Water guns which are better than their stats suggest

Discussions of all varieties of stock water guns and water blasters.
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SSCBen
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Water guns which are better than their stats suggest

Post by SSCBen » Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:02 pm

Duxburian mentioned that the XP 150 and Gargantua do better in wars than their stats suggest. What are some other blasters like that? Why do you think they are good?

Seems to me that we need some more relevant stats. The XP 150 seems good to me because if you pump while shooting you'll be able to keep a continuous stream. Few water guns can do that. Others have talked about number of pumps per tap shot and that's the same idea. This would be a good stat to have.

The XP 150 is underpowered, though, and I find filling it to be a pain. I imagine that the XP Pool Pumper is better in both counts with a homemade backpack, while presumably maintaining the excellent pump. Edit: iSoaker.com says I'm wrong about the pump volume for the XP Pool Pumper.

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SEAL
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Re: Water guns which are better than their stats suggest

Post by SEAL » Sat Apr 30, 2016 5:04 pm

Haven't used my Gargantua yet, but the 150 has been my light primary of choice for the past two years. To me, the attributes that make it a great soaker are pump volume and trigger speed/responsiveness. You can fire off a flurry of tap shots in a couple seconds, then pump once and you're back up to full pressure. You can hold back most CPS with that thing. Just keep firing. However I've never seen anyone actually pump while shooting; that would mess up your accuracy.

As an aside, the XP 75 has an even better trigger and a similar-sized pump, but it's PR and the reservoir tends to blow off, haha. That said, it doesn't seem noticeably weaker than the 150. I'd actually be quite interested to see how competitive the 75 is. I don't remember anyone ever using one. It could very well end up being a gun that's better than it's stats suggest. However I would still take the 150 just because I don't like PR guns.

I would say another gun that's better in practice than on paper is the Vanquisher, for a rather interesting reason that my brother pointed out. It has pretty good range (I got just under 40'), and just plain stupid field life, but it lacks the thick, explosive streams of contemporary medium primaries. But it can still do well in that class, and here's why: firing it makes almost no noise. Small CPS guns make a *PSHT* sound when they fire, which has saved me from being hit a couple times. Meanwhile, Vanquisher streams just come out of nowhere. If your opponent turns away, you can lob a shot at them and they won't hear it coming.

There are also guns that do worse than their stats suggest. In my experience, the Colossus is one such blaster. Compared to other light primaries, it's got great range, and no obvious weaknesses in the statsheet. But the stream breaks up quite a bit, making hitting anything a challenge. At range, you're basically just sprinkling your opponent.

Ultimately, stats will never tell the whole story. Just like where certain players may not have the greatest kill/death ratio, but are an invaluable addition to the team regardless, due to their tactical knowledge, chemistry with other members, etc. Another example is Pokemon, where a 'mon might have mediocre stats, but becomes popular due to its ability or movepool or what have you.
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Re: Water guns which are better than their stats suggest

Post by marauder » Mon May 02, 2016 10:45 am

Thanks for reminding me that I really need to add the Pool Pumper review.

My darkhorse contender for this category would be the Storm 2500. It gets overlooked because of its small stream size, but the shot stays together incredibly well. Combine that with an insanely huge, SS 300 size, pump volume, the ability to use it as a piston pumper with 3-4x output, high durability, and great field life, and it's rather competitive. https://hydrowar.wordpress.com/storm2500/
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Re: Water guns which are better than their stats suggest

Post by SSCBen » Sat May 07, 2016 5:05 pm

SEAL, I see what I wrote was confusing. I didn't mean to suggest pumping while shooting is a good idea, just that the output is so low (relatively) that you don't need to pump much to stay full. The pump is faster than the nozzle is basically the point.

The XP 75 looks interesting. I think water pumps generally work better than air pumps, and the pressurized reservoir name of the XP 75 is no good either. So, I doubt it's better than XP 150, but it could be comparable and would stand well in its own class.

You make a good point about noise. I've been meaning to look more into that, so here's my cue...

Worse than the stats suggest is also very interesting. I've never used a WW Colossus. The iSoaker review of the Colossus 2 made me realize that the angle meter gives you the wrong idea, because 45 degrees is not the optimal angle for a real stream. The output is pretty low, so this suggests that to get hits at longer range you'll need more flow. I've been curious about the amount of water needed for a hit and this gives me some ideas. iSoaker did some tests a while back (kinda posted here) and they suggested that 30 mL would be enough to count as a hit. Now, at range the water spreads out, so if you take a tap shot then you might need more than one hit to count. Worth thinking about.

marauder, the Storm 2500 is very interesting. Storm water guns are generally overlooked, so thanks for pointing it out. 70+ mL pump volume seems to be pretty useful. It's a shame manufacturers don't make pumps like that any longer. I'm going to start thinking about how to do homemade pumps better.

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Re: Water guns which are better than their stats suggest

Post by marauder » Sat May 07, 2016 6:50 pm

I started messing around with replacing a Colossus 2 pump with an XP 150 pump. I also changed out the PC for an Arctic Blast PC.. Currently it's at my parents' house, and it works, but it needs a backpack reservoir, which I have plenty of, and the shell and nozzle need to be placed on it. At this point though, it's no longer really a Colossus 2. But, it should be a lot more useful.
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