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7/18/2025, 3:47:45 AM
this is a case study of why MOBA design is atrociously bad, the player numbers are dropping, and the remaining stockholm syndrome players justify this
There is no reason ever for Seven to go a melee build. There just isn't. But a new player is presented with the false choice of being able to purchase items such that they can go a melee build. The shop allows you to make incredibly bad mistakes
>doesn't that mean it's more skill based?
Not in the grand scheme of the game. Players learn that there is no reason to buy specific items ever, so the actual item diversity reaches effectively zero. There's a lot of items in the shop, 75% of them are useless for your specific hero. Why Deadlock didn't use a talent system a la heroes of the storm is strange, honestly.
That's another thing. Items have to be balanced around what heroes can be effective with them. If an item is overpowered on a single hero, that item has to be balanced until it isn't on that specific hero. But what about the rest of the cast? That item becomes garbage for them, never worth buying. Look at Bloodstone in DotA, only worth purchasing on tinker, Storm spirit, Timbersaw. 3/100? of the hero cast. The game presents you with the option to buy something never worth buying; it doesn't affect gameplay besides gaslighting noobs for a couple hundred hours that, no, you never ever buy bloodstone on Sniper, phantom assassin, etc
I bring up DotA because "the item shop" is a 2003 warcraft mechanic that doesn't actually work. The only half-smart idea Deadlock had was restricting how many types of items you could have, forcing players to ~NOT~ flanderize and build hybrid, which it abandoned in less than a year.
>"but the item shop rework was a huge update"
Changing Deadlock to be a bog standard MOBA was not a rework; never understood this cope. What solves all of this, is, giving hero specific talent trees. Want a bigger magazine on Abrams? You can do that without having to balance with Infernus in mind. 1/?
There is no reason ever for Seven to go a melee build. There just isn't. But a new player is presented with the false choice of being able to purchase items such that they can go a melee build. The shop allows you to make incredibly bad mistakes
>doesn't that mean it's more skill based?
Not in the grand scheme of the game. Players learn that there is no reason to buy specific items ever, so the actual item diversity reaches effectively zero. There's a lot of items in the shop, 75% of them are useless for your specific hero. Why Deadlock didn't use a talent system a la heroes of the storm is strange, honestly.
That's another thing. Items have to be balanced around what heroes can be effective with them. If an item is overpowered on a single hero, that item has to be balanced until it isn't on that specific hero. But what about the rest of the cast? That item becomes garbage for them, never worth buying. Look at Bloodstone in DotA, only worth purchasing on tinker, Storm spirit, Timbersaw. 3/100? of the hero cast. The game presents you with the option to buy something never worth buying; it doesn't affect gameplay besides gaslighting noobs for a couple hundred hours that, no, you never ever buy bloodstone on Sniper, phantom assassin, etc
I bring up DotA because "the item shop" is a 2003 warcraft mechanic that doesn't actually work. The only half-smart idea Deadlock had was restricting how many types of items you could have, forcing players to ~NOT~ flanderize and build hybrid, which it abandoned in less than a year.
>"but the item shop rework was a huge update"
Changing Deadlock to be a bog standard MOBA was not a rework; never understood this cope. What solves all of this, is, giving hero specific talent trees. Want a bigger magazine on Abrams? You can do that without having to balance with Infernus in mind. 1/?
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