Deadlock Expert Tier List - Explanations for Every Hero

Shiv

Shiv is surprisingly still very powerful despite his rework to Killing Blow and his stamina loss. Mostly due to Serrated Knives getting immensely buffed and making his gameplay much easier. Serrated Knives is so powerful now that even 2-3 knifes are dealing upwards of 1300 damage to a singular target.

Lash

Lash has mostly stayed the same, the only significant change he has gotten is the extra throw distance on 1AP Death Slam. But Lash was already very powerful pre-patch and is still very strong post-patch as well.

Paradox

Paradox has gotten significant reworks to her entire kit. Most notably Pulse Grenade now having an innate time stop built into the skill. Allowing for a much stronger secular gameplay as the slow now allows for more stacks which then creates a much more significant damage amp. Paradoxical Swap is now also an AoE ability starting from its 5AP upgrade which allows for a powerful vacuum in teamfights.

Ivy

Ivy is now the most well rounded character as both the gun and spirit builds got much more support. The 5AP Kudzu Connection has fantastic support for Gun and Support Ivy builds allowing for permentant uptime. While the 5AP Entangling Thorns has a root upgrade, which allows for the Spirit Ivy build to maintain large swaths of CC especially with items such as Lightning Scroll.

Doorman

Doorman has become an excellent character again due to his new changes to Hotel Guest which the 2AP upgrade can now bypass Counterspell which makes it an excellent spell to now lockdown certain characters. Not to mention Doorman's range has been largely improved due to the range scaling with Spirit which allows for much easier displacement under Walkers or in the base. A fantastic change which can easily single out opponents who don't pay attention or stray out too far from the base.

Venator

Venator seems to be the best consistent and stable Gun Carry as he has gotten zero changes and his Gutshot and Melee combo is still extremely powerful.

Silver

Silver is also still very powerful, yet has gotten some minor nerfs which has seemingly affected her early game. Silver has gone from the strongest hero in the game to just being a strong character overall.

Drifter

Drifter might have lost Lifestrike which has hurt his early game significantly, but the changes to his 5AP Rend makes up for it. Whilst Eternal Night is still a powerful tool allowing him to force out team fights and solo kills alike.

Celeste

Celeste has gotten even more nerfs by her gravity being even lighter, which means players will need more mastery in order to maneuver around on Celeste. While still plenty powerful, Celeste will get easily punished if ever caught out.

Paige

Paige is still the premier Support hero currently. She offers the best thing a backliner can offer which is a buttload of damage through her kit. Since Paige does not have to worry about offensive power, her active items can easily fit to what utility her team requires the most. Weather that is Knockdown to combo with Captivating Read or Alchemical Fire to frontload even more damage or even Healing Nova to help sustain in fights, a Paige on your team is a great sight to see.

Lady Geist

Still a solid Gun Carry, the new Lady Geist AP changes has mostly come as a buff to both her Life Drain and Soul Exchange. While Geist has maintained the same power on Essence Bomb and Malice, she has new flexibility options in 5AP Life Drain having +2 charges on top now.

Mina

Mina is also still mostly similar, as she has maintained her powerful laning and presence throughout the game. The only real notable change is now Mina must obtain 5AP Rake in order to maintain her health throughout the game. But this is not a significant change as 5AP Love Bites has changed as well allowing for players to easily swap skill order for the same impact. There may be some awkwardness as Sanguine Retreat has an annoying cast point to make dodging spells much more difficult, but with enough mastery, Mina should mostly feel the same.

Billy

Billy has gotten large changes mostly to his Chain Gang giving Billy the stats he has lacking. Mostly in the form of a free Unstoppable in the 5AP upgrade, with a large 40% Bullet and Spirit Resist built into the 1AP as well. With the recent nerfs to Abrams, Billy has a much easier time existing in the frontline now.

McGinnis

McGinnis has gotten the most signicant changes, with her 1AP change to Medicinal Specter giving her a large boon of 40% Spirit Resist. But her meta build of maxing Heavy Barrage has taken over games as an unstoppable and immense damage dealer. McGinnis may change if Heavy Barrage gets another significant nerf, but for now this spell is way too powerful.

Pocket

Pocket has gotten huge buffs from his AP changes mostly in the form of the 2AP Flying Cloak which basically doubles his weapon damage, while the new 5AP Affliction completely removes all healing, which can heavily counter heroes like Victor and Kelvin. Overall a fantastic patch for Pocket enjoyers as they have much stronger tools as their disposal now.

Yamato

Yamato has mostly stayed the same gameplay wise with some buffs towards Flying Slash now giving 40 spirit on 2AP. As well as the buff to Mystic Shot getting a notable change as well. Overall still a very consistent hero with minor buffs .

Kelvin

Kelvin has gotten the most reworks in this patch as his Frost Grenade gaining an extra charge and freezing stamina regen entirely. This is very significant as low stamina heroes like Silver or Shiv get heavily countered by the dash slow and stamina reduction. Frozen Shelter is also much stronger as it purges heal reduction from Spirit Burn and Healbane, just beware of Pocket's 5AP Affliction countering the healing.

Sinclair

Not much has changed with Sinclair, but Vexing Bolt has gained some much larger splash damage, leading to much more consistent damage overall. Still an overall, solid hero but requires some mastery in order to stealing powerful ults such as Kelvin and Dynamo.

Grey Talon

Grey Talon has seen no changes, and still mostly serves as a Guided Owl and Charged Shot spammer in fights. His agency is mostly tied to getting Owl stacks which is very inconsistent as it may involve other teammates to get players low. A strong win-more character, but overall very mediocre.

Rem

Rem has mostly seen nerfs, mostly towards his Lil Helpers giving more gold and the nerf to Tag Along healing less. But the most significant nerf is that players are simply more used to his gameplay style, and as long has Rem is unable to steal Sinner's Sacrifices, he has a much harder time staying alive in fights.

Abrams

Abrams has been dethroned as the best character and best frontliner in his game, as he has suffered another round of nerfs this time to his Shoulder Charge and some reworks to his Life Drain. With the downgrade of his weapon damage being moved to 5AP, Abrams now mostly lacks the damage to assassinate characters. There may be some strong build waiting in his Life Drain, but for now the current meta build of his Echo Shard and Shoulder Charge is largely nerfed and is fairly mediocre.

Victor

Victor has gotten some fairly weak reworks, not strong enough to really mention and many nerfs. Pain Battery got another nerf to its 5AP heal, while the changes to Shocking Reanimation is very useless. Victor mostly serves as a fairly mediocre frontliner but even in casual matchmaking sometimes this is enough to win games.

Holliday

Holliday has received zero changes and is mostly the same. Her lack of changes has made her feel a bit weaker as everyone else has gotten better, but her movement and damage is still fairly powerful.

Vindicta

Vindicta is honestly is still fairly weak, but a secret change to her Flight has given all active items 50% more range in general, which means she is one of the best spammers of Alchemical Fire or Rescue Beam or even Scourge. Just this change alone has given Vindicta a very powerful gimmick that can surprisingly work very well.

Dynamo

Dynamo feels fairly out of place as his changes seem mostly non-combative while not giving him any real tools against the stronger changes from the high-tiers. As such, Dynamo still mostly seems like a Kinetic Pulse spammer in games and is both fairly mediocre and easily countered with Counterspell.

Mirage

Similar to Yamato, a lot of Mirage's power seem to be abusing his Djinn's Mark as well. If Mirage cannot obtain strong stacks with Mark, he seems to be very underwhelming in fights as well. Not to mention his very slow farming rate and large reliance on items like Ricochet and Inhibitor, Mirage is one of the weakest gun carry character in the game right now.

Warden

Warden is the biggest loser in these changes as he has suffered a huge loss to his gun damage. With this singular change alone, he has a much harder time keeping up against other characters and in return, Warden has only received a weak gimmick in his Binding Word forcing others to simply remove it with Dispel Magic. Warden also immensively suffers in the laning phase due to the buffed Rusted Barrel as well.

Bebop

Bebop has mostly returned as a punching bag, as he has received no actual changes. Games as Bebop seem mostly back to normal as he has very little retaliation against dangerous spirit heroes such as Yamato, Calico and @lash.

Infernus

Infernus has gotten some decent buffs to his Afterburn, but he still feels too frail and too weak to still compete against anyone better. Flame Dash is still unable to hit anyone above him, while Infernus cannot match other gun carries or front liners. Playing Infernus feels like a very sisyphean attempt at doing damage at times.

Vyper

Vyper has returned to being bottom of the pack as the new roster has made her largely irrevelent again. Vyper's grounded playstyle has no room in the current state of deadlock and has mostly made her very impossible to survive any engagement. With Vyper's lack of survivability, damage and mobility it is simply too difficult to play.

Seven

Seven is also in contention for the biggest loser of this patch as he has received extreme nerfs as every single innate Spirit scaling to his movement speed and spells has been removed. Seven feels incredibly understatted in the current game and is much too weak to do anything without a supreme lead.

Apollo

Apollo has gotten very minor buffs and feels his damage and gameplay is mostly mitigated with Counterspell and Spirit Resilience. So even with a large lead, Apollo's are mostly unable to do anything with their time and simply fall out of usefulness most of the time.

Haze

Haze's changes has mostly turned her from a glass cannon to a glass wet towel as while she has kept her fragility, most of her damage has been removed from Sleep Dagger and has been moved to Bullet Dance, which is way too easy to counter and requires too much farm to do anything that isn't already mitigated by the stronger heroes.

Graves

Graves has lost all the wind in her sails, as she is on her 6th round of nerfs. There is nothing she offers anymore as every single spell has been neutered to complete irrelevance. The Jar of Dead does very minor damage and Borrowed Decree is way too hard to defend as Graves herself is too weak to protect it.