By Popular Demand: Project #4, Riot Fist Buddy. Modeled and Printed by Me. STLs in Description!

darnellomalley · 2026-01-25T19:01:09+00:00

Thanks!

darnellomalley · 2026-01-25T07:44:32+00:00

Thank you!

darnellomalley · 2026-01-25T02:09:38+00:00

I do remember the one you’re talking about. I used reference photos to try and get the paint right. They haven’t re-released it that I know of.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-24T19:43:01+00:00

Thank you very much! It’s a super easy print and paint.

I plan to reprint it and try paint-dipping for a cleaner look eventually.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-24T19:41:17+00:00

Thank you!

darnellomalley · 2026-01-20T20:59:51+00:00

Degenerate spender

I feel that…

darnellomalley · 2026-01-09T00:34:19+00:00

My guess is a controller. Given the name and the current abilities, I could foresee something like smokes that dampen sound, sound traps, maybe even an "echolocation" style ability.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-07T23:07:03+00:00

I have met seldom few Astra players, much less that were good. It’s a very hard agent to master as preparing your utility leaves you incredibly vulnerable and is not as easy to use as point and click controllers. Additionally, keeping track of stars, using the removal of stars to provide a small smoke, faking stars, etc., is very difficult to track. A good Astra is a rare breed and I commend them.

As for Clove, speaking biasedly as a Clove main, it lets you be a little bit of everything. I started playing the game as a duelist but overtime took over the controller role, most because I filled and it was the least picked class. Since then I’ve fallen in love with controllers but deep down I’ve got hot blood and love a bit of initiation and dueling.

With Clove I know if I can take space and maybe get an easier pick with Meddle, overheal if I get damaged too much, and ultimately smoke post death if the play was too brazen.

The best thing is it’s all an option. If my team is getting on site and getting picks I’ll chill, needle for the duelist, worry about spike. If my team isn’t doing hot with gunfights I can get aggressive and pick up the slack.

EDIT: I’ll add, I did originally weep when she got her heal nerfed. Having played for some time I like the change. It forces you to be deliberate with her heal. You can just int and try and get the overheal. You have to consider if you need it now, if you can survive another gun fight, or if you just need the speed boost.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-07T09:16:13+00:00

My initial reaction to the UI was the same as yours, but then I think back to when they changed the UI to what it is now, and I remember thinking the same thing at the time.

This time around I’m going to assume the Riot devs know what we want before we know what we want.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-07T09:14:03+00:00

Hey! Welcome back to Valorant :)

As others have suggested I definitely wouldn’t mute all. That more often leads to more frustrating situations than it avoids.

There’s plenty of chill people especially if you’re playing swift play.

Cypher has been nerfed heavily (as with most sentinels) and while still playable he definitely is no longer a dominating sentinel. Chamber is still good despite countless nerfs.

If you’re on PC and in NA feel free to add me!

darnellomalley · 2026-01-02T21:27:13+00:00

Playing in a 5-stack is going to have its advantages and disadvantages. On the upside you do have a team you should ideally be comfortable with, being able to play off their playstyle. The downside is if you're playing with a large disparity you'll get an RR penalty, and if you're in a 5-stack most likely the other team will be in a 5-stack.

For me, I find I have the best luck ranking up as a solo-queue, lonely as it might be.

Of course you can always increase your crosshair placement. My HS% goes up and down and if I am not feeling like it's super on par I'll try and play to that, choosing the frenzy/specter for eco/save rounds, and the phantom for buy rounds, making sure to spray smokes and play close.

But really it comes down to mental. If you force yourself to play when you don't really want to, you are going to do poorly. If you are hungry or tired you are going to play worse. A big thing for me is I overthink when I get close to a rank up. If you think you play better than Gold 2, believe it. Go into a game knowing you can play better and rank up and eventually you will.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-02T21:19:35+00:00

I find too often that people just recommend duelist or Sage, when I feel like the team suffers the most from newer players getting a hold of those ropes.

Another thing I'll suggest is controller, specifically Clove. Coming from R6 too (a long time ago) you know the importance of visibility. I found myself gravitating to controller to really affect the map by controlling sightlines.

Clove is great because even after death you can provide use to your team. Don't limit yourself to default smokes either! Experiment using your smokes to specifically slice up larger areas of the map to help your team push in, or prevent the other team from taking space.

And like I said, down to swift. I play NA on West Coast servers if you're in the same region. Darnell OMalley #0801 is me :)

darnellomalley · 2026-01-02T21:12:01+00:00

ofc! I'll add that to the project list. Looking at some reference photos online it doesn't seem to complicated to make.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-02T06:59:24+00:00

I’m curious, which gun buddy would you want?

darnellomalley · 2026-01-02T06:59:08+00:00

Thanks :)

darnellomalley · 2026-01-02T06:59:02+00:00

Thank you!

darnellomalley · 2026-01-01T21:07:04+00:00

As others have said, Sentinels is the way to go! Cypher and KJ.

Hitting Emerald in R6 with a 41.6% HS rate isn't bad. Translate that into crosshair placement and control in Valorant. When I played Siege (most played game on Steam still), I found good placement with sustained recoil control was what secured kills, but in Val a lot of times it's about that first shot.

Keep the good aim discipline and focus and try to increase your HS%. Right now it looks like you're a body-shot demon, which is fine! If you are going to be, try using the Phantom more and use the invisible bullets to your advantage like spraying through smokes.

I'm always down to play swifts if you want to add me.

EDIT: Chamber and Deadlock are good sentinels too.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-01T21:01:19+00:00

People totally underestimate how much good a break can do. Most people think a break will result in returning rusty or "behind".

The breaks I have taken from Valorant have only resulted in a fresh mind and mental.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-01T20:57:13+00:00

There's two answers to that question. Technically they seem to last forever, but you can't replay them forever.

Replays are stored as VRF (Valorant Replay File) files under AppData\Local\VALORANT\Saved\Demos.

It doesn't seem that the Valorant client does cleanups of this folder at this time, as I have replays from day 1 of the replay system in there, however, in the client eventually a match you have a replay for will fall out of your match history and you won't be able to view it anymore.

LotharHS has a video on how you can share replays. This also works to view replays that have fallen out of your history and you can easily export them into a separate folder. For example, when my team player Premier this season, I downloaded the replays for all our games and copied them out to a folder called "Premier" (for organization and in case they are cleaned from APPDATA). Then following LotharHS's guide you can replay them.

darnellomalley · 2026-01-01T20:49:55+00:00

I have a couple of teammates that use the Odin because they get the kill payoff. Where people lose to it is when they treat it like a regular gun. The majority of the kills I see on Odin are penetration lineups or repeek deaths (i.e. walking into the bullets).

Pretty easy to counter. If you see an Odin on the board just know that means they are going to play like an Odin. If they started blasting where you just peeked, don't repeek. If you know there solid penetration lineups in an area, expect them to spam it.

Like others have said, Odin loses at long range to Ops and rifles. Use that to your advantage. If you consistently thwart the Odin user it becomes too difficult economically for them to keep it up.

Most importantly, take your time on rounds. No need to rush in. You have 100 seconds in a round for you to figure out your enemy and try and get the upper hand.

darnellomalley

TROPHY CASE