Use your favourite features in-game with our Desktop AppAlthough our Stats-based Tier List is helpful, the numbers don't always tell the full story. This tier list, curated by our expert, RinaVX explains which items are defining the meta with commentary for every Deadlock hero.
See our Street Brawl tier list here.
NOTE: We're working on updating our rankings for the City Never Sleeps Update, check back soon! These rankings should still be serviceable but keep in mid that the new map layout helps out close-ranged heroes.
The City Never Sleeps update has arrived and with it comes a new map and new heroes and some really interesting changes despite no balance changes for the majority of the cast.
Sprint Boots and 
Fortitude feel mandatory to have in order to maintain presence in the map. 
Veil Walker feels much worse as well because the veils seem much more spread out and difficult to access, especially around the new 4 sections of the map. Conversely, 
Shadow Weave has been picking up some momentum since Sprint Boots is still included in it.
Melee Charge and 
Lifestrike feel much more powerful as punching feels easier to do as well as an undocumented change which allows stuns to cancel parries. 
Plated Armor has gotten its bugs finally fixed and as now become the premier defense against the some of the meta heroes like 
Celeste and 
Baba.Baba is the newest hero currently out, and despite horrific win rates and usage, I firmly believe she is the best hero in the game. Her niche of sapping spirit is a giant meta breaker in a way, Deadlock has ever seen before and her ability to obtain mass amounts of raw spirit allows items like 
Radiant Regeneration and 
Torment Pulse to become obscene. On top of that, Baba's unique moveset with 
Granny Long Legs allows for some interesting interactions such as securing the Mid-Boss crystal with no counterplay and farming Sinner's simultaneously. It is no surprise that a hero so similar to Celeste will sit along side her as the best hero in the game.
Celeste still has not changed in terms of her power, so she stays as runner-up to Baba. The only real change to Celeste is that Plated Armor now blocks her damage much more frequently, but that has barely stopped her from dominating team fights and duels alike. Her unique mobility and absurd spells will always lead her to be the strongest in the game, once you get over her learning curve.
Rem feels like a ticking time-bomb currently, as he scales so well that any game that lasts longer then 20 minutes feels like an auto-loss. With the nerfs to 
Spirit Burn, Rem's healing with 
Tag Along feels too absurd especially in longer fights along the Rift and Mid-Boss. 
Lil Helpers are also extremely powerful as giving your entire team a functional 
Spirit Resilience is very powerful as well.
It's hard to not compare 
Nurse Harrow to Rem as they both functionally have the same ideology between the characters. Funnily enough, I think Nurse Harrow is marginally weaker then Rem only because Rem can go invulnerable and is much easier to execute in terms of his gameplay. Overall though, when Harrow has her 
Leech Therapy stacks and is snowballing, she may be the strongest hero in the current game. Not to mention that currently her 
Lurking Terrors is a 12 second, damage immunity, a constant CC and is a giant AoE ult that affects the mid-boss pit well.
Yamato feels very good in the new map, as her chase-down with 
Flying Slash feels very overpowering. She also uses melee items very well with Lifestrike which makes her very durable in fights. 
Shadow Transformation also prevents the parry stun which allows for worry-free heavy melees as well, which makes her very easy and very powerful to play.
Abrams will forever be useful due to his ability to displace with 
Shoulder Charge and mostly that hes very forgiving with his innate tankiness with 
Infernal Resilience. With his consistency and lockdown, he has very good synergy with 
Rem and is very similar to 
Warden, where the best way to deal with the fairies is to try to tank and CC them.
Doorman is really good in this new map. There are so many new and unique possibilities he can do now with this new map. Doorman can access the Bell Tower with no fear with 
Doorway, while the more wide open lanes makes Doorman escapes more useful.
Pocket is still the same as last patch, but with the acquisition of 
Rat King and Baba, he seems to have a tougher time against them as they can both tank 
Affliction fairly easily and kill Pocket very easily if every caught out.
Venator stands out as the premier Gun Carry as his pure damage and 
Gutshot being stronger with the undocumented changes to parries allows him to be a very consistent and powerful choice in the current meta. Venator is also really good against Baba as well.
Ivy has not changed from last patch as well, she serves as an excellent swiss army knife that can solve and fit into any team composition. Everything from her gun build to her supporting build to her spirit build are all excellent and consistent. There are no bad choices with Ivy at all, so feel free to do whatever you think is best.
Violet seems like a fairly straightforward character as her gameplay loop mostly consists of running down people with 
Still Life. But once mastering her painting sub-ability and learning how to maximize her cooldown reductions with 
Living Ink, she ends up being very unique and super powerful when mastered. Because of that, I believe she is an excellent character that is very well fit within the meta, especially with her mid-boss contribution with 
Abstract Landscape.
I've maintained by opinion with 
Mo And Krill as always. His consistency and niche will always be useful as he serves to be a powerful anti-carry who is able to defeat any hero in the game. Not only that, Mo & Krill is also very tanky and mistake forgiving with his durability on 
Scorn and 
Burrow, whilst also being very fast as well.
McGinnis is a giant ball of stats that I believe is the 2nd best Gun carry in the game. With the map and lanes being slightly expanded out, dying to ganks is much less painful as long as the McGinnis maintains some proactivity. Also to mention, that McGinnis also scales very well and is really good in objective fights such as the Mid-Boss and Rift fights.
Viscous is still mostly the same, as 
Splatter and 
The Cube have maintained their usefulness as a strong nuke and save tool. A good Cube combined with a 
Rescue Beam will always have good value, while 
Puddle Punch isn't that great against opponents, it is really annoying to catch a Viscous that keeps punching himself away to safety.
Despite 
Lash's many nerfs, Lash is thriving in the new map, as lanes have much less cover around the Walkers which allows 
Ground Strike and 
Death Slam to be much more easily hit. As well as 
Grapple allowing chasedowns and escapes to be much easier as well.
Not much has changed with 
Sinclair, but 
Vexing Bolt has gained some much larger splash damage, leading to much more consistent damage overall. 
Rabbit Hex is also an excellent tool in Urn fights as well. Still an overall, solid hero but requires some mastery in order to stealing powerful ults such as 
Kelvin and 
Seven or 
Lash.
Paige feels really good currently, she outputs a lot of damage, while her CC is very useful especially against Rat King and Baba. With the lanes being much wider, Paige also has a much easier time in seeing the assassins run at her and Paige also is one of if not the best laner in the entire game.
Pairing these 3 heroes together, as they all functionally do the same thing with their respective abilities.
Rend, 
Kinetic Carbine and 
Rake all serve as a giga nuke to kill the weaker heroes that aren't the fairies or frontliners. While they all function differently mechanically, they mostly serve as evasive assassins that have decent tools to maneuver around the map and to evade attacks to take over the map.
Haze has gotten a huge buff in terms of her 
Fixation where Headshots now apply 3 stacks at a time, meaning that she has a much easier time in getting to max stacks and applying her 1AP nuke on Fixation. With her newly buffed 5AP talents in 
Smoke Bomb and 
Sleep Dagger, she has a much easier time roaming around the map and has a very solid late game as well.
Vindicta feels like a very good pick against Baba and Rat King as her flying can easily outmanuever them. While also a very good counterpick against the new heroes, her laning and 
Assassinate are extremely powerful during the early game and midgame as well. Her one true weakness is that her fragility stops her from being a true contender as a gun carry in the late game.
I might catch some flak for putting Rat King in only just A, but I believe that his post-nerf status has significantly reduced his power in the mid and late game. Rat King's extremely poor laning as well has also given a much harder time bringing himself over to the late game as well. While he does scale extremely well, he still has a very difficult time against certain characters as well such as fliers like Vindicta and fairies like Lash as well.
Really liking 
Vyper in this new map, as there are much more ramps and corners to work around with, which means Vyper can easily manuever around the map with much less stamina with 
Slither. With a very powerful gun and high mobility and her teamfight contribution with 
Petrifying Bola, she is a very solid pick in today's meta.
My original opinion on 
Grey Talon was very wrong, and that Grey Talon is really good against the new 6 heroes, as his long range burst damage is immediately noticeable, as all of the new heroes are relatively closed ranged and easily die to 
Guided Owl 5AP culling range and mass 
Charged Shot's.
Not only that, his 
Spirit Snare is really useful during the mid-boss fight and has relatively easy accessibility when comboed with a Charged Shot.
Most of the assassin characters seem to have issues in general due to the Health upgrades that everyone has gotten. 
Calico is no exception as she now requires more rotations of her spells in order to find any kills and relies on teammates much more to make up for the damage.
Bebop is a solid character, while 
Hook is obviously a great CC and pick tool, it does feel like he needs the help of his teammates most of the time as he gets absolutely eaten by the majority of the roster. It is never a good sign that when Bebop hooks someone, it turns out to be a shark called Abrams that in turn kills the Bebop instead.
Kelvin has been doing much better then expected in my opinion, as 
Frozen Shelter is functionally useless with the prevalence of 
Affliction. But Kelvin's other abilities with 
Frost Grenade and 
Arctic Beam has served to be decent ways to deal with frontliners and fairies as similar to Warden. While not excellent by any means, Kelvin can serve as decent enough off-meta pick to slow down these annoying mosquitos.
Holliday seems really solid as her gun build seems to be picking up pace and her mobility seems to be fairly good when fighting within the lanes. What really stops her is her high skill ceiling as well as her fragility, especially against targeted abilities like Mina's 
Nox Nostra or Yamato's Flying Slash.
Now that some time has passed, it is pretty fair to say that the 
Rising Ram change has mostly served as a nerf in general. With 
Billy's nuke being outright removed, he serves as a solid frontliner with a great tool to shut down fairies with 
Chain Gang. But his lack of damage feels like he lacks some agency in games as he can only serve as a CC bot and requires the help of his teammates to help finish off the people he chains.
Mirage, has been seeing a bit of a fall-off as his damage is too slow. Mirage is still an excellent character due to his easy to apply damage and his strength as a lane anchor. His scaling takes a bit too long in my opinion, but if games manage to go to the late game, he can serve as a solid gun carry. Albeit, still getting outscaled by the fairies and frontliners.
Dynamo is the best character against the evil Rem as 
Singularity can take out whoever he Tag Alongs to. On top of that, he delivers some very solid damage and healing while also contributing some very good CC. While he does suffer in the late game, he is more then solid to have on your team and especially against Rem.
The more I play with 
Solomon, the more I think he is just another varient of Paige, much of his utility is very similar and in some ways much more difficult to extract value from. While his potential may be very high, his weaknesses are too apparent to manage during actual gameplay. His weaknesses being very low mobility, inability to deal with fliers, fairies and generally getting gone on, he also struggles with how clunky his chess pieces are most of the time. For this reason, until some QoL releases happen, especially with his 
Kingside Knight and 
Setup Bishop, Paige is just a much easier, better version of Solomon.
Victor is a bit underwhelming in today's meta as he doesn't offer as much tankiness or damage while having too little range to deal with farther or more mobile threats. Victor also requires too much item investment like 
Infuser or 
Ethereal Shift to truly come online, which can make him feel very slow and weak while he is on your team. 
Pocket and 
Decay can also just ruin anything that the Victor wants to do.
Seven, feels very similar to Victor as they are both too slow for the current meta and offers too little for the time and investment they both require to shine. Seven also lacks the mobility and utility that other characters have to offer, while requiring too many core items before the rift or mid-boss fights.
The unnerfable 
Shiv has finally been nerfed as he doesn't offer enough damage or tankiness to exist in the current meta. Not to mention, he is incredibility slow and has to make use of right-clicking tech to match other characters or even get out-ran by a Warden with 
Veil Walker. Most of his damage gets negated once people have 
Dispel Magic and is simply too difficult to make work.
Graves seems a bit more playable as 
Grasping Hands and 
Borrowed Decree is very solid in large teamfights but it really just stops there. Her inability to farm and her low range while being very dependent on AP talents makes her feel fairly low agency in her games.
Infernus does not feel very good right now especially as Rat King and Plated Armor are natural counters to his gameplay, and Baba as well saps his Spirit to neuter his damage. Overall, Infernus feels fairly weak compared to his other carry contemporaries as he really needs a strong laning phase to have a better impact throughout the game.
Wraith got hit very hard with the buff to Plated Armor as well, and while she might find success due to the late-game nature of matchmaking. She really struggles during the laning and mid-game phases of the game. Wraith also struggles in duels against all of the new heroes and the majority of the cast currently as well.
Apollo hasn't been having a good time pre-City Never Sleeps and with the acquisition with Baba, it feels like he really struggles laning as well. Apollo can use melee items fairly decently, but his limited range and awkward movement really struggles within the new map as well.
Warden feels like he has nothing going for him at all. With his most recent nerfs, it feels like he gets outclassed by everyone and the only thing he has going for him is silence 
Binding Word.
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