Considering the importance of teamwork, mastering Deadlock roles is essential. In this Deadlock guide, we’ll explore how the Deadlock roles work together to create the best possible team—let’s dive right in.
Do Deadlock Roles Even Exist?
At the time of writing, Valve has yet to release an official role system for Deadlock roles. Until then, the community is sorting Deadlock characters according to their strengths and weaknesses.
Moreover, Deadlock characters have different shapes, baseline stats, abilities and ultimate to encourage a certain type of play style. However, Valve may likely be staying away from the concept of set roles and instead basing roles on one of the four lanes:
- Purple
- Blue
- Orange
- Yellow
Considering this stringent lane system as described in our Deadlock guide, Deadlock roles are best described as character types.
Deadlock Character Types
Using knowledge from other MOBAs such as League of Legends and Dota, together with the Overwatch hero-shooter influence, certain roles have been devised.
Here’s a look at the Deadlock roles suggested by the community:
- Tank – the tip of the spear, Tanks roll out up front to absorb the gunfire while controlling the crowd. Essential in team fights, Tank heroes are deadly in the short range and keep squishy teammates safe from enemies.
- Poke – speaking of range, the Poke Deadlock role is another word for the Sniper role. These heroes excel at unloading tonnes of damage at a safe range with the downside of reduced mobility and reduced health.
- Duelist – prioritizing damage-per-second and mobility, Duelists hunt for 1v1 opportunities in which they can use abilities and items to take down enemies as quickly as possible. Duelists are tasked with balancing aggression and teamplay.
- Support – keeping the team alive with healing and support abilities, Supports aren’t focused on dealing damage but putting the team first. Requiring a bit of teamwork, a capable Support can make a world of difference.
However, we’ll remind readers that thanks to Deadlock builds, heroes can be tweaked to modify attributes via Deadlock items.
Deadlock Heroes & Roles
Now that you are familiar with the community roles and the Deadlock map, here are examples of heroes in each role:
| Deadlock Roles | Example Deadlock Heroes |
|---|---|
| Tank | Warden, Mo & Krill, Abrams |
| Poke | Paradox, Vindicta, Grey Talon |
| Duelist | Wraith, Yamato, Geist |
| Support | Viscous, Dynamo, Ivy |
In its current state, players are still experimenting with team compositions. Indeed, with six players on each side, players have to make a conscious choice.
Will Valve Use Dota’s System?
While Valve is still developing the Deadlock roles system, let’s take a quick look at Dota’s role system. Across a team of five, players choose one of the following roles:
- Carry
- Midlaner
- Offlaner
- Roamer
- Support
Yet, unlike Dota, Deadlock’s map allows for more traversal and quicker rotations than any other MOBA out there. Using ziplines, teams can reinforce any lane they prefer very quickly.
Beyond Valve’s development, the community continues to experiment and figure out what makes sense for Deadlock roles. Especially once Deadlock ranked is published, everything should become clearer.
