Are There Deadlock Roles or Positions?
The Current State of Deadlock Roles
If you're coming from games like DOTA 2, League of Legends, and Overwatch 2, you're probably used to having expected roles or positions.
For example, in League of Legends, there are Top, Jungle, Mid, ADC, and Support while Overwatch 2 has Tank, Damage, and Support.
These specific roles even have dedicated queues that will intend to assign you to a team with that role.
The characters in the game are expected to have certain duties when playing a role, and their design will often be related to those duties.
At the moment for Deadlock, there are no set roles. In fact, you are randomly assigned to one of the four lanes (Purple, Blue, Orange, or Yellow) in a 1v1 or 2v2 matchup.
Rather than the same role facing each other, like Mid vs Mid in League of Legends, you're matched up against someone of a similar skill level.
It remains to be seen if Deadlock will remain in this way or if it is just for testing purposes. Right now, you even have to choose at a minimum, three characters that will be selected at random when you play.
Character Archetypes
Rather than assigned roles with expected duties, each Deadlock team is better defined by the heroes that are part of the team comp and the way that the players build them.
Based on these factors, the heroes will usually lean into general archetypes that have roles within them.
Common archetypes used in the community are:
Engage / Tank
Poke / Sniper
Duelist / Split Pusher
Healer / Support
Note that due to Deadlock's flexible design, most heroes can be built in multiple ways and can specialize or overlap into multiple archetypes.
Another important thing to keep in mind is that anyone can carry. The Tank or the Support can have the most kills and no one will bat an eye.
Let's take a look at examples of the different Deadlock archetypes and their roles.
Engage / Tank Heroes
These heroes are comfortable on the frontlines and are often the first to initiate team fights due to having strong crowd control abilities.
When they get a lead, they can seem nearly unkillable and can lock down enemy threats with ease.
Since they usually operate in close ranges, they can have trouble fighting opponents with long range or better mobility.
Poke / Sniper Heroes
Heroes that like to keep their distance and kill enemies from afar are usually classified as Poke or Sniper characters.
If they get a lead, they can burst down massive chunks health from their opponents, especially ones with weak defensive items.
In exchange for being potent from a distance, they can have a tough time when enemies get on top of them.
Duelist / Split Pusher Heroes
In this category, you have heroes that can create incredible pressure in a side lane or in isolated areas around the map.
Their toolsets usually include abilities that allow them to dominate 1v1 situations, especially against unsuspecting foes.
If these characters fall behind in Souls and lack items, they can struggle to be useful since they usually lack utility and are more damage-focused.
Healer / Support Heroes
Although each of these heroes can certainly operate alone or carry, they have built-in capabilities that help them shine when playing a supportive role.
Want to save teammates from certain death with clutch interventions? Keep the fight going with AoE (area of effect) heals? Give these heroes a shot.
One of their main downsides is that they can require more coordination and communication with your team - but man, do they offer some satisfying plays that no other characters can make.
Kelvin: An Example of Flexibility
As we said earlier, Deadlock heroes can be built in a number of ways to help you adapt to the needs of your team or the game's context.
Depending on which abilities you upgrade and the items you target, Kelvin can be a wide range of archetypes.
If you max his Frost Grenade (1), he can take the role of a Healer / Support since his grenades offer AoE heals
If you max his Ice Path (2), he can speed around the map and act as a Splitpusher.
If you max his Arctic Beam (3) or Frozen Shelter (4), he leans more into being a Frontlining Tank
Our point here is that with Deadlock, Valve is designing characters that can be played in several ways, so be creative and versatile!
Ultimately, as long as you're working with your team and contributing to a victory, the method is up to you.