Shark Tier List?

[Flishster]

It's been a while since we had a thread on this, so I'm curious to see how everyone currently feels all the sharks stack up.

S tier:
Mako - Really impossible to deal with a good mako. A tiny bit easier to hit than the blue shark, but getting free points for kills that don't even necessarily have to be your own will always wini out over free health. You can just go ham and unlock basically every ability if you really are doing well, and even if you're losing you typically can at least finish up a basic build for the mako.

A tier:
Blue Shark - The blue shark is a little trickier to hit than the mako honestly just because it's so narrow and well... blue. That said, its ability is far inferior to the mako which compensates. If you're doing bad as the blue, you can't really come back from it like you can with the mako, but if you're doing really well you're pretty much on par if not a tad better than the mako. The fact you can't get those free points though and whoever kills the marked diver gets the free health rather than you always is what makes me think the blue isn't quite as good.

Tiger Shark - Like the mako the tiger is really hard to counter if they're really good. That said, its size and stam pool will always make it a little worse. It has to rely way too much on Blood Rage late game to be any higher. Honestly though, that's not too bad off for it. It's still crazy good.

B tier:
Great White - I feel like the Great White is a little worse than it used to be because the divers now have the AAP-8 to tranq it early game and the SCRUMP to do high damage mid-game. That said, it's still crazy powerful and being able to deal with volleydrag and nets keeps it viable even in the late game, unlike the HH or Whitetip.

Bull - I originally would have probaby put the Bull a tier lower than the Great White, but after using a lot more nowadays I think it really deserves to be in the same tier. Even without maxing its ability, the bull is still crazy powerful with vitalized frenzy, and with powerful tail it can be trickier to net than all the sharks lower on this list. The fact it gets countered by nets at all is why it's not higher, however, and having to wait around will always be a little too gimmicky to be reliable. Having a mako for a teammate as a bull shark is literally the worst thing in the world.

C tier:

Thresher - The thresher was my main for the longest time till we got the goblin, and I will always give it a special place in my heart because of that. Mid-game I'd say it's probably the most threatening shark, and is definitely the best one at making divers waste money because of its ability to destroy so many consumables at once, and cause divers to keep medikits around at all times. That said, without vitalized frenzy its damage late-game is a little too reliant on divers clumping together, and with vitalized frenzy it's too reliant on good timing. It's just reliant on a bunch of "ifs" rather than "whens". If the divers clump together and you hit all your tailswipes right, the thresher dominates the game like nobody's business. It's just if those things don't happen, you die.

Whitetip - I would do anything for the whitetip to be more viable competitively but as it currently sits it's just a tiger that's easier to see, and thus easier to kill, net, tranq, etc... Sure at max ability it gets that sweet thrash damage increase putting it at godly levels (two maxed ability WT's can almost always clean up divers if they get the drop on them) but the Whitetip is just too easy to see and if I had to pick probably has the worst ability of all the sharks. Not by much, but every other shark's ability is a straight up bonus to it- the Whitetip's is really the only one who is outright handicapped by it.

Hammerhead - The Hammerhead I think is a little higher than it was before (though it's still second to worst...) simply because it can gimp the early game by going for headstrong and breaking steve if the divers aren't ready for it. If you know it's coming, it can be countered, but the fact it can do that at all is worth recognition. That said, outside of this gameplay style, it's damage is too inconsistent and it's too easy to counter to be much better than second to worst. Talk about easy to net, this is really the only shark I can ever net consistently, and it's the only tank shark with a counter available from the start of the game (the bangstick).

D tier:

Goblin - The goblin is my favorite shark to play but in the end I just accept that it's the worst shark in the game. It's by far the best shark in open water, except... The game doesn't take place in open water unless a chaser decides to go after you. So that doesn't matter. Sorry Gobbo, I love you, but you really suck. You are great 1v1, but this is a 2v4 game, so you're just outgunned. At least you can still be the only shark to waste bangstick ammo without actually taking damage.

[SeanXD]

S Tier: Sharks

D Tier: Divers

[Requiem31]

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[Babawze]

I don't think the differences in balance in a objective view are enough to warrant any weight at all. People playstyles varies, some are better at some sharks.
Personally, against a difficult diver premade, mako is my worst, followed by blue. My best are tresher and tiger, the other fares pretty equally to me, goblin surely not being the last of them despite my initial opinion of it. Anyway, i'm ALWAYS playing random. (except quest, sometimes.)
From the perspective of me diver against sharks, the order differs again in general manners, but it all comes back to whom am i facing exactly and their personal talent with the chosen shark.

So anyone saying that one shark is OP and another one is garbage, or even just saying one is objectively better than another.... is meaningless to me.

That said, altough irrelevant, against an easy team some shark clearly have more stomping power and can finish a match more quickly or brutally than others.

[Flishster]

this is not for me specifically but from what I've seen from myself and other pro players. I am not a good mako and I probably do better with bull and goblin than any other sharks.

[Seraph]

Thresher is far more effective in high level games than Bull. Bull is mostly a pubstomper like HH, but some HHs can still wipe a good diver team early which I don't see happening as fast with Bull.

[Slim Dusty]

Blue shark A tier i would not say so.

[PigsR4Eating]

Thresher is C tier, wtf?

[Flishster]

Originally posted by Slim Dusty:

Blue shark A tier i would not say so.

It's definitely far worse than the mako but it's even zippier and not having to eat seals really helps it keep the pressure on divers even early-game when mako is basically not relevant.

Originally posted by Seraph:

Thresher is far more effective in high level games than Bull. Bull is mostly a pubstomper like HH, but some HHs can still wipe a good diver team early which I don't see happening as fast with Bull.

I've seen good HH's wipe teams but I've also been a bull who wipes teams early. It's technically a tank shark but really its best attribute is really its thrash damage which is the part that doesn't change with its ability level, so you can pretty much get VF without even maxing the ability and chain kill. Also being the only tank shark you can't just avoid by going into open water increased its placement as well.

[aleee]

Goblin SSS++++SSSS++++++++++SSSS+++SS Tier.

Also, assuming a good 4 man diver team mako is really bad early game. As long as divers stay
clear of a entry and exit point so the mako can't do both in one lunge mako will never kill any full hp diver. Once mako manage to get some evo points things change but a good diver team can delay that by quite a lot.

I like Blue a lot, to me, seems like a better mako. Though his ability does not give evo points, it heals you, because of that you can skip healing evos giving you free evo points to spend somewhere else on top of being harder to hit.

Tiger is pretty good

Bull is a tricky one, by himself not great against a good diver team but if played with your partner bull can be great even against a good diver team.

Whitetip is nerfed to the ground in my opinion, still fun to play.

Hammerhead as I've said other times, it is incredibly unreliable for me, I guess it's my ping, some times it does no damage or very little damage hitting a perfect full speed 90° against the wall other times it works, can't comment on this shark because of that.

Thresher isn't great against good divers since, #1 they will spread out, #2 they know to aim at the center of mass. So, kind of like mako takes longer to get the much needed evos against a good team.

GW I would say, in my opinion, the best shark in the game. GW is a braindead shark and it is so good that you can win games by playing like a bot, spawn -> go in, trade 1-1 -> repeat, eventually you get a 2-1 trade and you win.

[Herr Kruelbar®]

Originally posted by Slim Dusty:

Blue shark A tier i would not say so.

Agreed. The Blue is EXTREMELY fragile and can be squashed quickly and easily.

Originally posted by PigsR4Eating:

Thresher is C tier, wtf?

Yeah ... no. The thresher is FAAAR more dangerous than that. So is the HH.

Dont stress, lads ... its only an opinion piece ... needs a bit of work but its not bad. At least the OP is entertaining LOL

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Originally posted by Herr Kruelbar®:

Originally posted by Slim Dusty:

Blue shark A tier i would not say so.

Agreed. The Blue is EXTREMELY fragile and can be squashed quickly and easily.

Originally posted by PigsR4Eating:

Thresher is C tier, wtf?

Yeah ... no. The thresher is FAAAR more dangerous than that. So is the HH.

Dont stress, lads ... its only an opinion piece ... needs a bit of work but its not bad. At least the OP is entertaining LOL

It's an interesting topic (basically "which is your favourite shark and why") and the OP justifies his opinions lucidly. It's indicative of something that's very hard to achieve - good game balancing by the devs - that opinions and usage vary so much.

With Diver kit I think now there's less diversity. The AAP-8 is the diver default starting weapon and I've been in the cage where all four divers had the AAP-8. And how many are using other weapons because of quests ?

Please don't nerf the weapon though. The key to game balance is ensuring diver and shark wins are as close to 50/50 as possible and I don't think the AAP-8 has changed that - not least that usually by the end of safe 2 divers have changed to different weapons.

My favourite shark ? Any dead one (except real life - real life I love sharks).

S.x.

[aleee]

Im not sure a 50/50 winrate should be the goal or if it is an indicative of a balanced game, specially in a game with mostly brand new people playing it. There are way too many variables involved, skill gap, a lag spike at the worst time, someone having a bad day, someone having a great day etc...

A combination of statistics and asking veterans, like say, people with over 1k hours would be much better. Different people giving different points of view as to why a weapon might be too good or in need of a buff with an explanation behind that thought.

[Shork]

S Tier:
- Mako (Still the hardest to play, but becomes a monster once you're past the early game...getting there is EXTREMELY hard vs actual vets, though)
- HH (Hey, I beat vet premades with it as well...it can be countered quite hard, but if you actually can play HH well, it'll be easily an S tier due to the potential of killing all 4 divers within like 3 seconds)
-Tiger (Pretty much still the best all around if you don't know what to pick)

A Tier:
- Noodle (Technically still a Mako, also got an interesting hitbox...but the ability isn't as good IMO...S Tier if combined with a real good shark ally tho, especially tanky ones)
- GW (scrub shark but the tanking can make up for a lot..gameplay wise I'd put it into C tho...slow isn't my thing)

B Tier:
- Bull (Can really suffer from it's counters, potential for infinite HP bull tho...on the other side, death means gaining rage again...lots of wasted time...it's mostly a pub stomp shark)
- White Tip (that dmg can be surprising, but overall I still think it's a scuffed tiger and I wouldn't use it vs vets)
- Thresher (Suffered too much from AAP IMO...it still can be very great, but I feel like open water it suffers too much, and it depends way too much on the diver placement...certainly not something I enjoy anymore)

C Tier:
- Gobbo (Still a meme)


My winrate with any of those is close to 100%, though. But that's just random matches.

[delacroix01]

Hard to say for me really. These days I just pick sharks based on maps and how many good divers I'm going up against. Still, if I must rank them it'd be like this:

S: Tiger and Bull (my current main)
A: Thresher (The tail whip can be a great weapon against good open water hunters)
B: GW, WT (I'm just not really good with these sharks)
C: Mako, HH, Gobo, Blue (For Mako it's mainly because of my recent ping (90 to 100+ at minimum) that I can no longer use it. For Blue I just haven't played it enough. And I'm just horrible at HH or Gobo)

[Flishster]

Originally posted by Herr Kruelbar®:

Originally posted by Slim Dusty:

Blue shark A tier i would not say so.

Agreed. The Blue is EXTREMELY fragile and can be squashed quickly and easily.

Originally posted by PigsR4Eating:

Thresher is C tier, wtf?

Yeah ... no. The thresher is FAAAR more dangerous than that. So is the HH.

Dont stress, lads ... its only an opinion piece ... needs a bit of work but its not bad. At least the OP is entertaining LOL

Blue is if anything less fragile than mako because it's harder to see and hit. The fact it doesn't lunge in a straight line like every other shark does in the game (it bobs upwards in its animation) makes it harder to hit to begin with. You can easily screw up a blue's day, but blue is A tier the same reason mako was A tier before it had its ability buffed to what it currently is. (For reference, it used to only ever give you 5 points) It's just hard as hell to hit. Mako's ability makes it still leagues better than the blue because the mako can almost ALWAYS guarantee that it will at least get evolutions even if it doesn't get kills early-game, but putting all your cards in stopping the blue early game won't always work, and even then the blue can always help their teammate stay healed up even without getting any kills itself. Being able to keep pressure on divers is incredibly helpful, and blue really never has to eat seals unless he seriously messes up so he can keep the pressure on for a long time. Being a speed shark that can keep pressure like that also makes him really good at DPV denial, though I'd say Goblin will always be the best DPV denier simply because it's so fast when sprinting.

Like I said in my original post, thresher is able to wreck house if things work in his favor. But putting all your cards on an if rather than a when doesn't exactly work out very well, and still definitely the best shark mid-game. Its early game is absolutely horrible, however, and I wouldn't say it's exactly a good shark in open-water, though it can work. It's not a bad shark by any means, but if I am going to go up against fellow 100's I will only pick thresher on DH or Galleon where Thresher is absolute king. The thing is with Thresher, however, is, more than any other shark, he really is only as powerful as the map he plays on. Hillside, Temple, and if I had to guess probably the new Snowfall map (though I really haven't played it enough and have never played it as thresher to say for sure) are terrible thresher maps because they're so open the divers are basically never going to clump up and you're basically a worse mako with an AOE deployable and wall breaker at that point.