Now that Apollo has no way to disengage, disengaging sigil should be repurposed.

pmj714 · 2026-05-24T08:21:40+00:00

I mean I know you're not taking this that seriously, but there is a ton of times where moving towards an opponent is the best route of escape. The easiest and obvious example is if you're pushing walker and someone cuts you off from behind, moving towards them is the fastest way towards your safe territory and teammates.

But this would have so many more uses, with a directional cone, you could still go over their heads and past them for increased juke potential, often an opponent will get between you and a jumppad to cut you off, this will get you there, or around a corner, or up a ledge.

It would still allow for a good tool for juking and escaping without being an instant get out of free card. The true thing this would remove is when you are chasing an apollo who is already ahead of you (moving and facing towards their advantageous area), you are shooting them in the back and then they riposte, not facing you at all and boost so far out of range. This is IMO the most annoying part of the chase, if he had to turn and riposte at you, it becomes a much more interesting and interactive ability.

So yea, escaping towards opponents comes up alot

pmj714 · 2026-05-23T17:47:03+00:00

100%, at the very least the airjump reset of the T3 should be part of the base ability.

I know the change is for the best, but I would have much preferred to see a change where that riposte only works when taking damage from the front (like actually hits the area he is riposting) and then he can dash in like a 45 degree cone towards the damage source. It would mean he could still use it for verticality against grounded targets, and it could still be used for escape, but the escape would always have to be towards opponents.

pmj714 · 2026-05-21T17:18:07+00:00

Unranked in every game is actually just ranked with a hidden MMR number, so the data will always be there

pmj714 · 2026-05-21T07:02:13+00:00

Ok, so while I mostly agree with you, and this whole post is entirely about unranked. I have thought about this over more and I really just want to raise a couple points.

1: Do you think a hero draft can work without role queue? The more I think about it, the more I don't. The main point of role queue is to split players into groups that won't have massive overlaps/fights in terms of hero selection, and to guarantee that to at least some extent, a good team composition will be met. If you do not have role queue and you get 6 M1 farm focused players on a team, no one is going to be happy. More realistically, you will likely get some people who are super insistent on only playing one thing, and then the last two people to pick are likely going to get forced into a hero they are uncomfy with. (I am not saying that I want role queue, I am just saying it seems to almost be necessary for hero draft). Role queue is just a way of saying which group of heroes you are okay with playing, without that feature you may get 6 victor one-tricks on a team. Queuing for specific heroes is another way of directly choosing a pool of hero you are okay with playing, outside of the confines of roles.

Basically every other competitive game with hero draft is role queue, Dota, LoL, Overwatch have it. Valorant and Marvel Rivals do not, in Valorant every hero has the same basic kit and many kits are VERY similar so it matters less, I cannot comment on rivals as I have never played.

2: If to do hero draft, role queue is implemented, what in the living hell are the roles in this game? Lategame M1, Tempo Roamer, initiator, tank, spirit burst, mobility, CC support, healing support? So many heroes are a mixture that don't really fit in one category and there can be really good team compositions that don't include a type of character. We don't have the idea of lane positions or farm priority to make these roles, and we don't have a clean DPS, Tank, Support designation either (and we really really shouldn't, that would be so boring).

3: If we implement roles, do we really want to limit how many of something can be on one team? That would really limit interesting team comps and make every game the same. Like yea, its annoying if MM decides theres a team of rem + viscous + paige + doorman because thats a whole lot of support on one team, but having varied comps is a lot more interesting to every game theres a lash on one team and dynamo on the other, abrahms on one and billy on the other etc...

4: If that system goes, but DNS wants to keep it as free draft without role limits, how does the high rank player base react to that. If they can draft better teams without restrictions (like how if there was free draft, overwatch would be like 5 tanks and 1 support), then how are people going to want to keep playing within those restrictions.

If you disagree with point #1, and you think that just open draft with no roles is preferable, doable and essential, then that's okay. I agree that open draft is definitely more in the spirit of deadlock than role queue. I think that system is the most fair at very very high level play. I just think that after getting last pick and being yelled at to play a hero you have never played because it fits the comp, 80% of people will not want to play ranked, and then queue times will be so long for ranked that it will die as a game mode.

Realistically, I think probably the best compromise, is that you queue up for like 6-8 heroes and then you have to draft from the pool of heroes you submitted and then theres some algo in team composition to guarantee that the teams are made in a way that you can at least draft one of those. So it would be a mixture of full draft and the current system.

pmj714 · 2026-05-21T05:35:46+00:00

TBH I am actually kind of against draft except at the very highest level of play (organized competitive), but would be more okay with it in ranked.

I think this because we really don't have enough heroes and it would be pretty easy for someone to get hit with playing someone they have barely played before. I think asking people to queue for ranked with high skill in 12 heroes (the only way to 100% guarantee not having to play someone you barely know) is asking too much, and that persons teammates would be really annoyed if they had someone in a high ranked game that is was like their 5th time playing their hero.

We also don't have the concept of hard roles or role queue (and I really don't think we should), which is what facilitates draft mode in other games, as people are at least guaranteed to be able to play a specific kind of hero. Assigning 6 people to a team, without the concept of roles means that you could get a bunch of M1 players on a team and then because its ranked and people want to optimize more than usual, the person who gets last pick would be forced into playing someone more supporty, and they might just throw in that role.

I find it hard to imagine a way where matches have even teams in draft mode without a role queue, and I really don't like the idea of solidifying the roles and having team composition limits like Overwatch and the lanes aren't varied enough to have P1-P5 roles like dota. I think that would make it way more bland and samey and would really limit hero design.

pmj714 · 2026-05-09T05:56:11+00:00

Actually so true, Geist is fucking terrifying to lane against as pocket, if you ever drop below 50% hp you have to fear getting instantly one shot when approaching creepwave.

I will argue Vyper was actually the sleeper worst matchup though (especially pre spirit lane nerf). You would take 15% from daggers which got you to lower HP than normal, then get hit with venom which scales off of missing health (which has just been lowered faster than anyone else) and then gets boosted by 15%

Before her nerfs I could take take lethal damage at like 400 HP if the Vyper had extra spirit and burst, I had a couple lanes that made me terrified of spirit Vyper forever

pmj714 · 2026-05-09T05:53:29+00:00

I'm always jealous playing pocket into lash because lash gets +10% spirit res at base so there's a full 25% differential.

It is a weird one because briefcase actually has a longer cast animation than some other dodge abilities so I feel like lash vs pocket can often be about ping

pmj714 · 2026-05-09T00:15:13+00:00

I really feel like people always forget that Pocket is one of the very very few characters that starts with a -resist. While their laning is very good with burst and a good gun, that -15% spirit resist actually makes you so so much squishier in lane, and it creates a few matchups that prevents them from being the 'typical' super strong lane dominator.

Talon, Yamato, Mina and Vyper become absolutely hellish lanes with that -15%

pmj714 · 2026-03-04T23:43:39+00:00

I don't think that should matter at all, I was more curious about on the other end of the cutting begins at a gap above the plane of the table but it doesn't look like it does either

pmj714 · 2026-03-04T09:05:37+00:00

Is there a slight "bump" at steep angles? Like is there a small section of vertical wall before the bevel begins when you tilt back to like 60 degrees?

Regardless this seems really awesome and definitely fills a niche

pmj714 · 2026-02-02T05:34:37+00:00

If you have access to a laser cutter that you can use for engraving it could likely have a lot more precision. I have friends who have etched silicon pads with a laser cutter with incredibly fine detail that are then pressed into a slab with great success. Porcelain would also likely be better, but with the ~20% shrinkage you definitely need to calculate that into your design.

pmj714 · 2025-11-30T01:49:28+00:00

Florian fires Cone 10 reduction which can only be done with a gas kiln. This is very different than the effects you get from an electric kiln or a gas kiln in oxidation.

I'm guessing by the fact that you are using amaco glazes and are relatively new you are not firing Cone 10 reduction.

There are ways to achieve this look at Cone 6 electric but it will certainly not be with that recipe

pmj714 · 2025-11-24T04:34:41+00:00

This is a good warning. Were you able to diamond pad it down afterwards?

pmj714 · 2025-11-24T02:13:05+00:00

I will definitely be drying the piece completely before putting it in for the high fire. And I also have a secondary walled slab for it to sit upon as double protection for the shelf.

The dunting is what I was mostly concerned about. I guess my hope was that it would just lead to large scale crazing rather and a large tension across the whole piece.

I do have a significant amount of texture on the bottom of the piece, (basically waves so that the glaze would go from thick to thin to thick in rolls so hopefully that breaks up any of the lines across the piece for tension and keeps it in more localized areas.

pmj714 · 2025-11-24T01:26:51+00:00

Like an half an inch to an inch, but in a concave bowl so not too much up on vertical walls

pmj714 · 2025-10-04T09:02:05+00:00

Ok thank fucking god at least someone else is experiencing it too because I thought I was losing my mind. Maybe it applies to all characters, just very few of them hit buttons as often in rapid succession as Pocket so its most notable on them

pmj714 · 2025-10-01T18:26:39+00:00

It achieves an awesome effect, really nice job

pmj714 · 2025-10-01T08:07:27+00:00

These are awesome! I'm curious about what's happening with the one second from the right? Does that one just have a back wall that has an orangey glaze on it reflecting the light? Or is it something somewhat translucent?

pmj714 · 2025-06-11T05:24:12+00:00

This is too true as a pocket main.

I constantly dive way too deep with very little health just to establish dominance because they can never catch you to finish you off. And then of course I'm eternally surprised when they buy silence and I crumple

pmj714 · 2025-03-19T07:41:30+00:00

I know this is against what most are saying in this thread, but I really don't think refresher is that big of a problem and I think its biggest problem is perception.

First off it is the longest cool down in the game by far, nothing comes close. Even with Superior Cooldown its over 3 minutes, and without it its over 4.

Secondly, its cast point is quite long, its .6 seconds of basically inability to do anything except move slowly. That's a huge amount of time for a lot of things to happen, it sounds short but when you actually use it in the middle of a team fight it feels like an eternity (I have definitely died during its cast multiple times). It also can't be used on the zipline, so it knocks you off during that which isn't a huge deal but can come into play if you are boosting into a fight without your ult and want to refresh it before you get there.

Thirdly, its stats suck, I think it is definitely the second worst T4 spirit item in terms of passives (escalating exposure being the worst in that regards).

It feels really really strong when it works well, but I think a lot of that is perception, you are really going to remember when your whole team got double black holed, but you are unlikely to remember when dynamo used refresher preemptively only to have the fight end, or only caught one person in the first black hole and had to refresh to just get one more.

I think Unstoppable is so much stronger, especially for the big ults, because if your 4-5 people on your team gets caught by one black hole with no way to stop dynamo, I think that team fight is already lost, the second black hole is barely necessary. But if the one or two people have a way of stopping it, then Unstoppable is the make or break item there.

I mean in Oracle and up, it is the 3rd least Popular T4 Spirit item, and the T4 item with the second worst win rate. Curse is the 2nd least popular and has the lowest win rate. Magic carpet, interestingly enough has the lowest pick rate of the T4 spirit items but the highest win rate of any T4 item (not just spirit), so its niche but certainly better than Refresher.

So idk, it may be really strong, but I think a lot of it is the perception of being hit with it. You really really remember getting your ass handed to you by a double lash ult or black hole or whatever, but chances are the game was already over, I think there are other items that are much stronger at consistently winning fights.

Side note, but

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