Competitive:Annaki Splattershot Nova

Unofficial

Use
The Annaki Splattershot Nova is a midline-ranged supportive weapon with high paint, high range, off-put by low damage, and slow kill times. While it has a more lethal kit than its predecessor, its greatest strength is using its kit to control the battlefield, continuing to encourage a supportive playstyle.


 * The weapon's range is 14.49 units.
 * The weapon has good ink efficiency at 0.96% per shot with a great fire rate, and will primarily play around obtaining an Inkjet for its teammates.

The Nova struggles with offensive tasks due to its low damage and low accuracy, making its time to kill vary from "high for Splatoon" to "very bad", which is something that is not generally the case for the Shooter class. For instance, the Jet Squelcher is still a 4-shot splat with a high range and a decent fire rate, making it serviceable at protecting itself.

The Splattershot Nova main weapon struggles with protecting itself, and the user should not engage with melee targets within most of its range, as its kill time and low reliability cannot guarantee that it will out damage at most distances. It can generally hold off when it has its range or a good position. It is ill-advised to take a fight with other weapons with high mobility such as the Splattershot and Splatana Wiper, as in most positions the paint output of the Splattershot Nova can be somewhat ignored.

Your goal should be to survive as a supportive weapon, but holding off against other weapons can give a good charge to your special meter, just make sure to hold wise and well-defended positions.

The Ink Mines sub-weapon is notoriously weak for most weapons, and the Annaki Splattershot Nova does not necessarily stray from this. However, due to its special, it can leave Ink Mines down by its Inkjet recall point and help prevent enemy camping of your jump via marking for your teammates, or yourself.

Inkjet is - at the time of this writing on update 4.0.2 - considered the best Special Weapon in the metagame, and can be used to create offensive pressure for your teammates, which gives Annaki Splattershot Nova its niche.

Synergy
Inkjet leaves the Annaki Splattershot Nova with a niche as arguably the highest output of Inkjet in the game, in exchange for lacking offensive pressure and team support like the Ballpoint Splatling. Due to this, it should not be played instead of a Ballpoint Splatling, but generally on double Inkjet compositions that intend to use many Inkjets and gain progress quickly.

Countermeasures
High mobility weapons such as the Splattershot and Splatana Wiper do not mind the paint Splattershot Nova produces, and have a high chance of winning a fight against it. The weapon struggles with its high time to splat, and this makes it unlikely to win any fight unless it is fighting with a teammate, has Inkjet, or is able to abuse its range in a linear area.

Gear Abilities
The Annaki Splattershot Nova tends to use 10AP or higher of Special Charge Up, because Inkjet makes the weapon work. It tends to run 7AP or higher of Special Power Up, this helps Inkjet get more splats. With 5AP of Run Speed Up, combined with the weapon's 10% run speed increase while firing from 3.1.0, makes it hard to pin down the Nova unless up close, and helps with strafing in general. 5AP of Swim Speed Up can pair nicely with that, as Shooters tend to go between firing and swimming quickly. Utility subs are encouraged.

According to sendou.ink, 52.77% of recorded builds run Drop Roller, a common ability which helps with getting the jump on enemies camping your Inkjet recall point. Some other decently common Primary Abilities are Last-Ditch Effort, and Stealth Jump.