The obscured project by Valve known as Deadlock has a vast roster of characters to play with and does the genre of hero shooters supremely well, despite the competition being very tight. With games like Overwatch and Apex Legends taking the front lines of hero shooter games, Deadlock’s player base is still comparably large. This comparison makes more sense when you consider that it’s only accessible if someone else invites you to the alpha play-test on Steam.
With 21 concurrent characters and more to come, it’s not surprising when new players join the game and get overwhelmed by who to play and what the meta is. That’s why we’ve prepared this tier list to help you understand where all the heroes rank in terms of strength and usability. Let’s get to it!
S Tier
Credit: TierMaker
Starting off, we’ll be taking a look at the strongest characters in Deadlock right now and the ones that have the most success rate in battles.
The heroes in S tier include:
Lady Geist
Given how versatile you can be with the builds of Lady Geist, she’s without a doubt one of the best heroes in Deadlock right now. Her ability to silence people with the Essence Bomb is extremely annoying to deal with from the enemies’ perspective.
And we can’t forget that Life Drain literally gives you more health the more offensive you are, making Lady Geist one of the most self-sustainable characters on the battlefield.
Ivy
The primary trait of Ivy’s playstyle is annoying the living hell out of people with her gun’s ability to lay down some serious fire in a very short time. And of course, her area of denial thanks to the Kudzu Bomb makes Ivy a force to be reckoned with and easily earns her a spot in the S tier.
To add on top of her offensive playstyle, she is, in essence, a support character. This is thanks to the Watcher’s Covenant ability which gives you and your teammates bonus fire rate and healing.
Lastly, her ult Air Drop can be extremely useful for getting an ally out of a safe place and also using it as an offensive tactic, thanks to the huge AOE damage and slow movement effect.
Warden
To sum it up, Warden is an unstoppable tank when it comes to taking fights. Playing this hero, you’ll almost always come out of a 1v1 as the last man standing. His ability to carry the team due to sheer offensive abilities is the reason that Warden is in S tier, especially thanks to his ultimate, Last Stand.
Dynamo
Dynamo is another example of being a champion in both support and offensive roles. If you like playing as support characters but also want to stay in the meta, then Dynamo is the perfect choice for you.
Wraith
Credit: Game Rant
Wraith is the perfect example of a safe character to play in Deadlock. Her ability Project Mind is essentially a free get out of jail thanks to the fast cooldown it has. Pairing all this with maximizing damage output with her other skills makes her a very comfortable choice for players of all skill levels.
A Tier
Seven
Also considered one of the easiest characters to learn, his abilities are rudimentary and are almost guaranteed to hit the enemy. Whether it be the Lightning Ball with the huge hitbox, Static Charge with the guaranteed hit or Power Surge which is also very easy to land on enemies, you’ll be having a fun time with this character for sure.
Infernus
Infernus is thought to be one of the most versatile characters in the roster, and another hero that’s friendly to new players. Plus, he has a very unique and attractive design reminiscent of old noir films. The reason he’s in A tier is mainly due to the fact that he can dish out a severe amount of DPS with his flame abilities but he needs to be up close and personal almost all the time in order to ensure the hits.
Mo & Krill
Mo & Krill’s effectiveness comes with their ability to clear out large areas with ease. They might be a bit hard to use in the first phases of a battle, but once you get some items and properly build them, you’ll be an unstoppable giant killer whale on the loose.
Abrams
Possibly the tankiest character in the entire game, you won’t have to worry about your health dropping below 50% throughout the entire battle. Although he isn’t that good in long range, he still has abilities like Shoulder Slam that makes you charge towards the enemy and crash them into walls, just like Reinhardt from Overwatch.
His only weakness is that he does get easily stunned, which leaves him open to immediate fire and getting bursted down pretty fast. Hence his position in the A tier of our list.
Shiv
Shiv is one of the characters that wasn’t present when the alpha-test first started. He was instead added later on and he was considered to be extremely broken on launch. He has everything you need if you like fast-paced gameplay with high mobility thanks to his knives with bleed damage which deal massive damage and are pinpoint accurate.
Lash
Lash is one of the only characters in Deadlock with a 1-shot combo that can literally delete a player if executed properly. There are many people that enjoy this type of playstyle, especially if you liked playing Genji or Roadhog from Overwatch.
But just like Genji, he is also quite hard to learn from the get go and can be rather uncomfortable for new players, which is why he’s in the A tier of our list.
Kelvin
Another support character on the list is Kelvin, and although he’s had a few adjustments in the runtime of Deadlock, he still stands strong in the A tier of our list.
His ice beam is well known as one of the most frustrating abilities to deal with as it constantly slows you down, bounces between enemies and steals souls from them. It basically requires very little skill to use, so he’s quite friendly for new players.
Bebop
Bebop’s playstyle is rather easy to learn for new players, as there’s not much else you can do with him except pull in players with his ability and give them a good old smack with the ult. However, it’s still a very effective tactic and will get you wins most of the time.
One of the most annoying characters to handle as an enemy in Deadlock, Pocket is possibly on par with Shiv when it comes to being the best Assassin character in the game. Thanks to his high close range DPS, you’ll absolutely shred through enemies once you get the hang of him.
B Tier
Yamato
Yamato is a very niche character in Deadlock, with abilities more unique compared to the rest of the roster. Her abilities have a pretty small range but can guarantee the odds in your favor if you manage to learn them properly. And so she’s the first hero on the B tier of our list.
Viscous
Possibly the most awkward character to use in Deadlock, Viscous comes in at the second spot of our B tier heroes. The only reason he’s not lower is because he has one of the most effective ults in the game, as it makes you extremely tanky and guarantees survivability.
Vindicta
Being very similar to Viscous, Vindicta is another hero that would be lower on the list were it not for her ultimate. Assassinate grants you around 850 souls per kill when maxed out and if you add that with the amount you’d normally get with a kill, it basically means you can get her fully decked out with items very very early.
Haze
Haze is a character that is known for being pretty ineffective when it comes to lane management and is more of a roam-centric character. If you want to play well as Haze, you’ll need to get comfortable in the skies, because that’s where she shines the most.
If you’re a fan of playing sniper in games, then Grey Talon is just the character for you. His effectiveness shines through when it comes to laning against him, as his traps can frustrate even the most patient of players. Needless to say, you’ll have a hard time feeling safe on the map if there’s an enemy Grey Talon on the prowl.
Paradox
Paradox is, in theory, a very useful character and should be very fun to use once you get to learn her kit. However, the reason she is in B tier is that she is simply outclassed by other DPS characters such as Grey Talon or literally anyone else in the S/A tier list.
However, if you’re good at playing Paradox, then it will be an extreme nuisance for the enemy team to handle you, as she’s exceptionally good at 1v1s.
C Tier
McGinnis
The only character on the C tier of our list is McGinnis, and that is because she isn’t exactly great at doing what she does. Her turrets barely do any damage and her ultimate is also not exactly effective. All in all, we hope she gets a rework soon because she pales in comparison to the other heroes in Deadlock as of now.
And that concludes our tier list for Deadlock as we cover all the heroes in the game right now and rank them in terms of their strengths, abilities and their effectiveness on the team. We hope this gives you an idea of what the meta is like in the game and so that you don’t get overwhelmed by choices and focus on learning one or two heroes at a time.
