Like many other MOBA-style games, Deadlock character roles can be divided into larger archetypes like tank, carry, DPS, support, and assassin. In this article, I’m going to cover each role and the champions that are primarily played in that role.
This guide will be continuously updated according to the ever-changing meta of the game.
Every Role in Deadlock
What Does Each Deadlock Role Actually Do?
As said in the beginning, while Deadlock tries its best to pivot from the norm of MOBA games and not include builds and strict roles in it, characters are still catered towards one or two certain roles due to their kit and stats. We can generally put all Deadlock heroes into 4 main groups.
Tanks and Frontliners
If you are familiar with any hero shooter or MOBA, you are familiar with the term tank. If you play tank, you stay in front of your team, soak damage from the enemy, and either damage them, stun them, or displace them in some way to earn an advantage for your team. Here’s a list of characters that are viable to play as a tank:
| Character | Tank Playstyle | Role in Combat |
|---|---|---|
| Abrams | Durable melee frontline | Leads engagements, survives incoming damage through regeneration and healing, and disrupts enemies with stuns. |
| Mo & Krill | Frontline initiation and crowd control | Uses burrowing mobility and disabling abilities to engage enemies and create space for teammates. |
| Rat King | Aggressive frontline brawler | Pressures enemies at close range, occupies space, and disrupts opponents during teamfights. |
| Victor | High-survivability frontline | Absorbs pressure, fights at close range, and uses his reanimation ability to survive potentially fatal engagements. |
| Warden | Frontline lockdown | Pressures enemy positions and uses movement restrictions to control opponents during engagements. |
| Kelvin | Defensive tank and support hybrid | Controls space with slowing abilities and protects teammates through healing and Frozen Shelter. |
| Billy | Aggressive | Charges into enemies, disrupts their positioning, and uses close-range attacks and crowd control to create space for teammates. |
Carries
Carries can be categorized in two different ways: the type of damage they deal and the type of playstyle they promote. Gun carries and Spirit carries are easy to categorize, and many heroes can be part of both groups, so I’ll mention them here and focus more on the playstyle category.
Gun / M1 carries are the type of hero that is specialized in building items to increase their gun damage; therefore, they are item-dependent and mostly late-game heroes, like Vypre. Spirit carries (also known as spirit nukers) are the heroes that are reliant on building spirit items so their abilities deal more damage, like Grey Talon. Many heroes can pull off both, depending on the game and items they build.
Late Carries
Champions with weak early games and strong late games. They can effectively play the game after their abilities reach max level or they reach item spikes, and closing the game is on their shoulders.
| Character | Damage Type | Playstyle and Role |
|---|---|---|
| Haze | Gun | Scales with weapon items, using stealth and sustained gunfire to eliminate enemies in extended fights. |
| Wraith | Gun | Builds powerful sustained weapon damage, excels at dueling, and destroys objectives quickly. |
| Seven | Spirit / Gun | Farms efficiently and scales into a powerful late-game damage dealer through weapon or ability-focused builds. |
| Venator | Gun | Uses weapon-focused builds to deliver sustained ranged damage and pressure objectives as his items improve. |
| Vyper | Gun | Scales into a mobile damage dealer who combines rapid gunfire with slippery movement and finishing abilities. |
| Mirage | Gun / Spirit | Scales with weapon and hybrid items, dealing ranged damage while applying pressure across the map. |
| Lady Geist | Spirit / Gun | Becomes increasingly dangerous in prolonged fights through sustained ability damage, survivability, and hybrid builds. |
| Graves | Spirit / Hybrid | Uses summons, sustained damage, and upgraded abilities to control areas and pressure objectives throughout longer fights. |
| McGinnis | Gun / Spirit | Can become a powerful siege-oriented carry with damage-focused builds, using sustained fire and turrets to pressure objectives. |
Off Carries
Less weak early game, less broken late game, these carries are the more versatile of the two categories, allowing you to experience a variety of playstyles from assassins to jungle-invaders and duelists.
| Character | Damage Type | Playstyle and Role |
|---|---|---|
| Apollo | Melee / Hybrid | Uses mobility and strong dueling abilities to pressure enemies and create advantages in early skirmishes. |
| Calico | Spirit / Melee | Flanks vulnerable enemies and relies on burst damage to gain an advantage before larger teamfights develop. |
| Celeste | Spirit | Applies ranged ability pressure and capitalizes on mid-game power spikes to influence fights. |
| Deadman Danny | Hybrid | Uses aggressive damage and disruptive abilities to threaten enemies during skirmishes and coordinated attacks. |
| Drifter | Gun / Hybrid | Roams for isolated kills and builds momentum through aggressive map pressure and successful fights. |
| Grey Talon | Spirit / Gun | Uses ranged poke and burst damage to pressure opponents before they complete their major items. |
| Holliday | Gun | Relies on accurate shooting and crowd control to win early engagements and secure picks. |
| Infernus | Gun / Spirit | Applies continuous burn damage, pressures objectives, and looks to capitalize on early-to-mid-game advantages. |
| Mina | Spirit | Uses mobility and burst damage to join skirmishes, threaten vulnerable targets, and snowball through early power spikes. |
| Spirit | Rotates between fights, dives enemy backlines, and deals strong ability damage before hard carries fully scale. | |
| Shiv | Melee / Spirit | Snowballs through aggressive close-range fights, sustained damage, and finishing weakened targets. |
| Vindicta | Gun | Uses aerial positioning and long-range damage to secure kills and build an early economic advantage. |
| Victor | Hybrid | Fights aggressively through strong damage and survivability, using mid-game advantages to pressure enemies. |
| Violet | Spirit | Uses ranged abilities and crowd control to influence skirmishes, create picks, and build an advantage. |
| Yamato | Melee / Spirit | Uses mobility and close-range damage to win duels, pressure vulnerable targets, and create space through aggression. |
Supports
Champions are centered around helping and buffing their allies and nerfing or disrupting the enemy team. In Deadlock, there isn’t a traditional full healer support, but a variety of creative reimaginations of the role.
| Character | Support Playstyle | Role in Combat |
|---|---|---|
| Paige | Shields and team buffs | Protects allies with barriers, boosts their weapon damage, and provides teamfight healing. |
| Kelvin | Healing and area control | Heals teammates, slows enemies, and protects allies with Frozen Shelter. |
| Ivy | Mobility and carry support | Shares bonuses with teammates, helps allies reposition, and provides protection during fights. |
| Dynamo | Healing and teamfight initiation | Provides area healing, saves teammates with mobility, and groups enemies with Singularity. |
| Rem | Dedicated healing | Restores teammates’ health and helps keep allies alive during extended engagements. |
| Nurse Harrow | Healing and fear-based control | Heals allies with Healing Needles and disrupts enemies through damage and fear effects. |
| The Doorman | Mobility and displacement | Manipulates positioning, helps teammates rotate, and disrupts enemy movement. |
| Sinclair | Utility and disruption | Uses deceptive abilities and crowd control to interfere with enemies and support teammates. |
| Solomon | Defensive utility and area control | Uses deployable abilities to protect positions and discourage enemy advances. |
| McGinnis | Hybrid support and siege | Provides healing, defensive cover, and area denial while helping the team pressure objectives. |
| Viscous | Hybrid support and protection | Protects teammates from danger, disrupts enemy positioning, and helps control teamfights. |
| BaBa | Spirit disruption and defensive utility | Weakens enemies by draining Spirit, protects allies with barriers, and disrupts opponents with crowd control. |
Picks
Picks are the flexible heroes of the roster that are chosen according to their team composition and they fill a wider variety of roles. Heroes in this group can be many things, so read their description and check what your lineup needs and use them effectively.
| Character | Pick Playstyle | Role in Combat |
|---|---|---|
| Bebop | Hook and single-target isolation | Pulls enemies out of position and sets them up for focused team damage. |
| Paradox | Position swapping and control | Displaces priority targets and creates opportunities for teammates to eliminate them. |
| Drifter | Stealth and isolated-target hunting | Tracks down vulnerable enemies and punishes opponents caught away from their team. |
| Shiv | Close-range aggression and finishing | Chases weakened targets and uses sustained damage to secure eliminations. |
| Silver | Mobile assassination and dueling | Pressures isolated opponents and uses mobility to threaten vulnerable targets. |
| Calico | Stealth and burst assassination | Flanks enemies, delivers quick damage, and escapes after targeting vulnerable opponents. |
| Mobile burst damage | Dives onto priority targets and uses mobility to escape dangerous engagements. | |
| Yamato | Close-range assassination | Closes the distance to vulnerable enemies and pressures them in extended duels. |
| Apollo | Mobile dueling | Uses movement and close-range combat to challenge and finish isolated targets. |
| Haze | Stealth and weapon damage | Approaches unsuspecting enemies and eliminates priority targets with sustained gunfire. |
| Wraith | Single-target lockdown | Uses crowd control to isolate an enemy and follow up with powerful weapon damage. |
| Holliday | Ranged precision and crowd control | Catches enemies through accurate attacks and creates opportunities for follow-up damage. |
| Vindicta | Long-range sniping | Punishes exposed enemies from elevated positions and finishes low-health targets. |
| Lash | High-mobility initiation and displacement | Approaches enemies from above, disrupts their positioning, and uses Death Slam to set up eliminations for his team. |
Can Characters Play More Than One Role?
A big yes, as you can see from my recommendations. Deadlock, as a game, is trying to pivot from the norm of MOBA games and stop players from boxing themselves into routine playstyles. By allowing players to itemize depending on the teams’ rosters and their individual games, Deadlock allows the player base to have very fluid role and gameplay choice.
Best Deadlock Characters for Beginners by Role
Out of the 44 characters in Deadlock, there are characters that are more beginner-friendly than the rest of the roster. I’m going to suggest picks that are easy to understand for beginners and can also be useful and built into different roles once you become more accustomed to the game.
Beginner Tank
For the Tank role, I recommend Abrams; he’s the most straightforward tank in the game with two abilities and his passive focused on keeping him alive and the enemy team disturbed.
Beginner Carries
For spirit carries, Graves and Mina are the go-to choices, Mina being more of a late-game spirit-nuker while Graves is the ultimate beginner-friendly hero that can be built for anything, but the catch is that she isn’t good at any of them. Keep in mind that Mina, and many more complex heroes, require you to have a good understanding of movement mechanics in Deadlock.
For gun carries, there are a bunch of easy beginner recommendations that I can throw out there, but Venator and Haze are the two easiest to pick. With gameplay like COD, Battlefield, or even Soldier: 76 from Overwatch, these heroes are the friendliest to players coming from FPS shooters and hero shooters.
Beginner Support
For beginner support Paige is a great pick, due to her easy-to-understand and OP kit that protects allies and stuns the enemies.
Beginner Pick
For beginner pick choice, Bebop is usually the one to go for, with the hock and bomb combo being a very straightforward and easy to understand, pick this character if you want to get a general understading of the roles.
How to Build a Balanced Deadlock Team
A balanced team in a deadlock consists of at least two carries (ideally one late carry and one off carry), a pick, a tank, a support, and pick the last one to support any other role that is in need of reinforcment. Now there are characters that only stick to one role, or can do two at the same time. All you need to do is have a checklist and see if you check all the boxes for a solid team or not.
