I've been learning how to build a team comp with my team lately and it occurred to me that the notes I'm taking may be helpful for others as well!
Here are the two most helpful videos I've watched on the subject- I HIGHLY RECOMMEND ALSO WATCHING THESE VIDEOS IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS SUBJECT! There are really helpful things explained in the first two videos that won't be covered in this post
A primer on weapon roles before you think about building a team comp:
What Am I Doing? Part 1: Weapon Roles (Squidschool on YouTube)
And a video on actually putting together a team comp, and going through the process for an example team:
A Simple Guide to Low Level Team Building (Bebrop on YouTube)
And here's some additional viewing, but it's contents are mostly covered by the rest of this post (the video goes through all the considerations by which to evaluate a team comp or how well weapons work together) Still helpful though!
Weapon Compositions (Squid School on YouTube)
#Here are my notes on relevant considerations for building a team comp and evaluating synergy.
This list is intended to be useful for evaluating both individual weapons and what they bring to the table, and also an entire comp and whether it has any big holes or oversights:
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Speed
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Damage combos between weapons, sub weapons, and specials (mostly relevant for chip damage and aoe weapons)
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Ability to frontline/push in
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Viability for each role (the weapon roles video by squid school is important for evaluating this)
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Special (how valuable it is), Special output/ability to get special quickly
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Entry tools, displacement
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Ability to paint
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Need for paint in order to succeed (ambush weapons)
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Ability to paint safely (paint at range, potentially via bombs)
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Lethal bomb
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Range/ability to threaten long range weapons
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Ability to answer strong meta picks on enemy team (I think this is a harder question right now due to zooka and cooler having few counters. Brella is a strong matchup into all the splatter shots and other similar shooters in the meta, bubbler is strong into zooka, blasters and long range weapons are strong into inkjet, vacuum can be strong into trizooka and inkjet)
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Maps: does this weapon/comp need certain maps to be viable? Is it really strong on certain kinds of maps?
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SPLAT ZONES: reefslider, tristrike, bombs, burst paint, rain, vacuum, paint output, entry tools (lockout is very prevalent)
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TOWER CONTROL: blasters & sloshers, reefslider(kinda), big bubbler, booyah bomb (might get one-shot by zooka?), tristrike, kracken, suction bomb, killer wail?, inkjet
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CLAMS: speed, cooler, vacuum, kracken, beakons?, paint, strong frontline slaying and skirmishing
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RAINMAKER: Cooler (insanely strong in literally every mode 😅), vacuum, object damage & bombs, toxic mist (kinda), speed
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#EXAMPLE:
I'm gonna go through an example for vanilla slosher since thats what I've been maining.
###• Speed:
GOOD. Maybe the fastest of the AOE (area of effect) weapons
• Damage combos between weapons, sub weapons, and specials:
GOOD/VERY GOOD (ideally you'd go through relevant combos with other potential weapons in your comp here, but I don't know the exact damage values right offhand and wouldn't wanna go through any possible combo anyway) but splat bomb and the main weapon can both do chip damage potentially combo-ing with wave, blaster/range blaster, 52 gal, zooka indirect, super chump, tristringer, etc.
###• Ability to frontline/push in
GOOD/VERY GOOD
###• Viability for each role
SKIRMISHER: VERY GOOD
SLAYER: GOOD
SUPPORT: OKAY/POOR. Poor paint but can poke with bombs, not a super high value special except in zones and tower control
ANCHOR: POOR. Has some amount of range to keep enemies away, and poking with splat bomb can help, but can't paint to deny approach, and has poor range compared to a proper backline, and can only threaten a fast kill time when you combo with your splat bomb, so you can still get rushed down while trying to give safe jumps to your teammates
###• Special (how valuable it is), Special output/ability to get special quickly:
OKAY. Special is only super valuable in certain modes, special output isn't amazing I don't think
###• Entry tools, displacement:
OKAY. Tristrike is an okay-ish entry tool on zones, and tower control where people clump up, and sometimes clams. If the map is cramped it can be a better entry tool there as well
###• Ability to paint
POOR. Bomb and special help, but is just outclassed by so many other midline/frontline weapons
###• Need for paint in order to succeed (ambush weapons):
DOESN'T NEED MUCH HELP with paint in order to contribute
###• Ability to paint safely (paint at range, potentially via bombs)
OKAY. Splat bomb and the little bit of range the main has help contest space the enemies want
###• Lethal bomb
GOOD on TC, VERY GOOD on everything else
###• Range/ability to threaten long range weapons:
OKAY. Splat bomb and tristrike help it here
###• Ability to answer strong meta picks on enemy team:
Has a better matchup into fast mid/close range shooters w/cooler than most aoe weapons, but other than that there's not really anything special in terms of matchup into the meta
###• Maps:
OKAY on any map. Can be GOOD/VERY GOOD on maps with a lot of cover, ledges and verticality.
###• Splat Zones:
GOOD. Valuable special, bomb for burst paint, but the main weapon has poor paint and burst paint
###• Tower Control:
GOOD. Valuable special, main and sub that can threaten tower(but not as well as suction bomb or blasters)
###• Clams:
GOOD/VERY GOOD. Very good speed and ability to push up, frontline, skirmish and get kills, but special is medium value
###• RAINMAKER:
GOOD. Main weapon has poor object damage, but bomb and special can both help. Special has medium value. But it has very good speed and ability to push up, frontline, skirmish and find kills.
#TAKEAWAYS
Overall, slosher is a very good all around weapon, and it makes sense that its a top tier in the current meta. It can play fast, has a lethal bomb, and its special can be very valuable for certain modes. In order to build a team around slosher, the other weapons probably need to help with: paint for map control, safe paint at a distance, slaying, ability to threaten backline targets, and ideally other weapons would contribute high value specials that can get picks (zooka, inkjet), and/or work as an entry tool (tentamissles, rain, probably others). Slosher would synergize best with other weapons that can play a fast, or at least at a medium speed of play, and can do chip damage.
Once you understand the considerations for the weapons in your weapon pool (and the weapon pools of your teammates), you can go through the process explained in the team comp building video to try and assemble a comp out of the options you have. This list can then be useful again in reviewing strong points and weak points of the comp you're considering.
Full disclaimer- I'm a fairly low level player, but I wanted to share what I'm learning and organize it into something that might be helpful to others. Largely just as a learning exercise for myself :)
#splatoon #splatoon3 #splatoonfedi #competitive #comp
