler might be halving the ink cost and letting you have two out at a time. That way it could compete with bombs for painting power, and dividing the enemies attention between two different painting spots would be useful

I def think that Curling Bomb should be 45% of your ink tank, but remember that by lowering the trail it goes it has a bigger explosion, so I think the amount of ink used for curling should increase as you charge the bomb, up to 60%.

Worth noting that they decided to give all the new kits this season utility subs but haven't even touched them balance-wise. Hopefully they'll actually get around to that in the mid season patch

I personally like the idea that toxic mist becomes a smoke grenade. Increase the range of by like 20 or 15% and make the most for enemies a thick cloud that you can’t see through, while teammates see it less opaquely (same thickness as today’s mist). This would allow better team support for tri-stringer and more of an option for things like tri-sloshed.

Nintendo is gonna make line marker one shot and paint the entire map and will still be F tier.

For toxic mist I would find it interesting if it works like point sensor. Like, we throw the mist and when the player is only touched by it, it got the same effects than it already have, but during a certain time. So the player can play, but is slow down and can't recharge his ink, even if he's not anymore in the mist. Maybe it would give it more usefulness.

I'd love to see a new mechanic that would make sprinkler focused on both painting and keeping a hold of that area for just a little longer. Maybe they could add a change where upon being destroyed it will have a breakdown animation and then cause a weak explosion of 60 damage, the radius of the explosion would be dependent on the strength phase it was on, where the first 5 seconds it's radius is a torpedo explosion (with pellets), the next 10 seconds would be a burst bomb radius, and the weakest would be an uncharged fizzy bomb. Of course this wouldn't apply to throwing another sprinkler, in which it would just disappear like normal. This would make sprinkler a little better for aggressive weapons and give other weapons a way to affect areas they normally can't if they don't have map control.

i have always thought that the direction at which sprinkler sprays ink should track opponents that enter its painting range allowing it to take on more of a "Turret" role and fit in better with weapons that want an aggressive sub and can combo off the 20 damage like light tetra

I would love sprinkler to have a burst fire period, maybe for the first 1-2 seconds that paints the area much faster. The effective time of the normal painting mode could be reduced to compensate for this, but it would make it possible to paint yourself an area while being aggressive