If you want to master Deadlock, you’ll need to understand how the Deadlock laning phases work, and when you should go for objectives or push your lane.
Lane overview
Laning can be divided into three main phases:
- Early game: Players focus on defeating opponents in their lane, pushing Troopers forwards, earning Souls, and Jungling if an advantage has been won.
- Mid game: Players who have won their lane should start assisting neighboring lanes, pushing objectives, and gaining a Soul advantage.
- Late game: Players focus less on lane pressure and more on teamfights, securing a Soul advantage, and pushing the opposing team back to their Patron.
Players are automatically assigned to one of the three lanes on the Deadlock map at the start of the game in a one-two-two-one format.
While the automatic assignment is initially useful, anyone planning to get onto the Deadlock leaderboard will want to switch lanes based on hero compositions. Support-based heroes like Dynamo and Viscous may want to switch lanes in order to support DPS heroes like Infernus and Wraith. This act is an example of Rotation, and is often fluid depending on the evolving situation of the map.
Objectives
Objectives in Deadlock can be broadly divided into two major categories:
- Flex Slots
- Soul advantage
In addition to the 12 main Deadlock item slots all characters possess, an additional four slots can be unlocked by defeating enemy Guardians, Walkers, and Base Guardians. Laning goes hand in hand with completing objectives, pushing friendly Troopers towards an objective in order to soak up damage while friendly heroes deal take the objective.
Soul advantage objectives come into the game after several minutes have elapsed. By taking Soul Urns and Mid Boss, a team can not only gain an advantage in acquiring better Deadlock items from the Curiosity Shop, but also lure the opposing team from their objectives.
Rotation
Rotation, put simply, is when a team has an advantage over the map and moves to put pressure on an objective be that a Lane, Guardian, Walker, Mid Boss, Soul Urn, or the opposing Patron. A team responding to this rotation is not themselves rotating, but rather responding to a Rotation.
Rotating in Deadlock largely comes down to which objective will most benefit a team. For example, if the team has rotated to take Mid Boss, but then rotates to base, it may be because a sudden team advantage has appeared through team kills which makes killing the opposing Patron possible and optimal. Therefore, if someone on the team messages that they will “rotate” in any given direction it is important that the team supports the rotation unless there is a clear reason not to do so such as securing a weakened objective, securing a kill, or denying an objective to the enemy team.
