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Deadlock |OT|

dJq4cSs.jpeg


Deadlock is the latest game from Valve. currently it's still in early development build and is only accessible via invite from folks who's already in the game. it's a 3rd person POV shooter MOBA with elements of hero shooter in it. being from Valve, it has some very familiar foundation from DOTA2 in it. so if you've played DOTA2 before, you're probably already half way decent in this game. being in early development, a lot of the elements in the game might change in the future, so please seek the most update information if there are things mentioned in this thread that became outdated.

if you're not interested in this game, by all means ignore it or make your own thread to state how bad it is. but please keep the pointless hate out of this thread.

here is a little beginer's guide that I found pretty useful



edit: another beginner's guide from a more FPS player's perspective.



some really good pointers about farming and timing in general.



added some tips for new comers of this game or MOBA games in general.

1: movement techniques like slide, dash jump and dash slide are very useful and provides a lot of benefits, such as unlimited ammo during slide or giving you a greater speed and distance for escaping. but since the timing can be different for every heros, you might want to test things out and practice a little in the sandbox mode first.

2: last hitting (landing the final blow/shot on enemy creeps and hitting the souls that came out) and denying (hitting the souls from the creeps that the other team kills) are of the utmost importance in the early laning phase. during those times, try to focus on staying alive and getting souls through last hitting and denying. if you have difficulty doing that, you can always try to focus on just one of those. even just simply denying the enemy of their souls can make a big impact in your game. and remember, using melee attack to last hit creeps will give you the full amount of souls in one go, instead of having some flow out afterwards.

3: while we're on the subject of melee last hitting, if the enemy player in your lane is last hitting and denying a lot better than you, consider to just focus on lowering the ho of their creeps but don't kill them yet. once they're pushing close to your tower (Guardian or Walker), go in for the melee to get full amount of souls from that. of course, make sure the enemy isn't at a position to punish you for it. because you you can melee the creeps to last hit at the top of the stairs and they might still be able to hit you with some decent damage. so try to keep some cover between you and them while doing that if possible.

4: your towers are not as powerful as you think and the creeps are more powerful than you think. Guardians and Walkers target the closest enemy and focus on it first. so if an enemy wants to dive at you, even if you're right next to the tower, they can avoid taking damage if one their creeps are closer to the tower than they are. and in early game, the creeps do more damage to you than you imagine sometimes, so if you don't have any creeps with you and you want to dive an enemy behind their creep wave, you will take a big chunk of damage from the creeps or maybe even die to them.

5: spend your souls. I know sometimes it is tempting to save your souls for some big ticket items, but in early game that can be suicide unless you're really good at avoiding damage. just a few of the 500 souls tier items in your inventory can make a huge difference in your damage and your survival.

6: map/UI awareness is very important. try to take a look at the mini map and the top of your hub from time to time to see where everyone from the other team is. even in early game during laneing phase this is important because people from near by team could be coming in for a gank, so you want to be aware of the situation at all times. especially in later stage of the game, if you're pushing a lane and you see none of the other enemies on the map, then you might want to reconsider before keep on pushing. and if your team had been pushing but you see your team's HP are all low and their ults are all on cool down while the other team still have full health, then you might want to think twice before fully committing into that next team fight.

7: try to know the map well and know all the nooks and crannies, shortcuts and those void veils (the shadowy gates that's like a one way mirror). they can really come in handy when you are getting chase by multiple enemies. this being a 3rd person game, people can sometimes round the corner and miss you if you're hiding right at some cover at that corner or going to another path that doubles back towards their direction. just don't count on it unless it's some "you're already dead so might as well try it" situation.

8: the map also has a lot of vertical locations, try to use them to your advantage. for example as Dynamo or Haze, you can help your team by jumping off the roof at the right time to ult the other team for great effect.

9: try to take as much farm safely as you can. lanes are pushed out but it's not safe to keep going? pull back and farm the jungle creeps (the stationary ones). enemy is pressuring your Walker or the front of you base? make sure to deny as much souls they produced as possible. always break all the crates and gold statues. you can find souls, buffs in them and it's almost always worth it to break them and check. of course don't do that if you're rushing to help out your team or defend base thou.

10: this being a shooter, there IS damage fall off with your weapon. try to find a good distance where you are able to take enemy's shoots without actually taking too much damage in order to secure last hits and returning some damage either with your weapon or skills.

and some tips from others here who contributed.

from Herbspiceguy
1. I'd strongly recommend everyone to watch a movement guide video and at least nail (the timing on) dash-jump-slide, which makes you cover the most ground vs. stamina used. Charged melee gives you more air-time.

2. Always try to have a fully reloaded clip at times when you're opponent will likely kill the most minions so you're able to deny. Be conservative with ammo for denying, a soul only needs 1 shot and the hitboxes are generous. And if you do find yourself out of ammo, you can also melee deny (at least the charged melee does).

Remind yourself to use teleporters more.
Even with 100 hours in, I see most players don't jungle enough and the juicy 'soul dispensers' are usually still up. I'll gladly take those souls. There's a ground level room with 1 soul dispenser and a room on the other side with 2 when you go up the rope. Each side also has an underground room filled with creeps, which are usually left untouched. Occasonially check up on creep rooms, I've noticed enemy players are increasingly doing the MOBA trick to leave 1 little creep alive to prevent the whole group from spawning.

an online document of items to counter each hero.



with that said, let's talk shop. share your tips and tricks on the game. and maybe even some fan arts. just remember to keep it SFW. :messenger_winking:
 
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near

Gold Member
I've put in about 8 hours so far, I'm enjoying it. I should preface this with I'm bad at the game and have had more losses than wins. Grey Talon and Haze are the only two characters I've grasped so far. I can see myself playing this casually here and there when it gets its full release.
 
I've put in about 8 hours so far, I'm enjoying it. I should preface this with I'm bad at the game and have had more losses than wins. Grey Talon and Haze are the only two characters I've grasped so far. I can see myself playing this casually here and there when it gets its full release.

I've played Wraith for 2 pub games and got destoried. :messenger_grinning_sweat: I did test Haze and Vindicta out a little too. can definitely see myself playing Haze once I get better at the game. using Dynamo on a bot game did result in a win thou, so I might dig a little deeper into him. the biggest thing, as the same for DOTA2, is the early laning phase and the last hitting/denying. the different weapons and play styles of the heros really makes it so that you'll have to get used to a certain way to lane in the early game when you're trying out new heros. my aim is also not the best, even if I play a lot of Destiny, so I'll really need to work on that.
 

near

Gold Member
I've played Wraith for 2 pub games and got destoried. :messenger_grinning_sweat: I did test Haze and Vindicta out a little too. can definitely see myself playing Haze once I get better at the game. using Dynamo on a bot game did result in a win thou, so I might dig a little deeper into him. the biggest thing, as the same for DOTA2, is the early laning phase and the last hitting/denying. the different weapons and play styles of the heros really makes it so that you'll have to get used to a certain way to lane in the early game when you're trying out new heros. my aim is also not the best, even if I play a lot of Destiny, so I'll really need to work on that.
I've only ever put in about 50ish hours into Dota 2 and never tried LoL, but I'm kind of familiar with how a moba is supposed to function. But I'll have to do some learning here, I think. It's interesting that you mentioned aim because I feel like while the game offers a high skill ceiling, it is also designed in a way for casuals or people not very familiar with shooters to still enjoy. The game has so much depth. One thing I really want to learn are all the different types of builds people are making as they progress into late game. That part kind of overwhelms me.
 
I'm nearly 60 hours in. I love the game and haven't feel so addicted to a multiplayer game in a good while.

Tanky disruptor types are my favorite in MOBAs. Warden is my main guy. I tend to build around his ult with big CDR, divine kevlar, big spirit + spirit lifesteal. I also like Mo & Krill and want to get better at Lash, but his skill ceiling might be too high for me.
 
I've only ever put in about 50ish hours into Dota 2 and never tried LoL, but I'm kind of familiar with how a moba is supposed to function. But I'll have to do some learning here, I think. It's interesting that you mentioned aim because I feel like while the game offers a high skill ceiling, it is also designed in a way for casuals or people not very familiar with shooters to still enjoy. The game has so much depth. One thing I really want to learn are all the different types of builds people are making as they progress into late game. That part kind of overwhelms me.

the key to builds is really learning all the items and think carefully what works best with what abilities. once you get that down, just really study the abilities of the hero that you like and apply them. it takes time, but once you are familiar with the items, this would get a little easier. at least that's how it was for me back in the DOTA2 days.

I'm nearly 60 hours in. I love the game and haven't feel so addicted to a multiplayer game in a good while.

Tanky disruptor types are my favorite in MOBAs. Warden is my main guy. I tend to build around his ult with big CDR, divine kevlar, big spirit + spirit lifesteal. I also like Mo & Krill and want to get better at Lash, but his skill ceiling might be too high for me.

I watched a couple Mo/Krill games, and it seems to be mostly focus on the ability to go underground and pop back up for that spin to win. Lash on the other hand I had not really looked into all that much, but did hear he's a pain in the ass to play against. :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
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here's a pretty decent run down on items and itemization.




also, just something to get you familiar with what you'll be running into in the future from the MOBA community. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

 
had my 3rd pub game earlier and this time I'm using Dynamo. laned against a Haze and while I did get outlaned by her and got my guardian destroyed first, I was about to steal quite a bit of farm denying the souls she killed. my problem is I didn't go on to farm the jungles while moving around and kinda fell behind after that. and then there's a few times when there were two or more of the heros on the other team pushing a lane, I went in to help and ult'ed to hold them down, but my teammate just bail on me. I guess it's my bad that I didn't notify them I'm coming first. but at least at the end we're able to win the big team fights and won the game. I was the lowest networth at 17k but I feel I did my part to help at least.
 
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Hope there will be controller support in the full game

while I think that would be nice, I highly doubt it will. it's the same with DOTA2. simply too many buttons you will have to push and often in too short a time. just off the top of my head, some samples would be Bebop comboing all of his 3-2-1 abilities. or Dynamo's 1 then aim over to 2 and then maybe 4 then use Refresher into another 4. would be really hard to do all on controller. but then again, I don't use controllers all that much these days, so maybe that's not that hard a thing any more?

on a side note, I played a game on Haze just now. as usual, lost my lane to a Warith but was able to go around and farm up into getting a few kills in other lanes. ended with 3 pretty big Bullet Dance double and triple kills during team fight and help win the game with 3rd highest total souls. I think the key to Haze is build her 3 first in lane, and then both 1 and 3 until laning is about to be over and go into 2 and 4 to roam and assist on kills in other lanes.
 
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had a pretty good game before heading to bed. Haze is really overpowered if you give her even just a little bit of room to farm. focus 3 first and 1. if you can connect with the sleep, go in for a charge melee and then focus fire the lone player. make sure to build stamina first so you can keep dodging. don't rush her 4 until like mid game and avoid the team fights, choicing instead to poke them from behind the enemy team as they engage. Tesla Rounds or Ricochet Rounds is great for farming and maybe even a 1v2 situation. duration also helps with the 4 to give you longer and bigger dps. was able to kill off 4 in one go at the last team fight, freaking funny as hell.
 
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I noticed how matchmaking has been off since they opened the floodgates. Before, I experienced an increase in being matched with decent teams, but recently it's been all over the place. One of the lead devs just confirmed it's an actual issue, but by the sound of it, it could take a while for a fix:
XBOQoev.png


Also, posted on Reddit, this concept art, which looks like the current map, but with more neoclassicism and arcane/occult elements.
JqftcgX.jpeg


And for those interested to see what the game, as 'Neon Prime', looked like before (Bebop, Kelvin and Yamato can be spotted):


Also, new peak over the weekend:
80XWd4w.jpeg
 
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Luipadre

Member
I noticed how matchmaking has been off since they opened the floodgates. Before, I experienced an increase in being matched with decent teams, but recently it's been all over the place. One of the lead devs just confirmed it's an actual issue, but by the sound of it, it could take a while for a fix:
XBOQoev.png


Also, posted on Reddit, this concept art, which looks like the current map, but with more neoclassicism and arcane/occult elements.
JqftcgX.jpeg


And for those interested to see what the game, as 'Neon Prime', looked like before (Bebop, Kelvin and Yamato can be spotted):


Also, new peak over the weekend:
80XWd4w.jpeg

Cant wait to see what the final game will look like. Current map and enemies looks really bland, but i know its mostly a placeholder greybox testing environment. That concept art looks great
 

Cyberpunkd

Member
while I think that would be nice, I highly doubt it will. it's the same with DOTA2. simply too many buttons you will have to push and often in too short a time. just off the top of my head, some samples would be Bebop comboing all of his 3-2-1 abilities. or Dynamo's 1 then aim over to 2 and then maybe 4 then use Refresher into another 4. would be really hard to do all on controller. but then again, I don't use controllers all that much these days, so maybe that's not that hard a thing any more?
This will 100% have full, native controller support and be Steam Deck “Verified” on Day 1.
 
This will 100% have full, native controller support and be Steam Deck “Verified” on Day 1.

yeah, thinking a little more about that, I suppose it's not that hard to do the controls on a controller. though they might need some kinda of a short cut for like a 180 turn or something, because I can already think of a couple things that would need it. namely the teleports from Dynamo and Wraith when you're in a pinch.

looking through the build guides in game kinda helpful with my progress so far and finding out things I had overlooked. I'm definitely going to build my Dynamo a little more different at early game now.
 
also, make sure to reconfigure the keybinds to whatever works best for you. I simply can't work with the melee on Q and crouch on CTRL. and I shift the ZXCV for active items to XCVB instead and put shop menu on Z. been much better once I switched. thou I still suck at the slide shooting and the dash jump right now. really need to practice them in the sandbox mode more.

edit: found some footage the devs share from when they're just testing stuff out with Half Life and Counter Strike assets duct tape together.

 
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Jooxed

Gold Member
I really like valve stuff im pretty disappointed this is a MOBA because thats probably my least favorite genre... because im no good at them lol. Is everyone having fun with this?
 
I really like valve stuff im pretty disappointed this is a MOBA because thats probably my least favorite genre... because im no good at them lol. Is everyone having fun with this?

yeah, I can understand because MOBA takes a certain dedication and patience at the start to really get going. try some bot games with different heros and see if one fits your play style. if you're not good with shooting, there are plenty of melee focus heros to go for. the key is to always be doing stuff in game. no matter if you're killing things or denying other team's souls or jungling. make sure to keep the souls coming. and of course, you'll need to study up on the items and what works best for your build. let us know if you need more info or maybe someone to play with. I'm sure we can get a game or 2 going and try it out.

last game of the night and I got in as McGinnis. figured I would try running a gun build instead and it actually went pretty well. throw down some healing here and there to help out too. but when it comes to my wall and my ult I'm still not using them the best I can. I feel I might switch it up a little and go with a gun and turret build next time. our Kelivn went full healer I guess. would rather he put in some more damage but such is pubs.

 
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I think I'm comfortable enough to start learning how to play Dynamo well now. really need to have good aim with him thou and build for tanky early game. maybe 1>3>1>2>3 or 1>3>1>2>2 depending on how your lane is going. but definitely need some tanky items and maybe have another lane to come help gank yours if possible.
 
Someone posted the lined-up unreleased characters on Reddit, some interesting and very very early designs. I knew you can try them in-game using some console command, but haven't bothered myself.



Edit: matchmaking is still a clusterfuck, it's either I'm on a team with absolute beginners (that have a tendency to ragequit early) or a team of veterans. As a test I'll usually say something like "hello, my fellow gamers", before the game starts. Positive voice response = usually very good team, nobody responding = noob team.
 
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Cyberpunkd

Member
I really like valve stuff im pretty disappointed this is a MOBA because thats probably my least favorite genre... because im no good at them lol. Is everyone having fun with this?
TBH if you think about it their last game - Artifact - was in an incredibly niche genre. I don't think Marvel Snap, Gwent (dead now) or Runeterra set the world on fire + Magic seems to have a huge foothold on this category/ Think of it something like getting 30% of the market of online TCG is probably worth less than 1% of MOBA market.
 

Luipadre

Member
When i first saw and tried this game i was like eww wtf is this. Granted this was my first moba experience. Now 10 hours later im loving it. First 5 hours or so was really rough, but mechanically this game is already polished af only thing missing is the polish on UI and gfx side
 
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Someone posted the lined-up unreleased characters on Reddit, some interesting and very very early designs. I knew you can try them in-game using some console command, but haven't bothered myself.



Edit: matchmaking is still a clusterfuck, it's either I'm on a team with absolute beginners (that have a tendency to ragequit early) or a team of veterans. As a test I'll usually say something like "hello, my fellow gamers", before the game starts. Positive voice response = usually very good team, nobody responding = noob team.


yeah, I watched a video on those and I kinda like the big Viking lady that uses some singing abilities. even has the Portal 2 song too. :messenger_grinning_sweat:

as for match making, yeah, I imagine they had not really fine tuned that part out yet. the night before, I got like 3 wins in a roll with some very competent teammates and some opponents that's less skilled then us. then last night I got 4 losses in a roll with some very high skilled players on the other side and some folks on my team who lost their lane pretty early on. but even with that I'm still having fun. game is just great to play.

When i first saw and tried this game i was like eww wtf is this. Granted this was my first moba experience. Now 10 hours later im loving it. First 5 hours or so was really rough, but mechanically this game is already polished af only thing missing is the polish on UI and gfx side

yeah, that's kinda unavoidable. MOBAs take an often longer time for new players to get used to. mainly due to the huge amount of hero and skills they have and items there are. it took me a much longer time than 10 hours back when I first started playing DOTA2 to really get the hang of it. thou I would argue that this is actually the best time to jump into Deadlock right now because the hero pool is still not as big as it could be and the same goes for the items. learning the game and getting used to it right now is definitely going to be a lot easier than later on down the road when more and more heros and items are added in.
 
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drotahorror

Member
yeah, thinking a little more about that, I suppose it's not that hard to do the controls on a controller. though they might need some kinda of a short cut for like a 180 turn or something, because I can already think of a couple things that would need it. namely the teleports from Dynamo and Wraith when you're in a pinch.

looking through the build guides in game kinda helpful with my progress so far and finding out things I had overlooked. I'm definitely going to build my Dynamo a little more different at early game now.
If it's anything like Smite, it'll play great on a controller. Smite has 4 abilities plus basic attack and 2 item slot uses. Lots of abilities require y axis aiming for ground targeted abilities and whatnot.
 
Wow, just laned against a cheater duo using auto aim. Downloaded and watched the replay, just to be sure and yup, they go lock on mode on mobs and players. I'll report them through Discord with the match ID.
 
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Wow, just laned against a cheater duo using auto aim. Downloaded and watched the replay, just to be sure and yup, they go lock on mode on mobs and players. I'll report them through Discord with the match ID.

yeah, sadly there will always be people like that. hopefully they get root out soon. never understand the point of doing it. it's not like you're earning anything but maybe it's the self gratification that they can't get facing the real world.
 
I'm still terrible at the dash jump and dash slide, but I'm getting a little better now. on the other hand, my Haze games are going very well today after losting home internet the whole night last night due to heat.

s7BhmB6.jpeg
 
after a few defeats last night, finally was able to get a win as Dynamo. even got one of my best black hole ever. we were coming back from successfully defending our base and pushing theirs. I died in the base defense but after I got up, my team had already pushed to their side. I zipline over, teleport in and popped my ult. caught 5 fo them all in the black hole and my team wiped them out. then used Refresher just in case and sure enough their Haze came out and I was able to Black Hole again and got her before she can bullet dance. was so hyped after that win even if my scores wasn't all that good. :messenger_grinning_sweat:



vPnYTlV.jpeg
 
for those who's new to MOBAs, I figured I would make some pointers and tips to help a little.

1: movement techniques like slide, dash jump and dash slide are very useful and provides a lot of benefits, such as unlimited ammo during slide or giving you a greater speed and distance for escaping. but since the timing can be different for every heros, you might want to test things out and practice a little in the sandbox mode first.

2: last hitting (landing the final blow/shot on enemy creeps and hitting the souls that came out) and denying (hitting the souls from the creeps that the other team kills) are of the utmost importance in the early laning phase. during those times, try to focus on staying alive and getting souls through last hitting and denying. if you have difficulty doing that, you can always try to focus on just one of those. even just simply denying the enemy of their souls can make a big impact in your game. and remember, using melee attack to last hit creeps will give you the full amount of souls in one go, instead of having some flow out afterwards.

3: while we're on the subject of melee last hitting, if the enemy player in your lane is last hitting and denying a lot better than you, consider to just focus on lowering the ho of their creeps but don't kill them yet. once they're pushing close to your tower (Guardian or Walker), go in for the melee to get full amount of souls from that. of course, make sure the enemy isn't at a position to punish you for it. because you you can melee the creeps to last hit at the top of the stairs and they might still be able to hit you with some decent damage. so try to keep some cover between you and them while doing that if possible.

4: your towers are not as powerful as you think and the creeps are more powerful than you think. Guardians and Walkers target the closest enemy and focus on it first. so if an enemy wants to dive at you, even if you're right next to the tower, they can avoid taking damage if one their creeps are closer to the tower than they are. and in early game, the creeps do more damage to you than you imagine sometimes, so if you don't have any creeps with you and you want to dive an enemy behind their creep wave, you will take a big chunk of damage from the creeps or maybe even die to them.

5: spend your souls. I know sometimes it is tempting to save your souls for some big ticket items, but in early game that can be suicide unless you're really good at avoiding damage. just a few of the 500 souls tier items in your inventory can make a huge difference in your damage and your survival.

6: map/UI awareness is very important. try to take a look at the mini map and the top of your hub from time to time to see where everyone from the other team is. even in early game during laneing phase this is important because people from near by team could be coming in for a gank, so you want to be aware of the situation at all times. especially in later stage of the game, if you're pushing a lane and you see none of the other enemies on the map, then you might want to reconsider before keep on pushing. and if your team had been pushing but you see your team's HP are all low and their ults are all on cool down while the other team still have full health, then you might want to think twice before fully committing into that next team fight.

7: try to know the map well and know all the nooks and crannies, shortcuts and those void veils (the shadowy gates that's like a one way mirror). they can really come in handy when you are getting chase by multiple enemies. this being a 3rd person game, people can sometimes round the corner and miss you if you're hiding right at some cover at that corner or going to another path that doubles back towards their direction. just don't count on it unless it's some "you're already dead so might as well try it" situation.

8: the map also has a lot of vertical locations, try to use them to your advantage. for example as Dynamo or Haze, you can help your team by jumping off the roof at the right time to ult the other team for great effect.

9: try to take as much farm safely as you can. lanes are pushed out but it's not safe to keep going? pull back and farm the jungle creeps (the stationary ones). enemy is pressuring your Walker or the front of you base? make sure to deny as much souls they produced as possible. always break all the crates and gold statues. you can find souls, buffs in them and it's almost always worth it to break them and check. of course don't do that if you're rushing to help out your team or defend base thou.

10: this being a shooter, there IS damage fall off with your weapon. try to find a good distance where you are able to take enemy's shoots without actually taking too much damage in order to secure last hits and returning some damage either with your weapon or skills.

that's about all I can think of at the moment, but I'll put this into the OP and add more if I can think of them.
 
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I think this game would be a great example of why MOBAs can be so fun and exciting. started out kinda ok but I guess the Seven didn't get any assist when he got ganked or something, and called out the N-word to the Dynamo. everybody in our team was like "yo WTF!?". shortly after that he abandoned. we fought with the other team with just the 5 of us but at the end was able to turn things around and won. it was a great come back and I'm pretty sure a few of us had reported the dumbass Seven afterwards.
 
9wUVRdm.jpeg


I think this game would be a great example of why MOBAs can be so fun and exciting. started out kinda ok but I guess the Seven didn't get any assist when he got ganked or something, and called out the N-word to the Dynamo. everybody in our team was like "yo WTF!?". shortly after that he abandoned. we fought with the other team with just the 5 of us but at the end was able to turn things around and won. it was a great come back and I'm pretty sure a few of us had reported the dumbass Seven afterwards.

Yes, I've how a few good players can carry to victory in seemingly against the odds games. It's funny how most of my wins are come backs. We usually get our guardians and walkers destroyed before theirs. Skill and good judgement; knowing when to focus on farm, ganks, pushing together (and backing in time), actively helping with urn, basically treating it like a MOBA (duh :D) wins games. Also, successfully interrupting and stealing rejuv from enemy team is so rewarding and a huge morale boost.

I'm 80 hours in now and I've noticed that matchmaking has improved lately. It makes matches a lot more competitive and enjoyable. It's actually amazing how different higher level matches feel.
 
Yes, I've how a few good players can carry to victory in seemingly against the odds games. It's funny how most of my wins are come backs. We usually get our guardians and walkers destroyed before theirs. Skill and good judgement; knowing when to focus on farm, ganks, pushing together (and backing in time), actively helping with urn, basically treating it like a MOBA (duh :D) wins games. Also, successfully interrupting and stealing rejuv from enemy team is so rewarding and a huge morale boost.

all those things you mentioned are definitely really important and often times my wins are also the ones that are late game come backs. I play Haze a lot and I've come to terms that unless I'm put in a dual lane with someone else, my early game farm is often behind and I'll just have to stay alive, push lanes mid game and farm up until I'm almost fully slotted before I can really make an impact in team fights. one of the things I find that happens pretty often is that my teammates would push for a team fight without realizing what else is going on around the map. fighting in a pushed out blue lane while half of their team is missing is almost a guarantee gank and wipe as the end result. you really need to make sure you can win fights fast and get out fast under those situations. but the mid boss and the rejuvenator was often a very different story. I had so many times where our team heard the mid boss roar while we were all still in the base or even just 4 are up and alive and then one person goes "we need to go mid and steal it." and rush in with maybe 2 others at most helping. it almost always ends with those going mid getting wipe out and we have only 1 or 2 people defending the base and getting even more behind. unless your team is already out in the lanes and can rotate to mid boss fast and have some good CC, just let them have it and play defensively until their rejuvenator expire. the risk and reward of contesting mid boss is often not worth it if it's a pub game you're in and barely communicating.

it seems there's also this exploit that I'm pretty sure I've ran into before. I imagine this would get patch out sooner or later before the game officially comes out.

 
I think the match making is putting me at a higher rank level now because I've been having some pretty tough laning phase lately no matter if I'm playing Haze or Dynamo. really need to farm up after my guardian got destroyed in order to get going.

edit: the double soaking souls got fixed in a way it seems.
 
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some lore in the form of visual novel focus on Lady Geist. there are a lot of branches of the story and it's some really good voice work even if it's not finished yet. it's still pretty interesting and enjoyable so give it a try if you don't mind spoilers.
 
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been getting a little better with Haze now. going Spirit items first really helps my early game. that and focus on surival and then go farm is key. had a game just now where I laned against a Mo & Krill and he denied and poked me like crazy with his shotgun and melee. eventually lost the Guardian (but at least I wasn't the first one) and backed up to the Walker to keep farming. was able to get online purely due to being careful and only got ganked once. eventually farmed up enough to fight them head on. we kinda went back and forth a few times with them pushing into our base and destorying a Shrine. but we still was able to win more fights and finally ended with a win. the Mo & Krill was mad as hell going "pressing 4 is so crazy" or something before it ended. I almost die laughing. like, you coulda push and end if you really focus on it. but nope, you let it dragged out when the other team has a Haze on it. that's totally on you. first time I had gotten over 100K soul and full slotted too.


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Optimus Lime

(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
I got into the beta for Deadlock and I tried playing it but I found that the experience was roughly as much fun as having all of my teeth knocked out with a sledgehammer wielded by a drunk dwarf, so I stopped and went back to Vampire Survivors.
 
I got into the beta for Deadlock and I tried playing it but I found that the experience was roughly as much fun as having all of my teeth knocked out with a sledgehammer wielded by a drunk dwarf, so I stopped and went back to Vampire Survivors.

I understand the frustration. MOBAs can be rather... hard to get into. but once it clicks, it can REALLY click with you and offer some really fun and exciting experiences. and if you're not very confident, you can always just try playing the bot games solo or with friends to get used to it first.

Loving this game. Wish it had progression system (I know it’s an alpha). I suck at it but I’m having fun. I need to understand the items better

yeah, I'm by no means that good at it either, but I'm having loads of fun playing a couple matches everyday. I find that it's best to stick to just focus on 1 or 2 heros first to get all the fundamentals down. and in that process, you'll hopefully get to know the items well enough to apply those knowledge to other heros later. and there are already a lot of guide videos on YouTube for the game so you can go check those out if you want to know more tricks. and ask any questions on here of course. I'm no expert at the game but will try my best to help.
 

Optimus Lime

(L3) + (R3) | Spartan rage activated
I understand the frustration. MOBAs can be rather... hard to get into. but once it clicks, it can REALLY click with you and offer some really fun and exciting experiences. and if you're not very confident, you can always just try playing the bot games solo or with friends to get used to it first.
The problem is that I find them fundamentally not fun. LOL and Dota are utterly insufferable games. I've tried, so many times, to get into them, and every time I've just wound up wanting to do anything but waste another 45 minutes of my life being called an idiot by screeching teenagers while I get steamrolled by the compulsive masturbators who play these games as an unpaid job while they're waiting to collect the dole.

The rounds are too long. They take forever, and if you're not winning in the first five minutes, it's 45 minutes of pain and misery. Working out a 'build' during the game is tedious. The economies are not fun. They are basically a genre designed for teenagers and uni students with limitless time to dedicate to them. I just find them frustrating, piss boring, annoying, and an absolute and total waste of my time. I thought I'd try this one because I love Valve typically, but it's third person DOTA, which is like adding another dimension to a pile of horse shit.
 
been getting a little better with Haze now. going Spirit items first really helps my early game. that and focus on surival and then go farm is key. had a game just now where I laned against a Mo & Krill and he denied and poked me like crazy with his shotgun and melee. eventually lost the Guardian (but at least I wasn't the first one) and backed up to the Walker to keep farming. was able to get online purely due to being careful and only got ganked once. eventually farmed up enough to fight them head on. we kinda went back and forth a few times with them pushing into our base and destorying a Shrine. but we still was able to win more fights and finally ended with a win. the Mo & Krill was mad as hell going "pressing 4 is so crazy" or something before it ended. I almost die laughing. like, you coulda push and end if you really focus on it. but nope, you let it dragged out when the other team has a Haze on it. that's totally on you. first time I had gotten over 100K soul and full slotted too.


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Just passed the 100 hr mark and have been investing a lot of time on Mo & Krill, which I now prefer over Warden. Over the past days I've laned Haze in like 4 or 5 games. I've noticed how bullet velocity can make a huge difference during laning phase. Haze has very high velocity, attack speed and larger clips, giving her an advantage in last-hitting, denying and harrassing, especially over Mo & Krill and Warden.
Against a decent Haze it's like 50/50 farm, but a good Haze will dominate, keeping me at a distance constantly, shooting me whenever she has the chance (which does way more damage than I can do to her), also her ult is way more powerful to the point she can just overextend and 'tower dive' to kill me, making me have to keep distance even more. Versing a good McGinnis feels similar, but versus other heroes I can play way more aggressively.
 
for those who's new to MOBAs, I figured I would make some pointers and tips to help a little.

1: movement techniques like slide, dash jump and dash slide are very useful and provides a lot of benefits, such as unlimited ammo during slide or giving you a greater speed and distance for escaping. but since the timing can be different for every heros, you might want to test things out and practice a little in the sandbox mode first.

2: last hitting (landing the final blow/shot on enemy creeps and hitting the souls that came out) and denying (hitting the souls from the creeps that the other team kills) are of the utmost importance in the early laning phase. during those times, try to focus on staying alive and getting souls through last hitting and denying. if you have difficulty doing that, you can always try to focus on just one of those. even just simply denying the enemy of their souls can make a big impact in your game. and remember, using melee attack to last hit creeps will give you the full amount of souls in one go, instead of having some flow out afterwards.

3: while we're on the subject of melee last hitting, if the enemy player in your lane is last hitting and denying a lot better than you, consider to just focus on lowering the ho of their creeps but don't kill them yet. once they're pushing close to your tower (Guardian or Walker), go in for the melee to get full amount of souls from that. of course, make sure the enemy isn't at a position to punish you for it. because you you can melee the creeps to last hit at the top of the stairs and they might still be able to hit you with some decent damage. so try to keep some cover between you and them while doing that if possible.

4: your towers are not as powerful as you think and the creeps are more powerful than you think. Guardians and Walkers target the closest enemy and focus on it first. so if an enemy wants to dive at you, even if you're right next to the tower, they can avoid taking damage if one their creeps are closer to the tower than they are. and in early game, the creeps do more damage to you than you imagine sometimes, so if you don't have any creeps with you and you want to dive an enemy behind their creep wave, you will take a big chunk of damage from the creeps or maybe even die to them.

5: spend your souls. I know sometimes it is tempting to save your souls for some big ticket items, but in early game that can be suicide unless you're really good at avoiding damage. just a few of the 500 souls tier items in your inventory can make a huge difference in your damage and your survival.

6: map/UI awareness is very important. try to take a look at the mini map and the top of your hub from time to time to see where everyone from the other team is. even in early game during laneing phase this is important because people from near by team could be coming in for a gank, so you want to be aware of the situation at all times. especially in later stage of the game, if you're pushing a lane and you see none of the other enemies on the map, then you might want to reconsider before keep on pushing. and if your team had been pushing but you see your team's HP are all low and their ults are all on cool down while the other team still have full health, then you might want to think twice before fully committing into that next team fight.

7: try to know the map well and know all the nooks and crannies, shortcuts and those void veils (the shadowy gates that's like a one way mirror). they can really come in handy when you are getting chase by multiple enemies. this being a 3rd person game, people can sometimes round the corner and miss you if you're hiding right at some cover at that corner or going to another path that doubles back towards their direction. just don't count on it unless it's some "you're already dead so might as well try it" situation.

8: the map also has a lot of vertical locations, try to use them to your advantage. for example as Dynamo or Haze, you can help your team by jumping off the roof at the right time to ult the other team for great effect.

9: try to take as much farm safely as you can. lanes are pushed out but it's not safe to keep going? pull back and farm the jungle creeps (the stationary ones). enemy is pressuring your Walker or the front of you base? make sure to deny as much souls they produced as possible. always break all the crates and gold statues. you can find souls, buffs in them and it's almost always worth it to break them and check. of course don't do that if you're rushing to help out your team or defend base thou.

10: this being a shooter, there IS damage fall off with your weapon. try to find a good distance where you are able to take enemy's shoots without actually taking too much damage in order to secure last hits and returning some damage either with your weapon or skills.

that's about all I can think of at the moment, but I'll put this into the OP and add more if I can think of them.

To add:

1. I'd strongly recommend everyone to watch a movement guide video and at least nail (the timing on) dash-jump-slide, which makes you cover the most ground vs. stamina used. Charged melee gives you more air-time.

2. Always try to have a fully reloaded clip at times when you're opponent will likely kill the most minions so you're able to deny. Be conservative with ammo for denying, a soul only needs 1 shot and the hitboxes are generous. And if you do find yourself out of ammo, you can also melee deny (at least the charged melee does).

Remind yourself to use teleporters more.
Even with 100 hours in, I see most players don't jungle enough and the juicy 'soul dispensers' are usually still up. I'll gladly take those souls. There's a ground level room with 1 soul dispenser and a room on the other side with 2 when you go up the rope. Each side also has an underground room filled with creeps, which are usually left untouched. Occasonially check up on creep rooms, I've noticed enemy players are increasingly doing the MOBA trick to leave 1 little creep alive to prevent the whole group from spawning.
 
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