INSANE: Deadlock tier list best characters and heroes ranked | Rare Historical Photos

Quick Summary

• Celeste, Seven, Ivy, Graves, Victor, and Kelvin are our S-tier heroes.
• Celeste asks much more from the player, while Victor and Kelvin lose some of their edge against better-organized opponents.
• Silver, Pocket, and Mirage are among the weakest-performing heroes in the current game, with Mirage sitting at the bottom of this list.

Deadlock tier list

Individual skill matters in almost every MOBA and shooter, and Deadlock being a merger of the two genres means it matters here even more. Celeste sits at the top of our list purely on her peak performance in the hands of the best players and how dominant she becomes there. Victor works the other way around and gets much easier to contain as opponents improve, while The Doorman takes that disparity to a genuinely absurd extreme: nearly useless in inexperienced hands, game-deciding in good ones.

Best Deadlock characters right now

Seven is among the best Deadlock characters right now, and as well-rounded as it gets. He farms well, scales well, controls space, and does enough damage to allow you to pay attention to much more than just your character. Victor is the more oppressive option and a good entry point into melee-heavy play, since his sustain and durability buy you room to work out when to commit, when to parry, and when you’ve dived far too deep, all without exploding the instant you get it wrong.

Kelvin and Paige suit anyone who wants to approach the game from a more supportive angle without giving up personal impact. Kelvin sits comfortably between support and utility, and Ice Path in particular forces you to think about Deadlock vertically, hunting for engagement routes and angles no other character has access to. Paige is the safer of the two and much happier at long range, protecting and setting up teammates while keeping enough damage and crowd control to take a fight over herself when she speccs more into damage.

Wraith and Vyper are the better picks if the goal is to carry. Both reward you for spotting vulnerable targets, taking the fights worth taking, and turning an early advantage into more pressure rather than sitting back and waiting for the team to do something. Wraith leans more heavily into isolating and quickly removing one target, while Vyper’s mobility makes her better at weaving in and out of fights and learning when you can safely chase.

S-tier Deadlock characters

Celeste

Celeste is one of the most skill-dependent characters in the game, and her burst and disruption get much harder to deal with once the player is comfortable juggling her positioning and skill rotations. Picking her up and doing fine with her isn’t difficult at all, it’s just that the ceiling is sky-high. Recent nerfs to several of her strongest tools made her less forgiving without touching what actually makes her so scary on the offensive, exacerbating this discrepancy.

Seven

Lightning Ball lets Seven farm incredibly well and control space at the same time, while Power Surge gives his weapon strong Spirit scaling. He doesn’t need to dominate his lane or hit specific item breakpoints to become useful later, and that reliability keeps him near the top across different levels of play.

Ivy

Ivy pairs offensive pressure with enough utility to save teammates, set up engages, and contribute even when she’s far behind on resources. She stays useful when losing and becomes borderline oppressive when even or ahead, which means she effectively scales with how good her teammates are.

Graves

Graves controls large areas without constantly putting herself in danger, so she generates reliable pressure in any fight or contest. The one big caveat is how weak she is early and should be allowed time to scale a bit. She survived several yo-yo nerfs and buffs, and has now settled near the top again as one of the strongest general-purpose choices available.

Victor

Victor’s sustain and his ability to stick around in extended fights make him oppressive whenever opponents fail to coordinate their damage and disengages. He can take over lower- and middle-skill matches with barely any help or setup, though stronger teams are much better at stopping that from happening. As long as Shocking Reanimation exists in its current form, he’ll stay popular and strong in uncoordinated play.

Kelvin

Kelvin is an excellent all-purpose brawler, since his slows and healing are useful whether he’s ahead or behind, and Ice Path gives him initiation routes and access to fights that no other character can match. He takes some time to get used to, but once his gameplay pattern clicks, he’s simply great.

A-tier Deadlock characters

Paige

Paige used to be split between her damage and support halves without doing either particularly well, but recent buffs have finally gotten her to a point where all that utility doesn’t come at the expense of simply being effective. Her ability to assist teammates and influence big fights gives her a much more dependable place in the current Deadlock meta.

Warden

Warden’s crowd control and durability give him excellent opportunities to start fights, but his best engages only become great when teammates immediately understand what he’s setting up and follow it up. Binding Word and Last Stand can take over a teamfight, provided someone capitalizes on them, and that’s simply not happening in uncoordinated play. He might be the most useful character at the highest levels, even if he can’t solo carry the way Celeste can.

The Doorman

The Doorman’s portals and displacement tools can completely rewrite rotations, escapes, and the geometry of a fight, but pulling that off takes serious awareness and game knowledge. You have to almost intuit how an engagement is going to play out and use his tools accordingly. A bad Doorman accomplishes close to nothing, however.

Wraith

Wraith still deletes isolated targets extremely quickly, and Project Mind gives her the mobility to punish mistakes before the enemy team can respond. She’s especially popular in stronger games, where better aim and target selection make removing one player instantly far more valuable. She has stayed a popular pick despite not being quite consistent enough for S tier.

Vyper

Vyper is a solid pick almost everywhere, combining excellent mobility with sustained gun pressure and the ability to finish off anyone trying to escape. Slither makes her unusually hard to pin down, while Petrifying Bola either secures a pick or completely ruins one, depending on how well you use it. She’s a decent pick everywhere, but better players can extract considerably more from her movement and skill timing.

Dynamo

Much like Warden, Dynamo can decide entire teamfights with Quantum Entanglement and Singularity when his teammates are ready to follow up, and his sustain keeps him relevant between those engages. He’s particularly effective at the top of the ladder while staying useful everywhere else.

Lash

Grapple gives Lash exceptional freedom to drop into fights from above, and Ground Strike and Death Slam reward players who learn exactly how much his movement lets them get away with. He gets increasingly obnoxious in good hands and is one of the most common picks in higher-level games, though an inexperienced Lash can spend a remarkable amount of time flying around accomplishing nothing.

B-tier Deadlock characters

Billy

Billy absolutely mauls teams that keep letting him take uncomplicated close-range fights. He’s a flat-track bully and one of the biggest pub-stompers in Deadlock, while stronger players kite him, parry him, and generally refuse to participate in the fights he starts. Take those easy openings away, and there isn’t much character left.

Mo & Krill

Mo & Krill can initiate, disrupt backliners, survive extended fights, and lock down a single target for teammates to finish. The pair is particularly useful in teamfights, but so much of that strength depends on the rest of the team following up. This is starting to sound like a broken record, and that’s simply the fate of engagers in Deadlock.

Shiv

Shiv’s mobility, durability, and cleanup potential are almost unmatched, and his finishing power lets him chase damaged targets far more aggressively than most characters can. Higher-skill players have historically favored him, since he consistently demands better judgment than the rest of the roster.

Vindicta

Vindicta is the most aim-dependent character in the game, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Flight gives her angles other marksmen can’t easily reproduce, and Assassinate turns even a small advantage into a kill from extreme range, but missing those shots removes most of the reason to pick her at all. She can look A tier or better in the right hands, and bottom of D if the player just doesn’t have aim.

Calico

Calico has the mobility and burst to get onto vulnerable targets and blow them up, plus the tools to leave afterward. She works well enough without ever being dominant, and her damage and survivability just don’t measure up to the better assassins.

Apollo

Apollo’s aggressive, intuitive playstyle makes him appealing at lower levels, where getting into close range and committing is often enough to create value on its own. Better opponents control his approach and punish those commitments, so his effectiveness tails off noticeably as the lobby gets stronger.

Abrams

Abrams absorbs a lot of pressure and punishes anyone who lets him get close, especially around walls and confined spaces where Shoulder Charge can catch people against terrain. Unfortunately, he’s quite easily kited and kept at range, and his abilities are telegraphed enough that parrying them isn’t much of a challenge.

Yamato

Yamato is one of the more mechanically demanding heroes, which is exactly what lets her commit onto vulnerable targets and survive situations that would force most heroes to retreat. Shadow Transformation opens the door to extremely aggressive plays, though her margin for error is among the smallest in the game.

Infernus

Infernus still puts out excellent sustained damage once he has enough resources and can stay on a target, particularly in longer fights where Afterburn keeps ticking. Getting there consistently is the problem, since games where he’s denied farm or dragged into important fights too early leave him behind the pace, and he’s nowhere near as useful when behind.

Paradox

Paradox creates excellent picks with Kinetic Carbine, Time Wall, and Paradoxical Swap, but the setup involved makes her inconsistent. She’s never truly useless at any point in a match, and yet executing her gameplay can be difficult even while ahead.

Drifter

Drifter remains dangerous because he has both the mobility to hunt vulnerable targets and enough damage to kill them once he gets access. His kit encourages constant aggression and rotations, with plenty of freedom to roam the map looking for openings. He’s much less comfortable against a team that denies isolated fights and drags him into conventional front-to-back teamfights.

C-tier Deadlock characters

Venator

Venator punishes positioning mistakes and generates considerable pressure when the player reliably lands his shots, though his overall contribution is too inconsistent at the moment. Other ranged characters offer comparable threat with fewer conditions attached, which leaves him mostly to players who specifically enjoy what he does.

Haze

Haze still demolishes teams that give her time to farm and then group badly enough for Bullet Dance to decimate them, but those conditions are not easily fulfilled. Plenty of games go by with her unable to make any impact at all, and falling behind is a death sentence. She isn’t weak so much as dependent on the match developing exactly on her terms.

Viscous

Viscous has an enormous amount of utility, and getting all of it to work takes far more effort than most characters ask for. Utility-based disruptors aren’t the most sought-after archetype in the current Deadlock meta, though a big enough numbers buff could force him back into relevance

McGinnis

McGinnis has dropped in value among stronger players after repeated reductions to Mini Turrets and Heavy Barrage, with her popularity and results both falling off noticeably. She’s still performing better overall than most of C tier, however.

Holliday

Holliday remains capable of excellent plays through Crackshot, Powder Keg, and Spirit Lasso, though the character demands strong mechanical execution without offering enough consistency in return. Dedicated Holliday players can absolutely make her look better than C tier.

Bebop

Bebop will always have games where one good hook wins the entire game, especially when opponents keep wandering into them on their own. That reliance is also his biggest weakness, since he offers very little otherwise. He has to create the pick to bring any value, and very often he just doesn’t.

Lady Geist

Lady Geist has plenty of survivability and can still produce substantial damage, but the bomb-heavy playstyle that makes her fun isn’t effective enough, and the more practical builds put her in competition with heroes that do everything she does, but better.

Mina

Mina has taken enough nerfs across her kit that she now struggles whether the player leans into her gun or her Spirit abilities. Her mobility still makes her entertaining and Rake gives her serious kill pressure, but she rarely feels like the best answer to anything a team actually needs, which puts her near the bottom of C tier.

Sinclair

Sinclair is kept alive by dedicated players who know exactly how to abuse his unusual toolkit. Rabbit Hex and Audience Participation give him plenty of options that look excellent with enough experience, while the average Sinclair has a much harder time converting all that trickery into a consistent contribution. Just pick someone else.

D-tier Deadlock characters

Silver

Silver has lost a huge amount of the power that once made her close-range aggression super threatening, with Slam Fire and Lycan Curse both taking substantial nerfs across several balance patches. Her gameplan still asks her to commit heavily to fights, and the reward for doing so is no longer there. Still, a heavily fed Silver can still take over matches.

Rem

Rem provides healing and useful support to teammates, but her own ability to dictate how a fight goes is limited next to stronger support heroes. Matches where the rest of the team isn’t already positioned to capitalize on her help leave her doing basically nothing.

Grey Talon

Grey Talon still has enormous Charged Shots and occasionally snowballs through Guided Owl, though his fundamental gameplan has become increasingly hard to execute in the current Deadlock meta. He wants to play at ranges and angles that the game’s mobility has already power-crept past. His problems look more structural than numerical, and he’d probably benefit from a small rework rather than another buff.

Pocket

Pocket has plenty of mechanical depth, and the reward for mastering Flying Cloak, Enchanter’s Satchel, and Affliction just isn’t where it needs to be. Experienced Pocket players create excellent dives and escapes, yet the character currently demands too much execution for results that stronger assassins produce way, way more reliably.

Mirage

Traveler gives Mirage global mobility, Dust Devil provides control, and Djinn’s Mark offers an unusual route to damage, but none of those pieces combine into a coherent character. His kit feels pulled in several directions at once, and his current performance sits at the bottom of the roster, making him our pick for the worst Deadlock character right now.

What is the current Deadlock meta?

The current Deadlock meta favors characters that can contribute in several ways without needing one specific game state to function well. Graves and Seven can farm and scale while controlling space, Ivy remains valuable through her utility, and heroes like Dynamo can create fights themselves instead of waiting for an opponent to make an obvious mistake.

Sustain and extended teamfights are also particularly valuable at the moment, which explains why Victor, Kelvin, Mo & Krill, and Ivy remain so effective. Mobility and coordinated setup matter more at higher levels, which is where Warden, Dynamo, Vyper, and Lash improve while straightforward characters become easier to handle. At the very top, Celeste and The Doorman create their own meta entirely.

How we rank Deadlock characters

Our Deadlock tier list weighs current strength, consistency, lane presence, scaling, teamfight impact, performance across different skill levels, and our own experience with how reliably each hero can influence a match.

Celeste, Warden, and The Doorman are good examples of characters whose real strength isn’t obvious from ordinary matchmaking, while Victor and Graves showing up at every level of play except the very top makes their strength hard to deny for the majority of the playerbase.

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