All Deadlock’s Old Gods, New Blood heroes, ranked

Deadlock’s massive Old Gods, New Blood update introduced six more heroes into the Cursed Apple. Much like the last round of new heroes, they were released in order of community votes, with only their appearance and vibes as information.

First was Rem and Graves, then Silver and Venator, and finally Celeste and Apollo. Now that all six heroes have been out for some time and tuned out of their broken release state, it’s prime time to see which heroes stand out most from the batch.

Graves is a necromancer whose kit revolves around denying space, zone control, and sieging objectives. She has a unique niche where she can steal away weapon damage and spirit resist, softening frontliners like Abrams and Billy.

Her biggest weakness is that she’s immobile and fragile due to her low HP pool and her weapon’s short range. Graves needs to invest in extra items just to survive a dive from frontliners and assassins. She’s in this weird spot where she acts as a backline defender, protecting against dive, yet can easily be overwhelmed by dive herself.

But with good positioning, no one pressures objectives like Graves does. Her design is all about influencing the broader flow of a match rather than winning duels, tilting the macro game in her team’s favour. Graves is all about map pressure and forcing enemies to play on her terms.

The monster-hunting priest is one of the coolest-designed Deadlock Old Gods heroes. Venator doesn’t have fancy gimmicks and flashy movement like the rest of the cast, yet he rewards mastery of the basics, such as tracking priority targets and smart positioning.

At the heart of his kit is his intimidating ultimate, Ira Domini, that truly defines him. Venator draws a high-powered crossbow that can execute enemies from afar. The very sound of a priest chanting Latin in the middle of the fight is enough to send the enemies running away.

However, Venator’s lack of mobility, weak neutral game outside of ultimate, and unsynergistic abilities make him prime for a slight touch-up from Valve. Venator is for the simple-minded carry who enjoys planting their feet and holding their ground with CC rather than escapes and fancy movement.

Silver is a bounty hunter who has two sets of abilities: a human form focused on her gun, mobility, and catching enemies; and a werewolf form that changes her abilities to be melee-oriented. She’s meant to play on the edges of the fight in her human form, looking to burst and lock down targets before the teamfight. 

As Silver deals damage, she slowly builds towards her transformation. Her human form has much room for skill expression, yet she becomes a straightforward bruiser once her ultimate is up. As a werewolf, she boasts high damage, lifesteal, and can even shred resistances like a true horror monstrosity.

Silver lacks utility and the impact of someone with a proper ultimate, so she operates like a feast-or-famine hero. She carries hard when ahead in souls, but can easily get blasted at a disadvantage. A decently equipped Silver is hard to counter once her ultimate is up, and can run the lobby on her own when that point is reached.

She embodies the high-risk, high-reward playstyle. However, she’s the most susceptible to tuning out of Old Gods, New Blood characters. Changes to raw numbers, such as weapon damage, health, and resistances, will have a significant impact on her viability compared to other heroes.

Rem is the first Deadlock Old Gods, New Blood hero to be released, earning his hype through his cuteness and tiny stature. In fact, Rem is so small that the game also added tunnels around the map that only Rem and Calico can traverse through. This also enables Rem to be the most devious resource stealer in the game, using his Helpers to grab enemy Sinner’s Sacrifices.

Rem isn’t a dedicated teamwide healer like Dynamo, but he has unmatched single-target healing on low-health allies. This allows Rem to safely heal allies in risky spots, like a frontliner surrounded by enemies or an assassin diving the backline. His heal feels reactive to use, as you can jump to all teammates once during the duration. Additionally, it has synergistic interactions with buffs from items.

His teamfight presence is deceptively disruptive, throwing pillows that debuff while dealing a chunk of damage and knocking away enemies from impact. Rem’s ultimate, Naptime, disables movement abilities while casting, countering heroes who rely on them to survive, like Apollo, Mina, and Pocket.

Celeste’s arrival in Deadlock’s Old Gods update emphasised the game’s movement through her passive, which gives her better air control and lower gravity, allowing her free air movement and even enabling bunny hopping. She’s a stylish and fun battlemage, using her low cooldowns and movement to fly around, disrupting the fight.

At her core, Celeste attracts tricky players who have fluid movements even while fighting. She excels in extended skirmishes as she can stack up her damage output from Radiant Daggers, boosting her overall spirit damage. She also has the tools to jump into the fight, tagging enemies with Light Eater and keeping herself safe with her barrier, Dazzling Trick.

Celeste stays relevant in Deadlock because her ultimate, Shining Wonder, functions similarly to Dota 2’s Lich Chain Frost. When activated, she launches a ball of light that deals damage, slows, and reduces dash distance, bouncing to nearby targets. Celeste punishes teams who are clumped together while also making it harder for them to split up.

Apollo was the final hero released during the voting, yet if the community had known about his kit beforehand, he most likely would’ve gotten in during the first week. The Ixian Prince is a high-mobility duelist with an equally high skill floor as his abilities require timing, spacing, and precision.

Apollo carries a fencing theme, reflected in his ability to counter any ability with Riposte, including most ultimates in the game. Riposte also comes with stun, which makes characters like Haze hesitate to use their ult against him.

His bread and butter is Flawless Advance, letting him perform a series of lunges while also freely dashing in any direction. Combined with Disengaging Sigil and his ultimate to finish off enemies, a good Apollo player is impossible to pin down as he zips around the fight, dealing damage.

Deadlock’s Old Gods, New Blood update brought heroes to the game that stretched its individual mechanics and creativity to the limits. These heroes prove that Deadlock caters to all kinds of players, from straightforward shooters to high-skill ceiling characters.

These characters spearheaded the update and reinvigorated Deadlock, driving a surge of players into the game to see the future of the genre.