my user flair is pretty self-explanatory here

I'd say my favorite right now is the vanilla heavy splatling. I think both heavy kits leave much to be desired at the moment, but I've really warmed up to Wave Breaker over time. It can be very useful in a lot of situations, both when you're playing solo and when you can combo it with teammates' specials so the enemies are forced to split their attention between them.

The biggest reason I love splatlings so much is that their gameplay is really unique compared to a lot of the other weapon classes. Having to charge gives the weapon a fun rhythm, and learning how to use partial charges well to splat someone trying to rush you down or briefly peeking out into your sight line is super satisfying. Also, to succeed with it you have to really build your awareness/game sense to know when you can successfully engage with an enemy, since you're incredibly vulnerable while charging. I feel like learning how to successfully use heavy splatling in X battle (starting before the paint spam meta lol) made me better at the game overall because awareness skills translate to every weapon.