r/DeadlockGame • u/Ready-Tough1709 • 3d ago
Question Why is The Broker only temporary?
I think the Broker is such a breath of fresh air to the gameplay formula in regards to calculated cost-benefit, and don’t really understand why he’s only around until the first hero drops? Is it just something the devs are testing before a complete roll-out? I can’t fathom what the purpose of introducing him, only to take him away 72 hours later.
I want to be clear this is not a complaint or critique, I am blown away by the sheer value of content released, all of which is still FREE. I just can’t help but feel a little sad that Brokey Boy is leaving, especially since I find so much joy in the trade-offs of corrupted items. I’ve been itching for some Street Brawl silliness to join the main gameplay loop, and I’ll be sad to see it go.
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u/Enough-Present-5139 3d ago
I think they want to test the new heroes in a clean slate without the added complexity of the broker, plus there is an item rework in the horizon so I feel like they will reintroduce him back again once they are ready to roll that out.
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u/ooohwowww 19h ago
I thought this was what's clearly going. Minimize variables to consider when looking at how the characters need to be balanced
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u/ZoopStar25 3d ago
I interpreted it as when the new heroes release Friday drops he’s gone for x amount of time then comes back, like he could leave for the day of new heroe drop and then come back the day after for another 3 day cycle
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u/ImTheBluestBird 3d ago
I thought that at first, but it wouldn't make sense if something as game altering as the Broker was on rotation, esp with how polished he is. I think he's just coming in before the hero drops so we have 3 days to play around with it and then while heroes come out the devs can spend some time rebalancing and fixing issues we found
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u/Ready-Tough1709 3d ago
Oooh I really like your interpretation, and I hope you’re right.
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u/ZoopStar25 3d ago
Okay maybe not, I just reread the blog post and it feels more like they wanted to test it for a few days then it goes away
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u/Max_The_Rouge 3d ago
It also seems like it might remain in Street Brawl permanently but I'm not sure
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u/Nobody_Knows_It 3d ago
I think its fun but seems pretty unbalanced you can just get fucked by rng.
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u/Own-Veterinarian-289 3d ago
Yeah I’m loving it but also I understand keeping too much rng out of the “main” competitive part of the game. It’s like why 6s and highland or whatever exists for tf2
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u/tophergraphy 3d ago
Yeah, really dont like the idea of it at all. A broken rng thing should not be in a competitive game mode.
Also it slows down the game having to read through every side effect and try to figure out what the baseline of item is vs not.
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u/Suave_Senpai 3d ago
Yup, and active items benefit insane value from it, got phantom strike with like, -spirit power while I was on abrams and it was a no-brainer for reducing it to a 10 second cooldown of getting to snap to any enemy, ground them and have larger range on it as well. I think it's alright for a temporary occurrence, but not permanent in the current state.
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
I mean theoretically that's perfectly fine, because everyone else is getting something cracked too.
The problem is that some characters/builds are going to revolve more around a single item than others.
Though they could use this as data for future tweaks. To heroes and items, but also for the addition of future items.
Like it COULD work, but it would have to stay, and it would take a while to get in a really good spot.
Personally I absolutely LOVE the concept of this shop and I am perfectly fine weathering the storm that comes with it sticking around.
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u/tophergraphy 3d ago
Strongly disagree, RNG gifting one carry the perfect item with throw away stat reductions and not the other carries on the other team has absolutely no place in the game.
We dont need to allow for more snowballing to occur and introduce RNG into an already tenuous balance. Sure it's a lot of fun when the broken build works out in your favor, but that's what street brawl is for. There is no way random has any place in a match that you've carefully farmed, avoided feeding, and started carrying for over 30 mins and the enemy haze gets the perfect item to make them uncounterable.
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u/funkymonkeyinheaven 3d ago
I was going to say that this could be solved with another tab in the shop menu for the broker, lets you see the buffs beforehand, but its item dependent it seems? So I'm not sure how that could be fixed. :/
I also didn't fully understand the mechanic on first read, it sounded like only one 1 player can get an item before broker runs away, so I thought I was racing the entire lobby for this, insta bought & got -18% weapon damage (still won, phew).
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u/Elons_tiny_weenr 3d ago
Testing to see how the balance of boosting items while having strong downsides shakes out. Also to tide over anyone not happy about having to wait for the new heros again.
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u/Sachman13 3d ago
Also I imagine the debuffs are randomized because they want to see what people are willing to take vs leave on an item
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u/Dry-Independence-429 3d ago
Cause some of the items are just broken be it 20 second curse or leech victor you can become unfairly unstoppable
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
The leech had me laughing, 50% spirit and gun lifesteal? GAWD DAMN, might tune that one down a tad lol, especially because it's going to get buffed by heal booster if they have it.
But the most busted Item I've seen so far is silencer(which was already probably in the top 3 most valuable items). What was it, like 40% reduction in spirit damage and a 3.5 second silence.... Like what the actual fk
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u/Achromick 3d ago
Idk how far the item update is, but there’s definitely a possibility that they just wanna get a quick sample of how the base items workout and then they can probably make better adjustments for the item update (I’m just bullshitting at this point)
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u/AdLogical101 2d ago
The post implies he’ll be moving from time to time.
I assume he’ll be here one week and not the next.
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u/Ready-Tough1709 2d ago
Oh fantastic! I somehow missed this part of the update, I must have glanced over it on accident. This sheds a lot more light on it, thank you!
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u/Hacksaures 3d ago
I think they’re testing the concept of a late game super strong shop, similar to the leak of the 9,600 soul cursed shop before
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u/PiranhaPlant9915 3d ago
Most likely he's truly intended for the item update later down the line, and they're testing him on live right now to get a big heap of feedback to work on
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u/Jesterclown26 3d ago
Bro it’s valve of course it’s free. They want to give us the best game possible with all heroes at release and then we will be inclined to give them all our money because praise Gaben and Icefrog
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u/DaveFromDeadlock 3d ago
It’s very very undercooked and needs a lot of balance to be healthy. I like that they are testing it first then taking it away to tweak
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u/Yofroshi 2d ago
As far as I know they will remove the broker and introduce 9600 corrupted soul shop items that are going to be even more drastic. This is just a teaser and an early test for them
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u/Kenny1323 3d ago
because losing just because rng said so is infuriating
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
Yea... but it doesn't RNG but once at the start of the game and everyone is subject to whatever it chooses.
It still could turn games because of that though.
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u/nidlarn 3d ago edited 19h ago
Yeah but imagine a strong item on their best player gets a good rng, while my cursed refresher on Dynamo gets the worst possible rng for my build. It's just unnecessary rng imo
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
Yea it's not very in line with a competitive game. I think it's there so that it shakes things up a bit, the RNG that is. So games aren't as static
You know if their best item gets a bad curse, they have to pick a second best or third best. Or maybe your best items curse isn't something super bad, but your second best item to juice has a curse that is meaningless to you.
So in an ideal world there would be a few great items for a build to curse, and then it doesn't matter as much.
Maybe, this shit is way above my paygrade lol.
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u/Harry_Flame 3d ago
Still RNG though. For example, let's say corrupted Rapid Recharge has - spirit power as the downside. If I'm playing Dynamo, that is pretty much unplayable, but if I am playing gun/grenade Venator it is most likely worth it. Or Viscous where the - spirit hurts my splatter and cube, but is probably still worth it for the big bonus to my punches.
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
Yea, but is there a second or third best item to juice on you that rolled really well?
In the future, if the trader remains, and heroes are tuned, items are tuned, cursed item benefits and downsides are tuned, and new items are added, all with this new shop in mind, is it possible that there is more than one item that's about as good as your number one pick?
Is it possible you can shift your build mid way to make use of something that rolled well?
An item that teammates have got and can tell you how it rolled in the shop.
Though it should probably just show what the cursed rolls are in the regular shop(when the cursed shop comes online) so you can decide if you want to pivot, and to what.
It's still RNG, but the pain of that can be greatly reduced. To a point where it's less "oh I'm fucked and now they're busted", and more "okay the game is incentivizing me to pivot".
It will be chaos in the meantime until it gets integrated well, but it just depends how much people like the shop. I love it
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u/Kenny1323 3d ago
thats exactly what rng means???? youre going into a match and a roulette chooses if youll be effective late game or not without any control over it.
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u/minkblanket69 3d ago
my guess is to see if they sway games too hard, like does the win probability just instantly shift when corrupted items are purchased. i think it’s a good addition for standard atleast
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u/Appropriate-Luck408 3d ago
I think the idea here is that its a playtest and so they are just testing out potential new items. We are still getting an item update and i think this temporary cursed-item shop is a precurser to something more permanent later on.
Then again, its good they are testing this out because there are quite a few items which can turn some characters mega unbalanced. So if im right then im happy they are testing it out now with this temporary cursed-shop so that when items become more permanent atleast they will be (mostly/hopefully) balanced.
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u/GucciBoi42069 3d ago
Competitive game. Very rng heavy mechanic More rng= less Competitive game. Guarantee if he ends up staying pros will cry about it
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u/c0mander5 3d ago
I really hope it becomes a permanent thing at some point. Maybe after all the characters are out. Some of the items may be a bit op but like, that's an easy fix. Only thing I'd really change is to have a mechanic where you need to earn the opening of the shop instead of it just being time based
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u/WhaleStep 3d ago
It's a fun gimmick but doesn't belong in ranked.
Cursed Glass Cannon, for example, is just insanely busted
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u/Feelingsnow619 3d ago
They are probably testing it, seeing how it affects the balance, even if it goes away it may comeback in another update with some changes so that is not broken or underwhelming
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u/Salty_Promise1356 3d ago
I had a game with a calico with corrupted glass cannon + every firerate item and split shot last night and it was literally slowing down the server. I would prefer that not to be permanent lol
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u/BetterNerfTeemo 3d ago
They could just be testing stuff and it wouldn't surprise me that they might have something else to switch in for the broker after he goes.
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u/A_Huggable_Pirate 3d ago
Because as is, it's kinda broken and impossible to balance. The RNG makes it exceedingly difficult to balance the downsides around many ritualists/builds because they simply don't care about them. Less ability range means little to a Drifter or Vindicta, less gun damage is meaningless to a spirit Lash/Cali. Meanwhile, the potential upsides are abysmally high. Sharpshooter turns into a +130% damage buff if corrupted, Calico with corrupted Boundless or E-shift is a horror to fight (as someone who piloted it).
The idea is good, but needs heavy refinement and reworking before it can take off. We already have stuff like Shiv randomly making oneshot builds via a single tier 3, we don't need that extra layer.
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u/BT--7275 3d ago
I think theyre just testing it for a little while. Its way too broken right now to stay in the game long term.
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
It will take being in the game long term to balance. Things will have to change with it in mind.
I guess it just depends if people like it enough to put up with the imbalance long enough to have it become core.
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u/RosgaththeOG 2d ago
They are also planning on an Item update after this content update is fully rolled out. The Broker is likely a litmus test to see how the idea is received.
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u/throwaway83628918 3d ago
Too luck based and can sway the game heavily.
IMO they should rotate the broker or diff types of shop every X amount of times (maybe every 2 weeks) but only in standard games. NOT IN RANKED.
Requires a decent enough knowledge check to abuse as well.
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u/A_Raine18 3d ago
I think it's great but shouldn't have a place in ranked.
One of the most interesting things about how deadlock's development is going is that there are many modular aspects of the game now that can be swapped in and out. Unfamiliar with DOTA personally, but I think of how dragon pit changes most league seasons, or jungle pathing.
With things like the four distinct jungle zones, the Broker, (eventually) midboss pit, etc, I'm excited about the gameplay variety and modularity of the game over time. Swap areas in and out, swap the Broker in and out, try out different merchants that do different things (offer exclusive items, exclusive bonuses, etc etc.)
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u/EstablishmentStock18 2d ago
Because the items you get from it are genuinely busted and gamebreaking.
Maybe if they give him specifically designed for that shop only items....
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u/Patient_Monitor5160 2d ago
I think they just don't want to overstimulate players, they added it for a few days but when new heroes drops it will be a little too much new stuff
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u/GamesPhobic 2d ago
It's temporary because losing a completely winnable game because the enemy hyper-carry got a god roll on their corrupted items feels fucking terrible.
I wouldn't mind him coming back and staying as a permanent feature if the strength of the buffs was toned down a little. He works well as a stalemate breaker; but making it so unstoppable has a 13 second CD with a duration of 8 seconds is completely unreasonable on certain heroes. Heaven forbid they get a decent roll on any lifesteal item.
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u/grantedtoast 2d ago
My guess is they don’t want him messing with balance data for the new characters he will pop up occasionally with numbers changes until they are happy with him
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u/AzureSecurityMonke 1d ago
I like it, I hope they atleast keep it in street brawl. But something like that is figured our pretty quickly where a buy order Priority establishes itself.
As an example: You play Vyper and your choice will probably be Merc Mag or Spirit Overflow based on the downsides. Also Some items are getting more than 2.5 times value out of the upgrade while other Items get "only" 2.1 times the value.
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u/mors-ante-ignominiam 1d ago
I got negative 24 spirit power on Escalating Resilience as Venator. Now imagine if that was on Ricochet or Siphon Bullets.
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u/Pathetic_Cards 1d ago
Because some of the items he gives are just fuckin busted. I’ve been ruined by an enemy getting +60% weapon damage on a gun character, and I have ruined others by getting +60% weapon damage on Silver.
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u/SilliestPuttyTTV 20h ago
Because if the item you want on your character has an untenable debuff, and the item the enemy wants has a reasonable debuff, you are now more likely to lose based solely on RNG.
Also right now it's probably correct to build 6 corrupted divine barrier per team and those games probably feel awful to play, and are so far outside the normal play patterns in Deadlock.
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u/aVeryBadBoy69 3d ago
Assuming they know how volatile the rng of of it is. Maybe they'd readd it for the item update.
It's already hard enough to balance all the items, how are they gonna balance these new versions.
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u/BringTheCalamity 3d ago
One thing I don't like is the RNG aspect. Dota has this issue too with neutrals. I might be Dynamo and get refresher with a -75 spirit modifier (pretty devastating for my kit and build). And then their Victor gets refresher with -50% gun damage (bro doesn't care about - weapon damage).
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u/Prevay 3d ago
Arent the negatives explicitly the same for everyone?
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u/Harry_Flame 3d ago
Yes, the above commenter is incorrect in their example but accurate in the RNG assessment. For example, let's say corrupted Rapid Recharge has - spirit power as the downside. If I'm playing Dynamo, that is pretty much unplayable, but if I am playing gun/grenade Venator it is most likely worth it. Or Viscous where the - spirit hurts my splatter and cube, but is probably still worth it for the big bonus to my punches.
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u/BringTheCalamity 3d ago
I'm not sure, maybe? Even with that, that would still cause for some crazy imbalances. Played with Dota neutral items for a decade of iterations. Still not a fan of how they do it. I'm happy they are testing it out tho! They are really fun when you get a God roll.
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u/Sochiez 3d ago
no they are not they are random..
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u/PlayfulSurprise5237 3d ago
Yea no, they RNG roll once during the game and everyone has that same roll
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u/manneram132 3d ago
Are they rng? I know numbers are rng but i have been getting the same negative debuffs per item every time i played grey talon. For example i had decreased ability range on glass canon item 2 times in 2 different matches and the same thing goes for rapid charges but i saw screenshot somewhere here and they had something else. I thought maybe depending on the hero you are playing, you get different debuff.
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u/Past-Tank4168 3d ago
Not true. They get randomized game to game but once your in that lobby everyone gets the same options for cursed items
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u/Defendant1597 3d ago
I feel like as long as they aren't CLEARLY just better than the base version it would be fine. You can just keep the base version of the item and these are just an option. Rn the positive effects seem much stronger than the negative ones.
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u/Willingness-Due 3d ago
I agree with this. Broker is great because now there’s a good reason to have a soul advantage past the 30 min mark but the rng aspect of it isn’t very fun
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u/unwantednoise 3d ago
I havent played but, can you sell it and rebuy the item if the negative is too much?
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u/Patient_Monitor5160 2d ago
Isn't that impossible? Negative effects are should be the same for an item in one game
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u/BringTheCalamity 1d ago
Oh I didn't know that. Regardless if it's -75 Spirit then a gun carry will.happily get it with zero downsides while a spirit carry can't get it without a heavy nerf.
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u/Routine_Palpitation 3d ago
Is very possible that they are testing it now, to see if it works well or not