* Players - Spraying Forms
By: iSoaker.com
The following is a listing of various water Spray Patterns a Player can use during a water fight (modified from an article by Elite Soaker). The description attempts to explain how the different attack patterns are performed and various advantages or disadvantages. Soakage is a relative term to reflect the amount of water that can be delivered to the target. Range is also a relative term that correlated to the properties of the particular blaster being used. Difficulty is a more subjective term which tries to approximate how well the average Player can perform the Spray Pattern.
Standard Attack
Description: This is your standard shot from any blaster. The blaster is held relatively level, the trigger pulled, and the stream fired arcing downward as the stream gets further from the blaster.
Soakage: Average
Range: Average
Difficulty: Very Easy
Arc Attack
Description: This is a slight modification to the Standard Attack. Instead of holding the blaster relatively level, the blaster is aimed upward at approximately 45 degrees away from horizontal. This maximized the distance the water stream can travel from the nozzle of the blaster, but reduced one's ability to aim and slows down the overall attack since the stream must travel a long, arcing trajectory before arriving at the intended target.
Soakage: Average
Range: Good
Difficulty: Easy
Pulse Attack
Description: This is a slight modification to the Standard Attack. Instead of just pulling the trigger once for a long duration, the trigger is pulled many times quickly to break the solid stream into pulses of water. This does not typically increase the range of shots but what it does do is increase overall attack time as well as allowing one to compensate one's aim especially when targetting a moving object.
Soakage: Low average
Range: Average to Good (if combined with the Arc Attack technique)
Difficulty: Easy to Medium depending on the blaster
Strafing Attack
Description: This is a slight modification to the Pulse Attack. Instead of attempting to track a target when attacking, the Strafing Attack simple Pulse Attacks a general area, going for even water coverage and not any specific targets. The amount of water per target is low, but multiple targets can be hit using this attack. An angle greater than 180 degrees from the first shot should not be attempted unless one is strafing with a blaster with an extremely long firing time.
Soakage: Low
Range: Average
Difficulty: Easy to Medium depending on the blaster
Vertical Attack
Description: This is your standard shot straight up into the air. Not recommended since after reaching peak height, the stream ends up return basically back to its starting point. Not all blasters can do a Vertical Attack as well (not recommended for air-pressure based blasters).
Soakage: Low and primarily to oneself.
Range: Low
Difficulty: Very Easy
Wavy Attack
Description: This is a slight modification to the Standard Attack. Instead of just pulling the trigger while holding the blaster level, the blaster is rocked up and down during the attack. This produces a wavy stream (hence the name). The advantage is that the wavy stream actually covers a slightly greater range than just a Standard Attack as well as covering more surface area should a target be caught in the spray.
Soakage: High Average
Range: Average
Difficulty: Easy
"Zorro" Attack
Description: This is a quick, three-part Pulse Attack with the intent to draw the letter "Z" on the target surface. While this does not increase the range of a blaster, a successful attack will result in a larger amount of the target to be hit with water.
Soakage: High Average
Range: Average
Difficulty: Medium
Spiral Attack
Description: This is a slightly modified Standard Attack. While firing from the blaster, the attacker spins a full 360 degrees to cover all the area around him. It is not recommended to use this attack pattern if allies are within one's blaster's range. However, it is one way to quickly cover an area with water, though not much water for each angle. It is also not recommendable to do this attack to often since it may result in dizziness.
Soakage: Low
Range: Average
Difficulty: Medium
Dual-Pulse Attack
Description: This is a synchonized Pulse Attack using two pressurized blasters, one in each hand. The idea here is that each blaster is Pulsed at alternate times, resulting in two complementary streams heading towards an intended target. This attack is simple to do with pumpless blasters, but can be tricky to perform with pumpable blasters. This attack pattern is not recommended for use if both blasters used require pumping after a short amount of time.
Soakage: High
Range: Average
Difficulty: Hard
Riot Blast Attack
Description: Some types of air-pressure based blasters have a removeable nozzle that covers a larger opening. When the nozzle is removed and the blaster is pressurized and fired, the resulting burst of water comes out similarly to buckshot from a shotgun. While this covers a good amount of surface area, range is extremely limited and one typically only gets one quick blaster from this attack.
Soakage: High
Range: Low
Difficulty: Medium
Figure "8"
Description: To perform hold down the trigger while doing a vertical or horizontal figure 8. While not directly soaking an opponent, it covers a wide area, especially the horizontal 8. This works best with a blaster with a long shot time or a hose for base defense.
Soakage: Average
Range: Average to high depending on the blaster
Difficulty: Easy
Posted: 20040501
