Deadlock guide: Best items to counter every hero

Mastering Valve’s Deadlock is more than learning how to play your character; it’s also about diving deep into its MOBA elements. These include efficient farming, macro decisions, and adapting with itemisation in every game. 

The heroes in Deadlock may seem overpowered when they’re uncontested, but smart itemisation can hinder their game plan. The game’s extensive shop contains many solutions to deal with threats. Knowing which item to buy is often the difference between winning and losing key fights.

Many items in the game can apply the same effect or debuff. So instead of naming every hero and their solutions, we’ll categorise items with the same keywords and match against heroes with similar abilities. This will move away from static memorisation and lean into more dynamic itemisation that fits your hero the best.

Anti-Heal are items that reduce the effectiveness of healing or sustain on heroes. These items include: Healbane, Toxic Bullets, Decay, Crippling Headshot, Inhibitor, and Spirit Burn. 

Some form of Anti-Heal is a mandatory purchase for your team every game, as every hero has some form of sustain, whether through items or abilities. But heroes who heavily rely on their lifesteal or regen are countered by the higher tiers of these items. Considering purchasing Decay or Spirit Burn against heroes like Abrams, Shiv, Yamato, Mo & Krill, Kelvin, Ivy, Warden, and Lady Geist.

Grey Talon and Vindicta rule the skies because their kit allows them to hover in the air while dealing heavy damage. Additionally, heroes like Seven, Pocket, Holliday, Lash, Bebop, and Ivy spend the match raining down chaos high up in the sky. Items Knockdown and Phantom Strike are built to ground these airborne heroes, bringing them down for a beatdown.

Knockdown’s long cast range and delayed stun also give it additional use. Casting it preemptively on heroes like Dynamo, Mo & Krill, and McGinnis can cancel out their ultimates.

Silence refers to items that can prevent the usage of items or abilities. Silence Wave, Silencer, and Focus Lens lock out heroes from using all their abilities. As the duration lasts for a few seconds, they’re best used against heroes who rely on their abilities to make last-second escapes or saves, such as Viscous, Lady Geist, and Yamato. Silenced heroes can still use their items.

Slowing Hex (and its upgrade, Vortex Web) is a cheaper alternative that specifically silences movement-based abilities and items. Use this to lockdown heroes like Calico, Wraith, Pocket, Lash, and Shiv.

Against problematic gun heroes, disarm jams their weapons, disabling their guns for a few seconds. Disarming Hex is currently the only item that can do this, not counting Curse, which disables everything. Disarm is best used against heroes with on-hit effects like Haze, Infernus, Paradox, and Mirage.

Fire Rate reduction is a more practical and accessible counter against most gun heroes. Browse through items like Rusted Barrel, Suppressor, and Juggernaut against heroes who use their weapon as their main source of damage, such as Wraith, Vyper, and Vindicta.

Slows are a form of crowd control that reduces the movement speed of enemy heroes. These items are Slowing Bullets, Cold Front, Arctic Blast, Mystic Slow, Slowing Hex, and Mystic Reverb. Multiple sources of slow can stack, forcing enemies to spend all their stamina or movement abilities to escape.

Slows aren’t primarily bought as a counter; instead, they serve as a staple for close-range heroes who want to stick to their prey like glue. Slows are best used to kite out these exact heroes, especially if it forces them to use their gap closer to escape. 

Frontliners like Abrams, Mo & Krill, and Warden feel miserable to play when slowed down. However, some items provide slow resistance, like Fleetfoot, Enduring Speed, and Juggernaut, which can offset the movement reduction when playing these heroes.

Debuff Reducer, Blood Tribute, Weighted Shots, and Spellbreaker provide debuff resistance, reducing the duration of stuns, sleep, and other crowd control. It’s best used to counter heroes who use their crowd control to set up their combo, like Abrams, Grey Talon, Seven, Vyper, and Wraith.

Debuff Remover purges all non-ultimate negative effects currently applied to your hero. This useful vitality item is a lifesaver against Bebop’s bomb, Infernus’ Afterburn, Mirage’s Scarabs and Djinn’s Mark, Paradox’s Kinetic Carbine, Shiv’s Serrated Knives, and Vyper’s Lethal Venom. 

Debuff Remover is the best “counter” counter item, and it’s a must-buy on heroes like Shiv to cleanse anti-heal. Against Pocket, whose Affliction debuff comes from his ultimate, only Divine Barrier can cleanse the effect. 

Lastly, Unstoppable makes your hero immune to crowd control for five seconds. This is perfect if you’re using a hero with a big ultimate like Dynamo, Haze, Lash, and Seven.

Items that provide barriers and resistance offer extra survivability in Deadlock. There are two main forms of resistance: bullet and spirit resist. Resistances make up the bulk of defensive items, but here are a few notable ones:

In an ideal game, the enemy team will have a healthy balance of both damage types, meaning you’ll have to build resistances against the most problematic hero. Don’t overcommit to countering every single hero on the enemy team, or else you’ll lose out on your own item timings.

Valve applies lessons learned from Dota 2 to Deadlock, providing players with a massive item shop filled with situationally strong counter items. Knowing what items counter which hero is half the battle, as there are many more variables to consider in every map.

From positioning and team comps to economy and timing, good itemisation is a reward for your hard-earned souls. Outplaying is not only made on the map, it also happens in the shop.