So I forgot to do this last night but I have a small bit of time and can touch on a few things in this #NewMeta world:
Haunt: For further clarification since the internet as a whole sucks at explaining this one, whenever a person is splatted while wearing Haunt, they tag the person that splatted them for a time comparable to Echolocator/Point Sensors (about 12 seconds if they don't have cold blooded). If the person wearing Haunt gear is at any point tagged themselves by either an enemy Echolocator, Point Sensors or another person's Haunt tag, they get ability buffs roughly equal to one main of Damage Up, Defense Up & Run Speed Up.
That said, this one is a legit game changer. It will essentially force Echo usage down even further (lest teams be ready to deal with X-Factor'd squids everywhere), weapons with Point Sensors will be very heavily scrutinized and Cold Blooded will still retain a strong place in the meta anyway as its the only thing that reliably deals with Haunt interactions. The buffs are strong enough that I can see a lot of team compositions changing rapidly in the future to further curb Echo and even when Echo goes away fully, you still have a self generating tag upon your splat so it isn't even as though detection of opponents goes out the window either.
Tenacity: Shit's broke brehs.
Last night, we doofed around in a private lobby testing the new effects of this particular ability and with no hard numbers to work from all I can give you is this. The new Tenacity is so fucking strong I was struggling to have moments where my Special Meter wasn't 3/4 filled just to actually catch experiments on my stream last night. The new Tenacity is so strong that I had ~8 Inkzookas available to myself casually fucking around in a Rainmaker match on Piranha Pit while using the Octobrush Nouveau. The new Tenacity is so fucking strong that if the enemy team so much as sniffs the objective in the ranked modes while I'm down even one player on my team, everything was Kraken thanks to how both the in game "defending team special boost" and Tenacity play with one another. The new Tenacity is so strong, the Black Arrowbands with their Tenacity main and Special Saver bias is now up there with the Squid Nordic (Comeback with Quick Respawn bias) as a piece of gear with a perfect main and sub bias synergy as well as being (IMO) a confirmed part of the Custom E-Liter 3K (Scope) Starter Pack.™
The. New. Tenacity. Is. Fucking. Ridiculous.
Ink Efficiency Abilities: Haven't had a chance to do number crunching yet, but it really does feel a fuck load nicer now between Ink Saver Main, Sub and Recovery Up. My oldest 96 Deco build consisting of Special Charge Up Main, 2 Ink Saver Main subs, Cold Blooded with 3 Ink Saver Sub subs & Ink Resistance with 4 Ink Recovery Up subs (spread out between 1 on the hat and 3 on the shoes) has never ever felt so completely self sustaining and efficient. What's more, 9pts (3 subs) of Ink Saver Sub is resulting in me having about ~45-50% or slightly more of my tank left after throwing a Splash Wall from full. Really cool stuff.
Tangent: This probably means the Jungle Hat will come back in some ways depending on weaponry. Not sure if want.
Opening Gambit/Last Ditch Effort: Opening Gambit is so fucking legit. I've been casually using the ability for a bit before the patch (because of the Special Forces Beret's maxed out freshness levels) and always felt that its gimmick was "neat but not apparent enough for it to be a serious decision for most." The new OG however? If you don't win your roll outs from spawn 11 out of 10 times, you either fucked up something big time, had enough time to do a few laps before getting to your post or you won mid roll out. It's just that strong a buff. For further context, I've been using OG to get established ASAP with a Kelp Splatterscope and I'm currently investigating uses with other chargers as well (namely E-Liters to reach perches first or control space quickly). It also helps that I have a somewhat atypical Beret with 2 Ink Recovery subs. Still trying to snag SM's triple Ink Recovery variant.
Last Ditch Effort is fucking Goku mode. I'm not sure what the actual numbers are for how much Ink Saver Main, Ink Saver Sub & Ink Recovery Up are but the effect is real and extremely strong. The addition of some amount of Quick Respawn that further stacks with other QR you might have on your builds is bonkers as well. The devs also had to know what they were doing with this particular change since three out of the four Last Ditch Effort items have abilities that pair well with the buffs given via LDE's activation:
Zekko: Tinted Shades (Special Saver bias; die often, quick respawn more with enough special saved from the last exchange)
Rockenberg: 18K Aviators (Run Speed Up bias; compliment your Ink Efficiency buffs with mobility perks! Perfect for short to mid range shooter weapons looking for a little more "daka" in firefights. Add some swim speeds to get your Fuzzy on and look stylish as fuck while doing so!)
Skalop: Visor Skate Helmet (Quick Respawn bias; What goes good with quick respawn? MOAR QUICK RESPAWN!)
...did I also forget to mention that the ability remains in play after the opposing team pushes objective below 30 points?
...did I also forget to mention that if you push objective further than they do with LDE in effect,
it stays in effect?
Essentially, the last 30 paces & overtime in ranked objective modes and even some squad matches will get crazy and fast.
Bomb Sniffer: Haven't tested personally, but I'm sure Backlot, Pan and a few others could chime in on this one in particular.
I remember joking about how Callie is probably the most savage roller player and Marie is an aimbot recently and this art along with other comments from them are beginning to solidify this sentiment. :lol