HMC and ZMC: Secret Deadlock Advanced Movement Tech and Tutorial

Heavy Melee Cancel and Zipline Momentum Conservation are two advanced pieces of movement tech in Deadlock that allow players to move faster than normal and speed across the map.
If you are interested in the technical explanation behind either HMC or ZMC, please see the Deadlock Movement Document linked below created by cmpstr.
Timestamps:
00:12 - Introduction
00:34 - What is a Heavy Melee Cancel?
00:54 - Who and What Can Heavy Melee Cancel
01:10 - How to Heavy Melee Cancel
01:23 - HMC Options on the Ground
01:45 - HMC in the Air
01:57 - Movement with HMC
02:24 - HMC Example In-Game
02:52 - Aerial HMC Practice Exercise
03:10 - Advanced HMC Example In-Game
03:23 - What is Zipline Momentum Conservation?
04:39 - Using ZMC + HMC Rollout In-Game Example
05:00 - Using ZMC + HMC Rollout In-Game Example 2
05:17 - ZMC with Lash Death Slam
05:48 - Abrams Double HMC Potential
06:20 - Paradox Double HMC Potential
06:48 - Pocket HMC + ZMC Tech
07:28 - Closing Thoughts on HMC + ZMC
07:47 - Outro Montage
Movement Doc Link: docs.google.co...
You can find my Lash build in-game by searching "Noct's Superior Movement Lash".
Thanks to everyone for all their help as I've learned new editing software and tried to make a higher quality video. Also shout out to everyone who has been discovering the movement tech within Deadlock.
Song title: Melt
Artist: Goosestaf
Courtesy of Riot Games: www.leagueofle...
#deadlock #deadlockadvancedguide #deadlockguide #deadlockHMC #ZMC #heavymeleecancel #Lash

[@quackbo1]

dude, watching you play Deadlock is like another game entirely. Good vids, thanks!

[@noctgaming8335]

Really appreciate it and glad you enjoyed!

[@rauggie9971]

I hope things like this don't get patched out of the game, since a lot of the appeal of Deadlock (for me, personally) comes from the more lenient and "casual" aspects of this game (by "casual" I mean games that allow more room for player agency as opposed to "optimizing" every little thing for the sake of pure balancing). I've played MOBAs before, but my first love was movement shooters (ala Team Fortress 2). In Team Fortress 2, one of the best things about that game was players being able to use intentional mechanics in unintentional ways (like crouching while rocket jumping to propel further and higher, or strafing off of sloped surfaces while Demoknight charging to start "trimping"). HMC and ZMC very much remind me of that kind of "player-to-game-mechanic-dynamic", and it makes this game really *"feel"* like a Valve game.

[@kamella2563]

yep as someone who came from overwatch, trying to make every ability fair for the sake of being fair killed the game. id much prefer frequent balance patches like deadlock does.

[@crumpledmint]

I just hope it doesn't become like apex's using unintentional mechanics in unintentional ways. I really like what valve did with movement in deadlock and I really like how accessible it is

[@rauggie9971]

@@kamella2563 I feel you. I got burnt out by competitive games due to the metacentric nature of being forced to constantly keep up to date with constant buffs, nerfs, and overhaul patches. Deadlock has been that weird middle ground for me where, even though it's very much built to be a competitive game, the item system has been streamlined to a point where its simplistic design allows more room for player expression and experimentation, rather than being solely forced into a single meta. I love it.

[@rauggie9971]

@@crumpledmint I'm not too familiar with Apex. I'm curious to hear some examples.

[@Ishsa]

​@@rauggie9971 They're probably referring to tap strafing and super glides

[@Goober70000]

paradox gon make a banger w this one 🗣

[@noctgaming8335]

BUILT-IN HMC HEROES RISE UP

[@cyberjeeb]

I finally got the secret hidden advanced movement channel in my yt algo. I play deadlock for the shmovement subbed

[@troshinalex5250]

Top notch video. The movement tech is insane in this game, and I’m all in for it!

[@bazzfromthebackground3696]

I only just recently learned corner kicks were a thing. Movement in this game is crazy, now I have to look up what sone of these other techs were.

[@collins_channel8643]

This give me BXR nostalgia. Great breakdown my man

[@dmitriytitov4116]

Great vid, Noct! Didnt know HMC was patched out and in, I am so glad the tech was acknowledged! Also thank you for showcasing Pocket tech, it looks simple yet effective.

[@JarvidO]

It's kind of funny a lot of people had the impression that "melee is useless" at high levels because of the parry key, when the game first opened up. but all of the melee items are high value and versatile, and there's a million ways to bait parries, completely free opportunities for melee on stunned or channeling heroes, insane movement options, and you can basically condition players to reliably self stun themselves with the parry key.

[@KeroOW]

Thank God they re added hmc after last patch, it's so fun

[@illumitabris]

Exactly what I was looking for, great stuff.

[@1millionRamen]

im a lash main. but damn bro i play like garbage after seeing ur gameplay. i subbed.

[@DUCKVILLELOL]

Great vid Noct, thank you! Can I give a small recommendation on the production end - when you've got the text of the "what move to make" at the top of the screen overlayed on top of the actual movements happening in character - could you animate the text so that it shows "what movement is happening at this point"? This stuff is awesome and I'm trying to learn how to do it (slowly... very slowly... lol) but it'd just be cool to understand more directly for newbies like me what you're actually doing when you're flying across the entire map as Lash lol :D Thanks again!

[@noctgaming8335]

@@DUCKVILLELOL great suggestion. I'm learning too, so I'll give this a shot next time!

[@lfishl22]

tbh this is breaking the game, even not with Lash

[@jamilyeung]

Should probably make something clear: HMC is not going to be patched out and it seems that Yoshi(the head dev) is keeping it as a feature as he said so himself. This means that other HMCs and other interesting movement tech such as corner boosts are likely to stay in the game.

[@JarvidO]

it feels like corner boosting has a unique sound when you trigger it, meaning it's not a bug, unless it's just two wall jump sounds stacked then that would make sense

[@theSato]

he did say that at the end of the video friend

[@throwawaydetective9080]

I feel like its nice that its not patched out, but ideally what should happen is that every hero should be updated to have at least one way to access HMC without items, or just have more items activate HMC.

[@Hope-lt3de]

Is that a bird? A plane? ...No, it's a flying life-stealing ground-slamming detective.

[@yungebola5524]

the bg music is sick btw.

[@Yolipow]

So glad HMC got added back

[@cyrix2891]

Could you make a whole video on strafe dashing? I can do it but don’t really get why it works

[@3MC3]

This is great and I hope it stays in the game. This is the kind of mechanic which needs practice and effort to become good at and ultimately separates top rank players from lower rank players. Other things like game sense and gunplay do come in play but these small things add another layer of skill and can, believe it or not win games. If I had a team that rotated as fast as this guy does, team fights and objective pushing becomes an entire different game.

[@TVFrag]

definitely gonna check out the build + subbed

[@vMoppyMedia]

When doing a diagonal strafe dash, is it not more beneficial to do it at a 45° angle with your camera sideways so you technically go straight farther, instead of looking straight and going at an angle?

[@Magpie7]

yo what resolution or fov do you play on your camera looks soo good

[@DanesCorner]

Can you cover diagonal strafe dashing?

[@noctgaming8335]

Not a bad idea!

[@tempest5343]

does having melee charge make it so you go further/faster with an hmc?

[@noctgaming8335]

Yes, using Melee Charge can help you go further or faster but its not required

[@garo7892]

i mdae a shiv movement discovery on my channel idk if thats good or not

[@Nauct]

You're jumping off the zipline? Why do that when crouching off conserves all your momentum?

[@Ninebreak999]

Reminds me of Gunz the Duel.

[@scolit205]

I do feel like going for superior stamina this patch is better, even without the funky techs. It has to be so much better after enduring speed nerf

[@noctgaming8335]

I think Superior Stamina is being slept on in general because Majestic Leap is so easy to use and usually you dont want to spend too many Souls on "movement"

[@pushlock]

@@noctgaming8335i want. . .

[@scolit205]

@@noctgaming8335 also! There are not that many items that can slow your dashes I believe, and if you lock in those can save your life.

[@goredyn8150]

How do you hmc with mo&krill?

[@Mrmoocows99]

Scorn (1) is a hmc.

[@celexample]

People should note that these might not be intended.

[@wavyboi]

imm cooming rn

[@matthuckleberry5238]

Pretty cool but should this really be in the game?

[@rauggie9971]

Even though these two games aren't even in the same genre, I'm gonna use TF2 (Team Fortress 2) as a point of reference here. Valve has a history of making games where players are able too use intended mechanics in unintentional ways. For example, in TF2, rocket jumping was a mechanic specifically designed and implemented by Valve. But what Valve didn't predict was that players could crouch while rocket jumping in order to propel themselves much further and higher than if they were to do it the intended way. The cool thing about this is that, because of the way the intentional aspects of rocket jumping works, this unintentional way of rocket jumping isn't actually op (which is why Valve never patched it out of the game). In order to rocket jump in the first place, you need to fire a rocket down by your feet. This means that in exchange for mobility, you have to damage yourself in the process, spend ammo to do so, and take even more damage depending on how high you are off the ground before you land. In Deadlock, the HMC and ZMC movement tech have that same kind of "transaction", where in exchange for really good mobility, you still have to spend stamina bars; you still need to activate items which are set on a cooldown; you still need to activate abilities which are set on a cooldown; you still have to deal with damage falloff if you decide to shoot while airborne. All-in-all, so long as there is a "transaction" dynamic of some kind, where players need to sacrifice core resources in order to use intended mechanics in unintended ways, I think that having things like this in Deadlock is perfectly okay. Sure, some things may need to be tweaked here and there in terms of balancing. But, I don't think that these things should just straight up be removed in a game like this. There's already a lot of player agency in the form of item experimentation compared to other MOBAs. The more a game is designed to be competitive, the more it generally tends to focus on "optimizing the 'fun'" out of a game for the sake of balancing; (yes, 'fun' is a very ad hoc term, but I'm mostly referring to a player's freedom of expression in a game vs how much a game restricts that). I think that Deadlock is really unique in that it somehow managed to be a middle ground for "casual" games and competitive games in general.

[@mikkelh9757]

yeah, u dweeb git gud

[@Tamperkele]

Yeah, I mean is it really that op?

[@lordsithis937]

This game has already set itself apart from many others in that rather than nerfing everything and everyone to the ground everyone feels powerful and the skill ceiling no matter who you are and what game you’ve gotten good at is high why not one more that is also fun to mess with?

[@IAcePTI]

Lash came from Attack on Titan anime 😂

[@celexample]

That widescreen really giving tons of extra vision. Hardware advantages always make me cringe. Still, useful video.

[@noctgaming8335]

I get it. Tbf its not doing a whole lot for me in Deadlock. But it does make it feel like you're going super fast lol

[@minkblanket9632]

what is mirages cancel? i cant find it

[@noctgaming8335]

Mirage's built in HMC got patched out, my bad. I'll try to leave a note on the video

[@remingtonrojas]

I feel like tech in this game is kinda cool but there is just so much of it that it is starting to be overwhelming. Like to compete with these sweats it feels like you have to do homework instead of just playing the game and finding out organically.

[@noctgaming8335]

I know its a lot of information condensed into a short video. But if theres one thing to take away that you dont have to think too much about, just crouch off the zips from now one. You'll go a lot faster and can start organically feeling it out from there.

[@testwordz]

its not really fair to everyone else on this planet to have movement this good though

[@mrawesomelivshere]

siiiiiq

[@thchris]

demoknight tf2

[@Xemen]

you're treeree of deadlock

[@cadders8205]

too bad last patch gut the heavy melee cancel

[@noctgaming8335]

No, HMC was hot fixed back into the game today. Its live right now

[@cringe1462]

​@@noctgaming8335WOOOOO

[@dudeguy3d]

@@noctgaming8335 holy shit i thought it was gone forever this is awesome

[@cadders8205]

@@noctgaming8335oh shit thank god, as an abrams main i can sleep easy

[@lordvon_3490]

this is clearly an exploit that will be patched so I don't see any reason to use it

[@noctgaming8335]

it was acknowledged by the devs and patched back into the game, so its not an exploit

[@RandomUsernameAppearsInChat]

rip heavy melee canceling

[@styrbo]

bro its fixed