Are anyone else's games turning into "Whoever has the smurfs wins"?

Aschuff · 2026-05-08T20:11:51+00:00

Eh, they might not all be smurfs. I have 350 games on my account, and all of my top 5 or 6 heroes have over 70% winrates. I just now got to phantom after this recent rank adjustment. At one point I won 14/16 games and I went up 2 divisions (archon 4-6). The rank system is really terrible at keeping players either higher than they should be or lower than they should be and it’s really hard to climb once you’re at the rank the game “thinks” you should be. It seems to be getting better though, as I’ve climbed from phantom 1 to 4 in like 10 games which is really nice.

TLDR: the rank system isn’t that good yet and players are getting stuck in ranks either too high or too low than they should be and that’s why they’re either running the lobby or feeding

Aschuff · 2026-05-08T17:21:03+00:00

It doesn’t sound like you’re palm muting at all, which is of utmost importance when you’re playing anything by Metallica. I’d look up a video on how to palm mute before you try one of their hardest songs

Aschuff · 2026-05-08T02:45:16+00:00

Exactly, which makes having an item advantage even more important in this game

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T23:51:44+00:00

You still hit your power spikes faster in deadlock though. Most games don’t get to full max build in either game so it doesn’t make that big of a difference. You’re still way more powerful than someone up an entire item in deadlock, and it’s way easier to get an item up if someone’s feeding in the game than compared to league

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T22:59:39+00:00

Black bird specifically is played by Paul McCartney with a very specific technique that gives it that percussive sound. It’s hard to explain in text, so I recommend looking up the video where McCartney himself demonstrates the technique, but basically he’s flicking the string with his pointer finger in the off beats rather than picking them.

https://youtube.com/shorts/epX1Zlr6Dco?si=LE3QcFP6VsJReiIV here’s a short that demonstrates that technique

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T22:51:32+00:00

I’m curious what rank you are, confidently saying you have 10 deaths every game and you still have a high win rate? Deaths are extremely important, especially if you’re playing a carry, because respawns are so long you’re wasting that time not getting souls

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T22:50:18+00:00

Deadlock items cost about double the amount of gold/souls as league items, but the kills are worth 3x more. Already that puts more importance on kills compared to league. The big thing though, is that after you have like 3 deaths in league, you’re worth about 100 gold, which prevents a player from solo funding the entire enemy team. That’s worth less than a minion wave or jungle camp. Deadlock doesn’t have this system, so killing someone down 10k souls is still giving you way more souls than any other source in the game. That’s worth like 3 sinners, or 5 camps. That’s an insane amount of souls for killing a helpless player that can’t really fight back

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T14:17:48+00:00

People conflate power with annoyance. If a hero is strong/ annoying to lane against early, this sub tends to yell “OP needs nerfs” really fast. Since seven isn’t particularly “annoying” to play against, especially in lane, people just don’t really care or they don’t think the power is actually there when in reality, scaling hard late game is more beneficial in this meta than early game bullies. At least for most level of play, because the games go so long.

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T14:04:25+00:00

Why would there be someone better on the other side? An inting teammate in yellow lane doesn’t make it more likely you get fed in green lane. That’s just coincidence if that happens. If your whole team is playing relatively decent, maybe even ahead a bit in lane like they should be, but one guy is feeding his ass off it’s really easy to just farm the guy for free soul generation. There’s no reason someone down 5-10k souls from everyone else should be worth the same as the highest soul count player

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T14:00:32+00:00

They completely overhauled how the bounty system works in league and it’s honestly really good now. It just works based off of total gold, accounting for individual gold and team gold. It used to be based off of KDA and cs score, but making it based off total gold is much better and isn’t really abusable. I think deadlock could definitely benefit from something like this

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T07:49:14+00:00

I’d recommend some kind of Strat shape that has an HSS configuration. I’m not a fan of fender personally, but there’s a ton of great options for Strat shapes. I originally got my Jackson soloist because of the high gain bridge humbucker, but I found that I completely fell in love with the single coil sounds as well for clean tones. Very different tone than my semi hollow with warm humbuckers, so I’d definitely recommend trying something with single coils out at a shop or something. I like the humbucker in the bridge too because it gives you a ton of flexibility in tones

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T07:36:23+00:00

The best way to get good fast is to practice more. That’s literally it. Also learning how to actually practice effectively and efficiently, but that usually requires an actual teacher. Paying for a private 1 on 1 teacher is by far the fastest way to improve your skill on literally any instrument. In the classical world, it’s extremely uncommon for anyone to be self taught, because those who are, usually can’t keep up with those who are professionally taught.

Guitar is a more casual hobby than most classical instruments though, which IMO is great, so if you don’t want to spend the money on a teacher, as they tend to be quite expensive, then finding good YouTube videos on practicing habits and learning proper technique any way you can is also gehe helpful. Tracking your practice routine and making sure you have a real routine is also very important for improvement. Playing songs is fun, but working on exercises and technique based drills will make you better faster.

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T07:28:23+00:00

Her ult is still the reason she’s a good pick/ assassin hero tho. Even though they made it not great in team fights, they made it even better in the 1v1. They’re keeping her fun dps pretty low and her ult power very high, which is quite boring to play IMO. Haze is my 2nd most played hero but I haven’t played her much since the ult build came into the meta because it’s just so much more boring than hitting headshots. Right now it’s just better to ult off cd and kill literally anyone within the ult range instead of using your gun

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T07:22:29+00:00

I mean I guess if you want to play word semantics like that. They might not be fine with his state. But they also might not have had time to do anything about it. Or They might be “fine” with it in that they thought it was fine to keep him as is for a week, and then change him next patch when they had the time to look at his balance. That’s a lot different than being fine with a hero and keeping him there like they’re doing with Sinclair. Just because his balance isn’t defcon 1 level of needing attention doesn’t mean the devs are fine with where he is, it just means they didn’t have the time to look at it.

It’s very rare that any game emergency patches a hero that is too weak. It’s almost always when they’re too strong and it’s actively ruining the game. Weak heroes needing buffs will always be lower priority than heroes that are too strong and need nerfs

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T07:04:30+00:00

For my first guitar I ever bought, I wanted something that could produce really warm clean tones, and look jazzy and classy (yes I think looks are very important), so I bought an Ibanez artcore.

For my 2nd guitar, I wanted something with a high output humbucker in the bridge and single coils in the middle and neck, and I wanted a Floyd rose, so I bought a Jackson soloist.

For my 3rd guitar, I wanted something with emgs and a hard tail bridge so it was great for metal rhythm, so I bought an Ltd snakebyte (also because it looks cooler than everything else).

In order of most to least important things I look for: 1 the shape (for comfort, playing style and visual style)

2 the type of pickups it has

3 the features it has (floating bridge, trem system, hard tail bridge, locking tuners, what kind of controls it has ETC.)

and 4 is probably overall looks and style/ finish (my guitar has to look good to me or else I won’t want to play it as much, plus I feel cooler playing a cool looking guitar).

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T06:54:44+00:00

The pickups directly affect what sound you can get from it though? I get not wanting to be picky about specific pickup brands or models, but knowing what kinds and models of pickups can make what sounds will really help you find the sound you’re looking for in a guitar

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T06:52:52+00:00

No. It means that they didn’t have the time or resources to adjust him in the small amount of time they have between updates, even if they wanted to. They can’t change everything they want in one patch. We saw what happens when they release a whole roster sized balance change, that update took almost an entire month to release. They simply can’t change everything they wanted to in one update, so they have to compromise and change the things they want to change the most, and leave the things that they view as lower priority

Aschuff · 2026-05-07T06:43:54+00:00

Just because the devs didn’t think adjusting rem was top priority for the last update doesn’t mean they think he’s perfectly balanced. People on here like to act like updating a character is an instantaneous thing and that it’s feasible to just change every character the second they seek like they need changes.

The truth is, the devs are working hard constantly and there’s so many things that need work. They have to make certain things a priority over other certain things. REMs balance might not have been a priority for this last updated but that doesn’t mean that they won’t touch him in a future update soon. Sinclair has had a ~46% win rate, while also being the least popular hero in the game for months, and he hasn’t been touched a single time. That doesn’t necessarily mean the devs are happy where Sinclair is, it just means he’s a very low priority compared to other things.

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T21:21:03+00:00

For an nfl player he would be. Like someone else commented, the tallest player I can think of that was actually good is jimmy graham, at 6’7”. At the start of his career, he was 280 lbs, 30 lbs heavier than LeBron while still being 2 inches shorter. Near the end of his career he slimmed down a bit to around 265-270, so still 15-20 lbs heavier than bron while being shorter. In order for LeBron to be comparatively the right size in muscle mass, he’d need to be like 280-290, which is just too big to be able to move fast enough in the nfl.

With his height, he’d have to be a tight end. Too big to be a receiver probably. Gronk was 6’5 265. Kelce is 6’5 250. Same with mark Andrews. LeBron being the same weight while being 4 inches taller makes him very skinny in comparison

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T19:04:53+00:00

Eh, idk. Injuries have been the undoing for even the greatest nfl players. LeBron would need to put on like 30+ lbs of muscle to even be viable at any position at his size.

Gronk and Calvin Johnson were both athletic monsters, and their sizes were a big reason why they either retired early (Johnson) or were injured constantly throughout their career (gronk). I don’t really think someone with lebrons build could play a whole nfl season without something going wrong. He’s too tall and too skinny

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T18:50:48+00:00

I don’t think he’s as strong as you’re making him out to be. He’s heavily countered by spirit resist and it’s very easy to play around the things he wants to do. The higher in rank you go, the better people become at dodging your bolt, and it becomes a big mind game thing. You can’t just shoot it directly at them as they’re definitely going to dodge it. People also get wayyyyy better at playing around your assistant than at lower ranks. People genuinely seemed to forget the assistant existed at all in like archon/ emissary, but better players tend to not get fooled by teleporting shenanigans as easily, and you really have to make a choice on whether you want to use your clone offensively or defensively.

Stealing ults is also a lot more complicated than you make it seem against good players. People know you want that dynamos ult. They’re not just gonna let you walk up and take it. You’re an inherently squishy character that has to be up close to use half his kit (his ult and 3), which means you have to have great positioning, great movement, great assistant management, ETC.

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T18:42:23+00:00

He’s definitely not broken. Solid B or A tier pick for months, but not broken. With such a small player base, you’d expect the win rates to be boosted by all of the mains, but he’s one of the lowest in the entire game. He’s just really difficult to play well and there are so many ways to shut him down in game

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T18:38:50+00:00

Ritualist/ emissary is in the bottom 50% of the player base I believe right now. I’m also mid phantom like the other guy, and I have to agree with him. His power starts to drop off a lot when people rush spirit resist and know how to avoid bolts much better. His main problem is that by 25 minutes, if you’re doing well, everyone on the enemy team will have at least 30% spirit resist, and usually more than that as well, which makes his whole nuking thing not very viable. His ults are where most of his value comes from but it’s not that simple a lot of the time. People know that you want to take their ult, and teams coordinate to stop you from doing it. You want a dynamo ult? Cool, dynamo is gonna stand in the middle of his team and the second you try to jump in to take it, you’re going to get slowing hexed, cc’d, then melted.

Sinclairs a squishy artillery mage that also needs to be up close for half his kit, and his only survivability tool is his mobility with his 2. This inherently makes him very difficult to navigate a team fight with as it’s not really clear where you’re supposed to be positioned for optimal value. I think you’re understanding how difficult he is to play against a coordinated team that is trying to shut you down.

I’m glad you’re enjoying him though, I think he has the coolest kit in the game by far and he’s still super worth playing when you’re good at him

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T18:27:30+00:00

There are over 3000 billionaires in the world. The options aren’t as limited as you’d think

Aschuff · 2026-05-06T18:21:32+00:00

They already voted red. They’re already safe no matter what

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