Deadlock: 10 Heroes With Abilities That Can Turn Around a Losing Fight

We’ve all been there. You’re playing Deadlock, you’ve been struggling in lane, the score isn’t looking too great, and the opposition is starting to snowball. It feels hopeless … but not all is lost.

A fight breaks out; you think about retreating, but a teammate comes in with a perfectly placed ultimate, catching the opposition off guard. You jump in and fire off everything you have, taking advantage of the situation, and the enemy crumbles. Suddenly you’re in the lead, and your foes are on the back foot.

MOBAs are full of amazing matches that tell stories and hit you with 1000 emotions at once. At the center of it all are the heroes and their abilities, which let the drama unfold. Let’s take a look at some of those characters and the game-changing abilities that define the chaos!

10 Kelvin

Is It Me, Or Is It Getting Cold In Here?

What’s the first thing that jumps into your mind when you think about Kelvin? If you’re anything like me, it’ll be that huge Ice Dome that either saves your life or drives you a little mad.

Frozen Shelter erects a large dome around Kelvin that even your teammates can't penetrate. Inside, you get bonus regeneration while your enemies are slowed. If you trap a bunch of enemies and teammates inside, you’ll easily have a chance to finish them all off. Or you can use this to focus on a single annoying enemy who loves to run away.

And, of course, with Kelvin’s Ice Path ability, you can be anywhere at once, choosing the perfect time to drop down and surprise the other team.

9 Lady Geist

Draining Your Life Before Your Very Eyes

Lady Geist also has a pretty disruptive moveset, one that can be a real pain to deal with if you don’t have any long-range damage dealers.

See, Lady Geist’s ultimate swaps her current health with any enemy. This gives her massive sustain potential. She can go into a fight at full health, deal as much damage as possible, and then, when she’s getting low, swap her health with a tank and start the fight over.

Paired with her Life Drain ability, this gives her unreal longevity that's tough to counter unless you have the right tools. Oftentimes, a fight that looks lost can swing around at the last moment, simply because this hero lasts so long and deals a ton of damage.

8 Nurse Harrow

This Won't Hurt a Bit . . .

Nurse Harrow is the newest hero added to Deadlock, and after playing against her, I already know she’ll be a real nuisance.

This support not only has huge healing capabilities that keep your team healthy, but also an ult that makes her a massive pain to be around. Lurking Terrors makes Harrow float into the air, and anyone who looks at her takes damage and runs away in fear. A bit like Medusa, without the petrifying aspect.

You can use this cleverly in a team fight to deny a massive area, or when a bunch of heroes descend on you, to save yourself and force them to flee. Plus, it has a ridiculously long uptime, forcing you to run and hide. Honestly, maybe it’s for the best that we don’t know what’s in that bag of hers.

7 Seven

A Shock to the System

Chances are that Seven is one of the first heroes most people will play as, and it makes sense. His kit is pretty darn simple. But that doesn’t mean it’s not strong!

No, his ultimate is a ridiculously strong CC tool, perfect for catching opponents off guard when they’re together or simply denying a massive space and forcing enemies to run. What’s more, Storm Cloud is super simple to use: Activate it, and you can move around a little.

In reality, the only tough thing you’ll need to do is activate it at the right time. Catching a closely grouped team can feel amazing in a team fight, or even when you're trying to secure the rift!

6 The Doorman

Here, There, Everywhere

Imagine you’re taking on Midboss. You’ve taken a decent chunk of damage, but you manage to take it down. The rejuvenator starts descending, and suddenly a doorway opens. A trolley comes barreling through and sends all of you to who knows where. Yep, Doorman just arrived, and now you’ve lost the revival and some of your teammates. Brutal.

The Doorman is one of those heroes that’s tough to learn, but in the right hands, he can massively disrupt team fights. Beyond those pesky doors, he can easily take a main player out of the game, especially with his Ultimate. He might not deal much damage, but his ability to control the action is impressive.

5 Rat King

It's Time For a New Empire

Rat King has crawled out of the sewers at long last, and he’s here to bring the rules of the rats back to the streets of New York!

This is an extremely tanky hero, with some wild abilities that’ll really energize your team. Rule Ratannia is Rat King’s ultimate, and when activated, it’ll give your whole team a huge burst of speed and damage reduction. Soon after, Rat King will slam the Ratannian flag down, slowing nearby enemies and causing rats to burst out of the sewers. It’s a pretty stunning ult, and it’s incredibly powerful too.

If you organise your team properly, you can burst into the enemy base, even under tower fire, and take on your opponents on their turf! Used at the right time, this can really turn the tide of battle.

4 Violet

The Brush is Mightier Than the Sword!

What’s really nice about Violet is that, on paper, she seems like an easy hero to play; however, she offers a lot of room for skill expression.

First, let's take a look at her Ultimate. Abstract Landscape erects a huge colosseum of paint around Violet. Any enemies that pass through the paint walls get silenced and slowed, while all allies inside gain extra Spirit.

I’ve found myself standing outside the wall so many times, desperate to get inside but unable to, because it silences all my abilities and leaves me totally defenseless. Placed in the right spot, this ability is a nightmare for Spirit-based heroes and can often change the entire course of a fight. On top of that, Violet’s ability to block doorways and projectiles with her first ability means she can cause a lot of problems for a team.

3 Lash

Magical Muscled Mayhem

Lash is here, everyone, and his majestic mustache is ready for admiration. If you’ve played against a good Lash before, you know how annoying he can be. With abilities that let him stay in the air for a ridiculous amount of time, he's tough to pin down. Honestly, he might as well be Vindicta.

Beyond his flying antics, Lash’s Ultimate, Death Slam, can severely disrupt your team's flow if he grabs more than one of you and shifts you into an unfavorable position. All you need is a teammate waiting for Death Slam to activate, and you can wipe out entire teams with no issue.

If you’re really struggling against Lash, it might make sense to grab yourself a Knockdown from the shop.

2 Ivy

Watch Out For Falling Gargoyles

And speaking of annoying flying enemies, Ivy is here! Ivy is one of those heroes that really isn’t going to shine unless you’re playing with a coordinated group.

See, the power of her Ultimate is that you can fly off into the sky, carrying another hero in your clutches. When you release them, they’ll cause a decent explosion of damage and a nice little damage buff.

The damage isn’t what matters here; it's the ability to be anywhere at once. Sometimes a fight breaks out while you’re pushing a lane, and you need to be elsewhere to protect your team; Ivy lets you quickly stop what you’re doing, transition, and back up your allies when they need you. A fight that might have been a 3v2 is now a 3v4! Better odds, right?

1 Dynamo

Folks Are Gonna Be Talking About This One For Years

But who pairs perfectly with Ivy? Yep, Dynamo is here, and your entire team is about to be caught in the Singularity. I mean, would it be a Valve MOBA without Enigma’s Black Hole? The clip potential is off the charts! If you’ve played DOTA 2, you know what I mean.

Singularity has the longest cooldown of any ability in the game, and for good reason. Using this around a group of enemies will cause them to be stunned and sucked towards Dynamo, bringing them all together so you can unleash some of your abilities on the entire team at once.

Obviously, this isn’t easy to pull off, since the enemy team will probably expect it, but it’s arguably the most powerful ability when used correctly. Using it well, wiping out a chunk of the enemy team, can easily buy you enough time to crush the shrines and take out the Patron for good. And honestly, nothing feels better than winning a game you felt destined to lose. The sheer rush - well, that’s what keeps us all here, right?

Deadlock

Shooter MOBA Systems Released TBA Developer(s) Valve Publisher(s) Valve Engine Source2 Multiplayer Online Multiplayer Steam Deck Compatibility Unknown

Genre(s) Shooter, MOBA