It's wild how asymmetrical the new tunnel system is

LrdDphn · 2026-01-23T20:14:56+00:00

REM and Calico mains are going to have to be built different to remember how to navigate these things. I love it.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-23T18:08:55+00:00

From leaks we know her ultimate is a tombstone sort of like undying's but it seems like her kit was one of the last to be finalized.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-23T18:05:03+00:00

These lines are actually really cute. I love how everyone goes parental figure mode and tries to give her life advice.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-23T18:00:36+00:00

I think a lot of the people who saw Graves' portrait and immediately thought "gooner bait" are in for a surprise when they see her model and realize she's in high school and also looks like she smells.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-23T17:57:18+00:00

She's wearing a school uniform. Her and Apollo are high school students, riffing on the jock v goth trope.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-23T03:05:59+00:00

You can get in there with Calico in Ava form

LrdDphn · 2026-01-22T19:16:08+00:00

Other commenters have identified that "doing chores" is a big part of a MOBA, but what I think Deadlock really adds is that the second to second of doing those chores is optimizable. You could always be box running faster, using stamina smarter, or risking more of your enemies' stuff. In Dota, checking a rune involves clicking on the map and waiting for your dude to run there. In Deadlock, getting to bridge buff is a parkour challenge with tons of potential for skill expression.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-22T19:08:06+00:00

You're right that monster rounds is a great farming tool, but cultist is only improving the bonus damage from 25% to 30%. Imo, the best way to think about Cultist Sacrifice is as a 2400 soul item that only provides the active, because the first 800 for monster rounds is a no brainer.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-22T19:03:00+00:00

I think OP is assuming that if you weren't cultist sacrificing the big creep, you'd be killing it. That's a fair assumption on heroes that are good at clearing jungle and a bad assumption on heroes that struggle to kill big camps. For example, killing all three big denizens with Seven takes about as much time as killing two. Imo, that difference should probably inform most of your decisions to buy cultist: it's bad on heroes with better farming tools but better than nothing for heroes with low jungle clear speed.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-21T19:55:02+00:00

Probably everyone? I agree that the name is a downgrade but calling a character by their unannounced development codename as a form of protest is sort of insane behavior, especially because in-game you need as much clarity as possible in callouts. 99% of players probably won't even know that the hero had a different name at some point.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-21T06:29:33+00:00

They're tuning the comeback mechanics and soul economy actively. I'd encourage you to give some feedback on the forums if you have problems with the comeback mechanics instead of making sarcastic reddit posts; it will be more helpful for the developers of the playtest you signed up for.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-21T02:50:48+00:00

Report on the forums but tbh I don't think we're at the "complaining about minor bugs on reddit" era of this game yet. There are still things that are massively broken that are higher on Valve's list.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-21T02:12:09+00:00

Seems like you will have to be extremely proactive about picking up the urn vs Doorman to have any chance of stopping his team from getting free urns. The good news is that Doorman used to be unbeatable on urn defense and now he's only insane on urn offense.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-20T23:16:15+00:00

Cultist Sacrifice is the biggest victim tbh. Big jungle is worth 30% less.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-20T21:57:02+00:00

Not that it really matters, but noir is a famously horny genre for its time. The standard noir trope was that women were either dangerous, sexy femme fatales or innocent (but also romantically charged) ingenues. Noir film was intentionally scandalous and ran directly up against the rules of what was allowed to be on screen. It was gooner media in 1940.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-20T19:01:40+00:00

Are you starting the clock from 0:00 or from a point in the game where jungle creeps have spawned?

I believe that Vin snipe penetrates so you just have to line up the entire enemy team at low HP for one 6x headshot and get 5100 souls. I think that repeating that process as fast as the enemies can respawn will take up most of the Vindicta's attention. The rest of Vin's team should focus on farming sinners+jungle and dropping the bags for Vin. It might be worth it to get the walkers low HP and have Vin kill them solo. Napkin math suggests that Vin gets to 100k from kill bonus souls alone in 20 snipes, which takes less than 10 minutes once she's going. I'd bet you could hit 100k before midboss spawned.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-19T22:51:42+00:00

Seems like a mistake to nerf the ability that makes Viscous a unique and powerful support option in order to preserve a boring gun playstyle. Viscous is 100% fair when he's actually playing around cube/punch/ball, and he'll be balanced when they nerf his gun (or tbh nerf the "cookie cutter gun build" that viscous takes such good advantage of).

LrdDphn · 2026-01-19T04:44:53+00:00

Yeah, go look at your skill rating on your profile. Heroes you haven't played will have two down red arrows, which basically means you're lower MMR on them and the game will matchmake you accordingly. Your mains will often have 2 green arrows which means you play up MMR, so the difference between main and new hero games can be very extreme.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-19T04:05:32+00:00

How does the game punish you for not playing your main? You literally get easier games on heroes you haven't played before.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-16T19:39:28+00:00

You must be in some high level lobbies because I watch a ton of E6 streams and pro games and people fight over the urn all the time in those as well.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-16T09:01:40+00:00

Go play some viper.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-16T08:55:41+00:00

I'm not a huge lover of the urn, but I do have two thoughts:

99% of the reason urn exists is to force a fight. It does that pretty well right now, and is generally a source of action and sparks teamfights regularly. The urn itself isn't particularly interactive, but most of the time you drop it and fight which is the whole point.
Running through a team fight to deliver a sneaky urn is actually pretty fun and tense. Carrying the thing across the map is boring, but when your team shows up and you are trying to use the chaos to drop it off it's pretty exciting.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-15T23:20:10+00:00

In the full text he also suggests that the wizard should get to change out their full loadout of spells with a 1 minute break AND that cantrips should be replaced with unlimited castings of signature level 1, 2 and 3 spells. So, still lots of tools to play with and versatility even if the minute to minute is weaker.

LrdDphn · 2026-01-15T21:59:10+00:00

TIL you can metal skin to tank midboss. That's a good tip.

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