When Deadlock’s Wraith steps into lane, everyone feels the pressure. Wraith is all about dishing out damage, both sustained and in burst using her Card Trick, Full Auto, Telekinesis Wombo Combo.
Early game, Wraith has no issues holding down a lane by herself and securing some easy kills on less wary enemy heroes, but she really starts to shine towards mid to late game when she starts split pushing and assassinating heroes.
With the right Deadlock items, Wraith becomes a furious bullet storm excelling at single-focus damage, and wiping out the enemy team one character at a time.
Best Wraith skills and playstyle for early game
Leveling Card Trick first is an absolute must, granting Wraith a massive increase in DPS, and putting pressure on any lane she occupies.
Wraith almost incorporates a glass cannon approach, diving into lane, building up Card Trick charges by dealing damage with her main weapon, and unloading all of her cards before she gets locked down.
Where Wraith stumbles is her reload time and health pool. Ammo becomes less of an issue as the game progresses with the right items, but increasing Wraith’s maximum health isn’t the best way to compensate for her shortcomings. Damage is the most important thing to Wraith, especially once she gets her hands on Bullet Lifesteal.
Wraith’s priority in early game lane is splitpushing, pushing one lane of Troopers to the enemy’s Guardian, and then switching over to a neighboring lane so she can soak up as many Souls as possible. Using Card Trick is essential for creating lane pressure through harass and poke damage to heroes who get out of position. You can also use light and heavy melee attacks to build Card Trick charges faster than with your gun t0 maximize your damage.
When laning as Wraith, keep a close eye on your position and ganks. Wraith has a relatively low health pool compared to other Deadlock characters, so make sure you keep a good awareness of opponents in neighboring lanes unless you want Wraith to spend most of her time in Respawn.
At 400 Souls, unlock Full Auto to create additional lane pressure, and buff Wraith’s Card Trick generating ability. Taking Project Mind over Full Auto is almost never recommended unless you’re getting focused down by the enemy team consistently. Your main focus should be popping Full Auto to give an area of effect (AoE) buff to all nearby friendlies, including Troopers.
Under the effects of Full Auto, Troopers are able to push a lane by themselves so long as no opponent is present, and Wraith’s overall damage output is increased. More damage output means more cards. More cards means more lane pressure. Tankier characters like Abrams and Warden are less susceptible to burst damage, and have great lockdown abilities you’ll want to avoid, so target squishier heroes like Infernus or Vindicta if you see them in lane.
At this point, Wraith is more than capable of farming easy Denizen camps, activating Full Auto and unloading as many cards as she can generate to earn some easy Souls. Just make sure that you don’t start farming camps unless your Trooper wave is pushed.
Once you have three Ability Points (AP), invest them straight into Full Auto to really outfit Wraith with some additional firepower. The first talent (costing one AP) will reduce the cooldown between each use of Full Auto, massively increasing Wraith’s overall pressure. The second point (requiring two APs) adds a flat Spirit Damage boost to each bullet in Wraith’s spacious magazine, increasing her lethality.
Any other APs should be invested into Card Trick early to further ramp up the damage she can deal by increasing her maximum card count, and improving flat damage considerably.
Only think about putting a talent into Project Mind early if you’re finding yourself constantly getting focused down. Project Mind is a great disengage tool which can put some distance between you and opponents. Unfortunately, Project Mind’s animation makes it quite clear which direction Wraith is traveling in, enabling characters with charge or lockdown abilities to anticipate Wraith’s position. Fortunately, three APs invested into the skill grants Wraith a temporary Spirit shield to take some of the brunt of the punishment.
Best Wraith items for early game
- Ammo Scavenger: encourages securing and denying Souls by giving back extra ammo while also granting spirit power stacks.
- Extra Charge: more cards = more damage
- Extra Stamina: helps Wraith get out of sticky situations and improves fire rate slightly
- Basic Magazine: extra ammo and weapon damage = more cards
- Extra Health: optional, best if dealing with harder lanes
- Healing Rite: great for farming jungle as it gives you a safety net of health and speed
Wraith early game powerspikes
Wraith’s first powerspike arrives when she has two talents unlocked on Card Trick, and has acquired Extra Charge.
Under the right circumstances, Wraith can combo an enemy hero down in a single burst with enough charges of Card Trick, especially if an enemy has enough Spirit Resistance reduction debuffs applied. At 1500 Souls, Wraith should have access to at least two charges of Card Trick plus one from Extra Charge, and a cooldown reduction on Full Auto, allowing her to effectively pressure enemy heroes early on.
Best Wraith mid game skills and what to max first
Maxing Full Auto turns Wraith into a massive Card Trick charge factory, especially once you max out Card Trick.
Much like with Wraith’s early game, Full Auto and Card Trick are Wraith’s bread and butter for the mid game. However, at 3000 Souls, Wraith will unlock her ultimate Telekinesis, allowing her to dish out serious damage to a Silenced and Disarmed character.
Focus first on maxing Full Auto to ensure that Wraith is dealing as much damage as possible, thus generating more charges for Card Trick, and boosting nearby Troopers in lane. Once you have Full Auto maxed, sink your talent points into Card Trick to benefit from Card Trick’s final talent: a massive boost to the rate at which Card Trick charges recharge.
If you find the enemy team collapsing on you again and again, consider putting a talent point into Telekinesis to reduce the ultimate ability’s cooldown. Telekinesis is great as an offensive tool, but its defensive and disabling utility shouldn’t be overlooked. If two heroes are aiming to take you down, pop Telekinesis on one, activate Full Auto, and unload everything on the other hero while Telekinesis is in effect.
Project Mind does have some utility when some talent points have been invested into it, but its brief bullet shield can easily be replaced by the lifesteal benefit of a maxed Full Auto.
Wraith mid game strategy
Wraith’s mid game goal is simple: farm Souls as quickly as possible, and secure quick kills on enemy heroes who are alone in lane.
Leading with Telekinesis, Wraith has a brief window where she can unload a huge amount of damage using Full Auto, and all of her Card Trick charges, possibly securing additional uses through her weapon damage while Telekinesis is in effect.
To heroes who are alone in lane, Wraith presents a significant threat. Not only does Telekinesis throw an enemy up into the air where headshots can be secured easily, but the ability also stuns, silences, and disarms for a brief time, preventing most heroes from making any meaningful response. As a result, Wraith’s mere presence can easily push a hero out of lane, allowing friendly Troopers to push on to the next objective.
Wraith is similarly brilliant in team fights, and should always keep an eye out for opportunities to harass, join large team engagements, and secure Mid Boss.
In securing Souls, Wraith can purchase her main Deadlock items from the Curiosity Shop. Wraith is looking for opportunities to increase her magazine, Spirit Power, and anything else that helps her stay in the fight for as long as possible while maximizing her damage output.
To this end, Wraith needs to get:
- Ricochet: Empowers Wraith’s bullets to deal damage to multiple enemies, including Troopers, thus ramping up Card Trick charges massively.
- Bullet Resist Shredder: Reduces the bullet resistance of enemies when struck with Wraith’s bullets.
- Intensifying Magazine: Increases weapon damage the longer Wraith’s weapon is fired (bigger magazines result in longer bursts of damage)
- Burst Fire: Bonus Fire Rate and health amplifies Wraith’s overall damage and lifesteal capabilities, especially when hunting single targets.
- Enduring Speed: Extra speed will help Wraith keep up with faster heroes or heroes with escape abilities such as Viscous’ ultimate or Haze’s Smoke Bomb.
- Healing Booster: Once Full Auto has been maxed, Healing Booster will give a noticeable bump to Wraith’s lifesteal, keeping her in any engagement for longer.
Wraith late game strategy
Pressure, assassination, and debuffs are Wraith’s goals for late game, enabling her to remove enemy heroes from the map in quick succession under the right circumstances.
By the late game, you’ll have three main objectives:
- Max out Telekinesis
- Secure Wraith’s best win rate items
- Isolate heroes in team fights and remove them from the game
Wraith is all about damage and assassinating heroes. Laning with Wraith in the late game can be beneficial, but Wraith’s main focus should be finding enemy heroes and removing them from the game so that the rest of the team can focus on securing objectives or pushing for Patron.
Using a combination of Telekinesis, Full Auto, and Card Trick, Wraith is capable of melting opponents in just a few seconds, especially if she’s picked up the following Deadlock items:
- Silencer: Increases weapon damage and allows you to debuff enemies with a silence, preventing enemy heroes from responding to your attacks.
- Glass Cannon: While you will lose max HP, Glass Cannon gives you a massive damage boost, and a permanent weapon damage increase for each hero kill you secure.
- Vampiric Burst: Bonus Fire Rate, Ammo, and Lifesteal synergizes great with Full Auto and Card Trick.
- Lucky Shot: Wraith is built to have a large magazine and constant fire, so adding a chance to deal double damage which also slows enemies is a significant boon.
- Siphon Bullets: Each hit with Siphon Bullets steals enemy max HP and adds it to your own, counteracting the negative effect of Glass Cannon while also granting you bonus weapon damage and bullet resist.
- Inhibitor: Applying a consistent slow effect while also reducing a target’s damage output allows you to single-out and eliminate heroes quickly.
- Boundless Spirit: More Spirit Power equals more Lifesteal from Full Auto, more Card Trick charges, and the other bonus passives of Boundless Spirit make this a top Wraith Spirit item.
- Escalating Exposure: To fill out your Spirit slots, Escalating Exposure applies a stacking Spirit Amp, allowing you to deal even more damage to a single target.
Once you’ve secured most of the above, and have Telekinesis maxed, Wraith becomes a deadly combatant so long as she doesn’t get surrounded, silenced, or debuffed. This is where managing your position, using Project Mind to get yourself out of hairy situations, and knowing when to go in for the kill and when to fall back on your teammates will decide how often Wraith spends in respawn.
With Telekinesis maxed, Wraith has a significant chance of disabling multiple heroes at once in team fights, providing a huge advantage to her team when fighting in narrow areas such as the Mid Boss arena or the Patron finale.
If you find yourself struggling with positioning or find the enemy focusing you down before you can take them down, consider taking Veil Walker and Colossus to give Wraith more survivability. Ultimately, if the enemy team considers you such a big threat that they only focus on you, the rest of your team can potentially secure a win.
That’s about all you need to know to get started with Wraith and this beginner’s build. Of course, the Deadlock meta does change quite frequently, which is why you should always check the main Wraith page to get up-to-date statistics on the best Wraith items.
