Spiral Knights - Lockdown Professionals....WTF

Lockdown Professionals....WTF

36 replies [Last post]

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 00:47

Eykay

Hey,

The title of this thread may sound mean, but it is totally different.

All I want to know is how the hell do Players become so Damn good at Lockdown? I have SO many Lockdown Pro friends but I find it really hard to do what they do. I mean I have the gear and stuff but their skill just amazes me. I think some of it might have to do with ASI and Dual Penta Heart Pendants but still the way they speed around with striker, using Final Flourishes which make contact EVERY SINGLE time even if the other player is running around using striker, then they change to Gran Faust so damn fast and finish the opponent in one shot.
I mean seriously I tried this once but all that happened was all my FF shots missing and getting killed before I could switch weapons. Can anyone help me improve? I mean I really want to become good in Lockdown but I find it soooooooo hard.
The highest I have ever gotten was with my Gran Faust and that was 39k. It may sound lots but it was only because it was a never ending in-guild LD match. I average on 8k dmg and that is crap in my opinion. I am seriously considering paying one of my pro LD friends for classes (it may sound desperate but.....ah screw it, I am desperate xD) but I want to know what you guys think first.

Thanks for taking about 45 seconds from your life to read this.
Kind Regards,

Thundr

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 01:06

Severage

...

I don't claim at all to be pro at LD, but I can observe and reason through some things.

First, and I'm just saying this because you didn't specify, using the proper gear is good. For a Swordie-Striker, the obvious best things are Vog, Skolver, and Snarbolax sets. Skolver is used most often, as I believe, because it gives Damage bonuses (Giving you max damage), as well as deflecting some damage from a very common weapon in LD. Snarbolax is also decent but more people have FFs than GFs in my experience, as well as the fact that Skolver blocks the Normal from the GF but Snarby doesn't block anything out of the pure pierce.

Assuming you already know that.

Second, trinkets aren't necessary to achieving a good score, but you'll spend much less time on respawn with health trinkets and such. I've gotten good scores (fairly good) without trinks as a Striker, but you die a whole lot, I'm certain I would've gotten more if I didn't spend 3 minutes of the game on respawn instead of 30 seconds healing from my wounds.

Thirdly, adjusting to techniques is good. If you "spam combos" with your FF, I'd turn on AT. If you don't, don't use AT, because it will more than likely just throw off your aim against multiple targets. I'd also suggest not using the 2nd strike of a Sealed Sword line without being quite certain you will hit your target, or without very high (Not literally VH) ASI. It leaves you open a lot. If you use a hammer, "shield-cancel" (In this case, boost) before having to use your 3rd strike when possible. It's similar to the Sealed's 2nd strike in leaving you open.

Also, your keys might be different. Using X to boost was extremely difficult and hindering for me. My right-click is shield and left-click is attack. WASD, imo (and I think most would agree), is the best way to move. Configure your controls to whatever is comfortable and convenient. Also, you may find scrolling with your mouse to change weapons is a hundred times easier than pressing a key - it was for me.

~Sev

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 01:11

Delardino

36k (._. ) Oh my gosh... I

36k (._. ) Oh my gosh... I will never reach that high

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 01:18

Nergee

^39k in infinite LD isnt insane.

thundr, as i recall you play from australia right? considering your lag, i'd say u might just be doomed :( otherwise its your everyday shield cancel and evasion that you do all the time in the clockworks. try practicing in t2, where there arent tons of UVs and pendants, and only hammer spam to worry about instead of GF and DA as well.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 01:41

Severage

@Nergee:

Well, heart trinkets are actually more effective in T2 than T3...but there aren't any GF/DAs and Sealeds are less powerful.

I didn't know he played from Aussie though. That complicates things - if you always miss from your ping, that's a totally different story and not controllable by your actions. Having a 300ms response time isn't fun.

~Sev

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:34

Forum-Brady

Piiiiiiiiing~

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:38

Thunderbog

@Severage

"Having a 300ms response time isn't fun."

I love my red bar.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:45

Forum-Brady

Pfft, you don't get that

Pfft, you don't get that latent, I've seen you play. Dw, my bars lie as well. According to mine, I always, always, always have 4 bars; even on US server! It just doesn't seem to be aware that I can actually tell the difference between when my connection is good, and when I'm getting the Headbutt of Doom for everyone around me (in some cases, the Psychic Headbutt of Doom when I die before they even reach me, nevermind dying before they attack), implying my connection just plummeted. It's pretty obvious to me, but my bars seem to think I'll be fooled by them not changing. Don't trust the bars! THEY LIE!

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:48

Thunderbog

@Forum-Brady

If I lied everytime I try to screenshot, ye can't even catch a single proof of me living in United States.

And I sooo deeply wanted to go there.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:51

Psychodestroyer

Brady, y u no Yuki or Miho or Erika or Kimiko? Y u Ping?

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:54

#10

Thunderbog

@Psychodestroyer

"Umm... you fought well."

I'm sorry but I can't resist of what ye said.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 03:57

#11

Psychodestroyer

...

I don't get it. Wha?

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 04:17

#12

Thunderbog

Mulan.

(gah let me find the gif okay)

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 04:19

#13

Forum-Brady

If I lied everytime I try to

If I lied everytime I try to screenshot,

Not sayin' that you're lying, I'm sayin' that the bars themselves lie. Red bar won't let you get that kind of damage unless everyone else is about as LD competent as a banana. I've seen plenty of pros on their bad days just flailing around blindly due to red bar. You always say you have low/red bars, so I can only conclude that your bars, like my lying perm-4-bar-status, is just your bars lying to you, and not an actual indication of your connection.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 05:11

#14

Derperer

@forum-brady

Thunderbog has at least 200+ ping connecting to SK US East server. That's usually what red bar players get. GUI connecting bars is inconsequential to lag, it is the ping that matters. If you have a ping less than 100 you shouldn't have a big problem being competent in Lockdown. I play on EU server with a ping of 130 and I do well in it, even though there are instances where i get hit from far away when running, getting sucked into attacks while the screen shakes, etc. So the ping is the problem. How about you what is your ping?

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 05:13

#15

Redblades

@thundrbolt

add me. I play lockdown alot, and I know alot of good players. I'd be happy to help.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 05:21

#16

Thunderbog

@Darkbrady

Brady, just...

I don't need to explain more.

Look at the screenshots I posted. I don't really need to explain more.

I LIVE IN MY LEGACY OF LAGS. *cries*

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 05:24

#17

Kattamoon

PING

The ping is the key abouth speed in ld, not the uvs if u wanna be a high competitive ld player u need to have less than 100 ping :P

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 05:26

#18

Thunderbog

@Kattamoon

This is why I can't have nice things...

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 06:19

#19

Forum-Brady

@Derperwhatever: That....was

@Derperwhatever:
That....was my point. That looking at the red bar and going "I have bad connection" is pretty inaccurate. Ping matters, but the GUI bars do not. Too many people rely solely on the bars to comment.
It'd be like me saying I have perfect connection all the time, despite getting Headbutts of Doom. People get gobsmacked by the whole "You play LD w/ 4 bars?!?" thing, but I can tell you right now that my connection is worse than people who only have 2/3 bars.
Similarly, having a red bar does not automatically mean you have awful connection all the time ever. Wasn't havin' a go at you; just pointin' out that sayin' "I play w/ red bars" is about as helpful as saying "I play while drinking OJ".

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 06:24

#20

Psychodestroyer

OJ freezes my nervous system for 67 hours per liter >:U

.nonotrly.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 07:39

#21

Timbalero

I don't know why some people treats lockdown as a "AAA" "MLG" competitive game..... its just a mini-game. Jeez people need to chill out.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 07:50

#22

Dendios

"Ping is the key to

"Ping is the key to everything..."

Art of Lockdown : Page 666 written by Xxdragneel.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 08:09

#23

Thunderbog

@Timbalero

TIIMBAAALLLLLLLL

/e hugs and cries

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 09:17

#24

Rangerwillx

What is your *real* top damage? Because endless doesn't really count..ever.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 09:53

#25

Tennis

Just takes practice! Can't

Just takes practice! Can't say much about your latency, except that if it's at least stable, you could just get used to it.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 10:30

#26

Nergee

pokemon.

practice unfortunately doesnt work when your lag is that bad. often times when my ping drops to shizz thanks to my crappy ISP, my avatar will still be running around, following my controls when in fact i died a second or two ago. suddenly my computer catches up to what is happening on the server and its like a time warp back to when i actually died. that kind of lag makes sealed spam especially deadly because you cannot see when it happens until it has already happened - therefore they get both swings in when you see them starting the first one.

@sev
there are fewer players in t2 LD that have their optimal heart trinkets, so i'd say he still has a better shot of actually getting practice in instead of watching the respawn timer.

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 11:09

#27

Poetry

http://steamcommunity.com/id/

http://steamcommunity.com/id/thunderboggy/screenshots/
--Thunderbog

What's odd is that i sometimes get a similar glitch, but instead of error boxes, i get orange boxes that have X's in them.

It doesn't seem to be isolated to non-US players either, since i get these glitches too. A few of my guildies have gotten the transparent floors as well.

North American ISP's are notorious for being quite expensive and primitive compared to the rest of the world. So we're stuck paying more for less. Netflix recently stated that Canada in particular had an internet situation that was “almost a human rights violation.”

To quote Scientific America, "The average U.S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial world would find mediocre."

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 14:46

#28

Severage

...

To quote Scientific America, "The average U.S. household has to pay an exorbitant amount of money for an Internet connection that the rest of the industrial world would find mediocre."

Dude, you're not kidding. Charter extorts the [fecal matter] out of me. We pay more than enough for standard internet, but every night ~10PM till the next morning, internet has a blackout. It's pretty ridiculous. We're finally going to switch providers (or at least try another service)...since we get on average like 18 hours of internet out of the day.

May not seem like that bad, but it's not exactly 25MBPS the rest of the time either.

~Sev

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 15:34

#29

Eykay

Thanks Guys

Hey guys,

Thanks so much for all the responses and I really appreciate it. All the advice you guys have given me has been really helpful and I just want to say some stuff to a couple of people who posted on this thread.

@Redblades - Dude, you are in my guild xD Impervious FTW

@Severage - Ty so much man, your first post helped me a lot

@Nergee - How the hell do you know I play from Australia o.O

@Delardino - By the way it was 39k not 36k xD

Thanks everyone for the help and if you guys want to post some more on this thread go ahead, I will keep checking for new information on the thread, and I will reply.

Kind regards,

Thundr

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 17:03

#30

Redblades

@thundr

bahahahahahahahaha sorry! too many members in this thing! XD

Wed, 12/12/2012 - 21:02

#31

Severage

@Thundrbolt:

Happy to be of service!

You're in Impervious? My regards to Produkt and the rest of you guys, you're always fun to play in LD :)

Also, you can tell based on your general playtime and your original post time (Unless you were on at like 2 AM) that you weren't from the US. But, how Nergee could tell you were from Aussie instead of EU I don't know...lol

~Sev

Thu, 12/13/2012 - 00:40

#32

Nergee

i never know what to put in this box.

i never had such bad internet until i moved recently. its almost guaranteed between 5-9pm that my internet will be horrible, which i conjecture to be people coming back from work eating too much of the pie that is our bandwidth.

oh sev, hes in my guild. this is just my forum alt from back in the day. i actually played you in LD on my main the other day :P thundr had no idea either until i told him earlier XD.

Thu, 12/13/2012 - 01:16

#33

Severage

@Nergee:

Ohhh let the guessing games begin.

~Sev

Thu, 12/13/2012 - 01:19

#34

Followup

Be a striker bomber! With CTR

Be a striker bomber! With CTR maximum maximum :P

Sun, 12/16/2012 - 23:58

#35

Eykay

I did not expect so many posts...

Hey guys,

Firstly I did not think I would receive so many posts on this thread, thanks so much for making this a hot forum thread :).
By the way Followup I don't think I'm cut out to be a bomber, and I don't have the luck OR money to get CTR maximum maximum bombs xD.

So to conclude, thanks for all the help guys and I will stay tuned to the thread if anyone feels like posting anything else.

Cheers,

Thundr

Mon, 12/17/2012 - 02:15

#36

Kagisnad-Il

Ping. It makes up for 20-30%

Ping.
It makes up for 20-30% of a player's Lockdown prowess. I know many players who are, indeed, skilled, but they have very good connections which help a lot.
However, besides that, the advice I can give is.. Full Skolver or Snarbolax, two Penta trinkets [I use one ASI but I plan to switch to a Penta, I spend too much time in the Locker room and I die fron a full GF combo], BTB/DA/WRH or variations for range, Brandish line is an option I have been experimenting, it works quite well with max ASI.
Once you go into the battlefield as Striker, I suggest you cap too instead of being a damage hog.
A tactic I have observed is hitting once, tapping shield and going towards them to hit again. You keep close range and cacel your enemy's hits. Another tactic, if you have enough booster, is to get close, proke an atrack and run away just out of their range to return with a hit and repeat. Approaching with a gun such as Valiance or Volt Driver can give you an advantage.
Your control scheme should be WASD for movement, and the mouse buttons for attack, shield, and switching.
If your ping is too high, your chances of being pro are almost null. However, I do know people who have a bad ping yet play well, such as Mitzy. You get used to it and learn to compensate, all it takes is practice, if you have the skill.

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Lockdown Professionals....WTF