Deadlock Expert Tier List - Explanations for Every Hero

Shiv

Shiv seems to be an unnerfable hero as his has managed to survive another harsh nerf to his Slice and Dice and yet manages to still be a premier bruiser. Especially in the Urn fights, an enraged Shiv can easily cull through any teamfight and excels as a frontliner currently.

Billy

Billy has gotten many buffs in the form of having 15% more health and having all his melee items buffed as well. With the buffs to Spirit Snatch and Alchemical Fire, a strong Chain Gang in an urn fight is a great initiation tool. Especially with the 5AP Unstoppable upgrade which allows Billy to punch the urn with no downside. Billy is slightly a bit worse then the current meta heroes who can do a similar job with more ease.

Vyper

Vyper is a very volatile hero that can easily be the worst or the best and right now, Vyper is currently the best gun carry in the game. With her unique synergy with Split Shot and the amount of raw damage she can output, is quite overwhelming. Split Shot allows for mass area coverage and has enough AoE to mow down all characters.

Lash

The Lash is back as Death Slam excels in the large open areas that the Urn is fighting upon. Just being able to displace enemies and his standard Ground Strike combo is enough to turn the tides on any fight as well as his natural mobility leading to fast escapes and even faster ganks.

Graves

Graves has gotten a massive buff to her Jar of Dead AI and it now frequently hits targets. With her other buffs to Grasping Hands and her innate ability to disrupt teamfights with Borrowed Decree. She is an important asset to have on ur team and the constant flood of zombies and skulls is enough to dissuade some fights on the Urn.

Seven

Seven is unsurprisingly high on the tier list as he excels in large messy teamfights and all of his abilities have large AoE's. Pulling Lightning Ball on the Urn while casting Storm Cloud is a powerful tool to have in these fights. With an early Unstoppable and Escalating Exposure, Seven no longer has to fear any disruptors from Death Slam or Paradoxical Swap.

Sinclair

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.

Silver

Silver has mostly stayed the same, she is still extremely powerful. Entangling Bola / Tail Whack still is one of the strongest CC's in the game and being able to shut off stamina in any form deserves a high rating in the meta.

Abrams

Even with the massive nerfs to Abrams gun, as long as Abrams maintains his displacement power with Shoulder Charge and natural durability, he will forever have a mainstay in any team as a solid and mobile front liner.

Wraith

Wraith is a fairly solid carry as an early Ricochet allows her to scale and have a high impact in Urn fights. With the very recent changes to the Urn location, split pushing is once again allowed giving Wraith enough time to scale. She also got a recent buff to her items such as Spiritual Overflow and Mercurial Magnum which helps immensely.

Venator

Venator has also maintained his position as a solid carry as well. The utility of Consecrating Grenade is not to be underestimated, but personally lacks some of the more consistent AoE damage that the other more prevalent heroes have currently. Venator might struggle to maintain to scale throughout the game as the meta develops further.

Doorman

The Doorman has received another nerf but throwing bells and having portals is a good utility to have in fights. Simply throwing Call Bell's in fights seems to be strong enough to maintain his position on the tierlist as well as the displacement from Luggage Cart is not to be underestimated.

Victor

Victor is tanky and he has a large damaging circle in the form of Shocking Reanimation and Aura of Suffering both very useful qualities to have in the current meta. Not much is to be said as Victor excels in this meta and chaotic fighting.

Calico

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.

Mirage

Mirage feels very out of place as being a single target anti-carry. Even with splashing his Dust Devil is a bit too lacking and is too slow of a character to exist in the current Urn meta.

McGinnis

McGinnis offers some strong utility and damage as Medicinal Specter and Spectral Wall is excellent in Urn fights. Heavy Barrage is an excellent source of damage as well. McGinnis realistically only suffers as she still is a slow grounded character and can easily be shutdown if caught out of place.

Grey Talon

Grey Talon has finally got some real buffs to his Rain of Arrows and with the strength of Spirit Snare, he has finally come back into revelency. Grey Talon is excellent as a counter-measure to all the current channeling ability meta, as Charged Shot and Spirit Snare can both cancel and kill through, such as McGinnis's Heavy Barrage or Seven's Storm Cloud.

Yamato

Yamato has a really strong laning phase and has gotten significant buffs to Flying Slash which allows her to buy items such as Spirit Strike and Melee Lifesteal. But I find that she has a very difficult time during the mid and late game, as she lacks the damage to kill through certain characters and lacks the mobility to even catch up once Flying Slash is used. Even Shadow Transformation feels a bit lacking as its innate defenses are not enough to handle through more meta attacks such as Pulse Grenade and Ira Domini.

Dynamo

Dynamo has fell out of place as people are much more wary of his Singularity and Kinetic Pulse. While Singularity is still powerful during Urn fights, the game is too fast for the rest of kit to have much impact.

Warden

Warden feels really bad in the current meta, as he lacks the explosive power and tankiness to exist in fights. His biggest weakness is his inability to do large area damage as Last Stand simply is too weak compared to every other hero and forces him to commit hard in fights.

Viscous

Viscous has also suffered too many nerfs and lost much of his power in the meta. With the nerfs to perma stun Goo Ball and the nerfs to Puddle Punch, Viscous really doesn't have any good build or styles to play off. His only real strength still lies in the saving power of The Cube and the decent damage of Splatter.

Holliday

All of the assassin characters feel out of place as well, as finding singular kills is much harder with the new buffs to Spirit Shielding and Weapon Shielding. And simply do not have the long staying power that is so revelent right now, Holliday is no exception to this as once she runs out of Powder Keg's she simply runs out of power and falls over.

Drifter

Drifter also seems to have lost too much power in the recent patches, as his gun really lacks power. Drifter mostly feels like a Eternal Night spammer, which doesn't feel very fun to play as the Drifter nor does it offer a strong offensive power spike either. Overall, just seems to be very lacking in the current meta.

Bebop

Bebop has gone to the wayside as his gun has been massively nerfed and his new meta build for building around Hyper Beam feels a bit lacking. Hyper Beam in itself is too easy to counter and Bebop can easily be killed through while casting. Bebop also simply lacks other forms of area damage and dies much too quickly when gone on.

Infernus

Infernus has shared the same fate as all the other lacking characters as he does not output enough damage and is much too slow for the current gamestate. Infernus simply lacks the killing power or the tankiness to exist in the game and requires too much farm to ever come online compared to the rest of the cast.

Mina

Mina has finally been dethroned as the queen of Deadlock and both the meta and the nerfs to Nox Nostra is simply too much for her. She no longer has the power to kill through some of the stronger characters and gets kited way too easily for her to maintain her power in large teamfights. The Urn fight itself, simply does not favor her as there is enough cover to dodge her bats and gets split very easily among the deathball of players.

Paige

While Paige has all the necessary AoE tools to theoretically be revelent, she simply lacks the long term damage that everyone has. Rallying Charge cannot cancel the stronger teamfight ults such as Storm Cloud or Death Slam and Plot Armor is too weak of a spell to help.

Haze

Haze really has nothing to offer now with the loss of the evasion and +1 bounce on Bullet Dance. She is simply too weak and too slow and lacks the durability to actually do anything in the game currently. Genuinely has zero strong points throughout the game and needs some massive reworks in the future.

Lady Geist

Lady Geist has fell to the wayside as she gets overwhelmed way too easily in these Urn fights and has a tough time scaling throughout the game. Her lack of mobility is also way too annoying as she gets displaced way too easily in fights as gets kited by faster, stronger characters.

Vindicta

Vindicta is simply too brittle. Even with a good start and early stacks to her Assassinate, Vindicta is simply way too countered and brittle to exist in the current game. Any Knockdown or Displacement will easily ruin her gameplan and leave her with nothing to do.

Apollo

The new Apollo nerf has been very questionable as now he has no way of leaving fights. A very fundamentally lacking hero, there seems to be no reason to ever play Apollo currently until a rework happens or something else gets figured out.

Mo & Krill

Mo And Krill has no place in the current game, he simply exists as a punching bag and is very hard to justify playing currently. Combo is near useless in large fights and his damage is very lacking as well. Mo & Krill currently exists as a frontliner with no tools and no help, it is plausible to do things when the Urn is down but its very hard to justify currently.